These days, reality is undermining the political power of the mythological image of the American cowboy. In the years after World War II, that image helped to sell the idea that a government that regulated business, provided a basic safety net, promoted infrastructure, and protected civil rights for Black and Brown Americans and for women was cruising perilously close to communism. The cowboy image suggested that a true American was an individualist man who worked hard to provide for and to protect his homebound wife and children, with a gun if necessary, and wanted only for the government to leave him and his business alone.
" in a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers estimated that in the 16 months after the Texas ban, 26,313 rape-related pregnancies occurred in the state. " 26,313 rapes that resulted in pregnancies? Out of how many rapes total? In 16 months? Really? The song says "Mommas, don't let your boys grow to be cowboys..." It needs another verse that says, "...and don't let your girls go to Texas." Shameful statistic. Shameful to consider this civilized. Shame.
This statistic shocked me, too. As my Republican mentor taught me in 1982, "Ideology breeds idiocy." She was right. To think that President F.D. Roosevelt stated that the aim of the New Deal was to experiment. If a policy worked, keep going with it. If it did not, try something else. The attitude among the right-wingnuts seems to be our policy is the only right one and you are going to like it. It will succeed and you are going to believe it AND you are going to thank us for showing you the way. There is a whole world of democracies out there experimenting; we can at least try to apply their successful policies.
There are tricky ethical considerations for social experiments, but "Reaganomics" which was always a con on it's face, seems to have made the very, very rich, very much richer, and most everyone else poorer or treading water. It's had more than sufficient time to prove otherwise, and abjectly failed. That Biden has explored other options, with encouraging results, should be big news.
Excellent comment James. I went looking for an article about yachts replacing jets as the status symbol of the billionaire class that I saw in the last couple of years and I came up empty.
The poster children for this new yacht envy are Jeff Bezos who took delivery of his $500 million yacht in 2023 and Nancy Walton Laurie's $300 million yacht also delivered in 2023.
And then there are the $100 million plus yachts confiscated by the Russian oligarchs many of which are the envy of billionaires around the world.
18 was the number that sticks in my head. "Very Rich Betsy DeVos Has 10 Boats, Two Helicopters, A Yacht Scheduler And A Lavish Lifestyle You Can't Afford" was the title of a Newsweek article in 2017.
What amazes me is that many of those super yachts have chase yachts that house the supplies and extra toys that don't fit on the living quarters yachts - things like jet skies, mini submarines, a car for transportation ashore and speedboats. Mind boggling.
Yachts are the first bubble the billionaires are getting to live some place safe. Far away from the misery their businesses have caused. Years ago when I heard there were American citizens who were billionaires, I thought why on earth would an American need to be that wealthy? We have freedom, safety, good schools, libraries...everything one needs. Then it occurred to me that with the environment going to hell, they would want to live in a protected bubble....their own security forces, clean air and water, and no problems from the miserable masses.
Bezos' boat was controversial because Bezos wanted to temporarily tear down a large historic bridge to get the behemoth yacht out of the boatyard. Residents of Rotterdam threatened to pelt the ship with eggs if authorities agreed to the plan. The ship was eventually towed out incomplete. So that's different.
I think it's good to have the knowledge and statements in those articles. Not being a gazillionaire, can't cut down on the carbon footprint of my super yacht. But I can be more aware of my own, realizing that in comparison to someone living in the global south, I am a gazillionaire with a larger carbon footprint than they have. I can vote and I can tell the politicians that represent me or that want my vote in an election, that I know their environmental record of voting and it affects how I vote. That's democracy. My carbon footprint is a drop in the bucket but many drops can have a cumulative effect. Don't let the magnitude of the effects of global warming discourage you. That is what the unrepentant captains of industry want.
And that's assuming you even have a dinghy. Reaganomics and its increasingly virulent mutations swamped, stove in, or simply stole the dinghies of a great many of our fellow citizens. See "bootstraps"/boots.
So many things should be "big news." Instead, we have the spectacle of the msm focusing almost entirely on President Biden's age, no matter what accomplishments come from his administration.
Thing is, tax rate reductions and deregulation didn't do so well under Clinton and Obama, tho there was a belated effort to regulate financial institutions following 2008.
The Laffer Curve theory has been proved to be wrong. The "voodoo economics," i.e., supply-side economics, doesn't work while demand-side economics does. When the large corps and wealthy were handed a $2.0 trillion tax break in 2017 it did nothing to stimulate the economy; however, if Biden had been successful in eliminating the $1.6 trillion student debt of 40 million Americans, the economy would have boomed, an example of demand-side economics. Why does it work? Because, when people have money they spend it. And what then happens? The economy takes off. Its Common Sense 101. The wealthy, with $2.0 trillion in their pockets, aren't going to produce anything if there is no one to buy the product or service.
Taxation rates for the more financially enabled need to be restored. USA back in the 50s did great economically, long before trickle-down. Trickle is likely the key word.
Raising taxation rates on income will bring in zero tax dollars from the wealthiest, They report -0- income, 97% of nothing is still nothing. We need a wealth tax if they are to pay their fair share
I'm not so sure of that, Fay. Most comes from "the top".... whatever exemptions are available to them. Won't disagree about a wealth tax to cut down on inheritance wealth going to future generations.
Who pays what to the IRS
The typical taxpayer pays about $14,000 each year in federal income taxes, excluding Social Security and other payroll taxes. Thanks to tax credits and other benefits, the bottom half of U.S. households have an effective tax bill of $667 each year.
Top 1% $653,730 Top 5% $187,468 Top 10% $108,251 Top 25% $50,963
Top 50% $27,891 Bottom 50% $667
All Taxpayers $14,279
Average Income Taxes Paid
Chart: Aimee Picchi Source: Tax Foundation, IRS 2021 data
In short the bottom 50$ pay overall about 3% in total income taxes.
Of course, it's a different story when social security, unemployment taxes are considered.
Of course, if you express numbers in terms of absolute dollars it looks different than if you express numbers in terms of per cent of absolute income. And, the ability to "harvest" realized gain and convert it to loss, or to choose investments that keep the tax at 15 per cent on schedule D, are not things available to the less well off.
Do you know what percent of income and wealthy is owned by the top 50 percent vs. the bottom 50 percent? I'd imagine it tracks pretty closely with the amount of income taxes paid.
Law must acknowledge realities to be just. Too many laws are fictions that serve narrow interests at public expense, due in large part to de facto bribery, but also passivity. At least in theory, reality testing is fairly empirical when someone is accused of a major breach of the law, but other than often uncommon "common sense" and a robust, socially oriented fourth and fifth estate, there seems to be few official procedures to evaluate how law is actually working. The GAO for one, but its role seems minor.
We tried trickle down in the Gilded Age, but it was a ripoff then just as now. In between was an episode of increasing sanity; but those who would be kings never really give up.
Like Ned said, FDR experimented and built on what worked, and dropping what didn't work. He also said "You have to make me do it." To me, that meant I'm on your side but we need a lot more public support.
Consider the situations FDR, Obama, and Biden had to face. I remember the "Yes We Can" that helped get Obama elected, and my almost immediate concern that, though we could, it was going to take an awful lot more participation to actually accomplish what we thought we could. Of course Mitch McConnell's immediate response was to start doing everything he could to make Obama a one term President (sort of like I imagine FDR's Southern Democratic legislators wanted to do), and was able to substantially cripple much of the progress even in the first half term, before the shellacking in the mid term.
The ACA was barely passed (and limited). It would not have passed if Nancy Pelosi hadn't defeated the attempt to stop it by getting the House to avoid making any changes, which would have allowed it to go back to the Senate (for sort of capture and kill action), with Scott Brown now in the seat vacated by Ted Kennedy's death.
"...So, to me, the term “New Deal” refers to a period in which there was not merely terrible trials and tribulations and big government initiatives to address them but also a helluva lot of democratic ferment and radicalism from the bottom up — which, crucially, FDR himself welcomed, if not actually desired, for it empowered him against capital and conservatives.
Luke Savage
Roosevelt wielded big congressional majorities and won landslide victories in the electoral college thanks to an expansive coalition that spanned black voters, organized labor, southern Dixiecrats, urban political machines, and many other groups.
Even so, he faced considerable opposition and was forced into plenty of compromises. Can you describe the resistance that Roosevelt and the New Deal faced during the 1930s? What was the nature and scale of the opposition?
Harvey J. Kaye
The first thing to remember is that, although he had a Democratic majority from the outset, that majority included Southern Democrats — Jim Crow white supremacists — who, as much as they were eager to get New Deal dollars flowing into their states (Southern legislators have always been very happy for federal dollars to pour into their states), did not want those dollars to underwrite programs that would in any way subvert segregation and improve black lives. And they were a powerful cohort..."
Too me, long story short, yes we (the public), can if we participate en masse.
J L....should be big news, but isn't. Local media still harping on inflation and the state's largest newspaper determined to nail every D they can. Plus they have had three articles on looking up the pensions of public workers. Hey....see what they get in Washington County. And last night the local news had a story on an east coast guy dressed like someone in the west who has taken a story about a small dairy farm here in Oregon and made it into a story about how the government is trying to destroy small farms. Already our pork guy, a person likely to buy this kind of bs mentioned it. He gave us some freeze dried tomatoes to try, but he can't sell them at the market. Well, that's not destroying his small farm. He can sell all the meat he raises which also includes beef and chicken as well as eggs.
Which is precisely what Benjamin Franklin meant when he responded to 'what kind of government have you given us' with "A Republic, if you can keep it" A democratically run Representative Republic is at once, the fairest and best system of governing a large group of people and at the same time the most difficult. A functioning Representative Republic requires the constituency to keep relatively close track of what laws are passed and how they will affect we, the common people. Without the majority of voters understanding and watching their government it can fall into what we have today, an oligarchy.
In the 1980's Reagan won both the popular and electoral college vote in each of his two elections. I voted for Carter and Mondale respectively. Reagan as we know pulled the wool over the majority's eyes with his supply side, trickle down theories (which weren't His ideas but he was coached how to present - and he was a better actor the the trumpster albeit a B grade has-been.
We the people, calmly sat by and let it pass. We are as responsible for the mess we're in today as we were then. Too many voters don't bother reviewing the platforms and understanding what they really mean. If we truly want the form of Government we've had for 248 years we'd better educate our upcoming generations and do our best to enlighten the current electorate.
Keep in mind that most rightwing zealots are "absolutists". They don't believe in experimenting. Instead, they're certain that what they call Conservatism is innately correct and it cannot fail - it can only BE failed by inept or weak implementors.
Given that, if a plan of theirs (say, Reagan's Voodoo economics) fails to work, the only proper response is to double down and somehow implement it harder!
That's their plan for every one of their policies.
I've been wading through Project 2025. It is littered with criticism for Biden's and Obama's economic policies and praise for the few tweaks whiny convicted felon Donald Trump made during his four years of do nothing economics.
I have to admit there are a few good ideas, which is typical of right wing ideology, but overall their goal is to make the Federal government a unitary executive entity where the President has the power to enact change without Congress's approval or the court's ability to nullify. Very scary stuff.
The idea of a unitary executive I find so stupid on its face I can’t understand anyone’s support for it. Give one man all the power and you get—what? Better governance? I don’t think so.
I shall try to do the same and will be interested to hear more of your thoughts. I found the small bit I looked at yesterday so wildly distorted in its language and assumptions that I found it hard to continue. False premises lead to false conclusions, however sound the logic.
Patrice, I just read in Heather's letter today, one of the most arrogant, isolating, and ignorant statements that I've ever heard in the span of my 76 years of life on this earth.
Gov. Abbott "said there was no need to make an exception for rape, because Texas was going to 'eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas.'"
When Gov Abbott said that, I thought to myself, WTF, we've go to vote this man out of office. He doesn't live in reality! That is such an ignorant & out of touch statement! SMH
"Out-of-touch" statements are so prevalent with Trump and his Republican minions.Trump has been living in "unreality" all his life, and it's most frightening to see that his supporters are right there in "unreality" with him.
He made that statement when Dobbs was decided. There has been little change (I think, both numbers are 26K numbers) between pre and post Dobbs in rapes resulting in pregnancy; numbers are hard to track because unlike other states, both reported (to law enforcement, and what woman in her fragile state is going to want to talk to a Texas lawman) and unreported are considered for statistical analysis.
The Texas lawman would probably ask the rape victim or incest victim -- How were you dressed? -- meaning it's you're fault your 40 year old uncle rape you when you were dressed like every other woman.
This is what Project 2025 is all about -- totally changing our system giving the President absolute power. Of course, no democracy works this way does it?
I think it was a combination of American propaganda telling us how great this country is (while it declined underneath us for almost half a century) and carefully edited educational system which didn’t compare other countries democracies to our own.
No system is perfect but I believe a parliamentarian form of government has more checks and balances than our presidential system. And we still have the electoral college because…why? National elections should be run by a set of uniform national rules. And we should study the judiciary systems of other countries. Non-partisan court plans, term limits, mandatory retirement ages and expansion of SCOTUS should be considered. But we have a written Constitution which I was brought up to believe was the holy grail and made the U.S. such a beacon on the hill. What it has turned into is a document that can be interpreted by five people in agreement any way they want. We the American people are just a bouncing ball going back and forth between the two sides. And we are 50 individual states with 50 set of rules. We are not much different than the EU at this time - common currency and free movement between states - but even that is in peril with some state governments threatening to track women who cross state lines for abortions.
And Mike Pence's claim that the Dobbs decision had made the U.S. "a more compassionate nation" is a load of B.S. Tell that to the thousands of women who are raped and get pregnant. Tell that to the women forced to carry a nonviable fetus to term.
HADLEY DUVAL of Owensboro KY was repeatedly raped by her step father. The story Hadley told was painfully understood by KY Voters. Hadley elected a new & responsive KY Governor.
The American Dystopian Society is at hand. The Perfect Storm comes up in the West to be sweep into a Whirling Wind of Despair as the Megaphones blast the Sheep to Slaughter. Reality designed by Artificial Intelligence as Social Media Clowns dance the new Circus Shuffle and it will keep you Entertained just long enough for the New Bull dressed as Matt Dillon at High Noon and Pow Pow Your Dead as the Audience Claps. And now it’s time for bed Goodnight as a New Dawn breaks.
The kicker is that it is almost impossible to do away with a program that does not work, no matter which party is in power. Programs, successful or not, create their own constituencies, to which Congress must listen.
Programs that don't "work" die a quiet death, and better means are found, at least in the sciences, and in the social sciences. In basic research, whether medical, economic or cultural.
Your comment pertains to programs where "constituents" are wealthy enough to feed the levers of power. ie the commercialization of MediCare by DeLoitte et al, or The Military Industrial Complex where billion dollar planes can't fly.
Government programs may be hard to kill because of career civil servants regulating themselves into job-security. The trick is not lay people off but to re-deploy them and use that as an incentive to kill of ineffective programs.
I was also talking about government programs, which are based in research in the humanities and sciences, vs those which are created by industry lobbyists, which are Very good at creating "their own constituencies."
I have worked in government supported medical research and the programs that didn't work were no longer funded. The government can be just as efficient as the market place.
For instance, MediCare is the most efficient, cost effective health care delivery in the US, and has been for years. The problems it is having now are due to the intrusion of "Advantage" programs, which simply give corporate health care a foot in the door to grasp for profit while providing Worse service.
I believe in the possibility of positive government programs, which do not "create constituencies" but simply serve constituents. Such as Unemployment, SNAP, or Social Security.
Not sure how you think such programs "create" constituencies, but as someone who has benefited from them (and long paid into them), I disagree. They are much needed fall back and leg up in an otherwise unforgiving society, not a fat pension as your "creation theory" seems to imply.
I learned about the "Advantage" Medicare health plan the hard way.
The one I had last year, to get the best price, I had to choose a doctor in a specific network. The problem was, that the only doctors in their network were over an hour away! And if I was out of town and needed a doctor, it was also difficult to fit into their eligibility parameters. This year, I went with straight Medicare and purchased a supplemental policy I can use anywhere Medicare is accepted. The only advantage these "Advantage" plan have, are for the Advantage companies themselves!
Aye, Patrice, just talk to the Brits who "privatized" waste water clean-up and management under the Thatcher regime and are now literally swimming in their own sh_t!
Certainly those who have found a way to profit from a defective program will commonly fight to protect and/or extend it if it is rewarding for them, and people for whom the program is actually detrimental will often defend it if they are deeply adapted to it. The scientific method attempts to make a centerpiece of accountability and ongoing reevaluation, but that is not so common in other walks of life. Ascribing sentience to an insufficiently developed cluster of cells is not supported by outcomes of the scientific method, yet many reject such evidence. The rehabilitation rate of those in custody of our criminal justice system in poor, yet reform is fiercely resisted, despite progress demonstrated by the approaches of some other counties. Those who propose return to a mythical past that never was (exemplified by the John Wayne (even his name is fantasy, as he was born Marion Robert Morrison) character that was celluloid only, yet the name has been bestowed on public edifices and an ultra right wing relative of mine revered (the character) as a saint. .
More broadly, I think any organized effort that people invest their trust and/or money in fights to grow and survive. Even something that is pretty much an just an algorithm, like a computer virus, or for that matter, a physical virus has means to grow and survive, so we need to be mindful of what we create.
The social influence and financial power gained by those who control an organization tends to reward efforts to increase that control,; and if unchecked, power tends to corrupt. Name a variety of social organization, government, labor unions, academia, churches, businesses, even marriages, in which there are no examples of corrupt and/or bullying abuses of power?
Our form of democracy is supposed to limit abuses of power by disturbing it widely as shares (universal shares and the vote) and defining agreed upon boundaries of behavior by a social contract, collective consent of the governed, and other checks and balances. Power tends to corrupt as imbalances of power manage to grow.
"Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people." - John Adams
Governor of Texas Paul Abbott's promise to eliminate rape in Texas was utterly preposterous to begin with. Texas and other Republican states all to often have among the worst poverty, violence, crime and educational records in the country.
Another question we should be asking is how many rapists were arrested, prosecuted, and taken off the streets? Is Governor Abbot living up to his promise of eliminating rapists or are Texans continuing to blame the victims?
He is not living up to his promise, nor is he trying. Every female Texan I know, laughed when he uttered those words. Not with a smile, but at his stupidity to think any of us believed he would. I never believed in evil until Abbot, Patrick, and Paxton took control of Texas
Susan, we reluctantly moved to Austin in 1995 for a job transfer only to discover that the city bent to the left of Texas politics. When the downturn in the semiconductor industry forced us to move back to our home state, New York, we were reluctant to leave our new friends and the home we built with retirement in mind. Fast forward: We are now retired in South Carolina, another state where the capital leans left. We would have gladly retired to Austin but for two impediments - Abbot’s government and spiraling housing costs.
Peggy, I live in Houston...which is solidly blue. It's why our voting results are now being targeted. If 2% of the polling places have complaints about voting snafu's, the Secretary of State has the power to investigate and overturn our election results. Houston population is over 3.5 million and Harris County is way above that. There will be snafu's that need to be sorted out. But the power should never be to nullify results.
I first went to Austin in June, 1979 and it was a lovely quaint city of about 300,000. I return about 5 years later and the city had already changed so much. Roads were crowded. I-35 was a parking lot going in to Austin by 6:30 am.
We were there from 1995 to 2003. Austin continues to expand and traffic continues to be mind boggling. Sure miss so much about the town and our friends who are like family.
I tried to look that up; the 26K number utilizes both reported to law enforcement, and those not reported to LE but reported to medical staff. In 2023 there were 16,510 reported rapes, with 1,769 arrests. The report also mentioned 1,136 "sex offenses arrests" but I am absolutely certain there are more sex crimes committed than the additional (extrapolated from rape stats) 11,000 plus cases. Another issue is how the various states codify the crime of "rape" and what that conduct actually is. (In Oregon, Rape 1 is either by forcible compulsion or victim under 12 yoa, or under 16 yoa if the persons child, sibling, or spouse's child, or there is lack of consent by intoxication or unconsciousness; Rape 2 is under 14 yoa, and Rape 3 is under 16 yoa.) Texas statutory definitions are different, and I am too lazy to go look them up this morning. not enough magic bean juice on board. Yet.
Rape is about exerting power through physical domination. As an example, take the use of mass rape in armed conflicts to subjugate civilian populations. Forcing women who fall pregnant from rape to give birth is in itself a shameful and damaging exercise of power by government authorities.
It is of existential importance to understand that the authoritarian impulse is toward unilateral control in lieu of mutual constraint, and the egalitarian impulse is toward mutual constraint in lieu of unilateral control. The third option is that there is no third option. And the difference between mutual constraint and unilateral control is the same as the difference between up and down.
The purpose of rape is to control. The purpose of criminalizing healthcare is to control. The purpose of demonizing immigrants, LGBTQ+, Democrats, Mexicans, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and any other identifiable group, is to control. The purpose of believing in conspiracy theories is to control.
The purpose of wisdom is to constrain, and a unilateral constraint is an oxymoron. Specifically, the mutual constraint is treating others with respect. The question is, what to do about the control freaks? I have a suggestion.
Why not add the following lesson to the criteria for graduating from 5th grade. The lesson is that the purpose of a wisdom practice is to serve the social system at the short-term expense of its parts so the parts will benefit from the system's strength in the long term. Include the idea that the world's great religions, democracy, science, capitalism, justice, etc., are all wisdom practices, and that a person or identifiable group who is behaving selfishly in the name of a wisdom practice is a hypocrite.
Then, when Greg Abbott asks why he's making nowhere plans for nobody, someone can tell him he's in "Nowhere Land," a virtual remedial school for grownups who have yet to learn how to be smarter than a 5th grader.
26 313 Texas rape victims in 16 months resulting in pregnancies? Let’s all let that horrific statement sink in. I appreciate Heather providing a link to that study.
I believe it's 26,323 pregnancies resulting from rape. Assuming the fertility window for a woman is 3 days out of thirty, for easy math, that would imply at least a quarter million rapes in Texas in that time.
The Jama article link. Way higher than the FBI Crime report/statistics of 40 reported rapes per 100,000 population annually. This makes sense, as many rapes go unreported to police but not to doctors from patients. So why isn’t the American Medical Association and health care institutions speaking out more loudly? The numbers are shockingly appalling.
Seems unlikely. Heather said the researchers “estimated” that was the number. If 10% of rapes (and other sex) produce pregnancies, that’s about a quarter of a million rapes in Texas in one year. Seems unlikely to me.
"Beau" fans have probably already seen this. For those unfamiliar, please watch. Those with social media platforms, please post. Everyone who has not already subscribed to Beau, please do so. It is free, and he has many MAGA viewers who might only see the truth from him. If Beau's numbers increase, he will get more exposure. "Like and subscribe" as all the YouTube personalities remind us!
That statistic about the number of rapes makes me wonder how many rapes there were that went unreported when the woman would be able to avoid having to go through the ordeal of pressing charges by getting an abortion thus leaving the rapist able to rape again. And what also is a concern is how many women feel pressured to their pregnancy as a result of rape in order to get an abortion. Many of you may object to hearing that latter possibility but we are living in strange times
Gjay, the Texas stats utilize both reported and unreported rapes. For 202? (I looked it up 20 minutes ago) there were roughly 14000 reported rapes with roughly 1400 convictions.
These numbers from JAMA are wrong, completely wrong. Texas has about 17,000 rapes per year according to all reports I've read. That is the highest in the nation. Of the rapes, about 3.5% result in pregnancies. I am surprised that JAMA was not fact-checked on this. The numbers are grossly wrong.
If they do change divorce laws to stop no-fault divorce, what will they do if some people, especially women, refuse to marry? I truly do expect this to happen in some of states with a red supermajority. Will they then enact laws to force women over a certain age to either marry stay under the guardianship of a male relative? Certainly banning or limiting access to contraception will make women more economically vulnerable. I think things will continue to get worse at the state level, even if we have a blue sweep at the federal level this November, far from a sure thing.
Thank you as always Dr Richardson for shining a light on what’s happening and giving us an historical context I for one didn’t have with respect to the economics of the Wild West.
I imagine it would speed and be a multiplying factor, furthering widely publicized trends in our failing population growth. From talking with various folks, young and old, and study I do, the failing population growth has gone hand in hand with our diminishing economic equity; "Why would I dare bring children into this unfair system, where we would struggle, mostly unsuccessfully to provide for them, much less afford to help them with higher education" ? Young people actually 'do' have those discussions.
Falling population, D4N, goes hand in hand with something more nefarious.
My perspective is Japan, where I've lived some years now -- and have grieved at how dehumanized junior high schools have become, and much worse high schools.
Standardized tests rule, wiping out humanities -- or, rather, turning what dead textbooks refer to as famous novels and such only into randomized fragments, suitable only for more vicious but personally empty standardized testing. All machine gradable, of course. No need for the human anywhere.
And the young are responding by ceasing to date. Ceasing to have boyfriends and girlfriends. Not marrying. Not starting families. Nor even much continuing the larger families into which they were born. Getting much, much into weirder and weirder forms of voyeurism.
Unlike Japan and China, there are lessons to be embraced by all in the USA in the successful assimilation of immigrants who value the opportunities of work, education, and relative safety in welcoming communities, and who serve in our military and congregate in our churches and compete on our athletic fields, Trump deliberately ignores this golden age of immigration is what keeps America vibrant, young and strong. Defunding public schools, mass deportations, and thumbing one’s nose at bipartisan immigration reform and support for a free Ukraine are losing propositions in the land of the truly free.
no less important! Crucial! Creativity and Out Side The Box Thinking are the crux of the biscuit.
And we MUST support our almost extinct Journalists and Investigative Writers! They are Dying thanks to GOOGLE's monopoly on ADS. This is a BIG CHANGE that has massacred local, city, state and National Journalism.
Investigative Journalism.
Think of all the times they have saved us from our despots!
For most here, I'm guessing you might recall Woodward and Bernstein.
But there are Sooooo many more that we have forgotten, whom we took for granted, and they and their organizations and their entire Infrastructure have been quietly, cynically, destroyed. Destruction of regulation of media monopolies. Murdering the Fairness Doctrine. Encouraging the proliferation of Shock Jocks. Not just Stern. Who at least had some values. Sort of.
But Rush Limbaugh. How much damage done by One disgusting human.
OK, I'm done my rant. Support Your Favorite News Source(s) By Subscribing. Just like you do here. Even some you semi-hate, like NYT, or WaPo, or LA Times. We need them.
ok bye
The Press has always been a precarious Jewel in our checks and balances.
Murdoch is also highly complicit in the decay of the media. He has managed to wreck journalism in his native Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United Ststes.
So many novels, memoirs, histories, and films have shown the great vitality, as well as our great need, for those who stick their needs out for human decency.
So many works of art show, too, the incredible, unbelievable corruption among our greedy rich, our on-the-take public officials.
Might it soon be time for a "Clarence Award," or make that plural, for
the investigative reporting and parallel arts which nab our most disgustingly, cravenly, predictably corrupt?
...and Patrice, where would you place Julian Assange in the pantheon of investigative reporters? He certainly revealed A LOT about how our government was actually working in Iraq, etc.
sorry, after ranting I just realized I read your comment kind of backwards. Truly, I am so lost. I am so afraid. I am so afraid for my children, and all children, and all life on earth. Forgive my vehemence. It is my desperation, completely out of proportion to what you said, and totally off base.
Matt, I'm a little confused by what you wrote. Do you mean both athletics AND arts are less important? Or one is less important than the other? Or something else? (Sorry, it's early.)
Except when immigrants, preferable illegal ones, suit him, as in staffing his golf clubs. Illegal ones are beholden to him and in no position to complain.
Phil, I may have a chance to travel to Nagasaki with my orchestra, St. Paul Civic Symphony. Nagasaki and St. Paul are sister cities, and Nagasaki also has an orchestra which is the sister orchestra to the St. Paul Civic Symphony.
Where are you located in the unlikely event that we could cross paths?
Taketa-shi, Matt, is halfway between Oita-shi on the Pacific, and Kumamoto, just above Nagasaki. (The railroads call Taketa "Bungo-Taketa.")
Let me know dates, and I can arrange modest hotels here for you and any traveling with you. Personal interests of your own, and others traveling with you -- and I can note books providing lovely, thematic apt travel background.
We've also very, very fine restaurants here. None elegant, but deliciously attentive to local sourcing.
Also two rivers, three tall mountains around Taketa, many Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, an incredibly scenic site, with ruins, of an old hilltop former castle, and many hills, woodland, and terraced rice fields throughout.
Color me green with envy Matt. *Say* Should your orchestra have want or need of a guitar player, I'm offering.. Once upon a time I could really 'shred' as the kids say today.... lol.
You're observing a manifestation of the STEM education lie. I'd love to see STEM abolished from English usage and replaced with STEAM where 'A' is art.
Teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics without teaching art makes as much sense as teaching people that have no place to go how to drive.
"Art is what we call it when what we do might connect us." - Seth Godin.
I know of young people who are seriously reluctant to bring children into what seems like an increasingly threatening world situation. We are not sufficiently caring for the common weal.
Unlike some, I always remember most of my family were post famine Irish immigrants. More people should remember that and remember their own families were viewed with disdain when they first came here. Immigration processes operated much more quickly then and weren’t bogged down in paperwork and slow processes. In addition, there were flat out bans of people from Japan, China, and other Asian nations, which changed in 1965 with the Immigration and Nationality Act. Unlike Jeff Sessions, I don’t want to return to ethnically exclusionary policies.
I'm a mixed European mutt as far as I can tell from asking my parents about ancestry. But also on my dad's side, there was a priest and a 16 year old having a child. I will have to bring that back up over cribbage as probably important family history, if shameful.
We could do it without immigration, have organic population growth of our own, if only there were some hope of a bit more economic equity. I have nothing against immigration mind you, but I will say that it's no cure all and wasn't always in the past. The benefits did not serve all; it served employers.
Also people would simply say "F*CK YOU! I am doing it [whatever 'it' is banned via a law scripted on piece of paper-litter] anyway and you, government, can not stop me." That will belie the charade of law-&-order among the M.A.G.A.s since widely ignored laws surely attenuate the rule-of-law even further.
I assume you refer to Trump. If you refer to me, I suspect my comment was not clear. Trump and his followers scream law-&-order yet erode the rule-of-law with these oppressive measures that will only provoke defiance.
Young people certainly are having these discussions & I fully support them in exercising being Child-free By Choice. I don't see a slowing population growth as 'failing'. Forced birth is wrong on every level & significantly, any claim of 'pro-life' can't be based on myths, control, & demand economics, it has to be about quality of life. Economic abuse, creating deficit & poverty mentality, is a huge part of abuse of power & dysfunction in every area of our lives. All humans, especially children, need a much healthier environment than the current reality of life being ruthless, competitive sport. I hope with all I am that the discussions lead to that, a thorough dismantling of myths that are not serving us.
Very frightening scenario. In the end, I believe President Biden will win with a plurality as Mr Kennedy siphons more votes away from Trump than from President Biden. As Dr Bandy Lee, a psychiatrist recognized for her work in dealing with violent people, says, together with a small group of experts gutsy enough to speak out: take away the dictators and the social contagion dissipates as followers snap back into reality. Almost like they are waking up from an alcoholic black-out.
While not being deeply schooled in psychology but very much in women's liberation early feminist thinking for almost 60 years, I am wondering if what we see now in the MAGA population is a form of mass hysteria for the loss of whatever they think they've lost which is largely imaginary as they partake in Trump's own version which apparently fuels their own emptiness as if they were looking for the missing parts that never existed. Which is why possibility frightens them at the core. It's particularly frightening for them to see that other people are embracing their own possibilities. So do they have the equipment to do that? I think not at this point. And they refuse the education that would provide it. Extremely fear-based.
For centuries Americans with white skin didn’t have to compete with people who have “colored” skin for jobs, housing, medical care etc.
From the 1600s to 1954 Black people were legally and practically subjugated and segregated-left on their own to establish a way of life in America.
Trump tells Black people that immigrants are taking “their jobs” because Black people always had to deal with slavery (unpaid labor) and lower level employment (housekeepers, farm hands, waiters etc.)
Seeing Black faces in high places (president of the nation, defense secretary, minority speaker of the house, budget director etc.) is scary. Why should they have to compete with or be under the authority of “those people”?
I understand why so many people don’t want to confront white supremacy and caste in our society. It’s entrenched and nuanced. Now that the actual “whites only” signs have been taken down it’s invisible to many. White supremacy is what’s holding us back from being a true democracy. That’s what this election is really about for Rs-more than abortion, guns, climate change etc. Joe Biden has invited “those people” to the party-it’s ruining the country. They have to take it back. States rights is the mechanism.
“All that is necessary to be done is to make the government consistent with itself, and render the rights of the States compatible with the sacred rights of human nature.” -Frederick Douglass (1866) (from essay in The Atlantic)
You can’t choose to not get educated, and then expect that you will have the needed skills that an education provides you with as the business environment evolves, which it’s bound to do. Nothing is static, everything is in a constant state of change, to not recognize that is to have stuck your head in the sand, while the world we are part of merrily evolves away from where you decided to get off. It’s lunacy, if you have any question what those people look like spend a few minutes watching the orange turd at one of his rallies, the people standing behind him are classic examples. It’s pathetic really. 🤷♂️
Thank you. I have been looking for years at the phenomenon of the whole idea of assumed superiority in all its many many forms. As a healer I cannot afford nor should I to look at people as classifications; everyone is so individual and with my anthropology training, single lesbian motherhood and many kinds of activist I have been able to see patterns and how they evolve or don't or devolve. It's always the human behavioral facts to tell the most. The media is so besotted with image and its own forms of lying that there's no relying on them. I like Substack where our voices are real and our experiences are in use.
"In the end, I believe President Biden will win with a plurality as Mr Kennedy siphons more votes away from Trump than from President Biden."
I am really struggling to see how this is a plausible scenario, considering Kennedy has only qualified for the ballot in a small handful of states, and his ballot access even in some of those states is now being challenged in court. He is literally a non-factor until further notice, no matter how much fun the number crunchers might have with such a. hypothetical.
The only realistic path to a Biden victory is for a majority of voters to vote for him again, just as they did four years ago. I see no reason why this is not still the most likely outcome.
The U.S. has excused, rationalized, funded, helped to arm, and otherwise joined the far-right Israeli settlers as they have for years goaded, provoked, stolen land from, and imprisoned, tortured, and murdered Palestinians of the West Bank.
The U.S. has had zero programs otherwise -- say, to help teachers and schools who could help local Jews and Palestinians learning English to see each other as individuals.
Gaza as one word means U.S. commitment only to war, war, hate, hate.
Well, Phil, as eloquently as yo have expanded upon Patrice's comment, I would try to balance that expansion just a bit by reminding you that for all the Israelis have trampled on any apparent respect for Gazan rights and territory, the Israelis have been perpetually confronted by intransigent Arab leaders who remain committed to the destruction of this new nation the United Nations (?) wrought in their land in 1948. It is an area which has no easy solution beyond a refusal to demonize either side but to work to bring about some arrangement to share what we once referred to as "The Holy Land."
People are upset because they cannot understand President Biden's predicament of having to maintain our only allies in the Middle East. Israel. Especially now that Iran is in the equation. You win some and you loose some. Both sides are wrong. It is a tragedy. But if Hamas truly cared about Palestinians, they would have released the hostages and would have negotiated a deal. They do not care. No Arab country cares about them. They never have. They buses them as props. Devastating!
Yes, I found this letter to be (as they all are) outstandingly clear and balanced. Gunsmoke, eh? Little House on Prairie? Exciting, comforting, fairytales. And then it turns out that guns were banned in Dodge City!
Just like they were Banned from the NRA convention in TX, when Donny spoke for the gun lobby,
right after 376 cowardly, gun toting local, state and federal Police Officers, Sheriffs, and Border Patrol (!) stood by while a local kid massacred 21 teachers and students at their school in Uvalde.
I believe those young adults who experienced gun violence in school, now old enough to vote and run for office, are going to see continued expansion of gun ‘rights’ very differently.
Anne-Louise, the stories in the Little House books were given quite a whitewash by their author (Laura Ingalls) to render them acceptable to the children for whom they were intended. Methinks Pa may not have been such an effective settler/provider and therefore had to keep moving on.
That's already happening. Whether women choose to have children or not. And of course, soon these women will have to stop having sex unless they can get their hands on a condom.
Ironically, the "Right" (can we begin to call them the Wrong?) will decry the "breakdown of the family" as their cruel policies continue to decimate it.
And yes, the whole point of "Sovereign" state power (and just plain Sovereign power, which is still a strong movement, but now quieter), the whole Point is that Power is easier to exert Locally.
We are about to see the activation of "sovereign" militias from all Red states. They have been strutting loudly to the drumbeat of Divine Governor Abbott of The Republic of Texas, defending the border against the infidels who would defile their women, or, or, something....
As David Dayen said a couple months ago, we are sleepwalking toward fascism.
(not sure if that was the word he chose, but it's the truth)
My Granny and her boyfriend Randy were together for decades; I believe he asked her to be married several times but she said no each time. She had already tried twice and realized she wasn't the type of person to live with someone else all the time. She was a warm person who I miss very much since her passing a few months ago, but she was fiercely independent and could be very difficult in many ways. He had his house, she had her condo, he would come to visit on weekends and bring extra groceries, and that was just fine and dandy for everyone concerned.
My cousin Margie has not gotten married because her first marriage was abusive and... well, she just doesn't cotton to the idea any more. She and her boyfriend love each other very much, treat each other very well, and are doting parents to the sweetest little girl. They are looking forward to buying a house jointly soon.
My cousin Steve just got married to his now-wife a few years ago, also after already having had a child. They are very laid back SoCal types and just hadn't gotten around to it, I guess. It was a fun little shindig. Their son got to be the ringbearer for Mom & Dad, stuff his face with grandmother's Mexican wedding cookies, and run around messing up his nice shirt. Perfect!
My aunt Jane got married very young to her best friend Sean, raised four kids into adulthood together (one of whom is Steve), then realized the romantic "spark" just was not there there for her, if it ever truly was, after she found it with Mark instead. She has now been monogamously together with Mark for 20 years, but she and Sean never legally got divorced. She still ran a business out of the family home, and all the participants got along on the best of terms. Sean passed away last week from cancer and she is absolutely devestated. They loved each other deeply for half a century; the exact way they did just shifted back and forth was all.
There is no reason people cannot just be loved and happy outside of typical strictures and structures if that is what suits them. This seems to terrify some people. Baffling.
P.S. I changed all names herein to protect the innocent.
My grandmother originally from the mountains of East Tennessee, same thing, Will.
She married at 14 (she was born in 1907 -- most girls there were ripe for that then).
But her husband, age 16, felt guilty at his own carousing for years already then, and for more than two months avoided consummating the marriage.
Their marriage ended before I was born. She'd moved to California with their three little girls (including my then-girl-mother), he, after a fourth girl, to various places.
When I knew her as my grandmother, she wore only loud and pastel colors. A bra that formed twin peaks. And opinions even then (Goldwater era) wildly right-wing.
Will, the consistent backdrop to each of your stories is one of the feelings and care about the other which underlie each of the unmarried you describe. Marriage provides a legal basis for partnership which may not be necessary for all. Perhaps we should not get to bent out of shape at withering marriage statistics which are simple to get at, and worry more about the frequency or incidence of the underlying relationships which result in children who are cared for and cared about sufficiently to grow into responsible caring adults...a much more elusive statistic to find and compare.
Will, your family's history mirrors a lot of my Mom's side of the family in California (Venice to Carmel) although I suspect that my Mom is your granny's age. My folks married a bit late in their lives (my Dad was 30, Mom was 26) and they didn't have me until they'd been married nearly 10 years.
You make good points. Between the potential end of NF divorce and the criminalization of abortion and birth control , why would any forward-thinking woman get married?
For different reasons, that’s what’s happening in Japan with devastating social and economic consequences. Young women are refusing to marry, leaving an aging population with fewer and fewer young people to carry on and care for them. Once reliant on strong family networks, rural areas are dying and loneliness is rising.
The cowboy of Wild West myth was often a loner who moved around taking work where he could find it. He carried his possessions with him. He worked for the men who owned the ranches. Often, individualistic men and their families wound up as the victims of circumstances, such as weather or worse. They could not go it alone and often took the families down with them.
I keep making that point to the MAGAts that I still interact with (much more accurate these days than calling them friends). Even a side by side comparison is met with a carefully and well thought out "Nuh uh".
I wonder, Ally, if you're from Portland, Willamette Valley Oregon.
Or the far-right, MAGA-rabid eastern part of the state?
I wonder because, as I peruse maps of the current massive heat waves and destructive flooding in the U.S., the worst-hit areas are those with very high MAGA populations.
They keep voting for climate-change denial politicians. And now they suffer the realities they've continued for years and years to deny.
In case you haven’t noticed, thanks to the work of feminism in particular and po-mo progressivism in general, marriage is circling the drain already—with predictable negative consequences for society in general and children in particular.
The frame of the American cowboy, the "I built that" instead of "We built that" is well-detailed in the work of George Lakoff. His book "Don't Think of an Elephant" is an excellent primer on how political operatives (and marketers) use a visual frame to engage and manipulate people.
I remain deeply concerned about so many in the United States who can be told that extreme climate events are caused by the lack of prayer, the best way to stop gun violence is by arming everyone, and the reason for economic insecurity and inequality is due to people pouring through the border taking all of the good executive careers (as opposed to tax policy implemented by Reagan favoring the concentration of wealth).
It will require multiple generations of Americans who prioritize education and critical thinking in order to not only read that the GOP/Reagan/Trump fraud of "Trickle-down Economics" is a complete failure (unless you have already accumulated extreme wealth), however to understand how it works to diminish the quality of life for generations of people in order to concentrate more wealth into the hands of the few. People must understand that Trump's attempt to gain a billion dollars in "campaign" contributions from Big Oil executives is unusual -only because it cause a ripple of news coverage, however massive amounts of money undermining vital societal policy and protections is nothing new.
There must be a "Democracy 2030" comprehensive plan for the United States to fix its badly broken political and judicial system, to emphasize public and higher education, and to work to bend the "moral arc" of the universe toward justice -because at present we've allowed it to become subverted by millions of dollars.
Good comments that I agree with almost entirely. I would add that we also need to bring back--to our education and communities--what I would call a bildung (the closest thing in the US would be Human Ecology) mindset--organizations like scouts, true community sports (instead of elite-only, year round pay-for-play clubs), home economics classes in school, etc. Things that educate whole humans and foster true community (not division/cliques).
Your mention of Human Ecology, Robert, caused me to mention to my husband that Home Ec for me in junior high was about learning to make white sauce and to insert a zipper in a skirt. What if it had been really about the ecology of home, the economy of the household. It could have included lessons on budgeting, growing a garden, planning a family, inspecting a house in order to buy it, why to vote, how the family fits into the larger society, why education is a good thing, and on and on. Imagine!
So my husband, a historian, told me about Ellen Swallow Richards who at the turn of the 20th century argued for an expansive concept of Home Economics. Her idea might have prevailed but it was thwarted by the patriarchy of universities at the time. If she wanted to introduce such a course of study, it should be geared only to girls and should have a narrow focus. That was the culture in academia. She had to settle for white sauce and zippers. At least the idea got a foot in the door. I didn't know her name before this morning, so I thought I'd pass it on the rest of you. Fascinating.
Yes. Later, almost all the programs in the US were dismantled, largely to fund and provide space for computer labs. I have a colleague, now retired, who is a long-time teacher, home ec and longtime proponent of HE, and education administrator, whom I sense still bears the scars of decades of fighting, yet feeling like no one listens and education has been hijacked by PISA standards, money, and labyrinthian authorities and agendas.
Our badly broken political system is partly (mostly?) a product of our winner-take-all system of government that has proven over a couple of centuries to give rise to the two-party system. That is the experiment that has been run, and as a trained theoretical physicist, you can't argue with the experiments carefully done! And certainly the real world runs experiments carefully!
The best approach is to enact a system of proportional representation. It would require great courage on the part of a US state to jump to a European system, and this might be impossible politically given how ingrained the two-party system is. You'd have to get 90% of dems on board and pull in another 30% of repubs and independents, which is extremely unlikely!
An alternative approach, which is not as great but more achievable, is rank choice voting.
Increasing underrepresented areas of Congress and taking away some of the Senate’s overwhelming power were helped. Britain restrained the House of Lords, and permitted them to vote among themselves which members would be elected. Under Mitch McConnell, the Senate became a place where essential and much necessary legislation went to die.
Thank you Matt. I thought as a theoretical physicist you would suggest the political environment would attract more mass until it could no longer support itself and thus, implode.
Yes, ranked choice voting and a national popular vote compact could likely help.
Assuming voter suppression and gerrymandering are outlawed. Without voter education and integrity the system perpetuates itself to benefit the rich and powerful who own politicians and/or become politicians themselves.
Matt, I LIKE rank-choice voting! Has any political entity (state, region, county, municipality) in the USA actually deployed it? How did it or is it working out?
I think we are very much individual and also social creatures. The more dense and complex the society the more interdependent we become, I think in large part in ways we rarely think about. I think we are wise to examine and integrate our individual needs with our needs as a society. To some degree, the Constitution addresses both. Physically and emotionally healthy individuals reinforce a healthy society, and vice versa.
George-this is such a good summary of where we are-it would be great Americans could see each other as collaborators more than competitors. The love of money above all else is undermining humanity’s potential to exist in harmony. (I love music-especially jazz-think about what it sounds like when musicians create harmony out of their individual talents.)
Your idea of crafting “Democracy 2030” is a good first step. It could motivate generations to work on longstanding divisions and diversions so we could really become the “United” states where freedom and truth prevail in a multicultural society.
You’ve sparked my imagination about what it would be like to live in a democratic nation where honesty, liberty, justice, prosperity and peace reigns!
Thank you Gina! In spite of societal decay across generations I still hold hope and dedicate effort. I think there are far more things we fundamentally agree upon and when you remove Fox “News” and other forces intent upon a continuous divide, we could prevail beginning with new forms of “Kitchen Table” democracy, building understanding, and then codifying new understanding into law, policy, and elected officials who will fundamentally work toward justice, equality, and democracy.
Thank you Gina! In spite of societal decay across generations I still hold hope and dedicate effort. I think there are far more things we fundamentally agree upon and id you remove Fox “News” and other forces intent upon a continuous divide, we could prevail beginning with new forms of “Kitchen Table” democracy, building understanding, and then codifying new understanding into law, policy, and elected officials who will fundamentally work toward justice, equality, and democracy.
George, your comment about adverse responses to extreme climate events, to gun violence, and to perceived immigrant hordes, brought to mind the foolishness in the movie, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”. The human brain seems to have a long history of leaning on unusual and self-defeating myths and fantasies. The reality of growth and change in our ever-evolving physical and cultural world, seems to be incomprehensible to many. They’d rather shoot themselves, and others, in the foot before deigning to join a collective search for equilibrium (somewhat aka for me, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”). Thus, you’re right, education (not propaganda) is the key, as well as more at-home citizenship style games, books and talks in the home, to hedge our bets on our future.
I’ve put "Don't Think of an Elephant" on my to-read list.
Anne, on a phone call yesterday I talked about equilibrium in nature, a saying that “fire cools and water seeks its own level”. And yes, it would be far more challenging for Stanley Kubrick and Peter Sellers to properly parody the absurdity of our times (which would be comical if not for the tragedy and suffering inflicted upon the many by the few).
100% agree, George. To which I would add what has been mentioned above, that (and I love this) a new way of approaching “damn the torpedoes, full STEAM ahead,” to incorporate the Arts into STEM curricula. For me, going forward, it’s going to be STEAM in what I fervently want for the next generations.
Governor Greg Abbott has no idea what he is talking about regarding rape. He is absolutely ill-informed and ignorant about the issue. According to the World Health Organization, one in three women has been raped (meaning they did not consent to sex) in their lifetime, and most are raped by men they know. Greg Abbott is going to eliminate these? What is his plan? It’s impossible to eliminate completely, but he could start by educating the Texas population on what consent actually means and what a non-consent situation entails.
Abbott might know the facts quite thoroughly, however they're inconvenient to the narrative he's promoting. He doesn't argue in good faith, and he doesn't WANT a plan. Not any externally provided one, at least! Much like the way he's handling the border, he wants his opponents plans not to succeed while he appears to be heroically solving problems like rape or women's issues using "Good Ole Texas Morality & Gumption". If the problems he's working on show signs of improving without him, he throws more fuel on the fire just to convince people that outside interference is sabotaging his efforts.
Abbott is a shameless grandstander, prostrating himself before crime boss Trump in order to become the next Mike Pence, who bitterly learned the lesson all thoughtful Texans know by heart - the courageous response to a lowlife like Trump is "Don’t tread on me".
Shameless grandstander yes, but I believe he's another narcissist, ready to exert the will of the Republic Of Texas (which he believes is His) whether with Trump, or on its own. He will continue to rule his kingdom as long as he is allowed, and he will do everything he can to make sure he will be.
Even if Biden wins, Abbott will be challenging him on states rights, probably by activating TX National Guard and "State Militia" troops, as he already has on the border.
He is a madman.
We, the normal, law abiding, tolerant, democracy loving, critical but grateful Americans,
are Woefully Unprepared for what is about to happen.
I am sitting in my kitchen in Germany contemplating the gun situation. My Chicago neighborhood, happens to be the one where Former President Barack Obama has his Chicago home and is building his library. It is also home to a world class university that draws people from all over the world. A couple of years ago a young student from China was walking a few blocks from campus, when an 18-year old got out of a car and tried to take his laptop. He instinctively resisted and the 18-year old shot him with an AR-15. A friend of a friend is a surgeon who lives on the block where the young man was shot, and he ran out to try to save him. He told my friend that he never so so much blood in his life, and he could not save him. His death was so traumatic to a friend of a friend of my daughter, who lived on that block, that he could not get himself to go to high school for 2 days. ------Another student, who had just finished his PhD, ironically also from China was walking during covid from his building to a gym. My daughter happened to be out taking a walk nearby with a friend. A crazed man who was on a shooting spree shot and killed this student. Fortunately my daughter was not shot, but the man also drove to another community before police shot and killed him. He killed people in 3 communities in one day, and mine was one of them. -------Then, a mother of a student was on a busy street corner in our neighborhood at noon and got out of her car while talking on her phone, a big no-no where I live, and she was accosted by someone with a gun to take her purse. Since it was the middle of the day and she lived in a different affluent community she had her guard down. Never again. So, knowing that shootings could happen at any time of day, I had told my daughter if she was out on the street and heard shootings she should drop immediately and roll under a car. No German parent would ever think to need to give their child such instructions. ------In her junior year my daughter had an exchange year with a partner from Vienna, Austria. The partner came to Chicago first and then my daughter went to Vienna. Prior to this the school arranged for us to have discussions with the family so that we could be on the same page about our expectations. Her exchange partners mother said her child came and went as she pleased, they had no curfew and no restrictions. We said that we controlled where our child went at night because we had to pick her up. I know we sounded like super conservative tight asses! What can I say. -----Then, when her daughter was staying with us, they were going thrifting in a neighborhood that had gangs and was near other gangs. So, I told them fine to go there on public but someone would pick them up. Her exchange asked why that, and I explained that it was a Saturday and I did not want them standing at a bus stop waiting for the unreliable buses since covid began, on a corner that was between 2 gang territories because if gangs were out driving around looking for trouble and spotted someone they might start shooting, and they could get caught in the crossfire. My daughter was skeptical so after dinner, we went online and looked at a map of all the gang territories in the city and they could see exactly what I was talking about. In fact, they could see that our community was surrounded by gang territories. It had caused problems on one of the local bus lines because it went by high schools in two different territories. In any case, her parents ended up being grateful that I had such control after I shared some crime stats with her as well. -------------Every Monday the Chicago Tribune would headline all of the shootings over the weekend, with the total number shot, the total who died, the total under 18, and who was in serious or stable condition and which hospitals they had been brought to. I started gathering this data in summer of 2022 after a massive shooting in a suburb of Chicago on the 4th of July. --------During covid I grew more worried about the gun crime. So, I was so glad for my daughter to go to Vienna for 6 months. When Russia started their war on Ukraine many friends thought I would bring my daughter home because of the safety in Europe. I was laughing thinking that the US death numbers rival those of Europe by far. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/26/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/
------------While her exchange partner was with us there was a school shooting in Michigan. From that day on, I could not wait for my daughter to be out of the USA. I was so glad she planned to go to University abroad, and not just because it is way, way, way cheaper in terms of tuition, since there is none, but mostly for the safety reasons. Gun crime is not non-existent here, but guns are much, more greatly controlled. For one, you need to have 110 mil Euros of gun liability insurance. Secondly, you have to pass tests, and you must keep all guns locked up. Police are allowed to randomly drop by to check that you have done so. If you are under 25 you need to pass a psychological test before getting a permit, and that is still tied passing training. There is no hue and cry over it infringing on people's rights because it doesn't. It protects the society. -------So, one of the reasons why I am sitting in my kitchen in Germany is because of American gun proliferation and lack of meaningful controls, and the second reason is to have a place to go if DT gets reelected. If he is reelected my reasons will switch order. My child is studying in a major city here in Germany and feels safe going out on her own at night with alertness, but not abject fear. I wish for the USA to get a second Biden term, and take on the Supreme Court which is the biggest thing in the way of us having meaningful gun reform that other countries are able to enact if it is the will of the people.
Thank you for taking the time to write this factual and absurd account of what parents in the US, the "richest and best" country in the world often have to go through because of the Bizarre power of the NRA (not so bizarre if you get that it's just another wing of the Southern Strategy of the Oligarchy.) Honestly, why would you even consider returning here? Extended family? The rise of the right in Germany?
How many of us, right here on this thread, have researched places to live if the Oligarchy (Kleptocracy) wins in 4 months from now?
Right now, if you only speak English, places like Canada and Ireland look attractive. I have friends who moved to Portugal. She is now pregnant and they wanted to have their children in Portugal. He works for a Chicago tech company. She told me that she has contacted the Expat guide for having a baby where she lives, and they have been super supportive, and she also says that they are part of the free health care system there. I know that there are about 9-11 million US expats in the world, who have built networks where they have moved of other Americans to help support them. I am a member of Democrats Abroad Germany, and it helps to get support for voting, but all the groups also have social activities from regular dinners, to book clubs, movie nights, things that help people feel a sense of community outside of their US home.
I haven't, because 1) if the political apocalypse occurs the entire world will be unsafe, not just the US, 2) I do not believe that is a likely occurance considering historical and recent trends, and 3) I am very patriotic and would not want to live anywhere else regardless, thank you kindly!
Although my parents are plausibly eligigible for Irish citizenship as a result of ancestry, and I admit that would be a nice thing to have, as who wouldn't like worldly family? At least in theory.
Thanks for sharing your story and thoughts about gun violence in the U.S. Why do Americans feel the need for so many guns compared to other nations? If we can rid ourselves of the NRA will guns disappear?
There are some underlying issues that make us such a violent country. We need to consider root causes to tackle as you describe so much random violence and a truly perilous way to live.
I grew up with movies that only had white cowboys, no horses ever pooped on the streets, and Native Americans were baddies, except the Lone Ranger’s Tonto. All of the American soldiers in the West were white.
In fact, cowboying was a dreadful profession. The food was crummy, living conditions were minimal, especially during the winter,, round ups were long, uncomfortable, and often dangerous. In fact a majority of cowboys were Blacks or Latinos. SERGEANT RUTLEDGE, the first movie in which a Black soldier was highlighted, came out in 1960.Anyone interested in the history of the Black cowboy should go to the Black Cowboy Museum in Denver. The movie Blazing Saddles was an amusing account of a Black intruded into a Western town.
The life of the American soldier in the West was tough. Living conditions were rough and encounters with Native Americans could be deadly. In fact, there were many Black soldiers (no officers) out West. The Native Americans called them Buffalo soldiers. Though ignored in Western movies of my era, they were on the front lines in hunting down Geronimo and others.
I particularly recall the 9th & 10th Black regiments, who distinguished themselves out West. Though not generally acknowledged, the 9th & 10th Black regiments probably saved Teddy Roosevelt’s ass as he recklessly galloped up San Juan Hill (actually Kettle Hill) during the Spanish American War.
John Wayne was a Hollywood cowboy. The reality was vastly different.
And do you know that cowboys come from the Camargue (whence cometh also delicious sheep cheese)? We think of them as essentially American, but like many (and not enough—medical system for example) French imports, we take them for granted.
As for western movies, my two favorites are “Blazing Saddles” and “Dances with Wolves.” But another, a B western still haunts: the hero got in trouble with the law. As he goes off to jail for two years, he tells the heroine he will serve his time and be back to her (?Randolph Scott). A simple fable, not possible in this America.
The French medical system? You mean the Sécurité sociale? You're covered from the moment you appear on a payroll. I've never felt so safe from life's mishaps as when I worked in France. (Sigh). When after a couple of years I found myself without an assignment (I worked as a long-term temp) I went and joined the queue for unemployment benefits. Sat down in a little office with a smilingly professional lady: "Madame, I can't assign you unemployment benefits unless you can show me that you have been refused a State pension." (No escaping the dreaded date of birth). "But I don't want to retire!" After repeating this to me several ways until I calmed down and took it in, she said, "Right: shall I put you down for 15th January?" "But what if I get another job?" "No problem, you let us know and we put your file on the back burner, and bring it forward again whenever you need it." And that's exactly what happened: I didn't go on the pension until I left France and relinquished my Carte Vitale (your medical practitioner just puts it through the little machine, no bill. (Sigh again).
Americans need to hear more stories like this to counteract the health "care" industry's decades of disinformation. I lived in another country for several years and had automatic coverage. Great, timely service. Also helped many other young expats access service. (Basically just walked them in lol) Same experience in Australia where we were traveling. My Australian husband still had coverage although he was soon to it the 10 year living abroad limit, and our baby's poor burst ear drum was quickly and beautifully cared for in a combination of small local clinics and one large pediatric office. The antibiotics for the infection that helped cause the problem (along with the flight!) came automatically with liquid pro-biotics formulated for babies. That was 17 years ago.
It was so pleasant and All Free.
We could have such better lives! Imagine how much healthier we'd be just by knowing that if we and our families, or anyone, gets sick, we will be taken care of with no risk of massive debt!! The loss of that constant stress alone would save us tens of millions of dollars in health costs and job losses. sigh.
Must keep putting one foot in front of the other....
Wirginia AWWWK, we differ. I found Blazing Saddles less funny at second viewing. Though Dances with Wolves got various Academy awards. I had spent some weeks visiting Native American colleges for a proposed summer teacher training institute. This ranged from the Oglala Lakota down to AZ and NW. For me, Dances seemed too contrived.
I won’t argue as I too found “Blazing Saddles” less funny the second time, and agree that “Dances with Wolves” was “not natural” though I was cheering the Indians at the end while laughing at myself having seen Joan Bennett in “The Last of the Mohicans” before I was 10. (Interesting story.) You never cease to amaze me with the breadth of your interests and involvement in the world. Hat off! No wonder you haven’t “grown up.” Why would you? Lots to do yet. My obsession with writing to as many prospective voters as possible is narrowing my scope until after November 5, but after that….
Ah, but did you know that there were/are still cowboys in the Maremma? (On the Tuscan coast). The Maremman cowboy is/was called a buttero. The Maremma is the swampy area left exposed when the sea withdrew, centuries ago, an area similar to the Camargue (where I went specifically to see the famous white horses). The Maremma was malarial until the Americans arrived in 1944 and dealt with that little problem by spraying everything in sight with DDT. No mosquitoes in the Maremma since then.
Anne In my lifetime I recall camel cowboys in Sinai. One minor problem. The Egyptian army was concerned with drug smuggling, when the camels were forced to swallow packets of drugs. The security ‘solution’ was to slaughter the camel looking for the drugs. Certainly depleted the camel caravans. Tough for the camels and cowboys when no drugs were found.
General Mohamed Naguib, then president of Egypt, told me this story about when he ran the drug smuggling searches in Sinai.
My optimism about the election comes from the fact that predicted Red Wave in the last election cycle was, in reality, a drip.
The Silent Majority today oppose Trumpism.
Biden needs to come out in the debate and remind Americans they fired Trump 4 years ago for his many failures.
And, that was before . . .
he led a coup and an attack on the nation’s Capitol
his 3 nominees to the Supreme Court robbed women of their reproductive freedom and choice
voters learned the truth that his tax cuts for the richest Americans, and foreigners doing business in the US, increased our national debt by double what my administration has and in doing so putting the tax burden on the middle class while he personally avoided paying his fair share through tax fraud
his daughter and her husband used their formal government positions in his administration to leveraged the Chinese government to give her a slew of registered patents and his son in law to leverage Saudi Arabia to literally give him billions to start an investment firm for which he’s a novice
and
that juries of his peers found him criminally guilty of 34 felonies and civilly guilty of sexual assault
Trump has been one of the sorest winners and losers of all time. He has the disgraceful distinction of being the only president in our history to spark a riot to prevent the peaceful transition of power. If we are unlucky enough to get him again, he will govern out of revenge and become dictator for life.
Paul, excellent information and what I would like to see added to his speech time. I have been calling the old " silent majority " now the Great Middle watching and rejecting the extremisms on both wings and that is perhaps more oriented to
processing the ideas of both - and whose numbers exceed both the extremes put together.
I’ll tell you what would make America a more compassionate nation, Mr Pence (hypocrite in chief): not forcing women to have unwanted pregnancies originating from violence and rape, not forcing them to live the agony of giving birth to a child that will not survive, not make parents live the daily mental torture of hoping their child will not end up dead in a school shooting.
It’s an abomination that people like this can talk about what is “morally wrong”.
Well Heather, while I share your optimism that a "reality" groundswell is gaining momentum, I fear it will mean close to nothing if people don't translate it into votes come November (lest we forget that, even in 2020, 32% of our cogent electorate chose not to vote). I'm not as pessimistic as The Economist or Umair Haque, but I'm increasingly relying on the voices of Allan Lichtman (and you) for my optimism. We have every reason to assume that a second Trump presidency would largely be carried out by competent fascists, not The Idiot himself; and be something we'll reckon with for at least a full generation--and that's the BEST case scenario. The problem, as I have seen it for at least the last seven years, is pretty much what you outlined: the Right KNOW they are actually outnumbered, that demographics will likely only worsen for them over time, and are therefor FAR more desperate and canny about seizing power NOW (and Dems, sadly, still don't get voting support in the right ways), and spiking the tracks so we can never fix them again. We should not assume for one second that what you've detailed here will simply carry the day.
Yes; And quite obviously that desperation has the effect (affect ?) of rocket fuel for them. Hard statistics posted by Joyce Vance today make me less optimistic, I'm sad to say; Too few are even aware of project 2025 that it frightens me. In rounded off numbers 70 something percent have no clue about it, much less read through for understanding, that mammoth tome of frightful bs.
How to affect an equal opposite reaction to the jet fueled villainous machinations is a very real problem that is "in our face."
Ms. Vance provided an additional service in that post, providing links both to the Table of Contents of Project 2025 and to the 2025 website itself. The Table of Contents are links to individual sections of the 900-page text. It's scary stuff, its deformed language a suitable successor to "Mein Kampf." And when you're talking about real fascists, Godwin's Law does not apply.
Mark Godwin himself has made that precise point, that Godwin’s Law doesn’t apply to real fascism, and he sees Trump and his hangers on as real fascists. Certainly they believe in dictatorship to maintain their power.
Yes she did James; thanks for adding a bit more. She also commits that we will read it together, with her assistance (thank goodness). Amazing, is she not ?
Well, that’s all fine and dandy, but the Republicans still care preciously little for reality, and cling to macho dreams about studly men with guns and subservient women instead. Wanna bet that this is the chain they are setting up?
- first, make abortion illegal
- then make IVF illegal
- outlaw contraception
- prohibit women from divorcing
- make rape legal again, at least for marriage.
According to their views, women should shut up and be breeding machines, and not people.
You forgot to mention allowing child labor back into factories. If everyone is already working by their 16th birthday (just like the good Ole days), then it only makes sense to wed for a second income. Before you know it you'll pop out a kid or two, bring them along with you, and now the whole family is helping mop the slaughterhouse floor TOGETHER! Quaint as can be!
So how do we get the good news out to people who don’t have time, or just don’t care. I seem to be one of just a handful on my SM feed posting information but it largely gets ignored. The folks in my circle are onboard…but the others…???
ICYMI, Beau of the 5th did a breakdown of trump and Biden numbers too. It’s a good video. I shared that one too.
"Cult members do not bend to reason. If someone has voted for Trump twice and plans to do so three times, there is no way to reach them. I should know.
Register new voters instead of wasting your breath. Organize your neighbors rather than beating a dead horse. Leave the cult behind and link arms with the willing. If we are going to stop another Trump presidency, we have to work with those who have left the cult or never joined in the first place…"
They are. My last joust was over the 10 commandments. These Christians cannot seem to understand that “praying for me to accept Jesus as my lord and savior” is not cramming their religion down my throat.
Yesterday the Biden-Harris campaign released a tape in which Jeff Durbin, a Trump ally who is pastor of the Apologia Church in Tempe, Arizona, and the founder and head of End Abortion Now, says that abortion is murder and those who practice it deserve execution:
It seems weird to me that politicized pastors seem to me to be among the loudest advocates for putting people to death.
It is simple, really. The condemn-er believes the condemned is destined for hell and wishes to speed the process up. On the flip side, if a woman dies from an avoidable pregnancy complication, she has proved her holiness by following the scriptures and has just had her journey to heaven expedited. By saving her life with unholy medicine, we have not only denied her this quick reunion with Jesus, but tempted her to hell instead.
I knew kids in middle school who would talk about the sin that infants supposedly possessed with the matter-of-factness of telling you what was in their lunchbox. This is a real mentality for tens of millions of people between our shores. Let me tell you, when one becomes certain all of life is but a test, the twisted things one may do in order to pass are boundless.
It does seem incongruous for another "man of the cloth" to express such unChristian failings. Maybe they have trouble with the teachings of their Master.
During the civil rights movement many pastors marched with Dr. King-too many also died because they were willing to stand-up for righteousness. most organized religion and religious leaders today serve politicians-not God and the people.
I think of politics as the process by which someone's will prevails. That can be collaborative or coercive, friends deciding where to meet for lunch or a mugger in the shadows holding a gun and demanding money. Government can be anywhere on that spectrum, although, in practice it may need to be judiciously coercive to function; arresting muggers and demanding payment of tax. Ideally, even those found to be lawbreakers retain certain rights, and all involved make good faith efforts to honor a reasonable standard of justice. We get into trouble when some narcissistically decide that they have the right to make all the rules and others are inherently obliged to follow them. That's the sort of philosophy our current so-called "Republican" Party now embraces. Science offers no support for such claims of supremacy, but the illusion is seductive for many.
The best part of Heather's letters is that she takes the slick marketing out of history as it has been taught to us by some. As we see from today's installment the America Cowboy was and still is a poster boy for American conservatism.
"When the Texas ban went into effect, Governor Greg Abbott said there was no need to make an exception for rape, because Texas was going to 'eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas.'” When Abbott's statement was first reported, I thought what he really meant was he was going to eliminate rape as a crime; so, therefore, there would be no rapists.
Now, that makes sense!!! If it's no longer a crime, it's no longer a problem! How about that? Just think how low the gun mortality rate would be if murder was no longer a crime!? The possibilities are endless!!!
" in a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers estimated that in the 16 months after the Texas ban, 26,313 rape-related pregnancies occurred in the state. " 26,313 rapes that resulted in pregnancies? Out of how many rapes total? In 16 months? Really? The song says "Mommas, don't let your boys grow to be cowboys..." It needs another verse that says, "...and don't let your girls go to Texas." Shameful statistic. Shameful to consider this civilized. Shame.
This statistic shocked me, too. As my Republican mentor taught me in 1982, "Ideology breeds idiocy." She was right. To think that President F.D. Roosevelt stated that the aim of the New Deal was to experiment. If a policy worked, keep going with it. If it did not, try something else. The attitude among the right-wingnuts seems to be our policy is the only right one and you are going to like it. It will succeed and you are going to believe it AND you are going to thank us for showing you the way. There is a whole world of democracies out there experimenting; we can at least try to apply their successful policies.
There are tricky ethical considerations for social experiments, but "Reaganomics" which was always a con on it's face, seems to have made the very, very rich, very much richer, and most everyone else poorer or treading water. It's had more than sufficient time to prove otherwise, and abjectly failed. That Biden has explored other options, with encouraging results, should be big news.
A rising tide lifts all yachts.
Excellent comment James. I went looking for an article about yachts replacing jets as the status symbol of the billionaire class that I saw in the last couple of years and I came up empty.
The poster children for this new yacht envy are Jeff Bezos who took delivery of his $500 million yacht in 2023 and Nancy Walton Laurie's $300 million yacht also delivered in 2023.
And then there are the $100 million plus yachts confiscated by the Russian oligarchs many of which are the envy of billionaires around the world.
And how many yachts did Ms Devos have?
"Head of eduction" under Truemp?
18 was the number that sticks in my head. "Very Rich Betsy DeVos Has 10 Boats, Two Helicopters, A Yacht Scheduler And A Lavish Lifestyle You Can't Afford" was the title of a Newsweek article in 2017.
Let’s not forget Ralph de la Torre of Steward Health Care, the greedy group that has run Massachusetts hospitals into the ground. He has two.
What amazes me is that many of those super yachts have chase yachts that house the supplies and extra toys that don't fit on the living quarters yachts - things like jet skies, mini submarines, a car for transportation ashore and speedboats. Mind boggling.
Sick, actually. No one needs so much stuff…
Yachts are the first bubble the billionaires are getting to live some place safe. Far away from the misery their businesses have caused. Years ago when I heard there were American citizens who were billionaires, I thought why on earth would an American need to be that wealthy? We have freedom, safety, good schools, libraries...everything one needs. Then it occurred to me that with the environment going to hell, they would want to live in a protected bubble....their own security forces, clean air and water, and no problems from the miserable masses.
Here are some:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/12/superyacht-industry-booms-during-covid-pandemic
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/21/i-cannot-stress-too-much-about-it-monaco-yacht-buyers-shrug-off-climate-concerns
And this is a bonus:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/13/wealthiest-americans-tax-income-propublica-investigation
I just can't bring myself to Like this very sad but true statement!
Reagan famously said: “A rising tide lifts all boats.” James was correctly stating what really happened
JFK. Not Reagan. Consistent with Keynes and Galbreath....trickle up.
Register Democrats to raise all boats.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Well, my yacht is a 35 year old, 17-foot sailboat. And the rising tide does fit it.
Bezos' boat was controversial because Bezos wanted to temporarily tear down a large historic bridge to get the behemoth yacht out of the boatyard. Residents of Rotterdam threatened to pelt the ship with eggs if authorities agreed to the plan. The ship was eventually towed out incomplete. So that's different.
I think it's good to have the knowledge and statements in those articles. Not being a gazillionaire, can't cut down on the carbon footprint of my super yacht. But I can be more aware of my own, realizing that in comparison to someone living in the global south, I am a gazillionaire with a larger carbon footprint than they have. I can vote and I can tell the politicians that represent me or that want my vote in an election, that I know their environmental record of voting and it affects how I vote. That's democracy. My carbon footprint is a drop in the bucket but many drops can have a cumulative effect. Don't let the magnitude of the effects of global warming discourage you. That is what the unrepentant captains of industry want.
#PublicHealthHaiku
Rising tide lifts yachts
Enhanced sailing for the rich
Ebb tide for 99%.
Ha Ha! Refer to Moscow Yacht Club burns...
I love that. I wish I had said it. And you can be sure that I will
Me, too! 😈
I wish I had too. See above. :-)
The tide of Reaganomics anyway. The dinghies get swamped or becalmed.
And that's assuming you even have a dinghy. Reaganomics and its increasingly virulent mutations swamped, stove in, or simply stole the dinghies of a great many of our fellow citizens. See "bootstraps"/boots.
A lot of folks are treading water.
And dingies, spelling? James?
Dinghies. Singular dinghy.
Thank you! Lowell Boat Shop, in my hometown of Amesbury MA, still makes dinghies out of wood!
So many things should be "big news." Instead, we have the spectacle of the msm focusing almost entirely on President Biden's age, no matter what accomplishments come from his administration.
poll handling isnt so subtle either.
Indeed, it is infuriating. Anybody figured out their end-game?? Fascism better for TV ratings?
George H. W. Bush nailed it when he said Reaganomics was "voodoo economics."
Thing is, tax rate reductions and deregulation didn't do so well under Clinton and Obama, tho there was a belated effort to regulate financial institutions following 2008.
Brooksley Born was silenced for telling truth to power, and Elizabeth Warren did her job so well she was sent packing, and yet she persisted.
The Laffer Curve theory has been proved to be wrong. The "voodoo economics," i.e., supply-side economics, doesn't work while demand-side economics does. When the large corps and wealthy were handed a $2.0 trillion tax break in 2017 it did nothing to stimulate the economy; however, if Biden had been successful in eliminating the $1.6 trillion student debt of 40 million Americans, the economy would have boomed, an example of demand-side economics. Why does it work? Because, when people have money they spend it. And what then happens? The economy takes off. Its Common Sense 101. The wealthy, with $2.0 trillion in their pockets, aren't going to produce anything if there is no one to buy the product or service.
I think it's closer to "Vampire Economics". The stats back it up.
Taxation rates for the more financially enabled need to be restored. USA back in the 50s did great economically, long before trickle-down. Trickle is likely the key word.
Raising taxation rates on income will bring in zero tax dollars from the wealthiest, They report -0- income, 97% of nothing is still nothing. We need a wealth tax if they are to pay their fair share
I'm not so sure of that, Fay. Most comes from "the top".... whatever exemptions are available to them. Won't disagree about a wealth tax to cut down on inheritance wealth going to future generations.
Who pays what to the IRS
The typical taxpayer pays about $14,000 each year in federal income taxes, excluding Social Security and other payroll taxes. Thanks to tax credits and other benefits, the bottom half of U.S. households have an effective tax bill of $667 each year.
Top 1% $653,730 Top 5% $187,468 Top 10% $108,251 Top 25% $50,963
Top 50% $27,891 Bottom 50% $667
All Taxpayers $14,279
Average Income Taxes Paid
Chart: Aimee Picchi Source: Tax Foundation, IRS 2021 data
In short the bottom 50$ pay overall about 3% in total income taxes.
Of course, it's a different story when social security, unemployment taxes are considered.
Of course, if you express numbers in terms of absolute dollars it looks different than if you express numbers in terms of per cent of absolute income. And, the ability to "harvest" realized gain and convert it to loss, or to choose investments that keep the tax at 15 per cent on schedule D, are not things available to the less well off.
Do you know what percent of income and wealthy is owned by the top 50 percent vs. the bottom 50 percent? I'd imagine it tracks pretty closely with the amount of income taxes paid.
Law must acknowledge realities to be just. Too many laws are fictions that serve narrow interests at public expense, due in large part to de facto bribery, but also passivity. At least in theory, reality testing is fairly empirical when someone is accused of a major breach of the law, but other than often uncommon "common sense" and a robust, socially oriented fourth and fifth estate, there seems to be few official procedures to evaluate how law is actually working. The GAO for one, but its role seems minor.
Frank, you misspelled "tinkle"
LOL!!!! Almost lost my soup, Ally!!
Indeed, Frank, trickle is the key word.....as in practically nothing and it would turn snow yellow.
We tried trickle down in the Gilded Age, but it was a ripoff then just as now. In between was an episode of increasing sanity; but those who would be kings never really give up.
Like Ned said, FDR experimented and built on what worked, and dropping what didn't work. He also said "You have to make me do it." To me, that meant I'm on your side but we need a lot more public support.
Consider the situations FDR, Obama, and Biden had to face. I remember the "Yes We Can" that helped get Obama elected, and my almost immediate concern that, though we could, it was going to take an awful lot more participation to actually accomplish what we thought we could. Of course Mitch McConnell's immediate response was to start doing everything he could to make Obama a one term President (sort of like I imagine FDR's Southern Democratic legislators wanted to do), and was able to substantially cripple much of the progress even in the first half term, before the shellacking in the mid term.
The ACA was barely passed (and limited). It would not have passed if Nancy Pelosi hadn't defeated the attempt to stop it by getting the House to avoid making any changes, which would have allowed it to go back to the Senate (for sort of capture and kill action), with Scott Brown now in the seat vacated by Ted Kennedy's death.
See https://jacobin.com/2022/01/joe-biden-fdr-roosevelt-comparison-new-deal
"...So, to me, the term “New Deal” refers to a period in which there was not merely terrible trials and tribulations and big government initiatives to address them but also a helluva lot of democratic ferment and radicalism from the bottom up — which, crucially, FDR himself welcomed, if not actually desired, for it empowered him against capital and conservatives.
Luke Savage
Roosevelt wielded big congressional majorities and won landslide victories in the electoral college thanks to an expansive coalition that spanned black voters, organized labor, southern Dixiecrats, urban political machines, and many other groups.
Even so, he faced considerable opposition and was forced into plenty of compromises. Can you describe the resistance that Roosevelt and the New Deal faced during the 1930s? What was the nature and scale of the opposition?
Harvey J. Kaye
The first thing to remember is that, although he had a Democratic majority from the outset, that majority included Southern Democrats — Jim Crow white supremacists — who, as much as they were eager to get New Deal dollars flowing into their states (Southern legislators have always been very happy for federal dollars to pour into their states), did not want those dollars to underwrite programs that would in any way subvert segregation and improve black lives. And they were a powerful cohort..."
Too me, long story short, yes we (the public), can if we participate en masse.
J L....should be big news, but isn't. Local media still harping on inflation and the state's largest newspaper determined to nail every D they can. Plus they have had three articles on looking up the pensions of public workers. Hey....see what they get in Washington County. And last night the local news had a story on an east coast guy dressed like someone in the west who has taken a story about a small dairy farm here in Oregon and made it into a story about how the government is trying to destroy small farms. Already our pork guy, a person likely to buy this kind of bs mentioned it. He gave us some freeze dried tomatoes to try, but he can't sell them at the market. Well, that's not destroying his small farm. He can sell all the meat he raises which also includes beef and chicken as well as eggs.
Which is precisely what Benjamin Franklin meant when he responded to 'what kind of government have you given us' with "A Republic, if you can keep it" A democratically run Representative Republic is at once, the fairest and best system of governing a large group of people and at the same time the most difficult. A functioning Representative Republic requires the constituency to keep relatively close track of what laws are passed and how they will affect we, the common people. Without the majority of voters understanding and watching their government it can fall into what we have today, an oligarchy.
In the 1980's Reagan won both the popular and electoral college vote in each of his two elections. I voted for Carter and Mondale respectively. Reagan as we know pulled the wool over the majority's eyes with his supply side, trickle down theories (which weren't His ideas but he was coached how to present - and he was a better actor the the trumpster albeit a B grade has-been.
We the people, calmly sat by and let it pass. We are as responsible for the mess we're in today as we were then. Too many voters don't bother reviewing the platforms and understanding what they really mean. If we truly want the form of Government we've had for 248 years we'd better educate our upcoming generations and do our best to enlighten the current electorate.
Keep in mind that most rightwing zealots are "absolutists". They don't believe in experimenting. Instead, they're certain that what they call Conservatism is innately correct and it cannot fail - it can only BE failed by inept or weak implementors.
Given that, if a plan of theirs (say, Reagan's Voodoo economics) fails to work, the only proper response is to double down and somehow implement it harder!
That's their plan for every one of their policies.
I've been wading through Project 2025. It is littered with criticism for Biden's and Obama's economic policies and praise for the few tweaks whiny convicted felon Donald Trump made during his four years of do nothing economics.
I have to admit there are a few good ideas, which is typical of right wing ideology, but overall their goal is to make the Federal government a unitary executive entity where the President has the power to enact change without Congress's approval or the court's ability to nullify. Very scary stuff.
The idea of a unitary executive I find so stupid on its face I can’t understand anyone’s support for it. Give one man all the power and you get—what? Better governance? I don’t think so.
I shall try to do the same and will be interested to hear more of your thoughts. I found the small bit I looked at yesterday so wildly distorted in its language and assumptions that I found it hard to continue. False premises lead to false conclusions, however sound the logic.
Check out Democracy Forward's People's Guide to Project 2025:
https://democracyforward.org/the-peoples-guide-to-project-2025
Thanks for the link, Gary. This is good stuff.
They believe in the perfection of their thoughts.
That is known as "tweaking." Or, "spinning" by another name. Gotta love Reaganettes
Yes, we in the US should look to other democracies and see what works. But we are too arrogant to do so. We'd have to change our system, after all!
Sadly, I think, not even just arrogant. I'd say just totally isolated and ignorant for the most part. We may be too big to fail, but who will save us?
Patrice, I just read in Heather's letter today, one of the most arrogant, isolating, and ignorant statements that I've ever heard in the span of my 76 years of life on this earth.
Gov. Abbott "said there was no need to make an exception for rape, because Texas was going to 'eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas.'"
Oh my!! Really ???
When Gov Abbott said that, I thought to myself, WTF, we've go to vote this man out of office. He doesn't live in reality! That is such an ignorant & out of touch statement! SMH
"Out-of-touch" statements are so prevalent with Trump and his Republican minions.Trump has been living in "unreality" all his life, and it's most frightening to see that his supporters are right there in "unreality" with him.
Abbot and cronies are so ignorant and subverted by misinformation, they gooble up nonsense in trade for more power! Stop these monsters! Vote blue.
Amen!
Abbott is the boil on the butt of humanity, an angry little man who loves to punch down. I want him out of office so badly . . .
There are a lot of Republican boils these days.
Punching down starts at the top of their compost heap.
He made that statement when Dobbs was decided. There has been little change (I think, both numbers are 26K numbers) between pre and post Dobbs in rapes resulting in pregnancy; numbers are hard to track because unlike other states, both reported (to law enforcement, and what woman in her fragile state is going to want to talk to a Texas lawman) and unreported are considered for statistical analysis.
The Texas lawman would probably ask the rape victim or incest victim -- How were you dressed? -- meaning it's you're fault your 40 year old uncle rape you when you were dressed like every other woman.
I guess he meant they would be moving from the streets into the bedroom or maybe alleys? /S
Good point!!
Maybe NATO needs to expand its mandate beyond military action?!? And also defend democracy. Well, probably not NATO, but what organization?
This is what Project 2025 is all about -- totally changing our system giving the President absolute power. Of course, no democracy works this way does it?
Oligarchy. Capitalism without regulation or gurdrails, like football without rules ir refs.
No, no, no.....Rules are for you guys, not us. Ya gotta play by the rules. We don't.
I think it was a combination of American propaganda telling us how great this country is (while it declined underneath us for almost half a century) and carefully edited educational system which didn’t compare other countries democracies to our own.
No system is perfect but I believe a parliamentarian form of government has more checks and balances than our presidential system. And we still have the electoral college because…why? National elections should be run by a set of uniform national rules. And we should study the judiciary systems of other countries. Non-partisan court plans, term limits, mandatory retirement ages and expansion of SCOTUS should be considered. But we have a written Constitution which I was brought up to believe was the holy grail and made the U.S. such a beacon on the hill. What it has turned into is a document that can be interpreted by five people in agreement any way they want. We the American people are just a bouncing ball going back and forth between the two sides. And we are 50 individual states with 50 set of rules. We are not much different than the EU at this time - common currency and free movement between states - but even that is in peril with some state governments threatening to track women who cross state lines for abortions.
Agreed. If America didn't think of it first, it has no value.
Politicians who insist on repeatedly calling for and/or implementing types of legislation that have been proven to make things worse may be
A. Sadistic
B. Bullying
C. Fantasy prone
D. In denial
E. Dishonest
F. Ideological
G. All of the above
And Mike Pence's claim that the Dobbs decision had made the U.S. "a more compassionate nation" is a load of B.S. Tell that to the thousands of women who are raped and get pregnant. Tell that to the women forced to carry a nonviable fetus to term.
Or turned away when presenting at the ER with a medical emergency and the docs refuse to treat because it is criminal conduct to do so.
HADLEY DUVAL of Owensboro KY was repeatedly raped by her step father. The story Hadley told was painfully understood by KY Voters. Hadley elected a new & responsive KY Governor.
AKA 'sociopathic".
The American Dystopian Society is at hand. The Perfect Storm comes up in the West to be sweep into a Whirling Wind of Despair as the Megaphones blast the Sheep to Slaughter. Reality designed by Artificial Intelligence as Social Media Clowns dance the new Circus Shuffle and it will keep you Entertained just long enough for the New Bull dressed as Matt Dillon at High Noon and Pow Pow Your Dead as the Audience Claps. And now it’s time for bed Goodnight as a New Dawn breaks.
The kicker is that it is almost impossible to do away with a program that does not work, no matter which party is in power. Programs, successful or not, create their own constituencies, to which Congress must listen.
Programs that don't "work" die a quiet death, and better means are found, at least in the sciences, and in the social sciences. In basic research, whether medical, economic or cultural.
Your comment pertains to programs where "constituents" are wealthy enough to feed the levers of power. ie the commercialization of MediCare by DeLoitte et al, or The Military Industrial Complex where billion dollar planes can't fly.
Government programs may be hard to kill because of career civil servants regulating themselves into job-security. The trick is not lay people off but to re-deploy them and use that as an incentive to kill of ineffective programs.
You are correct, of course. I was thinking exclusively of government programs
I was also talking about government programs, which are based in research in the humanities and sciences, vs those which are created by industry lobbyists, which are Very good at creating "their own constituencies."
I have worked in government supported medical research and the programs that didn't work were no longer funded. The government can be just as efficient as the market place.
For instance, MediCare is the most efficient, cost effective health care delivery in the US, and has been for years. The problems it is having now are due to the intrusion of "Advantage" programs, which simply give corporate health care a foot in the door to grasp for profit while providing Worse service.
I believe in the possibility of positive government programs, which do not "create constituencies" but simply serve constituents. Such as Unemployment, SNAP, or Social Security.
Not sure how you think such programs "create" constituencies, but as someone who has benefited from them (and long paid into them), I disagree. They are much needed fall back and leg up in an otherwise unforgiving society, not a fat pension as your "creation theory" seems to imply.
I learned about the "Advantage" Medicare health plan the hard way.
The one I had last year, to get the best price, I had to choose a doctor in a specific network. The problem was, that the only doctors in their network were over an hour away! And if I was out of town and needed a doctor, it was also difficult to fit into their eligibility parameters. This year, I went with straight Medicare and purchased a supplemental policy I can use anywhere Medicare is accepted. The only advantage these "Advantage" plan have, are for the Advantage companies themselves!
Aye, Patrice, just talk to the Brits who "privatized" waste water clean-up and management under the Thatcher regime and are now literally swimming in their own sh_t!
Advantage programs may give healthcare a foot in the door, but I have one and couldn’t be happier.
Certainly those who have found a way to profit from a defective program will commonly fight to protect and/or extend it if it is rewarding for them, and people for whom the program is actually detrimental will often defend it if they are deeply adapted to it. The scientific method attempts to make a centerpiece of accountability and ongoing reevaluation, but that is not so common in other walks of life. Ascribing sentience to an insufficiently developed cluster of cells is not supported by outcomes of the scientific method, yet many reject such evidence. The rehabilitation rate of those in custody of our criminal justice system in poor, yet reform is fiercely resisted, despite progress demonstrated by the approaches of some other counties. Those who propose return to a mythical past that never was (exemplified by the John Wayne (even his name is fantasy, as he was born Marion Robert Morrison) character that was celluloid only, yet the name has been bestowed on public edifices and an ultra right wing relative of mine revered (the character) as a saint. .
More broadly, I think any organized effort that people invest their trust and/or money in fights to grow and survive. Even something that is pretty much an just an algorithm, like a computer virus, or for that matter, a physical virus has means to grow and survive, so we need to be mindful of what we create.
The social influence and financial power gained by those who control an organization tends to reward efforts to increase that control,; and if unchecked, power tends to corrupt. Name a variety of social organization, government, labor unions, academia, churches, businesses, even marriages, in which there are no examples of corrupt and/or bullying abuses of power?
Our form of democracy is supposed to limit abuses of power by disturbing it widely as shares (universal shares and the vote) and defining agreed upon boundaries of behavior by a social contract, collective consent of the governed, and other checks and balances. Power tends to corrupt as imbalances of power manage to grow.
"Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people." - John Adams
Governor of Texas Paul Abbott's promise to eliminate rape in Texas was utterly preposterous to begin with. Texas and other Republican states all to often have among the worst poverty, violence, crime and educational records in the country.
Greg Abbott is an evil person....I'm a Texan and there are so many of us who abhor him and are fighting to defeat him.
The very best to you in that endeavor!
THANK YOU
Another question we should be asking is how many rapists were arrested, prosecuted, and taken off the streets? Is Governor Abbot living up to his promise of eliminating rapists or are Texans continuing to blame the victims?
He is not living up to his promise, nor is he trying. Every female Texan I know, laughed when he uttered those words. Not with a smile, but at his stupidity to think any of us believed he would. I never believed in evil until Abbot, Patrick, and Paxton took control of Texas
Susan, we reluctantly moved to Austin in 1995 for a job transfer only to discover that the city bent to the left of Texas politics. When the downturn in the semiconductor industry forced us to move back to our home state, New York, we were reluctant to leave our new friends and the home we built with retirement in mind. Fast forward: We are now retired in South Carolina, another state where the capital leans left. We would have gladly retired to Austin but for two impediments - Abbot’s government and spiraling housing costs.
Peggy, I live in Houston...which is solidly blue. It's why our voting results are now being targeted. If 2% of the polling places have complaints about voting snafu's, the Secretary of State has the power to investigate and overturn our election results. Houston population is over 3.5 million and Harris County is way above that. There will be snafu's that need to be sorted out. But the power should never be to nullify results.
, They can only win by cheating.
I first went to Austin in June, 1979 and it was a lovely quaint city of about 300,000. I return about 5 years later and the city had already changed so much. Roads were crowded. I-35 was a parking lot going in to Austin by 6:30 am.
But, the music and the food... OMG so good.
We were there from 1995 to 2003. Austin continues to expand and traffic continues to be mind boggling. Sure miss so much about the town and our friends who are like family.
Just 2%? Wow! That’s terrible and no doubt they have somebody all prepared to cause a “snafu.”
This begs the question If 26,313 rape victims became pregnant how many total rapes took place over the same period of time?
I tried to look that up; the 26K number utilizes both reported to law enforcement, and those not reported to LE but reported to medical staff. In 2023 there were 16,510 reported rapes, with 1,769 arrests. The report also mentioned 1,136 "sex offenses arrests" but I am absolutely certain there are more sex crimes committed than the additional (extrapolated from rape stats) 11,000 plus cases. Another issue is how the various states codify the crime of "rape" and what that conduct actually is. (In Oregon, Rape 1 is either by forcible compulsion or victim under 12 yoa, or under 16 yoa if the persons child, sibling, or spouse's child, or there is lack of consent by intoxication or unconsciousness; Rape 2 is under 14 yoa, and Rape 3 is under 16 yoa.) Texas statutory definitions are different, and I am too lazy to go look them up this morning. not enough magic bean juice on board. Yet.
Confusing if not irrational
Confusing if not irrational.
Rape is about exerting power through physical domination. As an example, take the use of mass rape in armed conflicts to subjugate civilian populations. Forcing women who fall pregnant from rape to give birth is in itself a shameful and damaging exercise of power by government authorities.
It is of existential importance to understand that the authoritarian impulse is toward unilateral control in lieu of mutual constraint, and the egalitarian impulse is toward mutual constraint in lieu of unilateral control. The third option is that there is no third option. And the difference between mutual constraint and unilateral control is the same as the difference between up and down.
The purpose of rape is to control. The purpose of criminalizing healthcare is to control. The purpose of demonizing immigrants, LGBTQ+, Democrats, Mexicans, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and any other identifiable group, is to control. The purpose of believing in conspiracy theories is to control.
The purpose of wisdom is to constrain, and a unilateral constraint is an oxymoron. Specifically, the mutual constraint is treating others with respect. The question is, what to do about the control freaks? I have a suggestion.
Why not add the following lesson to the criteria for graduating from 5th grade. The lesson is that the purpose of a wisdom practice is to serve the social system at the short-term expense of its parts so the parts will benefit from the system's strength in the long term. Include the idea that the world's great religions, democracy, science, capitalism, justice, etc., are all wisdom practices, and that a person or identifiable group who is behaving selfishly in the name of a wisdom practice is a hypocrite.
Then, when Greg Abbott asks why he's making nowhere plans for nobody, someone can tell him he's in "Nowhere Land," a virtual remedial school for grownups who have yet to learn how to be smarter than a 5th grader.
26 313 Texas rape victims in 16 months resulting in pregnancies? Let’s all let that horrific statement sink in. I appreciate Heather providing a link to that study.
I believe it's 26,323 pregnancies resulting from rape. Assuming the fertility window for a woman is 3 days out of thirty, for easy math, that would imply at least a quarter million rapes in Texas in that time.
All done by that damn illegal alien.
Rapists have more rights in Texas than women.
The Jama article link. Way higher than the FBI Crime report/statistics of 40 reported rapes per 100,000 population annually. This makes sense, as many rapes go unreported to police but not to doctors from patients. So why isn’t the American Medical Association and health care institutions speaking out more loudly? The numbers are shockingly appalling.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2815047
Seems unlikely. Heather said the researchers “estimated” that was the number. If 10% of rapes (and other sex) produce pregnancies, that’s about a quarter of a million rapes in Texas in one year. Seems unlikely to me.
This number seems unlikely to you based on what?
Really?! Would not surprise me.
Ken, Texas utilizes both reported and unreported rapes in their analysis.
"Beau" fans have probably already seen this. For those unfamiliar, please watch. Those with social media platforms, please post. Everyone who has not already subscribed to Beau, please do so. It is free, and he has many MAGA viewers who might only see the truth from him. If Beau's numbers increase, he will get more exposure. "Like and subscribe" as all the YouTube personalities remind us!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Db1rGLDI1U
That statistic about the number of rapes makes me wonder how many rapes there were that went unreported when the woman would be able to avoid having to go through the ordeal of pressing charges by getting an abortion thus leaving the rapist able to rape again. And what also is a concern is how many women feel pressured to their pregnancy as a result of rape in order to get an abortion. Many of you may object to hearing that latter possibility but we are living in strange times
Gjay, the Texas stats utilize both reported and unreported rapes. For 202? (I looked it up 20 minutes ago) there were roughly 14000 reported rapes with roughly 1400 convictions.
Where are the campaigns against all these rapes? Where are they happening?
Amen to that, KEM. That is a beastly statistic, and that the ghoulish and hateful Greg Abbott remains governor is maddening.
Approx over 200,000 rapes based on CDC data that 12.5% of rapes end up in pregnancy.
So rape is basically legal in many of the red states and isolated pockets of the blue states?
These numbers from JAMA are wrong, completely wrong. Texas has about 17,000 rapes per year according to all reports I've read. That is the highest in the nation. Of the rapes, about 3.5% result in pregnancies. I am surprised that JAMA was not fact-checked on this. The numbers are grossly wrong.
If they do change divorce laws to stop no-fault divorce, what will they do if some people, especially women, refuse to marry? I truly do expect this to happen in some of states with a red supermajority. Will they then enact laws to force women over a certain age to either marry stay under the guardianship of a male relative? Certainly banning or limiting access to contraception will make women more economically vulnerable. I think things will continue to get worse at the state level, even if we have a blue sweep at the federal level this November, far from a sure thing.
Thank you as always Dr Richardson for shining a light on what’s happening and giving us an historical context I for one didn’t have with respect to the economics of the Wild West.
I imagine it would speed and be a multiplying factor, furthering widely publicized trends in our failing population growth. From talking with various folks, young and old, and study I do, the failing population growth has gone hand in hand with our diminishing economic equity; "Why would I dare bring children into this unfair system, where we would struggle, mostly unsuccessfully to provide for them, much less afford to help them with higher education" ? Young people actually 'do' have those discussions.
Falling population, D4N, goes hand in hand with something more nefarious.
My perspective is Japan, where I've lived some years now -- and have grieved at how dehumanized junior high schools have become, and much worse high schools.
Standardized tests rule, wiping out humanities -- or, rather, turning what dead textbooks refer to as famous novels and such only into randomized fragments, suitable only for more vicious but personally empty standardized testing. All machine gradable, of course. No need for the human anywhere.
And the young are responding by ceasing to date. Ceasing to have boyfriends and girlfriends. Not marrying. Not starting families. Nor even much continuing the larger families into which they were born. Getting much, much into weirder and weirder forms of voyeurism.
Unlike Japan and China, there are lessons to be embraced by all in the USA in the successful assimilation of immigrants who value the opportunities of work, education, and relative safety in welcoming communities, and who serve in our military and congregate in our churches and compete on our athletic fields, Trump deliberately ignores this golden age of immigration is what keeps America vibrant, young and strong. Defunding public schools, mass deportations, and thumbing one’s nose at bipartisan immigration reform and support for a free Ukraine are losing propositions in the land of the truly free.
I'd add being members of our arts as well as athletic fields, which is less important.
no less important! Crucial! Creativity and Out Side The Box Thinking are the crux of the biscuit.
And we MUST support our almost extinct Journalists and Investigative Writers! They are Dying thanks to GOOGLE's monopoly on ADS. This is a BIG CHANGE that has massacred local, city, state and National Journalism.
Investigative Journalism.
Think of all the times they have saved us from our despots!
For most here, I'm guessing you might recall Woodward and Bernstein.
But there are Sooooo many more that we have forgotten, whom we took for granted, and they and their organizations and their entire Infrastructure have been quietly, cynically, destroyed. Destruction of regulation of media monopolies. Murdering the Fairness Doctrine. Encouraging the proliferation of Shock Jocks. Not just Stern. Who at least had some values. Sort of.
But Rush Limbaugh. How much damage done by One disgusting human.
OK, I'm done my rant. Support Your Favorite News Source(s) By Subscribing. Just like you do here. Even some you semi-hate, like NYT, or WaPo, or LA Times. We need them.
ok bye
The Press has always been a precarious Jewel in our checks and balances.
Murdoch is also highly complicit in the decay of the media. He has managed to wreck journalism in his native Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United Ststes.
Please don't be "done" with your rant, Patrice.
So many novels, memoirs, histories, and films have shown the great vitality, as well as our great need, for those who stick their needs out for human decency.
So many works of art show, too, the incredible, unbelievable corruption among our greedy rich, our on-the-take public officials.
Might it soon be time for a "Clarence Award," or make that plural, for
the investigative reporting and parallel arts which nab our most disgustingly, cravenly, predictably corrupt?
...and Patrice, where would you place Julian Assange in the pantheon of investigative reporters? He certainly revealed A LOT about how our government was actually working in Iraq, etc.
sorry, after ranting I just realized I read your comment kind of backwards. Truly, I am so lost. I am so afraid. I am so afraid for my children, and all children, and all life on earth. Forgive my vehemence. It is my desperation, completely out of proportion to what you said, and totally off base.
No worries! I can see how it could be interpreted as athletics over arts, not what I meant!
I hear you loud and clearly. You are not alone.
Sending hugs, Patrice! And here, you have a lot of people cheering you on!
Matt, I'm a little confused by what you wrote. Do you mean both athletics AND arts are less important? Or one is less important than the other? Or something else? (Sorry, it's early.)
Except when immigrants, preferable illegal ones, suit him, as in staffing his golf clubs. Illegal ones are beholden to him and in no position to complain.
So well put
A profoundly pessimistic time of 'anomie' or the distress of one's world unravelling.
Phil, I may have a chance to travel to Nagasaki with my orchestra, St. Paul Civic Symphony. Nagasaki and St. Paul are sister cities, and Nagasaki also has an orchestra which is the sister orchestra to the St. Paul Civic Symphony.
Where are you located in the unlikely event that we could cross paths?
Taketa-shi, Matt, is halfway between Oita-shi on the Pacific, and Kumamoto, just above Nagasaki. (The railroads call Taketa "Bungo-Taketa.")
Let me know dates, and I can arrange modest hotels here for you and any traveling with you. Personal interests of your own, and others traveling with you -- and I can note books providing lovely, thematic apt travel background.
We've also very, very fine restaurants here. None elegant, but deliciously attentive to local sourcing.
Also two rivers, three tall mountains around Taketa, many Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, an incredibly scenic site, with ruins, of an old hilltop former castle, and many hills, woodland, and terraced rice fields throughout.
More at my e-mail, EssDiff@gmail.com .
Thanks so much, Phil. I've copied your email address and will get in touch as I hear more.
Color me green with envy Matt. *Say* Should your orchestra have want or need of a guitar player, I'm offering.. Once upon a time I could really 'shred' as the kids say today.... lol.
I'd love to be able to play guitar! If only that were part of a symphony orchestra, I think modern composer could write it in.
What is your instrument Matt ?
You're observing a manifestation of the STEM education lie. I'd love to see STEM abolished from English usage and replaced with STEAM where 'A' is art.
Teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics without teaching art makes as much sense as teaching people that have no place to go how to drive.
"Art is what we call it when what we do might connect us." - Seth Godin.
Here's a good reference source: https://www.steamco.org.uk/
Where do you live?😳
Not clear to whom you're replying, Leslie.
I know of young people who are seriously reluctant to bring children into what seems like an increasingly threatening world situation. We are not sufficiently caring for the common weal.
For my part, my advice to young people who ask is: Do mot get married, do not have childre
As do I. With my 5 nieces and nephews, only one has had children, two daughters.
The solution to lack of population growth in any country is more immigration. But we can't have that!
Maybe if we get back to our roots as a nation of immigrants, welcoming other cultures and religions, that will solve our troubles.
Unlike some, I always remember most of my family were post famine Irish immigrants. More people should remember that and remember their own families were viewed with disdain when they first came here. Immigration processes operated much more quickly then and weren’t bogged down in paperwork and slow processes. In addition, there were flat out bans of people from Japan, China, and other Asian nations, which changed in 1965 with the Immigration and Nationality Act. Unlike Jeff Sessions, I don’t want to return to ethnically exclusionary policies.
I'm a mixed European mutt as far as I can tell from asking my parents about ancestry. But also on my dad's side, there was a priest and a 16 year old having a child. I will have to bring that back up over cribbage as probably important family history, if shameful.
We could do it without immigration, have organic population growth of our own, if only there were some hope of a bit more economic equity. I have nothing against immigration mind you, but I will say that it's no cure all and wasn't always in the past. The benefits did not serve all; it served employers.
Also people would simply say "F*CK YOU! I am doing it [whatever 'it' is banned via a law scripted on piece of paper-litter] anyway and you, government, can not stop me." That will belie the charade of law-&-order among the M.A.G.A.s since widely ignored laws surely attenuate the rule-of-law even further.
Doesn't the expression "eff you" translate, Ned, more simply just as "MAGA"?
The eff-you would be people fed up with M.A.G.A. authoritarianism; I am thinking about Prohibition as an analogy.
Well of course he deliberately ignores it. He is supremely, dangerously ignorant.
I assume you refer to Trump. If you refer to me, I suspect my comment was not clear. Trump and his followers scream law-&-order yet erode the rule-of-law with these oppressive measures that will only provoke defiance.
Trump.
Young people certainly are having these discussions & I fully support them in exercising being Child-free By Choice. I don't see a slowing population growth as 'failing'. Forced birth is wrong on every level & significantly, any claim of 'pro-life' can't be based on myths, control, & demand economics, it has to be about quality of life. Economic abuse, creating deficit & poverty mentality, is a huge part of abuse of power & dysfunction in every area of our lives. All humans, especially children, need a much healthier environment than the current reality of life being ruthless, competitive sport. I hope with all I am that the discussions lead to that, a thorough dismantling of myths that are not serving us.
NOTE: my assumption that Mr Kennedy was on the ballot of every state was WAY OFF. My apologies. Many thanks to Will from California.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2024/05/28/rfk-jr-says-hell-be-on-the-ballot-in-these-states-with-more-in-the-works-his-campaign-says/
Very frightening scenario. In the end, I believe President Biden will win with a plurality as Mr Kennedy siphons more votes away from Trump than from President Biden. As Dr Bandy Lee, a psychiatrist recognized for her work in dealing with violent people, says, together with a small group of experts gutsy enough to speak out: take away the dictators and the social contagion dissipates as followers snap back into reality. Almost like they are waking up from an alcoholic black-out.
While not being deeply schooled in psychology but very much in women's liberation early feminist thinking for almost 60 years, I am wondering if what we see now in the MAGA population is a form of mass hysteria for the loss of whatever they think they've lost which is largely imaginary as they partake in Trump's own version which apparently fuels their own emptiness as if they were looking for the missing parts that never existed. Which is why possibility frightens them at the core. It's particularly frightening for them to see that other people are embracing their own possibilities. So do they have the equipment to do that? I think not at this point. And they refuse the education that would provide it. Extremely fear-based.
Religion does that to some people.
For centuries Americans with white skin didn’t have to compete with people who have “colored” skin for jobs, housing, medical care etc.
From the 1600s to 1954 Black people were legally and practically subjugated and segregated-left on their own to establish a way of life in America.
Trump tells Black people that immigrants are taking “their jobs” because Black people always had to deal with slavery (unpaid labor) and lower level employment (housekeepers, farm hands, waiters etc.)
Seeing Black faces in high places (president of the nation, defense secretary, minority speaker of the house, budget director etc.) is scary. Why should they have to compete with or be under the authority of “those people”?
I understand why so many people don’t want to confront white supremacy and caste in our society. It’s entrenched and nuanced. Now that the actual “whites only” signs have been taken down it’s invisible to many. White supremacy is what’s holding us back from being a true democracy. That’s what this election is really about for Rs-more than abortion, guns, climate change etc. Joe Biden has invited “those people” to the party-it’s ruining the country. They have to take it back. States rights is the mechanism.
“All that is necessary to be done is to make the government consistent with itself, and render the rights of the States compatible with the sacred rights of human nature.” -Frederick Douglass (1866) (from essay in The Atlantic)
You can’t choose to not get educated, and then expect that you will have the needed skills that an education provides you with as the business environment evolves, which it’s bound to do. Nothing is static, everything is in a constant state of change, to not recognize that is to have stuck your head in the sand, while the world we are part of merrily evolves away from where you decided to get off. It’s lunacy, if you have any question what those people look like spend a few minutes watching the orange turd at one of his rallies, the people standing behind him are classic examples. It’s pathetic really. 🤷♂️
I think you have an excellent point there. Possibly an unpopular one. Yes I have had similar thoughts. You verbalised them well.
Thank you. I have been looking for years at the phenomenon of the whole idea of assumed superiority in all its many many forms. As a healer I cannot afford nor should I to look at people as classifications; everyone is so individual and with my anthropology training, single lesbian motherhood and many kinds of activist I have been able to see patterns and how they evolve or don't or devolve. It's always the human behavioral facts to tell the most. The media is so besotted with image and its own forms of lying that there's no relying on them. I like Substack where our voices are real and our experiences are in use.
"In the end, I believe President Biden will win with a plurality as Mr Kennedy siphons more votes away from Trump than from President Biden."
I am really struggling to see how this is a plausible scenario, considering Kennedy has only qualified for the ballot in a small handful of states, and his ballot access even in some of those states is now being challenged in court. He is literally a non-factor until further notice, no matter how much fun the number crunchers might have with such a. hypothetical.
The only realistic path to a Biden victory is for a majority of voters to vote for him again, just as they did four years ago. I see no reason why this is not still the most likely outcome.
gaza.
You're going to need to reply with more than one word for me to consider your point of sufficient substance.
I'll provide it for Patrice, Will.
The U.S. has excused, rationalized, funded, helped to arm, and otherwise joined the far-right Israeli settlers as they have for years goaded, provoked, stolen land from, and imprisoned, tortured, and murdered Palestinians of the West Bank.
The U.S. has had zero programs otherwise -- say, to help teachers and schools who could help local Jews and Palestinians learning English to see each other as individuals.
Gaza as one word means U.S. commitment only to war, war, hate, hate.
Well, Phil, as eloquently as yo have expanded upon Patrice's comment, I would try to balance that expansion just a bit by reminding you that for all the Israelis have trampled on any apparent respect for Gazan rights and territory, the Israelis have been perpetually confronted by intransigent Arab leaders who remain committed to the destruction of this new nation the United Nations (?) wrought in their land in 1948. It is an area which has no easy solution beyond a refusal to demonize either side but to work to bring about some arrangement to share what we once referred to as "The Holy Land."
People are upset because they cannot understand President Biden's predicament of having to maintain our only allies in the Middle East. Israel. Especially now that Iran is in the equation. You win some and you loose some. Both sides are wrong. It is a tragedy. But if Hamas truly cared about Palestinians, they would have released the hostages and would have negotiated a deal. They do not care. No Arab country cares about them. They never have. They buses them as props. Devastating!
This is a reply to Will from Cal. It should read they use them, not buses, last paragraph. Where is the edit button? 😃
Well, I did not do my home-work, me-thinks.
Thank you, Will.
How does Kennedy fit into the Project 2025 scenario? Is he Plan B? Or, the morning-after pill?
I thought her contagion of trump attitudes interesting. We all see it, but didn't have an explanation for it.,
Yes, I found this letter to be (as they all are) outstandingly clear and balanced. Gunsmoke, eh? Little House on Prairie? Exciting, comforting, fairytales. And then it turns out that guns were banned in Dodge City!
Just like they were Banned from the NRA convention in TX, when Donny spoke for the gun lobby,
right after 376 cowardly, gun toting local, state and federal Police Officers, Sheriffs, and Border Patrol (!) stood by while a local kid massacred 21 teachers and students at their school in Uvalde.
I believe those young adults who experienced gun violence in school, now old enough to vote and run for office, are going to see continued expansion of gun ‘rights’ very differently.
Anne-Louise, the stories in the Little House books were given quite a whitewash by their author (Laura Ingalls) to render them acceptable to the children for whom they were intended. Methinks Pa may not have been such an effective settler/provider and therefore had to keep moving on.
Heather has spoken about this I think in her talks with Joanne Freeman or perhaps on her fb discussions. The whole Little House stuff was mythology.
Beat me to it, Jen. Lots of the Now and Then podcasts mentioned it, and I am sure I've read her LHotP commentary here.
That's already happening. Whether women choose to have children or not. And of course, soon these women will have to stop having sex unless they can get their hands on a condom.
Ironically, the "Right" (can we begin to call them the Wrong?) will decry the "breakdown of the family" as their cruel policies continue to decimate it.
And yes, the whole point of "Sovereign" state power (and just plain Sovereign power, which is still a strong movement, but now quieter), the whole Point is that Power is easier to exert Locally.
We are about to see the activation of "sovereign" militias from all Red states. They have been strutting loudly to the drumbeat of Divine Governor Abbott of The Republic of Texas, defending the border against the infidels who would defile their women, or, or, something....
As David Dayen said a couple months ago, we are sleepwalking toward fascism.
(not sure if that was the word he chose, but it's the truth)
What Are You Doing To Get Out The VOTE?
I call them "richt". It feels more accurate and sometimes ppl ask me if I can't spell.
I hope you tell them, "oh no, it is intentional."
In Australia, de facto relationships are generally well tolerated, with some 18% of couples not formally married.
My Granny and her boyfriend Randy were together for decades; I believe he asked her to be married several times but she said no each time. She had already tried twice and realized she wasn't the type of person to live with someone else all the time. She was a warm person who I miss very much since her passing a few months ago, but she was fiercely independent and could be very difficult in many ways. He had his house, she had her condo, he would come to visit on weekends and bring extra groceries, and that was just fine and dandy for everyone concerned.
My cousin Margie has not gotten married because her first marriage was abusive and... well, she just doesn't cotton to the idea any more. She and her boyfriend love each other very much, treat each other very well, and are doting parents to the sweetest little girl. They are looking forward to buying a house jointly soon.
My cousin Steve just got married to his now-wife a few years ago, also after already having had a child. They are very laid back SoCal types and just hadn't gotten around to it, I guess. It was a fun little shindig. Their son got to be the ringbearer for Mom & Dad, stuff his face with grandmother's Mexican wedding cookies, and run around messing up his nice shirt. Perfect!
My aunt Jane got married very young to her best friend Sean, raised four kids into adulthood together (one of whom is Steve), then realized the romantic "spark" just was not there there for her, if it ever truly was, after she found it with Mark instead. She has now been monogamously together with Mark for 20 years, but she and Sean never legally got divorced. She still ran a business out of the family home, and all the participants got along on the best of terms. Sean passed away last week from cancer and she is absolutely devestated. They loved each other deeply for half a century; the exact way they did just shifted back and forth was all.
There is no reason people cannot just be loved and happy outside of typical strictures and structures if that is what suits them. This seems to terrify some people. Baffling.
P.S. I changed all names herein to protect the innocent.
My grandmother originally from the mountains of East Tennessee, same thing, Will.
She married at 14 (she was born in 1907 -- most girls there were ripe for that then).
But her husband, age 16, felt guilty at his own carousing for years already then, and for more than two months avoided consummating the marriage.
Their marriage ended before I was born. She'd moved to California with their three little girls (including my then-girl-mother), he, after a fourth girl, to various places.
When I knew her as my grandmother, she wore only loud and pastel colors. A bra that formed twin peaks. And opinions even then (Goldwater era) wildly right-wing.
Will, the consistent backdrop to each of your stories is one of the feelings and care about the other which underlie each of the unmarried you describe. Marriage provides a legal basis for partnership which may not be necessary for all. Perhaps we should not get to bent out of shape at withering marriage statistics which are simple to get at, and worry more about the frequency or incidence of the underlying relationships which result in children who are cared for and cared about sufficiently to grow into responsible caring adults...a much more elusive statistic to find and compare.
Exactly so, John.
Will, your family's history mirrors a lot of my Mom's side of the family in California (Venice to Carmel) although I suspect that my Mom is your granny's age. My folks married a bit late in their lives (my Dad was 30, Mom was 26) and they didn't have me until they'd been married nearly 10 years.
And throughout Europe and the UK.
You make good points. Between the potential end of NF divorce and the criminalization of abortion and birth control , why would any forward-thinking woman get married?
For different reasons, that’s what’s happening in Japan with devastating social and economic consequences. Young women are refusing to marry, leaving an aging population with fewer and fewer young people to carry on and care for them. Once reliant on strong family networks, rural areas are dying and loneliness is rising.
The cowboy of Wild West myth was often a loner who moved around taking work where he could find it. He carried his possessions with him. He worked for the men who owned the ranches. Often, individualistic men and their families wound up as the victims of circumstances, such as weather or worse. They could not go it alone and often took the families down with them.
Sioux, is the American Taliban. With their own superior version of Christian law replacing Sharia law.
I keep making that point to the MAGAts that I still interact with (much more accurate these days than calling them friends). Even a side by side comparison is met with a carefully and well thought out "Nuh uh".
I wonder, Ally, if you're from Portland, Willamette Valley Oregon.
Or the far-right, MAGA-rabid eastern part of the state?
I wonder because, as I peruse maps of the current massive heat waves and destructive flooding in the U.S., the worst-hit areas are those with very high MAGA populations.
They keep voting for climate-change denial politicians. And now they suffer the realities they've continued for years and years to deny.
Eugene, south end of the Willamette Valley. Liberal thinking enclave that isn’t as liberal as it would like to be.
In case you haven’t noticed, thanks to the work of feminism in particular and po-mo progressivism in general, marriage is circling the drain already—with predictable negative consequences for society in general and children in particular.
Thank you Professor Richardson.
The frame of the American cowboy, the "I built that" instead of "We built that" is well-detailed in the work of George Lakoff. His book "Don't Think of an Elephant" is an excellent primer on how political operatives (and marketers) use a visual frame to engage and manipulate people.
I remain deeply concerned about so many in the United States who can be told that extreme climate events are caused by the lack of prayer, the best way to stop gun violence is by arming everyone, and the reason for economic insecurity and inequality is due to people pouring through the border taking all of the good executive careers (as opposed to tax policy implemented by Reagan favoring the concentration of wealth).
It will require multiple generations of Americans who prioritize education and critical thinking in order to not only read that the GOP/Reagan/Trump fraud of "Trickle-down Economics" is a complete failure (unless you have already accumulated extreme wealth), however to understand how it works to diminish the quality of life for generations of people in order to concentrate more wealth into the hands of the few. People must understand that Trump's attempt to gain a billion dollars in "campaign" contributions from Big Oil executives is unusual -only because it cause a ripple of news coverage, however massive amounts of money undermining vital societal policy and protections is nothing new.
There must be a "Democracy 2030" comprehensive plan for the United States to fix its badly broken political and judicial system, to emphasize public and higher education, and to work to bend the "moral arc" of the universe toward justice -because at present we've allowed it to become subverted by millions of dollars.
Good comments that I agree with almost entirely. I would add that we also need to bring back--to our education and communities--what I would call a bildung (the closest thing in the US would be Human Ecology) mindset--organizations like scouts, true community sports (instead of elite-only, year round pay-for-play clubs), home economics classes in school, etc. Things that educate whole humans and foster true community (not division/cliques).
Your mention of Human Ecology, Robert, caused me to mention to my husband that Home Ec for me in junior high was about learning to make white sauce and to insert a zipper in a skirt. What if it had been really about the ecology of home, the economy of the household. It could have included lessons on budgeting, growing a garden, planning a family, inspecting a house in order to buy it, why to vote, how the family fits into the larger society, why education is a good thing, and on and on. Imagine!
So my husband, a historian, told me about Ellen Swallow Richards who at the turn of the 20th century argued for an expansive concept of Home Economics. Her idea might have prevailed but it was thwarted by the patriarchy of universities at the time. If she wanted to introduce such a course of study, it should be geared only to girls and should have a narrow focus. That was the culture in academia. She had to settle for white sauce and zippers. At least the idea got a foot in the door. I didn't know her name before this morning, so I thought I'd pass it on the rest of you. Fascinating.
Yes. Later, almost all the programs in the US were dismantled, largely to fund and provide space for computer labs. I have a colleague, now retired, who is a long-time teacher, home ec and longtime proponent of HE, and education administrator, whom I sense still bears the scars of decades of fighting, yet feeling like no one listens and education has been hijacked by PISA standards, money, and labyrinthian authorities and agendas.
Really fantastic idea!
Thank you Robert.
The
Our badly broken political system is partly (mostly?) a product of our winner-take-all system of government that has proven over a couple of centuries to give rise to the two-party system. That is the experiment that has been run, and as a trained theoretical physicist, you can't argue with the experiments carefully done! And certainly the real world runs experiments carefully!
The best approach is to enact a system of proportional representation. It would require great courage on the part of a US state to jump to a European system, and this might be impossible politically given how ingrained the two-party system is. You'd have to get 90% of dems on board and pull in another 30% of repubs and independents, which is extremely unlikely!
An alternative approach, which is not as great but more achievable, is rank choice voting.
Increasing underrepresented areas of Congress and taking away some of the Senate’s overwhelming power were helped. Britain restrained the House of Lords, and permitted them to vote among themselves which members would be elected. Under Mitch McConnell, the Senate became a place where essential and much necessary legislation went to die.
Thank you Matt. I thought as a theoretical physicist you would suggest the political environment would attract more mass until it could no longer support itself and thus, implode.
Yes, ranked choice voting and a national popular vote compact could likely help.
To clarify the theoretical physicist part, only trained and actually employed elsewhere! But I still retain many of the fundamentals at least.
Assuming voter suppression and gerrymandering are outlawed. Without voter education and integrity the system perpetuates itself to benefit the rich and powerful who own politicians and/or become politicians themselves.
The winner take all system you speak of is also our economic iteration of capitalism. It needs dramatic reform.
Matt, I LIKE rank-choice voting! Has any political entity (state, region, county, municipality) in the USA actually deployed it? How did it or is it working out?
Maine
And Alaska. That's how they kept Lisa Murkowski in office.
I think we are very much individual and also social creatures. The more dense and complex the society the more interdependent we become, I think in large part in ways we rarely think about. I think we are wise to examine and integrate our individual needs with our needs as a society. To some degree, the Constitution addresses both. Physically and emotionally healthy individuals reinforce a healthy society, and vice versa.
Thank you JL. Like so many things in nature, a thoughtful balance.
Touche George ~
George-this is such a good summary of where we are-it would be great Americans could see each other as collaborators more than competitors. The love of money above all else is undermining humanity’s potential to exist in harmony. (I love music-especially jazz-think about what it sounds like when musicians create harmony out of their individual talents.)
Your idea of crafting “Democracy 2030” is a good first step. It could motivate generations to work on longstanding divisions and diversions so we could really become the “United” states where freedom and truth prevail in a multicultural society.
You’ve sparked my imagination about what it would be like to live in a democratic nation where honesty, liberty, justice, prosperity and peace reigns!
Thank you Gina! In spite of societal decay across generations I still hold hope and dedicate effort. I think there are far more things we fundamentally agree upon and when you remove Fox “News” and other forces intent upon a continuous divide, we could prevail beginning with new forms of “Kitchen Table” democracy, building understanding, and then codifying new understanding into law, policy, and elected officials who will fundamentally work toward justice, equality, and democracy.
Thank you Gina! In spite of societal decay across generations I still hold hope and dedicate effort. I think there are far more things we fundamentally agree upon and id you remove Fox “News” and other forces intent upon a continuous divide, we could prevail beginning with new forms of “Kitchen Table” democracy, building understanding, and then codifying new understanding into law, policy, and elected officials who will fundamentally work toward justice, equality, and democracy.
Very well stated. Thank you.
George, your comment about adverse responses to extreme climate events, to gun violence, and to perceived immigrant hordes, brought to mind the foolishness in the movie, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”. The human brain seems to have a long history of leaning on unusual and self-defeating myths and fantasies. The reality of growth and change in our ever-evolving physical and cultural world, seems to be incomprehensible to many. They’d rather shoot themselves, and others, in the foot before deigning to join a collective search for equilibrium (somewhat aka for me, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”). Thus, you’re right, education (not propaganda) is the key, as well as more at-home citizenship style games, books and talks in the home, to hedge our bets on our future.
I’ve put "Don't Think of an Elephant" on my to-read list.
Anne, on a phone call yesterday I talked about equilibrium in nature, a saying that “fire cools and water seeks its own level”. And yes, it would be far more challenging for Stanley Kubrick and Peter Sellers to properly parody the absurdity of our times (which would be comical if not for the tragedy and suffering inflicted upon the many by the few).
100% agree, George. To which I would add what has been mentioned above, that (and I love this) a new way of approaching “damn the torpedoes, full STEAM ahead,” to incorporate the Arts into STEM curricula. For me, going forward, it’s going to be STEAM in what I fervently want for the next generations.
Thank you Karen and a resounding yes!
One thing about Trump is that he is so arrogant and ignorant of jay he says the awful stuff out loud and unpolished.
Art Linkletter was right! “People are Funny!” In today’s world, restoring reality will not be an easy task! Hate to be so cynical, but…………….‼️
Thanks Anthony. Reality imposes itself, I would be happy to see a bit of sanity and reason (at least outside of LFAA).
Governor Greg Abbott has no idea what he is talking about regarding rape. He is absolutely ill-informed and ignorant about the issue. According to the World Health Organization, one in three women has been raped (meaning they did not consent to sex) in their lifetime, and most are raped by men they know. Greg Abbott is going to eliminate these? What is his plan? It’s impossible to eliminate completely, but he could start by educating the Texas population on what consent actually means and what a non-consent situation entails.
Abbott might know the facts quite thoroughly, however they're inconvenient to the narrative he's promoting. He doesn't argue in good faith, and he doesn't WANT a plan. Not any externally provided one, at least! Much like the way he's handling the border, he wants his opponents plans not to succeed while he appears to be heroically solving problems like rape or women's issues using "Good Ole Texas Morality & Gumption". If the problems he's working on show signs of improving without him, he throws more fuel on the fire just to convince people that outside interference is sabotaging his efforts.
Yes, exactly how did he propose to rid the streets of rapists? it must be one of the most meaningless promises of all time, given the results.
Abbott is a shameless grandstander, prostrating himself before crime boss Trump in order to become the next Mike Pence, who bitterly learned the lesson all thoughtful Texans know by heart - the courageous response to a lowlife like Trump is "Don’t tread on me".
Shameless grandstander yes, but I believe he's another narcissist, ready to exert the will of the Republic Of Texas (which he believes is His) whether with Trump, or on its own. He will continue to rule his kingdom as long as he is allowed, and he will do everything he can to make sure he will be.
Even if Biden wins, Abbott will be challenging him on states rights, probably by activating TX National Guard and "State Militia" troops, as he already has on the border.
He is a madman.
We, the normal, law abiding, tolerant, democracy loving, critical but grateful Americans,
are Woefully Unprepared for what is about to happen.
Convicted Felon would never select Abbott as his running mate. Consider the optics.
Never a plan, just a sound bite.
I am sitting in my kitchen in Germany contemplating the gun situation. My Chicago neighborhood, happens to be the one where Former President Barack Obama has his Chicago home and is building his library. It is also home to a world class university that draws people from all over the world. A couple of years ago a young student from China was walking a few blocks from campus, when an 18-year old got out of a car and tried to take his laptop. He instinctively resisted and the 18-year old shot him with an AR-15. A friend of a friend is a surgeon who lives on the block where the young man was shot, and he ran out to try to save him. He told my friend that he never so so much blood in his life, and he could not save him. His death was so traumatic to a friend of a friend of my daughter, who lived on that block, that he could not get himself to go to high school for 2 days. ------Another student, who had just finished his PhD, ironically also from China was walking during covid from his building to a gym. My daughter happened to be out taking a walk nearby with a friend. A crazed man who was on a shooting spree shot and killed this student. Fortunately my daughter was not shot, but the man also drove to another community before police shot and killed him. He killed people in 3 communities in one day, and mine was one of them. -------Then, a mother of a student was on a busy street corner in our neighborhood at noon and got out of her car while talking on her phone, a big no-no where I live, and she was accosted by someone with a gun to take her purse. Since it was the middle of the day and she lived in a different affluent community she had her guard down. Never again. So, knowing that shootings could happen at any time of day, I had told my daughter if she was out on the street and heard shootings she should drop immediately and roll under a car. No German parent would ever think to need to give their child such instructions. ------In her junior year my daughter had an exchange year with a partner from Vienna, Austria. The partner came to Chicago first and then my daughter went to Vienna. Prior to this the school arranged for us to have discussions with the family so that we could be on the same page about our expectations. Her exchange partners mother said her child came and went as she pleased, they had no curfew and no restrictions. We said that we controlled where our child went at night because we had to pick her up. I know we sounded like super conservative tight asses! What can I say. -----Then, when her daughter was staying with us, they were going thrifting in a neighborhood that had gangs and was near other gangs. So, I told them fine to go there on public but someone would pick them up. Her exchange asked why that, and I explained that it was a Saturday and I did not want them standing at a bus stop waiting for the unreliable buses since covid began, on a corner that was between 2 gang territories because if gangs were out driving around looking for trouble and spotted someone they might start shooting, and they could get caught in the crossfire. My daughter was skeptical so after dinner, we went online and looked at a map of all the gang territories in the city and they could see exactly what I was talking about. In fact, they could see that our community was surrounded by gang territories. It had caused problems on one of the local bus lines because it went by high schools in two different territories. In any case, her parents ended up being grateful that I had such control after I shared some crime stats with her as well. -------------Every Monday the Chicago Tribune would headline all of the shootings over the weekend, with the total number shot, the total who died, the total under 18, and who was in serious or stable condition and which hospitals they had been brought to. I started gathering this data in summer of 2022 after a massive shooting in a suburb of Chicago on the 4th of July. --------During covid I grew more worried about the gun crime. So, I was so glad for my daughter to go to Vienna for 6 months. When Russia started their war on Ukraine many friends thought I would bring my daughter home because of the safety in Europe. I was laughing thinking that the US death numbers rival those of Europe by far. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/26/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/
That is more deaths than Ukraine registered in 2023. https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2023/09/ukraine-civilian-casualty-update-24-september-2023#:~:text=Total%20civilian%20casualties,9%2C701%20killed%20and%2017%2C748%20injured.
------------While her exchange partner was with us there was a school shooting in Michigan. From that day on, I could not wait for my daughter to be out of the USA. I was so glad she planned to go to University abroad, and not just because it is way, way, way cheaper in terms of tuition, since there is none, but mostly for the safety reasons. Gun crime is not non-existent here, but guns are much, more greatly controlled. For one, you need to have 110 mil Euros of gun liability insurance. Secondly, you have to pass tests, and you must keep all guns locked up. Police are allowed to randomly drop by to check that you have done so. If you are under 25 you need to pass a psychological test before getting a permit, and that is still tied passing training. There is no hue and cry over it infringing on people's rights because it doesn't. It protects the society. -------So, one of the reasons why I am sitting in my kitchen in Germany is because of American gun proliferation and lack of meaningful controls, and the second reason is to have a place to go if DT gets reelected. If he is reelected my reasons will switch order. My child is studying in a major city here in Germany and feels safe going out on her own at night with alertness, but not abject fear. I wish for the USA to get a second Biden term, and take on the Supreme Court which is the biggest thing in the way of us having meaningful gun reform that other countries are able to enact if it is the will of the people.
Thank you for taking the time to write this factual and absurd account of what parents in the US, the "richest and best" country in the world often have to go through because of the Bizarre power of the NRA (not so bizarre if you get that it's just another wing of the Southern Strategy of the Oligarchy.) Honestly, why would you even consider returning here? Extended family? The rise of the right in Germany?
How many of us, right here on this thread, have researched places to live if the Oligarchy (Kleptocracy) wins in 4 months from now?
I sure have.
Right now, if you only speak English, places like Canada and Ireland look attractive. I have friends who moved to Portugal. She is now pregnant and they wanted to have their children in Portugal. He works for a Chicago tech company. She told me that she has contacted the Expat guide for having a baby where she lives, and they have been super supportive, and she also says that they are part of the free health care system there. I know that there are about 9-11 million US expats in the world, who have built networks where they have moved of other Americans to help support them. I am a member of Democrats Abroad Germany, and it helps to get support for voting, but all the groups also have social activities from regular dinners, to book clubs, movie nights, things that help people feel a sense of community outside of their US home.
I haven't, because 1) if the political apocalypse occurs the entire world will be unsafe, not just the US, 2) I do not believe that is a likely occurance considering historical and recent trends, and 3) I am very patriotic and would not want to live anywhere else regardless, thank you kindly!
Although my parents are plausibly eligigible for Irish citizenship as a result of ancestry, and I admit that would be a nice thing to have, as who wouldn't like worldly family? At least in theory.
So have I.
As have we, Patrice.
AMEN Linda!
Thanks for sharing your story and thoughts about gun violence in the U.S. Why do Americans feel the need for so many guns compared to other nations? If we can rid ourselves of the NRA will guns disappear?
There are some underlying issues that make us such a violent country. We need to consider root causes to tackle as you describe so much random violence and a truly perilous way to live.
I grew up with movies that only had white cowboys, no horses ever pooped on the streets, and Native Americans were baddies, except the Lone Ranger’s Tonto. All of the American soldiers in the West were white.
In fact, cowboying was a dreadful profession. The food was crummy, living conditions were minimal, especially during the winter,, round ups were long, uncomfortable, and often dangerous. In fact a majority of cowboys were Blacks or Latinos. SERGEANT RUTLEDGE, the first movie in which a Black soldier was highlighted, came out in 1960.Anyone interested in the history of the Black cowboy should go to the Black Cowboy Museum in Denver. The movie Blazing Saddles was an amusing account of a Black intruded into a Western town.
The life of the American soldier in the West was tough. Living conditions were rough and encounters with Native Americans could be deadly. In fact, there were many Black soldiers (no officers) out West. The Native Americans called them Buffalo soldiers. Though ignored in Western movies of my era, they were on the front lines in hunting down Geronimo and others.
I particularly recall the 9th & 10th Black regiments, who distinguished themselves out West. Though not generally acknowledged, the 9th & 10th Black regiments probably saved Teddy Roosevelt’s ass as he recklessly galloped up San Juan Hill (actually Kettle Hill) during the Spanish American War.
John Wayne was a Hollywood cowboy. The reality was vastly different.
Oh YES! and they sang! smiling! And spurred their horses from standstill to gallop with catchy slogans you could use in the backyard!
Anne True, but please don’t besmirch Roy Rogers and Trigger.
Impossible to besmirch a palomino like that one! But even when I was 9 I thought the ever-smiling Roy was a bit lacking in machismo.
Anne Roy was the anti-macho riposte to John Wayne. As one of my students once phrased it “The Duke makes me puke.” [Obviously an A-potential student.]
There are so many men including my dad who loved John Wayne. He was the epitome of an American man in some people’s eyes.
And do you know that cowboys come from the Camargue (whence cometh also delicious sheep cheese)? We think of them as essentially American, but like many (and not enough—medical system for example) French imports, we take them for granted.
As for western movies, my two favorites are “Blazing Saddles” and “Dances with Wolves.” But another, a B western still haunts: the hero got in trouble with the law. As he goes off to jail for two years, he tells the heroine he will serve his time and be back to her (?Randolph Scott). A simple fable, not possible in this America.
The French medical system? You mean the Sécurité sociale? You're covered from the moment you appear on a payroll. I've never felt so safe from life's mishaps as when I worked in France. (Sigh). When after a couple of years I found myself without an assignment (I worked as a long-term temp) I went and joined the queue for unemployment benefits. Sat down in a little office with a smilingly professional lady: "Madame, I can't assign you unemployment benefits unless you can show me that you have been refused a State pension." (No escaping the dreaded date of birth). "But I don't want to retire!" After repeating this to me several ways until I calmed down and took it in, she said, "Right: shall I put you down for 15th January?" "But what if I get another job?" "No problem, you let us know and we put your file on the back burner, and bring it forward again whenever you need it." And that's exactly what happened: I didn't go on the pension until I left France and relinquished my Carte Vitale (your medical practitioner just puts it through the little machine, no bill. (Sigh again).
Americans need to hear more stories like this to counteract the health "care" industry's decades of disinformation. I lived in another country for several years and had automatic coverage. Great, timely service. Also helped many other young expats access service. (Basically just walked them in lol) Same experience in Australia where we were traveling. My Australian husband still had coverage although he was soon to it the 10 year living abroad limit, and our baby's poor burst ear drum was quickly and beautifully cared for in a combination of small local clinics and one large pediatric office. The antibiotics for the infection that helped cause the problem (along with the flight!) came automatically with liquid pro-biotics formulated for babies. That was 17 years ago.
It was so pleasant and All Free.
We could have such better lives! Imagine how much healthier we'd be just by knowing that if we and our families, or anyone, gets sick, we will be taken care of with no risk of massive debt!! The loss of that constant stress alone would save us tens of millions of dollars in health costs and job losses. sigh.
Must keep putting one foot in front of the other....
You're so right. Your poor baby! Thank goodness you were able to get the help needed.
Wirginia AWWWK, we differ. I found Blazing Saddles less funny at second viewing. Though Dances with Wolves got various Academy awards. I had spent some weeks visiting Native American colleges for a proposed summer teacher training institute. This ranged from the Oglala Lakota down to AZ and NW. For me, Dances seemed too contrived.
Now Stagecoach—old time yippee!
I won’t argue as I too found “Blazing Saddles” less funny the second time, and agree that “Dances with Wolves” was “not natural” though I was cheering the Indians at the end while laughing at myself having seen Joan Bennett in “The Last of the Mohicans” before I was 10. (Interesting story.) You never cease to amaze me with the breadth of your interests and involvement in the world. Hat off! No wonder you haven’t “grown up.” Why would you? Lots to do yet. My obsession with writing to as many prospective voters as possible is narrowing my scope until after November 5, but after that….
Which groups are you writing with, if you don't mind my asking?
I was too terrified by the Indians in “Stagecoach.” Seeing it as a badly beaten child, I had no “distance” from it.
Ah, but did you know that there were/are still cowboys in the Maremma? (On the Tuscan coast). The Maremman cowboy is/was called a buttero. The Maremma is the swampy area left exposed when the sea withdrew, centuries ago, an area similar to the Camargue (where I went specifically to see the famous white horses). The Maremma was malarial until the Americans arrived in 1944 and dealt with that little problem by spraying everything in sight with DDT. No mosquitoes in the Maremma since then.
Anne In my lifetime I recall camel cowboys in Sinai. One minor problem. The Egyptian army was concerned with drug smuggling, when the camels were forced to swallow packets of drugs. The security ‘solution’ was to slaughter the camel looking for the drugs. Certainly depleted the camel caravans. Tough for the camels and cowboys when no drugs were found.
General Mohamed Naguib, then president of Egypt, told me this story about when he ran the drug smuggling searches in Sinai.
My optimism about the election comes from the fact that predicted Red Wave in the last election cycle was, in reality, a drip.
The Silent Majority today oppose Trumpism.
Biden needs to come out in the debate and remind Americans they fired Trump 4 years ago for his many failures.
And, that was before . . .
he led a coup and an attack on the nation’s Capitol
his 3 nominees to the Supreme Court robbed women of their reproductive freedom and choice
voters learned the truth that his tax cuts for the richest Americans, and foreigners doing business in the US, increased our national debt by double what my administration has and in doing so putting the tax burden on the middle class while he personally avoided paying his fair share through tax fraud
his daughter and her husband used their formal government positions in his administration to leveraged the Chinese government to give her a slew of registered patents and his son in law to leverage Saudi Arabia to literally give him billions to start an investment firm for which he’s a novice
and
that juries of his peers found him criminally guilty of 34 felonies and civilly guilty of sexual assault
Yes, yes, and yes.
Trump has been one of the sorest winners and losers of all time. He has the disgraceful distinction of being the only president in our history to spark a riot to prevent the peaceful transition of power. If we are unlucky enough to get him again, he will govern out of revenge and become dictator for life.
Paul, excellent information and what I would like to see added to his speech time. I have been calling the old " silent majority " now the Great Middle watching and rejecting the extremisms on both wings and that is perhaps more oriented to
processing the ideas of both - and whose numbers exceed both the extremes put together.
I’ll tell you what would make America a more compassionate nation, Mr Pence (hypocrite in chief): not forcing women to have unwanted pregnancies originating from violence and rape, not forcing them to live the agony of giving birth to a child that will not survive, not make parents live the daily mental torture of hoping their child will not end up dead in a school shooting.
It’s an abomination that people like this can talk about what is “morally wrong”.
Well said.
Thank you for another insightful reflection underpinned by data, history and context. They should be required reading for all voters.
Well Heather, while I share your optimism that a "reality" groundswell is gaining momentum, I fear it will mean close to nothing if people don't translate it into votes come November (lest we forget that, even in 2020, 32% of our cogent electorate chose not to vote). I'm not as pessimistic as The Economist or Umair Haque, but I'm increasingly relying on the voices of Allan Lichtman (and you) for my optimism. We have every reason to assume that a second Trump presidency would largely be carried out by competent fascists, not The Idiot himself; and be something we'll reckon with for at least a full generation--and that's the BEST case scenario. The problem, as I have seen it for at least the last seven years, is pretty much what you outlined: the Right KNOW they are actually outnumbered, that demographics will likely only worsen for them over time, and are therefor FAR more desperate and canny about seizing power NOW (and Dems, sadly, still don't get voting support in the right ways), and spiking the tracks so we can never fix them again. We should not assume for one second that what you've detailed here will simply carry the day.
Yes; And quite obviously that desperation has the effect (affect ?) of rocket fuel for them. Hard statistics posted by Joyce Vance today make me less optimistic, I'm sad to say; Too few are even aware of project 2025 that it frightens me. In rounded off numbers 70 something percent have no clue about it, much less read through for understanding, that mammoth tome of frightful bs.
How to affect an equal opposite reaction to the jet fueled villainous machinations is a very real problem that is "in our face."
Ms. Vance provided an additional service in that post, providing links both to the Table of Contents of Project 2025 and to the 2025 website itself. The Table of Contents are links to individual sections of the 900-page text. It's scary stuff, its deformed language a suitable successor to "Mein Kampf." And when you're talking about real fascists, Godwin's Law does not apply.
Mark Godwin himself has made that precise point, that Godwin’s Law doesn’t apply to real fascism, and he sees Trump and his hangers on as real fascists. Certainly they believe in dictatorship to maintain their power.
Yes she did James; thanks for adding a bit more. She also commits that we will read it together, with her assistance (thank goodness). Amazing, is she not ?
Indeed she is!
From what I know about " Project 2025", if I am upset, concerned, worried and depressed now, if I delve into it, I will become suicidal!
I never read "Mein Kampf" I don't plan to read "Project 2025".
Well, that’s all fine and dandy, but the Republicans still care preciously little for reality, and cling to macho dreams about studly men with guns and subservient women instead. Wanna bet that this is the chain they are setting up?
- first, make abortion illegal
- then make IVF illegal
- outlaw contraception
- prohibit women from divorcing
- make rape legal again, at least for marriage.
According to their views, women should shut up and be breeding machines, and not people.
You forgot to mention allowing child labor back into factories. If everyone is already working by their 16th birthday (just like the good Ole days), then it only makes sense to wed for a second income. Before you know it you'll pop out a kid or two, bring them along with you, and now the whole family is helping mop the slaughterhouse floor TOGETHER! Quaint as can be!
So how do we get the good news out to people who don’t have time, or just don’t care. I seem to be one of just a handful on my SM feed posting information but it largely gets ignored. The folks in my circle are onboard…but the others…???
ICYMI, Beau of the 5th did a breakdown of trump and Biden numbers too. It’s a good video. I shared that one too.
I've resumed jousting with the MAGAts on my feed. They are so earnest in their beliefs that they view my counters as "liberal lies". Sigh.
Jess Piper is a very brave progressive living deep in Trump Country. She writes a substack, and recently posted this piece. https://jesspiper.substack.com/p/yes-its-a-cult-ask-me-how-i-know . It includes this bit of wisdom, which I fully agree with:
"Cult members do not bend to reason. If someone has voted for Trump twice and plans to do so three times, there is no way to reach them. I should know.
Register new voters instead of wasting your breath. Organize your neighbors rather than beating a dead horse. Leave the cult behind and link arms with the willing. If we are going to stop another Trump presidency, we have to work with those who have left the cult or never joined in the first place…"
“Like.” (Since my like button stopped working a few weeks ago)!
I’ve given that up. It just seems impossible to have a reasonable discussion. Facts be damned.
They are. My last joust was over the 10 commandments. These Christians cannot seem to understand that “praying for me to accept Jesus as my lord and savior” is not cramming their religion down my throat.
LOL, well...."bless their hearts." We can pray/hope that they learn critical thinking skills.
Ain’t holding my breath…
Yesterday the Biden-Harris campaign released a tape in which Jeff Durbin, a Trump ally who is pastor of the Apologia Church in Tempe, Arizona, and the founder and head of End Abortion Now, says that abortion is murder and those who practice it deserve execution:
It seems weird to me that politicized pastors seem to me to be among the loudest advocates for putting people to death.
It is simple, really. The condemn-er believes the condemned is destined for hell and wishes to speed the process up. On the flip side, if a woman dies from an avoidable pregnancy complication, she has proved her holiness by following the scriptures and has just had her journey to heaven expedited. By saving her life with unholy medicine, we have not only denied her this quick reunion with Jesus, but tempted her to hell instead.
I knew kids in middle school who would talk about the sin that infants supposedly possessed with the matter-of-factness of telling you what was in their lunchbox. This is a real mentality for tens of millions of people between our shores. Let me tell you, when one becomes certain all of life is but a test, the twisted things one may do in order to pass are boundless.
It does seem incongruous for another "man of the cloth" to express such unChristian failings. Maybe they have trouble with the teachings of their Master.
During the civil rights movement many pastors marched with Dr. King-too many also died because they were willing to stand-up for righteousness. most organized religion and religious leaders today serve politicians-not God and the people.
I think of politics as the process by which someone's will prevails. That can be collaborative or coercive, friends deciding where to meet for lunch or a mugger in the shadows holding a gun and demanding money. Government can be anywhere on that spectrum, although, in practice it may need to be judiciously coercive to function; arresting muggers and demanding payment of tax. Ideally, even those found to be lawbreakers retain certain rights, and all involved make good faith efforts to honor a reasonable standard of justice. We get into trouble when some narcissistically decide that they have the right to make all the rules and others are inherently obliged to follow them. That's the sort of philosophy our current so-called "Republican" Party now embraces. Science offers no support for such claims of supremacy, but the illusion is seductive for many.
The best part of Heather's letters is that she takes the slick marketing out of history as it has been taught to us by some. As we see from today's installment the America Cowboy was and still is a poster boy for American conservatism.
"When the Texas ban went into effect, Governor Greg Abbott said there was no need to make an exception for rape, because Texas was going to 'eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas.'” When Abbott's statement was first reported, I thought what he really meant was he was going to eliminate rape as a crime; so, therefore, there would be no rapists.
Now, that makes sense!!! If it's no longer a crime, it's no longer a problem! How about that? Just think how low the gun mortality rate would be if murder was no longer a crime!? The possibilities are endless!!!
You two are on a roll!
Exactly, return!
Morning, Lynell!
I had that thought as well.
Yep. What you said, Heather. All of it.
👌