And now, after 40+ years of Reagan's trickle down economics and the ensuing race to the bottom, the United States needs it's own Marshall Plan. Perhaps it can be called "Build Back Better"!
And now, after 40+ years of Reagan's trickle down economics and the ensuing race to the bottom, the United States needs it's own Marshall Plan. Perhaps it can be called "Build Back Better"!
Most readers seem to be focusing exclusively on America; but it is worldwide that things are falling apart.
Sometimes, thank goodness, it is extremism that is imploding. Look at India's election results -- those are the big news of the moment.
Nevertheless, take nothing for granted. Mussolini's hold on power was severely shaken by the scandal that ensued in 1924 when Fascist hitmen murdered star opposition leader Giacomo Matteotti... just on the point of denouncing major corruption in the form of a sell-out of a deal with Sinclair Oil of Teapot Dome fame... Mussolini emerged from the ordeal strengthened, put an end to democratic forms and ruled as dictator. In the longer term, the disaster for Italy was immeasurable.
Modi is as dangerous as they come. Watch.
Watch the maneuvers of Netanyahu and his Nazi-style sidekicks.
Watch Europe, too, this weekend, where the Duce's sugar-coated successors may be on the point of making a killing at elections to the European Parliament.
Watch South Africa, unstable after the collapse of the ANC. Watch Mexico...
Don't for one moment take your eyes off the crucial threat to the planet, America's homegrown would-be Fuehrer. Yet, stay wide awake to the global crisis brought on by degenerate gone-to-seed capitalism.
According to Prof. Katheleen Belew in her book, Bring the War Home: White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, a global plan was made by White Supremacists who gathered in the USA in the Northwest from around the world. In the late 1980s/early 1990s they planned to stop fighting against the government and instead take it over, by joining it. By running for office. By toning down their overtly racist rhetoric and instead pretend that they were just against immigration. You can imagine that White South Africans were part of this. It seems to me as I see the right wing taking over our Congress, many state governments, Sweden, Italy as well as some former Soviet Union countries, like Russia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia and as such Immigrants became the new "Jews" on which every problem that exists in a country is blamed. I appreciate the tools that reading Prof. Belew's book has given me to recognize the coded meaning of the term "immigrants." This has been very intentional. Yes. I am voting in the elections of two countries. One for democracy in the USA, and the other for democracy in the EU. It is a different sort of election, and now there is a lot of action in terms of demonstration and marches against the right-wing parties. In Germany, specifically against the AfD, which I call The New German Nazi Party, while I call the Republican party The New American Nazi Party. In fact, I can ascribe names from Hitler's henchmen to some of the figures. Texas Governor Abbott is the new Himmler, who oversaw the death camps, and Speaker Johnson is the new Goebbels, who was the propaganda minister for Hitler and spun his lies to the German people into webs of gold.
As for Republicans who just enjoy the drama of the MAGA extremists, I can't help but wonder if these are not Jerry Springer and like shows acolytes, who got used to all of this drama on television, and now seek it out as a way of feeling like their lives are no so empty. It is very disturbed and disturbing.
Yes. Marshall was a great visionary. Without him, the world would be much diminished. A Marshall plan for Latin America and Africa would be at least as impactful. Instead, Republicans are promoting Project 2025.
Thank you for spelling it out far more clearly than I did. The psychology of your closing paragraph is very much to the point. Only, the problem affects far more than Republicans, it is that of society today.
While there's some resonance in your comparison of Abbott with Himmler, you flatter Speaker Johnson...
True about Speaker Johnson. He is one of many that I call the Goebbels Brigade. Johnson and his Seven Mountain Magic is just not that clever. However, as a group of apologists for Trump, they do perform the task that Goebbels had as the spin doctor. We can add all of the people on the Fox Network that perform this same function to the Goebbels Brigade as well. The press in Germany under Hitler did not get to decide what to publish so these useful idiots may find themselves out of a job, or promoted. I bet they are counting on the later. However, there is no loyalty from a fascist dictator. His loyalty is only to himself.
That Seven Mountains business should not be underestimated. Two of the seven "mountains" that the New Apostolic Reformation people have set out to control are the judiciary and education. They already control much of the judiciary because of the dozens of federal judges Trump appointed while in office but most particularly, his three Supreme Court nominations giving Republicans 6 of 9 Supreme Court justices - a majority that can give a re-elected Trump any decision he wants. The second "mountain" is education. There are already 28 states funding fundamentalist Christian religious schools with taxpayer money. Check out the Hartmann Report, Substack. June 5. Very scary.
NL...there was a new story here in Oregon just yesterday about school vouchers. They are trying to get it on the ballot. The spokeswoman made it sound innocuous, but I wasn't fooled by her drivel. I do not want my tax dollars funding private schools or charter schools for that matter. I was in education for many years and am so glad to be retired. I confess to shouting at the TV while the story was airing.
The thing that gets me is how Speaker Mike gets away with referring to himself as a Christian. A person who says, in effect, "Praise the Lord, and thank you for your advice, but no thanks -- we'll take it from here ..." is not a Christian.
Speaker Pelosi is a real Christian. When asked if she hated Donald Trump, she said she has a heart full of love, that she prays for him, and that she doesn't hate anyone.
Or maybe it's me. Maybe I have this backwards and upside down. I thought being a Christian meant looking at my enemy and seeing a neighbor. Maybe Speaker Mike has it right. Maybe being a Christian means looking at my neighbor and seeing an enemy.
But I have a plan to settle this once and for all. I'm going to go to the Bible and see what it says.
Hear, hear. We must not forget that even the Marshall Plan did not know the future. Perhaps, the US did not do its due diligence and read signs that were not available to the world in 1947. So much technology happened that I truly believe the world could not keep up with the pace and influence it would have on the plan. Communication avenues - good and bad - was never considered the weapon it is today. Hence Fox News. Weapons proliferation may not have even been considered. I may not know all the ins and outs of the effects of the Marshal Plan, but, I truly believe while the plan was immediately needed and its goals were humanitarian maybe it did not grow and change with time.
It resulted in NATO. Following Marshall, George F. Kennan, President Truman, and Dean Acheson worked to focus on western Europe to maintain democratic ideals.
I think we need a two state solution in the Middle East and then a Marshal Plan for Palestine. Hopefully a victory for Ukraine and a Marshal Plan there as well.
The Ukraine "Marshall Plan" must be paid for with Russian assets seized from around the globe. I support our support, but Russia must pay for the damages it has caused. The NYT yesterday reported that they analyzed every building damaged or destroyed in Ukraine over the past 2 years -- they counted 210,000 of them, across the country, with cities and neighborhoods looking like Dresden at the end of WW2.
The countries that benefited from The Marshall Plan had a) defined borders, and b) had been non-violent (on the whole) before WWII.
Neither can be said of the Palestinians. There is little to rebuildтАФrebuild Gaza to hand to Hamas or the Islamic Jihad? Or to the Palestinian Authority that has had 30+ years to establish effective governance with billions of international dollars and hasnтАЩt?тАФthe Palestinians in the West Bank have been caught smuggling in weapons from Iran through Jordan.
MadRussian, Mexico indeed is very interesting. A woman and a Jew as president. I read another story yesterday that a female mayor of some city was shot to death.
Just watched an interview of Jon Stewart and Ken Buck and was so disturbed and disappointed to hear him say Ken Buck, in essence...the trial against Trump was a witch hunt. His defense was that Bragg ran on prosecuting Trump. That made it partisan.
I can be pretty dense sometimes, but haven't other politicians run on prosecuting mafiosi bosses. Weren't they also named? And if a jury if his peers, people Trump and his lawyers selected, find him guilty, doesn't that destroy the witch hunt claims?
"The trial against Trump was a witch hunt... Bragg ran on prosecuting Trump. That made it partisan."
PROBLEM -- THE CONVICTION IS OVERDUE
Bragg has done his duty.
Only, what he has done should have been done decades ago: nailing a notorious crook, a not-so-petty criminal who got away with whatever he fancied doing by dint of wealth and a network of influence... until he exposed himself by overdoing things, grabbing America by the genitals.
He hasn't let go and won't, so long as his hands are free.
Bragg ran on prosecuting White Collar crime. Trump was not mentioned by name. This is another piece of disinformation. Trump was found guilty on all counts by a jury that the defense helped select and witnesses defense cross examined.
Bragg is not likely to say a thing until sentencing and appeals are exhausted. He put Cy VanceтАЩs charges aside and selected his own statues and wrote up his own charges This is a matter of public record and all within the publicтАЩs view.
Many, myself included, were worried that Bragg was abandoning VanceтАЩs groundwork. No, he was building a stronger case and won.
Politically, prosecuting Trump seemed like a long shot. Sentencing and appeals lie ahead. ItтАЩs too soon to say Trump wonтАЩt go get off the hook. ItтАЩs not over until itтАЩs over. ЁЯдЮ
As I have gleaned out of my reading in the last 4 years, the gatherings of these wealthy trust fund billionaires at places like, Davos, Jackson Hole, Aspen and Palm Springs lead by the Koch coalition, have allowed these people to coordinate their plans on a global basis. Most importantly their plans require "Stealth" as James Buchanan and Milton Friedman both knew about their "free" market ideas and libertarian plans. They understood how popular the New Deal programs were and how those ideas could not be attacked directly. That is why these meeting have closed door sessions with minutes of the meetings destroyed or taken in secret.
I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist, but this effort started with ClintonтАЩs election over Bush the Elder. The basic plan was toFund and develop their own think tanks to study and publish on their ideology, fund chairs at colleges and universities to get a voice in hiring professors and administrators, give grants and full scholarships to тАЬworthyтАЭ students referred to them by тАЬfriends ofтАЭ and well-placed administrators. And, of course, The Federalist Society in 1982.
They already had Skull & Bones, the Bohemian Grove, and someoneтАЩs ranch gatherings (Harlan Crowe?). FOX тАЬNewsтАЭ came later
Have you also taken these prescient thoughts further to the end? I'm sure you have. My guess is that you see the end of this travesty similar to how I see it. The destruction of the US system of justice by these individuals. I assign the names of Nazi hierarchy a bit differently. I see Stephen Miller as Himmler, Tucker Carlson as Goebbels, Abbot feels a bit more like Reinhardt Heidrich, a "governor" of a particular area of the Reich.
Steve Bannon seems a lot like Ernst Roehm, don't you think? Thuggish, nasty etc.
No matter how the names are assigned the thought of these individuals in places of power is terrifying if people would look at what happened to Nazi Germany I think that at least a few might think better of supporting the idea of autocracy.
Steve Bannon had an organization to help teach individuals how to subvert an established government. He bought a place in Italy or France for his school. That nationтАЩs government refused to allow BannonтАЩs school to open. Bannon has tentacles around the world.
Interestingly, all Bannon wants to do is tear down/blow up, heтАЩs not on the front line developing something new.
He is an anarchist. I have to wonder how many anarchists think they themselves can survive if the rule of law becomes defunct. How does anyone survive renegade gangs roaming the country, especially in this country with more guns than people. I guess we can ask Mexico with their cartels & their 37 political assassinations how they survive!
"Not on the front line developing something new..."
No, something old, Julius Evola etc. reheated, then blended with Ultramontane stuff from the days when the Vatican was in bed with the Mussolini regime.
Linda and Peter, I in full agreement. But we must not and I repeat, we must not give them the ammunition that the far right uses to gain strength. And one obvious issue is porous borders. This is nothing new. The Moors were driven from Spain. And you can go back as far as you want. When there are major human movements, a backlash is sure to come. I illustrate Germany under Chancellor Merkle when she was asked why she had an open door policy toward the migratory movements and she responded that it was the guilt Germany felt toward WWII. Little could she surmise that she was seeding the next nationalistic movement and now itтАЩs I believe the 2nd most popular political movement in Germany today. Was it worth it? A categoric NO. This is called not learning anything history has taught.
Here in the States, the southern border. The bleeding hearts respond that we need to take in these people. For what price? The loss of democracy? Is that what you want? I donтАЩt. We have laws of immigration. No one is denying people entry but uncontrolled entry, yes. It makes me real mad that many of us just donтАЩt get it. And we are willing to lose it all over this one issue (well maybe more issues) but this one is taking the proverbial cake.
Allow me to add on the the British conservatives under Boris Johnson parted from the European Union over this issue. It will break up everything positive that has developed post WWII most assuredly.
Bill, I know you feel that Biden should have been tougher on this subject long ago. But Biden was ready to sign a bipartisan bill that was very tough and co-written by Republicans. It was Trump who killed the bill. It is a REPUBLICAN failure. Spread the word!
But let's live in the present moment. What do you think of Biden now that he has effectively closed the border? Ready to spread the word?
There is so much ammunition for Democrats about immigration. If Republican businessmen really cared about it, why do they employ undocumented workers on our farms? Undocumented children in slaughter houses? It's the greed of the Oligarchs that allows this to happen. Tell a friend!
It is Republicans who own the immigration problem. Yell it from the roof tops!
Well said, Bill. We need immigrants and their labor. Processing them and incorporating them into the workforce takes $$$, which the GOP, and now the MAGAts refuse to provide in their never ending quest to support their ideology. Happened to be reading an old ProPublica article yesterday on the GOPтАЩs refusal to fund the replenishment of the pandemic stockpile, helping lead to the disaster that was TrumpтАЩs handling of Covid. LetтАЩs put the blame squarely where it belongs.
In most cases тАЬimmigrantsтАЭ means brown people. ThatтАЩs the real problem. Capitalists give lip service to immigration but they like it because they get a captured workforce.
Immigration is used as a tool to divide and conquer just like racism. Remember-theyтАЩre тАЬpoisoning our bloodтАЭ, theyтАЩre тАЬrapistsтАЭ and are killing people.
Obviously we canтАЩt accept everyone who wants entry-we need common sense laws-but the Rs are hypocritical-theyтАЩre just using the issue to stoke fear and win votes.
If we could minimize war, famine, climate change, greed etc then maybe people wouldnтАЩt be leaving their home countries to seek better environments.
So true. When in actually the only non-immigrants are Brown people if we look at the original people here. However, I consider everyone born in the USA to be a Native of the US. My mom came to the USA in the 1950s and she said she was just asked a few questions on which she could have easily lied. No difficulty getting in then from Germany even though they had just been the enemy country around 10 years earlier.
Bill, yes, the immigration problem could have been solved years ago if not for some people using very cheap exploitable immigrant labor which they still are doing. It is a travesty and the idea that immigrants vote, when they do everything they can to not call attention to themselves. They also do all the hard physical labor that white people do not want to do. When it was time to spread the cement on the sidewalk project in front of our house, it was Hispanics who did that. They also do most of the landscaping and roofing around here and that doesn't count those out in the fields and on dairy farms.
Bill, I am not advocating that Germany or the USA not have controls on who enters the borders. As the daughter of a German immigrant, and the wife of a German immigrant, and now living in a community of Germans and American as well as other immigrants in Germany where I am both a citizen and an immigrant, I can understand that there are times where we need a lot of new people, and times where we do not. The Right-wing Germans are responding to what I assume is a lot of Russian disinformation. I can hardly find people to do work on our house in Germany because they are so, so, so booked. No one can come before a month or two. Things that should take 6 months drag out 2 years. In a nation where the median age is 44.9 years, and would be higher if not for the recent surge of immigrants, they need new and younger people. In 2010 before the surge of immigrants the population was dropping. It has had some increase, but not enough to help the economy. The Russians seed this nationalism as much as anyone else, because the people here are naive about the ways of Bot manipulation. Most Leftist people that I know here have no knowledge of this either. The Southern states economies would crash without all the work done my immigrants. In 2022 immigrants made up 17.2% of the population in Texas. So, almost 1/5 of the population there. In the USA in general immigrants make up 14% of the population.
Do we really want to blame Angela Merkel for German's who easily embrace racism? Or Biden? Britain's right wingers made a racist move, had Brexit and it is just downhill from there. I consider the flow of different people into Europe as a positive thing. And, it is true the northern half of the planet has been exploiting the environment which is affecting us all, but particularly the southern half of the planet. I am not making a case for the violent extremists, but many people are contributing. My husband happens to be an expert in his field. He works on a research team that is made up of people from many countries. The USA has benefitted from his work, as much as the people working in the fields to produce our food do too.
Thank you, Linda. With a growing percentage of the U.S. population over age 65, we need young immigrants to fill jobs and contribute to Social Security. There is no question in my mind that all the rhetoric about "closing the border" - and it's always the southern border! - is about racism... the "othering" of people from Central and South America. Do you hear anyone complaining about immigrants from Britain, Norway, or Australia?? Of course not.
Regarding your point about your husband's research team being "made up of people from many countries": Maybe I'm a "bleeding heart" in Bill Katz's mind, but I believe strongly that diversity is a positive for businesses and organizations. People of different genders, races, nationalities, and so on can offer different perspectives that contribute to workplace teams.
America wouldnтАЩt be a тАЬsuperpowerтАЭ without immigration. ItтАЩs trite but diversity is strength. All of nature is diverse-why shouldnтАЩt we have diversity of experience, ideas and opportunities?
Ellen, Ellen, stop it already. Did I lose you on тАЬbleeding heart?тАЭ
I choose a different tac. Sometimes you pull back when issues are going against the tide for the sake of winning and no, not winning at any price. And our current political mess in the US must be won there is no recovery from this loss. Do you get it now?
Linda, I also am the daughter of a German immigrant, married to an Italian immigrant. My husband, too, is a researcher, heading a university lab with scientists and engineers from many different countries, working on topics with great relevance to todayтАЩs world (vehicle electrification, alternative fuels, battery storage). The labor situation you describe in Germany holds true here in the US as well. If you try to hire a contractor for any kind of work, youтАЩre lucky if you get a call back from one out of ten requests, and the backlog is long.
Not just contractors, but doctors and other medical positions seem understaffed. We lost a lot of them in Covid, one way or the other. Friends and relatives of the million lost to Covid should think seriously about how Don conned us. He was saved by medical science and then basically spit on it.
As you note, "The labor situation you describe in Germany holds true here in the US as well." Japan has an even lower birth rate, and very much needs labor from the younger people of the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia, and other nearby countries.
A strong, deep racism mitigates against the decent programs the government here has initiated, said government trying to look to the tax base as well as to the needs of so many industries desperate for labor.
German-American (immigrant) here. Have to call out on one thing, Linda: Germans embrace racism no more easily than any -ANY- other group of humans on the planet. ("Voelkerwanderung" (we go where we can best survive) is as old as humanity itself. I embrace it.)
I don't believe in "races," but the human race with physical variation. So much of that is just outdated thinking and scientifically ignorant. Where my daughter is studying in Germany they are seeking to have more current models to talk about race and gender. Still, on the streets, most of the people I encounter do not think of this. As a dual American-German, who was raised in the US, spent time back and forth, and now mainly live in Germany, I see the racism in both countries. Both are countries of White Supremacy. My knowledge of recent German history is why I warn about the parallels in the US right now. You might notice that I have made several of these comparisons in this chain. Can't say that everyone is as racist. I think Native American groups are viewing people in a different way, than the Western model of divide and conquer. Of course, I have met Native Americans that I thought were racist. Still, I just don't know about people everywhere. It seems an over generalization. I have been wondering which people are most susceptible to the influence of fake information, such as Russian bots used to influence the elections in the US and EU right now.
Linda, itтАЩs rough out there isnтАЩt it. IтАЩm just presenting you a cause and effect and a historical context. I never said I was against immigration. But control it. You ask me if I want to blame Angela and Boris and Joe and anyone else and the answer is, yes. I do.
We are living in incredibly complex world now with disinformation and so on. ItтАЩs hard enough for thinking people to make smart decisions. Forget about the dumb ones. And do not forget, those at the top, the invisible puppeteers are sowing disinformation for the purposes of power and money. All logic is tossed out the window.
Both sets of my grandparents were immigrants; southern Italian and Eastern European. Once backpacking through Sicily , I met old timers that told me how towns emptied and moved to America. Yep, among those were Santa and Paulo, my grandparents. Even at that time,I thought, cheeses, we let that many people in? So I donтАЩt discriminate.
The worse thing that Boris Johnson did was enact Brexit. The second worst thing that the European Union did was not set limits on migration. ItтАЩs my opinion. You can have your opinion. I want to save good developments like the European Union but it will most assuredly break apart if they donтАЩt set limits.
Every one needs to set limits, but who and how. I would say, if the elevator is full, you don't want to put more into it because the cables might break and you will all fall and die with it. On the other hand, the US needs more immigrants. A year ago I read that we had a 10 mil job shortage and only 5 mil seeking work. We have money for a lot of frivolous things, I think everyone can think of these, and should be making more for people to help them live. I feel that your discussion is one of blaming the victim. If doing what is right is victimized by evil greedy people, then should we always cater to them? What world do we create if we do that?
Oh stop it George. You want to put words in my mouth now. Heal, I say. But frankly, IтАЩm surprised I have gotten pushback when all I advocated is respecting laws. In the case of Europe, it needs to set limits on immigration. Without such limits, it implodes. Is that what you want. Be careful what you ask for.
I think there must be coordination with Mexico and other countries these refugees are leaving and the United States. Does anyone know about our legal immigration "list"? How long a wait before those on the "list" can get a hearing? Are the applicants for "asylum" who cross the border illegally getting on another "list" ahead of those who apply legally? Is their incentive to come across the border illegally that they will be put on a waiting list for asylum and then allowed to disperse in the US to wait for years and possibly to be lost in the system? It sounds all broken to me.
These people have highly developed divide-and-conquer skills... They're more like Hern├бn Cort├йs than Hitler,successfully overseeing conquest by what was at first barely a minority, a mere handful.
You pegged it on so many points ... I keep thinking that the one true, universal "enemy" is ignorance. The global, youthful, and perpetual ignorance of history, along with the willful ignorance (stupidity) of angry, hateful fools who refuse to see the consequences of what they're voting for, what they're against or that they're allowing to ascend by not voting.
Once again, follow the money, and those who would be bullies.
тАЬWhile all other Sciences have advanced, that of Government is at a stand; little better understood; little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago.тАЭ
тАУ John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, Jul. 9, 1813
The power of corruption in the pursuit of political and economic power is no less than the halcyon days of Imperial Rome. Continue to teach STEM and bury liberal education and we are doomed to tyranny of the MAGA amongst us.
Note I am speaking of dark money and the corporate elite not student debt. Our will to govern is failing us and we are failing ourselves. Thinking our political economy doesnтАЩt depend on the institutions of liberal democracy is foolery. Thinking Ukraine doesnтАЩt matter will be the doom of the liberal democracy Marshall envisaged in Harvard Yard in тАШ47. How can we be so naive and foolish? Complacency led to sleepwalking and now, over the cliff we go. Infuriating ЁЯШб
The scientific method is a procedure, so you can use it to produce results whatever you might believe about the virtues of science. Yet as I see it, the beating heart of science is a philosophical epistemology, a practiced theory of knowing. That coupled with a commitment to intellectual integrity, to "the truth" insofar as we get to approximate it;.
Yet I think that falls outside of the modern concept of "STEM". I was such a science nerd that my most cherished TV program in kindergarten was "Watch Mr. Wizard" an excellent introduction of scientific thinking to children circa 1953. I have cried at the beauty of a vivid, connecting concept in a science instruction film.
But I was also an arts nerd, and just as the Universe is one thing (as in "Uni") I think human awareness is ideally one unified thing, despite some of distinct advantages of specialization. Yes, specialization, but also comprehending; "prehend" as in "prehensile", to grasp. We are tasked with seeing BOTH the forest and the trees; and since the trees go on to virtual infinity, to picking out the distinctions and connections that matter most to human lives. By that I don't mean a narcissistic notion that it only matters if it matters to us, or that we should not try to "question everything"; but rather recognizing key details and key connecting principles in order to sharpen our internal maps of reality. The better we know reality, the better we get along with her.
And I think it is true of life. We humans individually and in concert are muddling our way to better understanding ourselves and our circumstances, and while it may or be literally so, it seems that truth is beauty and beauty truth. It seems to me that there profound truth IN Keats' simple formulation; for the sciences, for the arts, in love, in life. Of course, there is more to it than that, but this I believe in my soul.
Fascism was an explicit appeal to the "Make Rome Great Again" era of Roman conquest; the word referring to Roman Empire icon. Liberal and liberty share the same etymological root. Liberal Arts were originally instruction for the free, that is, not slaves; but it became studies designed to liberate the mind, and with it, society. Some of the Enlightenment period philosophies that found their way into our founding documents I see as very much in harmony with liberation and empowerment, even in the context of shocking hypocrisy. Those principles that Marshall cherished can be found there, and as time advanced, so to, if haltingly, principles of universal rights, responsibilities, and empowerment have grown and been more universally applied, albeit now facing a redoubled effort by plutocrats to defeat them.
What do we, as humans most want, most need, and in what priority? We benefit richly from a civilization that "countless" people have bequeathed us, for the good and the bad of it. I doubt that much that really matters matters gets advertised. Not as specific products, anyway. It has been said that the best things in life are free; and when enabled by a freeing environment, and the chop wood, carry water necessary to sustain a sustainable environment of freedom, I think that is so. I am aided by commercial products throughout my days, not the least of which is the apparatus upon which I am typing, and the vast network of communications technology that delivers what I type. Yet what do I suppose I might cherish on my deathbed, a prospect that may be come sooner than later as I fall quite firmly in "senior" status. So many lives lost in "road rage", on the highway and on the battlefield. What's so important?
It is occurring to me (not a new thought, but perhaps now with more focus) that those who want to dominate have visibly mounted a massive, richly financed, and organized effort to confuse, divide, and mislead. Plenty of authors have warned of the ultimate outcome, but what do we do in an organized way to focus, unite, and disabuse the public of how the lie machine works and what it is up to? It's more a feeling than a mature thought on my part. I have encountered the idea from time to time of a Department of Peace to compliment what used to be called "The War Department". Not that DOD does not examine ways to avoid conflict, and not that such a department is necessarily the answer, or nearly enough, but can we make more visible and concerted efforts for head off problems and deesscalate conflicts? To educate, not just train?
Our current crises are massive; climate abuse, human abuse, the looming possibility of US fascism. Is there anything that we in concert could be doing better to foil the plans of those who thirst for absolute power? A long term strategy if we are lucky enough to get to deploy it?
These nationalists, dictators, oligarchs, murderers -- almost too many to list.
And aren't they all scrambling over each other to ally with U.S. billionaires and what you rather nicely call their "degenerate gone-to-seed capitalism"?
The U.S. billionaires got their tax cuts from their now 34-count-convicted criminal. That's one of two lasting damages that he did in all his four years in office -- grow the U.S. national debt by $7 trillion just further to enrich his fellow predators. Yes, he also gave the shaft to all U.S. women, in stuffing the court with medieval theocrats having states take over their family and health care choices.
But, yes, Peter: keep an eye on, watch out for the international thugs with whom our worst ally.
The big news yesterday is that OPEC agreed to raise production quotas. Hopefully energy prices will drop in time for the election and Russia, Iran, et al will have less funding for their wars in the Ukraine, Syria, Yemen and Gaza.
I keep asking why Treasury doesn't arbitrage part of the debt: borrow from our "allies" like Japan, Switzerland, Scandinavia, at their 1% rates to retire some 7% US debt? Why we haven't held OPEC accountable for arbitrarily fixing high prices?
Oil prices have been dropping for the past 6 weeks or so. You just don't see it at the pump.
I don't see the point of raising production unless they are trying to compete against the US who has raised production to record levels.
Beware, the US oil reserves have dropped to less than 10 years at current production rates. We better be switching to renewables at an accelerated rate before 2035.
Actually, also an environmental issue. California sued Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips and Chevron (the largest oil and gas companies doing business in California) for misleading the public about climate change. The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of the State of California, not in federal court. Other states will join.
It's also a national security issue. Saudis own our largest refineries and control Exxon and other domestic companies.
Daniel, where does this info come about the Saudis ? IтАЩm totally ignorant of it though of the last couple years realize the slow infiltration of foreign ownership..lands as well..we might need to get a better grip on this, you think? Seems to me suspicious! To say the least.
While both Phil ,Peter , many in fact here, close in on where the trouble really lays, I always feel not quite the focus on the rich going rogue as is unfortunately natural and expected -we keep dancing around the main culprits who align themselves with the known despots. The main aggressors and proxy waring few. Through more and more covert interactions they undermine , infiltrate , promise, then take over and control making their rich richer. Essentially what capitalism has accomplished through neglecting the stop guardsтАжie corporate monopolies, cartel control, and trafficking ( people,drugs,knock-offs, scams, hacking).
Being тАШthe good guyтАЩ isnтАЩt entertaining enough though sells big under the long standing cloak of Christianity. Which, noted, is obviously unveiled often enough to have just as many тАШpervertedтАЩ ( wide umbrella) as any other faction. Most know who the good samaritans are тАжand тАШBless Their HeartsтАЩ as we WVтАЩians add (mostly genuinely)тАжmy profound thanks to you (and you both know who you are, and rarely wave it as a flag of righteousness).
There are no magic wands..a constant battle will forever exists between good and evil and its shades of grey.
It isnтАЩt only my observation that THESE Substack , the many writers , some classic now, provide the format for truth, highlight educational excerpts , and a place to read enough variety of thought processes for quality journalism through print.
Sex, drugs, and rock and roll тАжstill apparent as second , third, and forth runners up..your own choice of order -not mine intended ЁЯШЙ
Heather is featured in тАЬPennsylvania: Putting Democracy in ActionтАЭ Tuesday, June 11, 2:00 PM PT/5:00 PM ET. She will discuss how the struggle for economic justice is feeding into pressure for political change. https://airlift.fund/
I am originally from Pennsyltucky. My home county went 2 to 1 for Trump in 2020. Stats show about a fifth of the electorate is either undecided or willing to change their mind before the election. Many slit their own throats by voting to cut, even kill their own sources of income. The lumpen proletariat? Mostly visceral stuff that has little to do with issues works. "Trump hates dogs" "Would you support stealing from kids with cancer?" Even works on MAGATs. https://rvat.org/
From Dan Phillips: to win, Biden doesnтАЩt need a single person who voted for Trump in 2020 (although we would gladly welcome them into our coalition). Our targets are people who voted for Biden in 2020, especially Black, Hispanic, and younger voters. We know these people. They are in our lives. Their numbers are in our phones. We are connected to them via social media.
Finally, changes in the media environment mean these folks are only reachable through one-on-one conversations over the phone, at the door, or in text group chats.
тАв In 2022, Field Team 6 reached 5 million unregistered likely Democrats
тАв The result? 1.57 million registered - 660,000 of them VOTED!
тАв The cost? 93┬в per registration - $2.24 per vote!
I use BYOP every day to reach about 50 unregistered people. Takes about 20 minutes. We attach voterizer.org. so folks can register themselves in 10 minutes. If I can influence 10 people to do the same, extrapolating, we can cover the swing states.
Thanks for all you and the likes do, Daniel. I work the quiet end and strive to inform. IтАЩm remote , no cell service, back-to-the-lander. Pretty impressed with WiFi ЁЯШЙ. Yea the 2-1 ratio , same here in WVтАж IтАЩll not get on a rant todayтАжЁЯЩД
Well the news from Mexico at least is wonderful! But yes, Europe is fragile and Modi, though his grip on India is now weakened, is scary. All I could think of reading this however was GazaтАФits state of ruin and depletion and depopulation is worse even than EuropeтАЩs after WWII. And instead of a Marshall plan the U.S. Congress wants to sanction the ICC for trying to hold accountable those responsible. We have abandoned the culture from which the Marshall plan emerged. Why?
Thanks for the link Sieglinde. I'm not overly surprised--the government of our other next-door neighbor, Canada, is mimicking our horrible policy too, including (unlike Mexico) sending arms to Israel. While the rest of the world's democracies are edging away from us, our neighbors know which side of their bread the butter is on. Everything I've read about Claudia Sheinbaum in the progressive press so far is positive, and she doesn't take office till October 1 so I'm willing to give her a chance to make her own policies. Fingers crossed!
Still shocking to see Israel be the evil that Bibi has brought. He is apparently (to me) trying to support chump and piss on Joe. We need to qualify our support for those terrorists.
Thank you, Peter. General Marshall reminded us that we are part of the larger world and can ill afford to lose sight of that. Your admonition to be watchful, including BTW, our neighbor to the South, is imperative.
Every now and then, I take another look at the Tytler Cycle diagram to refocus my attention. Your "watch list" forced another visit.
I view Tytler's analysis as useful, not predictive. Useful, however. only if we remain vigilant, as you and Linda note. Vigilance is a form of action that almost always requires further action. I am also reminded that we must be vigilant regarding ourselves--a major reason for tuning in to Heather's history lessons regularly.
Tytler does offer this:
(he) does admit that there are individual exceptions to the rule, and that he is ready to allow "that this form of government (democratic) is the best adapted to produce, though not the most frequent, yet the most striking, examples of virtue in individuals", paradoxically because a "democratic government opposes more impediments to disinterested patriotism than any other form." More here:
India has always been the place I feared WWIII would start. With climate change threatening its water supply as the Himalayan glaciers retreat, a nuclear armed and starving Indian population is scary.
(Pay particular attention to the last quote. From "Donald's Vanity Tantrums.)
Reverse Presidential Evolution
тАЬI hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.тАЭ
George Washington
тАЬYou can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.тАЭ
Abraham Lincoln
тАЬAsk not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.тАЭ
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
тАЬNow, as a nation, we donтАЩt promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. ThatтАЩs the essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up.тАЭ
Barack Obama
тАЬStatements are made about me by certain people in the crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 angry Democrat Trump haters which are fabricated andтАж total bullshit.тАЭ
First and foremost you need to get people to calm down and recognize that to do so we need to recognize the concept of liberty and justice for all. It will take time and patience.
And now, after 40+ years of Reagan's trickle down economics and the ensuing race to the bottom, the United States needs it's own Marshall Plan. Perhaps it can be called "Build Back Better"!
Most readers seem to be focusing exclusively on America; but it is worldwide that things are falling apart.
Sometimes, thank goodness, it is extremism that is imploding. Look at India's election results -- those are the big news of the moment.
Nevertheless, take nothing for granted. Mussolini's hold on power was severely shaken by the scandal that ensued in 1924 when Fascist hitmen murdered star opposition leader Giacomo Matteotti... just on the point of denouncing major corruption in the form of a sell-out of a deal with Sinclair Oil of Teapot Dome fame... Mussolini emerged from the ordeal strengthened, put an end to democratic forms and ruled as dictator. In the longer term, the disaster for Italy was immeasurable.
Modi is as dangerous as they come. Watch.
Watch the maneuvers of Netanyahu and his Nazi-style sidekicks.
Watch Europe, too, this weekend, where the Duce's sugar-coated successors may be on the point of making a killing at elections to the European Parliament.
Watch South Africa, unstable after the collapse of the ANC. Watch Mexico...
Don't for one moment take your eyes off the crucial threat to the planet, America's homegrown would-be Fuehrer. Yet, stay wide awake to the global crisis brought on by degenerate gone-to-seed capitalism.
According to Prof. Katheleen Belew in her book, Bring the War Home: White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, a global plan was made by White Supremacists who gathered in the USA in the Northwest from around the world. In the late 1980s/early 1990s they planned to stop fighting against the government and instead take it over, by joining it. By running for office. By toning down their overtly racist rhetoric and instead pretend that they were just against immigration. You can imagine that White South Africans were part of this. It seems to me as I see the right wing taking over our Congress, many state governments, Sweden, Italy as well as some former Soviet Union countries, like Russia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia and as such Immigrants became the new "Jews" on which every problem that exists in a country is blamed. I appreciate the tools that reading Prof. Belew's book has given me to recognize the coded meaning of the term "immigrants." This has been very intentional. Yes. I am voting in the elections of two countries. One for democracy in the USA, and the other for democracy in the EU. It is a different sort of election, and now there is a lot of action in terms of demonstration and marches against the right-wing parties. In Germany, specifically against the AfD, which I call The New German Nazi Party, while I call the Republican party The New American Nazi Party. In fact, I can ascribe names from Hitler's henchmen to some of the figures. Texas Governor Abbott is the new Himmler, who oversaw the death camps, and Speaker Johnson is the new Goebbels, who was the propaganda minister for Hitler and spun his lies to the German people into webs of gold.
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674286078
As for Republicans who just enjoy the drama of the MAGA extremists, I can't help but wonder if these are not Jerry Springer and like shows acolytes, who got used to all of this drama on television, and now seek it out as a way of feeling like their lives are no so empty. It is very disturbed and disturbing.
Yes. Marshall was a great visionary. Without him, the world would be much diminished. A Marshall plan for Latin America and Africa would be at least as impactful. Instead, Republicans are promoting Project 2025.
Great idea. It would pay great dividends.
Yes Tex, good comment.
Thank you for spelling it out far more clearly than I did. The psychology of your closing paragraph is very much to the point. Only, the problem affects far more than Republicans, it is that of society today.
While there's some resonance in your comparison of Abbott with Himmler, you flatter Speaker Johnson...
True about Speaker Johnson. He is one of many that I call the Goebbels Brigade. Johnson and his Seven Mountain Magic is just not that clever. However, as a group of apologists for Trump, they do perform the task that Goebbels had as the spin doctor. We can add all of the people on the Fox Network that perform this same function to the Goebbels Brigade as well. The press in Germany under Hitler did not get to decide what to publish so these useful idiots may find themselves out of a job, or promoted. I bet they are counting on the later. However, there is no loyalty from a fascist dictator. His loyalty is only to himself.
That Seven Mountains business should not be underestimated. Two of the seven "mountains" that the New Apostolic Reformation people have set out to control are the judiciary and education. They already control much of the judiciary because of the dozens of federal judges Trump appointed while in office but most particularly, his three Supreme Court nominations giving Republicans 6 of 9 Supreme Court justices - a majority that can give a re-elected Trump any decision he wants. The second "mountain" is education. There are already 28 states funding fundamentalist Christian religious schools with taxpayer money. Check out the Hartmann Report, Substack. June 5. Very scary.
NL...there was a new story here in Oregon just yesterday about school vouchers. They are trying to get it on the ballot. The spokeswoman made it sound innocuous, but I wasn't fooled by her drivel. I do not want my tax dollars funding private schools or charter schools for that matter. I was in education for many years and am so glad to be retired. I confess to shouting at the TV while the story was airing.
It was the Hartmann Report on June 4. I thought today was tomorrow... ЁЯдкApologies.
It is so much craziness that I am sickened. I am not underestimating the goals, just think that the followers are liars.
Thanks for alerting us to this.
The thing that gets me is how Speaker Mike gets away with referring to himself as a Christian. A person who says, in effect, "Praise the Lord, and thank you for your advice, but no thanks -- we'll take it from here ..." is not a Christian.
Speaker Pelosi is a real Christian. When asked if she hated Donald Trump, she said she has a heart full of love, that she prays for him, and that she doesn't hate anyone.
Or maybe it's me. Maybe I have this backwards and upside down. I thought being a Christian meant looking at my enemy and seeing a neighbor. Maybe Speaker Mike has it right. Maybe being a Christian means looking at my neighbor and seeing an enemy.
But I have a plan to settle this once and for all. I'm going to go to the Bible and see what it says.
Pfft. Little Johnson is not a Christian. He is an aberration that does not speak to what Jesus taught in the first three Gospels.
Hear, hear. We must not forget that even the Marshall Plan did not know the future. Perhaps, the US did not do its due diligence and read signs that were not available to the world in 1947. So much technology happened that I truly believe the world could not keep up with the pace and influence it would have on the plan. Communication avenues - good and bad - was never considered the weapon it is today. Hence Fox News. Weapons proliferation may not have even been considered. I may not know all the ins and outs of the effects of the Marshal Plan, but, I truly believe while the plan was immediately needed and its goals were humanitarian maybe it did not grow and change with time.
It resulted in NATO. Following Marshall, George F. Kennan, President Truman, and Dean Acheson worked to focus on western Europe to maintain democratic ideals.
The anti-communism part of the Marshal Plan led to the domino theory and wars in Korea and Vietnam.
Yours was a good post Peter. And, Mexico..., that is an interesting one indeed.
I think we need a two state solution in the Middle East and then a Marshal Plan for Palestine. Hopefully a victory for Ukraine and a Marshal Plan there as well.
The Ukraine "Marshall Plan" must be paid for with Russian assets seized from around the globe. I support our support, but Russia must pay for the damages it has caused. The NYT yesterday reported that they analyzed every building damaged or destroyed in Ukraine over the past 2 years -- they counted 210,000 of them, across the country, with cities and neighborhoods looking like Dresden at the end of WW2.
The countries that benefited from The Marshall Plan had a) defined borders, and b) had been non-violent (on the whole) before WWII.
Neither can be said of the Palestinians. There is little to rebuildтАФrebuild Gaza to hand to Hamas or the Islamic Jihad? Or to the Palestinian Authority that has had 30+ years to establish effective governance with billions of international dollars and hasnтАЩt?тАФthe Palestinians in the West Bank have been caught smuggling in weapons from Iran through Jordan.
First woman president for Mexico.
MadRussian, Mexico indeed is very interesting. A woman and a Jew as president. I read another story yesterday that a female mayor of some city was shot to death.
Just watched an interview of Jon Stewart and Ken Buck and was so disturbed and disappointed to hear him say Ken Buck, in essence...the trial against Trump was a witch hunt. His defense was that Bragg ran on prosecuting Trump. That made it partisan.
I can be pretty dense sometimes, but haven't other politicians run on prosecuting mafiosi bosses. Weren't they also named? And if a jury if his peers, people Trump and his lawyers selected, find him guilty, doesn't that destroy the witch hunt claims?
I watched that too. Buck is a slippery slimy thing and always has been. Glad he's no longer my rep.
The Dem running agwinst a perennial failed republicans candidate has a good chance of replacing him this month. Watch for Trisha Calvarese.
And she'll also be running against Boebert this fall I expect.
In response to your last question: of course it does!
Is it a witch hunt if you found an actual jury affirmed witch?
STANDARD GOP MISREPRESENTATION:
"The trial against Trump was a witch hunt... Bragg ran on prosecuting Trump. That made it partisan."
PROBLEM -- THE CONVICTION IS OVERDUE
Bragg has done his duty.
Only, what he has done should have been done decades ago: nailing a notorious crook, a not-so-petty criminal who got away with whatever he fancied doing by dint of wealth and a network of influence... until he exposed himself by overdoing things, grabbing America by the genitals.
He hasn't let go and won't, so long as his hands are free.
Sure destroys those claims in my book!
Bragg ran on prosecuting White Collar crime. Trump was not mentioned by name. This is another piece of disinformation. Trump was found guilty on all counts by a jury that the defense helped select and witnesses defense cross examined.
Bragg is not likely to say a thing until sentencing and appeals are exhausted. He put Cy VanceтАЩs charges aside and selected his own statues and wrote up his own charges This is a matter of public record and all within the publicтАЩs view.
Many, myself included, were worried that Bragg was abandoning VanceтАЩs groundwork. No, he was building a stronger case and won.
Politically, prosecuting Trump seemed like a long shot. Sentencing and appeals lie ahead. ItтАЩs too soon to say Trump wonтАЩt go get off the hook. ItтАЩs not over until itтАЩs over. ЁЯдЮ
Joe, thanks for clarifying what Bragg ran onтАФitтАЩs not BraggтАЩs fault that Trump engaged in white collar crime.
And not just white collar...
As I have gleaned out of my reading in the last 4 years, the gatherings of these wealthy trust fund billionaires at places like, Davos, Jackson Hole, Aspen and Palm Springs lead by the Koch coalition, have allowed these people to coordinate their plans on a global basis. Most importantly their plans require "Stealth" as James Buchanan and Milton Friedman both knew about their "free" market ideas and libertarian plans. They understood how popular the New Deal programs were and how those ideas could not be attacked directly. That is why these meeting have closed door sessions with minutes of the meetings destroyed or taken in secret.
Read Kochland.
I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist, but this effort started with ClintonтАЩs election over Bush the Elder. The basic plan was toFund and develop their own think tanks to study and publish on their ideology, fund chairs at colleges and universities to get a voice in hiring professors and administrators, give grants and full scholarships to тАЬworthyтАЭ students referred to them by тАЬfriends ofтАЭ and well-placed administrators. And, of course, The Federalist Society in 1982.
They already had Skull & Bones, the Bohemian Grove, and someoneтАЩs ranch gatherings (Harlan Crowe?). FOX тАЬNewsтАЭ came later
And "Dark Money" by Jane Mayer.
Citizens United got the ball rolling.........
Yes Rickey, money, money, money.
Have you also taken these prescient thoughts further to the end? I'm sure you have. My guess is that you see the end of this travesty similar to how I see it. The destruction of the US system of justice by these individuals. I assign the names of Nazi hierarchy a bit differently. I see Stephen Miller as Himmler, Tucker Carlson as Goebbels, Abbot feels a bit more like Reinhardt Heidrich, a "governor" of a particular area of the Reich.
Steve Bannon seems a lot like Ernst Roehm, don't you think? Thuggish, nasty etc.
No matter how the names are assigned the thought of these individuals in places of power is terrifying if people would look at what happened to Nazi Germany I think that at least a few might think better of supporting the idea of autocracy.
Steve Bannon had an organization to help teach individuals how to subvert an established government. He bought a place in Italy or France for his school. That nationтАЩs government refused to allow BannonтАЩs school to open. Bannon has tentacles around the world.
Interestingly, all Bannon wants to do is tear down/blow up, heтАЩs not on the front line developing something new.
He is an anarchist. I have to wonder how many anarchists think they themselves can survive if the rule of law becomes defunct. How does anyone survive renegade gangs roaming the country, especially in this country with more guns than people. I guess we can ask Mexico with their cartels & their 37 political assassinations how they survive!
Or we could send them to Somalia and report back.
"Not on the front line developing something new..."
No, something old, Julius Evola etc. reheated, then blended with Ultramontane stuff from the days when the Vatican was in bed with the Mussolini regime.
Linda and Peter, I in full agreement. But we must not and I repeat, we must not give them the ammunition that the far right uses to gain strength. And one obvious issue is porous borders. This is nothing new. The Moors were driven from Spain. And you can go back as far as you want. When there are major human movements, a backlash is sure to come. I illustrate Germany under Chancellor Merkle when she was asked why she had an open door policy toward the migratory movements and she responded that it was the guilt Germany felt toward WWII. Little could she surmise that she was seeding the next nationalistic movement and now itтАЩs I believe the 2nd most popular political movement in Germany today. Was it worth it? A categoric NO. This is called not learning anything history has taught.
Here in the States, the southern border. The bleeding hearts respond that we need to take in these people. For what price? The loss of democracy? Is that what you want? I donтАЩt. We have laws of immigration. No one is denying people entry but uncontrolled entry, yes. It makes me real mad that many of us just donтАЩt get it. And we are willing to lose it all over this one issue (well maybe more issues) but this one is taking the proverbial cake.
Allow me to add on the the British conservatives under Boris Johnson parted from the European Union over this issue. It will break up everything positive that has developed post WWII most assuredly.
Bill, I know you feel that Biden should have been tougher on this subject long ago. But Biden was ready to sign a bipartisan bill that was very tough and co-written by Republicans. It was Trump who killed the bill. It is a REPUBLICAN failure. Spread the word!
But let's live in the present moment. What do you think of Biden now that he has effectively closed the border? Ready to spread the word?
There is so much ammunition for Democrats about immigration. If Republican businessmen really cared about it, why do they employ undocumented workers on our farms? Undocumented children in slaughter houses? It's the greed of the Oligarchs that allows this to happen. Tell a friend!
It is Republicans who own the immigration problem. Yell it from the roof tops!
Well said, Bill. We need immigrants and their labor. Processing them and incorporating them into the workforce takes $$$, which the GOP, and now the MAGAts refuse to provide in their never ending quest to support their ideology. Happened to be reading an old ProPublica article yesterday on the GOPтАЩs refusal to fund the replenishment of the pandemic stockpile, helping lead to the disaster that was TrumpтАЩs handling of Covid. LetтАЩs put the blame squarely where it belongs.
In most cases тАЬimmigrantsтАЭ means brown people. ThatтАЩs the real problem. Capitalists give lip service to immigration but they like it because they get a captured workforce.
Immigration is used as a tool to divide and conquer just like racism. Remember-theyтАЩre тАЬpoisoning our bloodтАЭ, theyтАЩre тАЬrapistsтАЭ and are killing people.
Obviously we canтАЩt accept everyone who wants entry-we need common sense laws-but the Rs are hypocritical-theyтАЩre just using the issue to stoke fear and win votes.
If we could minimize war, famine, climate change, greed etc then maybe people wouldnтАЩt be leaving their home countries to seek better environments.
Yes, Gina. The Rs are the party of death full of hypocrites of the highest order.
Yes you hit it on the head.
So true. When in actually the only non-immigrants are Brown people if we look at the original people here. However, I consider everyone born in the USA to be a Native of the US. My mom came to the USA in the 1950s and she said she was just asked a few questions on which she could have easily lied. No difficulty getting in then from Germany even though they had just been the enemy country around 10 years earlier.
Bill, yes, the immigration problem could have been solved years ago if not for some people using very cheap exploitable immigrant labor which they still are doing. It is a travesty and the idea that immigrants vote, when they do everything they can to not call attention to themselves. They also do all the hard physical labor that white people do not want to do. When it was time to spread the cement on the sidewalk project in front of our house, it was Hispanics who did that. They also do most of the landscaping and roofing around here and that doesn't count those out in the fields and on dairy farms.
Spot on, Bill Alstrom.
Bill, I am not advocating that Germany or the USA not have controls on who enters the borders. As the daughter of a German immigrant, and the wife of a German immigrant, and now living in a community of Germans and American as well as other immigrants in Germany where I am both a citizen and an immigrant, I can understand that there are times where we need a lot of new people, and times where we do not. The Right-wing Germans are responding to what I assume is a lot of Russian disinformation. I can hardly find people to do work on our house in Germany because they are so, so, so booked. No one can come before a month or two. Things that should take 6 months drag out 2 years. In a nation where the median age is 44.9 years, and would be higher if not for the recent surge of immigrants, they need new and younger people. In 2010 before the surge of immigrants the population was dropping. It has had some increase, but not enough to help the economy. The Russians seed this nationalism as much as anyone else, because the people here are naive about the ways of Bot manipulation. Most Leftist people that I know here have no knowledge of this either. The Southern states economies would crash without all the work done my immigrants. In 2022 immigrants made up 17.2% of the population in Texas. So, almost 1/5 of the population there. In the USA in general immigrants make up 14% of the population.
Do we really want to blame Angela Merkel for German's who easily embrace racism? Or Biden? Britain's right wingers made a racist move, had Brexit and it is just downhill from there. I consider the flow of different people into Europe as a positive thing. And, it is true the northern half of the planet has been exploiting the environment which is affecting us all, but particularly the southern half of the planet. I am not making a case for the violent extremists, but many people are contributing. My husband happens to be an expert in his field. He works on a research team that is made up of people from many countries. The USA has benefitted from his work, as much as the people working in the fields to produce our food do too.
Who is not contributing is Jared Kushner selling out to Serbia. See here in SpyTalk. https://www.spytalk.co/p/kushners-deal-with-pro-russia-serbs/comments
Thank you, Linda. With a growing percentage of the U.S. population over age 65, we need young immigrants to fill jobs and contribute to Social Security. There is no question in my mind that all the rhetoric about "closing the border" - and it's always the southern border! - is about racism... the "othering" of people from Central and South America. Do you hear anyone complaining about immigrants from Britain, Norway, or Australia?? Of course not.
Regarding your point about your husband's research team being "made up of people from many countries": Maybe I'm a "bleeding heart" in Bill Katz's mind, but I believe strongly that diversity is a positive for businesses and organizations. People of different genders, races, nationalities, and so on can offer different perspectives that contribute to workplace teams.
That's enough on my soapbox for today!
Ellen, if you listen to Mike Johnson, we don't need immigrants. We need more white American girls and women having white babies.
America wouldnтАЩt be a тАЬsuperpowerтАЭ without immigration. ItтАЩs trite but diversity is strength. All of nature is diverse-why shouldnтАЩt we have diversity of experience, ideas and opportunities?
Ellen, Ellen, stop it already. Did I lose you on тАЬbleeding heart?тАЭ
I choose a different tac. Sometimes you pull back when issues are going against the tide for the sake of winning and no, not winning at any price. And our current political mess in the US must be won there is no recovery from this loss. Do you get it now?
Linda, I also am the daughter of a German immigrant, married to an Italian immigrant. My husband, too, is a researcher, heading a university lab with scientists and engineers from many different countries, working on topics with great relevance to todayтАЩs world (vehicle electrification, alternative fuels, battery storage). The labor situation you describe in Germany holds true here in the US as well. If you try to hire a contractor for any kind of work, youтАЩre lucky if you get a call back from one out of ten requests, and the backlog is long.
Not just contractors, but doctors and other medical positions seem understaffed. We lost a lot of them in Covid, one way or the other. Friends and relatives of the million lost to Covid should think seriously about how Don conned us. He was saved by medical science and then basically spit on it.
Ditto Japan, KR.
As you note, "The labor situation you describe in Germany holds true here in the US as well." Japan has an even lower birth rate, and very much needs labor from the younger people of the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia, and other nearby countries.
A strong, deep racism mitigates against the decent programs the government here has initiated, said government trying to look to the tax base as well as to the needs of so many industries desperate for labor.
German-American (immigrant) here. Have to call out on one thing, Linda: Germans embrace racism no more easily than any -ANY- other group of humans on the planet. ("Voelkerwanderung" (we go where we can best survive) is as old as humanity itself. I embrace it.)
I don't believe in "races," but the human race with physical variation. So much of that is just outdated thinking and scientifically ignorant. Where my daughter is studying in Germany they are seeking to have more current models to talk about race and gender. Still, on the streets, most of the people I encounter do not think of this. As a dual American-German, who was raised in the US, spent time back and forth, and now mainly live in Germany, I see the racism in both countries. Both are countries of White Supremacy. My knowledge of recent German history is why I warn about the parallels in the US right now. You might notice that I have made several of these comparisons in this chain. Can't say that everyone is as racist. I think Native American groups are viewing people in a different way, than the Western model of divide and conquer. Of course, I have met Native Americans that I thought were racist. Still, I just don't know about people everywhere. It seems an over generalization. I have been wondering which people are most susceptible to the influence of fake information, such as Russian bots used to influence the elections in the US and EU right now.
Linda, itтАЩs rough out there isnтАЩt it. IтАЩm just presenting you a cause and effect and a historical context. I never said I was against immigration. But control it. You ask me if I want to blame Angela and Boris and Joe and anyone else and the answer is, yes. I do.
We are living in incredibly complex world now with disinformation and so on. ItтАЩs hard enough for thinking people to make smart decisions. Forget about the dumb ones. And do not forget, those at the top, the invisible puppeteers are sowing disinformation for the purposes of power and money. All logic is tossed out the window.
Both sets of my grandparents were immigrants; southern Italian and Eastern European. Once backpacking through Sicily , I met old timers that told me how towns emptied and moved to America. Yep, among those were Santa and Paulo, my grandparents. Even at that time,I thought, cheeses, we let that many people in? So I donтАЩt discriminate.
The worse thing that Boris Johnson did was enact Brexit. The second worst thing that the European Union did was not set limits on migration. ItтАЩs my opinion. You can have your opinion. I want to save good developments like the European Union but it will most assuredly break apart if they donтАЩt set limits.
Every one needs to set limits, but who and how. I would say, if the elevator is full, you don't want to put more into it because the cables might break and you will all fall and die with it. On the other hand, the US needs more immigrants. A year ago I read that we had a 10 mil job shortage and only 5 mil seeking work. We have money for a lot of frivolous things, I think everyone can think of these, and should be making more for people to help them live. I feel that your discussion is one of blaming the victim. If doing what is right is victimized by evil greedy people, then should we always cater to them? What world do we create if we do that?
Bill Katz, it is not an all or nothing issue. Isolation is not a solution.
Oh stop it George. You want to put words in my mouth now. Heal, I say. But frankly, IтАЩm surprised I have gotten pushback when all I advocated is respecting laws. In the case of Europe, it needs to set limits on immigration. Without such limits, it implodes. Is that what you want. Be careful what you ask for.
I think there must be coordination with Mexico and other countries these refugees are leaving and the United States. Does anyone know about our legal immigration "list"? How long a wait before those on the "list" can get a hearing? Are the applicants for "asylum" who cross the border illegally getting on another "list" ahead of those who apply legally? Is their incentive to come across the border illegally that they will be put on a waiting list for asylum and then allowed to disperse in the US to wait for years and possibly to be lost in the system? It sounds all broken to me.
Go back to Linda Weide's expos├й and to the main literature she cites: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674286078
These people have highly developed divide-and-conquer skills... They're more like Hern├бn Cort├йs than Hitler,successfully overseeing conquest by what was at first barely a minority, a mere handful.
Wow, you know them well. Agree with every word and sentiment. Thanks for ref
Excellent insight.
I wonder sometimes if we will be addicted to the drama of this time and be distracted by it enough that we just grab our popcorn instead of fighting.
Wow Linda you have done your research. Thank you for your comment.
Skinhead seem to be rising in Idaho again.
You pegged it on so many points ... I keep thinking that the one true, universal "enemy" is ignorance. The global, youthful, and perpetual ignorance of history, along with the willful ignorance (stupidity) of angry, hateful fools who refuse to see the consequences of what they're voting for, what they're against or that they're allowing to ascend by not voting.
Yes Linda. Good thinking.
Once again, follow the money, and those who would be bullies.
тАЬWhile all other Sciences have advanced, that of Government is at a stand; little better understood; little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago.тАЭ
тАУ John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, Jul. 9, 1813
But could we learn?
The power of corruption in the pursuit of political and economic power is no less than the halcyon days of Imperial Rome. Continue to teach STEM and bury liberal education and we are doomed to tyranny of the MAGA amongst us.
Note I am speaking of dark money and the corporate elite not student debt. Our will to govern is failing us and we are failing ourselves. Thinking our political economy doesnтАЩt depend on the institutions of liberal democracy is foolery. Thinking Ukraine doesnтАЩt matter will be the doom of the liberal democracy Marshall envisaged in Harvard Yard in тАШ47. How can we be so naive and foolish? Complacency led to sleepwalking and now, over the cliff we go. Infuriating ЁЯШб
Joe, I agree with what you said and the way you said it. I appreciate the truth of your remarks and the urgency of your tone! Carry on!!
Joe Palau. Don't bury STEM in your pursuit of liberalism.
The scientific method is a procedure, so you can use it to produce results whatever you might believe about the virtues of science. Yet as I see it, the beating heart of science is a philosophical epistemology, a practiced theory of knowing. That coupled with a commitment to intellectual integrity, to "the truth" insofar as we get to approximate it;.
Yet I think that falls outside of the modern concept of "STEM". I was such a science nerd that my most cherished TV program in kindergarten was "Watch Mr. Wizard" an excellent introduction of scientific thinking to children circa 1953. I have cried at the beauty of a vivid, connecting concept in a science instruction film.
But I was also an arts nerd, and just as the Universe is one thing (as in "Uni") I think human awareness is ideally one unified thing, despite some of distinct advantages of specialization. Yes, specialization, but also comprehending; "prehend" as in "prehensile", to grasp. We are tasked with seeing BOTH the forest and the trees; and since the trees go on to virtual infinity, to picking out the distinctions and connections that matter most to human lives. By that I don't mean a narcissistic notion that it only matters if it matters to us, or that we should not try to "question everything"; but rather recognizing key details and key connecting principles in order to sharpen our internal maps of reality. The better we know reality, the better we get along with her.
And I think it is true of life. We humans individually and in concert are muddling our way to better understanding ourselves and our circumstances, and while it may or be literally so, it seems that truth is beauty and beauty truth. It seems to me that there profound truth IN Keats' simple formulation; for the sciences, for the arts, in love, in life. Of course, there is more to it than that, but this I believe in my soul.
Fascism was an explicit appeal to the "Make Rome Great Again" era of Roman conquest; the word referring to Roman Empire icon. Liberal and liberty share the same etymological root. Liberal Arts were originally instruction for the free, that is, not slaves; but it became studies designed to liberate the mind, and with it, society. Some of the Enlightenment period philosophies that found their way into our founding documents I see as very much in harmony with liberation and empowerment, even in the context of shocking hypocrisy. Those principles that Marshall cherished can be found there, and as time advanced, so to, if haltingly, principles of universal rights, responsibilities, and empowerment have grown and been more universally applied, albeit now facing a redoubled effort by plutocrats to defeat them.
What do we, as humans most want, most need, and in what priority? We benefit richly from a civilization that "countless" people have bequeathed us, for the good and the bad of it. I doubt that much that really matters matters gets advertised. Not as specific products, anyway. It has been said that the best things in life are free; and when enabled by a freeing environment, and the chop wood, carry water necessary to sustain a sustainable environment of freedom, I think that is so. I am aided by commercial products throughout my days, not the least of which is the apparatus upon which I am typing, and the vast network of communications technology that delivers what I type. Yet what do I suppose I might cherish on my deathbed, a prospect that may be come sooner than later as I fall quite firmly in "senior" status. So many lives lost in "road rage", on the highway and on the battlefield. What's so important?
It is occurring to me (not a new thought, but perhaps now with more focus) that those who want to dominate have visibly mounted a massive, richly financed, and organized effort to confuse, divide, and mislead. Plenty of authors have warned of the ultimate outcome, but what do we do in an organized way to focus, unite, and disabuse the public of how the lie machine works and what it is up to? It's more a feeling than a mature thought on my part. I have encountered the idea from time to time of a Department of Peace to compliment what used to be called "The War Department". Not that DOD does not examine ways to avoid conflict, and not that such a department is necessarily the answer, or nearly enough, but can we make more visible and concerted efforts for head off problems and deesscalate conflicts? To educate, not just train?
Our current crises are massive; climate abuse, human abuse, the looming possibility of US fascism. Is there anything that we in concert could be doing better to foil the plans of those who thirst for absolute power? A long term strategy if we are lucky enough to get to deploy it?
Graham. Great post.
Good, Peter, your international eye.
These nationalists, dictators, oligarchs, murderers -- almost too many to list.
And aren't they all scrambling over each other to ally with U.S. billionaires and what you rather nicely call their "degenerate gone-to-seed capitalism"?
The U.S. billionaires got their tax cuts from their now 34-count-convicted criminal. That's one of two lasting damages that he did in all his four years in office -- grow the U.S. national debt by $7 trillion just further to enrich his fellow predators. Yes, he also gave the shaft to all U.S. women, in stuffing the court with medieval theocrats having states take over their family and health care choices.
But, yes, Peter: keep an eye on, watch out for the international thugs with whom our worst ally.
The big news yesterday is that OPEC agreed to raise production quotas. Hopefully energy prices will drop in time for the election and Russia, Iran, et al will have less funding for their wars in the Ukraine, Syria, Yemen and Gaza.
I keep asking why Treasury doesn't arbitrage part of the debt: borrow from our "allies" like Japan, Switzerland, Scandinavia, at their 1% rates to retire some 7% US debt? Why we haven't held OPEC accountable for arbitrarily fixing high prices?
Oil prices have been dropping for the past 6 weeks or so. You just don't see it at the pump.
I don't see the point of raising production unless they are trying to compete against the US who has raised production to record levels.
Beware, the US oil reserves have dropped to less than 10 years at current production rates. We better be switching to renewables at an accelerated rate before 2035.
I don't know it as a fact, but I bet Biden was persuasive. The point is that supply reduces demand.
As to prices, location, location, location. In many parts of the US wells are capped to reduce competition, and refineries do the same.
Good, David, though you do realize you're asking a reasonable question.
And, David, you do really know that one cannot ask any reasonable questions of anyone involved in any part of the fossil fuel rackets?
Is there anything in any biz school anyone learns appropriate to anything in these criminal syndicates?
David is a cousin.
Actually, also an environmental issue. California sued Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips and Chevron (the largest oil and gas companies doing business in California) for misleading the public about climate change. The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of the State of California, not in federal court. Other states will join.
It's also a national security issue. Saudis own our largest refineries and control Exxon and other domestic companies.
Correct you are, Daniel.
Correct on the issues you well cite. As well as on your own name, which (sorry) I miffed.
Daniel, where does this info come about the Saudis ? IтАЩm totally ignorant of it though of the last couple years realize the slow infiltration of foreign ownership..lands as well..we might need to get a better grip on this, you think? Seems to me suspicious! To say the least.
Thanks
And if they give DJT a billion dollars they can do whatever they want-this includes the Saudis and other countries.
While both Phil ,Peter , many in fact here, close in on where the trouble really lays, I always feel not quite the focus on the rich going rogue as is unfortunately natural and expected -we keep dancing around the main culprits who align themselves with the known despots. The main aggressors and proxy waring few. Through more and more covert interactions they undermine , infiltrate , promise, then take over and control making their rich richer. Essentially what capitalism has accomplished through neglecting the stop guardsтАжie corporate monopolies, cartel control, and trafficking ( people,drugs,knock-offs, scams, hacking).
Being тАШthe good guyтАЩ isnтАЩt entertaining enough though sells big under the long standing cloak of Christianity. Which, noted, is obviously unveiled often enough to have just as many тАШpervertedтАЩ ( wide umbrella) as any other faction. Most know who the good samaritans are тАжand тАШBless Their HeartsтАЩ as we WVтАЩians add (mostly genuinely)тАжmy profound thanks to you (and you both know who you are, and rarely wave it as a flag of righteousness).
There are no magic wands..a constant battle will forever exists between good and evil and its shades of grey.
It isnтАЩt only my observation that THESE Substack , the many writers , some classic now, provide the format for truth, highlight educational excerpts , and a place to read enough variety of thought processes for quality journalism through print.
Sex, drugs, and rock and roll тАжstill apparent as second , third, and forth runners up..your own choice of order -not mine intended ЁЯШЙ
ЁЯТЩVOTING ЁЯТЩ Stop.The.Coup.ЁЯТЩ
Heather is featured in тАЬPennsylvania: Putting Democracy in ActionтАЭ Tuesday, June 11, 2:00 PM PT/5:00 PM ET. She will discuss how the struggle for economic justice is feeding into pressure for political change. https://airlift.fund/
I am originally from Pennsyltucky. My home county went 2 to 1 for Trump in 2020. Stats show about a fifth of the electorate is either undecided or willing to change their mind before the election. Many slit their own throats by voting to cut, even kill their own sources of income. The lumpen proletariat? Mostly visceral stuff that has little to do with issues works. "Trump hates dogs" "Would you support stealing from kids with cancer?" Even works on MAGATs. https://rvat.org/
From Dan Phillips: to win, Biden doesnтАЩt need a single person who voted for Trump in 2020 (although we would gladly welcome them into our coalition). Our targets are people who voted for Biden in 2020, especially Black, Hispanic, and younger voters. We know these people. They are in our lives. Their numbers are in our phones. We are connected to them via social media.
Finally, changes in the media environment mean these folks are only reachable through one-on-one conversations over the phone, at the door, or in text group chats.
тАв In 2022, Field Team 6 reached 5 million unregistered likely Democrats
тАв The result? 1.57 million registered - 660,000 of them VOTED!
тАв The cost? 93┬в per registration - $2.24 per vote!
I use BYOP every day to reach about 50 unregistered people. Takes about 20 minutes. We attach voterizer.org. so folks can register themselves in 10 minutes. If I can influence 10 people to do the same, extrapolating, we can cover the swing states.
https://voterizer.org/
Thanks for all you and the likes do, Daniel. I work the quiet end and strive to inform. IтАЩm remote , no cell service, back-to-the-lander. Pretty impressed with WiFi ЁЯШЙ. Yea the 2-1 ratio , same here in WVтАж IтАЩll not get on a rant todayтАжЁЯЩД
I signed up for the zoom on 11th, thanks.
Well the news from Mexico at least is wonderful! But yes, Europe is fragile and Modi, though his grip on India is now weakened, is scary. All I could think of reading this however was GazaтАФits state of ruin and depletion and depopulation is worse even than EuropeтАЩs after WWII. And instead of a Marshall plan the U.S. Congress wants to sanction the ICC for trying to hold accountable those responsible. We have abandoned the culture from which the Marshall plan emerged. Why?
Mary, I was thinking like you in re Mexico and then received an article from a friend that dashed some of my enthusiasm: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/the-mexico-israel-connection-repression-and-resistance/ There's always more to the story, darn it.
Thanks for the link Sieglinde. I'm not overly surprised--the government of our other next-door neighbor, Canada, is mimicking our horrible policy too, including (unlike Mexico) sending arms to Israel. While the rest of the world's democracies are edging away from us, our neighbors know which side of their bread the butter is on. Everything I've read about Claudia Sheinbaum in the progressive press so far is positive, and she doesn't take office till October 1 so I'm willing to give her a chance to make her own policies. Fingers crossed!
Still shocking to see Israel be the evil that Bibi has brought. He is apparently (to me) trying to support chump and piss on Joe. We need to qualify our support for those terrorists.
Maybe you should be giving commencement addresses.
Oh no! An oil company involved in an international scandal! Shocking! NOT!
Two things, Peter: Your 4 "watch" admonitions and the last paragraph is the warning that we need. Spot on!
Also, I had no idea that Sinclair oil, still going strong, was involved in Teapot Dome. Why am I not surprised...
Thank you, Peter. General Marshall reminded us that we are part of the larger world and can ill afford to lose sight of that. Your admonition to be watchful, including BTW, our neighbor to the South, is imperative.
Every now and then, I take another look at the Tytler Cycle diagram to refocus my attention. Your "watch list" forced another visit.
I view Tytler's analysis as useful, not predictive. Useful, however. only if we remain vigilant, as you and Linda note. Vigilance is a form of action that almost always requires further action. I am also reminded that we must be vigilant regarding ourselves--a major reason for tuning in to Heather's history lessons regularly.
Tytler does offer this:
(he) does admit that there are individual exceptions to the rule, and that he is ready to allow "that this form of government (democratic) is the best adapted to produce, though not the most frequent, yet the most striking, examples of virtue in individuals", paradoxically because a "democratic government opposes more impediments to disinterested patriotism than any other form." More here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Fraser_Tytler,_Lord_Woodhouselee
As always, we have a lot of work to do.
Great recap of history and present. Capitalism only works when it is regulated and the rule of law is upheld.
So true-we focus a lot on democracy which is needed but we also have to remember how unfettered capitalism works and impacts our world.
India has always been the place I feared WWIII would start. With climate change threatening its water supply as the Himalayan glaciers retreat, a nuclear armed and starving Indian population is scary.
PWINY - Politics Will Not Ignore You.
And Vote and urge everyone to use that right
Yes, you are correct and alert to the many dangers to our civilization.
(Pay particular attention to the last quote. From "Donald's Vanity Tantrums.)
Reverse Presidential Evolution
тАЬI hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.тАЭ
George Washington
тАЬYou can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.тАЭ
Abraham Lincoln
тАЬAsk not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.тАЭ
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
тАЬNow, as a nation, we donтАЩt promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. ThatтАЩs the essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up.тАЭ
Barack Obama
тАЬStatements are made about me by certain people in the crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 angry Democrat Trump haters which are fabricated andтАж total bullshit.тАЭ
Donald Trump
That last one enthusiastically supported by 1/3 of America. Amirite?
And vigorously defended by half of тАЬleadersтАЭ in government.
Yep yourite.
ЁЯШк
First and foremost you need to get people to calm down and recognize that to do so we need to recognize the concept of liberty and justice for all. It will take time and patience.
Annabel! ЁЯОпЁЯСПЁЯП╗ЁЯСПЁЯП╗ЁЯСПЁЯП╗