Yesterday the Washington Post published an article by Beth Reinhard examining the philosophy and the power of Russell Vought, the hard-right Christian nationalist who is drafting plans for a second Trump term.
I keep seeing memes describing the pre-Reagan tax structure, and detailing how that system created the strongest economy in the world. How the rising tide did in fact float all boats.
It always concludes with “tax the rich”.
Which is obvious and is the desire of the majority of Americans. So why does it keep not happening?
Because the rich have colonized the electoral process so thoroughly that they are able to overcome the will of the people with legalized bribery.
The only way to actually tax the rich is to beat them at the ballot box. This means overcoming the hurdles the ruling class have put in place against a truly free and fair election.
How? By using strategy. By a great ground game. By each of us asking “what can I do to take back Congress, the courts, and the Statehouses and legislatures so that we, the 99% can have a chance at a better life? So that we can rebuild the infrastructure. So that the environment is protected. So that our democracy going forward is safe from malefactors of great wealth and their operatives.
Just chanting a mantra is not enough. Praying is not enough. We must have a deep blue tsunami. Yes, re-elect Joe Biden. But also give him the blue government he needs to get this done.
Doing our part to get people to vote is not enough. We need an informed electorate, which we do not have right now. We need an event that will get the eyeballs of the American people before the election. I have suggested a million man march led by people like Sheldon Whitehouse, Jamie Raskin, Jim McGovern, Dan Goldman and celebrities like Taylor Swift, Streisand, Ken Burns etc. If anyone has a better idea, I'm certainly open to their suggestions.
Check out this interview with VP Harris on Jimmy Kimmel's show a few nights ago.
She asserts that "a perverse thing has happened in this country where people are measuring the strength of a leader based on who you beat down instead of who you lift up and that it's a sign of weakness to have empathy."
On reproductive rights, she avers that "one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body."
When asked about what she thinks about Trump and his 34 convictions, she brilliantly segues into, and prefers to take up oxygen by talking about the Biden/Harris Administration's accomplishments.
Then, in a piece on CBS Sunday Morning, Mo Rocca gives what I call a push-back against Joe Biden's age being a reason not to vote for him.
On Roctogenarians: "We've been conditioned to think of the last third of life as a time to wrap things up. But more and more we see people like [Rita] Moreno (92 years young!) reaching new peaks instead of packing it in."
That's it for me unless you want to revisit the story of Apollo 8 with Bill Anders' Earthrise photo, resulting in Al Gore's launching of the Environmental Movement. Bill Anders was still flying at age 85. He died just a few days ago at age 90.
While certain kinds of and degrees of loss typically accompany late stage human aging, I am finding that there is a fairly disparate range of health, vitality, and competence that seems more connected to luck and lifestyle than to chronological age alone. How competent and professional does Biden seem compare to Trump? In some ways Trump seems senile, in others, infantile. but mature? Never.
He will never be mature no matter how old he gets. But the carnival barker keeps reeling them in. And, it seems that more than a few suckers are born every minute.
I love the bill board idea but I think in this critical time we need to be creating messages that inform voters about what is really going on. That for instance all republicans congress members voted NO on just about everything Biden has or has not gotten passed. And now some of those same reps are claiming responsibility for those bills that did pass. Flat out LIES. Most voters have no clue what their very own representatives are doing. They’re just following click bait and seriously don’t have a clue.
I love your mindset, Richard, but nobody wants to be told they've been tricked or that they're marks. They'll dig in like ticks. We need clever memes all over social media. Maybe Make America Groan Again?
Jeri, one of the problems is that in addition to Trump being a huckster of lies, he is being sold to the American people by a bunch of rich, privileged white men who want the power propping up an immature fool may let them acquire. They all know Trump is incompetent and should never hold any position of responsibility because he has no idea how to do any work. He always had money so could order people to do his dirty work (and any other work too) for him with a few things he could do like signing his name to checks to those who do that dirty work for him. Everyone who worked at the White House while Trump was president knew well that he did nothing and that all the work fell on them, and they were not all that competent either. That will not be the case if Trump gets into office again because he has had a lot of years to accumulate people he can count on to destroy whatever he wants destroyed and, Trump is good at looking the other way when those henchmen do a little dirty work on their own (his son-in-law collecting $2 billion from the Saudis). Getting enough Americans to see that Trump whether voted for by Trumpers and Trumpettes or through people voting for 3rd party candidates, will be a disaster for this nation is going to be hard, particularly when we are in a climate crisis that Trump and Kump simply ignore for the benefit of his Klan getting richer than any human or corporation should ever be permitted to be. This is all serious and needs to be addressed by every single Democrat and independent voter who cares about this nation.
I couldn’t agree more, to every syllable. I feel that if he cheats his way back in, the real powers will ditch him before 2026. Watch who VP pick is. Someone that he wants, or someone that the real power wants. Either way, we are toast if we don’t kick them all to the curb NOW. Ruth Sheets is woke in the best way possible.
If possible, I’m older than our brilliant president. Yup. Ex Pro dancer: both hips replaced, R knee oh oh post arthroscopy. But brain sizzling along better than when I was younger. So. Who knows? I’m actually surprised & deeply grateful; and I still boogie, write poetry (and those post cards!) although not all together. I’d really love to see a football field w those over 80 dancing together.
Now. Seriously. Who’s a good organizer? And can we all get together maybe practice via zoom?
I watched President Biden fumble for a chair on a stage in France and it may that he could not stand up one more minute. Which happens to me because of spinal stenosis. It has nothing to do with mental acuity. Give us a chair and we’re fine. Hard to correct too ! That poor man getting kicked around because he looks pale and frail. Listen to his words and watch the results of his actions. You just have to gloss over Gaza tho. FDR was in a wheel chair his entire Presidential life and the country did not know. It was not mentioned or photo graphed. That’s why he, Stalin and Churchill are shown seated at Yalta etc. The NYTimes was pretty Trump heavy yesterday. It was a wonder Trump did not appear in Sunday Styles !
Joan, I'm almost 68. This year's Feb/March AARP magazine listed several tests for senior fitness. I won't brag on my excellent scores, but I will say that standing can be excruciating for me. I've been xrayed, my hips are fine, but I get sacroiliac pain if I'm not moving. I understand your pain.
Did anyone see clips of the recent Trump interview with Fox? He was so slumped over that it really appeared he was unable to sit up straight. His abdominal muscles/core must be nothing but flab.
I'm a year younger than Joe Biden, and while I imagine that I retain whatever mental acuity I've always assumed I had, what concerns me most about Mr. Biden's decision to run again is that the odds of something happening to incapacitate him are far greater now than ever before in his life. Those odds are only increased by the stresses inherent in one of the hardest jobs on earth.
I will certainly vote for him. The potential of another Trump term is far too dangerous to contemplate with anything less than deep concern, if not utter horror. At the same time, I wish that Mr. Biden had let common sense dictate his choice. If he is as concerned with the state of the United States as he often says he is, he should be thinking more about might happen to the country if something should happen to incapacitate him in office than about his own ego.
He has done his job. He took Donald Trump out (for at least one term). In most ways he has done what I consider his best to carry us through this period of great risk and political craziness. He should now rest on those laurels.
I respectfully both agree and disagree, James. While his age is a factor in how many years he has left, he has a brilliant, much younger and savvy vice president who is also an excellent communicator. I only worry about Biden's health before Jan 20, 2025 (and I'm unsure what happens if he were to be reelected and die before inauguration -- I assume Kamala would name a vp and take the oath?)
I certainly hope that Mr. Biden is both re-elected and can fill out a second term in good health and full capacity. However, I'm not sure that a good reason for backing a presidential candidate is that one trusts in his or her VP. There are other ways in which age can affect someone than those which are direct and visible, and the 25th Amendment, while easily put into place in certain situations, would be very tricky in others. One does not have to go back beyond Ronald Reagan's dementia to understand just how tricky that might be. How does one adequately determine the onset of that kind of age-related situation?
It is a valid concern, so it make the VP choice especially critical. That said, I trust Ms. Harris, and would vote for any Democrat over Trump (even DINO Manchin). (I think it was Richard Gere who said he would vote for Godzilla over GWB). But we appoint SCOTUS justices of life, and some minds work overtime even with infirmity. FDR was mentioned. I'll add Stephen Hawking.
Actually, it is connected to biology and lifestyle. Clearly Biden has a different biology than Trump for example. What about Warren Buffett at 93 or 94, who is still running his international corporation and whose partner Charles Munger who lived to be 99. I have not heard people asking him to step down. Clearly he has a different biological age than Donald Trump does. My father's grandmother lived to be 109 years old. My mother's mother lived to be 99.5 years old. My mom is 90 years old and lives with people who are in their upper 90s who seem pretty fit to me. At dinner I have sees these men who are 96 and 97 dinning with a group of 3 women on some evenings. They all drink some wine, the men are cheerful and social and talk with people at other tables as they get ready to leave. They have joie de vivre! They might be a bit tipsy by the end of the meal, but they are walking around with no canes or other aides, just fit seeming. They live in independent living. Others who are their age or younger are living in the Alzheimers care section of their senior community. Because my mom and other relatives have gotten old, I am used to having a good sense of what old can look like, and it varies a lot. Friends who have lost their parents at a younger age, mostly to cancer, are more likely to be concerned about Biden's age, then I am. As for Trump, my friends worry about a lot of things before they worry about his age, even if he seems to be mentally inconsistent, or consistently incompetent.
That's it isn't it? All bodies fail at some point, and Olympians tend to be young, but the lucky brain gets to learn and competently process till the end. Judging from those who have revealed their age on this forum, there seem to be a disproportionate proportion of "seniors". Retirees have more time for long chain thinking on the Internet (as opposed to Xitter) and history may seem more relevant after living though a bit more of it. The Civil War, the Pharaohs, and dinosaurs no longer seem quite so long ago and far away.
Anders was 90 ! Does anyone feel safe in the skies with the elderly elderly flying solo up there ? I join that exalted class in a few weeks and, tho I am thinking about it, still driving.
Coming up on 78 next month. I got my license in 1962 and have driven 62 years in all types of cars and trucks including 15 or so hot rods and sports cars with only one very minor tap of another car on unexpected ice from a car wash, and one where part of the front suspension broke sending me off the road. I did 170,000 miles as an OTR driver in 17 months, always driving defensively well enough to (and lucky enough) avoid dozens of accidents that others could have or did cause.
Just 3 days ago, going north on I-295 out of Yarmouth, the line in front of me stopped, and I was able to stop with plenty of room to advance 3 or 4 car lengths to give the person behind me more room to avoid hitting me or being hit from behind themselves. I had left more room than usual because the driver behind me didn't leave much for themselves. If it looked a bit riskier, my plan is to do as much braking as I can on the clean road surface before angling off into the slippery side if the person behind me still doesn't have enough room to stop.
Solo flight may be an issue but most can't afford the insurance if over 70, except in a light sport aircraft (too light to do much damage to anything on the ground). I was offered a ride by Ray Stits when he was 90 and felt very comfortable with him ready to take off in his Cessna 162 Skycatcher light sport aircraft. It didn't happen since he spotted a fuel leak and took it back to the Hangar. He had flown countless kids in the free Young Eagles flights, he and half a dozen other pilots seemed to get up to 75 a month introduced to flying. The light sport aircraft were much easier to insure, and, since I worked in the Aeronautics Dept at our community college, had taken several ground school and instrument pilot courses, as well as being the lab assistant several times more. I never tried to get a pilot's license due to very poor hearing but got enough simulator time and rides with some brief time at the controls with the idea that I could at least be at least an emergency pilot, or become a safety pilot (eyes) for those who wanted to practice instrument flying using foggles. Taking the ground school courses so often helped to persuade several (especially younger students) to take the courses and practice a lot using MS Flight Simulator on the simpler home computers to grasp the radio procedures, navigation, air traffic rules, etc so the flight instructors could concentrate better on the actual in flight training (saving the students money by minimizing the hours of expensive in air training). Though many didn't go through to getting the actual license, it drew a lot more students in to at least learn enough to enjoy flying with others and be able to have a chance at flying a light plane in an emergency. I also got an A&P Certificate with the thought of getting an older airplane to fly, something I could maintain and have my son (or any of several friends) fly me around in every once in a while.
(Homage to Donald Trump’s ‘Proud Boys’ and Others)
(From "Donald's Vanity Tantrums") Enjoy
Fred Jackson was a proud rebel in The Great Northern Militia Alliance. He and his wife Ruth were often found hosting summer neighborhood barbecues. They easily found new supporters for the coming war to take back America. Fred stationed himself at the pit and handed out chicken legs drenched in homemade sauce to new, unsuspecting recruits -- kinda like a politician on election-day would do; promising a chicken in every pot. Talk of big government, guns and revolt would come later.
Fred and his cohorts believed themselves to be the direct Anglo-Saxon descendants of America's 18th century rabble-rousers who tossed bales of tea into Boston harbor after news of the British Stamp Act reached these shores. But tea-toddlers, they weren’t.
He was proud of his new-found abilities to recruit and had recently been promoted by the Alliance to the rank of sergeant of his own local militia. Wasting no time consolidating resources, Fred collected everything from boxes of canned food to crates of assault weapons. All were discreetly stored away in basements and underground bunkers in his local neighborhood.
Strategic plans were soon under way as this historic moment arrived, the moment to take back America. A secret, unnamed Northern Alliance militia representative from high up the chain of command visited one evening to give a short pep talk to the men and their wives in the basement of Jackson's home.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the mysterious commander said, “the time has come to act. We must stop the tyranny and treasonous actions of our government. Today we take action. We will starve the beast into submission. We will bring the entire nation to a screeching halt by whatever means are necessary. And we will un-steal the election. You know who I’m talking about; the great populist himself, codenamed, “OrangeFatso.””
“Yep”… they screamed in unison, “Save our leader, OrangeFatso.”
He jabbered on like this awhile longer and then said something about how it was one's duty to avoid payment of taxes like they did in the Boston revolt.
A rebel in the audience was overheard mumbling that, “Maybe them damned liberals wouldn't be so bad if we could just shoot a few.” as he cleaned and oiled his weapon. After the rousing speech ended, the mysterious speaker made way out of Fred's hatchway as quickly as he had arrived and was driven off into the night before anyone could ask questions.
The next day, Fred called for another drill. The basement was a good place to train without attracting attention. His supportive wife listened from upstairs as she tapped her foot to the muffled sounds of her husband's marching orders.
During the drill, Fred's wife heard her husband cry,
"Oh no… not again. I told you not to march forward in the cellar."
"Ruthie honey," Fred yelled from the basement, "Billy bumped into the wall again and now has a nose bleed. Quick, get me an ice pack."
One thing that should be noted about the division of labor between the men folk and their women; it was written in the Northern Militia Alliance's “Code of Conduct” that men would do the fighting and the women would play supportive roles – just like in the olden days of the founders. Their women were as important as Betsy Ross – who is thought to have sewn the first flag – was to the cause of revolt.
The country of Fred's birth was no longer recognizable to him. Waves of foreigners had migrated across the unprotected southern frontier. His leader had often spoken of building a really high wall to keep out the hordes. The government, Fred believed, was overrun with big-spending liberals and nanny-state socialists. Fred even thought that his own past president of the United States was born in another country.
“He wasn’t born here. You know he owes his allegiance to the United Nations,” cried Fred.
Encrypted communiques were now being sent and received with increasing frequency throughout the “Alliance.” The days of waiting had drawn to a close.
And so it came to pass. The militia teams began assembling. They gathered along every mountain pass and byway. They took positions beside bridges and waterways. Fred's platoon prepared to assault its assigned mountain. This really was only a big hill but these rebels had a tendency to magnify everything around them including the importance of they’re mission. Their watches were synchronized.
Sergeant Jackson finally gave the order to charge.
“CHARRRRRRGE!” he screamed.
The men began their long, wild, rickety-split charge to the top of the assigned hill. Fred held his assault rifle in the air with one hand, and with the other grabbed his pants before they slipped down below his protruding belly – an unfortunate victim of too many beer-drinking strategy sessions.
Well they whooped and hollered for so long that soon most of the militia troops were out of breath. By the time they reached the summit, the sergeant could be heard cussing' (at no one in particular.) He wondered if he had rushed up the wrong hill. His GPS repeated, “recalculating... recalculating...” His phone vibrated on his belt and he quickly grabbed it and listened intently.
His head turned slowly downward as he stared at his mud-caked boots. His heart was pounding. He was breathing fast.
“Yes sir, I see. But when are we...? Win the hearts and minds, first? But...OK, I’ll inform the men.”
The sergeant ordered roll call and sadly told his men that not only did they seize the wrong hill, but the unseen generals had decreed that this was only a drill. The real revolution was yet to come but now, without the element of surprise. Dejected, they began to hobble down the green hill.
Then suddenly, Sergeant Jackson received another message. This time, he could hardly contain himself. Something new had just happened and word was spreading like wildfire. His fingers quivered as he responded:
“I’ll tell the men right away.” The sergeant rallied the now exhausted rag-tag men around him and excitedly yelled,
“All hands to Burns, Oregon. The government is assaulting some ranchers. The Bunkerville boys from Nevada are leading the counter assault. I'll be driving out at first light if anyone needs a ride.”
Fred finally made it home in his Ford pick-up truck while still sweating from the long charge. His dear sweet Ruthie waited at the half-opened door as dusk settled in.
“Come in my hero. I made your favorite hot soup for you.”
Fred stumbled in and sat at their kitchen table and slurped down the refreshing food. He then went straight to bed without explaining anything to his worried wife about the disappointing details of the false deployment.
Fred dreamed about the new revolution soon to sweep the land of his birth – the land he hardly recognized any more. And he dreamed that his name would one day be enshrined 100 years from now, along the nearby interstate highway where he lived. The sign would read: “The Sergeant Fred Jackson Expressway: Named for a Patriot of The Second American Revolution Who Stood His Ground and Helped Take Back America.”
Then Fred farted and repositioned his head on the pillow as he slept like a baby all night long.
My computer AI just told me that Fred Jackson has nothing to do with the revolution, lol. And Fred happens to be Black in the picture. AI is ruling. Fred = Steve Bannon maybe?
I revisited the news that verifies what you say here, Andrea. My post featured an interview with him when he was 85. I missed the part that he was piloting the plane that crashed in the State of Washington. Thanks for putting accuracy to Anders' story.
I just watched Kamala Harris, who I admire greatly for her warmth, intelligence, and articulateness. It was a great joy to watch this and I am so proud to have her as our Vice President. Thank you for sharing.
Lynell, I was never one of those young people who thought you couldn't trust anyone over 30. I thought that was stupid at the time and think it is equally stupid to think you can't trust anyone under 30 or any other age. Agism is alive and well in this nation and it is assumed that anyone over, name the age, is too old to do anything. That is just crazy and denies our nation the contributions of some really wise older people. Then there's the nonsense that younger folks are too naive to contribute anything. people all need to be involved and be assisted with figuring out their gifts and ways to let them work for all of us. I do wish our schools paid more attention to this, but there is an obsession with learning specific math and language skills at the expense of learning what is required of citizens in a democratic republic.
It isn’t about age. It’s about aging. There is a difference. One can find plenty of examples of people that are still spry well into their 80s and 90s. This thread points to several. Another is Dick Van Dyke who at 98 just received his third Emmy. But this is not a comparative game—examples don’t suffice, each must be evaluated individually. President Biden doesn’t appear to be aging well as the demands of the job. Pass it off as unfair optics, if you want, but he doesn’t give me confidence that he will last out this term let alone another one, and I’m not alone. He doesn’t move or project himself as well as Dick Van Dyke or, I’m sad to say, TFG. Moreover, the presidency has a reputation of aging the incumbent. There certainly is no reason to expect that President Biden’s aging will slow in the coming months and years let alone reverse itself in any way. Now, he is where he is with regard to aging. Can his campaigning—his vision for the nation and how he can lead us there—overcome the optics of his aging? One can hope, but he hasn’t so far.
He's also cannier than his opposition. Did you read about the petroleum deal he did that brought oil prices down? Probably not.
After asking the Saudis to increase production and doing that awful fist bump, he came home and did what I think he intended all along: he dumped 100 million gallons of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve on the market. Do you remember dumpty squalling about it? Drumpf would never do that (it would hurt his Saudi friends). That damn fool has no interest in America.
It dropped the profits of OPEC and shook them to their sandals. America with its powerful economy and great wealth could do that any time.
The price of crude dropped by a third, gas prices and inflation went down, and Biden has quietly been refilling the SPR with fresh crude at less than $79 a barrel. And made the treasury half a billion dollars in the deal.
Joe is just fine,
The office didn't hurt the orange turd at all, because just like he isn't a real human being , he wasn't a real president.
I worry for President Biden's health. It's a very hard job.
"His physician gave him a clean bill of health, but noted Biden continues to have stiffness in his walk from a combination of arthritis in his back, neuropathy in his feet and the long-term effects of breaking his foot in November 2020 while playing with his former dog Major." This quote was from a Time article back in 2022. What I read about his more recent exam in 2024 did not speak as clearly about what causes his stiff gate.
Joe Biden is doing wonderful things for our country everyday. Unlike tRump, who takes to the gold course when he can... to cheat and be rewarded with fake prizes, Preesident Joe Biden works hard for all of us and has managed to produce some winning legislation despite the horrible odds he is up against.
Rachel (and Jen), I agree that President Biden has made significant accomplishments—and, yes, I do keep an eye on whatdidbidendotoday.) They alone will not get him reelected. He has also had significant policy flops and nonstarters. I have opined in this forum that he does not effectively communicate with enough of the electorate, particularly those in the middle and right. I won’t repeat that here unless you want me to do so. My point here is how he is viewed by the electorate. Well over 60% think his age is a problem. Percentages vary, but that includes Dems as well as Repubs and Indies. A simple Google search reveals that. I worry that neither he nor his campaign is factoring in that concern, and in this close race, that may well prove fatal to his bid for reelection.
The issue that keeps the age thing prominent is faux nooz.
And the shiny object that is the horror of the fat orange cocksplat.
The Democrats have never had great messaging, unless you think Bernie Sanders has great messaging (and I do, it's his style of communication, Bernie does outrage very well). But Bernia is an independent.
It's outrage Biden just can't do,
And I don't want to hear about the "moderates". It's just people who don't know enough to take a stand. Or without a spine.
It isn't about aging. It's about choosing between wisdom and unconstrained ignorance. We are all either supporting the former by exception or supporting the latter by default.
To anyone who has doubts about supporting President Biden, assume for a moment that the freedom of this and future generations depends on your willingness to challenge your own doubts while listen carefully to Lawrence O'Donnell's words in the following editorial:
That should be required listening and reading for not only the "media" - ALL of it, but for anyone that doesnt understand the fact that performance is NOT everything!
Pres.Biden may appear a little creaky - but listen to what he SAYS - then listen, truly listen to what tfg SAYS. Do you really think someone whose actual mental acuity is fisseling out in front of us is more able to run this country?
I am unable to listen or read the entirety of his "speeches" - I'm 86 and frankly that kind of babble would do damage to my brain.
Biden has a competent and able vice president. And looking at the ones tfg has lined up for the "contest" is quite frankly downright scary!
A whole lot needs to happen long term if Biden gets back in such as protecting voter rights and dealing with a corrupt supreme court. This will not be the last battle at the ballot box whether Biden wins or not. If he doesn’t win we may never see another fair election.
Make the speeches of Joe Biden required reading. I haven't listened or watched all of Biden's speeches, but at least 3 of them would be in the top 10 of Presidential speeches of all time. He may not be a charismatic speaker like Clinton was, but damn, he's got some good speechwriters and he delivers the message.
Many speeches are worthy of reading, but they remain curiosites, or just slog without understanding and discussion of how they affected the writer's circumstances , which in turn led to influencing our current circumstances;, and where the lesson lies that we can carry forward.
Especially before college, I was obliged to read a lot of stuff I barely grasped, with little help to understand it's significance, much less to understand what I could make of it today. So much of the background chatter of modern living is salespitch, and triviality, and frequently lies. Yet helpful resources (such as thoughtful and influential speeches) draw little attention. We get so distracted we might drive off a cliff.
FDR is a special case. And I'm talking about a classroom setting with teachers who can give the insight and context you were deprived of. Nothing can be compared to FDR's cutting wit and lethal dispensation of right wing liars. If FDR can't hold your attention, stay away from cliffs.
You are fortunate for that exposure. My guess is that most Americans did not get that. I am not very familiar with the writings of FDR, although have heard enough recordings to know that he was a compelling speaker. America has produced a number of wise and prolific writers and thinkers who would seem to offer elements of guidance for our problems of the day. Commercially promoted products alone cannot take us to where I think we need to be.
Reading his speeches is a great idea. But, I think the MSM should be touting his speeches, yet every day when I read MSNBC News, The Hill, HuffPost, etc, each has about ten trump stories and very little about Biden. I wish I knew a way to change this. I can’t understand why they favor the orange madman! If America heard what the President is doing and saying every day, perhaps things could change.
I think that everything we know is history. By the time we know, it's history. Obviously some elements of the past are far more salient and/or influential than others, and historians and scientists in particular keep careful track of those.
The better idea (than a media splash PR march of celebrities) is putting our limited resources of time and energy into getting out the vote for Democratic candidates. Such as Whitehouse, Raskin, McGovern et al. Who sensibly have their shoulders to the wheel of government - every day.
Lin, it wouldn't just be celebrities. Raskin, Whitehouse, Goldman would be leading the march I suggested. Getting the vote out is a necessity, but why can't we do both?
The elected officials you mention are 'celebrities' in their own right with better platforms than a march. The pop celebrities you mention also have better platforms than a march.
We ought not do both because of the allocation of resources and because marches can be easily countered and co-opted.
Your choice of example - the million man march called by racist and antisemitic influencer Louis Farrakhan who's done more to split the Left than Joe McCarthy -
No smart phones, no internet, no instant "news." All we had back then were people marching in the streets and newspapers who reported them. What else did we have, Jeri?
The get-out-the-vote should focus on states that have reduced the number of polling stations to make it harder for people without cars to vote. Perhaps, Yankees (e.g., me) could go swing states for rides to the poles, paid for by the corporate and wealthy contributors.
People do travel to swing states. Often if one pays for the travel, locals will provide housing. I now stay with friends - whom I first met when they provided housing. The thing is to fit into the campaign's or local Democrats' game plan and follow their directions/lead.
Lin, my goodness! I didn't even remember that Farrakhan was the guy behind the march. Discrediting my intentions speak of your character. I am a supporter of Israel and a defender of their existence. What a low blow!
And how are you going to do that on a large scale without media. People have to be shown the truth in order to weigh their options. Many people don’t follow politics so they need to be flooded with information on the platform they do use.
Why can’t wealthy democrats step up and push media to educate people and finance this agenda. They’ve certainly benefited from tax cuts and the “ trickle down” economy.
I know it's popular to attack the media, Ms Liss, but Heather began her LFAA this evening with a report in the WaPo on Vought. It's up to us to become better informed; the media has learned to present (and sometimes misrepresent) news based on how what and how we consume it today.
We are a society that responds to clickbait, shiny objects and the easy read, but there is still serious journalism being done out there, evidenced by this article.
(I'm aware that the WaPo has just undergone change in its editorial staff, leading to turmoil, and that it is bleeding Bezos' money.)
I follow Andra Watkins, NYT best-selliing author who “escaped” Christian Nationalism decades ago. She has read and dissected the Project 2025 manifesto. She often provides quotes and cites page #’s which makes it much easier than scrolling through 1000 pages !
I’ve been sharing the info with voters in my GOTV activities. Also, when writing to media, I include references to Project 2025, along with a link to the actual document.Many of us here know much more about Project 2025 than the media.
Without iron control of information, transformation will be incomplete. Project 2025 therefore aims to turn the federal Office of Communications into a propaganda machine.
Operational functions of the Office of Communications include scheduling and running press briefings, interviews, meetings, media appearances, speeches, and a range of other events. The Office of Communications must maintain robust relationships with the White House Press Corps, the White House Correspondents’ Association, regional stakeholders, and key interest groups. No legal entitlement exists for the provision of permanent space for media on the White House campus, and the next Administration should reexamine the balance between media demands and space constraints on the White House premises.
Project 2025, page 29
Their first avenue for total control of information? Only allow media outlets and their reporters onto the White House campus if they agree to convey the President’s agenda. All other media will be denied access with the excuse of “not having space.”
The overweening arrogance of the dark money contributors, Russell Vought, and of Kevin Roberts, the Heritage Foundation’s leader is what burns me. Where did they ever develop the idea that they have some divine right to lord it over the rest of us and assume that they have a right to run a government that abandons democratic rule and distorts the Constitution by thwarting the will of the people? Trump has no principles or virtues to speak of. He’s a greedy sociopath and narcissist whose sole desire is to see how many of the deadly sins he can get away with living. He makes fun of his Christian Nationalist followers behind closed doors, and he’s eager to have his more violent groupies physically attack anyone who dares disagree with him. He would jail his political opponents, and his followers imagine wrongly that President Biden is attacking him. In reality, his criminal activity is finally catching up to him.
Surely Soros is not the only one. Maybe they don’t want to be vilified like he has been, like forever. Talk about rewriting history. Bloomberg tried, but seem to have been smacked down.
When I receive two dozen requests a day to support this or that I want to delete everything! All the questionnaires are skewed for a specific answer instead of seeking true input from people. Then there are the text messages…we haven’t heard from you…almost threatening in tone. I am sick of it all.
I do my best to participate with postcards to swing states, primaries, getting the vote out and financially supporting where I can.
I agree, ask your big money donors for money. The GOP has billionaires backing them and my $25 here and there isn’t worth much. Plus I never see what all these various organizations are doing with our money…concrete examples/results would be encouraging, at the very least.
Nothing is getting done in Congress! No rights are being protected, the Supreme Court does whatever the hell it feels like doing, voting rights are being gerrymandered out of existence, tax dollars are wasted on frivolous go-nowhere investigations, public education is being eroded, women’s rights are head back to medieval times, healthcare for male sexual dysfunction are all over main stream television, and women now have to be worried about the right to obtain contraceptive care, etc. MSM does not cover Project 2025 so most people don’t have a clue as to has the potential to come down the road with this election.
I agree 100%! This morning I had 21 emails in my inbox soliciting donations for campaigns, and 2 text messages with the "we are getting worried, we haven't heard from you" heading. It never used to be this way. We could donate to a campaign and that was it, we were not continually (multiple times a day) bombarded with emails and texts for more. Any poll or questionnaire I receive is tied to a donation. It looks like you're taking a poll, but then it turns into a donate now thing. The 24/7 Trump news, GOP lies and gaslighting, and the RWNJ's nasty comments on social media has me watching less and less news and spending less time on social media overall (which really isn't a bad thing). You can't comment on a picture of a cute puppy without someone commenting about Gaza or blaming Biden for too many dogs in rescue (I am not kidding, this happened). I belong to a page for Real Estate Photographers on Facebook, we had a good thread about safety while taking photos, then the comments went down the "you can thank Biden for the high crime rates" and "buy a gun if you don't feel safe" rabbit hole. It's too much.
Part of the problem is that local reporting in most rural areas was not profitable enough to sustain itself against cable tv. Many local papers went out or were bought by private investors who gutted the reporting. That left the people to watch Fox or the Sinclair network which is worse. Getting the truth inside the bubble has been very difficult. Any woman, and any man with a mother, wife, or daughter who votes for any Republican is hurting themselves and their families badly.
Anne Nelson, a former reporter, has written a book studying the difference in news outlets and coverage between urban and rural areas. Rural areas have few news outlets other than right wing talk show screamers, Christian Nationalist radio shows, and cable outlets like Fox.
There are many wealthy Democrats actively supporting the party. But I suspect that many the wealthy pass age 50 and enter seek safer protection of their sacks of gold.
Joining country clubs and the Republican Party soon follows.
Lumping all folks over age 50 together as one selfish group is nonsense. Examples? Just read what the LFAA team, many over 50, have to say about current events. Spiraling out from myself and my partner, both 69, comfortable financially and dedicated to democracy, I see friends, family and community members in similar circumstances with similar values. We have NOT hunkered down in our caves hoarding our gains.
I second that. The older folks I know (I'm 72) who were Dems are still Dems, and the ones who were R's are mostly still R's though some -- like my sister -- actually voted for Biden in the last election. I really wish people would stop stereotyping older people. Guess I should be used to it, considering that we Baby Boomers have been maligned and stereotyped ever since we were teenagers.
My mom doesn’t say much about Trump, but I get the strong impression she doesn’t approve of him. My dad, brother and I quite openly detest Trump and are amazed at the stupid antics his groupies like Rudy Giuliani and Gym Jordan engage in.
You have a great idea. I know that you were thinking of people on the fly and can not possibly think of everyone. I would add Representatives Ivey (D-MD) and Moskowitz (D-FLA) as well as Senators Booker (D-NJ) and Warnock (D-GA) et many al. On the celebrity side, others might include Morgan Freeman or Denzel Washington.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Duncanville in southern Dallas County. Ms.. Crockett is no one’s fool, and I wish we had more people in Congress like her, and fewer fools like Gym Jordan, James Comer, Matt Gaetz, MTG, and Lauren Boebert.
The Poor People's Campaign is holding a march (again) on June 29 in Washington. This is not a "Christian" campaign, but a moral campaign; William Barber is fighting for the rights of all, and his movement deserves our attention. https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/mm2024/
I've lost count of the number of matches and protests I've attended in DC. The only one that got any meaningful coverage was the March for Our Lives, which was rather hard to ignore being as it got so big that marching was out of the question. All the others, all for good causes, happened in a vacuum.
Assuming that you didn't take part in the marches against the Vietnam War.
The last march in which i took part was against the war in iraq, and I concluded that Bush/Cheney had factored in a little backlash and were going to war anyway. At this point, i am not physically able to spend a day on the ground in DC, but I would certainly support one while we're still able to have one.
I'm in the same boat, Progwoman, that being my last march as well. What was so powerful about that one is how global it was, as each time zone continued it. I know it didn't make a difference, but to know how many people were against the Iraq war made a huge impression on me. If I were physically able to stand all day, I would attend another meaningful one in DC for sure!
Your response led me to a reverie about marches, demonstrations, protests, rallies and their effectiveness at bringing about change. In most cases their value is to "buck up the troops," as it were. In some cases they do motivate people to join a movement but so rarely do they lead those in power to change course. Would we have female suffrage or civil rights without them? Probably not. It could be that the Vietnam War was shortened because of them. But millions of people in the streets in the US and England didn't stop the insane invasion of Iraq. While the George Floyd marches did lead to some shifts in attitudes and behaviors, it is becoming increasingly clear that many of those changes were temporary. Sigh...
Then don't name it "The Million MAN March" if you want to appeal to a broad base. I know it's alliterative having the letter M three times in a row but you will turn off a lot of people who don't self-identify as men. Call it the Millions March to Save America or just the Millions March but don't drag it down by not being inclusive.
we need both I believe... a march is an exciting idea (I would attend) maybe lots of marches at the same time... but we all must be doing everything is our own power to get out the vote and to convince to vote blue with evidence based conviction! Postcards, letter, texts, phone calls, not once or twice but continuous.
This electorate resists information, Eadie. They either already know what MAGA is up to and want it, or they don't care. I suspect that the traditionally progressive demographic falls more into the apathy bucket. I'd like to believe that if the majority knew what's going on, they'd rise up against this crap passing for ideology, but I don't. I think our best bet is to scare them into voting blue... no free public ed, no social security, no healthcare of any kind (without an exorbitant price tag), no chance of fulfilling or adequately paid employment. As much as I'd like to push hope and change and freedom and equality, I believe we need to trigger more anger and fear in voters than MAGA does. We have to run the clip of the convicted felon saying 'I don't care about you, I just want your vote' on endless loop. Non stop loops of J6 and George Floyd and MTG. I guess that's informing of a sort.
Tell me why the following is wrong, and if not, tell me why it is not being shouted from the rooftops. To me, a politician is engaged in political practice or committing political malpractice. The former is serving the whole, which in the short term is at the expense of its parts, and then the strength of the whole benefits the parts in the long term. The latter is serving a part at the expense of the whole, and then the parts suffer in the long term because of the weakness of the whole.
To me, if an individual's behavior is based on that simple understanding, then that individual is part of an informed electorate, full stop. Everything else is mere technical detail.
Instead cynicism is rampant because too many people think of politics as one evil but necessary thing. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan put it, "If you have contempt for government, you will get contemptable government."
Now is the time for us to figure out how to make public service, working for the common good and the greater good, appealing to young people so that the blue tsunami is not a one-time thing but a continuous generational movement. Maybe reintroducing civics into our schools could be the first step in fostering in our children the recognition that in our democracy, their privileges and their responsibilities are intertwined. It has to start at the local level so that we build a community through which ordinary people can learn the skills of legislating and representing both the values and the needs of their fellow citizens and advance through the ranks to higher and higher office.
Retired teacher here. Once public education began teaching from the NCLB federal laws of the George W Bush administration, it specifically went after all civic minded classes. American History, Economics, American Gov, current events anything that created cohesion as to what it is to be an American Citizen was out. What our Declaration of Independence and Constitutional rights mean to us as individuals was scaled so far back that American History was a 5 week presentation in 9th grade that covered the Revolutionary War only. They don’t teach geography so by the time my 7th graders came to me they couldn’t tell you where the Statue of Liberty is located, Disney World?
They meant to dumb down the public as to be unconcerned with self-government while fascism took over our way of life.
One generation and 15 year old kids don’t know where Yosemite National Park is. Or that Washington DC is located on the eastern edge of America.
No Child Left Behind was double speak for No Child Gets Ahead. Instead of pride in our educational system, Republicans don’t want people to be educated, to know their rights, to be able to push back. 24 years of tearing down public education. Home schooling is up and I can’t blame people, not wanting to lose a child. Children are in danger from gun violence in schools and the rest of us aren’t sure we’ll make it home from the grocery store. We need to teach what it means to be an American.
Lots of territory covered here. I feel that I got a better education at a country school decades ago than my granddaughters got and are getting at a respected district in Texas today. That should be a crime. And Gov Abbott is trying to finish off public education with his voucher crap. And who will stop the lying, cheating bastard.
Yes, Jeri, you are correct. Fortunately, my son was at a magnet school with a stellar reputation for teaching a classic liberal arts curriculum. It was and still is a gold standard, but that continues to be diminished due to the TEA over regulation.
Over regulate, under fund, blame the schools for their failures. The Texas GOP education plan.
I agree. I did a lot of reading on my own and still do because many things are still not taught even in college programs. I was not indoctrinated into Marxism or any of the other evils wingnuts claim students are learning. I am not a radical, but I am a believer in allowing ALL people to be heard, especially the people who were deliberately kept from being heard. It makes me sad and angry to see us retreat from rights for women, all ethnic groups and Dr. King’s vision. Dr. King’s statements frequently get misused and co-opted by “conservatives,” who misinterpreted deliberately what he called for.
I live in NC. Since the backlash Tea Party came in after 2010, Republicans have been hacking away at public education in NC. They refuse to fund education so that all NC students get an equitable education. They cut teacher pay, attack schools of education as deficient, and then they throw funds at charter and private schools. They constantly denigrate public schools, but they are the ones who have damaged public education so much. So many people have been able to have a better life and be self supporting because of public education, but the Republicans want to ruin public schools.
Part of the agenda in Project 2025 is to eliminate education as we knew it. I maintain that in the richest nation on the planet every kid has a right to the same high quality education in PUBLIC SCHOOL. Billions are being given to religious schools - kids are being indoctrinated with bigotry and our public schools are being starved of resources. This is a direct result - a backlash - of our efforts to integrate and include everyone into society.
Giving money to religious schools is a violation of Amendment I of the Constitution. I don't care what the Extreme Corrupt Court says.
In our town, I am proud to say that the schools look like the UN. Our grandchildren are growing up learning about other cultures. Our taxes are out of control. But I do know that they are funding a generation who are being taught that diversity is healthy and normal - a feature!
A recent 1st grade event featured the kids explaining what they had learned about Japan! And then...wait for it...four sixth graders took turns explaining what they had learned in "Empathy" class. :)
Giving money to religious schools via vouchers directly reduces funding to public schools, worsening the situation. In Ohio, the amount of money is staggering. I’m not going to look it up right now, but I think it’s around $750 million this year, mostly given to parents of children who were already attending private schools. It’s scandalous.
I’m in my iPad so can’t edit, but those vouchers are not just for religious schools, but private schools in general. I shouldn’t have phrased that first sentence like I did. Not enough coffee yet.
I see people bitch and moan about local districts asking for levies, but they have to because their tax money is financing vouchers for affluent parents.
I agree with you there. The Supreme Court has totally misinterpreted the First Amendment here. The citizens do not have an obligation to fund private schools, and public schools have to educate all students. Private and charter schools don’t.
Good morning. I was just in Winston-Salem last month for my oldest grandson’s graduation from Forsyth County Home School Consortium. He’s heading off to college this fall. My 2 grandsons have been home schooled since 1st and 3rd grades.
I can tell you being from and teaching in PA, NC mortified me! Teachers teaching basically from the goodness of their hearts. They were earning less in their
15th year of teaching than my starting pay. They are there at 6:00 a.m. and work after the students are gone for the day. That’s bad enough but the shenanigans the state has turned into a circus of denying education to its residents.
One grandson needed a gifted IEP, one has high functioning autism needed an IEP. My son and daughter-in-law pulled them out of public school and have done an outstanding job with both of them. The consortium is well organized and lots of time with the other students is important. People of NC, vote these clowns out!
Especially that crazy Lt. governor, Mark Robinson. Happily touting the board of governors has gutted the diversity and inclusion policies in the states higher education system. Stating an overall equality policy is better than an inclusion for minorities. White people only and preferably males and not too many of them either. Is the bottom line.
PA has plenty of voucher supporters but we’ve held the line. It’s self pay if you don’t want your kids to attend the district school. That is not without its own set of issues, like the home district pays for transportation and/or all the necessary equipment for home schooling.
Vouchers are another way to keep people uneducated.
I remember when Mitt Romney lost the election to Barrack Obama because of his comment saying “People who voted for Obama don’t take personal responsibility or care for their lives.”
Karen , my son was in 3rd grade and made the same observation that NCLB was no child gets ahead. As a retired TX educator, saw the standardized testing for what it was and how badly it affected public ed. Now the "conservatives" are pushing to use public money for home school and private schools with absolutely no accountability. Parents using their tax money for education to buy video consoles and take trips to amusement parks or just travel on vacations are just some of the more serious abuses of the public to private shenanigans.
By the way, the tearing down goes back further with the plans laid with James Buchanan and then William Bennet got the ball rolling during the Reagan years. NCLB was the culmination.
Well said. The Rs have said out loud that they want to get rid of the Department of Education altogether. Having served in “higher” Ed for over 20 years I can testify that politics and money rule the day more than education and enlightenment.
Current attacks on education are all about gaining the power and resources to indoctrinate people instead of focusing on critical/creative thinking to elevate humanity.
The government and Christian Nationalists have been whittling away at public education for decades, with Jerry Falwell declaring years ago that he prayed for the day when public education was gone and the Church was in control of education.
The Christian Nationalists Evangelicals are a tenacious threat to democracy. Their followers are called sheep for a reason.
Those are all fine ideas, but they will not solve our problems before the upcoming election. We need to come up with good ideas that will inform the general public before the election.
What exactly and fundamentally, do Democrats stand for?
Lynell(VA..'s quote from Kamala Harris "a perverse thing has happened in this country where people are measuring the strength of a leader based on who you beat down instead of who you lift up ..." which hints at such a direction, were it restated in a mission statement form.
People with large platforms need to hammer on the real plan to destroy personal freedoms and impose a certain version of Christianity on all with a “strong “ ruler over all.
As far as people’s day to day purchasing goes, Trump has said nothing sensible that tells people what he’ll do. Drill baby drill means what? How will that control inflation/prices. Mass deportation will cause labor shortages. Forcing lower rates leads to inflation. None of what he plans will help anyone but himself and his cronies. I think we’re at the “fuck around and find out stage.”
I agree with you. I think that's my biggest lesson from the Trump era. Democracies have to be nourished and protected . If we manage to win in November we must never ever forget this lesson and people have to stay involved!!
True. Citizens can’t sit on their hands and refuse to participate in self-government. I was raised to believe that it was important to study the issues and to vote in all elections, and I do so.
State testing (MCAS) has an 8th grade Civics component.
There has been a push to increase Civics education
“The 2018 History and Social Science Frameworks along with Chapter 296, An Act to promote and enhance civic engagement, renewed the civic mission of a history and social science education in Massachusetts: to prepare all students to be thoughtful and active citizens. Every student regardless of race, class, ethnicity, language status, religion, education, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability has the right to civics education, including effective pedagogy and applied learning. Civics education should be culturally responsive, develop students' civic identities, and center the acquisition of knowledge, intellectual skills, and applied competencies that citizens need for informed and effective participation in civics and democratic life.”
My questions are, how widely is the framework taught, and what are the specific components? Having the right to something, in this case, civics education, doesn't mean that learning is actually offered or takes place in the course of the school day. Do the children have a chance to put the curriculum into practice? Thank you for the links to the websites that you've provided--I'll try to check them out.
The Mass Frameworks are curriculum guidelines for Massachusetts Public Schools.
Please refer to the following links for more information. The MCAS for Civics in grade 8 is presently a "Field Test" as the curriculum was just redefined in 2018.
Excellent perspective to cast our imminent participation in partisan politics as an essentail means of controlling the excesses of the wealthy in "colonization of the electoral process" to their advantage instead of general population. The key to that potential success, if I may suggest, is two-fold: 1) a diligent and MASSIVE effort on the part of EACH OF US AND the Democratic establishment to register and turnout women of all permissive ages in order to protect, defend and enshrine reproductive rights AND the fundamental freedom of contraception at the ballot box in every state; and 2) to instill in younger women age 18 to 35 that they hold the keys to our success as a democratic society on November 5 by doubling and tripling their former perfomance as part of the electorate! One really effective way to accomplich these ESSENTIAL objectives is to contribute generously to www.TurnUp.US which is in my humble opinion the most effective nonpartisan organization registering and turning out the younger vote EXCLUSIVELY in competitive congressional districts and Senate election states! It is run by brilliant Harvard students wisely in 348 Community Colleges in those competitive areas to register and turnout hundreds of thousands of new younger voters! And it is premised on support for abortion rights, gun safety legislation, and to fight climate change. PLEASE HELP TONIGHT AND TOMORROW! WE CAN DO IT! THANK YOU.
Thanks for the donation advice, Ira. It's a wise ground game to recruit from a population that is already more liberal. I'm increasing the pace of my donations, now that we're approaching the home stretch.
I'm also hoping to see shows and movies from Hollywood that highlight the danger that the American Taliban, in partnership with the Oligarch class, pose to American society. I wonder why we haven't seen that.
Look for the 2024 documentary Bad Faith. (Free w/ads on Tubi, $0.99 to rent on Prime, Google Play, and YouTube). It's a must-watch history of Christian Nationalism.
I discovered someone I knew in that movie! Had been an election officer I was assigned to. First thing he asked, thankfully not in front of voters, was whether we believed the 2020 election was stolen! The day went downhill from there. I spoke to the asst director later.
It is a horror story, and it's been there all along - the monster under the bed sort of thing, except this is real. Choose a time to watch it when you're feeling strong and confident. ;-) And remember that knowledge is power!
I'm holding some hope that public figures with influence like musicians, educator/activists, and other attractors-who-roam will (and are) have a gradual impact now and will emerge later with greater force, in time to vote for democracy. Strategic impact. Music is about time -- sound waves moving/thought waves moving in the world -- might be better than political manipulators. Those thought leaders don't know what we're doing now, we don't know what they're doing. Could be a restless summer.
I respectfully disagree, Jeri. I gave early to help various campaigns get started, and I'm giving again now, after those campaigns now have local experience and can perceive needed lines of attack. Depending on early decisions to be correct reduces flexibility/ agility. So while campaigns donations now came help campaigns that haven't already done much, they can help improve ongoing operations.
The one thing I truly hate about ActBlue is that EVERYBODY is sending / texting me donation requests. I block all of them and depend on thoughtful forums like thus one to help guide my donations.
Have to be careful not to waste $$ in races that are safe or races that are impossible; there are less than 100 in the House of 435 that are truly competitive and 14 on the Senate side!
If I had $11,400, I could donate $100 to each. However, even if I was willing to spend that much, I won't. I wish I had a prioritization algorithm besides geographic proximity to my home.
I was referring to films being made by Hollywood. Before I became a widow, I gave monthly donations often and a lot. Don’t have the money now but I really resent the onslaught of inane emails from ActBlue. I have given to some without going thru them.
Good ideas, but each of us will not do as you wish. It's wishful thinking. We need to mobilize the youth and the uninformed electorate with an event that will get the attention of these groups before the election.
Indeed, it is a real disappointment thus far that the national abortion rights organizations have not announced massive women’s marches in each state, “perhaps on Labor Day”?
J L, to amplify your point, I would invite anyone to issue a query to your favorite search engine: "If all wealth owned by Americans were divided and distributed evenly among all Americans, how much money would each person have?" I've been getting a consistent answer, at around $500,000 per person. Congress has the power to redistribute at least a portion of the wealth held at the top of the pyramid, as well as the power to elevate the minimum (poverty level) wage to a living wage.
President Lyndon Johnson attempted to wage a War on Poverty. "In his first State of the Union address in January 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Congress to declare an “unconditional war on poverty” and to aim “not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it” (1965).
Sadly LBJ's War on Poverty was at least in part a casualty of the Vietnam War folly. I think of what is needed less as redistribution as rooting out corruption. The game is rigged, with loaded dice and marked cards. The normal flow and spread of money in a "square deal" (T. Roosevelt's term) has been rigged collect in fewer bank accounts. " Reagnomics" was a swindle plain and simple from the word "go", and it's gone on for far too long.
Again, on November 26, 1932, Will Rogers said, “The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow’s hands.” Mr Hoover may not have known that money trickled up but these cretins surely do. And they don’t want the poor to get even a whiff. As HCR said, these greedy bastards have been at work for all our existence. Well, maybe in better-chosen words.
LBJ tried both guns and butter, and the guns won out. Nixon and Kissinger managed to start further problems overseas and they lied about having a secret plan to end the war. Far from ending it, they continued it for another 5 years, and sparked other wars in Cambodia (helping bring the Khmer Rouge to power) and Laos by their illegal bombing campaign. South Vietnam fell after Ford became President.
I never saw the point of the massive loss of lives (both sides) in Vietnam. Like so many human tragedies, the the motive seemed rooted in conscienceless hubris. Hubris makes us into monsters.
There was much hubris involved in Vietnam. Nor did I see the point of all the death. We thought we were fighting Communism, but we were really meddling in a civil war.
"We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate."
- Thomas Jefferson
From the Powell Memorandum for cementing corporate power to the Citizens United decision enabling corporate money to undermine self governance. From the Politics of Faith to the New Apostolic Reformation Seven Mountain Mandate and Teneo Network establishing church rule. From the Big Lie inciting insurrection to the (largely via Leonard Leo funded) Heritage Foundation Project 2025, a Presidential Transition Project for an imperial Trump presidency. The biggest lie is that out of the rubble of a tainted European liberalism (trending to socialism and communism), Trump will return the U.S. to a purely American polity. Republicans are recycling Putin and Orban to repurpose our democratic republic as a corporate clerical fascist state. The entire right wing apparatus has been 'post constitutional' for decades. Hollowing out the foundational principles and historic institutions of democratic government while using the procedures to drain American law of justice.
Christopher Caldwell, eminence of the Claremont Institute argues that landmark Civil Rights legislation of the Sixties "introduce new, incompatible, and unConstitutional elements to American law." Enter the Leonard Leo Supremes. And Jan 6 insurrectionist John Eastman, director of Claremont’s Centre for Constitutional Jurisprudence. There's more than one way to overthrow a democratic republic. Republicans are embracing both.
As in 2016 with 'independent' forces aligned with GOP determination to put Trump in office ( yup Stein, Kennedy, West, No Labels et al ) it won't be easy. A democracy is a terrible thing to waste. And a much harder thing to restore.
I suspect this comment is directed, rightfully, to Dr Cox Richardson. But, hey, I lived in N.Y.C. long enough to know how to take credit where it is not due.
To me, the Powell Memorandum is a red herring. Of course, coprorations should co-ordinate lobbying and other political activities, just as unions should as well as other stake-holders. It is the Citizens United case that crushes us most.
I keep getting an image of the oceans of dark money flowing out of Citizens United, applied to society as a kind of fixative, or glue, or cement, designed to maintain the current incumbent system in place. Can our human voices compete with the voice of filthy lucre? Can anyone hear the voice of the melting tundra or the taiga or the formerly cold oceans?
Yeah, I agree. Citizens United was deemed a free speech issue by Justice Kennedy, I believe. It has led to monopolized speech that cuts out the rest of us. Senator Whitehouse from the hearings to confirmation hearing for Justice Brown Jackson.
One thing we can do is drive voters to the polls in places where the polling stations are difficult to get to. And if the State does allow mail in voting help them fill out their ballots, make sure they are correctly signed and give them the postage stamps if needed. Just make damned sure the helpers are not in danger of being shot or thrown in jail
Thanks, Ellie. I have often thought of going to states where that would help. Even with my nationwide concealed carry privileges, I am leery of doing that.
As a man, my first thought was that you are a retired deputy and therefore as tough as nails. But, I've learned albeit very slowly, that woman are targets of violence and it is wise of them to "be leery."
Nothing is more unfair than a woman having to be concerned about her welfare while men, in almost all situations not so much.
I'm sure you've seen many men that have been victims of violence as well as women, but it is a different mentality completely.
If the wealthy aren’t careful, they could trigger such ugliness against themselves which haven’t been seen in the West since the French Revolution. They’ve been monitoring us and compiling our data for long enough to know our realities and feelings about it.
I believe this time we need to do Much more than Vote. We need to Get Out The Vote To overcome a century (again I refer to The Business Coup of 1933)
of brilliant but evil analysis and long term planning and WASP entitlement in the service of bringing democracy to heal.
Sadly, we can Not count on the Democratic Party or its PACS.
WE, the highly engaged, invested people here and on social media and Daily Kos and Robert Reich's substack and others need to Expand
and Get Out The Vote.
For instance, tomorrow I am phone banking for AOC. I live in CA. I am single mom of 64 with 2 sons, 18 and 21, and my own business to run, and a house to keep. Their dad passed away just over a year ago. I am Busy.
I donate money to groups like MoveOne, Sunrise Movement, etc, but it's minuscule!
My secret power is I
Can Call Anybody!
A very rare skill, highly valued in my family, and by our capitalist society. If you can "cold call" you can work anywhere! It's actually easy because you're given a list of Democrats and you just have to remind them how and where and when to vote.
AND Campaigns Need You!
BUT if you're like most of the uninitiated, you won't phone bank. You can still:
TEXT
WRITE postcards (reminding dem voters to Register & check it; vote in the primary: talk to friends and family; find their polling place when we get closer...)
Write letters to swing voters about why you vote
Write letters to local newspapers, media, etc with helpful scripts
Answer phones for campaigns - how to help, candidate info, important issues ...
SHARE social media
Find a PROTEST
KNOCK on Doors (do it with a friend. It's actually very interesting and empowering!)
So many ways.
This is how we win against the Billionaire Machine.
And save life on Earth.
Resources: Field Team 6, MoveOn, Emily's List, Sunrise Movement, Greenpeace ...
This Is It. Muster up a couple friends. Now is the Time.
I recommend Jessica Craven’s Substack “Chop Wood, Carry Water” a daily handbook with concrete actions to take on a daily basis. And all the info and links to do it. The newsletter is free.
Citizens United pretty much changed "one person, one vote" to "one dollar, one vote". The more money you have, the more power you have (to buy the government you desire). "Corporations are people, my friend"
Points well made. We have a tough row to hoe as the power of the media is potent. (Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" 2004) Mass media are used to corral and herd the white Christians with wedge issues: abortion, women's rights, gay rights, immigrants, etc. We can now add to that Christian Nationalism, the re-emergence of the KKK in the form of MAGA (Misleading All Gullible Americans.) Instead of white conical hats they now wear red caps. It's the same as the 1920's, only more serious. [Timothy Egan, "A Fever in the Heartland," about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's.) We're now at a "Crossing-the-Rubicon" moment in this nation's history, IMO. With modern methods of surveillance, no one, not even the MAGA people, will be safe.
There’s a lot of armchair quarterbacking plus a feeling by far too many of hopelessness. Our daily What did Biden do Today gets my attention but little press and all that TFG does/thinks/eats/or says causes panic ontop of disgust. I appreciate those watching the circus, telling ,or forewarning . I’ve got a list getting longer by the minute of complicits.
America the lesson unfolds before us like never before. This is key to what to plan around..
But from our get-go the road’s been rocky and the skeletons of many a covered(up) wagon paints things gone awry. But I concur the record shouldn’t be scrubbed clean ‘to look( or feel) better’. Perhaps erased is a better choice of words.
Reality is a harsh teacher at times and Don the Con with his clench-fisted entourage is , to me at least , a culminating point , circling the wagons and a big tight grouping effort needed.
We’ve been made aware of the deplorable voting percentages..this needs corrected.
We’ve been made aware certain laws needed codified and others need better defined..
We’ve had full control of all three government entities and not done it…I’m not naive enough to think those in the know didn’t see this coming down the pike.
Responsible politicians is a phrase laughed at as much as the current comedians heyday with the chaos…this needs corrected also…colleague may have its place but respecting an oath taken comes first.
America’s #1 standing is a used to be..this needs corrected too . I won’t mind sharing World Leaders status with ANY other country…but they have to pass a test …are we?
Education is a duty to our citizens, not a touted FALSE banner to ‘fool’ the world…that a fool has given us thus ‘do or die’ moment..is irony at its best!
The 2% of the contributing structure stripped of its safety net as is indicated Plan 2025 - of medical Medicaid SS etc…won’t eradicate the deficit and they know that..(that’s NOT the intent)
Solid leadership (and representation) for ALL, fair tax rates, internal cleaning of every ‘house’/department …oust the Complicits ie traitors ,liars, cheats, and foreign dissidents ….will though.
Too much to ask?
Or shall we again have to face this reality in 2028 ….IF
Time to come to Jesus , folks? I would prefer a , no sarcasm intended, WWJD
Annabel, nicely put and exactly the call we need to work hard in every way possible to elect Ds. I call Rs the party of death and 45 death star because they will be the death of everything we cherish if they gain power. i post Heather's letters to Facebook and always end by a call to vote D.
Steven Bannon, walking sack of (you fill in the lines) is always going to be this way. Democrats have to get on the same page and go on total war footing. Enough is enough. Obama faced two wars and a depression and got us out of it with a strong economy which Trump too and ran into the ground by not dealing with Covid. Biden took on Covid and got us through this in this. Now we have a roaring economy. We have to shout this message out! We have to go on offense!
Obama saved the banks but not the average person with foreclosed home. For so many the economy was not strong. But wow it sure paved the way for all the corporations buying up homes and making them sky high rentals
I seem to remember that Democrats had a control of both House and Senate right after Obama took office for his first term. Democrats really dropped the ball with weakness of spirit and pork when they probably could have gotten a really great new health care package instead of the watered down version we ended with among other things. It was a real disgrace. Their majority in the House was quickly reversed maybe 2 years later or less and great opportunities were lost.
G.P., I suggest we focus on 2021-2022 when Democrats controlled both Chambers and the White House. You might recall the House passed hundreds of progressive bills, all of which stalled in the Senate, even those that were bundled into a reconciliation package that required only 50 votes (the VP casting the tie-breaking vote) because Manchin and Sinema sank the package. The outcome was the eventual passage of the vastly edited-down Inflation Reduction Act.
I mention this recent history because a 2025 Senate majority 1) would be far more receptive than the previous majority to filibuster reform and/or carve-outs and 2) would not include Manchin or Sinema who mostly blocked legislation that was not bi-partisan.
Accordingly, were we to re-take the House, hold our 49 Senate seats, flip 1 Republican-held seat, and hold the White House—all doable—we could see historical, transformative change over the next two years. Note I haven’t even mentioned that the party-at-large has become far more receptive to expanding the Court, which, among a host of reforms, likely would include overturning Citizens United.
You seem to forget that Mitch launched a wall of dirty tricks and made up bullschittery, much in the name of socialism (racism). I imagine that Obama fell for the same bipartisanship goal of all Dems (Joe more than most) and suffered with every breath he took. Repubs repay bipartisanship efforts with the most vile pushback.
Yeah, it should have been so easy to wrench the government and the economy back on track during a historic economic meltdown created by GOP failed wars and bank fraud. Yeah, The Dems were totally lame after the first Black President beat the (hopefully) Final Bush Dynasty candidate and then just inexplicably wimped out.
Hunh? Did you forget to put the /s on your comment? Or are you just a poor Putti masquerading as a b0t?
I know. I am just so tired and losing hope and these pseudo polite "I seem to remember" trolls just make my skin crawl. I will still do my shifts for AOC, and all the other progressives left to their own by the gd useless DNC.
But you're right. It's just exhausting "going high" all the gd time.
But that’s just greed. They have bought up nursing homes and Vetinary hospitals and cut costs and raised prices. That’s spectaculars seeing an opportunity and going for it. It’s evil I know but how does Obama or Biden control that. It’s a huge problem where I am.
He and Warren and a few other stalwarts tried to make it good for the foreclosed and not just the foreclosing, but "too big too fail" was already a fait accompli thanks to smashing of anti-trust under the puppet regime of Reagan. I agree that Obama seemed to have a lot of deals with the devil, but that is the state of the Union after decades of corporate takeover. Plus, I believe his Harvard schooling may have made him believe too much of the Exceptionalism that we All fall to. Still, he and Joe fought for so much and had such a short window and majority to get it through.
Just like Biden this time. Whoa! He's been incredible!
BUT now he's "Genocide Joe." And that is not changing.
That is true and a huge oversight. My point being that Trump thought he was a better President for the economy when a great economy he had from the start
Just wait, he’s coming up on additional charges in the state of NY for the “build the wall” scam (one or more of his compatriots in this have pled guilty already)….he was pardoned by TFFFG on the Federal charges regarding this, but not at the state level….so remains to be seen what comes of this & how long he can drag this one out as well—and if it goes to trial and he is found guilty, who knows what he might face as a sentence. Hope he eventually gets his just desserts.
Hopefully not, since this is a state indictment, not federal. Not that they wouldn’t try to overturn existing laws/jurisdictions to make it disappear….wonder what, if any, pushback there would be? Once I would count on SCOTUS to do the legal/right things….now, not so much.
Because it is in the middle of the sentencing guidelines. He was convicted, the maximum sentence is up to one year.
"If the individual is prosecuted and convicted, violations of § 192 are punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment “for not less than one month nor more than twelve months.” The federal sentencing guidelines also inform the severity of the penalties."
It is my understanding that every Republican President since (including?) Reagan increased the deficit while in office but each Democrat President has decreased the deficit while in office. If true this fact needs to be shouted from the highest mountain.
Much use of the word weaponization has punctuated much of our political discourse of late. But contrary to the claims of those who most frequently claim our institutions are weaponized, it is the very accusers, poised to sweep away democracy that are weaponizing their power to establish Christian Nationalist dictatorship. We must share and spread awareness of this insidious danger to democracy.
I fully agree with your comment. I would make one point: it is a "clear and present danger" not an "insidious danger". The objectives of Vought et al are not hidden or disguised.
The religious right has been planning to take over the government since at least the 1980s and have never hidden that fact but no one seemed to take them seriously. And now they are in concert with these billionaires who think that because they have money they get to tell everyone else what to do and how to live. People had better listen to what they are saying because they mean it and Trump is a useful tool for the right wingers- both the religious and the wealthy- to put their plan into place. I agree with other commenters that this election may be our last if we don’t get out and vote blue up and own the ballot.
That's understandable Jeri. The Religious Right was a political influence movement that disregarded the First Amendment and the intentions of the Founding Fathers. Christian Nationalism, or the "Religious Reich" if you will, is about insurrection and destruction of the Constitution and democracy, and built on a plan that Hitler would have admired. When Steve Bannon is praising "mad men" that should tell us that we are dealing with a clear and present danger. Meanwhile the Supreme Cheeto awaits his Coronation. To put it another way, we've gone from Repubs to Trumpublicans.
I’m still gobsmacked by the bold agenda they have said out loud now. Birth control, really. I hope people believe it because that will affect all of us.
"Election" is becoming a talisman word. I've just had another look at the opening salvoes of Project 2025. It doesn't mention the election at all. It starts with when the next conservative president takes office, day 1. I may be too imaginative, but I find this really frightening. And if Trump was a thinking man he'd be getting a bit alarmed himself. Do you see what I'm thinking?
Good point. The November 2024 election is critical for our next step to save democracy, but any Democratic presidency in the foreseeable future is at peril of inherently amoral MAGA Christo-fascist means to justify their end of assuming power. Their means range from legal sophistry to election interference to information warfare with propaganda to bribery, and no doubt to what we feared for Obama during his presidency. After Trump, they have plenty of aspirational power contenders.
Yeah, Ellie, all we have to do is look at Mike Johnson (& his ilk), selected as House Speaker….the “poster boy” for the 2025 mandate movement….they have slowly swollen the ranks of our representatives on the Fed and state level, and are poised to move when the moment presents (or they create) itself.
That would have to have been set up as soon as Project 2025 became known. It would take very careful and skilled organisation, potentially extremely dangerous. I think it's at least a year too late for that.
I mostly agree with you. If such a group lost its prime purpose, it could become tyranical. However, the legal system, including some key courts, judges and Justices has failed to support the Constitution. In short, those who are supposed to protect our democracy, have not, and many others have violated their Oaths of office and engaged in a defacto coup. Can it be stopped without violence? Is there another country that has done a better job of removing or silencing such traitors? If so, how did they do it?
They are the ones doing the weaponizing with hearings on the Biden Crime family, treating genteel gentlemen (i.e., Attorney General Garland and Dr Fauci) appallingly with uncouth behavior and browbeating. Meanwhile Representative Jordan has never answered the subpoena by the 06jan21 Committee.
"...attacked a fundamental human right—an unalienable right—of conscience. If lawmakers could destroy the right of freedom of conscience, they could destroy all other unalienable rights." Yes! Yes! Yes! That is what we women are talking about. Our decision about our bodies, each woman's decision about her body, her conscience, is "an unalienable right."
All Men should be 100% committed to protecting women's freedom to choose. If MAGA and Evangelical White Nationalists can take away a woman's right to control her own body and freedom, they will take away anybody's right to anything whenever they want to.
The misogynistic set up is long standing and carved in granite. Got a scapegoat and a solution all in one. I know a woman who deliberately got pregnant and got her a man; such is despicable but not the norm. Women are targets and scapegoats for so much. And I have known some wonderful old men, and young ones once upon a time…
After 9 years of closely following the rise of Trumpism and the fall of democracy, it is not hyperbole to say that we are facing the most insane threat to the existence of the United States since British troops chased Washington and Hamilton out of Long Island and Brooklyn and into the wilds of New Jersey. Charles Lindbergh was child's play compared to this. This is your final warning.
This is what I wrote: "Election" is becoming a talisman word. I've just had another look at the opening salvoes of Project 2025. It doesn't mention the election at all. It starts with when the next conservative president takes office, day 1. I may be too imaginative, but I find this really frightening. And if Trump was a thinking man he'd be getting a bit alarmed himself. Do you see what I'm thinking?
It's not too late. As Prof. Timothy Snyder notes in regard to tyranny, giving up is akin to obeying in advance. And even after the fact, it took years and losses of lives for resistance movements to overcome tyranny.
Vought et al have made it abundantly clear that a second Trump presidency will shred the Constitution and turn the United States into a fascist Christian nationalist autocracy. Should Trump win how could he take the oath to defend the Constitution when he intends to destroy it.
Returning to a point I have made in comments here before, Trump cannot, and will not, lead the global defence of democracy against resurgent authoritarian regimes. Without the United States playing its indispensable leadership role, democracy may well "perish from the earth" in this century.
We all have a lot of skin in the game in November.
Heather, I was thinking about the difference in the two parties' platform development process. The Democratic Party uses a bottom-up democratic deliberative process that feeds into deliberations before and at the convention. (In fact, I just got to participate in our Democrats Abroad platform submission.) The Republicans don't engage in this process, reinforcing authoritarian direction, that is, let the party leaders develop the platform and defer to them, rather than participating directly.
In Massachusetts, the Dems' platform is exemplary. However, we elect state legislators who feel no obligation to enact laws that reflect our platform. A platform that sits in a drawer, or, as a friend recently put it, that is nothing more than a bunch of electrons in a file, is basically worthless.
I'm voting for Biden AND holding him accountable, too. That's right; mantras are not enough, so let's do what our democracy requires. #VoteBlueEveryElection #NoFascistUSA #VOTE 💙
The head of the Republican Party in my county in PA believes that ALL pregnancies are viable. I’m assuming he’s never heard of a miscarriage. He believes the founding fathers founded a Christian nation & they never intended a separation of church & state. Of course he doesn’t believe in vaccines.
Late 1960s, I was in Catholic school & the nuns taught us about separation of church & state as well as freedom to worship was an equal right.
Miscarriage? All that means to a Republican is accusations of taking an abortion pill. They will not accept any legitimate cause of death, therefore will not allow administering of any post miscarriage health care for the Mother. They will support the death of any Mother.
“A true liberal government, one that protected the rights of individuals, must be big enough and strong enough to act as a referee between workers, consumers, and businessmen.”
All of Heather’s letters are well written & brings a lot of serious issues front & center. Frankly, I find it hard to say I like them when they scare the crap out of me. Perhaps the 😱 emoji should be at the end of each day’s letter.
Vought is correct, we should return to the original religion in North America and we should impose the 'founding religion' on all, including him immediately!
"The peyote cactus...Native Americans have known of the plant’s hallucinatory properties for thousands of years, and peyote still holds a sacred place in these cultures. In fact, over 40 tribes in North America and Western Canada still use it in sacred religious ceremonies."
The income tax, as it operated until 1986, was the fairest tax of all. Based on a person's own income it set a rate commensurate to what the individual could afford. Sales tax, so favored by States, is the most unfair of all taxes because it is applied evenly regardless of income or wealth. So the guy at the bottom of prosperity may pay no income tax but 5% to 15% of his spendable income goes to tax, leaving 0 for savings 0 for emergencies and 0 for entertainment . Where as the wealthiest might spend 1 to 2 % of their monthly or annual income on taxable goods he amount paid in sales tax is close to 0% of their taxable income. The cry of 'tax the rich' is an unavailable plea. How can you tax the "income" of a man who has no "income" Apparently a number of men so wealthy they could not spend their wealth in 100 lifetimes. They have so much wealth they can borrow their annual needs. The income from their interest earned on their wealth pays the cost of the loan and they pay LEGALLY no income tax at all. That is why Bernie and Elizabeth, and now Joe, are asking for a wealth tax.
I, and I believe most of us, have no desire to "tax the rich" into poverty or even middle class income. They drive the same streets and highways, use the same water and sewerage systems, fly the safe airways, and use the same military and police protection as all the rest of us. It is only fair that they pay for the same privileges as we do.
I sincerely hope that Russell Vought does write the party platform for the Republican Party and that it is publicly presented at the Convention in July. If nothing else that should give the more intelligent voters pause in considering for whom to vote this fall.
To put a cherry on the cake, we have a surging Hard Right movement in Europe as evidenced by the fall of Macron's government in France. Putin is grinning like the Cheshire cat. We in the US have an increasingly difficult task ahead. Religion and Nationalism are the cause of almost every conflict. Their marriage is a toxic brew!
What a stark reality of today's rise of the Far Right in the EU--on the heels of a celebratory week for D-Day as a turning point in liberating Europe from Nazi control.
Almost all of the surges to the Right in Europe are rooted in the failure of the last forty years of neo liberal capitalist globalisation ideology. The casual ignoring of local rooted fragile cultural traditions and difference by the political imposition of top down for Corporate profits Projects. Leading to the destruction of local social fabrics by a form of social Holsteinisation. A term coined by US geographer to compare the unrolling of xerox copy housing across the States to the breeding of Holstein cattle purely for hamburger production. At the same time unchecked exploitation of the environment for hyper tourism is literally salting their earth by the pouring in of tons of cement. People who care for their locale, who do not or can not move away, are enraged.
Don’t be taken in by the mega corporation mass mediation that immigration is the sole motive. It is only a tool being used by far right crooks and oligarchs to both create culture and class conflict and incite violence as a distraction as they grab more political power. The underlying issues mentioned above will simply worsen once they have succeeded in their fascist coups. This is a global political crisis. An expression of late corrupt capitalism and the ending of the empires bolstered by fossil fuel.
Well, actually not really. There has likely always been ways for humans to access their spiritual side through various rituals, creation of gods and goddesses etc. But an organized religion is something newer. And no, religion and government should never mix. It makes for a repressed society.
Of course religion and government should never mix. But all cultures, nations, and religions grew out of pre-existing myths and rituals, all of which were highly organized and dominated the people who practiced them. There has never been a human conflict that did not have religious content. Never. (This is due to the 'god fallacy', but no need to discuss that now).
It’s easy to look at Iran and think “they dress so differently and talk so differently—we could never have a theocracy like they have here in America.” But we’re all human beings the world over and therefore all have the same human frailties. These people-Vaught, Bannen, Steven Miller et. al.—are truly dangerous, and I strongly suggest we take their chance for power away by voting for Joe Biden. Donald doesn’t have the scruples to reject them.
After the Civil War, the Patrons of Husbandry were formed so that the farmers would have a voice before the legislatures and the Congress. The Grange. Making it possible to compete with the robber barons.
Robbers, that's a good word. As I have said elsewhere and often, the Republican oligarchs are stealing the people's money. They are getting very desperate now because they know we will wise up and rise up, just like FDR did. Only a corrupt government and its supremely corrupt Supreme Court can guarantee their continued success.
There’s a great book everyone should read: Goliath: The 100-year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy.
The US is again at another crossroads as it was in FDR’s time. Read in this book how the Robber Barons were stopped (actually slowed) in their relentless destruction of the foundations of our democratic republic. It should give you some ideas. And how they are in the process of destroying it again. We the People need representatives who represent what WE want in government. Government is supported by institutions and institutions don’t stand up by themselves (to paraphrase Dr. Timothy Snyder from “On Tyranny”.
I keep seeing memes describing the pre-Reagan tax structure, and detailing how that system created the strongest economy in the world. How the rising tide did in fact float all boats.
It always concludes with “tax the rich”.
Which is obvious and is the desire of the majority of Americans. So why does it keep not happening?
Because the rich have colonized the electoral process so thoroughly that they are able to overcome the will of the people with legalized bribery.
The only way to actually tax the rich is to beat them at the ballot box. This means overcoming the hurdles the ruling class have put in place against a truly free and fair election.
How? By using strategy. By a great ground game. By each of us asking “what can I do to take back Congress, the courts, and the Statehouses and legislatures so that we, the 99% can have a chance at a better life? So that we can rebuild the infrastructure. So that the environment is protected. So that our democracy going forward is safe from malefactors of great wealth and their operatives.
Just chanting a mantra is not enough. Praying is not enough. We must have a deep blue tsunami. Yes, re-elect Joe Biden. But also give him the blue government he needs to get this done.
#VoteBlueToSaveAmerica
Doing our part to get people to vote is not enough. We need an informed electorate, which we do not have right now. We need an event that will get the eyeballs of the American people before the election. I have suggested a million man march led by people like Sheldon Whitehouse, Jamie Raskin, Jim McGovern, Dan Goldman and celebrities like Taylor Swift, Streisand, Ken Burns etc. If anyone has a better idea, I'm certainly open to their suggestions.
Check out this interview with VP Harris on Jimmy Kimmel's show a few nights ago.
She asserts that "a perverse thing has happened in this country where people are measuring the strength of a leader based on who you beat down instead of who you lift up and that it's a sign of weakness to have empathy."
On reproductive rights, she avers that "one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body."
When asked about what she thinks about Trump and his 34 convictions, she brilliantly segues into, and prefers to take up oxygen by talking about the Biden/Harris Administration's accomplishments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne3-KA8ja6g
The substack Dworkin Report does a nice job of breaking down how Harris delivered for Democrats.
https://www.dworkinsubstack.com/p/boom-vp-harris-drops-mic-on-late?r=2wbiz&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Then, in a piece on CBS Sunday Morning, Mo Rocca gives what I call a push-back against Joe Biden's age being a reason not to vote for him.
On Roctogenarians: "We've been conditioned to think of the last third of life as a time to wrap things up. But more and more we see people like [Rita] Moreno (92 years young!) reaching new peaks instead of packing it in."
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/mo-rocca-on-roctogenarians/
That's it for me unless you want to revisit the story of Apollo 8 with Bill Anders' Earthrise photo, resulting in Al Gore's launching of the Environmental Movement. Bill Anders was still flying at age 85. He died just a few days ago at age 90.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/from-the-archives-bill-anders-apollo-8-and-the-earthrise-photo/
While certain kinds of and degrees of loss typically accompany late stage human aging, I am finding that there is a fairly disparate range of health, vitality, and competence that seems more connected to luck and lifestyle than to chronological age alone. How competent and professional does Biden seem compare to Trump? In some ways Trump seems senile, in others, infantile. but mature? Never.
He will never be mature no matter how old he gets. But the carnival barker keeps reeling them in. And, it seems that more than a few suckers are born every minute.
Jeri, how about this? Misleading All Gullible Americans - MAGA.
That is brilliant Richard. Billboard’s calling!
I love the bill board idea but I think in this critical time we need to be creating messages that inform voters about what is really going on. That for instance all republicans congress members voted NO on just about everything Biden has or has not gotten passed. And now some of those same reps are claiming responsibility for those bills that did pass. Flat out LIES. Most voters have no clue what their very own representatives are doing. They’re just following click bait and seriously don’t have a clue.
I love your mindset, Richard, but nobody wants to be told they've been tricked or that they're marks. They'll dig in like ticks. We need clever memes all over social media. Maybe Make America Groan Again?
Make America Go Away
Love it.
I’m sharing this new take on X along with Milking All Gullible Americans. Thanks for posting this. It’s like the NRA-Not Right for America.
It has been said that you can fool some of the people all of the time.
That was W’s line, followed by “and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.” And so they have…
Jeri, one of the problems is that in addition to Trump being a huckster of lies, he is being sold to the American people by a bunch of rich, privileged white men who want the power propping up an immature fool may let them acquire. They all know Trump is incompetent and should never hold any position of responsibility because he has no idea how to do any work. He always had money so could order people to do his dirty work (and any other work too) for him with a few things he could do like signing his name to checks to those who do that dirty work for him. Everyone who worked at the White House while Trump was president knew well that he did nothing and that all the work fell on them, and they were not all that competent either. That will not be the case if Trump gets into office again because he has had a lot of years to accumulate people he can count on to destroy whatever he wants destroyed and, Trump is good at looking the other way when those henchmen do a little dirty work on their own (his son-in-law collecting $2 billion from the Saudis). Getting enough Americans to see that Trump whether voted for by Trumpers and Trumpettes or through people voting for 3rd party candidates, will be a disaster for this nation is going to be hard, particularly when we are in a climate crisis that Trump and Kump simply ignore for the benefit of his Klan getting richer than any human or corporation should ever be permitted to be. This is all serious and needs to be addressed by every single Democrat and independent voter who cares about this nation.
I couldn’t agree more, to every syllable. I feel that if he cheats his way back in, the real powers will ditch him before 2026. Watch who VP pick is. Someone that he wants, or someone that the real power wants. Either way, we are toast if we don’t kick them all to the curb NOW. Ruth Sheets is woke in the best way possible.
If possible, I’m older than our brilliant president. Yup. Ex Pro dancer: both hips replaced, R knee oh oh post arthroscopy. But brain sizzling along better than when I was younger. So. Who knows? I’m actually surprised & deeply grateful; and I still boogie, write poetry (and those post cards!) although not all together. I’d really love to see a football field w those over 80 dancing together.
Now. Seriously. Who’s a good organizer? And can we all get together maybe practice via zoom?
Dancing for Joe!!
Nothing too fast.
I'd like to underline that last line JL Graham:
In some ways, Trump seems senile, in others, infantile, but mature? Never.
A little long for a bumper sticker, but it might make a nice poster or billboard.
I like George Conway's billboard in Florida. Vote for Joe. Not the Psycho
Wow, says it all
The "bottom line".
Maybe show the convicted felon drooling as he speaks with a caption "Big Baby"?
Would you hand an emotional two year old a loaded gun? Or nuke codes?
I watched President Biden fumble for a chair on a stage in France and it may that he could not stand up one more minute. Which happens to me because of spinal stenosis. It has nothing to do with mental acuity. Give us a chair and we’re fine. Hard to correct too ! That poor man getting kicked around because he looks pale and frail. Listen to his words and watch the results of his actions. You just have to gloss over Gaza tho. FDR was in a wheel chair his entire Presidential life and the country did not know. It was not mentioned or photo graphed. That’s why he, Stalin and Churchill are shown seated at Yalta etc. The NYTimes was pretty Trump heavy yesterday. It was a wonder Trump did not appear in Sunday Styles !
Joan, I'm almost 68. This year's Feb/March AARP magazine listed several tests for senior fitness. I won't brag on my excellent scores, but I will say that standing can be excruciating for me. I've been xrayed, my hips are fine, but I get sacroiliac pain if I'm not moving. I understand your pain.
Did anyone see clips of the recent Trump interview with Fox? He was so slumped over that it really appeared he was unable to sit up straight. His abdominal muscles/core must be nothing but flab.
JL, at least Orange revealed his Campaign theme yesterday at a sizzling hot, Las Vegas Bake: "What about ME!".
He is his only concern.
Odd how so many people think that it makes him a virtual god?
I'm a year younger than Joe Biden, and while I imagine that I retain whatever mental acuity I've always assumed I had, what concerns me most about Mr. Biden's decision to run again is that the odds of something happening to incapacitate him are far greater now than ever before in his life. Those odds are only increased by the stresses inherent in one of the hardest jobs on earth.
I will certainly vote for him. The potential of another Trump term is far too dangerous to contemplate with anything less than deep concern, if not utter horror. At the same time, I wish that Mr. Biden had let common sense dictate his choice. If he is as concerned with the state of the United States as he often says he is, he should be thinking more about might happen to the country if something should happen to incapacitate him in office than about his own ego.
He has done his job. He took Donald Trump out (for at least one term). In most ways he has done what I consider his best to carry us through this period of great risk and political craziness. He should now rest on those laurels.
I respectfully both agree and disagree, James. While his age is a factor in how many years he has left, he has a brilliant, much younger and savvy vice president who is also an excellent communicator. I only worry about Biden's health before Jan 20, 2025 (and I'm unsure what happens if he were to be reelected and die before inauguration -- I assume Kamala would name a vp and take the oath?)
I certainly hope that Mr. Biden is both re-elected and can fill out a second term in good health and full capacity. However, I'm not sure that a good reason for backing a presidential candidate is that one trusts in his or her VP. There are other ways in which age can affect someone than those which are direct and visible, and the 25th Amendment, while easily put into place in certain situations, would be very tricky in others. One does not have to go back beyond Ronald Reagan's dementia to understand just how tricky that might be. How does one adequately determine the onset of that kind of age-related situation?
It is a valid concern, so it make the VP choice especially critical. That said, I trust Ms. Harris, and would vote for any Democrat over Trump (even DINO Manchin). (I think it was Richard Gere who said he would vote for Godzilla over GWB). But we appoint SCOTUS justices of life, and some minds work overtime even with infirmity. FDR was mentioned. I'll add Stephen Hawking.
Actually, it is connected to biology and lifestyle. Clearly Biden has a different biology than Trump for example. What about Warren Buffett at 93 or 94, who is still running his international corporation and whose partner Charles Munger who lived to be 99. I have not heard people asking him to step down. Clearly he has a different biological age than Donald Trump does. My father's grandmother lived to be 109 years old. My mother's mother lived to be 99.5 years old. My mom is 90 years old and lives with people who are in their upper 90s who seem pretty fit to me. At dinner I have sees these men who are 96 and 97 dinning with a group of 3 women on some evenings. They all drink some wine, the men are cheerful and social and talk with people at other tables as they get ready to leave. They have joie de vivre! They might be a bit tipsy by the end of the meal, but they are walking around with no canes or other aides, just fit seeming. They live in independent living. Others who are their age or younger are living in the Alzheimers care section of their senior community. Because my mom and other relatives have gotten old, I am used to having a good sense of what old can look like, and it varies a lot. Friends who have lost their parents at a younger age, mostly to cancer, are more likely to be concerned about Biden's age, then I am. As for Trump, my friends worry about a lot of things before they worry about his age, even if he seems to be mentally inconsistent, or consistently incompetent.
That's it isn't it? All bodies fail at some point, and Olympians tend to be young, but the lucky brain gets to learn and competently process till the end. Judging from those who have revealed their age on this forum, there seem to be a disproportionate proportion of "seniors". Retirees have more time for long chain thinking on the Internet (as opposed to Xitter) and history may seem more relevant after living though a bit more of it. The Civil War, the Pharaohs, and dinosaurs no longer seem quite so long ago and far away.
And Dan Rather still preaches truth, and is Steady still…
Lynell, I believe I read that Anders was flying a plane when it crashed, killing him.
Yes, Doug, I believe you are correct. I couldn't remember whether he was the one piloting the aircraft when it crashed.
He was the only one in the plane.
Doesn't mean he was the reason for a crash. But sad.
Thanks, Nancy. I just read that in AP Seattle's news.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/former-astronaut-william-anders-who-took-iconic-earthrise-photo-killed-in-washington-plane-crash/ar-BB1nQFPA?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Yes.
Anders was 90 ! Does anyone feel safe in the skies with the elderly elderly flying solo up there ? I join that exalted class in a few weeks and, tho I am thinking about it, still driving.
Don’t let age stop you from driving. At 89 I began to phase out driving on the basis if I did have an accident my age would become the main factor.
Then I realized this is bullcrap since I drive daily without accidents.
Coming up on 78 next month. I got my license in 1962 and have driven 62 years in all types of cars and trucks including 15 or so hot rods and sports cars with only one very minor tap of another car on unexpected ice from a car wash, and one where part of the front suspension broke sending me off the road. I did 170,000 miles as an OTR driver in 17 months, always driving defensively well enough to (and lucky enough) avoid dozens of accidents that others could have or did cause.
Just 3 days ago, going north on I-295 out of Yarmouth, the line in front of me stopped, and I was able to stop with plenty of room to advance 3 or 4 car lengths to give the person behind me more room to avoid hitting me or being hit from behind themselves. I had left more room than usual because the driver behind me didn't leave much for themselves. If it looked a bit riskier, my plan is to do as much braking as I can on the clean road surface before angling off into the slippery side if the person behind me still doesn't have enough room to stop.
Keep driving ! That was a great message for me. Now I just have to find my keys .
Solo flight may be an issue but most can't afford the insurance if over 70, except in a light sport aircraft (too light to do much damage to anything on the ground). I was offered a ride by Ray Stits when he was 90 and felt very comfortable with him ready to take off in his Cessna 162 Skycatcher light sport aircraft. It didn't happen since he spotted a fuel leak and took it back to the Hangar. He had flown countless kids in the free Young Eagles flights, he and half a dozen other pilots seemed to get up to 75 a month introduced to flying. The light sport aircraft were much easier to insure, and, since I worked in the Aeronautics Dept at our community college, had taken several ground school and instrument pilot courses, as well as being the lab assistant several times more. I never tried to get a pilot's license due to very poor hearing but got enough simulator time and rides with some brief time at the controls with the idea that I could at least be at least an emergency pilot, or become a safety pilot (eyes) for those who wanted to practice instrument flying using foggles. Taking the ground school courses so often helped to persuade several (especially younger students) to take the courses and practice a lot using MS Flight Simulator on the simpler home computers to grasp the radio procedures, navigation, air traffic rules, etc so the flight instructors could concentrate better on the actual in flight training (saving the students money by minimizing the hours of expensive in air training). Though many didn't go through to getting the actual license, it drew a lot more students in to at least learn enough to enjoy flying with others and be able to have a chance at flying a light plane in an emergency. I also got an A&P Certificate with the thought of getting an older airplane to fly, something I could maintain and have my son (or any of several friends) fly me around in every once in a while.
See https://www.eaa.org/eaa/youth/free-ye-flights
A private pilot I used to have contact with told me "There are old pilots, and bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots".
Joan, a good family friend died earlier this spring at the age of 104 -- he was still driving at 100! (albeit verrrry slowly.)
Even so, he was doing what he loved way past pasture time…
I read it was an experimental aircraft.
Fred Jackson and the Second American Revolution
(Homage to Donald Trump’s ‘Proud Boys’ and Others)
(From "Donald's Vanity Tantrums") Enjoy
Fred Jackson was a proud rebel in The Great Northern Militia Alliance. He and his wife Ruth were often found hosting summer neighborhood barbecues. They easily found new supporters for the coming war to take back America. Fred stationed himself at the pit and handed out chicken legs drenched in homemade sauce to new, unsuspecting recruits -- kinda like a politician on election-day would do; promising a chicken in every pot. Talk of big government, guns and revolt would come later.
Fred and his cohorts believed themselves to be the direct Anglo-Saxon descendants of America's 18th century rabble-rousers who tossed bales of tea into Boston harbor after news of the British Stamp Act reached these shores. But tea-toddlers, they weren’t.
He was proud of his new-found abilities to recruit and had recently been promoted by the Alliance to the rank of sergeant of his own local militia. Wasting no time consolidating resources, Fred collected everything from boxes of canned food to crates of assault weapons. All were discreetly stored away in basements and underground bunkers in his local neighborhood.
Strategic plans were soon under way as this historic moment arrived, the moment to take back America. A secret, unnamed Northern Alliance militia representative from high up the chain of command visited one evening to give a short pep talk to the men and their wives in the basement of Jackson's home.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the mysterious commander said, “the time has come to act. We must stop the tyranny and treasonous actions of our government. Today we take action. We will starve the beast into submission. We will bring the entire nation to a screeching halt by whatever means are necessary. And we will un-steal the election. You know who I’m talking about; the great populist himself, codenamed, “OrangeFatso.””
“Yep”… they screamed in unison, “Save our leader, OrangeFatso.”
He jabbered on like this awhile longer and then said something about how it was one's duty to avoid payment of taxes like they did in the Boston revolt.
A rebel in the audience was overheard mumbling that, “Maybe them damned liberals wouldn't be so bad if we could just shoot a few.” as he cleaned and oiled his weapon. After the rousing speech ended, the mysterious speaker made way out of Fred's hatchway as quickly as he had arrived and was driven off into the night before anyone could ask questions.
The next day, Fred called for another drill. The basement was a good place to train without attracting attention. His supportive wife listened from upstairs as she tapped her foot to the muffled sounds of her husband's marching orders.
"Left...right...left...right...left...right...left...right."
During the drill, Fred's wife heard her husband cry,
"Oh no… not again. I told you not to march forward in the cellar."
"Ruthie honey," Fred yelled from the basement, "Billy bumped into the wall again and now has a nose bleed. Quick, get me an ice pack."
One thing that should be noted about the division of labor between the men folk and their women; it was written in the Northern Militia Alliance's “Code of Conduct” that men would do the fighting and the women would play supportive roles – just like in the olden days of the founders. Their women were as important as Betsy Ross – who is thought to have sewn the first flag – was to the cause of revolt.
The country of Fred's birth was no longer recognizable to him. Waves of foreigners had migrated across the unprotected southern frontier. His leader had often spoken of building a really high wall to keep out the hordes. The government, Fred believed, was overrun with big-spending liberals and nanny-state socialists. Fred even thought that his own past president of the United States was born in another country.
“He wasn’t born here. You know he owes his allegiance to the United Nations,” cried Fred.
Encrypted communiques were now being sent and received with increasing frequency throughout the “Alliance.” The days of waiting had drawn to a close.
And so it came to pass. The militia teams began assembling. They gathered along every mountain pass and byway. They took positions beside bridges and waterways. Fred's platoon prepared to assault its assigned mountain. This really was only a big hill but these rebels had a tendency to magnify everything around them including the importance of they’re mission. Their watches were synchronized.
Sergeant Jackson finally gave the order to charge.
“CHARRRRRRGE!” he screamed.
The men began their long, wild, rickety-split charge to the top of the assigned hill. Fred held his assault rifle in the air with one hand, and with the other grabbed his pants before they slipped down below his protruding belly – an unfortunate victim of too many beer-drinking strategy sessions.
Well they whooped and hollered for so long that soon most of the militia troops were out of breath. By the time they reached the summit, the sergeant could be heard cussing' (at no one in particular.) He wondered if he had rushed up the wrong hill. His GPS repeated, “recalculating... recalculating...” His phone vibrated on his belt and he quickly grabbed it and listened intently.
His head turned slowly downward as he stared at his mud-caked boots. His heart was pounding. He was breathing fast.
“Yes sir, I see. But when are we...? Win the hearts and minds, first? But...OK, I’ll inform the men.”
The sergeant ordered roll call and sadly told his men that not only did they seize the wrong hill, but the unseen generals had decreed that this was only a drill. The real revolution was yet to come but now, without the element of surprise. Dejected, they began to hobble down the green hill.
Then suddenly, Sergeant Jackson received another message. This time, he could hardly contain himself. Something new had just happened and word was spreading like wildfire. His fingers quivered as he responded:
“I’ll tell the men right away.” The sergeant rallied the now exhausted rag-tag men around him and excitedly yelled,
“All hands to Burns, Oregon. The government is assaulting some ranchers. The Bunkerville boys from Nevada are leading the counter assault. I'll be driving out at first light if anyone needs a ride.”
Fred finally made it home in his Ford pick-up truck while still sweating from the long charge. His dear sweet Ruthie waited at the half-opened door as dusk settled in.
“Come in my hero. I made your favorite hot soup for you.”
Fred stumbled in and sat at their kitchen table and slurped down the refreshing food. He then went straight to bed without explaining anything to his worried wife about the disappointing details of the false deployment.
Fred dreamed about the new revolution soon to sweep the land of his birth – the land he hardly recognized any more. And he dreamed that his name would one day be enshrined 100 years from now, along the nearby interstate highway where he lived. The sign would read: “The Sergeant Fred Jackson Expressway: Named for a Patriot of The Second American Revolution Who Stood His Ground and Helped Take Back America.”
Then Fred farted and repositioned his head on the pillow as he slept like a baby all night long.
Thanks, Bill. Will keep a look out to guard against Fred and his militia!
My computer AI just told me that Fred Jackson has nothing to do with the revolution, lol. And Fred happens to be Black in the picture. AI is ruling. Fred = Steve Bannon maybe?
Thanks for your synopsis and pointers to the sources!
You're welcome, Louis!
According to the news, Bill was still flying at 90. He was piloting the plane that crashed.
I revisited the news that verifies what you say here, Andrea. My post featured an interview with him when he was 85. I missed the part that he was piloting the plane that crashed in the State of Washington. Thanks for putting accuracy to Anders' story.
Much appreciated, Lynell
You're welcome, Bonnie!
I just watched Kamala Harris, who I admire greatly for her warmth, intelligence, and articulateness. It was a great joy to watch this and I am so proud to have her as our Vice President. Thank you for sharing.
Lynell, I was never one of those young people who thought you couldn't trust anyone over 30. I thought that was stupid at the time and think it is equally stupid to think you can't trust anyone under 30 or any other age. Agism is alive and well in this nation and it is assumed that anyone over, name the age, is too old to do anything. That is just crazy and denies our nation the contributions of some really wise older people. Then there's the nonsense that younger folks are too naive to contribute anything. people all need to be involved and be assisted with figuring out their gifts and ways to let them work for all of us. I do wish our schools paid more attention to this, but there is an obsession with learning specific math and language skills at the expense of learning what is required of citizens in a democratic republic.
It isn’t about age. It’s about aging. There is a difference. One can find plenty of examples of people that are still spry well into their 80s and 90s. This thread points to several. Another is Dick Van Dyke who at 98 just received his third Emmy. But this is not a comparative game—examples don’t suffice, each must be evaluated individually. President Biden doesn’t appear to be aging well as the demands of the job. Pass it off as unfair optics, if you want, but he doesn’t give me confidence that he will last out this term let alone another one, and I’m not alone. He doesn’t move or project himself as well as Dick Van Dyke or, I’m sad to say, TFG. Moreover, the presidency has a reputation of aging the incumbent. There certainly is no reason to expect that President Biden’s aging will slow in the coming months and years let alone reverse itself in any way. Now, he is where he is with regard to aging. Can his campaigning—his vision for the nation and how he can lead us there—overcome the optics of his aging? One can hope, but he hasn’t so far.
He moves more slowly. But his vision is clear.
He's also cannier than his opposition. Did you read about the petroleum deal he did that brought oil prices down? Probably not.
After asking the Saudis to increase production and doing that awful fist bump, he came home and did what I think he intended all along: he dumped 100 million gallons of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve on the market. Do you remember dumpty squalling about it? Drumpf would never do that (it would hurt his Saudi friends). That damn fool has no interest in America.
It dropped the profits of OPEC and shook them to their sandals. America with its powerful economy and great wealth could do that any time.
The price of crude dropped by a third, gas prices and inflation went down, and Biden has quietly been refilling the SPR with fresh crude at less than $79 a barrel. And made the treasury half a billion dollars in the deal.
Joe is just fine,
The office didn't hurt the orange turd at all, because just like he isn't a real human being , he wasn't a real president.
I worry for President Biden's health. It's a very hard job.
I wish for his continued good health.
"His physician gave him a clean bill of health, but noted Biden continues to have stiffness in his walk from a combination of arthritis in his back, neuropathy in his feet and the long-term effects of breaking his foot in November 2020 while playing with his former dog Major." This quote was from a Time article back in 2022. What I read about his more recent exam in 2024 did not speak as clearly about what causes his stiff gate.
Thank you, I'd forgotten he broke his foot. And arthritis is a bitch.
There is nothing wrong with his mind or his morals.
And a great deal to be said for skill and wisdom. He's seen a lot, treated people with forbearance, and there is no doubt where his allegiance lies.
I do not agree with you. Do you read https://whatdidbidendotoday.substack.com/ ?
Joe Biden is doing wonderful things for our country everyday. Unlike tRump, who takes to the gold course when he can... to cheat and be rewarded with fake prizes, Preesident Joe Biden works hard for all of us and has managed to produce some winning legislation despite the horrible odds he is up against.
Rachel (and Jen), I agree that President Biden has made significant accomplishments—and, yes, I do keep an eye on whatdidbidendotoday.) They alone will not get him reelected. He has also had significant policy flops and nonstarters. I have opined in this forum that he does not effectively communicate with enough of the electorate, particularly those in the middle and right. I won’t repeat that here unless you want me to do so. My point here is how he is viewed by the electorate. Well over 60% think his age is a problem. Percentages vary, but that includes Dems as well as Repubs and Indies. A simple Google search reveals that. I worry that neither he nor his campaign is factoring in that concern, and in this close race, that may well prove fatal to his bid for reelection.
Trump is only two years younger and has obvious dementia. In addition to being a malignant narcissist and a want to be dictator.
We only have two choices. That is a fact. An eggplant would be a better choice than DJT.
For my full argument see my open letter to undecided voters on my stack.
The issue that keeps the age thing prominent is faux nooz.
And the shiny object that is the horror of the fat orange cocksplat.
The Democrats have never had great messaging, unless you think Bernie Sanders has great messaging (and I do, it's his style of communication, Bernie does outrage very well). But Bernia is an independent.
It's outrage Biden just can't do,
And I don't want to hear about the "moderates". It's just people who don't know enough to take a stand. Or without a spine.
It isn't about aging. It's about choosing between wisdom and unconstrained ignorance. We are all either supporting the former by exception or supporting the latter by default.
To anyone who has doubts about supporting President Biden, assume for a moment that the freedom of this and future generations depends on your willingness to challenge your own doubts while listen carefully to Lawrence O'Donnell's words in the following editorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9vsivYrC4U
That should be required listening and reading for not only the "media" - ALL of it, but for anyone that doesnt understand the fact that performance is NOT everything!
Awesome editorial; thanks, James!
Pres.Biden may appear a little creaky - but listen to what he SAYS - then listen, truly listen to what tfg SAYS. Do you really think someone whose actual mental acuity is fisseling out in front of us is more able to run this country?
I am unable to listen or read the entirety of his "speeches" - I'm 86 and frankly that kind of babble would do damage to my brain.
Biden has a competent and able vice president. And looking at the ones tfg has lined up for the "contest" is quite frankly downright scary!
I should have added - watch what he has done! That seems to escape the "news" media entirely. And therefore, does not get reported.
SHAME on them.
None of us knows when we will die. If he does in office VP Harris will step in.
Make the speeches of FDR required reading in grades 7 to infinity.
A whole lot needs to happen long term if Biden gets back in such as protecting voter rights and dealing with a corrupt supreme court. This will not be the last battle at the ballot box whether Biden wins or not. If he doesn’t win we may never see another fair election.
It's a battle for Congress, not Biden, although his support is vital. Vote down the ballot, and state and local races too.
Make the speeches of Joe Biden required reading. I haven't listened or watched all of Biden's speeches, but at least 3 of them would be in the top 10 of Presidential speeches of all time. He may not be a charismatic speaker like Clinton was, but damn, he's got some good speechwriters and he delivers the message.
Many speeches are worthy of reading, but they remain curiosites, or just slog without understanding and discussion of how they affected the writer's circumstances , which in turn led to influencing our current circumstances;, and where the lesson lies that we can carry forward.
Especially before college, I was obliged to read a lot of stuff I barely grasped, with little help to understand it's significance, much less to understand what I could make of it today. So much of the background chatter of modern living is salespitch, and triviality, and frequently lies. Yet helpful resources (such as thoughtful and influential speeches) draw little attention. We get so distracted we might drive off a cliff.
FDR is a special case. And I'm talking about a classroom setting with teachers who can give the insight and context you were deprived of. Nothing can be compared to FDR's cutting wit and lethal dispensation of right wing liars. If FDR can't hold your attention, stay away from cliffs.
Much of what FDR said about “economic royalists” and their dubious policies still holds true today.
Reagan was all about reestablishing economic royalty, and his mission has been largely accomplished.
You are fortunate for that exposure. My guess is that most Americans did not get that. I am not very familiar with the writings of FDR, although have heard enough recordings to know that he was a compelling speaker. America has produced a number of wise and prolific writers and thinkers who would seem to offer elements of guidance for our problems of the day. Commercially promoted products alone cannot take us to where I think we need to be.
Reading his speeches is a great idea. But, I think the MSM should be touting his speeches, yet every day when I read MSNBC News, The Hill, HuffPost, etc, each has about ten trump stories and very little about Biden. I wish I knew a way to change this. I can’t understand why they favor the orange madman! If America heard what the President is doing and saying every day, perhaps things could change.
The “horse race” mentality. Professional journalism is rare these days.
The MSM prefers to report on the disasters and the train wreck (Trump and the republicans).
Agree with you JL, and so many of Biden and Harris' speeches are minimally covered by main stream media.
That's what we have the good Professor for--to put events into proper historical perspective. 👍
I think that everything we know is history. By the time we know, it's history. Obviously some elements of the past are far more salient and/or influential than others, and historians and scientists in particular keep careful track of those.
That won't happen before the election.
True. I'm talking long term.
And balance that with cousin Teddy.
And Teddy.
The better idea (than a media splash PR march of celebrities) is putting our limited resources of time and energy into getting out the vote for Democratic candidates. Such as Whitehouse, Raskin, McGovern et al. Who sensibly have their shoulders to the wheel of government - every day.
Lin, it wouldn't just be celebrities. Raskin, Whitehouse, Goldman would be leading the march I suggested. Getting the vote out is a necessity, but why can't we do both?
The elected officials you mention are 'celebrities' in their own right with better platforms than a march. The pop celebrities you mention also have better platforms than a march.
We ought not do both because of the allocation of resources and because marches can be easily countered and co-opted.
Your choice of example - the million man march called by racist and antisemitic influencer Louis Farrakhan who's done more to split the Left than Joe McCarthy -
makes your suggestion suspect.
I guess the days of a real March are over. How did King pull one off in his day.
No smart phones, no internet, no instant "news." All we had back then were people marching in the streets and newspapers who reported them. What else did we have, Jeri?
The Women's March was prescient. I made a bunch of pussy hats.
We did t know how much danger we were in though.
The get-out-the-vote should focus on states that have reduced the number of polling stations to make it harder for people without cars to vote. Perhaps, Yankees (e.g., me) could go swing states for rides to the poles, paid for by the corporate and wealthy contributors.
People do travel to swing states. Often if one pays for the travel, locals will provide housing. I now stay with friends - whom I first met when they provided housing. The thing is to fit into the campaign's or local Democrats' game plan and follow their directions/lead.
Lin, my goodness! I didn't even remember that Farrakhan was the guy behind the march. Discrediting my intentions speak of your character. I am a supporter of Israel and a defender of their existence. What a low blow!
of course "we" can.
They do, but does the media put out the word like they follow every syllable of chump.
And how are you going to do that on a large scale without media. People have to be shown the truth in order to weigh their options. Many people don’t follow politics so they need to be flooded with information on the platform they do use.
How do you intend to “get out the vote?”
Why can’t wealthy democrats step up and push media to educate people and finance this agenda. They’ve certainly benefited from tax cuts and the “ trickle down” economy.
Because while everyone is worrying about the Talibanesque Christian Nationalists....... you get the Elon Musks slipping in through the back door.
They’re busy benefiting from the record profits and most media is owned by tax dodgers so it’s not in their interest to educate anyone
I know it's popular to attack the media, Ms Liss, but Heather began her LFAA this evening with a report in the WaPo on Vought. It's up to us to become better informed; the media has learned to present (and sometimes misrepresent) news based on how what and how we consume it today.
We are a society that responds to clickbait, shiny objects and the easy read, but there is still serious journalism being done out there, evidenced by this article.
(I'm aware that the WaPo has just undergone change in its editorial staff, leading to turmoil, and that it is bleeding Bezos' money.)
They could do a bit more truth telling, could they not. Bradley is gone for good…
Jennifer Rubin, Opinion writer with the WaPo, is always a must-read. She delivers the truth, forcefully, every time.
Jeri, please note my use of the word 'misrepresent'.
I follow Andra Watkins, NYT best-selliing author who “escaped” Christian Nationalism decades ago. She has read and dissected the Project 2025 manifesto. She often provides quotes and cites page #’s which makes it much easier than scrolling through 1000 pages !
I’ve been sharing the info with voters in my GOTV activities. Also, when writing to media, I include references to Project 2025, along with a link to the actual document.Many of us here know much more about Project 2025 than the media.
Without iron control of information, transformation will be incomplete. Project 2025 therefore aims to turn the federal Office of Communications into a propaganda machine.
Operational functions of the Office of Communications include scheduling and running press briefings, interviews, meetings, media appearances, speeches, and a range of other events. The Office of Communications must maintain robust relationships with the White House Press Corps, the White House Correspondents’ Association, regional stakeholders, and key interest groups. No legal entitlement exists for the provision of permanent space for media on the White House campus, and the next Administration should reexamine the balance between media demands and space constraints on the White House premises.
Project 2025, page 29
Their first avenue for total control of information? Only allow media outlets and their reporters onto the White House campus if they agree to convey the President’s agenda. All other media will be denied access with the excuse of “not having space.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/project2025istheocracy/p/project-2025-where-all-media-supports?r=fqsxl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
The overweening arrogance of the dark money contributors, Russell Vought, and of Kevin Roberts, the Heritage Foundation’s leader is what burns me. Where did they ever develop the idea that they have some divine right to lord it over the rest of us and assume that they have a right to run a government that abandons democratic rule and distorts the Constitution by thwarting the will of the people? Trump has no principles or virtues to speak of. He’s a greedy sociopath and narcissist whose sole desire is to see how many of the deadly sins he can get away with living. He makes fun of his Christian Nationalist followers behind closed doors, and he’s eager to have his more violent groupies physically attack anyone who dares disagree with him. He would jail his political opponents, and his followers imagine wrongly that President Biden is attacking him. In reality, his criminal activity is finally catching up to him.
Surely Soros is not the only one. Maybe they don’t want to be vilified like he has been, like forever. Talk about rewriting history. Bloomberg tried, but seem to have been smacked down.
He overreached for the presidency, tripping on his own ego i guess.
I appreciated his effort. Wish more Dems had
When I receive two dozen requests a day to support this or that I want to delete everything! All the questionnaires are skewed for a specific answer instead of seeking true input from people. Then there are the text messages…we haven’t heard from you…almost threatening in tone. I am sick of it all.
I do my best to participate with postcards to swing states, primaries, getting the vote out and financially supporting where I can.
I agree, ask your big money donors for money. The GOP has billionaires backing them and my $25 here and there isn’t worth much. Plus I never see what all these various organizations are doing with our money…concrete examples/results would be encouraging, at the very least.
Nothing is getting done in Congress! No rights are being protected, the Supreme Court does whatever the hell it feels like doing, voting rights are being gerrymandered out of existence, tax dollars are wasted on frivolous go-nowhere investigations, public education is being eroded, women’s rights are head back to medieval times, healthcare for male sexual dysfunction are all over main stream television, and women now have to be worried about the right to obtain contraceptive care, etc. MSM does not cover Project 2025 so most people don’t have a clue as to has the potential to come down the road with this election.
I agree 100%! This morning I had 21 emails in my inbox soliciting donations for campaigns, and 2 text messages with the "we are getting worried, we haven't heard from you" heading. It never used to be this way. We could donate to a campaign and that was it, we were not continually (multiple times a day) bombarded with emails and texts for more. Any poll or questionnaire I receive is tied to a donation. It looks like you're taking a poll, but then it turns into a donate now thing. The 24/7 Trump news, GOP lies and gaslighting, and the RWNJ's nasty comments on social media has me watching less and less news and spending less time on social media overall (which really isn't a bad thing). You can't comment on a picture of a cute puppy without someone commenting about Gaza or blaming Biden for too many dogs in rescue (I am not kidding, this happened). I belong to a page for Real Estate Photographers on Facebook, we had a good thread about safety while taking photos, then the comments went down the "you can thank Biden for the high crime rates" and "buy a gun if you don't feel safe" rabbit hole. It's too much.
Part of the problem is that local reporting in most rural areas was not profitable enough to sustain itself against cable tv. Many local papers went out or were bought by private investors who gutted the reporting. That left the people to watch Fox or the Sinclair network which is worse. Getting the truth inside the bubble has been very difficult. Any woman, and any man with a mother, wife, or daughter who votes for any Republican is hurting themselves and their families badly.
Anne Nelson, a former reporter, has written a book studying the difference in news outlets and coverage between urban and rural areas. Rural areas have few news outlets other than right wing talk show screamers, Christian Nationalist radio shows, and cable outlets like Fox.
Your second sentence answered your question.
There are many wealthy Democrats actively supporting the party. But I suspect that many the wealthy pass age 50 and enter seek safer protection of their sacks of gold.
Joining country clubs and the Republican Party soon follows.
Lumping all folks over age 50 together as one selfish group is nonsense. Examples? Just read what the LFAA team, many over 50, have to say about current events. Spiraling out from myself and my partner, both 69, comfortable financially and dedicated to democracy, I see friends, family and community members in similar circumstances with similar values. We have NOT hunkered down in our caves hoarding our gains.
So, please, stop the stereotyping.
I second that. The older folks I know (I'm 72) who were Dems are still Dems, and the ones who were R's are mostly still R's though some -- like my sister -- actually voted for Biden in the last election. I really wish people would stop stereotyping older people. Guess I should be used to it, considering that we Baby Boomers have been maligned and stereotyped ever since we were teenagers.
My mom doesn’t say much about Trump, but I get the strong impression she doesn’t approve of him. My dad, brother and I quite openly detest Trump and are amazed at the stupid antics his groupies like Rudy Giuliani and Gym Jordan engage in.
You have a great idea. I know that you were thinking of people on the fly and can not possibly think of everyone. I would add Representatives Ivey (D-MD) and Moskowitz (D-FLA) as well as Senators Booker (D-NJ) and Warnock (D-GA) et many al. On the celebrity side, others might include Morgan Freeman or Denzel Washington.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5116947/user-clip-hooray-jared-moskowitz
Oh, Ned. This video of Moskowitz is stellar! Thanks for sharing.
But if we're counting, let's not forget Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett from Texas!
I LOVE her!
I thought of her, too, but could not recall her name. She was rightly welcome to give Marjorie flailing spleen a punch-back.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Duncanville in southern Dallas County. Ms.. Crockett is no one’s fool, and I wish we had more people in Congress like her, and fewer fools like Gym Jordan, James Comer, Matt Gaetz, MTG, and Lauren Boebert.
Sorry, Kathy, to embarrass you pulicly by correcting:
NOT Matt Gaetz but Haz Matt Gaetz. 😉🙂 😊 🤓🥳
OOO00oppppssss. 🤭
Should not have said "Haz Matt" so publicly. 😰
I might get arraigned for violating the 1917 Espionage Act by divulging a national security secret. 😱
(Actually, a re-tread of an old J.F.K. joke about Khrushchev. 😉)
That link is golden. Thank you, Ned!
You are welcome, Ally.
The Poor People's Campaign is holding a march (again) on June 29 in Washington. This is not a "Christian" campaign, but a moral campaign; William Barber is fighting for the rights of all, and his movement deserves our attention. https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/mm2024/
I admire Rev. Barber very much.
I've lost count of the number of matches and protests I've attended in DC. The only one that got any meaningful coverage was the March for Our Lives, which was rather hard to ignore being as it got so big that marching was out of the question. All the others, all for good causes, happened in a vacuum.
Assuming that you didn't take part in the marches against the Vietnam War.
The last march in which i took part was against the war in iraq, and I concluded that Bush/Cheney had factored in a little backlash and were going to war anyway. At this point, i am not physically able to spend a day on the ground in DC, but I would certainly support one while we're still able to have one.
I'm in the same boat, Progwoman, that being my last march as well. What was so powerful about that one is how global it was, as each time zone continued it. I know it didn't make a difference, but to know how many people were against the Iraq war made a huge impression on me. If I were physically able to stand all day, I would attend another meaningful one in DC for sure!
Your response led me to a reverie about marches, demonstrations, protests, rallies and their effectiveness at bringing about change. In most cases their value is to "buck up the troops," as it were. In some cases they do motivate people to join a movement but so rarely do they lead those in power to change course. Would we have female suffrage or civil rights without them? Probably not. It could be that the Vietnam War was shortened because of them. But millions of people in the streets in the US and England didn't stop the insane invasion of Iraq. While the George Floyd marches did lead to some shifts in attitudes and behaviors, it is becoming increasingly clear that many of those changes were temporary. Sigh...
A million person march?
Then don't name it "The Million MAN March" if you want to appeal to a broad base. I know it's alliterative having the letter M three times in a row but you will turn off a lot of people who don't self-identify as men. Call it the Millions March to Save America or just the Millions March but don't drag it down by not being inclusive.
we need both I believe... a march is an exciting idea (I would attend) maybe lots of marches at the same time... but we all must be doing everything is our own power to get out the vote and to convince to vote blue with evidence based conviction! Postcards, letter, texts, phone calls, not once or twice but continuous.
Good idea, without it being designated a million "man" march. How about a "democracy" march -- or something else inclusive.
Marches worked back when they were unusual and shocking.
remind people
Politics Will Not Ignore You.
This electorate resists information, Eadie. They either already know what MAGA is up to and want it, or they don't care. I suspect that the traditionally progressive demographic falls more into the apathy bucket. I'd like to believe that if the majority knew what's going on, they'd rise up against this crap passing for ideology, but I don't. I think our best bet is to scare them into voting blue... no free public ed, no social security, no healthcare of any kind (without an exorbitant price tag), no chance of fulfilling or adequately paid employment. As much as I'd like to push hope and change and freedom and equality, I believe we need to trigger more anger and fear in voters than MAGA does. We have to run the clip of the convicted felon saying 'I don't care about you, I just want your vote' on endless loop. Non stop loops of J6 and George Floyd and MTG. I guess that's informing of a sort.
Could you suggest a million people or Americans or...? Million Man March leaves out women and children.
Tell me why the following is wrong, and if not, tell me why it is not being shouted from the rooftops. To me, a politician is engaged in political practice or committing political malpractice. The former is serving the whole, which in the short term is at the expense of its parts, and then the strength of the whole benefits the parts in the long term. The latter is serving a part at the expense of the whole, and then the parts suffer in the long term because of the weakness of the whole.
To me, if an individual's behavior is based on that simple understanding, then that individual is part of an informed electorate, full stop. Everything else is mere technical detail.
Instead cynicism is rampant because too many people think of politics as one evil but necessary thing. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan put it, "If you have contempt for government, you will get contemptable government."
Now is the time for us to figure out how to make public service, working for the common good and the greater good, appealing to young people so that the blue tsunami is not a one-time thing but a continuous generational movement. Maybe reintroducing civics into our schools could be the first step in fostering in our children the recognition that in our democracy, their privileges and their responsibilities are intertwined. It has to start at the local level so that we build a community through which ordinary people can learn the skills of legislating and representing both the values and the needs of their fellow citizens and advance through the ranks to higher and higher office.
Retired teacher here. Once public education began teaching from the NCLB federal laws of the George W Bush administration, it specifically went after all civic minded classes. American History, Economics, American Gov, current events anything that created cohesion as to what it is to be an American Citizen was out. What our Declaration of Independence and Constitutional rights mean to us as individuals was scaled so far back that American History was a 5 week presentation in 9th grade that covered the Revolutionary War only. They don’t teach geography so by the time my 7th graders came to me they couldn’t tell you where the Statue of Liberty is located, Disney World?
They meant to dumb down the public as to be unconcerned with self-government while fascism took over our way of life.
One generation and 15 year old kids don’t know where Yosemite National Park is. Or that Washington DC is located on the eastern edge of America.
No Child Left Behind was double speak for No Child Gets Ahead. Instead of pride in our educational system, Republicans don’t want people to be educated, to know their rights, to be able to push back. 24 years of tearing down public education. Home schooling is up and I can’t blame people, not wanting to lose a child. Children are in danger from gun violence in schools and the rest of us aren’t sure we’ll make it home from the grocery store. We need to teach what it means to be an American.
Lots of territory covered here. I feel that I got a better education at a country school decades ago than my granddaughters got and are getting at a respected district in Texas today. That should be a crime. And Gov Abbott is trying to finish off public education with his voucher crap. And who will stop the lying, cheating bastard.
Yes, Jeri, you are correct. Fortunately, my son was at a magnet school with a stellar reputation for teaching a classic liberal arts curriculum. It was and still is a gold standard, but that continues to be diminished due to the TEA over regulation.
Over regulate, under fund, blame the schools for their failures. The Texas GOP education plan.
You are so right
So is Lee in TN. All the time vouchers.
I agree. I did a lot of reading on my own and still do because many things are still not taught even in college programs. I was not indoctrinated into Marxism or any of the other evils wingnuts claim students are learning. I am not a radical, but I am a believer in allowing ALL people to be heard, especially the people who were deliberately kept from being heard. It makes me sad and angry to see us retreat from rights for women, all ethnic groups and Dr. King’s vision. Dr. King’s statements frequently get misused and co-opted by “conservatives,” who misinterpreted deliberately what he called for.
I live in NC. Since the backlash Tea Party came in after 2010, Republicans have been hacking away at public education in NC. They refuse to fund education so that all NC students get an equitable education. They cut teacher pay, attack schools of education as deficient, and then they throw funds at charter and private schools. They constantly denigrate public schools, but they are the ones who have damaged public education so much. So many people have been able to have a better life and be self supporting because of public education, but the Republicans want to ruin public schools.
Part of the agenda in Project 2025 is to eliminate education as we knew it. I maintain that in the richest nation on the planet every kid has a right to the same high quality education in PUBLIC SCHOOL. Billions are being given to religious schools - kids are being indoctrinated with bigotry and our public schools are being starved of resources. This is a direct result - a backlash - of our efforts to integrate and include everyone into society.
Giving money to religious schools is a violation of Amendment I of the Constitution. I don't care what the Extreme Corrupt Court says.
In our town, I am proud to say that the schools look like the UN. Our grandchildren are growing up learning about other cultures. Our taxes are out of control. But I do know that they are funding a generation who are being taught that diversity is healthy and normal - a feature!
A recent 1st grade event featured the kids explaining what they had learned about Japan! And then...wait for it...four sixth graders took turns explaining what they had learned in "Empathy" class. :)
Giving money to religious schools via vouchers directly reduces funding to public schools, worsening the situation. In Ohio, the amount of money is staggering. I’m not going to look it up right now, but I think it’s around $750 million this year, mostly given to parents of children who were already attending private schools. It’s scandalous.
I’m in my iPad so can’t edit, but those vouchers are not just for religious schools, but private schools in general. I shouldn’t have phrased that first sentence like I did. Not enough coffee yet.
I see people bitch and moan about local districts asking for levies, but they have to because their tax money is financing vouchers for affluent parents.
I agree with you there. The Supreme Court has totally misinterpreted the First Amendment here. The citizens do not have an obligation to fund private schools, and public schools have to educate all students. Private and charter schools don’t.
Good morning. I was just in Winston-Salem last month for my oldest grandson’s graduation from Forsyth County Home School Consortium. He’s heading off to college this fall. My 2 grandsons have been home schooled since 1st and 3rd grades.
I can tell you being from and teaching in PA, NC mortified me! Teachers teaching basically from the goodness of their hearts. They were earning less in their
15th year of teaching than my starting pay. They are there at 6:00 a.m. and work after the students are gone for the day. That’s bad enough but the shenanigans the state has turned into a circus of denying education to its residents.
One grandson needed a gifted IEP, one has high functioning autism needed an IEP. My son and daughter-in-law pulled them out of public school and have done an outstanding job with both of them. The consortium is well organized and lots of time with the other students is important. People of NC, vote these clowns out!
Especially that crazy Lt. governor, Mark Robinson. Happily touting the board of governors has gutted the diversity and inclusion policies in the states higher education system. Stating an overall equality policy is better than an inclusion for minorities. White people only and preferably males and not too many of them either. Is the bottom line.
PA has plenty of voucher supporters but we’ve held the line. It’s self pay if you don’t want your kids to attend the district school. That is not without its own set of issues, like the home district pays for transportation and/or all the necessary equipment for home schooling.
Vouchers are another way to keep people uneducated.
I remember when Mitt Romney lost the election to Barrack Obama because of his comment saying “People who voted for Obama don’t take personal responsibility or care for their lives.”
Robinson is a frightening kook.
Well said, Karen.
Karen , my son was in 3rd grade and made the same observation that NCLB was no child gets ahead. As a retired TX educator, saw the standardized testing for what it was and how badly it affected public ed. Now the "conservatives" are pushing to use public money for home school and private schools with absolutely no accountability. Parents using their tax money for education to buy video consoles and take trips to amusement parks or just travel on vacations are just some of the more serious abuses of the public to private shenanigans.
By the way, the tearing down goes back further with the plans laid with James Buchanan and then William Bennet got the ball rolling during the Reagan years. NCLB was the culmination.
Well said. The Rs have said out loud that they want to get rid of the Department of Education altogether. Having served in “higher” Ed for over 20 years I can testify that politics and money rule the day more than education and enlightenment.
Current attacks on education are all about gaining the power and resources to indoctrinate people instead of focusing on critical/creative thinking to elevate humanity.
What NCLB did to our schools is criminal. Period.
The government and Christian Nationalists have been whittling away at public education for decades, with Jerry Falwell declaring years ago that he prayed for the day when public education was gone and the Church was in control of education.
The Christian Nationalists Evangelicals are a tenacious threat to democracy. Their followers are called sheep for a reason.
Karen, This makes me so sad. Every level of our lives are under attack
And the sad part is it’s been going on for 40+ years and we weren’t watching/listening.
Now we’re at the brink of losing our democracy and praying it’s not too late.
Those are all fine ideas, but they will not solve our problems before the upcoming election. We need to come up with good ideas that will inform the general public before the election.
Like the others' comments, I know we have to have both short-term and long-term goals and strategies. It's not a question of either/or--it's both/and.
Exactly.
What exactly and fundamentally, do Democrats stand for?
Lynell(VA..'s quote from Kamala Harris "a perverse thing has happened in this country where people are measuring the strength of a leader based on who you beat down instead of who you lift up ..." which hints at such a direction, were it restated in a mission statement form.
Democrats stand for the rights of the people. Not perfect but no confusion for me.
Seriously? Why bash Democrats at this moment? Unless you are planning to elect Trump?
Want to change the party? Then take a page from the right wing playbook. Work from the inside.
People with large platforms need to hammer on the real plan to destroy personal freedoms and impose a certain version of Christianity on all with a “strong “ ruler over all.
As far as people’s day to day purchasing goes, Trump has said nothing sensible that tells people what he’ll do. Drill baby drill means what? How will that control inflation/prices. Mass deportation will cause labor shortages. Forcing lower rates leads to inflation. None of what he plans will help anyone but himself and his cronies. I think we’re at the “fuck around and find out stage.”
I agree with you. I think that's my biggest lesson from the Trump era. Democracies have to be nourished and protected . If we manage to win in November we must never ever forget this lesson and people have to stay involved!!
True. Citizens can’t sit on their hands and refuse to participate in self-government. I was raised to believe that it was important to study the issues and to vote in all elections, and I do so.
There are some activist young people and groups out there. Dream for America and Leaders We Deserve for two.
In MA, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has these references to Civics education:
https://www.doe.mass.edu/instruction/hss/civics/default.html
https://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/tdd/hss.html?section=testdesign
State testing (MCAS) has an 8th grade Civics component.
There has been a push to increase Civics education
“The 2018 History and Social Science Frameworks along with Chapter 296, An Act to promote and enhance civic engagement, renewed the civic mission of a history and social science education in Massachusetts: to prepare all students to be thoughtful and active citizens. Every student regardless of race, class, ethnicity, language status, religion, education, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability has the right to civics education, including effective pedagogy and applied learning. Civics education should be culturally responsive, develop students' civic identities, and center the acquisition of knowledge, intellectual skills, and applied competencies that citizens need for informed and effective participation in civics and democratic life.”
My questions are, how widely is the framework taught, and what are the specific components? Having the right to something, in this case, civics education, doesn't mean that learning is actually offered or takes place in the course of the school day. Do the children have a chance to put the curriculum into practice? Thank you for the links to the websites that you've provided--I'll try to check them out.
The Mass Frameworks are curriculum guidelines for Massachusetts Public Schools.
Please refer to the following links for more information. The MCAS for Civics in grade 8 is presently a "Field Test" as the curriculum was just redefined in 2018.
https://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/testadmin/civics/
https://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/hss/2018-12.pdf
Excellent perspective to cast our imminent participation in partisan politics as an essentail means of controlling the excesses of the wealthy in "colonization of the electoral process" to their advantage instead of general population. The key to that potential success, if I may suggest, is two-fold: 1) a diligent and MASSIVE effort on the part of EACH OF US AND the Democratic establishment to register and turnout women of all permissive ages in order to protect, defend and enshrine reproductive rights AND the fundamental freedom of contraception at the ballot box in every state; and 2) to instill in younger women age 18 to 35 that they hold the keys to our success as a democratic society on November 5 by doubling and tripling their former perfomance as part of the electorate! One really effective way to accomplich these ESSENTIAL objectives is to contribute generously to www.TurnUp.US which is in my humble opinion the most effective nonpartisan organization registering and turning out the younger vote EXCLUSIVELY in competitive congressional districts and Senate election states! It is run by brilliant Harvard students wisely in 348 Community Colleges in those competitive areas to register and turnout hundreds of thousands of new younger voters! And it is premised on support for abortion rights, gun safety legislation, and to fight climate change. PLEASE HELP TONIGHT AND TOMORROW! WE CAN DO IT! THANK YOU.
Woman need all 50 States to ratify the 19th Amendment while we are at it...
Thanks for the donation advice, Ira. It's a wise ground game to recruit from a population that is already more liberal. I'm increasing the pace of my donations, now that we're approaching the home stretch.
I'm also hoping to see shows and movies from Hollywood that highlight the danger that the American Taliban, in partnership with the Oligarch class, pose to American society. I wonder why we haven't seen that.
Look for the 2024 documentary Bad Faith. (Free w/ads on Tubi, $0.99 to rent on Prime, Google Play, and YouTube). It's a must-watch history of Christian Nationalism.
I discovered someone I knew in that movie! Had been an election officer I was assigned to. First thing he asked, thankfully not in front of voters, was whether we believed the 2020 election was stolen! The day went downhill from there. I spoke to the asst director later.
Ok I'll look for it, but horror stories give me nightmares. I might watch a rom-com instead.
It is a horror story, and it's been there all along - the monster under the bed sort of thing, except this is real. Choose a time to watch it when you're feeling strong and confident. ;-) And remember that knowledge is power!
I'm holding some hope that public figures with influence like musicians, educator/activists, and other attractors-who-roam will (and are) have a gradual impact now and will emerge later with greater force, in time to vote for democracy. Strategic impact. Music is about time -- sound waves moving/thought waves moving in the world -- might be better than political manipulators. Those thought leaders don't know what we're doing now, we don't know what they're doing. Could be a restless summer.
Replay The Handmaids Tale on major networks…
Too late now, if not in the pipeline
I respectfully disagree, Jeri. I gave early to help various campaigns get started, and I'm giving again now, after those campaigns now have local experience and can perceive needed lines of attack. Depending on early decisions to be correct reduces flexibility/ agility. So while campaigns donations now came help campaigns that haven't already done much, they can help improve ongoing operations.
The one thing I truly hate about ActBlue is that EVERYBODY is sending / texting me donation requests. I block all of them and depend on thoughtful forums like thus one to help guide my donations.
Have to be careful not to waste $$ in races that are safe or races that are impossible; there are less than 100 in the House of 435 that are truly competitive and 14 on the Senate side!
If I had $11,400, I could donate $100 to each. However, even if I was willing to spend that much, I won't. I wish I had a prioritization algorithm besides geographic proximity to my home.
I was referring to films being made by Hollywood. Before I became a widow, I gave monthly donations often and a lot. Don’t have the money now but I really resent the onslaught of inane emails from ActBlue. I have given to some without going thru them.
And it is a tax deductible C3 organization!
Good ideas, but each of us will not do as you wish. It's wishful thinking. We need to mobilize the youth and the uninformed electorate with an event that will get the attention of these groups before the election.
Indeed, it is a real disappointment thus far that the national abortion rights organizations have not announced massive women’s marches in each state, “perhaps on Labor Day”?
Now, you're talking my language, Ira.
if you're talking about Planned Parenthood, they cannot advocate politically.
We need to get the addresses of the national abortion rights org. and ask your question, Ira.
National Abortion Federation
202-667-5881
(No funding or Hotline assistance provided on this line)
PO Box 100, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701-0416
naf@prochoice.org
https://prochoice.org
If people on this newsletter wrote to them, something might get done.
Done
" Economists estimate that between 1981 and 2021, more than $50 trillion dollars moved from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%." - HCR June 7
J L, to amplify your point, I would invite anyone to issue a query to your favorite search engine: "If all wealth owned by Americans were divided and distributed evenly among all Americans, how much money would each person have?" I've been getting a consistent answer, at around $500,000 per person. Congress has the power to redistribute at least a portion of the wealth held at the top of the pyramid, as well as the power to elevate the minimum (poverty level) wage to a living wage.
President Lyndon Johnson attempted to wage a War on Poverty. "In his first State of the Union address in January 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Congress to declare an “unconditional war on poverty” and to aim “not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it” (1965).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4266933/#:~:text=In%20his%20first%20State%20of,prevent%20it%E2%80%9D%20(1965).
Sadly LBJ's War on Poverty was at least in part a casualty of the Vietnam War folly. I think of what is needed less as redistribution as rooting out corruption. The game is rigged, with loaded dice and marked cards. The normal flow and spread of money in a "square deal" (T. Roosevelt's term) has been rigged collect in fewer bank accounts. " Reagnomics" was a swindle plain and simple from the word "go", and it's gone on for far too long.
Again, on November 26, 1932, Will Rogers said, “The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow’s hands.” Mr Hoover may not have known that money trickled up but these cretins surely do. And they don’t want the poor to get even a whiff. As HCR said, these greedy bastards have been at work for all our existence. Well, maybe in better-chosen words.
Several of my socially conservative elementary school teachers in the 1950s spoke admiringly of Will Rogers.
And yes, while there are always counterexamples, no hates the poor like the pious ultra-rich.
He nailed so much. Tragic that he died so young. Of course, he may have said stupid that I missed. But he sure nailed the greedy bastards of his day.
LBJ tried both guns and butter, and the guns won out. Nixon and Kissinger managed to start further problems overseas and they lied about having a secret plan to end the war. Far from ending it, they continued it for another 5 years, and sparked other wars in Cambodia (helping bring the Khmer Rouge to power) and Laos by their illegal bombing campaign. South Vietnam fell after Ford became President.
I never saw the point of the massive loss of lives (both sides) in Vietnam. Like so many human tragedies, the the motive seemed rooted in conscienceless hubris. Hubris makes us into monsters.
There was much hubris involved in Vietnam. Nor did I see the point of all the death. We thought we were fighting Communism, but we were really meddling in a civil war.
"We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate."
- Thomas Jefferson
From the Powell Memorandum for cementing corporate power to the Citizens United decision enabling corporate money to undermine self governance. From the Politics of Faith to the New Apostolic Reformation Seven Mountain Mandate and Teneo Network establishing church rule. From the Big Lie inciting insurrection to the (largely via Leonard Leo funded) Heritage Foundation Project 2025, a Presidential Transition Project for an imperial Trump presidency. The biggest lie is that out of the rubble of a tainted European liberalism (trending to socialism and communism), Trump will return the U.S. to a purely American polity. Republicans are recycling Putin and Orban to repurpose our democratic republic as a corporate clerical fascist state. The entire right wing apparatus has been 'post constitutional' for decades. Hollowing out the foundational principles and historic institutions of democratic government while using the procedures to drain American law of justice.
Christopher Caldwell, eminence of the Claremont Institute argues that landmark Civil Rights legislation of the Sixties "introduce new, incompatible, and unConstitutional elements to American law." Enter the Leonard Leo Supremes. And Jan 6 insurrectionist John Eastman, director of Claremont’s Centre for Constitutional Jurisprudence. There's more than one way to overthrow a democratic republic. Republicans are embracing both.
As in 2016 with 'independent' forces aligned with GOP determination to put Trump in office ( yup Stein, Kennedy, West, No Labels et al ) it won't be easy. A democracy is a terrible thing to waste. And a much harder thing to restore.
Thank you for all this extra information on the movers and shakers behind this political coup.
I suspect this comment is directed, rightfully, to Dr Cox Richardson. But, hey, I lived in N.Y.C. long enough to know how to take credit where it is not due.
To me, the Powell Memorandum is a red herring. Of course, coprorations should co-ordinate lobbying and other political activities, just as unions should as well as other stake-holders. It is the Citizens United case that crushes us most.
I keep getting an image of the oceans of dark money flowing out of Citizens United, applied to society as a kind of fixative, or glue, or cement, designed to maintain the current incumbent system in place. Can our human voices compete with the voice of filthy lucre? Can anyone hear the voice of the melting tundra or the taiga or the formerly cold oceans?
Yeah, I agree. Citizens United was deemed a free speech issue by Justice Kennedy, I believe. It has led to monopolized speech that cuts out the rest of us. Senator Whitehouse from the hearings to confirmation hearing for Justice Brown Jackson.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5010131/user-clip-free-speech-corruption
One thing we can do is drive voters to the polls in places where the polling stations are difficult to get to. And if the State does allow mail in voting help them fill out their ballots, make sure they are correctly signed and give them the postage stamps if needed. Just make damned sure the helpers are not in danger of being shot or thrown in jail
Support or join VoteRiders:
https://www.voteriders.org/
VoteRiders can help you figure out what ID and documents you need to vote in your state.
And you can make a tax deductible donation.
Thanks, Ellie. I have often thought of going to states where that would help. Even with my nationwide concealed carry privileges, I am leery of doing that.
As a man, my first thought was that you are a retired deputy and therefore as tough as nails. But, I've learned albeit very slowly, that woman are targets of violence and it is wise of them to "be leery."
Nothing is more unfair than a woman having to be concerned about her welfare while men, in almost all situations not so much.
I'm sure you've seen many men that have been victims of violence as well as women, but it is a different mentality completely.
It’s mostly being 66 and gimpy these days. I am much weaker than I was in my Sheriffin’ days as well.
I'd put a whole lotta money on you still being able to kick my 69 year old a$$.
If the wealthy aren’t careful, they could trigger such ugliness against themselves which haven’t been seen in the West since the French Revolution. They’ve been monitoring us and compiling our data for long enough to know our realities and feelings about it.
I believe this time we need to do Much more than Vote. We need to Get Out The Vote To overcome a century (again I refer to The Business Coup of 1933)
of brilliant but evil analysis and long term planning and WASP entitlement in the service of bringing democracy to heal.
Sadly, we can Not count on the Democratic Party or its PACS.
WE, the highly engaged, invested people here and on social media and Daily Kos and Robert Reich's substack and others need to Expand
and Get Out The Vote.
For instance, tomorrow I am phone banking for AOC. I live in CA. I am single mom of 64 with 2 sons, 18 and 21, and my own business to run, and a house to keep. Their dad passed away just over a year ago. I am Busy.
I donate money to groups like MoveOne, Sunrise Movement, etc, but it's minuscule!
My secret power is I
Can Call Anybody!
A very rare skill, highly valued in my family, and by our capitalist society. If you can "cold call" you can work anywhere! It's actually easy because you're given a list of Democrats and you just have to remind them how and where and when to vote.
AND Campaigns Need You!
BUT if you're like most of the uninitiated, you won't phone bank. You can still:
TEXT
WRITE postcards (reminding dem voters to Register & check it; vote in the primary: talk to friends and family; find their polling place when we get closer...)
Write letters to swing voters about why you vote
Write letters to local newspapers, media, etc with helpful scripts
Answer phones for campaigns - how to help, candidate info, important issues ...
SHARE social media
Find a PROTEST
KNOCK on Doors (do it with a friend. It's actually very interesting and empowering!)
So many ways.
This is how we win against the Billionaire Machine.
And save life on Earth.
Resources: Field Team 6, MoveOn, Emily's List, Sunrise Movement, Greenpeace ...
This Is It. Muster up a couple friends. Now is the Time.
I can cold call, I did it for a living sometimes.
What are the keys to being good at it, if you can share?
Check out Jessica Craven's daily list of actions:
https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/p/chop-wood-carry-water-65-511
I recommend Jessica Craven’s Substack “Chop Wood, Carry Water” a daily handbook with concrete actions to take on a daily basis. And all the info and links to do it. The newsletter is free.
“The rich have colonized the electoral process” ….. spot on!
Waiting for that ground game, Dems
Citizens United pretty much changed "one person, one vote" to "one dollar, one vote". The more money you have, the more power you have (to buy the government you desire). "Corporations are people, my friend"
Points well made. We have a tough row to hoe as the power of the media is potent. (Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" 2004) Mass media are used to corral and herd the white Christians with wedge issues: abortion, women's rights, gay rights, immigrants, etc. We can now add to that Christian Nationalism, the re-emergence of the KKK in the form of MAGA (Misleading All Gullible Americans.) Instead of white conical hats they now wear red caps. It's the same as the 1920's, only more serious. [Timothy Egan, "A Fever in the Heartland," about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's.) We're now at a "Crossing-the-Rubicon" moment in this nation's history, IMO. With modern methods of surveillance, no one, not even the MAGA people, will be safe.
@Annabel. At this point we still have the capacity to sweep. Millions of unregistered folk trend Democratic. Register Democrats and sweep.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
There’s a lot of armchair quarterbacking plus a feeling by far too many of hopelessness. Our daily What did Biden do Today gets my attention but little press and all that TFG does/thinks/eats/or says causes panic ontop of disgust. I appreciate those watching the circus, telling ,or forewarning . I’ve got a list getting longer by the minute of complicits.
America the lesson unfolds before us like never before. This is key to what to plan around..
But from our get-go the road’s been rocky and the skeletons of many a covered(up) wagon paints things gone awry. But I concur the record shouldn’t be scrubbed clean ‘to look( or feel) better’. Perhaps erased is a better choice of words.
Reality is a harsh teacher at times and Don the Con with his clench-fisted entourage is , to me at least , a culminating point , circling the wagons and a big tight grouping effort needed.
We’ve been made aware of the deplorable voting percentages..this needs corrected.
We’ve been made aware certain laws needed codified and others need better defined..
We’ve had full control of all three government entities and not done it…I’m not naive enough to think those in the know didn’t see this coming down the pike.
Responsible politicians is a phrase laughed at as much as the current comedians heyday with the chaos…this needs corrected also…colleague may have its place but respecting an oath taken comes first.
America’s #1 standing is a used to be..this needs corrected too . I won’t mind sharing World Leaders status with ANY other country…but they have to pass a test …are we?
Education is a duty to our citizens, not a touted FALSE banner to ‘fool’ the world…that a fool has given us thus ‘do or die’ moment..is irony at its best!
The 2% of the contributing structure stripped of its safety net as is indicated Plan 2025 - of medical Medicaid SS etc…won’t eradicate the deficit and they know that..(that’s NOT the intent)
Solid leadership (and representation) for ALL, fair tax rates, internal cleaning of every ‘house’/department …oust the Complicits ie traitors ,liars, cheats, and foreign dissidents ….will though.
Too much to ask?
Or shall we again have to face this reality in 2028 ….IF
Time to come to Jesus , folks? I would prefer a , no sarcasm intended, WWJD
GOTV ….
💙💙True Blue .Vote the Complicits out💙💙
Annabel, nicely put and exactly the call we need to work hard in every way possible to elect Ds. I call Rs the party of death and 45 death star because they will be the death of everything we cherish if they gain power. i post Heather's letters to Facebook and always end by a call to vote D.
Steven Bannon, walking sack of (you fill in the lines) is always going to be this way. Democrats have to get on the same page and go on total war footing. Enough is enough. Obama faced two wars and a depression and got us out of it with a strong economy which Trump too and ran into the ground by not dealing with Covid. Biden took on Covid and got us through this in this. Now we have a roaring economy. We have to shout this message out! We have to go on offense!
Obama saved the banks but not the average person with foreclosed home. For so many the economy was not strong. But wow it sure paved the way for all the corporations buying up homes and making them sky high rentals
I seem to remember that Democrats had a control of both House and Senate right after Obama took office for his first term. Democrats really dropped the ball with weakness of spirit and pork when they probably could have gotten a really great new health care package instead of the watered down version we ended with among other things. It was a real disgrace. Their majority in the House was quickly reversed maybe 2 years later or less and great opportunities were lost.
G.P., I suggest we focus on 2021-2022 when Democrats controlled both Chambers and the White House. You might recall the House passed hundreds of progressive bills, all of which stalled in the Senate, even those that were bundled into a reconciliation package that required only 50 votes (the VP casting the tie-breaking vote) because Manchin and Sinema sank the package. The outcome was the eventual passage of the vastly edited-down Inflation Reduction Act.
I mention this recent history because a 2025 Senate majority 1) would be far more receptive than the previous majority to filibuster reform and/or carve-outs and 2) would not include Manchin or Sinema who mostly blocked legislation that was not bi-partisan.
Accordingly, were we to re-take the House, hold our 49 Senate seats, flip 1 Republican-held seat, and hold the White House—all doable—we could see historical, transformative change over the next two years. Note I haven’t even mentioned that the party-at-large has become far more receptive to expanding the Court, which, among a host of reforms, likely would include overturning Citizens United.
I dream
Jeri, Were my vision not likely within reach I would dream, but because it’s feasible I fight.
Very well said!
Say it! Lay it Out!
First step in making it happen.
Patrice, I very much appreciate your reply.
You seem to forget that Mitch launched a wall of dirty tricks and made up bullschittery, much in the name of socialism (racism). I imagine that Obama fell for the same bipartisanship goal of all Dems (Joe more than most) and suffered with every breath he took. Repubs repay bipartisanship efforts with the most vile pushback.
Yeah, it should have been so easy to wrench the government and the economy back on track during a historic economic meltdown created by GOP failed wars and bank fraud. Yeah, The Dems were totally lame after the first Black President beat the (hopefully) Final Bush Dynasty candidate and then just inexplicably wimped out.
Hunh? Did you forget to put the /s on your comment? Or are you just a poor Putti masquerading as a b0t?
Agree, disagree, state your case. Devolving to name calling and bullying makes you look like part of the problem, not the solution, you know?
I know. I am just so tired and losing hope and these pseudo polite "I seem to remember" trolls just make my skin crawl. I will still do my shifts for AOC, and all the other progressives left to their own by the gd useless DNC.
But you're right. It's just exhausting "going high" all the gd time.
But that’s just greed. They have bought up nursing homes and Vetinary hospitals and cut costs and raised prices. That’s spectaculars seeing an opportunity and going for it. It’s evil I know but how does Obama or Biden control that. It’s a huge problem where I am.
He and Warren and a few other stalwarts tried to make it good for the foreclosed and not just the foreclosing, but "too big too fail" was already a fait accompli thanks to smashing of anti-trust under the puppet regime of Reagan. I agree that Obama seemed to have a lot of deals with the devil, but that is the state of the Union after decades of corporate takeover. Plus, I believe his Harvard schooling may have made him believe too much of the Exceptionalism that we All fall to. Still, he and Joe fought for so much and had such a short window and majority to get it through.
Just like Biden this time. Whoa! He's been incredible!
BUT now he's "Genocide Joe." And that is not changing.
Sadly true, Tina
That is true and a huge oversight. My point being that Trump thought he was a better President for the economy when a great economy he had from the start
He thought he was better because he is a Narcissist.
And why is the loose Bannon only getting four months?
Just wait, he’s coming up on additional charges in the state of NY for the “build the wall” scam (one or more of his compatriots in this have pled guilty already)….he was pardoned by TFFFG on the Federal charges regarding this, but not at the state level….so remains to be seen what comes of this & how long he can drag this one out as well—and if it goes to trial and he is found guilty, who knows what he might face as a sentence. Hope he eventually gets his just desserts.
Hope springs eternal, if not my hair.
He will be home free if chump gets back in, they will do whatever it takes to protect the destroyers
Hopefully not, since this is a state indictment, not federal. Not that they wouldn’t try to overturn existing laws/jurisdictions to make it disappear….wonder what, if any, pushback there would be? Once I would count on SCOTUS to do the legal/right things….now, not so much.
No rule, law or tradition stands in their way.
Because it is in the middle of the sentencing guidelines. He was convicted, the maximum sentence is up to one year.
"If the individual is prosecuted and convicted, violations of § 192 are punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment “for not less than one month nor more than twelve months.” The federal sentencing guidelines also inform the severity of the penalties."
Thank you for informing me those facts about guidelines, Ally; my tuition check is in the mail.
x34 :-)
Flatout reject these false assertions.
But surely you can't reject the walking sack of . . . . assertion.
It is my understanding that every Republican President since (including?) Reagan increased the deficit while in office but each Democrat President has decreased the deficit while in office. If true this fact needs to be shouted from the highest mountain.
Much use of the word weaponization has punctuated much of our political discourse of late. But contrary to the claims of those who most frequently claim our institutions are weaponized, it is the very accusers, poised to sweep away democracy that are weaponizing their power to establish Christian Nationalist dictatorship. We must share and spread awareness of this insidious danger to democracy.
I fully agree with your comment. I would make one point: it is a "clear and present danger" not an "insidious danger". The objectives of Vought et al are not hidden or disguised.
The religious right has been planning to take over the government since at least the 1980s and have never hidden that fact but no one seemed to take them seriously. And now they are in concert with these billionaires who think that because they have money they get to tell everyone else what to do and how to live. People had better listen to what they are saying because they mean it and Trump is a useful tool for the right wingers- both the religious and the wealthy- to put their plan into place. I agree with other commenters that this election may be our last if we don’t get out and vote blue up and own the ballot.
I didn’t take them seriously, but I certainly should have. Hindsight
That's understandable Jeri. The Religious Right was a political influence movement that disregarded the First Amendment and the intentions of the Founding Fathers. Christian Nationalism, or the "Religious Reich" if you will, is about insurrection and destruction of the Constitution and democracy, and built on a plan that Hitler would have admired. When Steve Bannon is praising "mad men" that should tell us that we are dealing with a clear and present danger. Meanwhile the Supreme Cheeto awaits his Coronation. To put it another way, we've gone from Repubs to Trumpublicans.
I’m still gobsmacked by the bold agenda they have said out loud now. Birth control, really. I hope people believe it because that will affect all of us.
"Election" is becoming a talisman word. I've just had another look at the opening salvoes of Project 2025. It doesn't mention the election at all. It starts with when the next conservative president takes office, day 1. I may be too imaginative, but I find this really frightening. And if Trump was a thinking man he'd be getting a bit alarmed himself. Do you see what I'm thinking?
Good point. The November 2024 election is critical for our next step to save democracy, but any Democratic presidency in the foreseeable future is at peril of inherently amoral MAGA Christo-fascist means to justify their end of assuming power. Their means range from legal sophistry to election interference to information warfare with propaganda to bribery, and no doubt to what we feared for Obama during his presidency. After Trump, they have plenty of aspirational power contenders.
Yeah, Ellie, all we have to do is look at Mike Johnson (& his ilk), selected as House Speaker….the “poster boy” for the 2025 mandate movement….they have slowly swollen the ranks of our representatives on the Fed and state level, and are poised to move when the moment presents (or they create) itself.
Yep, I think that they will trash chump and get serious about a lot more than revenge, at the right time, for them
I tried to read Project 2025. It was too horrible to comprehend. What's the difference between it and Mein Kampf?
Do we need an underground resistance of real patriots to rid us of the bold FASCISTS BEFORE THE NEXT ELECTION?
Why underground?
That would have to have been set up as soon as Project 2025 became known. It would take very careful and skilled organisation, potentially extremely dangerous. I think it's at least a year too late for that.
I mostly agree with you. If such a group lost its prime purpose, it could become tyranical. However, the legal system, including some key courts, judges and Justices has failed to support the Constitution. In short, those who are supposed to protect our democracy, have not, and many others have violated their Oaths of office and engaged in a defacto coup. Can it be stopped without violence? Is there another country that has done a better job of removing or silencing such traitors? If so, how did they do it?
?
They are the ones doing the weaponizing with hearings on the Biden Crime family, treating genteel gentlemen (i.e., Attorney General Garland and Dr Fauci) appallingly with uncouth behavior and browbeating. Meanwhile Representative Jordan has never answered the subpoena by the 06jan21 Committee.
This is so wrong. You know, I read that piece of slime jordan never even passed a bar exam.
He is a Capital U grad, but I am not certain that he ever applied to take the Ohio bar exam.
Exactly
"...attacked a fundamental human right—an unalienable right—of conscience. If lawmakers could destroy the right of freedom of conscience, they could destroy all other unalienable rights." Yes! Yes! Yes! That is what we women are talking about. Our decision about our bodies, each woman's decision about her body, her conscience, is "an unalienable right."
All Men should be 100% committed to protecting women's freedom to choose. If MAGA and Evangelical White Nationalists can take away a woman's right to control her own body and freedom, they will take away anybody's right to anything whenever they want to.
If somebody wanted to take away a man’s right to do whatever, the screaming would never stop. Maybe forced vasectomies would be worth a try.
No! Not the Sacred Sacs!! NEVER!!!
<sarcasm font with a tinge of malice>
🤣🤣🤣🥲 Suddenly I'm hearing a song from The Meaning of Life:
🎶 Every sperm is sacred, every sperm is great
If a sperm is wasted God gets quite irate 🎶
🤣🤣🤣
The misogynistic set up is long standing and carved in granite. Got a scapegoat and a solution all in one. I know a woman who deliberately got pregnant and got her a man; such is despicable but not the norm. Women are targets and scapegoats for so much. And I have known some wonderful old men, and young ones once upon a time…
Exactly Lynn.
The conscience is sorely missing in some element of our population
You may find the missing piece next to their brains.
After 9 years of closely following the rise of Trumpism and the fall of democracy, it is not hyperbole to say that we are facing the most insane threat to the existence of the United States since British troops chased Washington and Hamilton out of Long Island and Brooklyn and into the wilds of New Jersey. Charles Lindbergh was child's play compared to this. This is your final warning.
Agreed 111%.
I've just posted something on these lines.
Re-post it here, please.
This is what I wrote: "Election" is becoming a talisman word. I've just had another look at the opening salvoes of Project 2025. It doesn't mention the election at all. It starts with when the next conservative president takes office, day 1. I may be too imaginative, but I find this really frightening. And if Trump was a thinking man he'd be getting a bit alarmed himself. Do you see what I'm thinking?
No, Anne-Louise, you are not being too imaginative. Many of the rest of us are not being imaginative enough.
Yes. You are correct to be frightened about our future. It may be too late.
It's not too late. As Prof. Timothy Snyder notes in regard to tyranny, giving up is akin to obeying in advance. And even after the fact, it took years and losses of lives for resistance movements to overcome tyranny.
Vought et al have made it abundantly clear that a second Trump presidency will shred the Constitution and turn the United States into a fascist Christian nationalist autocracy. Should Trump win how could he take the oath to defend the Constitution when he intends to destroy it.
Returning to a point I have made in comments here before, Trump cannot, and will not, lead the global defence of democracy against resurgent authoritarian regimes. Without the United States playing its indispensable leadership role, democracy may well "perish from the earth" in this century.
We all have a lot of skin in the game in November.
And European voters today tended to support those resurgent regimes.
Crappola -- ¡Trump will be one of the resurgent authoritarian régimes!
Heather, I was thinking about the difference in the two parties' platform development process. The Democratic Party uses a bottom-up democratic deliberative process that feeds into deliberations before and at the convention. (In fact, I just got to participate in our Democrats Abroad platform submission.) The Republicans don't engage in this process, reinforcing authoritarian direction, that is, let the party leaders develop the platform and defer to them, rather than participating directly.
In Massachusetts, the Dems' platform is exemplary. However, we elect state legislators who feel no obligation to enact laws that reflect our platform. A platform that sits in a drawer, or, as a friend recently put it, that is nothing more than a bunch of electrons in a file, is basically worthless.
True! But I do think Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and their supporters (many of us) got some ideas into 2020 platform and now acted upon.
I just saw the Democratic one in Colorado and it was amazing. Determined fight on the ground to establish the planks.
The Republicans? "Whatever Barron Von Shitzhispants wants"
I'm voting for Biden AND holding him accountable, too. That's right; mantras are not enough, so let's do what our democracy requires. #VoteBlueEveryElection #NoFascistUSA #VOTE 💙
Appreciate your enthusiasm, Ma'am.
The head of the Republican Party in my county in PA believes that ALL pregnancies are viable. I’m assuming he’s never heard of a miscarriage. He believes the founding fathers founded a Christian nation & they never intended a separation of church & state. Of course he doesn’t believe in vaccines.
Late 1960s, I was in Catholic school & the nuns taught us about separation of church & state as well as freedom to worship was an equal right.
How the heck did people become this dense?
Goebbels knew how to do it, and our repubs went to the master
Miscarriage? All that means to a Republican is accusations of taking an abortion pill. They will not accept any legitimate cause of death, therefore will not allow administering of any post miscarriage health care for the Mother. They will support the death of any Mother.
“A true liberal government, one that protected the rights of individuals, must be big enough and strong enough to act as a referee between workers, consumers, and businessmen.”
This is what the true function of government is.
All of Heather’s letters are well written & brings a lot of serious issues front & center. Frankly, I find it hard to say I like them when they scare the crap out of me. Perhaps the 😱 emoji should be at the end of each day’s letter.
watch the crap is scared out of us maybe there will be room for more and better actions both short-term and long-term.....
Having the crap scared out of you does not always lead to paralysis. You can be scared and take action.
Vought is correct, we should return to the original religion in North America and we should impose the 'founding religion' on all, including him immediately!
"The peyote cactus...Native Americans have known of the plant’s hallucinatory properties for thousands of years, and peyote still holds a sacred place in these cultures. In fact, over 40 tribes in North America and Western Canada still use it in sacred religious ceremonies."
Not even peyote can redeem Steve Bannon. On the contrary, it would only make him geometrically more insane.
UNCONSTITUTIONAL! People are not supposed to have that much fun!
🤭🤫😊😉🥳
But did you ever try to read the last Book of the New Testament, Revelations? Whoever wrote that HAD to be smoking something 😲
The income tax, as it operated until 1986, was the fairest tax of all. Based on a person's own income it set a rate commensurate to what the individual could afford. Sales tax, so favored by States, is the most unfair of all taxes because it is applied evenly regardless of income or wealth. So the guy at the bottom of prosperity may pay no income tax but 5% to 15% of his spendable income goes to tax, leaving 0 for savings 0 for emergencies and 0 for entertainment . Where as the wealthiest might spend 1 to 2 % of their monthly or annual income on taxable goods he amount paid in sales tax is close to 0% of their taxable income. The cry of 'tax the rich' is an unavailable plea. How can you tax the "income" of a man who has no "income" Apparently a number of men so wealthy they could not spend their wealth in 100 lifetimes. They have so much wealth they can borrow their annual needs. The income from their interest earned on their wealth pays the cost of the loan and they pay LEGALLY no income tax at all. That is why Bernie and Elizabeth, and now Joe, are asking for a wealth tax.
I, and I believe most of us, have no desire to "tax the rich" into poverty or even middle class income. They drive the same streets and highways, use the same water and sewerage systems, fly the safe airways, and use the same military and police protection as all the rest of us. It is only fair that they pay for the same privileges as we do.
I sincerely hope that Russell Vought does write the party platform for the Republican Party and that it is publicly presented at the Convention in July. If nothing else that should give the more intelligent voters pause in considering for whom to vote this fall.
To put a cherry on the cake, we have a surging Hard Right movement in Europe as evidenced by the fall of Macron's government in France. Putin is grinning like the Cheshire cat. We in the US have an increasingly difficult task ahead. Religion and Nationalism are the cause of almost every conflict. Their marriage is a toxic brew!
What a stark reality of today's rise of the Far Right in the EU--on the heels of a celebratory week for D-Day as a turning point in liberating Europe from Nazi control.
https://www.npr.org/2024/06/09/nx-s1-4997712/far-right-europe-elections-france-macron-germany-scholz
Almost all of the surges to the Right in Europe are rooted in the failure of the last forty years of neo liberal capitalist globalisation ideology. The casual ignoring of local rooted fragile cultural traditions and difference by the political imposition of top down for Corporate profits Projects. Leading to the destruction of local social fabrics by a form of social Holsteinisation. A term coined by US geographer to compare the unrolling of xerox copy housing across the States to the breeding of Holstein cattle purely for hamburger production. At the same time unchecked exploitation of the environment for hyper tourism is literally salting their earth by the pouring in of tons of cement. People who care for their locale, who do not or can not move away, are enraged.
Don’t be taken in by the mega corporation mass mediation that immigration is the sole motive. It is only a tool being used by far right crooks and oligarchs to both create culture and class conflict and incite violence as a distraction as they grab more political power. The underlying issues mentioned above will simply worsen once they have succeeded in their fascist coups. This is a global political crisis. An expression of late corrupt capitalism and the ending of the empires bolstered by fossil fuel.
Yikes!!! And on the heels of the D-Day anniversary.
Thank you for that alarming article.
There were conflicts in the world far before
nations and religions existed.
Nonsense. Religion existed first.
Well, actually not really. There has likely always been ways for humans to access their spiritual side through various rituals, creation of gods and goddesses etc. But an organized religion is something newer. And no, religion and government should never mix. It makes for a repressed society.
Of course religion and government should never mix. But all cultures, nations, and religions grew out of pre-existing myths and rituals, all of which were highly organized and dominated the people who practiced them. There has never been a human conflict that did not have religious content. Never. (This is due to the 'god fallacy', but no need to discuss that now).
It’s easy to look at Iran and think “they dress so differently and talk so differently—we could never have a theocracy like they have here in America.” But we’re all human beings the world over and therefore all have the same human frailties. These people-Vaught, Bannen, Steven Miller et. al.—are truly dangerous, and I strongly suggest we take their chance for power away by voting for Joe Biden. Donald doesn’t have the scruples to reject them.
Donald doesn't see very clearly between those swollen eyelids.
You are right. They are more dangerous than the Supreme Cheeto. I will be voting against the Spanish Inquisition, I can tell you that.
After the Civil War, the Patrons of Husbandry were formed so that the farmers would have a voice before the legislatures and the Congress. The Grange. Making it possible to compete with the robber barons.
Robbers, that's a good word. As I have said elsewhere and often, the Republican oligarchs are stealing the people's money. They are getting very desperate now because they know we will wise up and rise up, just like FDR did. Only a corrupt government and its supremely corrupt Supreme Court can guarantee their continued success.
There’s a great book everyone should read: Goliath: The 100-year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy.
The US is again at another crossroads as it was in FDR’s time. Read in this book how the Robber Barons were stopped (actually slowed) in their relentless destruction of the foundations of our democratic republic. It should give you some ideas. And how they are in the process of destroying it again. We the People need representatives who represent what WE want in government. Government is supported by institutions and institutions don’t stand up by themselves (to paraphrase Dr. Timothy Snyder from “On Tyranny”.