Today, President Joe Biden signed the continuing resolution that will give lawmakers another week to finalize appropriations bills. Lawmakers will continue to hash out the legislation that will fund the government.
But it goes far beyond even that. The words "to save" (himself) are not necessary. The real meaning:
TO SACRIFICE ALL TO HIMSELF.
The worldwide plague of narcissistic perverts -- Putin, Trump, Kim, Netanyahu, Modi, Orban, Wilders, Bolsonaro and myriad others -- is a plague of SELF-IDOLATERS.
They may, like the Israeli mis-leader, sacrifice all, sacrifice the lives of thousands of innocents, women, children, to save themselves from the humiliation of having to face justice and the consequences of their actions. Berlusconi's political career focused on keeping him out of prison, Trump is trying to do likewise... and to take revenge.
But the nub of it all is that these cosmic monsters know one god only, their infinitely inflated ego.
Navalny: a true exemplar. A secular saint.
No one even distantly matching his stature has yet emerged in America.
Your statement of “worldwide plague of narcissistic perverts” brings to my mind how these ineffective “ leaders” responded to Covid. TFG not doing a damn thing saying it’ll be gone in Spring like magic, while we all suffered! While millions died and he blamed Obama for not keeping emergency supplies current.
Biden started turning us around immediately. The press says he’s old. But I believe history will show us he’s the best president we’ve ever had.
I don't agree with the statement that Biden is our best president ever. I certainly agree that he has been an excellent president and stands head and shoulders above his predecessor. In a Biden - Trump election, there is no doubt in my mind who is the superior candidate.
He was handed a mess. He got to do the cleanup after a fire. Unfortunately, I do not think he will not be a memorable president. Trump will go down in history books. Putin Not Yeltsin, Hitler not Merkel.
Judging by what is happening today, no one has learned from the past. Colleges should require an American history(2 semester). This would be more useful than learning to speak a language most of us will never use.
I agree with Karen below that Biden was handed a mess and he certainly did a LOT to help fix the problems generated by Trump from 2017 to 2021. However I also agree with Charles that Biden is NOT our "best" President either. He did a terrific job on many issues but he also failed in a number of ways. Most important, I think he did not take the mantle of the Democratic party and make sure it was set up to provide leadership for the foreseeable future and as a result he permitted himself to be placed in the position of "heir apparent" to himself. He NEEDED to recognize that his age is a potentially serious debilitating condition that jeopardizes his chances of being elected again and thus jeopardizes the security of the nation going forward, especially in the face of GOP Maga Trump leadership. If he loses this upcoming election (hopefully not, but not completely unthinkable either, especially after winning in 2016 against pretty much all odds) we will all pay for Biden's failure.
Hillary ran an awful campaign and was a flawed candidate who thought she was a shoe in. Her ego was as big as Don’s. Joe needs to focus on what he accomplished with NATO, the long overdue infrastructure bill and the potential in the Chips and Science bill. Of course the stupid Republican IVF policy in Alabama has a role as does abortion. And what an ass Don is.
Yea, but that's not quite known to be true. Historically Democratic voters may have been on the front lines as essential workers. It may be them who died more often in Republican-led districts.
The original article on which this NPR report is based appeared in JAMA Internal Medicine. (Of course this is all liberal-biased mainstream fake news.)
While that may be true there were plenty of Democrats and systems (education & healthcare) that died and suffered immeasurably due to the intentional harm tffg caused the world during Covid
Please, that is NOT something any of us should be saying, even in jest. People lost their lives in the pandemic, mostly without regard to what political affiliation they were. Trump's lack of leadship not withstanding, NO ONE should be joking about the death of people from the pandemic any more than anyone should be joking about the death of civilians in Ukraine or Gaza.
Didn't the trump administration cut the budget for the department which would've made sure a program for such things as the pandemic could be handled? I believe some of the medical equipment needed special handling to keep them viable which was not done (budget cuts). Anyone hear of the Ebola pandemic during Obama's term? It did come into the country and was stopped in its tracts. That's why no one heard of it.
Yes, the Ebola virus was stopped by Obama's health administration, but it is basically erroneous to compare Ebola with Covid. Ebola is NOT spread by aerosol contact but rather by direct bodily fluid contact. That kind of contact occurs much less between humans. It is also much more severe than Covid when you DO catch it and so it becomes clear fairly quickly when someone's bodily fluid might effect you. Simply being in the same household as another Covid-infected person creates potential spread that is not the case with Ebola. So the communication of Ebola, while significantly MORE dangerous, is much less likely to happen unless you intentionally submit yourself to it. Covid, while theoretically less fatal, creates much more communication and at the outset, before there was any kind of vaccination available, made it much deadlier in the general population.
Denise, the best President EVER? After FDR and Jimmy Carter, the best in my lifetime. Yet far from perfect, sometimes betrayed by his very expertise, because long, extensive and deep experience does tend to entail a number of automatic settings, and these have proved worse than unfortunate in relation to the suppurating, unhealed wound of Israel/Palestine.
The total destruction of Gaza and the massacre of tens of thousands of civilians, including vast numbers of innocent women and children, have no possible connection with defense or the saving of hostages.
If anyone can justify this and its seemingly uncritical, even enthusiastic, acceptance by all the American Right to me -- or better, to the Israeli people, to former premier Ehud Olmert who thinks (politely) that the current Prime Minister has had "a breakdown", they are welcome. How anyone who remembers what the Jewish people suffered when I was a small child can justify behavior reminiscent of Saddam and the Al-Assads' most heinous crimes against their own cities, I don't know.
Dayan's IDF in 1967 was a model army. Today's army behaves like a rabble. Understandable. Totally inexcusable.
Unlike most of you, I remember what it is like to be bombed. I was a 4-year old in London on the night when the first V1 rockets rained down on the city and I have never forgotten that night which implanted in me a lasting horror of the bombing of cities.
Anywhere. By anyone.
That is why I have spent so much time in Germany, trying both to overcome my own deep fears and to reach a deep understanding with my younger friends in that country. (I know too the former Leningrad and have spent time with friends in Kiev -- the city of Babi Yar -- long before the present horrors. They looked forward to the day when they could take me to visit Crimea...)
Explain to me jaw jaw diplomacy when thousands of children are daily suffering dreadful injuries and over ten thousand have been killed. Explain to me why America could not airdrop food and essential supplies to the homeless and starving. Explain why America has refused to press for an urgent ceasefire when extremist members of the Israeli government speak of war aims more important than the lives of their compatriots taken hostage.
Young Americans who express disgust with President Biden's policy here may lack perspective when it comes to their ultimate responsibility as citizens -- but is that not normal for the young? This is HIGHLY important, for these should be, should have been, among his strongest supporters in the defense of democracy from Trump's intended destruction of all the country's institutions and freedoms.
I have written now of things that mystify me but which call to mind uncomfortable memories of what's most horrific in US history -- "The only good Injun is a dead Injun".
Exported from Brooklyn and the Bronx to the West Bank of the Jordan.
BTW, my personal opinion is that the best President since FDR was Jimmy Carter. And I have a hard time placing Biden until his first term is over and we can figure out how his entire Presidency stacks up. I could see arguments for Kennedy, Johnson, Obama and even Eisenhower. Reagan would be selected by a lot of GOP but he would be in the middle of my list, along with GHWB. GWB is down there near the bottom, and Nixon is obviously just above the last choice.
On the other hand, the WORST is pretty simple. #45 so leads the pack that it boggles the mind.
If you look at what Nixon actually did and got done, I don't think that placing below W will be at all so obvious.
A crook, a sleazy politician, he was far from incompetent. And for his policies he'd have been thrown out of today's hijacked simulacrum of the onetime GOP.
Momentous, the opening to Red China, previously a hole in the map...
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I am no admirer.
At school in England when I'll have been eleven, a well-respected teacher came in one morning and said:
"If you ever have any say in the matter, make sure that Richard Nixon never becomes president of the United States of America."
I don't know if any of my classmates understood.
I did.
Living near Capetown from late 1946 till end '49, we had a steady supply of American magazines in the house.
I followed the Alger Hiss case, then all the doings of HUAC, getting to recognize all the characters in the Red Scare drama at age 8-9: Sen. Joe McCarthy, Cohn (Trump's mentor) and Schine, Whittaker Chambers and, of course, Richard Nixon.
At the same time, the National Party replaced Smuts' United Party in South Africa, bringing in Apartheid and a heap of race laws, regulations and official signs, everywhere, everywhere.
So this, together with watching the local baboon pack (once narrowly escaping death after a territorial offense, when they rolled an avalanche of rocks on me and my friend at the foot of the cliff...) was where my political education began.
I found American politics and politicians (apart from Ike) strikingly UGLY.
Especially McCarthy, Nixon and the menacing and grossly obese (rare in those days) Whittaker Chambers...
UGLY.
Likewise the faces and expressions of angry white people in the Cape when giving orders to "the lesser breeds"...
Curious, this business of ugly grown-ups and the beginnings of my political education...
Peter, I expect we are probably both not all that much in disagreement. I was trying to play a little safe in putting Nixon near the bottom, but I also agree that he, in many ways, did some things for our country that were far superior to almost anything that has been done by GOP Presidents certainly since Bush 2 and to some degree since Reagan. Nixon was a globalist, at a time when many GOP party members were clear isolationists. It is what made Nixon such a fascinating figure in my mind, both terrifically open-minded about the world condition and yet so incredibly myopic about his own (and his minions') misdeeds. He COULD have gone down as one of the much better Presidents in history (as you note, the opening to China was huge) but for his own personal failings. Trump, on the other hand, has literally zero positive outlook on the world seeing everything only in terms of what happens to him. Sigh...
I like what you say Peter very much. Dr Richardson does an excellent job presenting her analysis of historical economic factors that drive and impact our country. Her story about Andrew Carnegie is interesting. He did some good things with his pile of gold; he paid to establish libraries all over the country… particularly in rural areas. I’ve seen a few of them over the years. The buildings are beautifully designed and well constructed.
We do have many saints in America, today. Perhaps they aren’t as well known as Alexei Navalny but that’s no problem. Our healthcare heroes during and after the pandemic are a prime example as are so many environmentalists working tirelessly to beat back the worst effects of air and water pollution that have gone on to warm our planet. Saints are everywhere. This is said to thank and celebrate the living ones as well as honor them.
Of course, the sacrifices of martyrs like Navalny can resonate long and loudly but I wish he didn’t have to die to achieve it. We wish him Godspeed and thank him too, for his bravery and selflessness..and his humor. He is missed and perhaps his loss will be made up by the next person willing to stand. I think it will.
Add Jimmy Carter to the litany of American saints!
‘There you go again’ sneered Reagan in their debate! Little did cheerleader Ronnie know that then President Carter would dedicate his next 50 years to serving human kind!
What about Black women who put their lives on the line? Modern examples include Fanni Willis and Stacey Abrams in Georgia and Leticia James in New York. How about Alvin Bragg, a Black DA prosecuting Trump for falsifying election records? How about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, Black election workers who won a defamation suit against Rudy Giuliani? These are all Blacks who have put their lives on hold and on the line to speak truth to power and justice upon destructive narcissists. Are they saints? Or are they simply Americans who keep the American spirit burning inside? Either way, they deserve mention and respect. It's an irony that the historically oppressed are now prosecuting the privileged oppressors while many of the rest of us enjoy our comfort and safety.
There are really no saints. There are, however, people of conscience and courage. When we use the word "saint" we pull the individual out of the realm of humanness, when it's far more powerful to see them as human beings among us.
Like the little black girl in the movie on PBS last night, “Akeelah and the Bee”. Her courage was palpable. It’s a “10”. Shows again tonight on PBS at 9pm.
J. Nol, I should not have used the term “saint” because it is so deeply misunderstood by most people nowadays, not excluding some who offer prayers before plaster statues—but are at least sincere in their devotion...
There was, in fact, a reason for my doing so: hearing that some religious people think Alexei Navalny will end up by being canonized…
When Pope John Paul II canonized Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, the Founder of Opus Dei, following a highly speeded-up process, I remarked that I never knew canonization was the Church’s Order of Lenin. The intellectual and organizational qualities of the Opus Dei founder, his foresight, his political and social acumen, are not in doubt; but it feels more than strange to find such a one in the same stable as Francis of Assisi or Juan de Yepes y Alvarez, Saint John of the Cross, even Ignacio de Loyola...
And even when we come across a case as extraordinary as that of young Thérèse Martin—Saint Thérèse of Lisieux—even more extraordinary is the Catholic Church's pomp-and-propaganda exploitation of a brief life of such intense love and austere simplicity.
Can’t help recalling the great Spanish film director Luis Buñuel calling the vast basilica dedicated to Thérèse “the Lisieux gasworks”.
Likewise the Russian Orthodox Church's problematic political saints like Vladimir, a prince of Kievan Rus, or Alexander Nevsky—a protector figure, inspiration to the country's defenders—or, given the disastrous errors of their reign and the immeasurable cost of those errors for Russia, for Europe, for the world, Saint Nicholas and Saint Alexandra... the last Tsar and Tsaritsa... At the same time, I am aware of two things: the wide overlap between the sacred and the profane in Tsarist Russia and consequently in the Russian psyche... and the disheartening awfulness of the commandeering by the Putin regime of the Russian Orthodox Church, via its KGB Patriarch, turning it into a subordinate branch of that regime, purged of many good, honest priests and genuine ordinary Christians. Perhaps unsurprising in an organization that excommunicated Leo Tolstoy in 1901… but even that made more sense than what we are seeing today…
Not content with destroying the present and future of both Russia and Ukraine with the human sacrifice of both countries’ young men, the dictator and his cabal of crazed mythomaniac ideologues have set out to co-opt for their dirty work the Russian soul itself—or at least the aspect of it that empowers and gives meaning to spiritual core of the Orthodox Church.
To conclude, what I see behind the word "SAINT" is not someone radically different from the rest of us but simply one who has expressed all the finer human qualities to the limit of their potential and, in so doing, found her or himself.
That said, I’d rather seek terms for such heroic figures other than those long abused by priests for purposes of religious propaganda. Fundamentally, we’re talking here of a phenomenon quite beyond the confines of organized religion.
"I see behind this word is not someone radically different from the rest of us but simply one who has expressed all the finer human qualities to the limit of their potential and, in so doing, found her or himself." With this statement I agree. People like these demonstrate what is possible in being human, and those others you referred to of course, showed us the depths humans can fall to as well.
Jerry, I had the people you mention very much in mind when I was writing. I, for example, am immensely impressed by the shining, exemplary qualities of Stacy Abrams. And there are plenty of others.
Well, I am going to have to disagree with you on Fani WIllis. It is becoming clearer and clearer that she failed to observe proper decorum for someone with such an important office and as a result, a carefully structured criminal trial against the Trump minions is now likely to go off the rails because of her own self-interest. This is in GREAT contrast to Leticia James who has done a superb job of carefully and methodically bringing the appropriate charges against Trump and so far, winning all of her cases. On the face of it, WIllis has probably so jeopardized her attempted prosecution that it will fail at least for the next year or so. In the end, I expect her to be recused at least from the case she brought against the Trump rabble (along with her paramour Wade) and that will leave the Georgia case, which started out looking like the best laid plan, up in smoke, at least for the foreseeable future. Once Georgia figures out where to send the case, and if they choose another DA who will put in the effort, the case might get back on track (assuming Trump is not reelected in November) but it won't happen in 2024 in time for the upcoming election, sigh. Nothing she has done will, it appears, effect Trump's guilt or not, but it will create a huge and unnecessary delay.
Jim, I agree that we disagree on Willis. Her personal affair really has no bearing under her suitability to prosecute the case under Georgia law. I was concerned about this the same as you but then realized that the folks who are pursuing this case are doing so in spite of the harassment and threats they received and continue to. If they are thrown together in an intense case and their feeling bloom, that is human. Blaming them for human impulses that logically have no conflict with the mission is blaming the victim. While on the one hand the judge should have already thrown this sideshow out, on the other, he's allowed all this to preserve the record for the inevitable appeal. Yes, all this is a complication, but it doesn't take away from Willis' bravery and competence.
To repeat, Willis nor Wade got rich from their prosecution of Trump and whatever relationship they actually had does not present a conflict of interest. I'd actually be quite shocked if McAfee rules against Willis. He showed a lot of IMpatience toward the defense's arguments during the evidentiary hearing and the Trump team's key witness, Bradley, testified he was only speculating. There's no "there: there.
Yep you are right, we have to disagree. Prosecuting attorneys MUST be held to a MUCH higher standard than anyone else involved in a lawsuit except the judge. Prosecutors do NOT represent a person or company, they represent all of us. They are NOT there to find anyone guilty, they are there to ensure justice is done. They can NOT under any circumstances even APPEAR to be biased or seeking some other benefit. My biggest concern about this is twofold: (1) throughout this entire charade, Willis and Wade have repeatedly concealed the full extent of their relationship and then grudgingly given ground as the whole story came out in the press That greatly diminishes their credibility IMHO. And district attorneys MUST have INCREDIBLE credibility or they are damaged goods. (2) it seems clear now that their actual relationship began before Wade was appointed to his position on the case, and (a) he is apparently not highly qualified for the role and (b) he and Willis have been able to share the "benefits" conferred on him by being appointed, i.e., $650,000 paid in approx 18 months, which is, at least in Georgia, a LOT of money for a government attorney (Willis doesn't make anywhere near that much as DA). This leads me to the at least POSSIBLE conclusion that they are both benefitinng at the expense of the state.
As I said, NONE of this has ANYTHING to do with the actual case in terms of Trump/et al's guilt, but unfortunately that ship has sailed and now whatever they do that might be potentially a conflict of interest is involved in the case, like it or not. She should never have appointed him to the positionn and now they got caught.
Game over, in my book. They both need to move on, as their credibility, regardless of whether or not there IS a "there" there, is completely shot and they can no longer prosecute this case.
And remember I was a HUGE supporter of the case WIllis was bringing against Trump. So this feeling I have is TOTALLY grounded in my belief about the proper execution of the laws, and their ability to do that now, not whether they did anything "legally wrong". That bar is NOT the bar they needed to clear. It was much higher and they missed by a mile, IMHO.
Yes, wonderful about the libraries ... a true gift for the U.S. But .... not good to his workers, fearing that paying them too much would corrupt them! Yikes!
well paid workers circulates immediately back into the economy with consumer demand, property acquisition, homes, appliances on and on. That translates into goods and services stimulation, translates finally into great profits. What's the big problem????
Yes. Carnegie was very much a capitalist of his time. He didn't just believe what he proclaimed, he acted accordingly.
After him came benefactors like Ford with the most dreadful downsides.
More recently, we have seen major philanthropists like Bill Gates and seriously motivated men of immense talent like Steve Jobs.
The case of Konosuke Matsushita in Japan goes, perhaps, even deeper, being very much here and now, yet rooted in an older, more seasoned culture, one that accords greater importance to balance and harmony in all things. I'm sure he and other leading figures of his generation will have learned much from the catastrophes brought upon his country and Asia by the hubris and excesses of Japan's prewar military regime.
But generally speaking what we have been seeing in the past half-century is the rise of insatiable, unchecked greed, vanity, meanness and stupidity in scale with the number of zeros that represent billionaires' fortunes, alongside a bigger and bigger tonnage of the outsize bath toys these unfortunates call "yachts".
These poor so-and-sos are toppling society with their thieving from the foundations to build their top-heavy sybaritic paradise...
I forgot to mention the very special case of George Soros, who has an extraordinary, perhaps unique record, an heroic one, in that not one of his good deeds has been forgiven by the Great and Good or by the Great and Bad.
The perfect scapegoat for all the world's extremists, oppressors and anti-Semites, always of the Right, sometimes of the Left, hated, demonized and blamed by Orban, by Putin, by Trump, by Netanyahu... for anything and everything wrong with the world, everything from bad weather to financial crashes...
Look at this item on a film biopic made by the son of Bob Dylan!
If only, if only USians could get it through our collective head that democracy and capitalism are not identical, or even inextricable. In fact, they run in separate lanes. They *can* support and strengthen each other, but they can also be at odds -- and when they're at odds, as in the U.S. since the beginning of the Reagan administration, capitalism tends to hollow out democracy. (Thank you, Citizens United.)
I and a friend once wrote a letter to the Editor of the Economist who believed that capitalism must inevitably be accompanied by democracy in China, whereas we did not.
He did not publish our letter but did us the honor of answering it.
After watching what happened after the Soviet Union disintegrated and, later, the utter stupidity of promoting "regime change" in Iraq, I'm amazed that anyone continues to *really* believe it. OTOH, it's become clear that a significant chunk of the capitalist crowd isn't all that wild about democracy either.
I wonder if he fully believed, or if this was a way to justify his rapacious behavior. The idea that there's something special about those who accumulated mounds of money and power, is so like all the white privileged men who can't see how much they were helped by an unfair system. There is no such thing as making it on your own merit.
Not to their extent, no. The only idea I can come up with for thinking you alone have made all your wealth, without considering ALL those who worked to make it happen, is greed. Plain and simple.
My favorite Justice Thomas who used the Affirmative Action program has or wants to end it. Nothing like climbing the ladder and then pull it up after you.
However, I believe I understand his dilemma. While I agree with Affirmative Action to try to right the wrongs of discrimination, it can put the individual person receiving the help in a uncomfortable position. If you are perceived as benefitting from Affirmative Action, are you also seen as someone who isn't really capable of doing the work to get there? This is one way that racism is so insidious. Either you can't do the work because you belong to an "inferior" race, or you got to get there because of the boost you got from a government program and not your own efforts. The reality is that we all benefit from the system in some way, and nobody ever is a success only because of their own individual efforts. The system just makes it easier for some of us than the rest.
The belief that people who amass wealth are somehow blessed by a higher power and those who are poor are being punished for something is older than any religion. In fact it was, before empire was allowed to remove him from Christianity, one of the things Jesus spoke out against the most.
Peter B: It's true that Bill Gates has given a lot of money to philanthropic causes, but there has also been extensive criticism of him (and other gazillionaire philanthropists) because much of their philanthropy is directed to causes of their own preference rather than of general well being. One that comes to mind is Gates's support of "education reform" based on ever more infiltration of technology into the education process. Guess who benefits most from that, whereas whether such innovations benefit students is still in question.
I think it's also useful to remember the scope of our civilization. I recall that in Gate's annual letter from a couple of years ago he responded to the suggestion that he eliminate our nation's homelessness problem with his vast fortune. He pointed out that the entire Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would only be able to operate the L.A. County school system for 2-3 months. Private philanthropy doesn't begin to satisfy the needs that government struggles with every single day.
Indeed. A part of every dollar that swells the use of technology in the public school system goes to Micro$oft and then back into Bill's pocketbook. This isn't the WORST thing that could happen (putting dollars into Elon Musk's pocketbook would vastly outrank that at least IMHO LOL). I personally believe that technology does help most students to some level, but I am not at all sure the cost-benefit equation is totally positive. This should be studied further in order to figure out the proper way it should be handled in the future. One major concern is that when money is granted to purchase computers, there is rarely an equivalent grant to fund both maintenance and an endowment to support future upgrades. Computers obsolesce quite rapidly as it turns out and many schools end up stuck with very old computers after 3-5 years with no funds to buy new ones. There should be a requirement that any grant for purchase of new equipment be paired with an endowment grant to help support upgrades in the future.
I didn't go into this, but thanks for clarifying an important point. I didn't want to associate Gates with the pernicious ideological nonsenses from another age propagated by Henry Ford and still, alas, with us. But it is quite true that the man's no doubt excellent intentions are vitiated by built-in techie prejudices and blind spots. A certain scientistic absolutism. He does what he can, but this basically good work may sometimes have reinforced corporate power and the abuses that arise therefrom.
Peter Burnett, I don't see how Gates or Jobs are evil and selfish. Matsoshita I know only a little about, and his philosophy seems to he a derivative of Japanese culture, and I can see how that could be distorted to create a toxic workaholic culture, but I don't know if he was evil. I ask this because your comment leads me to think you feel that all ultra wealthy people must be greedy and evil, which sound either religious or Marxist.
I suspect you're not at all a zealot, so I'm wondering how you've come to this opinion. If I'm wrong in my interpretation, just tell me I'm full of shit. I won't take offense, and still buy you a beer or a soda just to have a serious conversation.
Thank you, TC. Paying their responsible share of taxes will still leave them with plenty to spread around according to their interests and interpretation of what society needs. Their contributions are welcome but the first responsibility is to contribute fully to the public good via taxation. Of course, there are fair criticisms of government spending, but it is the surest way to lift everyone, not just those on the radar of the non elected super wealthy. (Not to mention that not all the super wealthy consider themselves trustees of funds for societal welfare ala Carnegie …. Hence the even greater need for fair taxes.)
If there were a 100% tax on everything above a certain amount, the rich would have to find different ways to compete with each other rather than increasing their takings.
No, Jerry, you have totally, but totally, misread me, and I wonder how or where I can have been so unclear that this should have been possible.
Ah... now I understand... I mentioned Gates and Jobs immediately after Henry Ford who, as I said, had serious downsides including anti-Semitism that got him involved with Hitler. At the same time as remembering the company in which Ford's political and social beliefs, including eugenism -- beliefs all too common in men of his time -- landed him up, I am very aware of the man's great positive contributions to America and to the world...
I'll correct the layout now to eliminate that misunderstanding.
We may not have a secular saint like Navalny (who was no liberal in his politics), but we don’t need saints when we have good, honest and faithful leaders.
I too, Jeri. Remembering what we learned and did as children during WWII, spending my “second childhood” printing GOTV postcards (printing like first grade—I was the best printer in my class—because “they don’t teach cursive any more,” taking away the one art many children ever had with all its benefits for the brain) as fast as I can. Today continuing to work on 250 for Sherrod Brown which are **** to cram onto some postcards. To work.
I had no idea cursive wasn’t being taught until my straight A, 15 year old granddaughter asked me to read a birthday card message for her because she couldn’t read cursive. I was flabbergasted. Still am, though now they have brought it back into the curriculum.
Let us remember that cursive was invented to speed up writing when it was necessary for commerce. Today when most commerce communicates by keyboard, printing makes for much easier deciphering of the few handwritten notes we see. I have never been a fan of cursive and abandoned it as soon as I could.
As I said before, there are no saints. MLK wasn't a saint, but he certainly was a man of great courage and conviction. It's much more powerful to see him and others like him as human beings, than to suggest there's something special about them. This makes it more real, that we all have such choices to make, whether to be a force for good or ill.
I disagree. There are saints and MLK was/is one of them. All the saints of the various denominations were also human beings who stepped up with courage and conviction in a time and place that made them special.
So are you saying that they weren't human? When we single out human beings as saints, are we drawing on the supernatural? MLK was certainly a man of courage and vision, but he was also a flawed human being. It seems much more realistic to see these people who step up to do the right thing as human beings, because it makes clear that we all have the option to be that courageous, despite our flawed natures. When we call them saints it lets the rest of us off the hook.
Just curious… do you not think of saints as human beings ? it has always been my understanding that they were saints because ,being human, they reached a higher level by means of a lot of hard grunt effort.
Sure. It must be rather obvious that he came to mine.
Hard times do call for saints and, no less, for selfless heroes like Garibaldi. Like Navalny. Like MLK himself, whose life was cut short so that we never saw the full flowering of his immense qualities.
Like the small, simple giant Thich Nhat Hanh, whom MLK so admired... and whose virtue was spotlit by his being persona non grata both for the American establishment and for the Vietnamese Communist Party.
Sadly one (or some) have to be so articulate to convey themself to the people who are and have been primed to only look up to popular perfect specimens before giving a listen.
John Sharkey, Susan may be right. After all, if Christ were to come to America as a flesh-and-blood human being, would he be recognized by any but a few ordinary people? It seems improbable that he'd be recognized by many, maybe most, of those who like to think of themselves as Christians. Many of them would prefer Trump...
What's for certain is that he would be in grave danger.
Likewise anyone like Navalny, even purified by suffering as he was. So purified that he was able to withstand Putin's personal version of the death of a thousand cuts -- and always come out from the punishment cell laughing and mocking Putin and his tormentors. He was, paradoxically, far, far stronger than those who killed him but could not touch his spirit.
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To John Margolis -- to whom, apologies for answering his good point here -- I'd say that almost all human beings are flawed, and the greatest and the best often have flaws to match their qualities. But we already do have many good people, sound, upstanding human beings, and we neglect or -- as you point out -- ignore them.
Wrong gender, wrong color, wrong age, wrong appearance, wrong tribe. And, as you suggest, the kind of profile that corresponds to people's notions of Mr. Right -- note, Mister, never Ms.-- is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Such people will come into their own after the Satanic figures have been put where they belong.
At this juncture, when we are dangerously close to joining the Russians, the Ukrainians and other victims of the most cruel oppression, we desperately need inspirational figures. I hope some are already waiting in the wings.
I hope, too, that -- whatever the price they and we must pay -- they will be heard and followed. And... WE SHALL OVERCOME!
Not quite "nothing". Let's leave that to the likes of Hitler and DT -- minus quantities with immense compensatory powers gained from resentment that enable them to give voice to all the pent-up rage and hatred lying in the depths of the collective unconscious.
Navalny was an unequalled communicator, one who allied verbal mastery with brilliant, biting humor. He quite naturally built up good teams, although it is said that a team member may have betrayed him into returning to Russia prematurely, acting in the belief that he would not be arrested. This seems somehow improbable to me. He must have known all the precedents, must have known what he faced.
He knew too that killing a man's body is not difficult, killing his spirit, the ideas he represents, is almost impossible. Life is not like a Western movie in which all the villains bite the dust and the hero rides off into the sunset.
Perhaps as Caesar ruled the world that Jesus emerged and technically facilitated his killing which ushered in the rest of Christianity and its history -The Holy Roman Empire didn’t quite help Democracy flourish but ironically somehow we are here today wishing our country and perhaps one party could both help God out and also stay out of what goes on in that endeavor (please excuse the ambiguities and rabbit holes zzzz)
My reply to you (was) disappeared. But I shall come back to you now. One moment...
Sorry, John, got sidetracked.
Basically, Constantine, a later Caesar, saw in Christ's religion a marvelous tool for the unification of a vast and diverse empire, and while the imposition of political and social unity gave immense power to both Church and Empire and went a long way to creating a great new civilization, it suppressed essential aspects of Christ's teaching and replaced them by compulsory belief in myths that don't hang together and are completely at odds with that teaching—which remains radical, and utterly subversive of the world we have built for ourselves, a world that is now falling apart.
So much so that the term “Christian” seems often to be a misnomer, as what is taught now and has been for centuries is in basic respects deeply opposed to what Jesus taught and often consists of all that he preached against.
The Reformation was an attempt to get back down to basics but, even there, fundamentalism, gross literalist misinterpretation of the metaphors, the parables used by Jesus in his teaching, has tended to paint a dualistic picture of a deity separate from and above his creatures, essentially transcendent, while neglecting the lifeblood of the Gospel message, God’s indwelling presence in and among us. In other words, a living message, buried under a vast heap of doctrinal detritus. One that could hardly be more relevant for Westerners.
How so? Because monotheism and the consequent belief in one truth underlie the growth of our cultures and our power… while our present exclusive focus on appearances and externals and neglect of all that’s inward, the very nature of the mind that perceives phenomena, even the unfathomable complexity of the human brain that mediates our perceptions and tries to understand what it perceives, lies at the root of today’s vast turbulent confusion, the worldwide crisis of civilization, of survival.
I'm a concerned foreigner, a Brit living in exile. I have no vote in the US.
My concern is that, such is American power that the whole world is directly affected for better or for worse by who holds power in Washington and how they exercise it.
I love my country, but in geopolitical terms it has become a mere sideshow.
Carnegie was opposed to helping people who fell on hard times because he thought it would make them lazy. Today’s American Oligarchs still believe in that useful, guilt-assuaging trope. That’s why the GOP wants to cut Food Supports, Medicaid, and criminalize homelessness. They believe they are eliminating disincentives to work. I find that odd, as hunger, homelessness and illness don’t tend to make for good workers. These <mostly> wealthy men have jumped on the bandwagon of greed and cruelty. We certainly can’t afford to put one back in the Oval Office - let alone allow them to decide how their “excess” wealth (would they believe that there is such a thing as excess wealth??!!) would be spent for the “betterment” of society!!
Goes even farther back than Carnegie: Calvinist preacher Cotton Mather (d. 1728) declared that "For those who indulge themselves in idleness, the express command of God unto us is, that we should let them starve." Cruelty has been baked into certain realms of our culture for centuries.
Peter, thank you for this excellent post noting the world wide plague of awful people in power. Many times I sit here and curse the fact that so many have to live under these monsters. I do hope your final sentence is true.
Mr Burnett's thinking is compelling. I have been hearing the Putin apologists deride Navalny's politics as nationalistic, ant-Muslim (or something), etc. These people overlook that people are imperfect and what counts is who they become when times are dark and our better angels are required. I certainly trust that Mr Navalny's views softened as he suffered and came to see the suffering of others.
Even if those feelings -- alleged -- persisted, I would ask this question: President Johnson was probably racist until the day he died. But does that flaw, if it existed, negate the compassion and justice of his civil rights laws and beyond? My current whimsical hope? That these protests at the funeral rhyme historically with the food riots of February 1917.
I hope my last comment to you was not posted. Meant to say hello. Needless no say, I am not a fan of Mikey Mouse or of the nattering nabobs of narcissism to whom he capitulates. I did mean President Johnson because I have noticed people seeking to negate the bravery of Mr Navalny owing to past political views. People pick out one flaw or mistake to attack the greatness of great people all the while not understanding that it is those flaws which make them great. Why? Because great people do great things despite those flaws. More importantly, for me at least, those flaws signal that these great men and women were not special or anointed by G-D; that is to say: one has no excuse for not trying by sitting back.
P.S., my first comment, thankfully not posted, was far too venomous. Speaker Johnson is a decent man; unfortunately he is proving not to be a gutsy one.
Disappointing, but not surprising, to learn that he is in the pay of Russians, which helps explain his devotion to Trump. Totally agree with you about flaws and greatness. Well said and thank you.
I did see this interview on MSNBC. I am satisfied that Putin is probably blackmailing Trump with photos and recordings of Trump in Moscow hotel rooms with young Russian ladies. But, I could be wrong.
Christopher, there was a clip of the Australian prime minister likening 45’s adoration of Putin to that of a 12-year-old meeting the captain of the high school football team. That captures the wish to be like that person when you “grow up” !
There are social media musings that TFG also idolized Hitler. Very gossipy rumors that he keeps Mein Kampf on his nightstand and raised by a German Nazi nanny. But I’ve never seen nor heard of a verifiable source for the gossip.
I've always suspected (no, no evidence) that Trump has a pile of money in Russia. Wasn't there a hotel he was building in Russia?? When did he EVER do a business deal that wasn't shady??
Hmmm. A pile of Trump money in Russia? Could be that Putin has not only blackmailed him but has also bribed him since Putin may now be the richest man in the world. Money well spent.
I believe Cheetolinni loves Putin because he admires his brutality. Putin kills his adversaries. If Cheetolinni wins in November, he will portray himself as a strongman like his idol. Who knows what he will do to his so-called enemies. SCOTUS and other judge’s are giving him a pass and are doing everything possible to allow him to escape accountability for his transgressions against our country. Putin is never held accountable either. Heaven help us if he is successful.
Well, IF the Supreme Court decides (heaven help us!) that in fact the President does have absolute immunity from prosecution, it might be appropriate for Biden to place a contract on Trump, Johnson, McConnell and the six GOP Supreme Court justices. I mean if the President is immune, that immunity cuts both ways. And it is limited to the president so Trump already missed his chance to do this, but Biden is the current President and could eliminate all of the GOP opposition in a single stroke of the pen.
I am NOT suggesting that this is RIGHT, only that if it is in fact the way our Supreme Court now sees our government, what's good for the Republican goose should also be good for the Democratic gander.
Richard, I think that it may be more basic than that—money. Putin holds the reins of those who supply loans when no one else will loan 45 any money. We’re going to see who comes to 45’s financial aid now that he’s unable to “negotiate” his appeal bonds. BTW, his offer of 1/4 of his bond reflects how he treats those who sign contracts with him.
TFFG is now on the hook for more than 1/2 billion dollars. He is up against the wall. Why, oh why, do his MAGA true believers still follow him? This letter helping to explain that was published in today's edition of the Palm Beach Post:
MAGA likes Trump’s views
Re 'Defeating Biden seems the MAGA end-all' (Feb28):
I had an immediate flash-back to an issue that I pondered several years ago. I wondered, 'Who in the world would vote for Donald Trump? What were they thinking?' I got lucky. It turns out that two professors at the University of Kansas, David Norman Smith and Eric Hanley, wondered the same thing. They researched the issue and published their findings in February 2018, in a study entitled 'The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election and Why?' published in Critical Sociology . Their findings? They voted for Trump because they share his views on race, women’s rights, immigrants and gay rights. The economy had nothing to do with their support.
It's deeper than anger at cultural issues. And we need to recognize the economic context.
1. MAGA followers distain those who have led both parties. They feel looked down upon. They resent the huge increase in inequality.
2. The "traditional" Republican Party has nothing to show the people for their rule except deeper public debt. When Trump said "the system is rigged" it echoed since it felt true. And largely remains true. Starting with Reagan, "cutting taxes" became their religion. They used the "voodoo economics" of "supply-side" thinking to promise great benefits (see the new book "Power to Destroy" by Michael Graetz that lays out the history of this debt-generating change). On top of that the Republicans added harsh criticism of Democrat politicians and signed onto many aspects of the cultural war. All in a (fairly successful) effort to get elected. And the Democrats, seeking election, eventually became reluctant partners in allowing the public to forget that spending requires roughly corresponding tax revenue. That never made any sense but, in a world ready to buy our bonds (for a while), reality has been delayed.
3. We have a constitution (unstable and ineffective presidential "checks and balances" type instead of a responsive parliamentary type) and election system that drives us towards two parties dominated by extremes. Instead of the kind of multi-party system that can find room for and promote compromise (hence action). So, we have seen the conversion of the Republican party into the Trump party. See, for example, David Dayen's January essay "America is not a Democracy":
4. Finally, media changes and campaign finance have distorted the flow of truth to the public. Nearly everybody misses the point that the rich and successful have been financing our elections with a relatively tiny amount of money. $10 billion in 2022 and probably double that in 2024. Please think for a moment how small that amount of money is in a $26 trillion dollar economy. A federal campaign finance voucher program of roughly the same size (costing the average taxpayer the cost of a single cup of coffee a year in taxes) would at least clear the air of lies and allow candidates to focus on truth.
I agree with MOST of what you say here. I will take slight issue with your financial statement. $20 billion dollars (the suggested cost of the 2024 election) is probably pretty close to correct. You say that would cost each taxpayer roughly a cup of coffee per year. You MUST be drinking incredibly great coffee :-). With 300,000,000 people in the country, that's $66/person. WOW, that is the most expensive coffee I have ever heard of LOL! And probably slightly more because not ALL of our 300,000,000 people are taxpayers.
I will say though that I completely agree that state or federally financed elections should be required and private organizations should be absolutely BARRED from spending money on electoral politics. We need to eliminate PACs completely and require that everyone who donates to any political contests be identified with the amount contributed.
You are so correct, Mary! He caused 4 casinos to go bankrupt in Atlantic City with the help of greedy loan officers in American banks!
He rebounded with $$$$ money from Deutsche Bank whose capital came from newly minted Russian oligarchs! Lest we forget, after the Soviet Union dissolved, the American Congress loosened banking regulations so that the Russian oligarchs could launder their looted funds here!
I watched an interesting British documentary; opening national systems to offshore money was an effort by both Britain and then US to reduce capital outflows. The Russians were only one piece in this. Must watch again to better understand. Here it is.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_ylvc8Zj8
If you are still on that platform that has gone into the toilet that Professor Richardson is still a part of, here is an amazing link regarding some questioning of Hunter Bident:
I know from personal family experience that family members who have had "problems" can become what they were meant to be with love and support. Thankfully, he had the love and support and is coming into his own. And kicking arse in the House.
Yes. I also think Putin/Trump has kompromat on many Republicans. Lindsey Graham comes to mind. Note that we can't talk about Trump any longer without including the shadow leader of the Republican Party. Vlad the Bad.
Bill, you note: "Note that we can't talk about Trump any longer without including the shadow leader of the Republican Party. Vlad the Bad."
You are correct. I get the feeling that this country has become one humongous insane asylum. There are 60 million or so crazies running about this country.
Insane or compromised. Too many very hawkish Republicans are now in full support of Putin. Look at Lindsey Graham - former defense hawk, former "never Trumper". Something smells funny. The FBI informant revealed to be a Russian plant should inspire us to dig. We should be terrified and motivated.
Russians play a long game of infiltration and kompromat. The GOP may now be in the "Grip Of Putin" via various files and sundry embarrassments. Russia didn't abandon its techniques of intelligence gathering and blackmail when they gave up "Communism". After all, look at where Putin was hatched. GOP may now be an extension of the FSB (formerly FSK and KGB).
The scuttlebut is that Senator Graham is gay (I will NOT use the nickname that many people use to demean that). Whether he is or isn't does not matter. Why it matters is that for so long, it was a (contrived, to my mind) situation that was based on the degree of "compromise" that could be extracted from someone to keep that "secret". Alan Turing, anyone?
What a sad commentary that Graham would possibly worry that his career would be threatened by his sexual orientation. But I guess where he lives, too many don't support such diversity. Ooops, I said a "bad" word. /s
I speculate that you are right. But the actual gayness might be less of a problem than what his actions might have been. Who knows. I don't care. He just creeps me out with his Trump ring kissing.
But interestingly, there appear to be more Republicans who might be compromised by personal exposure than Democrats. So-called "religious right" GOP leaders (as was true with religious leaders themselves like Jim Bakker and Jerry Falwell) seem to be quite fond of hypocrisy. Look at the recently departed leader of the GOP in Florida Christian Ziegler and his spouse. Personally, I could care less that either of them were fond of threesomes. If it floats your boat, why not? What gripes me is the hypocrisy of advocating so-called "conservative" sexual norms while actually acting on much more liberal notions themselves, and still holding everyone ELSE to the original standards.
So if Graham is gay or not, that is fine with me. But if he permits himself to be held at "gunpoint" because he can't be public about his personal sexuality (whatever it is) well THAT is a real crime.
Anybody who saw the pics from Helsinki had no doubt. It was indeed, creepy. Like puppet and puppet master. Bet that is exactly when they planned the invasion. Snag. Chump lost, damn, but there are ways to get chump back. Just be patient…
THAT, is an interesting thought. Trump was pure obsequiousness in Putin's presence and then Trump confiscated the interpreter's notes after the 2 hour meeting with Putin. I can't help but think that Trump is a traitor to this country, through and through. His malignant narcissism reduces him to nothing but deteriorating flesh, a complete cipher.
Yes he is a traitor. MSM needs to stop calling one on tffg's indictments the 'documents case'. He is indicted for 'espionage' which includes stealing confidential documents from the government that is he is undoubtedly sharing with our enemies.
I agree, of course, that malignant narcissism is a dangerous condition, particularly where there are those who wield some power over others. Some may say that, as a human, it deprives the infected (afflicted) with the capacity to feel empathy. I have literally seen animals in the wild show more care for fellow creatures than Trump does for anything, including humans.
Well, it was not creepy to me. What was creepy to me was that Trump's flatulent fawning was NOT creepy but right on schedule. I sense an almost homo-erotic element to Trump's creepiness.
"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
One presidential candidate made the killing of Alexey Navalny about himself while the other goes and meets with the grieving family and promises support for their cause. Yep, they are EXACTLY the same.
Yep, a lady where I live said I’m sitting this one out, both crooks. I said surely you jest, can’t see any difference??? People are turned off. Sad sad sad
I encounter people at work that say they will only vote for Dumpty. It’s hard to just focus on work and ignore that part of them. That’s why to me it was so important for him to be ineligible to be on the ballot. But I wanted most of the Texas politicians to be ineligible to be on the ballot!
They have worked long and hard to fool all of us, not only the fools. They have been very successful and it's a slog to turn it around. The majority needs to act like one. Hard to remember in Texas, but I do.
Denise, that is similar to the work environment I left. I retired before the 2016 election, but still worked part-time through 2022. At least Oregon doesn't have the same "leadership" as Texas does, a fact bemoaned by almost everyone back at my old agency.
Thank you. But the comparison goes deeper, doesn’t it? Perhaps, to be charitable, Republicans insist that Joe Biden must be corrupt, because they cannot imagine someone sacrificing the chance to profit from the nation he serves.
Ransom, as well as in Israel where Netanyahoo seems bent on destroying not only Hamas but any possible chance for any plausible coexistence with what Arabs who haven't been indiscriminately wiped out can be arranged or sustained!
How can the Republicans think that taking any of our social security away is a winning proposal? Remove the cap. If corporations are people then people pay taxes. Fund the IRS to make sure tax cheats don’t!
The whole (Republican) idea of incorporation is to provide nearly all the benefits of a citizen with nearly none of the responsibilities . Come to think of it, that's the status (and them some) ordinary Republicans claim for themselves. Look at "He Who Feels No Shame."
"The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to maximize its profits."
That is certainly what is happening, from who got bailed out in the "Great Recession" to the fact that I am forced to communicate with my doctors (Optum owns it all) online, got email to to open My Chart but could not, changed password and got a message I could not be verified and to call a number, was on "hold" for 1 hr 50min before giving up and got on eventually. But that experience is becoming typical. The largest companies want zero contact with customers, apart from access to their bank account. "Deregulation" means we are increasingly living under the rules that giant corporations set for us. Increasingly they shed responsibilities. How many person-hours are spent on "hold" these days? Increasingly they do as they please.
Who are the real "stakeholders"? Are they not, in the end, all of us? Ultimately all of the inhabitants (human and not) on the entire planet?
Heh “ the Nobel Prize “. I remember being in second grade and how we treasured those little stars that our teacher would reward us with. There were different colors representing different values the most valued was the gold star. Then one day on my way to the Saturday matinee I stopped off at Shaws variety store to get my pea shooter and supply of peas. It was then that I noticed the little boxes of stars of all colors. And I could get all I wanted for the price of a pea shooter. I spent my money on the pea shooter which to me still had some value. Gee I was so much wiser then.
We got the stars too. I don't think the Nobel Prize is meaningless, but there has been some funky stuff in the the politics of who does and does not get one. I just don't know about the merit of all of Friedman's work, but I doubt his callous disregard for his sense of responsibility to society would have pleased the founder of the the prize. Clever people can be cads. Friedman's formula is a patent recipe for sociopathy, and it's not like "no one could have predicted it". Look up the British East India Company.
J L, it’s no longer even the philanthropy of Carnegie with his spreading libraries to small and large towns or Ford making it possible for workers to own the products. Now it’s just to make as much money as possible for the people at the top.
Don't forget Andrew Carnegie was a robber baron, who promoted the idea that a few wealthy men should control society, rather than have an equitable society for everyone. A few libraries spread around, while a nice idea, pales in comparison to a more just and equitable system.
Same here. As a kid, I read with great interest a biography series called "Childhood of Famous Americans", and impressed my parents when I told them that our Public Library in Medford, OR was a Carnegie Library (I'm guessing 3rd or 4th grade at that time). When I hit the age where I was in the "upstairs" (adult) library more than "downstairs" (children's) library, my Dad asked me to read more about Carnegie and Henry Ford. He didn't ask me to do a report or anything, but we did have an interesting "out to breakfast" conversation about those to "pillars" of the US.
"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits." - Lincoln
Of course that capital is not necessarily private capital, nor should all of it be. Robber barons, be they royal or monopolistic are the enemy of liberty and justice for all. Part of that mix is free enterprise, but the notion that business should be a special ethics-free zone, and that laws should protect companies, not workers, customers, or communities is bat guano insane.
This was called Landmark Books, and through the mid-1950s I checked out and read scores of them -- from the public library on Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, Michigan. That library, a colonial style classic in west Dearborn, not far from Greenfield Village, was also a gift from Carnegie.
Yeah, one of my earliest memories was going to what was likely a Carnegie library with my mother and coming home with "Elmer and the Dragon". It's a treasured fragment, and anyway the libraries were a substantial and meaningful gift. But in context? We should not have to go to a king with our begging bowl to finance the General Welfare. Conservatives regularly condemn taxation as theft, but what are low wages and extortionate prices when oligarchs rule the roost?
JennSH, my point was that, unlike today’s employers who underpay employees and stiff contractors/contract employees, he at least did something for the communities. There were 1700 libraries built here. Today’s billionaires, many who inherited their wealth (like Walmart’s Waltons, whose employees often rely on SNAP programs), rarely donate substantially to programs meant to make people’s lives better.
Well corporations are already taxed for paying Social Security benefits. But I agree with you; the cap should be raised, actually eliminated. Cap the benefit and not the tax; it is not like people at the top cannot afford not getting social security in proportion to income. Make sure to tax for Social Security purposes investment income including carried interest for investment managers x percent.
If you are way at the top, you can afford to pay and not get the benefit. And you are at the top because the system got you there, not anything to do with your brilliance necessarily.
Corporations can treat their contributions to Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid as tax deductions, just like the cost of wages.
Remember also that employees pay half.
And for those of us who are self-employed, we pay the whole load, and the deduction is only useful if we have profit from which to deduct it.
And in fact although collected as taxes, those - at least in theory - are not put to general government purposes like income taxes are, but are instead supposed to held in trust for those who are retired, disabled or impoverished.
Employers and employees pay half, to be sure. There should be no trouble at all for sending those tax revenues into the social security trust fund, which is running a major deficit as you know. I'm not sure where your complaint is coming from.
Granted, I do think the small businesses (especially sole proprietors) are impacted negatively relative to most businesses.
I agree that corporations pay half of an employee's contribution. But payment of social security contributions is NOT the payment of a "tax" on income, and it's deductible, so I was just correcting the overstatement that "corporations are already taxed for paying Social Security benefits."
They are not "taxed" for paying social security if they can deduct it as part of wages. And FICA is not at all dependent on corporate net income.
Just trying to help dispel a common misconception that a corporate employer's FICA contribution is the same as a tax on corporate income, as they are quite distinct.
Just a quick note - anything that's deductible from gross income or net income to arrive at net taxable income isn't "subject to income tax."
If the discussion is focused on income tax, then the millionaires who can hide or defer or legally avoid tax on their personal earnings are being disingenuous when they say they pay taxes when all they are referring to is FICA contributions or the tax withheld on their employees. Those really aren't "their" taxes - they are someone else's, and they are deductions from gross revenue or net income and hence never taxed as "net taxable income" at the corporate level. It's not just tax law but also basic accounting.
Yes. The money employers pay into Social Security is treated by the employer (correctly) as part of the employee’s compensation. So, roughly 14% of the employee’s compensation goes for FICA taxes before the employee even starts to pay income taxes. The wealthy, on the other hand, employ capital gains tax rates and other loopholes to reduce their federal income taxes to an average of 14% of their entire income (including FICA, which because of the FICA tax cap at about $120K of income, is close to 0% of their total income). In other words, federal income taxes, rather than being progressive, are actually regressive when you compare what the wealthy pay to what median income wage earners pay.
Actually, even the money you pay into FICA is also taxed for federal income tax purposes. You do NOT get to exclude FICA from your taxable income, so you are paying the Social Security and Medicare taxes, and then paying income tax on that same amount. Your company (which matches the FICA taxes) gets to deduct the FICA tax from its income as a business expense (just as it deducts your salary payments from its income as a business expense). You however pay your income tax on your total earning INCLUDING the amount deducted for FICA. What is even more "interesting" is that when you are paid Social Security payments when you retire, you pay income tax on those payments too. So in some ways, the money used to cover your social security paymennts is taxed twice, once when it is paid to you when you earn your salary and then again when you get paid in retirement.
I recall Warren Buffet saying the woman who cleans his wastebasket pays a higher share of income as tax than he, and that without lawyerly legerdemain.
Depends on what you mean. It is legally called a "trust fund" because the moneys are theoretically "held in trust" to be paid to the individuals when they retire. Actual practice is that all federal funds are commingled and it is just a ledger entry that you have so much money "on account" for your retirement. And remember that at least at this time in history, you will be paid a fixed amount every month when you finally retire and start collecting Social Security regardless of how much you actually paid in. So depending on how long you live, you may easily end up "losing" money (if you die soon after your retire) or "making" money (if you live until you are 90+ or so. It varies for each person depending on how much they contributed and how much they earned in their last 10 years of income (what your retirement income is based on).
Have you ever run or owned a Corporation Matt? I've been involved with 8 start-ups. During the first 3-5 years most corporations are in business, one bad decision or one sale gone bad can bankrupt a company. Of the 8 startups I have been involved with 3 are still in business all of which were sold to larger competitors. The other 5 went under. So you're saying that if one of these companies finally turns the corner and has a bad year, they should pay more SS tax?
If the government had invested our SS contributions in 10 year rolling T-bills then it would be solvent, but instead they used it for general purposes with zero return to SS.
The $34 trillion national debt dumped onto the backs of our younger citizens (starting with Ronald Reagan where the national debt was tripled during his term in office) is principally the result of the large corporations and wealthy individuals not paying their fair share of taxes.
The IRS has received more funding, Joe. 'The Inflation Reduction Act provided $80 billion in additional funding to the IRS, much of which is dedicated to closing the tax gap by specifically enforcing tax compliance by the wealthiest tax evaders. (Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Feb 8, 2024) It has a lot to do!
'U.S. billionaires are 46 percent, or $1.6 trillion, richer than they were in 2020.'
'According to a 2021 White House study, the wealthiest 400 billionaire families in the U.S. paid an average federal individual tax rate of just 8.2 percent. For comparison, the average American taxpayer in the same year paid 13 percent.'
'According to leaked tax returns highlighted in a ProPublica investigation, the 25 richest Americans paid $13.6 billion in taxes from 2014-2018—a “true” tax rate of just 3.4 percent on $401 billion of income.'
'Do the rich pay their fair share?'
January 14, 2024 By Oxfam
'What billionaires and giant corporations pay in taxes—and what that means for the rest of us.'
Jeri, coming after him with the new agents doesn’t make sense—a return of less than $1 per dollar spent (the return on a wealthy tax cheat is more like $8 for every dollar spent).
We must get involved and stay involved until we have stopped the thieves and isolations from turning our country into a fascist state. Call, write and if you can speak to your representatives. This guy Mike Johnson is a scary man. One of Trump’s lieutenants
I like your nice blue LL Bean jacket there Ms "GA Girl".., I hope you got it in Freeport. We'll never empty the room of "all" those creeps. And, empowering a society to hide behind trees and stumps to spy on and 'catch' the varmints ICE-like is how Russia and Hungary do it. Clearly, calling upon a Representative like Bofart (poor thing) sure isn't going to have any real effect, while there are others out there who will make a difference. The key to al of this is a 'civil society'. This present administration has encouraged just that. No shotgun blast strategies. Instead, a more steady pressure to keep this nation of individuals on track, in keeping with the reason it was formed in the first place. So, I agree. Stay warm.
They ought to let the immigrants in then, but they see them as takers instead of contributors. Our history says that they contribute, if you omit the Drumpfs..
The problem with removing the cap is that most of the high earners work for companies where their income can be in the form of stock options or bonuses. Warren Buffett has taken a salary of $100,000/year for many years, well below the SS cap and yet he is one of the richest men in the world. They raised the income cap on SS this year from $160,200 to $168,600 an increase of almost $800 for high earners.
Rick Scott stole hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicare and Medicaid and bought a Senate seat with $69 million of our money. And he proposes to eliminate SS as it exists and start from scratch every 5 years. Him and his uber rich Republican colleagues have no business messing with any social programs.
In that year, Bezos, who filed his taxes jointly with his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott, reported a paltry (for him) $46 million in income, largely from interest and dividend payments on outside investments. He was able to offset every penny he earned with losses from side investments and various deductions, like interest expenses on debts and the vague catchall category of “other expenses.”
In 2011, a year in which his wealth held roughly steady at $18 billion, Bezos filed a tax return reporting he lost money — his income that year was more than offset by investment losses. What’s more, because, according to the tax law, he made so little, he even claimed and received a $4,000 tax credit for his children.
That's one of the paradoxes of MAGAnazi lies. Why waste money collecting pennies from the poor instead of getting several hundred thousand from one rich tax cheat.
CONservatives have demonized the IRS for decades. Some of it deserved, yes, but like all public agencies, they cannot fight back without CONservatives screaming unfair.
Deserved? They have underfunded the IRS so their overlords can use every possible opportunity to evade paying any taxes. While Joe Shmoe will get audited instead. Most of the "new" people working for the IRS are just to restore staffing that have left over the years. The wealthy grift the system why the rest of us are expected to pay up.
My dad worked for the IRS for 30 years. He retired as a GS-3 in 1982 earning about $14K/year. When he started with the IRS in the 1950's each state collected the Federal income taxes for that state. NE had one office located in Omaha. It was a very stressful job for him. His boss was a b**** but he stayed because he was a disabled veteran and couldn't do physical labor. Plus the benefits were decent.
When the IRS went to regional service centers he was offered a promotion to GS-7 if he would move to Kansas City. He declined and was never offered another promotion for the next 15 years.
In the late 1950's and early 1960's he would hand carry the daily deposit to the bank three blocks away. The deposits were often over $1,000,000 with several thousand in cash. No one ever bothered him in all the years he made the deposits.
He told us stories about IRS agent's jumping on the hoods of cars with "Property of US Government" stickers. If they moved the cars they could be prosecuted for theft of government property. They would also put the stickers on homes when people owed the IRS money. Imagine an agent doing that today.
I also have 4 former co-workers who have been working on mods to the mainframe systems at the IRS. The IRS is actually very good at catching under reporting of income from banks, investments, and W-2 income due to all of the reporting required from financial institutions and companies.
They have the systems to be better at catching dead beats that don't report but these are labor intensive tasks, to meet with the non-filers. The $80 billion would provide the money to be able to collect from many of the dead-beats.
Conservatives fear the IRS because the wealthy lie about them coming to get the middle and low income earners being arrested for underpayment.
Wow, up close and personal. That's probably one of the agencies that repubs plan to dismantle, like the Education department. How much faster they can tear down than the efforts it takes to build. Bannon knows that better than anyone.
There is method to their madness. As long as they audit the poor, they are OK. But let them turn a light on the rich and they are evil. It's not to hard to see the pattern, even magats and dumb arses like my bro, should get it.
I agree. Corporations should be paying the same tax rate as school teachers. How dare Johnson and the others suggest to rob Social Security to fund billionaire tax cuts. We The People need to start screaming about this hatchet job starting today. The wealthy can kiss my backside.
It's the entire patriarchy that thinks that way as well as the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptists among other male dominated religions. Why can't women be priests or pastors?
It's ok for Catholic priests to diddle with little boys and each other, but if a woman wants to make a life saving choice to abort a fetus or if she's been raped by a relative--that's going too far. Hypocrites one and all.
In the words of Emma Watson, "Fuck the patriarchy."
Joe, if we increased that SSI collection cap to 500K, that would go a long, long way towards solvency. If there was a way to add SSI collection to "financial gains other than income" now, that would be parity.
I agree. We have contributed to the Social Security system as workers...it is not a "give a way".
Government assistance for those who need assistance is only the decent action to take. We stand together...weak, strong...rich, poor....healthy with those who need assistance physically or mentally.
Something President Joe Biden and his team have done is lower the price of insulin. Now this is a President using his influence and love and respect for the people of this country to assist with real , close at home problems.
The rich want to get richer...drug companies continue to make and sell very addictive medications. It is not difficult to discern those who love this country and its people and those who want to use people of this country and their medical needs or weaknesses to line their own pockets.
President Joe Biden and his team are on the right track!!!
I do not understand why Christian citizens cannot see these realities in front of them.
Republican dogma. If they say it enough times and get people to repeat it enough times it becomes their truth. Just look at all the lies 45 has been spouting for years that now are taken as the gospel by his cult followers.
The IRS has now been adequately funded much to the dismay to the R’s. They discovered that there are approximately 125,000 people who have not paid the taxes they owed since 2017. Next week, the IRS will begin sending out letters to these individuals. Mind you, they are not after us peons. They are after the filthy rich who want to destroy our democracy and take away our Social Security and Medicare. Oh how I hope it’s some notorious members of Congress who get those letters! https://apnews.com/article/irs-tax-season-audit-back-taxes-77c891313f5233366fbe4f6fb5d896e8
Regarding the 25,000 from the article who earn more than $1 million, there are many of them who are in the hundreds of millions, and don't obviously deserve what they are getting for working of course 1 thousand hours per week. Of course that is insane, getting paid to do nothing and not contributing to society
Just tax all income for social security and medicare, problem somewhat solved.
That said, I just got a bill for $20,000 for a simple nasal septum surgery correction, mostly paid by insurance (I owe about $1000). The dollars per hour being paid into our health care system is pretty insane, in my opinion!
Delivering medical care through corporations is an abomination. Doctors and medical personnel should be paid well. CEOs and stock holders should not. Corporate medicine is ruining our health care.
The procedure took literally 2 hours (including the prep where only nurses were involved), so that is $10,000 per hour! I've already used up half of my health care Flex Spending Account on account of this procedure.
It is a very simple procedure that besides anesthetics takes maybe 30 minutes. So where does this tremendous bill come from?! I think it probably goes to the hospital administrators, perhaps.
And no one told me up front regarding the cost; they just agreed as long as I was getting my broken nose reset, and under with anesthesia, that doing this procedure as well was two for the price of one.
I totally agree. If you don't have insurance bankruptcy is often the only recourse. And try to get healthcare after a bankruptcy with no insurance.
My company quit paying our health insurance premiums to the carrier during the year. My wife was in the hospital for 3 days and we were told we were no longer covered due to premiums not being paid.
We received a bill for almost $50,000. Ultimately, the issue with the premiums was resolved and the insurance company paid about $12,000 and we paid $1500.
It's sad, but you can't afford to be without insurance.
Elizabeth Warren knows more about bankruptcy law than anyone in the US. She has pushed for not forcing people to declare bankruptcy for unpaid medical bills. Instead the Federal government would pay the debt. It's never gotten traction.
With insurance who has a contract with the hospital, with insurance not contracted with the hospital, Medicare Advantage vs Medicare Part A &B, self pay, etc…
I call it job security. The healthcare-industrial complex is a massive jobs program due to its fragmentation
More than that. They have different payments that they accept depending on your insurance company. Medicare allows significantly (and I mean seriously significantly) less than Anthem, who in turn may allow more than Aetna or Cigna, etc.
Sometimes, the price the provider charges is lower than the insurance allowance, but the member still needs to pay the insurance negotiated price for the procedure.
At least the insurance approved the procedure. It’s appalling that they can reject claims based on nothing at all! My dental insurance refused to pay for work done on my teeth after the dentist office got it approved and had the cost what we thought was covered. Some jerk came back and said we’re not going to cover this. Like practicing medicine without a license! But I am on teacher insurance. It’s the worst!
More even than that. This is Institutionalized Cheating. Daylight robbery.
And since it's the norm -- in America, nowhere else in the world, there's exceptionalism for you -- Americans are blind to it.
Blind and robbed blind.
*
Nose broken 3 times -- at 16, boxing, at 45 and 55, running into glass walls -- I had 2 ops in Belgium... First failed, still a problem with septum, second succeeded. Both times, inpatient. Cost to me: negligible.
Normal in Europe.
*
Moral of the Moral:
Dominance of the Unfittest.
A society governed by social Darwinism, "Survival of the fittest", is divisive, makes competition-for-its-own-sake the sole governing principle, totally ignoring the parallel reality of symbiosis, interdependence, every factor that connects and unites us.
Yes, probably too many overpaid administrators. But, also many highly trained medical personnel and doctors.
As long as it is an out patient procedure, just stay home and have a plumber, or Roto Router, do the work next time! Will cost you less than $1000, maybe.
And too many overpaid insurance company CEOs. Any insurer who offers Medicare Advantage is in it for the money. Profit over patients: the American way.
Not to defend the cost, but I will defend the procedure as not being simple (had one). It involves not hitting the vagus nerve, which runs through the nose through the nervous system. One passes out easily just standing up, or from the pressure changes in an airplane descent.
My surgeon was excellent, but we both learned how disturbed my vagus nerve was by the procedure. Anyone in a hurry could change someone’s life.
Marlene, perhaps NOT "thank goodness you had insurance" because that lies at the heart of the absurd prices and inefficiencies of our corporate medical system. So much goes into the administration of that system with its preauthorizations, sometimes repeatedly throughout a course of treatment, appeals of decisions by non-MDs, advertising. They all end up feeding the profits of the corporations and not providing the healthcare for which we all pay way TOO MUCH!
I have an expensive, high-deductible plan through ACA marketplace. (eligible for Medicare soon! 🤸♀️) This year I was able to receive a subsidy that reduced my premium to level of several years ago. Thank you, President Biden and Inflation Reduction Act !
Yesterday the Biden administration gave a heads up to corporations that own jets. They are going to audit the trips for personal use and tax the individuals as the benefits are income.
Our home in Fernandina Beach was on the flight path for the airport. Every year during the car show, the Lear Jet Club would hold their annual meeting at the Ritz.
One of the years we lived there I counted the jets at the tiny airport there and there was 75.
I wonder how many of the owners wrote off the trip/meeting as a business expense.
It’s nuts here in Marathon. Sometimes 25-30, plus all the smaller craft. Key West is crazy too.
Of course, there’s also the helicopters making lunch trips from Miami. The restaurant across Route 1 has a helipad. Land, 8-10 for lunch, then off again. Us plebeians just stare lol.
Nice. I can't even imagine flying somewhere for lunch.
When we moved to Maine we are again close to the airport in Trenton, ME although it's called the Bar Harbor airport. In the summer the uber wealthy fly in and out of here umpteen times a day. Plus there are 5 commercial flights a day for the tourists. First one at 6 am. or at least that's when it flies over our house. :)
If Republicans really want to govern and help fund Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid all they have to do is take the cap off wages for contribution purposes. As Heather discussed, they can also increase revenue by allowing the tax cuts to expire for those earning more than $400,000 and raising the corporate income tax rate. Trickle down economics doesn't work and corporations take excess profits and use them to buy back stock which increases their stock value. It's time to make everyone pay a fair share so we can do want other wealthy countries do and provide healthcare, education, child care, rent relief and other basic items to everyone. Of course, Republicans don't want to govern. They want to give more money to the wealthy and corporations because they don't care about anyone else. We need to vote Blue, up and down the ballot.
Brava! This ancient on Social Security and Medicare wants desperately to be back in France where medicine in the small towns was caring and excellent. Maybe this is the place to tell about the lovely Russian woman who is my furious neighbor. With Trump and the Heritage Foundation Project 25 (Carnegie on OxyContin) she thinks escaping Russia to come here was a mistake. (Her American husband died some years ago.)
Important to remember when we see historic old Carnegie Libraries that this was paternalism, not merely generosity or genuine public spirit.
I'm not suggesting their destruction.
They should be preserved wherever they are habitable and capable of being used either for their original purpose or repurposed. But they also need to remind us that they were a marketing gimmick for his statement that instead of paying state or local taxes, he thought he knew what was best in the patronizing phrase that he was "doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves."
Much writing about Carnegie fills the definition of hagiography, but a contemporary of his, Theodore Roosevelt, said this about him and his sometimes self-serving pacifism and isolationism:
"[I have] tried hard to like Carnegie, but it is pretty difficult. There is no type of man for whom I feel a more contemptuous abhorrence than for the one who makes a God of mere money-making and at the same time is always yelling out that kind of utterly stupid condemnation of war which in almost every case springs from a combination of defective physical courage, of unmanly shrinking from pain and effort, and of hopelessly twisted ideals. All the suffering from Spanish war comes far short of the suffering, preventable and non-preventable, among the operators of the Carnegie steel works, and among the small investors, during the time that Carnegie was making his fortune…. It is as noxious folly to denounce war per se as it is to denounce business per se. Unrighteous war is a hideous evil; but I am not at all sure that it is worse evil than business unrighteousness."
Nasaw, David (2006). Andrew Carnegie. New York: Penguin Group. p. 675. ISBN 978-1-59420-104-2.
In addition to Heather's citation to the recent Guardian article, an excellent 2022 Guardian article also describes the self-serving nature of business leaders like Jamie Dimond who brand themselves "stakeholder capitalists."
A professor friend of mine once told me that men of great fortune never get there without exploitation of people and the law. I think Carnegie is a great example of that.
Thank you for this deeper perspective. I was thinking of Carnegie’s libraries and other ‘public works.’ What has TFG used his money to build for the people? Have they started to construct a library in homage to his time in office? I can’t call it presidential. His money has gone only towards making more. He is ‘one who makes a God of mere money-making.’
His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, couldn't even attend the funeral because she would probably be arrested once she entered Russia. Nor could his two children be at Navalny's funeral.
It’s a tragedy Navalny’s wife and children could not be in Russia for his funeral. Navalny had a great deal of courage and knew he might die, but returned anyway. His memory is a threat to Putin.
Those were some disturbingly patronizing words from Andrew Carnegie. Yet still, Carnegie built and funded the perpetuation of libraries and museums in the post Civil War Industrial Age. Today's private equity and tech titans, make both the Robber Barons like Stanford, Rockefeller and Morgan, and the other uber wealthy individuals of the time, such as Carnegie, seem like Frederich Engels in comparison.
The concept of the corporation was just getting started in Carnegie's time, and now, it is far, far bigger than Frank Norris' "Octopus", far more powerful, and aided and abetted by far more otherwise good people who work for them and depend upon them.
Louis Brandeis famously said that we can either have a working Democracy, or a Country led by the wealthy, i.e., an oligarchy. Looks like we've chosen the wrong path.
I'm surprised that Little Mikey ("He Likes It!") Johnson, a self-proclaimed prosletyzing Christian would take the sycophantic of the wealthy classes position in opposition to a certain well known, and much beloved, sandal wearing prognosticator and prime persona in the New Testament who once said,
"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven"
It is some kind of error to believe just because somebody claims to be Christian that they're doing it for what you might think of as the right reasons, impulses and spirit. Many branches of churches or their leaders, some of their adherents, are more obviously in it for the look, the power over others and that includes money power, which has been going on for decades if not centuries. Do not attribute reason to these people; they are in the sway of false religious interpretation for highly personal and selfish reasons which they will never admit to; it's a kind of mask that supposedly gets you political and maybe personal approval for whatever it is you're doing. Behavior masking as some kind of acceptability. It is always behavior that gives everything away at least in the long run. They are not reasonable people so don't expect to have your own reasonableness satisfied in that assumption.
If you're flaunting your Christianity you're certainly not Christian.
And that's where it all came from anyway, the handy fact that is unhandy for so many people, Jews had been living this way and working it out already for the previous oh give or take 1,500 years ...
Like your throwing a Bible at Mike Johnson. Thought about Carnegie’s libraries, but those built by communities mean more to the communities. Ownership is powerful for generations. (Look at Beyoncé and “western” music!)
Little Mickey was "elected" to Congress unopposed. He didn't have to argue or justify a platform. He didn't have to defend his Christian beliefs and how they should be the law of the land. There was no one to argue against or discuss merits or pitfalls of ideals. In other words, he doesn't feel the need respect other ideas.
Yes, and as David Pepper reports, those who run unopposed become more radical, because there aren’t any debates or competition to moderate their positions to reflect their constituencies. Although I suspect the constituencies of people like Johnson or Jim Jordan are plenty extreme.
The GOP. Robbing the Poor and giving to the Rich, who need more money like I need another hole in my head. The most egregious thing was when the GOP told their voters Biden’s plan to fund the IRS, (to tax the wealthy,) was the "guvmint cummin' fo yo munny."
American history is full of deep, dark pockets; D.J. Trump’s attraction to dictators is nothing new.
'The Real Reason Trump Loves Putin' (Atlantic Magazine, excerpts)
'A new book explores the American right’s tendency to admire and want to emulate foreign dictators.'
By Franklin Foer
MARCH 1, 2024, 8:17 AM ET
‘FOR NEARLY THE ENTIRETY of the past decade, a question has stalked, and sometimes consumed, American politics: Why do Donald Trump and his acolytes heap such reverent praise on Vladimir Putin? The question is born of disbelief. Adoration of the Russian leader, who murders his domestic opponents, kidnaps thousands of Ukrainian children, and interferes in American presidential elections, is so hard to comprehend that it seems only plausibly explained by venal motives—thus the search to find the supposed kompromat the Kremlin lords over Trump or compromising business deals that Trump has pursued in Moscow.’
‘But there’s a deeper, more nefarious truth about people on the right’s baffling unwillingness to criticize the Kremlin: They actually share its worldview. Putin worship isn’t even an aberration in the history of conservatism, merely the latest instance of a long tradition of admiring foreign dictators. Over the past century, without ever really blushing, the American right has similarly celebrated the likes of Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco, and just about every Latin American military junta that called itself anti-communist.’
‘The right hails these dictators as ideological comrades in the war to preserve traditional society, the values of order and patriarchy, against the assault of the decadent left. Unlike conservative politicians in the United States, these foreign leaders don’t even need to bother with mouthing encomiums to concepts like tolerance, freedom, and democracy. They can deliver reactionary politics in the unvarnished form that some hard-liners on the American right have always hoped would take root in their own country. As the journalist Jacob Heilbrunn argues in America Last, his history of conservatives’ romance with dictators, “Conservatives have searched for a paradise abroad that can serve as a model at home.”
‘Heilbrunn makes the interesting decision to begin his history on the eve of World War I. A primary villain in these chapters is the newspaper columnist H. L. Mencken, perhaps the most celebrated curmudgeon in the history of American letters. Walter Lippmann called him “the most powerful influence on this whole generation of educated people.” A conservative movement as such did not exist in the earliest decades of the 20th century, just a constellation of reactionary intellectuals and their wealthy patrons who nodded in agreement, nostalgic for the antebellum South and a world before mass suffrage. Mencken, the most eloquent of the reactionaries, put their cantankerous thoughts into ornate, often quite funny prose.’
‘Mencken believed fervently in the superiority of German civilization—and in the leadership of its racist, war-mongering monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm. This reverence stemmed from ancestral pride; Mencken’s paternal grandfather came from Saxony. But his affection for Germany also grew from his disdain of American democracy, which he believed ceded control of society to mediocre politicians. By contrast, he liked that Germany was “governed by an oligarchy of its best men.” Just before America officially entered World War I, he submitted an article to The Atlantic in which he imagined that Germany might one day conquer the United States and create a new utopia on its shores. Ellery Sedgwick, then the editor of this magazine, had the good sense to reject it. “I have no desire to foment treason,” Sedgwick wrote him.’
‘Looking back on World War I, there were compelling conservative reasons for considering intervention a catastrophe. Financing the war required the imposition of a federal income tax, which never went away in peacetime. And no matter one’s political stripe, the war’s staggering body count was hard to justify. But what emerged on the right in the aftermath of the fighting wasn’t a form of pacifism—rather, it was a set of conspiratorial arguments that became a dishonorable tradition of isolationism. This pattern would repeat itself at the onset of every war: The isolationists would point an accusatory finger at bankers, whom they accused of being eager to profit off bloodshed. They would describe the authoritarian enemies of the United States as helpless victims, peaceful governments minding their own business. In the course of casting the dictators as the injured party, conservatives airbrushed their records of militarism and racism. Minimizing these sins wasn’t just a matter of rhetorical convenience; it was an act of sympathy. In the case of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, a significant segment of the intellectual American right shared their racialist views about the superiority of Nordic peoples.’
‘HEILBRUNN ISN’T THE FIRST to tell the story of the right’s barely submerged affinity for Hitler. Philip Roth’s great counterfactual novel, The Plot Against America, takes this affinity as its premise—and as does Rachel Maddow’s recently published history, Prequel. But it’s always bracing to be reminded of how former President Herbert Hoover made excuses for Hitler before the war and how the press baron William Randolph Hearst commissioned stories by him.’
‘The biggest fans of fascist autocracy weren’t yokels shaking their pitchforks, but cultivated patricians from the oldest New England families. Benito Mussolini’s American fan section consisted of the eminent literary critic Irving Babbitt, a legendary Harvard professor, and the modernist poet Ezra Pound. Not just Hearst but also Henry Ford and others among the nation’s richest men were some of the chief apologists for Nazi Germany. Their attraction—sometimes subconscious, but quite often stated flatly—was born of fear that America was slipping away from them, as immigrants poured into the country and mass democracy took hold. Fascism represented a hopeful example of a revanchist elite reversing the tide.’
‘Hitler’s defeat, and the full knowledge of the horrors of the Holocaust, did little to spur the right to rethink its admiration of authoritarianism. In fact, the historian Fred Siegel once described the late 1940s and early ’50s as the moment when the isolationists attempted to exact revenge. Senator Joe McCarthy and his allies tried to tear down the reputations of the internationalist proponents of the New Deal who most fervently advocated for the war, by smearing them as Communists. But McCarthy was also waging a retrospective argument about World War II: that the Americans had no claim to superiority over the Germans. When he burst onto the scene, in 1949, McCarthy held hearings into what he described as the mistreatment of a Nazi Panzer division, on trial for murdering dozens of American prisoners of war. McCarthy speciously argued that the Germans were being tried on trumped-up evidence. Such accusations about America’s supposed abusive treatment of Nazis became a right-wing trope. Henry Regnery’s publishing house provided an outlet for criticism of the Nuremberg trials, before it went on to print books by William F. Buckley, James Burnham, and Whitaker Chambers that launched the modern conservative movement. '(Atlantic Magazine, By Franklin Foer) The gifted link below will only be available for the next 13 days)
I want to read Jacob Heilbrunn’s book. It seems to me that the Americans who share these world views are supporting mediocre or corrupt politicians who want to maintain their power at any cost, including the destruction of our polity. We definitely do not need dictatorship, and we need to educate our children and adults about how government is structured, and that self-government is not a spectator sport. The people who think having Trump as dictator for life is a great idea will find out the hard way it will hurt all of us.
Mr Johnson's term "debt commission" actually refers to the debt he and the GOP owe to the mega-corporations in keeping their taxes non-existent for their "investment" (translation,...donors) in the republican pay-to-play scheme and providing them their insider trading tips.
"The idea that corporate leaders should take responsibility for the community rather than paying taxes to the government so the community can take care of itself..."
Right... like Walmart (and others) shifting the healthcare costs of their underpaid workers to the community (Medicaid) *and* not paying their share of taxes. Win-win for them.
If you spend your money at these types of sleazy businesses, don't expect much of it to come back to your community, or any community.
I hear sponsorship lines on NPR about the Walton Foundation, and it seems to me that it’s a rearguard action to fix problems their very monopolistic practices have helped to cause.
A large part of the reason the economy boomed in the 50’s was due to stakeholder capitalism —business does best when all the stakeholders do well. An early version of this was Henry Ford paying his workers more than other car manufacturers so they could afford to purchase his cars.
Milton Friedman said in the mid-60’s that stakeholder capitalism was wrong. Business does best when the owners(shareholders) do best so they have the money to re-invest in their businesses (shareholder capitalism). After watching the decimation of the working class and stock buybacks, Friedman admitted at the end of his life he hadn’t foreseen his theory’s unintended consequences and effects on the US. Huh? After The Gilded Age?
Except, don't conflate the robber barons' agenda. Saying he magnanimously paid his workers more so they could buy his cars gaslights his real agenda - selling more cars and making more money, but not actually supporting workers. They are faceless here. Pardon the pun, they were just the vehicle for his greed. Arbeit macht frei.
I am on an expedition ship and overheard some Brits talking about the incredible negative impact another trump term would have on the world. They can’t believe it is even a reality that might happen. We our an international embarrassment. Nothing great about maga.
Our Heather begins with a look back at an era that seems almost quaint today.
The predators who want themselves, the 1%, to be separate from the rest of us, now have friends like Putin with his army sicced on Ukraine, his agents sicced on American democracy. Same U.S. billionaire predators aren't satisfied with just growing their wealth gap from working Americans -- they also turned the Clarence court into an entity to protect the fat orange demagogue, and fixed the same corrupt court into being a zealous tyrant over how women and their families might make their most personal, private decisions.
Nothing is personal in a land where the rich pay for and license demagogues, as float the Clarences on the court.
But our finest Dems may now be willing to stand properly against the billionaire would-be tyrants.
A couple days ago, some of these finest appeared together, at the Capitol, three of them speaking, from among Jamie Raskin, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Dan Goldman, Eric Swalwell, Robert Garcia, and Robert Frost: Dems Take Turns Roasting GOP After Hunter Biden Testimony (mediaite.com)
They should do this again – often – in public, members like them revolving in groups of three and four. But they should have and stick to a strategy:
1) intro each other fully – citing members’ names and states, and also at least one piece of legislation for which each has worked;
2) have each speaker also cite something human and personal – another person from one's home community or a character in an some aptly analogous movie, novel, memoir, or song.
It’s by making these connections apt, between the personal and the policy, that will best defend against the new tyranny, will best elevate, celebrate America and democracy.
We’re living in a time where the rich, the dictators, and the theocrats unite in bludgeoning us into their groups. So our Dems may better than at any other time center their policies on the personal – as the rule of law, democracy itself, both center on people’s rights to be free of the billionaires, dictators, and theocrats aiming to package all.
'Our' Heather! I find that 'sense' of ownership of HCR, author of Letters from an American, what -- familiar - familial - romantic - inappropriate? I know that she's not mine, while highly respected. along with other important sources of knowledge -- teachers, journalists, political analysts, social commentators, writers, engaged citizens... democracy's strong advocates!
If you have literacy, Emily, you'll see "our" does not denote only possession.
Take "This land is your land, this land is my land," by Woody Guthrie. The pronouns, as the rest of the song amply shows, celebrate participation, engagement. Nothing at all of possession.
Or, "This is my country, land that I love" -- again celebrates community, joining in, heartfelt delight in others.
Or, "My Country, Tis of Thee"? Again, any literacy in humanities recognizes the pronoun as expansive, democratically widening to others.
Literacy matters, Emily -- our humanities richly suggest solidarity as in equality, deference to wider community.
We need our enveloping, generous humanities, Emily, lest those ignorant of them narrow, distort, pervert needed community, literacy.
If you have literacy, Fern, you'll see "our" does not denote only ownership.
Take "This land is your land, this land is my land," by Woody Guthrie. The pronouns, as the rest of the song amply shows, celebrate participation, engagement. Nothing at all of ownership.
Or, "This is my country, land that I love" -- again celebrates community, joining in, heartfelt delight in others.
Or, "My Country, Tis of Thee"? Again, any literacy in humanities recognizes the pronoun as expansive, democratically widening to others.
Literacy matters, Fern -- our humanities richly suggest solidarity as in equality, deference to wider community.
We need our enveloping, generous humanities, Fern, lest those ignorant of them narrow and pervert needed community, literacy.
Phil Balla, have you emailed your 'literacy' lecture to the other subscribers who liked the points that I made? We are literate and understand the difference between respect and appreciation for HCR's work and a tone that may imply being an agent of her points of view.
I am sorry that raising a difference between us about your use the word 'our' led you to so roundly rebuke my knowledge of the English language, in terms of literacy, as well as the principles of equality and solidarity
HCR does not speak for me. While we agree about many issues and I learn from her, our perspectives, interests and points of emphasis differ in some ways. I know HCR to be an excellent teacher: a model of clear and deeply thoughtful communication.
I hope that our exchanges in the future, Phil, will be friendly and worthwhile.
Phil, it was not a couple of subscribers that questioned you calling HCR, 'our Heather' on behalf of all of us. With an appeal for accuracy there were 19 subscribers who liked my comment. I also object you questioning our commitment to the humanities. You've credited yourself quite highly in that department and disparage those that found fault with your use of language without an iota of knowledge about each of our concern for human beings, our culture, processes concerning inquiry and appreciation of human values. Did it not occur to you that subscribers to LFAA are people who want to learn, concerned with knowing more about American history and are supporters of Democracy, which I think are indications of our interest in the humanities?
I'll grant that this exchange with you, Phil, has not truly been an exchange. I did learn, however, the extent to which you would go on the offensive when questioned. Cheers!
“One sacrificed himself to save the country, the other one sacrificed the country to save himself.”
There is a very prescient parallel here in this country, as one is attempting to sacrifice all of us to save himself.
Well stated, Ransom Rideout, clearly understood.
But it goes far beyond even that. The words "to save" (himself) are not necessary. The real meaning:
TO SACRIFICE ALL TO HIMSELF.
The worldwide plague of narcissistic perverts -- Putin, Trump, Kim, Netanyahu, Modi, Orban, Wilders, Bolsonaro and myriad others -- is a plague of SELF-IDOLATERS.
They may, like the Israeli mis-leader, sacrifice all, sacrifice the lives of thousands of innocents, women, children, to save themselves from the humiliation of having to face justice and the consequences of their actions. Berlusconi's political career focused on keeping him out of prison, Trump is trying to do likewise... and to take revenge.
But the nub of it all is that these cosmic monsters know one god only, their infinitely inflated ego.
Navalny: a true exemplar. A secular saint.
No one even distantly matching his stature has yet emerged in America.
SOON, SOME WILL.
Your statement of “worldwide plague of narcissistic perverts” brings to my mind how these ineffective “ leaders” responded to Covid. TFG not doing a damn thing saying it’ll be gone in Spring like magic, while we all suffered! While millions died and he blamed Obama for not keeping emergency supplies current.
Biden started turning us around immediately. The press says he’s old. But I believe history will show us he’s the best president we’ve ever had.
I agree 1000%. The very best president!
I don't agree with the statement that Biden is our best president ever. I certainly agree that he has been an excellent president and stands head and shoulders above his predecessor. In a Biden - Trump election, there is no doubt in my mind who is the superior candidate.
He was handed a mess. He got to do the cleanup after a fire. Unfortunately, I do not think he will not be a memorable president. Trump will go down in history books. Putin Not Yeltsin, Hitler not Merkel.
Judging by what is happening today, no one has learned from the past. Colleges should require an American history(2 semester). This would be more useful than learning to speak a language most of us will never use.
I agree with Karen below that Biden was handed a mess and he certainly did a LOT to help fix the problems generated by Trump from 2017 to 2021. However I also agree with Charles that Biden is NOT our "best" President either. He did a terrific job on many issues but he also failed in a number of ways. Most important, I think he did not take the mantle of the Democratic party and make sure it was set up to provide leadership for the foreseeable future and as a result he permitted himself to be placed in the position of "heir apparent" to himself. He NEEDED to recognize that his age is a potentially serious debilitating condition that jeopardizes his chances of being elected again and thus jeopardizes the security of the nation going forward, especially in the face of GOP Maga Trump leadership. If he loses this upcoming election (hopefully not, but not completely unthinkable either, especially after winning in 2016 against pretty much all odds) we will all pay for Biden's failure.
There’s an old saying:” when I point at you I am really pointing at myself.”
Hillary ran an awful campaign and was a flawed candidate who thought she was a shoe in. Her ego was as big as Don’s. Joe needs to focus on what he accomplished with NATO, the long overdue infrastructure bill and the potential in the Chips and Science bill. Of course the stupid Republican IVF policy in Alabama has a role as does abortion. And what an ass Don is.
Re. America's (and Israel's) most egregious failure, see below.
The only consolation, if it is one, is many who died were tfg followers.
Yea, but that's not quite known to be true. Historically Democratic voters may have been on the front lines as essential workers. It may be them who died more often in Republican-led districts.
Jerry H: Actually, it is known to some extent:
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/25/1189939229/covid-deaths-democrats-republicans-gap-study
The original article on which this NPR report is based appeared in JAMA Internal Medicine. (Of course this is all liberal-biased mainstream fake news.)
While that may be true there were plenty of Democrats and systems (education & healthcare) that died and suffered immeasurably due to the intentional harm tffg caused the world during Covid
Ohio? The review did quantify the limitations of the survey. It did not say this is it black or white.
Not nearly enough of them, however.
Please, that is NOT something any of us should be saying, even in jest. People lost their lives in the pandemic, mostly without regard to what political affiliation they were. Trump's lack of leadship not withstanding, NO ONE should be joking about the death of people from the pandemic any more than anyone should be joking about the death of civilians in Ukraine or Gaza.
Please.
Didn't the trump administration cut the budget for the department which would've made sure a program for such things as the pandemic could be handled? I believe some of the medical equipment needed special handling to keep them viable which was not done (budget cuts). Anyone hear of the Ebola pandemic during Obama's term? It did come into the country and was stopped in its tracts. That's why no one heard of it.
What Obama put in place to help protect the population if a contagion entered our borders, tRump tore up the playbook soon after entering office.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/obama-team-left-pandemic-playbook-for-trump-administration-officials-confirm
Yes, the Ebola virus was stopped by Obama's health administration, but it is basically erroneous to compare Ebola with Covid. Ebola is NOT spread by aerosol contact but rather by direct bodily fluid contact. That kind of contact occurs much less between humans. It is also much more severe than Covid when you DO catch it and so it becomes clear fairly quickly when someone's bodily fluid might effect you. Simply being in the same household as another Covid-infected person creates potential spread that is not the case with Ebola. So the communication of Ebola, while significantly MORE dangerous, is much less likely to happen unless you intentionally submit yourself to it. Covid, while theoretically less fatal, creates much more communication and at the outset, before there was any kind of vaccination available, made it much deadlier in the general population.
Denise, the best President EVER? After FDR and Jimmy Carter, the best in my lifetime. Yet far from perfect, sometimes betrayed by his very expertise, because long, extensive and deep experience does tend to entail a number of automatic settings, and these have proved worse than unfortunate in relation to the suppurating, unhealed wound of Israel/Palestine.
The total destruction of Gaza and the massacre of tens of thousands of civilians, including vast numbers of innocent women and children, have no possible connection with defense or the saving of hostages.
If anyone can justify this and its seemingly uncritical, even enthusiastic, acceptance by all the American Right to me -- or better, to the Israeli people, to former premier Ehud Olmert who thinks (politely) that the current Prime Minister has had "a breakdown", they are welcome. How anyone who remembers what the Jewish people suffered when I was a small child can justify behavior reminiscent of Saddam and the Al-Assads' most heinous crimes against their own cities, I don't know.
Dayan's IDF in 1967 was a model army. Today's army behaves like a rabble. Understandable. Totally inexcusable.
Unlike most of you, I remember what it is like to be bombed. I was a 4-year old in London on the night when the first V1 rockets rained down on the city and I have never forgotten that night which implanted in me a lasting horror of the bombing of cities.
Anywhere. By anyone.
That is why I have spent so much time in Germany, trying both to overcome my own deep fears and to reach a deep understanding with my younger friends in that country. (I know too the former Leningrad and have spent time with friends in Kiev -- the city of Babi Yar -- long before the present horrors. They looked forward to the day when they could take me to visit Crimea...)
Explain to me jaw jaw diplomacy when thousands of children are daily suffering dreadful injuries and over ten thousand have been killed. Explain to me why America could not airdrop food and essential supplies to the homeless and starving. Explain why America has refused to press for an urgent ceasefire when extremist members of the Israeli government speak of war aims more important than the lives of their compatriots taken hostage.
Young Americans who express disgust with President Biden's policy here may lack perspective when it comes to their ultimate responsibility as citizens -- but is that not normal for the young? This is HIGHLY important, for these should be, should have been, among his strongest supporters in the defense of democracy from Trump's intended destruction of all the country's institutions and freedoms.
I have written now of things that mystify me but which call to mind uncomfortable memories of what's most horrific in US history -- "The only good Injun is a dead Injun".
Exported from Brooklyn and the Bronx to the West Bank of the Jordan.
BTW, my personal opinion is that the best President since FDR was Jimmy Carter. And I have a hard time placing Biden until his first term is over and we can figure out how his entire Presidency stacks up. I could see arguments for Kennedy, Johnson, Obama and even Eisenhower. Reagan would be selected by a lot of GOP but he would be in the middle of my list, along with GHWB. GWB is down there near the bottom, and Nixon is obviously just above the last choice.
On the other hand, the WORST is pretty simple. #45 so leads the pack that it boggles the mind.
If you look at what Nixon actually did and got done, I don't think that placing below W will be at all so obvious.
A crook, a sleazy politician, he was far from incompetent. And for his policies he'd have been thrown out of today's hijacked simulacrum of the onetime GOP.
Momentous, the opening to Red China, previously a hole in the map...
*
I am no admirer.
At school in England when I'll have been eleven, a well-respected teacher came in one morning and said:
"If you ever have any say in the matter, make sure that Richard Nixon never becomes president of the United States of America."
I don't know if any of my classmates understood.
I did.
Living near Capetown from late 1946 till end '49, we had a steady supply of American magazines in the house.
I followed the Alger Hiss case, then all the doings of HUAC, getting to recognize all the characters in the Red Scare drama at age 8-9: Sen. Joe McCarthy, Cohn (Trump's mentor) and Schine, Whittaker Chambers and, of course, Richard Nixon.
At the same time, the National Party replaced Smuts' United Party in South Africa, bringing in Apartheid and a heap of race laws, regulations and official signs, everywhere, everywhere.
So this, together with watching the local baboon pack (once narrowly escaping death after a territorial offense, when they rolled an avalanche of rocks on me and my friend at the foot of the cliff...) was where my political education began.
I found American politics and politicians (apart from Ike) strikingly UGLY.
Especially McCarthy, Nixon and the menacing and grossly obese (rare in those days) Whittaker Chambers...
UGLY.
Likewise the faces and expressions of angry white people in the Cape when giving orders to "the lesser breeds"...
Curious, this business of ugly grown-ups and the beginnings of my political education...
Peter, I expect we are probably both not all that much in disagreement. I was trying to play a little safe in putting Nixon near the bottom, but I also agree that he, in many ways, did some things for our country that were far superior to almost anything that has been done by GOP Presidents certainly since Bush 2 and to some degree since Reagan. Nixon was a globalist, at a time when many GOP party members were clear isolationists. It is what made Nixon such a fascinating figure in my mind, both terrifically open-minded about the world condition and yet so incredibly myopic about his own (and his minions') misdeeds. He COULD have gone down as one of the much better Presidents in history (as you note, the opening to China was huge) but for his own personal failings. Trump, on the other hand, has literally zero positive outlook on the world seeing everything only in terms of what happens to him. Sigh...
Will that historical judgement come within our lifetime?
I like what you say Peter very much. Dr Richardson does an excellent job presenting her analysis of historical economic factors that drive and impact our country. Her story about Andrew Carnegie is interesting. He did some good things with his pile of gold; he paid to establish libraries all over the country… particularly in rural areas. I’ve seen a few of them over the years. The buildings are beautifully designed and well constructed.
We do have many saints in America, today. Perhaps they aren’t as well known as Alexei Navalny but that’s no problem. Our healthcare heroes during and after the pandemic are a prime example as are so many environmentalists working tirelessly to beat back the worst effects of air and water pollution that have gone on to warm our planet. Saints are everywhere. This is said to thank and celebrate the living ones as well as honor them.
Of course, the sacrifices of martyrs like Navalny can resonate long and loudly but I wish he didn’t have to die to achieve it. We wish him Godspeed and thank him too, for his bravery and selflessness..and his humor. He is missed and perhaps his loss will be made up by the next person willing to stand. I think it will.
Add Jimmy Carter to the litany of American saints!
‘There you go again’ sneered Reagan in their debate! Little did cheerleader Ronnie know that then President Carter would dedicate his next 50 years to serving human kind!
Keep ‘going’ Jimmy!
Jimmy Carter is the first person I thought of also when thinking of American saints.
What about Black women who put their lives on the line? Modern examples include Fanni Willis and Stacey Abrams in Georgia and Leticia James in New York. How about Alvin Bragg, a Black DA prosecuting Trump for falsifying election records? How about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, Black election workers who won a defamation suit against Rudy Giuliani? These are all Blacks who have put their lives on hold and on the line to speak truth to power and justice upon destructive narcissists. Are they saints? Or are they simply Americans who keep the American spirit burning inside? Either way, they deserve mention and respect. It's an irony that the historically oppressed are now prosecuting the privileged oppressors while many of the rest of us enjoy our comfort and safety.
There are really no saints. There are, however, people of conscience and courage. When we use the word "saint" we pull the individual out of the realm of humanness, when it's far more powerful to see them as human beings among us.
Like the little black girl in the movie on PBS last night, “Akeelah and the Bee”. Her courage was palpable. It’s a “10”. Shows again tonight on PBS at 9pm.
J. Nol, I should not have used the term “saint” because it is so deeply misunderstood by most people nowadays, not excluding some who offer prayers before plaster statues—but are at least sincere in their devotion...
There was, in fact, a reason for my doing so: hearing that some religious people think Alexei Navalny will end up by being canonized…
When Pope John Paul II canonized Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, the Founder of Opus Dei, following a highly speeded-up process, I remarked that I never knew canonization was the Church’s Order of Lenin. The intellectual and organizational qualities of the Opus Dei founder, his foresight, his political and social acumen, are not in doubt; but it feels more than strange to find such a one in the same stable as Francis of Assisi or Juan de Yepes y Alvarez, Saint John of the Cross, even Ignacio de Loyola...
And even when we come across a case as extraordinary as that of young Thérèse Martin—Saint Thérèse of Lisieux—even more extraordinary is the Catholic Church's pomp-and-propaganda exploitation of a brief life of such intense love and austere simplicity.
Can’t help recalling the great Spanish film director Luis Buñuel calling the vast basilica dedicated to Thérèse “the Lisieux gasworks”.
Likewise the Russian Orthodox Church's problematic political saints like Vladimir, a prince of Kievan Rus, or Alexander Nevsky—a protector figure, inspiration to the country's defenders—or, given the disastrous errors of their reign and the immeasurable cost of those errors for Russia, for Europe, for the world, Saint Nicholas and Saint Alexandra... the last Tsar and Tsaritsa... At the same time, I am aware of two things: the wide overlap between the sacred and the profane in Tsarist Russia and consequently in the Russian psyche... and the disheartening awfulness of the commandeering by the Putin regime of the Russian Orthodox Church, via its KGB Patriarch, turning it into a subordinate branch of that regime, purged of many good, honest priests and genuine ordinary Christians. Perhaps unsurprising in an organization that excommunicated Leo Tolstoy in 1901… but even that made more sense than what we are seeing today…
Not content with destroying the present and future of both Russia and Ukraine with the human sacrifice of both countries’ young men, the dictator and his cabal of crazed mythomaniac ideologues have set out to co-opt for their dirty work the Russian soul itself—or at least the aspect of it that empowers and gives meaning to spiritual core of the Orthodox Church.
To conclude, what I see behind the word "SAINT" is not someone radically different from the rest of us but simply one who has expressed all the finer human qualities to the limit of their potential and, in so doing, found her or himself.
That said, I’d rather seek terms for such heroic figures other than those long abused by priests for purposes of religious propaganda. Fundamentally, we’re talking here of a phenomenon quite beyond the confines of organized religion.
"I see behind this word is not someone radically different from the rest of us but simply one who has expressed all the finer human qualities to the limit of their potential and, in so doing, found her or himself." With this statement I agree. People like these demonstrate what is possible in being human, and those others you referred to of course, showed us the depths humans can fall to as well.
They have been standing up to bullies for generations. It matters! 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼
Preparation, strength, and wisdom makes for heros and sheros❤️
Jerry, I had the people you mention very much in mind when I was writing. I, for example, am immensely impressed by the shining, exemplary qualities of Stacy Abrams. And there are plenty of others.
Well, I am going to have to disagree with you on Fani WIllis. It is becoming clearer and clearer that she failed to observe proper decorum for someone with such an important office and as a result, a carefully structured criminal trial against the Trump minions is now likely to go off the rails because of her own self-interest. This is in GREAT contrast to Leticia James who has done a superb job of carefully and methodically bringing the appropriate charges against Trump and so far, winning all of her cases. On the face of it, WIllis has probably so jeopardized her attempted prosecution that it will fail at least for the next year or so. In the end, I expect her to be recused at least from the case she brought against the Trump rabble (along with her paramour Wade) and that will leave the Georgia case, which started out looking like the best laid plan, up in smoke, at least for the foreseeable future. Once Georgia figures out where to send the case, and if they choose another DA who will put in the effort, the case might get back on track (assuming Trump is not reelected in November) but it won't happen in 2024 in time for the upcoming election, sigh. Nothing she has done will, it appears, effect Trump's guilt or not, but it will create a huge and unnecessary delay.
Jim, I agree that we disagree on Willis. Her personal affair really has no bearing under her suitability to prosecute the case under Georgia law. I was concerned about this the same as you but then realized that the folks who are pursuing this case are doing so in spite of the harassment and threats they received and continue to. If they are thrown together in an intense case and their feeling bloom, that is human. Blaming them for human impulses that logically have no conflict with the mission is blaming the victim. While on the one hand the judge should have already thrown this sideshow out, on the other, he's allowed all this to preserve the record for the inevitable appeal. Yes, all this is a complication, but it doesn't take away from Willis' bravery and competence.
To repeat, Willis nor Wade got rich from their prosecution of Trump and whatever relationship they actually had does not present a conflict of interest. I'd actually be quite shocked if McAfee rules against Willis. He showed a lot of IMpatience toward the defense's arguments during the evidentiary hearing and the Trump team's key witness, Bradley, testified he was only speculating. There's no "there: there.
Yep you are right, we have to disagree. Prosecuting attorneys MUST be held to a MUCH higher standard than anyone else involved in a lawsuit except the judge. Prosecutors do NOT represent a person or company, they represent all of us. They are NOT there to find anyone guilty, they are there to ensure justice is done. They can NOT under any circumstances even APPEAR to be biased or seeking some other benefit. My biggest concern about this is twofold: (1) throughout this entire charade, Willis and Wade have repeatedly concealed the full extent of their relationship and then grudgingly given ground as the whole story came out in the press That greatly diminishes their credibility IMHO. And district attorneys MUST have INCREDIBLE credibility or they are damaged goods. (2) it seems clear now that their actual relationship began before Wade was appointed to his position on the case, and (a) he is apparently not highly qualified for the role and (b) he and Willis have been able to share the "benefits" conferred on him by being appointed, i.e., $650,000 paid in approx 18 months, which is, at least in Georgia, a LOT of money for a government attorney (Willis doesn't make anywhere near that much as DA). This leads me to the at least POSSIBLE conclusion that they are both benefitinng at the expense of the state.
As I said, NONE of this has ANYTHING to do with the actual case in terms of Trump/et al's guilt, but unfortunately that ship has sailed and now whatever they do that might be potentially a conflict of interest is involved in the case, like it or not. She should never have appointed him to the positionn and now they got caught.
Game over, in my book. They both need to move on, as their credibility, regardless of whether or not there IS a "there" there, is completely shot and they can no longer prosecute this case.
And remember I was a HUGE supporter of the case WIllis was bringing against Trump. So this feeling I have is TOTALLY grounded in my belief about the proper execution of the laws, and their ability to do that now, not whether they did anything "legally wrong". That bar is NOT the bar they needed to clear. It was much higher and they missed by a mile, IMHO.
Yes, wonderful about the libraries ... a true gift for the U.S. But .... not good to his workers, fearing that paying them too much would corrupt them! Yikes!
well paid workers circulates immediately back into the economy with consumer demand, property acquisition, homes, appliances on and on. That translates into goods and services stimulation, translates finally into great profits. What's the big problem????
His workers might be starving but they could borrow books to improve their minds.
[Edited for greater clarity]
Yes. Carnegie was very much a capitalist of his time. He didn't just believe what he proclaimed, he acted accordingly.
After him came benefactors like Ford with the most dreadful downsides.
More recently, we have seen major philanthropists like Bill Gates and seriously motivated men of immense talent like Steve Jobs.
The case of Konosuke Matsushita in Japan goes, perhaps, even deeper, being very much here and now, yet rooted in an older, more seasoned culture, one that accords greater importance to balance and harmony in all things. I'm sure he and other leading figures of his generation will have learned much from the catastrophes brought upon his country and Asia by the hubris and excesses of Japan's prewar military regime.
But generally speaking what we have been seeing in the past half-century is the rise of insatiable, unchecked greed, vanity, meanness and stupidity in scale with the number of zeros that represent billionaires' fortunes, alongside a bigger and bigger tonnage of the outsize bath toys these unfortunates call "yachts".
These poor so-and-sos are toppling society with their thieving from the foundations to build their top-heavy sybaritic paradise...
I forgot to mention the very special case of George Soros, who has an extraordinary, perhaps unique record, an heroic one, in that not one of his good deeds has been forgiven by the Great and Good or by the Great and Bad.
The perfect scapegoat for all the world's extremists, oppressors and anti-Semites, always of the Right, sometimes of the Left, hated, demonized and blamed by Orban, by Putin, by Trump, by Netanyahu... for anything and everything wrong with the world, everything from bad weather to financial crashes...
Look at this item on a film biopic made by the son of Bob Dylan!
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2021-06-16/ty-article-magazine/why-do-so-many-hate-george-soros/0000017f-f00c-d8a1-a5ff-f08e13830000
Wait wait! Don't Tell Me! You mean George Soros is NOT responsible for all of the bad weather we are having?
I am stunned!
If only, if only USians could get it through our collective head that democracy and capitalism are not identical, or even inextricable. In fact, they run in separate lanes. They *can* support and strengthen each other, but they can also be at odds -- and when they're at odds, as in the U.S. since the beginning of the Reagan administration, capitalism tends to hollow out democracy. (Thank you, Citizens United.)
I and a friend once wrote a letter to the Editor of the Economist who believed that capitalism must inevitably be accompanied by democracy in China, whereas we did not.
He did not publish our letter but did us the honor of answering it.
Within a year, his view switched to ours.
After watching what happened after the Soviet Union disintegrated and, later, the utter stupidity of promoting "regime change" in Iraq, I'm amazed that anyone continues to *really* believe it. OTOH, it's become clear that a significant chunk of the capitalist crowd isn't all that wild about democracy either.
I wonder if he fully believed, or if this was a way to justify his rapacious behavior. The idea that there's something special about those who accumulated mounds of money and power, is so like all the white privileged men who can't see how much they were helped by an unfair system. There is no such thing as making it on your own merit.
Not to their extent, no. The only idea I can come up with for thinking you alone have made all your wealth, without considering ALL those who worked to make it happen, is greed. Plain and simple.
Exactly.
My favorite Justice Thomas who used the Affirmative Action program has or wants to end it. Nothing like climbing the ladder and then pull it up after you.
I am assuming, Karen, that "My favorite Justice Thomas" is dripping with sarcasm. I certainly HOPE so LOL!
However, I believe I understand his dilemma. While I agree with Affirmative Action to try to right the wrongs of discrimination, it can put the individual person receiving the help in a uncomfortable position. If you are perceived as benefitting from Affirmative Action, are you also seen as someone who isn't really capable of doing the work to get there? This is one way that racism is so insidious. Either you can't do the work because you belong to an "inferior" race, or you got to get there because of the boost you got from a government program and not your own efforts. The reality is that we all benefit from the system in some way, and nobody ever is a success only because of their own individual efforts. The system just makes it easier for some of us than the rest.
The belief that people who amass wealth are somehow blessed by a higher power and those who are poor are being punished for something is older than any religion. In fact it was, before empire was allowed to remove him from Christianity, one of the things Jesus spoke out against the most.
Peter, you are on a roll this am. Thank you.
Peter B: It's true that Bill Gates has given a lot of money to philanthropic causes, but there has also been extensive criticism of him (and other gazillionaire philanthropists) because much of their philanthropy is directed to causes of their own preference rather than of general well being. One that comes to mind is Gates's support of "education reform" based on ever more infiltration of technology into the education process. Guess who benefits most from that, whereas whether such innovations benefit students is still in question.
I think it's also useful to remember the scope of our civilization. I recall that in Gate's annual letter from a couple of years ago he responded to the suggestion that he eliminate our nation's homelessness problem with his vast fortune. He pointed out that the entire Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would only be able to operate the L.A. County school system for 2-3 months. Private philanthropy doesn't begin to satisfy the needs that government struggles with every single day.
Indeed. A part of every dollar that swells the use of technology in the public school system goes to Micro$oft and then back into Bill's pocketbook. This isn't the WORST thing that could happen (putting dollars into Elon Musk's pocketbook would vastly outrank that at least IMHO LOL). I personally believe that technology does help most students to some level, but I am not at all sure the cost-benefit equation is totally positive. This should be studied further in order to figure out the proper way it should be handled in the future. One major concern is that when money is granted to purchase computers, there is rarely an equivalent grant to fund both maintenance and an endowment to support future upgrades. Computers obsolesce quite rapidly as it turns out and many schools end up stuck with very old computers after 3-5 years with no funds to buy new ones. There should be a requirement that any grant for purchase of new equipment be paired with an endowment grant to help support upgrades in the future.
I didn't go into this, but thanks for clarifying an important point. I didn't want to associate Gates with the pernicious ideological nonsenses from another age propagated by Henry Ford and still, alas, with us. But it is quite true that the man's no doubt excellent intentions are vitiated by built-in techie prejudices and blind spots. A certain scientistic absolutism. He does what he can, but this basically good work may sometimes have reinforced corporate power and the abuses that arise therefrom.
Peter Burnett, I don't see how Gates or Jobs are evil and selfish. Matsoshita I know only a little about, and his philosophy seems to he a derivative of Japanese culture, and I can see how that could be distorted to create a toxic workaholic culture, but I don't know if he was evil. I ask this because your comment leads me to think you feel that all ultra wealthy people must be greedy and evil, which sound either religious or Marxist.
I suspect you're not at all a zealot, so I'm wondering how you've come to this opinion. If I'm wrong in my interpretation, just tell me I'm full of shit. I won't take offense, and still buy you a beer or a soda just to have a serious conversation.
Eat the rich. Lightly sauteed with a nice Chianti.
Proper taxation may make them "less rich," but they'll still be rich.
Thank you, TC. Paying their responsible share of taxes will still leave them with plenty to spread around according to their interests and interpretation of what society needs. Their contributions are welcome but the first responsibility is to contribute fully to the public good via taxation. Of course, there are fair criticisms of government spending, but it is the surest way to lift everyone, not just those on the radar of the non elected super wealthy. (Not to mention that not all the super wealthy consider themselves trustees of funds for societal welfare ala Carnegie …. Hence the even greater need for fair taxes.)
If there were a 100% tax on everything above a certain amount, the rich would have to find different ways to compete with each other rather than increasing their takings.
No, Jerry, you have totally, but totally, misread me, and I wonder how or where I can have been so unclear that this should have been possible.
Ah... now I understand... I mentioned Gates and Jobs immediately after Henry Ford who, as I said, had serious downsides including anti-Semitism that got him involved with Hitler. At the same time as remembering the company in which Ford's political and social beliefs, including eugenism -- beliefs all too common in men of his time -- landed him up, I am very aware of the man's great positive contributions to America and to the world...
I'll correct the layout now to eliminate that misunderstanding.
Yes and yes.
We may not have a secular saint like Navalny (who was no liberal in his politics), but we don’t need saints when we have good, honest and faithful leaders.
Jon, pardon me, but I have tried to answer your good point together with John Sharkey's.
It's the worst times that call for heroes and saints.
Goo is good. 😙
LOL. Thanks for noticing. Fixed
Waiting, for nigh on to 40+ years
Right on:, Jeri!
Wish I could see a light at the end of the tunnel. But carry that candle.
I too, Jeri. Remembering what we learned and did as children during WWII, spending my “second childhood” printing GOTV postcards (printing like first grade—I was the best printer in my class—because “they don’t teach cursive any more,” taking away the one art many children ever had with all its benefits for the brain) as fast as I can. Today continuing to work on 250 for Sherrod Brown which are **** to cram onto some postcards. To work.
I had no idea cursive wasn’t being taught until my straight A, 15 year old granddaughter asked me to read a birthday card message for her because she couldn’t read cursive. I was flabbergasted. Still am, though now they have brought it back into the curriculum.
Will join the post card brigade soon as my move is completed. good for you
Let us remember that cursive was invented to speed up writing when it was necessary for commerce. Today when most commerce communicates by keyboard, printing makes for much easier deciphering of the few handwritten notes we see. I have never been a fan of cursive and abandoned it as soon as I could.
Let’s not forget Martin Luther King, Jr. one of our own true saints will to sacrifice for others.
As I said before, there are no saints. MLK wasn't a saint, but he certainly was a man of great courage and conviction. It's much more powerful to see him and others like him as human beings, than to suggest there's something special about them. This makes it more real, that we all have such choices to make, whether to be a force for good or ill.
I disagree. There are saints and MLK was/is one of them. All the saints of the various denominations were also human beings who stepped up with courage and conviction in a time and place that made them special.
So are you saying that they weren't human? When we single out human beings as saints, are we drawing on the supernatural? MLK was certainly a man of courage and vision, but he was also a flawed human being. It seems much more realistic to see these people who step up to do the right thing as human beings, because it makes clear that we all have the option to be that courageous, despite our flawed natures. When we call them saints it lets the rest of us off the hook.
Just curious… do you not think of saints as human beings ? it has always been my understanding that they were saints because ,being human, they reached a higher level by means of a lot of hard grunt effort.
A US Nalvany will emerge as soon as we look like Russia...
Martin Luther King comes to my mind.
Sure. It must be rather obvious that he came to mine.
Hard times do call for saints and, no less, for selfless heroes like Garibaldi. Like Navalny. Like MLK himself, whose life was cut short so that we never saw the full flowering of his immense qualities.
Like the small, simple giant Thich Nhat Hanh, whom MLK so admired... and whose virtue was spotlit by his being persona non grata both for the American establishment and for the Vietnamese Communist Party.
Sadly one (or some) have to be so articulate to convey themself to the people who are and have been primed to only look up to popular perfect specimens before giving a listen.
John Sharkey, Susan may be right. After all, if Christ were to come to America as a flesh-and-blood human being, would he be recognized by any but a few ordinary people? It seems improbable that he'd be recognized by many, maybe most, of those who like to think of themselves as Christians. Many of them would prefer Trump...
What's for certain is that he would be in grave danger.
Likewise anyone like Navalny, even purified by suffering as he was. So purified that he was able to withstand Putin's personal version of the death of a thousand cuts -- and always come out from the punishment cell laughing and mocking Putin and his tormentors. He was, paradoxically, far, far stronger than those who killed him but could not touch his spirit.
*
To John Margolis -- to whom, apologies for answering his good point here -- I'd say that almost all human beings are flawed, and the greatest and the best often have flaws to match their qualities. But we already do have many good people, sound, upstanding human beings, and we neglect or -- as you point out -- ignore them.
Wrong gender, wrong color, wrong age, wrong appearance, wrong tribe. And, as you suggest, the kind of profile that corresponds to people's notions of Mr. Right -- note, Mister, never Ms.-- is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Such people will come into their own after the Satanic figures have been put where they belong.
At this juncture, when we are dangerously close to joining the Russians, the Ukrainians and other victims of the most cruel oppression, we desperately need inspirational figures. I hope some are already waiting in the wings.
I hope, too, that -- whatever the price they and we must pay -- they will be heard and followed. And... WE SHALL OVERCOME!
Granted the power of a charismatic leader, but realize they are nothing without an intelligent, committed team, from top ... to "bottom....
I'm sure you meant "nothing without".
Not quite "nothing". Let's leave that to the likes of Hitler and DT -- minus quantities with immense compensatory powers gained from resentment that enable them to give voice to all the pent-up rage and hatred lying in the depths of the collective unconscious.
Navalny was an unequalled communicator, one who allied verbal mastery with brilliant, biting humor. He quite naturally built up good teams, although it is said that a team member may have betrayed him into returning to Russia prematurely, acting in the belief that he would not be arrested. This seems somehow improbable to me. He must have known all the precedents, must have known what he faced.
He knew too that killing a man's body is not difficult, killing his spirit, the ideas he represents, is almost impossible. Life is not like a Western movie in which all the villains bite the dust and the hero rides off into the sunset.
Yes, i corrected the typo. I was thinking in terms of wielding political power. thanks for comments on Navalny.
Perhaps as Caesar ruled the world that Jesus emerged and technically facilitated his killing which ushered in the rest of Christianity and its history -The Holy Roman Empire didn’t quite help Democracy flourish but ironically somehow we are here today wishing our country and perhaps one party could both help God out and also stay out of what goes on in that endeavor (please excuse the ambiguities and rabbit holes zzzz)
My reply to you (was) disappeared. But I shall come back to you now. One moment...
Sorry, John, got sidetracked.
Basically, Constantine, a later Caesar, saw in Christ's religion a marvelous tool for the unification of a vast and diverse empire, and while the imposition of political and social unity gave immense power to both Church and Empire and went a long way to creating a great new civilization, it suppressed essential aspects of Christ's teaching and replaced them by compulsory belief in myths that don't hang together and are completely at odds with that teaching—which remains radical, and utterly subversive of the world we have built for ourselves, a world that is now falling apart.
So much so that the term “Christian” seems often to be a misnomer, as what is taught now and has been for centuries is in basic respects deeply opposed to what Jesus taught and often consists of all that he preached against.
The Reformation was an attempt to get back down to basics but, even there, fundamentalism, gross literalist misinterpretation of the metaphors, the parables used by Jesus in his teaching, has tended to paint a dualistic picture of a deity separate from and above his creatures, essentially transcendent, while neglecting the lifeblood of the Gospel message, God’s indwelling presence in and among us. In other words, a living message, buried under a vast heap of doctrinal detritus. One that could hardly be more relevant for Westerners.
How so? Because monotheism and the consequent belief in one truth underlie the growth of our cultures and our power… while our present exclusive focus on appearances and externals and neglect of all that’s inward, the very nature of the mind that perceives phenomena, even the unfathomable complexity of the human brain that mediates our perceptions and tries to understand what it perceives, lies at the root of today’s vast turbulent confusion, the worldwide crisis of civilization, of survival.
Peter, don't forget to vote.
I'm a concerned foreigner, a Brit living in exile. I have no vote in the US.
My concern is that, such is American power that the whole world is directly affected for better or for worse by who holds power in Washington and how they exercise it.
I love my country, but in geopolitical terms it has become a mere sideshow.
Carnegie was opposed to helping people who fell on hard times because he thought it would make them lazy. Today’s American Oligarchs still believe in that useful, guilt-assuaging trope. That’s why the GOP wants to cut Food Supports, Medicaid, and criminalize homelessness. They believe they are eliminating disincentives to work. I find that odd, as hunger, homelessness and illness don’t tend to make for good workers. These <mostly> wealthy men have jumped on the bandwagon of greed and cruelty. We certainly can’t afford to put one back in the Oval Office - let alone allow them to decide how their “excess” wealth (would they believe that there is such a thing as excess wealth??!!) would be spent for the “betterment” of society!!
Goes even farther back than Carnegie: Calvinist preacher Cotton Mather (d. 1728) declared that "For those who indulge themselves in idleness, the express command of God unto us is, that we should let them starve." Cruelty has been baked into certain realms of our culture for centuries.
I don’t remember God saying that. Pretty sure Jesus said nothing of the sort. “Let them starve?” Their children, too?
Found the verse he's citing in 2 Thess, but it naturally didn't have the "OT" tone that Mather gave it.
Peter, thank you for this excellent post noting the world wide plague of awful people in power. Many times I sit here and curse the fact that so many have to live under these monsters. I do hope your final sentence is true.
Thank you, Michele. We surely need hope but must we not be fuelled above all by determination?
Absolutely. I see lots of determined folks here.
We shall overcome, thank you Peter and Michele.
Hopefully we will get our heads out of tRump’s rear soon! We are beginning to really smell like pUtin😵💫
I guess we can only hope. And stay informed. And vote.
If you haven't seen Putin's Palace, please watch it--it's long, but amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_tFSWZXKN0
My sentiments exactly. You hit the nail on the head!
And it's very obvious.
No secret, in Your face and on tv, ad nauseam.
Mr Burnett's thinking is compelling. I have been hearing the Putin apologists deride Navalny's politics as nationalistic, ant-Muslim (or something), etc. These people overlook that people are imperfect and what counts is who they become when times are dark and our better angels are required. I certainly trust that Mr Navalny's views softened as he suffered and came to see the suffering of others.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7163945355150094337/
Even if those feelings -- alleged -- persisted, I would ask this question: President Johnson was probably racist until the day he died. But does that flaw, if it existed, negate the compassion and justice of his civil rights laws and beyond? My current whimsical hope? That these protests at the funeral rhyme historically with the food riots of February 1917.
Not President, SPEAKER Johnson is the topic here. But, yes, humans may evolve.
I hope my last comment to you was not posted. Meant to say hello. Needless no say, I am not a fan of Mikey Mouse or of the nattering nabobs of narcissism to whom he capitulates. I did mean President Johnson because I have noticed people seeking to negate the bravery of Mr Navalny owing to past political views. People pick out one flaw or mistake to attack the greatness of great people all the while not understanding that it is those flaws which make them great. Why? Because great people do great things despite those flaws. More importantly, for me at least, those flaws signal that these great men and women were not special or anointed by G-D; that is to say: one has no excuse for not trying by sitting back.
P.S., my first comment, thankfully not posted, was far too venomous. Speaker Johnson is a decent man; unfortunately he is proving not to be a gutsy one.
Disappointing, but not surprising, to learn that he is in the pay of Russians, which helps explain his devotion to Trump. Totally agree with you about flaws and greatness. Well said and thank you.
Indeed they are in some kind of twisted abusive relationship.
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/ex-world-leader-cringes-really-095617966.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALQ4kqDU0zI-3vhQGnqN4HAY-q5D1dFS1T1eMJFnICV2vvJPJsknGWCbkzN_Hkl12aAtsWFvQ2lZL7TF7A27npQ0n8s_T6e2oIuUTt3iwJp5ZdRS092KZ2NX86usZ1cZXqGKIHdyWWJyBqMiX7772BGhq9F1cKn7HmVGoVcbJ7PY.
Everybody must have seen this, it's been headlining all around the world.
I did see this interview on MSNBC. I am satisfied that Putin is probably blackmailing Trump with photos and recordings of Trump in Moscow hotel rooms with young Russian ladies. But, I could be wrong.
No Richard, it is deep admiration from long before he was President. There were love letters.
Christopher, there was a clip of the Australian prime minister likening 45’s adoration of Putin to that of a 12-year-old meeting the captain of the high school football team. That captures the wish to be like that person when you “grow up” !
was this the previous Australian prime minister?
Before Trump became POTUS, he had trips to Russia. I've read about the "golden showers" that Trump participated in, among other things.
Yes Richard, we all have.
But that is not the explanation, it's much deeper, more sinister.
It is hero-worship, he wants to emulate him. That is his role model - the ultimate mob boss.
The pee pee tape is a red herring.
You could be correct on this, Christopher. There's this article in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/03/jacob-heilbrunn-america-last-trump-putin/677609/?utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20240301&utm_term=The+Atlantic+Daily
Still, I think that someday we'll discover that there are tapes and photos.
Such deep affinities, the most successful robber, the Grandmaster of Crime, and the would-be Don at the head of the Cupola.
and Ray Cohn
There are social media musings that TFG also idolized Hitler. Very gossipy rumors that he keeps Mein Kampf on his nightstand and raised by a German Nazi nanny. But I’ve never seen nor heard of a verifiable source for the gossip.
I've always suspected (no, no evidence) that Trump has a pile of money in Russia. Wasn't there a hotel he was building in Russia?? When did he EVER do a business deal that wasn't shady??
Hmmm. A pile of Trump money in Russia? Could be that Putin has not only blackmailed him but has also bribed him since Putin may now be the richest man in the world. Money well spent.
Richard, I’ve always thought putin the putrid had photos/videos of little t he could use as blackmail.
I think that someday they will appear, perhaps after Putin's death.
If golden showers were the only thing Putain has on the Orange monster from Merde Largo, it’s nowhere enough as the monster has no shame.
Ugh!
I believe Cheetolinni loves Putin because he admires his brutality. Putin kills his adversaries. If Cheetolinni wins in November, he will portray himself as a strongman like his idol. Who knows what he will do to his so-called enemies. SCOTUS and other judge’s are giving him a pass and are doing everything possible to allow him to escape accountability for his transgressions against our country. Putin is never held accountable either. Heaven help us if he is successful.
Brilliant ‘wordsmithing’! Brava!
Well, IF the Supreme Court decides (heaven help us!) that in fact the President does have absolute immunity from prosecution, it might be appropriate for Biden to place a contract on Trump, Johnson, McConnell and the six GOP Supreme Court justices. I mean if the President is immune, that immunity cuts both ways. And it is limited to the president so Trump already missed his chance to do this, but Biden is the current President and could eliminate all of the GOP opposition in a single stroke of the pen.
I am NOT suggesting that this is RIGHT, only that if it is in fact the way our Supreme Court now sees our government, what's good for the Republican goose should also be good for the Democratic gander.
Richard, I think that it may be more basic than that—money. Putin holds the reins of those who supply loans when no one else will loan 45 any money. We’re going to see who comes to 45’s financial aid now that he’s unable to “negotiate” his appeal bonds. BTW, his offer of 1/4 of his bond reflects how he treats those who sign contracts with him.
TFFG is now on the hook for more than 1/2 billion dollars. He is up against the wall. Why, oh why, do his MAGA true believers still follow him? This letter helping to explain that was published in today's edition of the Palm Beach Post:
MAGA likes Trump’s views
Re 'Defeating Biden seems the MAGA end-all' (Feb28):
I had an immediate flash-back to an issue that I pondered several years ago. I wondered, 'Who in the world would vote for Donald Trump? What were they thinking?' I got lucky. It turns out that two professors at the University of Kansas, David Norman Smith and Eric Hanley, wondered the same thing. They researched the issue and published their findings in February 2018, in a study entitled 'The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election and Why?' published in Critical Sociology . Their findings? They voted for Trump because they share his views on race, women’s rights, immigrants and gay rights. The economy had nothing to do with their support.
Richard Sutherland, Lakeland
Not just "share his views" but revel in the permission to be angry and hateful towards those groups.
It's deeper than anger at cultural issues. And we need to recognize the economic context.
1. MAGA followers distain those who have led both parties. They feel looked down upon. They resent the huge increase in inequality.
2. The "traditional" Republican Party has nothing to show the people for their rule except deeper public debt. When Trump said "the system is rigged" it echoed since it felt true. And largely remains true. Starting with Reagan, "cutting taxes" became their religion. They used the "voodoo economics" of "supply-side" thinking to promise great benefits (see the new book "Power to Destroy" by Michael Graetz that lays out the history of this debt-generating change). On top of that the Republicans added harsh criticism of Democrat politicians and signed onto many aspects of the cultural war. All in a (fairly successful) effort to get elected. And the Democrats, seeking election, eventually became reluctant partners in allowing the public to forget that spending requires roughly corresponding tax revenue. That never made any sense but, in a world ready to buy our bonds (for a while), reality has been delayed.
3. We have a constitution (unstable and ineffective presidential "checks and balances" type instead of a responsive parliamentary type) and election system that drives us towards two parties dominated by extremes. Instead of the kind of multi-party system that can find room for and promote compromise (hence action). So, we have seen the conversion of the Republican party into the Trump party. See, for example, David Dayen's January essay "America is not a Democracy":
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-01-29-america-is-not-democracy/
4. Finally, media changes and campaign finance have distorted the flow of truth to the public. Nearly everybody misses the point that the rich and successful have been financing our elections with a relatively tiny amount of money. $10 billion in 2022 and probably double that in 2024. Please think for a moment how small that amount of money is in a $26 trillion dollar economy. A federal campaign finance voucher program of roughly the same size (costing the average taxpayer the cost of a single cup of coffee a year in taxes) would at least clear the air of lies and allow candidates to focus on truth.
https://open.substack.com/pub/michaelfoxworth/p/achilles-heel-of-control-by-big-campaign?r=33ahhb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
I agree with MOST of what you say here. I will take slight issue with your financial statement. $20 billion dollars (the suggested cost of the 2024 election) is probably pretty close to correct. You say that would cost each taxpayer roughly a cup of coffee per year. You MUST be drinking incredibly great coffee :-). With 300,000,000 people in the country, that's $66/person. WOW, that is the most expensive coffee I have ever heard of LOL! And probably slightly more because not ALL of our 300,000,000 people are taxpayers.
I will say though that I completely agree that state or federally financed elections should be required and private organizations should be absolutely BARRED from spending money on electoral politics. We need to eliminate PACs completely and require that everyone who donates to any political contests be identified with the amount contributed.
You are so correct, Mary! He caused 4 casinos to go bankrupt in Atlantic City with the help of greedy loan officers in American banks!
He rebounded with $$$$ money from Deutsche Bank whose capital came from newly minted Russian oligarchs! Lest we forget, after the Soviet Union dissolved, the American Congress loosened banking regulations so that the Russian oligarchs could launder their looted funds here!
I watched an interesting British documentary; opening national systems to offshore money was an effort by both Britain and then US to reduce capital outflows. The Russians were only one piece in this. Must watch again to better understand. Here it is.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_ylvc8Zj8
Could just be idol worship, but with chump’s track record, I agree with you. Although, the MAGAt crowd would love some chump porn…
“But what about…” Hunter’s laptop?! Frankly, I admire the man Hunter Biden is becoming.
If you are still on that platform that has gone into the toilet that Professor Richardson is still a part of, here is an amazing link regarding some questioning of Hunter Bident:
https://twitter.com/krassenstein/status/1763647872472416494?cxt=HBwW3IO8uaqZ3vkwAAAA&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email
I’ve never had a Xitter (because the pronunciation makes me laugh) account, but was able to read the Q&A. Thank you for sharing!! 😂👍🏻
I know from personal family experience that family members who have had "problems" can become what they were meant to be with love and support. Thankfully, he had the love and support and is coming into his own. And kicking arse in the House.
Jeri, the thought of Trump in porn is oh so nauseating.
With no doubt, a low I can do without.
😝
Yes. I also think Putin/Trump has kompromat on many Republicans. Lindsey Graham comes to mind. Note that we can't talk about Trump any longer without including the shadow leader of the Republican Party. Vlad the Bad.
Bill, you note: "Note that we can't talk about Trump any longer without including the shadow leader of the Republican Party. Vlad the Bad."
You are correct. I get the feeling that this country has become one humongous insane asylum. There are 60 million or so crazies running about this country.
Insane or compromised. Too many very hawkish Republicans are now in full support of Putin. Look at Lindsey Graham - former defense hawk, former "never Trumper". Something smells funny. The FBI informant revealed to be a Russian plant should inspire us to dig. We should be terrified and motivated.
Russians play a long game of infiltration and kompromat. The GOP may now be in the "Grip Of Putin" via various files and sundry embarrassments. Russia didn't abandon its techniques of intelligence gathering and blackmail when they gave up "Communism". After all, look at where Putin was hatched. GOP may now be an extension of the FSB (formerly FSK and KGB).
The scuttlebut is that Senator Graham is gay (I will NOT use the nickname that many people use to demean that). Whether he is or isn't does not matter. Why it matters is that for so long, it was a (contrived, to my mind) situation that was based on the degree of "compromise" that could be extracted from someone to keep that "secret". Alan Turing, anyone?
What a sad commentary that Graham would possibly worry that his career would be threatened by his sexual orientation. But I guess where he lives, too many don't support such diversity. Ooops, I said a "bad" word. /s
I speculate that you are right. But the actual gayness might be less of a problem than what his actions might have been. Who knows. I don't care. He just creeps me out with his Trump ring kissing.
But interestingly, there appear to be more Republicans who might be compromised by personal exposure than Democrats. So-called "religious right" GOP leaders (as was true with religious leaders themselves like Jim Bakker and Jerry Falwell) seem to be quite fond of hypocrisy. Look at the recently departed leader of the GOP in Florida Christian Ziegler and his spouse. Personally, I could care less that either of them were fond of threesomes. If it floats your boat, why not? What gripes me is the hypocrisy of advocating so-called "conservative" sexual norms while actually acting on much more liberal notions themselves, and still holding everyone ELSE to the original standards.
So if Graham is gay or not, that is fine with me. But if he permits himself to be held at "gunpoint" because he can't be public about his personal sexuality (whatever it is) well THAT is a real crime.
Agreed
Anybody who saw the pics from Helsinki had no doubt. It was indeed, creepy. Like puppet and puppet master. Bet that is exactly when they planned the invasion. Snag. Chump lost, damn, but there are ways to get chump back. Just be patient…
THAT, is an interesting thought. Trump was pure obsequiousness in Putin's presence and then Trump confiscated the interpreter's notes after the 2 hour meeting with Putin. I can't help but think that Trump is a traitor to this country, through and through. His malignant narcissism reduces him to nothing but deteriorating flesh, a complete cipher.
Yes he is a traitor. MSM needs to stop calling one on tffg's indictments the 'documents case'. He is indicted for 'espionage' which includes stealing confidential documents from the government that is he is undoubtedly sharing with our enemies.
Malignant narcissism is a dangerous condition. Both chump and Putin are patient...
I agree, of course, that malignant narcissism is a dangerous condition, particularly where there are those who wield some power over others. Some may say that, as a human, it deprives the infected (afflicted) with the capacity to feel empathy. I have literally seen animals in the wild show more care for fellow creatures than Trump does for anything, including humans.
Actually the lack of empathy is a trait that both narcissists and sociopaths share.
So true, wild animals show much more "humanity." a clue, people
If t is not a traitor, the word means nothing. He is the biggest TRAITOR I know about!
Well, it was not creepy to me. What was creepy to me was that Trump's flatulent fawning was NOT creepy but right on schedule. I sense an almost homo-erotic element to Trump's creepiness.
almost as bad as chump porn
Is it just awe; …. or is it that Trump owes a great deal of money to Putin, who has essentially financed Trump personally & politically?
And Turnbull was no gem.
"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
One presidential candidate made the killing of Alexey Navalny about himself while the other goes and meets with the grieving family and promises support for their cause. Yep, they are EXACTLY the same.
Yep, a lady where I live said I’m sitting this one out, both crooks. I said surely you jest, can’t see any difference??? People are turned off. Sad sad sad
I encounter people at work that say they will only vote for Dumpty. It’s hard to just focus on work and ignore that part of them. That’s why to me it was so important for him to be ineligible to be on the ballot. But I wanted most of the Texas politicians to be ineligible to be on the ballot!
They have worked long and hard to fool all of us, not only the fools. They have been very successful and it's a slog to turn it around. The majority needs to act like one. Hard to remember in Texas, but I do.
Denise, that is similar to the work environment I left. I retired before the 2016 election, but still worked part-time through 2022. At least Oregon doesn't have the same "leadership" as Texas does, a fact bemoaned by almost everyone back at my old agency.
Jeri, they're not only turned off. Where I live many/most of them make 'low information voters' look like news hounds!
It is scary in Texas, Beto had troops motivated, but Repubs cheat so much that the deck is stacked. Even motivation is squashed after so long.
I hope I live long enough to say I told you say - Again.
over and over
Thank you. But the comparison goes deeper, doesn’t it? Perhaps, to be charitable, Republicans insist that Joe Biden must be corrupt, because they cannot imagine someone sacrificing the chance to profit from the nation he serves.
How can you show compassion to the willfully and intentionally ignorant? That's my question for myself.
I shared this link earlier in the comments, but it kind of illustrates what you are saying in your last sentence here:
https://twitter.com/krassenstein/status/1763647872472416494?cxt=HBwW3IO8uaqZ3vkwAAAA&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email
Ransom, as well as in Israel where Netanyahoo seems bent on destroying not only Hamas but any possible chance for any plausible coexistence with what Arabs who haven't been indiscriminately wiped out can be arranged or sustained!
The same could be said of Trump, just minus the word "sacrifice". Trump has never sacrificed anything for anyone in his sad, pathetic life.
Sounds like Bonhoeffer and von Stauffenberg on the one hand and Himmler and Hitler on the other.
So well said, Ransom. And a wonderful comment conversation as well. Bravo/a!
The number of likes on your comment reflects how most of us feel.
Thank you Harvey. This sense of community is very comforting in these trying times. The number is quite overwhelming.
The parallel is not just Putin and He who shall not be named - but also with Bebe
The paralell is infinite. I only described ONE.
Bravo Ransom, you took the words right out of my head when I read that as well.
I was just going to say the same thing!
I agree with you !It’s sad that someone like PUTTIE is running Russia!!He doesn’t care what he’s doing to his own people!!It’s terrible !!
My thoughts exactly
How can the Republicans think that taking any of our social security away is a winning proposal? Remove the cap. If corporations are people then people pay taxes. Fund the IRS to make sure tax cheats don’t!
The whole (Republican) idea of incorporation is to provide nearly all the benefits of a citizen with nearly none of the responsibilities . Come to think of it, that's the status (and them some) ordinary Republicans claim for themselves. Look at "He Who Feels No Shame."
"The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to maximize its profits."
- Milton Friedman
"Privatize the profits and socialize the costs."
It's another unspoken, guiding principle of the stakeholder capitalists.
Well stated.
Cut nothing but regulations and taxes
That is certainly what is happening, from who got bailed out in the "Great Recession" to the fact that I am forced to communicate with my doctors (Optum owns it all) online, got email to to open My Chart but could not, changed password and got a message I could not be verified and to call a number, was on "hold" for 1 hr 50min before giving up and got on eventually. But that experience is becoming typical. The largest companies want zero contact with customers, apart from access to their bank account. "Deregulation" means we are increasingly living under the rules that giant corporations set for us. Increasingly they shed responsibilities. How many person-hours are spent on "hold" these days? Increasingly they do as they please.
Who are the real "stakeholders"? Are they not, in the end, all of us? Ultimately all of the inhabitants (human and not) on the entire planet?
never forget that MF was a fraud. His Nobel Prize should be revoked.
Heh “ the Nobel Prize “. I remember being in second grade and how we treasured those little stars that our teacher would reward us with. There were different colors representing different values the most valued was the gold star. Then one day on my way to the Saturday matinee I stopped off at Shaws variety store to get my pea shooter and supply of peas. It was then that I noticed the little boxes of stars of all colors. And I could get all I wanted for the price of a pea shooter. I spent my money on the pea shooter which to me still had some value. Gee I was so much wiser then.
We got the stars too. I don't think the Nobel Prize is meaningless, but there has been some funky stuff in the the politics of who does and does not get one. I just don't know about the merit of all of Friedman's work, but I doubt his callous disregard for his sense of responsibility to society would have pleased the founder of the the prize. Clever people can be cads. Friedman's formula is a patent recipe for sociopathy, and it's not like "no one could have predicted it". Look up the British East India Company.
Excellent point Gjay15
along with Rush Limbaugh's and Gym Jordans.
J L, it’s no longer even the philanthropy of Carnegie with his spreading libraries to small and large towns or Ford making it possible for workers to own the products. Now it’s just to make as much money as possible for the people at the top.
Don't forget Andrew Carnegie was a robber baron, who promoted the idea that a few wealthy men should control society, rather than have an equitable society for everyone. A few libraries spread around, while a nice idea, pales in comparison to a more just and equitable system.
P.S. I lived in a town with a Carnegie library.
Robber baron is correct; https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-events/1892-homestead-strike
Yup. Unaccountable "power tends to corrupt", often to the point of sociopathy, is one of history's more salient motifs.
Same here. As a kid, I read with great interest a biography series called "Childhood of Famous Americans", and impressed my parents when I told them that our Public Library in Medford, OR was a Carnegie Library (I'm guessing 3rd or 4th grade at that time). When I hit the age where I was in the "upstairs" (adult) library more than "downstairs" (children's) library, my Dad asked me to read more about Carnegie and Henry Ford. He didn't ask me to do a report or anything, but we did have an interesting "out to breakfast" conversation about those to "pillars" of the US.
Worth asking who supports what.
"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits." - Lincoln
Of course that capital is not necessarily private capital, nor should all of it be. Robber barons, be they royal or monopolistic are the enemy of liberty and justice for all. Part of that mix is free enterprise, but the notion that business should be a special ethics-free zone, and that laws should protect companies, not workers, customers, or communities is bat guano insane.
I read the same or a similar series, Ally.
This was called Landmark Books, and through the mid-1950s I checked out and read scores of them -- from the public library on Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, Michigan. That library, a colonial style classic in west Dearborn, not far from Greenfield Village, was also a gift from Carnegie.
I did also and loved that place.
Yeah, one of my earliest memories was going to what was likely a Carnegie library with my mother and coming home with "Elmer and the Dragon". It's a treasured fragment, and anyway the libraries were a substantial and meaningful gift. But in context? We should not have to go to a king with our begging bowl to finance the General Welfare. Conservatives regularly condemn taxation as theft, but what are low wages and extortionate prices when oligarchs rule the roost?
JennSH, my point was that, unlike today’s employers who underpay employees and stiff contractors/contract employees, he at least did something for the communities. There were 1700 libraries built here. Today’s billionaires, many who inherited their wealth (like Walmart’s Waltons, whose employees often rely on SNAP programs), rarely donate substantially to programs meant to make people’s lives better.
Well corporations are already taxed for paying Social Security benefits. But I agree with you; the cap should be raised, actually eliminated. Cap the benefit and not the tax; it is not like people at the top cannot afford not getting social security in proportion to income. Make sure to tax for Social Security purposes investment income including carried interest for investment managers x percent.
If you are way at the top, you can afford to pay and not get the benefit. And you are at the top because the system got you there, not anything to do with your brilliance necessarily.
Corporations can treat their contributions to Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid as tax deductions, just like the cost of wages.
Remember also that employees pay half.
And for those of us who are self-employed, we pay the whole load, and the deduction is only useful if we have profit from which to deduct it.
And in fact although collected as taxes, those - at least in theory - are not put to general government purposes like income taxes are, but are instead supposed to held in trust for those who are retired, disabled or impoverished.
Employers and employees pay half, to be sure. There should be no trouble at all for sending those tax revenues into the social security trust fund, which is running a major deficit as you know. I'm not sure where your complaint is coming from.
Granted, I do think the small businesses (especially sole proprietors) are impacted negatively relative to most businesses.
I agree that corporations pay half of an employee's contribution. But payment of social security contributions is NOT the payment of a "tax" on income, and it's deductible, so I was just correcting the overstatement that "corporations are already taxed for paying Social Security benefits."
They are not "taxed" for paying social security if they can deduct it as part of wages. And FICA is not at all dependent on corporate net income.
Just trying to help dispel a common misconception that a corporate employer's FICA contribution is the same as a tax on corporate income, as they are quite distinct.
Thanks. You know more about this than I do.
No problem -
Just a quick note - anything that's deductible from gross income or net income to arrive at net taxable income isn't "subject to income tax."
If the discussion is focused on income tax, then the millionaires who can hide or defer or legally avoid tax on their personal earnings are being disingenuous when they say they pay taxes when all they are referring to is FICA contributions or the tax withheld on their employees. Those really aren't "their" taxes - they are someone else's, and they are deductions from gross revenue or net income and hence never taxed as "net taxable income" at the corporate level. It's not just tax law but also basic accounting.
Lordy, my hero
Yes. The money employers pay into Social Security is treated by the employer (correctly) as part of the employee’s compensation. So, roughly 14% of the employee’s compensation goes for FICA taxes before the employee even starts to pay income taxes. The wealthy, on the other hand, employ capital gains tax rates and other loopholes to reduce their federal income taxes to an average of 14% of their entire income (including FICA, which because of the FICA tax cap at about $120K of income, is close to 0% of their total income). In other words, federal income taxes, rather than being progressive, are actually regressive when you compare what the wealthy pay to what median income wage earners pay.
Actually, even the money you pay into FICA is also taxed for federal income tax purposes. You do NOT get to exclude FICA from your taxable income, so you are paying the Social Security and Medicare taxes, and then paying income tax on that same amount. Your company (which matches the FICA taxes) gets to deduct the FICA tax from its income as a business expense (just as it deducts your salary payments from its income as a business expense). You however pay your income tax on your total earning INCLUDING the amount deducted for FICA. What is even more "interesting" is that when you are paid Social Security payments when you retire, you pay income tax on those payments too. So in some ways, the money used to cover your social security paymennts is taxed twice, once when it is paid to you when you earn your salary and then again when you get paid in retirement.
I recall Warren Buffet saying the woman who cleans his wastebasket pays a higher share of income as tax than he, and that without lawyerly legerdemain.
Is there really a trust fund? I've read that there is no trust fund, but merely an accounting ledger.
Depends on what you mean. It is legally called a "trust fund" because the moneys are theoretically "held in trust" to be paid to the individuals when they retire. Actual practice is that all federal funds are commingled and it is just a ledger entry that you have so much money "on account" for your retirement. And remember that at least at this time in history, you will be paid a fixed amount every month when you finally retire and start collecting Social Security regardless of how much you actually paid in. So depending on how long you live, you may easily end up "losing" money (if you die soon after your retire) or "making" money (if you live until you are 90+ or so. It varies for each person depending on how much they contributed and how much they earned in their last 10 years of income (what your retirement income is based on).
Have you ever run or owned a Corporation Matt? I've been involved with 8 start-ups. During the first 3-5 years most corporations are in business, one bad decision or one sale gone bad can bankrupt a company. Of the 8 startups I have been involved with 3 are still in business all of which were sold to larger competitors. The other 5 went under. So you're saying that if one of these companies finally turns the corner and has a bad year, they should pay more SS tax?
If the government had invested our SS contributions in 10 year rolling T-bills then it would be solvent, but instead they used it for general purposes with zero return to SS.
That’s why negative K1 exemptions are in place
The $34 trillion national debt dumped onto the backs of our younger citizens (starting with Ronald Reagan where the national debt was tripled during his term in office) is principally the result of the large corporations and wealthy individuals not paying their fair share of taxes.
And waiting til 70 gets a bonus for those who can afford to do so.
Y
Even a "Stable Genius" (which don't count for much) got there.
The IRS has received more funding, Joe. 'The Inflation Reduction Act provided $80 billion in additional funding to the IRS, much of which is dedicated to closing the tax gap by specifically enforcing tax compliance by the wealthiest tax evaders. (Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Feb 8, 2024) It has a lot to do!
'U.S. billionaires are 46 percent, or $1.6 trillion, richer than they were in 2020.'
'According to a 2021 White House study, the wealthiest 400 billionaire families in the U.S. paid an average federal individual tax rate of just 8.2 percent. For comparison, the average American taxpayer in the same year paid 13 percent.'
'According to leaked tax returns highlighted in a ProPublica investigation, the 25 richest Americans paid $13.6 billion in taxes from 2014-2018—a “true” tax rate of just 3.4 percent on $401 billion of income.'
'Do the rich pay their fair share?'
January 14, 2024 By Oxfam
'What billionaires and giant corporations pay in taxes—and what that means for the rest of us.'
See link below.
https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/do-the-rich-pay-their-fair-share/#:~:text=
Fern I think it is more than interesting that Republicans want to claw back that funding to the IRS. I wonder why?
My poor bro thinks they are coming for him. That’s the word from the MAGAts.
Faux news peddled the lie that the IRS was going to hire 87,000 gun toting agents to come to the homes of middle class Americans and collect money.
I had a friend that watches Faux news several hours a day. He told me this is what the money was going to be used for.
I'm guessing Fox never files retractions for their BS stories unless they lose a huge defamation case and the judges forces them to.
my bro heard that and believes it. Hope is disabused him of that. But he has "friends" that watch Fox.
Jeri, coming after him with the new agents doesn’t make sense—a return of less than $1 per dollar spent (the return on a wealthy tax cheat is more like $8 for every dollar spent).
Does anything make sense to people who listen to magats.?? Or televangelists, for that matter.
Authoritarian leaders know it's easier to control the populace when they are uneducated and poor.
And they do it primarily with fear. Killing babies and allowing murderous criminals to cross the border.
Yesterday 6 undocumented immigrants were turned away at the border as opposed to the truckloads the MAGAnazis tell us.
We must get involved and stay involved until we have stopped the thieves and isolations from turning our country into a fascist state. Call, write and if you can speak to your representatives. This guy Mike Johnson is a scary man. One of Trump’s lieutenants
AKA- Trump's flaccid little Johnson.
Ok that’s really funny
I like your nice blue LL Bean jacket there Ms "GA Girl".., I hope you got it in Freeport. We'll never empty the room of "all" those creeps. And, empowering a society to hide behind trees and stumps to spy on and 'catch' the varmints ICE-like is how Russia and Hungary do it. Clearly, calling upon a Representative like Bofart (poor thing) sure isn't going to have any real effect, while there are others out there who will make a difference. The key to al of this is a 'civil society'. This present administration has encouraged just that. No shotgun blast strategies. Instead, a more steady pressure to keep this nation of individuals on track, in keeping with the reason it was formed in the first place. So, I agree. Stay warm.
Politics will NOT ignore you.
“The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor” ― Voltaire
They ought to let the immigrants in then, but they see them as takers instead of contributors. Our history says that they contribute, if you omit the Drumpfs..
The problem with removing the cap is that most of the high earners work for companies where their income can be in the form of stock options or bonuses. Warren Buffett has taken a salary of $100,000/year for many years, well below the SS cap and yet he is one of the richest men in the world. They raised the income cap on SS this year from $160,200 to $168,600 an increase of almost $800 for high earners.
Rick Scott stole hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicare and Medicaid and bought a Senate seat with $69 million of our money. And he proposes to eliminate SS as it exists and start from scratch every 5 years. Him and his uber rich Republican colleagues have no business messing with any social programs.
ProPublica did a great article on this a couple of years back. https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax
Everyone should read this article!!!
OMG!!
Thanks for the link
In that year, Bezos, who filed his taxes jointly with his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott, reported a paltry (for him) $46 million in income, largely from interest and dividend payments on outside investments. He was able to offset every penny he earned with losses from side investments and various deductions, like interest expenses on debts and the vague catchall category of “other expenses.”
In 2011, a year in which his wealth held roughly steady at $18 billion, Bezos filed a tax return reporting he lost money — his income that year was more than offset by investment losses. What’s more, because, according to the tax law, he made so little, he even claimed and received a $4,000 tax credit for his children.
Yup. 🤬
My stupid bro even said, the IRS wants to come after me. He who has not a pot to pee in. I had to laugh and say, sure your turnip has lots to offer.
That's one of the paradoxes of MAGAnazi lies. Why waste money collecting pennies from the poor instead of getting several hundred thousand from one rich tax cheat.
Fear is the sponsor of irrational thought.
Ain't it always. Some fear destitution, some fear a 1% loss. But it's always fear, sometimes helped along by greed.
CONservatives have demonized the IRS for decades. Some of it deserved, yes, but like all public agencies, they cannot fight back without CONservatives screaming unfair.
Deserved? They have underfunded the IRS so their overlords can use every possible opportunity to evade paying any taxes. While Joe Shmoe will get audited instead. Most of the "new" people working for the IRS are just to restore staffing that have left over the years. The wealthy grift the system why the rest of us are expected to pay up.
exactly
My dad worked for the IRS for 30 years. He retired as a GS-3 in 1982 earning about $14K/year. When he started with the IRS in the 1950's each state collected the Federal income taxes for that state. NE had one office located in Omaha. It was a very stressful job for him. His boss was a b**** but he stayed because he was a disabled veteran and couldn't do physical labor. Plus the benefits were decent.
When the IRS went to regional service centers he was offered a promotion to GS-7 if he would move to Kansas City. He declined and was never offered another promotion for the next 15 years.
In the late 1950's and early 1960's he would hand carry the daily deposit to the bank three blocks away. The deposits were often over $1,000,000 with several thousand in cash. No one ever bothered him in all the years he made the deposits.
He told us stories about IRS agent's jumping on the hoods of cars with "Property of US Government" stickers. If they moved the cars they could be prosecuted for theft of government property. They would also put the stickers on homes when people owed the IRS money. Imagine an agent doing that today.
I also have 4 former co-workers who have been working on mods to the mainframe systems at the IRS. The IRS is actually very good at catching under reporting of income from banks, investments, and W-2 income due to all of the reporting required from financial institutions and companies.
They have the systems to be better at catching dead beats that don't report but these are labor intensive tasks, to meet with the non-filers. The $80 billion would provide the money to be able to collect from many of the dead-beats.
Conservatives fear the IRS because the wealthy lie about them coming to get the middle and low income earners being arrested for underpayment.
Wow, up close and personal. That's probably one of the agencies that repubs plan to dismantle, like the Education department. How much faster they can tear down than the efforts it takes to build. Bannon knows that better than anyone.
"deserved"???
There is method to their madness. As long as they audit the poor, they are OK. But let them turn a light on the rich and they are evil. It's not to hard to see the pattern, even magats and dumb arses like my bro, should get it.
I agree. Corporations should be paying the same tax rate as school teachers. How dare Johnson and the others suggest to rob Social Security to fund billionaire tax cuts. We The People need to start screaming about this hatchet job starting today. The wealthy can kiss my backside.
Well, they think taking away women’s bodily autonomy is a winning proposition so…
It's the entire patriarchy that thinks that way as well as the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptists among other male dominated religions. Why can't women be priests or pastors?
It's ok for Catholic priests to diddle with little boys and each other, but if a woman wants to make a life saving choice to abort a fetus or if she's been raped by a relative--that's going too far. Hypocrites one and all.
In the words of Emma Watson, "Fuck the patriarchy."
That’s why the GOP wants to reduce the budget of the IRS
And tax the churches involved in political campaigns.
Joe, if we increased that SSI collection cap to 500K, that would go a long, long way towards solvency. If there was a way to add SSI collection to "financial gains other than income" now, that would be parity.
Joe Z...
I agree. We have contributed to the Social Security system as workers...it is not a "give a way".
Government assistance for those who need assistance is only the decent action to take. We stand together...weak, strong...rich, poor....healthy with those who need assistance physically or mentally.
Something President Joe Biden and his team have done is lower the price of insulin. Now this is a President using his influence and love and respect for the people of this country to assist with real , close at home problems.
The rich want to get richer...drug companies continue to make and sell very addictive medications. It is not difficult to discern those who love this country and its people and those who want to use people of this country and their medical needs or weaknesses to line their own pockets.
President Joe Biden and his team are on the right track!!!
I do not understand why Christian citizens cannot see these realities in front of them.
They’ll just lie about it, and it will work.
Republican dogma. If they say it enough times and get people to repeat it enough times it becomes their truth. Just look at all the lies 45 has been spouting for years that now are taken as the gospel by his cult followers.
Per Goebbel’s playbook. Much of what Trump & Co do is following Goebbel’s written playbook. Because it works
The IRS has now been adequately funded much to the dismay to the R’s. They discovered that there are approximately 125,000 people who have not paid the taxes they owed since 2017. Next week, the IRS will begin sending out letters to these individuals. Mind you, they are not after us peons. They are after the filthy rich who want to destroy our democracy and take away our Social Security and Medicare. Oh how I hope it’s some notorious members of Congress who get those letters! https://apnews.com/article/irs-tax-season-audit-back-taxes-77c891313f5233366fbe4f6fb5d896e8
Regarding the 25,000 from the article who earn more than $1 million, there are many of them who are in the hundreds of millions, and don't obviously deserve what they are getting for working of course 1 thousand hours per week. Of course that is insane, getting paid to do nothing and not contributing to society
Just tax all income for social security and medicare, problem somewhat solved.
That said, I just got a bill for $20,000 for a simple nasal septum surgery correction, mostly paid by insurance (I owe about $1000). The dollars per hour being paid into our health care system is pretty insane, in my opinion!
Delivering medical care through corporations is an abomination. Doctors and medical personnel should be paid well. CEOs and stock holders should not. Corporate medicine is ruining our health care.
Whoa!! Yes, totally insane! Thank goodness you have insurance.
It almost kept me out from playing tuba with my orchestra on the next concert! Not cool! :-)
The procedure took literally 2 hours (including the prep where only nurses were involved), so that is $10,000 per hour! I've already used up half of my health care Flex Spending Account on account of this procedure.
It is a very simple procedure that besides anesthetics takes maybe 30 minutes. So where does this tremendous bill come from?! I think it probably goes to the hospital administrators, perhaps.
And no one told me up front regarding the cost; they just agreed as long as I was getting my broken nose reset, and under with anesthesia, that doing this procedure as well was two for the price of one.
You can ask for an itemized bill.
You'll be surprised what is on there.
Got one when my husband was on a vent with no insurance.
Found out one thing they charged him for was oral medication. He was on a vent.
And that's another reason our health care is so expensive, people don't look at the charges and insurance pays and it's vicious circle.
And they have two rates. One for people with insurance and one for people without insurance. Such a scam!
I totally agree. If you don't have insurance bankruptcy is often the only recourse. And try to get healthcare after a bankruptcy with no insurance.
My company quit paying our health insurance premiums to the carrier during the year. My wife was in the hospital for 3 days and we were told we were no longer covered due to premiums not being paid.
We received a bill for almost $50,000. Ultimately, the issue with the premiums was resolved and the insurance company paid about $12,000 and we paid $1500.
It's sad, but you can't afford to be without insurance.
Elizabeth Warren knows more about bankruptcy law than anyone in the US. She has pushed for not forcing people to declare bankruptcy for unpaid medical bills. Instead the Federal government would pay the debt. It's never gotten traction.
With insurance who has a contract with the hospital, with insurance not contracted with the hospital, Medicare Advantage vs Medicare Part A &B, self pay, etc…
I call it job security. The healthcare-industrial complex is a massive jobs program due to its fragmentation
More than that. They have different payments that they accept depending on your insurance company. Medicare allows significantly (and I mean seriously significantly) less than Anthem, who in turn may allow more than Aetna or Cigna, etc.
Sometimes, the price the provider charges is lower than the insurance allowance, but the member still needs to pay the insurance negotiated price for the procedure.
At least the insurance approved the procedure. It’s appalling that they can reject claims based on nothing at all! My dental insurance refused to pay for work done on my teeth after the dentist office got it approved and had the cost what we thought was covered. Some jerk came back and said we’re not going to cover this. Like practicing medicine without a license! But I am on teacher insurance. It’s the worst!
Dang. Good insurance USED to be a benefit of taking on the thankless yet critical task of teaching our children.
I had to wait for more damage to my knee before it was approved for replacement. I was using a walker by then
Were you an inpatient or outpatient?
I didn't even cry after waking up like I did when getting my wisdom teeth out, LOL. So definitely an outpatient :-).
If they offered you a lollipop 🍭 & you accepted it. it would have been at least another thousand!!
I was an outpatient for sure. Just in and out.
Good grief!! Simple procedure = paying through the nose! Sorry, couldn’t help myself!😆👃🏼
Moral of the story:
A society in which cheating has become the norm.
More even than that. This is Institutionalized Cheating. Daylight robbery.
And since it's the norm -- in America, nowhere else in the world, there's exceptionalism for you -- Americans are blind to it.
Blind and robbed blind.
*
Nose broken 3 times -- at 16, boxing, at 45 and 55, running into glass walls -- I had 2 ops in Belgium... First failed, still a problem with septum, second succeeded. Both times, inpatient. Cost to me: negligible.
Normal in Europe.
*
Moral of the Moral:
Dominance of the Unfittest.
A society governed by social Darwinism, "Survival of the fittest", is divisive, makes competition-for-its-own-sake the sole governing principle, totally ignoring the parallel reality of symbiosis, interdependence, every factor that connects and unites us.
UNITED, WE STAND. DIVIDED, WE FALL.
Yes, probably too many overpaid administrators. But, also many highly trained medical personnel and doctors.
As long as it is an out patient procedure, just stay home and have a plumber, or Roto Router, do the work next time! Will cost you less than $1000, maybe.
And too many overpaid insurance company CEOs. Any insurer who offers Medicare Advantage is in it for the money. Profit over patients: the American way.
Not to defend the cost, but I will defend the procedure as not being simple (had one). It involves not hitting the vagus nerve, which runs through the nose through the nervous system. One passes out easily just standing up, or from the pressure changes in an airplane descent.
My surgeon was excellent, but we both learned how disturbed my vagus nerve was by the procedure. Anyone in a hurry could change someone’s life.
Marlene, perhaps NOT "thank goodness you had insurance" because that lies at the heart of the absurd prices and inefficiencies of our corporate medical system. So much goes into the administration of that system with its preauthorizations, sometimes repeatedly throughout a course of treatment, appeals of decisions by non-MDs, advertising. They all end up feeding the profits of the corporations and not providing the healthcare for which we all pay way TOO MUCH!
I have an expensive, high-deductible plan through ACA marketplace. (eligible for Medicare soon! 🤸♀️) This year I was able to receive a subsidy that reduced my premium to level of several years ago. Thank you, President Biden and Inflation Reduction Act !
💙
Yesterday the Biden administration gave a heads up to corporations that own jets. They are going to audit the trips for personal use and tax the individuals as the benefits are income.
Clarence Thomas are you listening.
How about getting rid of the full first year depreciation of said jets cost? Down here in snowbird land the little airport is full of them.
Our home in Fernandina Beach was on the flight path for the airport. Every year during the car show, the Lear Jet Club would hold their annual meeting at the Ritz.
One of the years we lived there I counted the jets at the tiny airport there and there was 75.
I wonder how many of the owners wrote off the trip/meeting as a business expense.
It’s nuts here in Marathon. Sometimes 25-30, plus all the smaller craft. Key West is crazy too.
Of course, there’s also the helicopters making lunch trips from Miami. The restaurant across Route 1 has a helipad. Land, 8-10 for lunch, then off again. Us plebeians just stare lol.
Nice. I can't even imagine flying somewhere for lunch.
When we moved to Maine we are again close to the airport in Trenton, ME although it's called the Bar Harbor airport. In the summer the uber wealthy fly in and out of here umpteen times a day. Plus there are 5 commercial flights a day for the tourists. First one at 6 am. or at least that's when it flies over our house. :)
Please may this happen and soon.
If Republicans really want to govern and help fund Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid all they have to do is take the cap off wages for contribution purposes. As Heather discussed, they can also increase revenue by allowing the tax cuts to expire for those earning more than $400,000 and raising the corporate income tax rate. Trickle down economics doesn't work and corporations take excess profits and use them to buy back stock which increases their stock value. It's time to make everyone pay a fair share so we can do want other wealthy countries do and provide healthcare, education, child care, rent relief and other basic items to everyone. Of course, Republicans don't want to govern. They want to give more money to the wealthy and corporations because they don't care about anyone else. We need to vote Blue, up and down the ballot.
Brava! This ancient on Social Security and Medicare wants desperately to be back in France where medicine in the small towns was caring and excellent. Maybe this is the place to tell about the lovely Russian woman who is my furious neighbor. With Trump and the Heritage Foundation Project 25 (Carnegie on OxyContin) she thinks escaping Russia to come here was a mistake. (Her American husband died some years ago.)
"they have demanded budget cuts to address the fact that the government spends far more money than it brings in. "
You mean tax cuts (for the rich*) DON'T pay for themselves? Who could have predicted????
* https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/13/wealthiest-americans-tax-income-propublica-investigation
Why don’t Dems scream this from the rooftops, the repubs sure scream their crap in every way. MSM obliges…
Dems are forever terrible at messaging.
could be the fatal mistake this time
Important to remember when we see historic old Carnegie Libraries that this was paternalism, not merely generosity or genuine public spirit.
I'm not suggesting their destruction.
They should be preserved wherever they are habitable and capable of being used either for their original purpose or repurposed. But they also need to remind us that they were a marketing gimmick for his statement that instead of paying state or local taxes, he thought he knew what was best in the patronizing phrase that he was "doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves."
Much writing about Carnegie fills the definition of hagiography, but a contemporary of his, Theodore Roosevelt, said this about him and his sometimes self-serving pacifism and isolationism:
"[I have] tried hard to like Carnegie, but it is pretty difficult. There is no type of man for whom I feel a more contemptuous abhorrence than for the one who makes a God of mere money-making and at the same time is always yelling out that kind of utterly stupid condemnation of war which in almost every case springs from a combination of defective physical courage, of unmanly shrinking from pain and effort, and of hopelessly twisted ideals. All the suffering from Spanish war comes far short of the suffering, preventable and non-preventable, among the operators of the Carnegie steel works, and among the small investors, during the time that Carnegie was making his fortune…. It is as noxious folly to denounce war per se as it is to denounce business per se. Unrighteous war is a hideous evil; but I am not at all sure that it is worse evil than business unrighteousness."
Nasaw, David (2006). Andrew Carnegie. New York: Penguin Group. p. 675. ISBN 978-1-59420-104-2.
In addition to Heather's citation to the recent Guardian article, an excellent 2022 Guardian article also describes the self-serving nature of business leaders like Jamie Dimond who brand themselves "stakeholder capitalists."
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/20/stakeholder-capitalism-jp-morgan-walmart
Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.
-Honore de Balzac
Ye hear that, Elon
Trump will probably appoint Elon Musk Secretary of the Treasury or to head the Fed
at the head of the fools lined up for a place at the trough...
Musk knows. Not only does he not give a damn, he’s actually proud of it.
no argument here
A professor friend of mine once told me that men of great fortune never get there without exploitation of people and the law. I think Carnegie is a great example of that.
Thank you for this deeper perspective. I was thinking of Carnegie’s libraries and other ‘public works.’ What has TFG used his money to build for the people? Have they started to construct a library in homage to his time in office? I can’t call it presidential. His money has gone only towards making more. He is ‘one who makes a God of mere money-making.’
Heartache for Navalny.
His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, couldn't even attend the funeral because she would probably be arrested once she entered Russia. Nor could his two children be at Navalny's funeral.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l1HLJjyKas
It’s a tragedy Navalny’s wife and children could not be in Russia for his funeral. Navalny had a great deal of courage and knew he might die, but returned anyway. His memory is a threat to Putin.
Me too, can't stop thinking about this brave soul and his family. Can you imagine living this way- in the direction our county is heading?
Those were some disturbingly patronizing words from Andrew Carnegie. Yet still, Carnegie built and funded the perpetuation of libraries and museums in the post Civil War Industrial Age. Today's private equity and tech titans, make both the Robber Barons like Stanford, Rockefeller and Morgan, and the other uber wealthy individuals of the time, such as Carnegie, seem like Frederich Engels in comparison.
The concept of the corporation was just getting started in Carnegie's time, and now, it is far, far bigger than Frank Norris' "Octopus", far more powerful, and aided and abetted by far more otherwise good people who work for them and depend upon them.
Louis Brandeis famously said that we can either have a working Democracy, or a Country led by the wealthy, i.e., an oligarchy. Looks like we've chosen the wrong path.
I'm surprised that Little Mikey ("He Likes It!") Johnson, a self-proclaimed prosletyzing Christian would take the sycophantic of the wealthy classes position in opposition to a certain well known, and much beloved, sandal wearing prognosticator and prime persona in the New Testament who once said,
"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven"
It is some kind of error to believe just because somebody claims to be Christian that they're doing it for what you might think of as the right reasons, impulses and spirit. Many branches of churches or their leaders, some of their adherents, are more obviously in it for the look, the power over others and that includes money power, which has been going on for decades if not centuries. Do not attribute reason to these people; they are in the sway of false religious interpretation for highly personal and selfish reasons which they will never admit to; it's a kind of mask that supposedly gets you political and maybe personal approval for whatever it is you're doing. Behavior masking as some kind of acceptability. It is always behavior that gives everything away at least in the long run. They are not reasonable people so don't expect to have your own reasonableness satisfied in that assumption.
If you're flaunting your Christianity you're certainly not Christian.
Like I said before I am more Christian than any of these crooks and I am Jewish.
I have a dear friend who told me 40 years ago (and reiterated it 2 years ago) "For an atheist, you are one of the most Christian people I know."
Exactly! This is my experience too. I have pretty strong opinions about the subject.
There was a time I spent visiting the Harvard campus when Greg Epstein was the Humanist chaplain there.
We can do a lot of good from the Back Row Ally House.
And that's where it all came from anyway, the handy fact that is unhandy for so many people, Jews had been living this way and working it out already for the previous oh give or take 1,500 years ...
Exactly, the words of Jesus himself....
I know them well, only two I can think of are the real real.
We’re seeing Justice Brandeis’s statement play out now, and we could lose our own government to a wannabe dictator.
Like your throwing a Bible at Mike Johnson. Thought about Carnegie’s libraries, but those built by communities mean more to the communities. Ownership is powerful for generations. (Look at Beyoncé and “western” music!)
Little Mickey was "elected" to Congress unopposed. He didn't have to argue or justify a platform. He didn't have to defend his Christian beliefs and how they should be the law of the land. There was no one to argue against or discuss merits or pitfalls of ideals. In other words, he doesn't feel the need respect other ideas.
Yes, and as David Pepper reports, those who run unopposed become more radical, because there aren’t any debates or competition to moderate their positions to reflect their constituencies. Although I suspect the constituencies of people like Johnson or Jim Jordan are plenty extreme.
Prognosticator?
Some shocks coming up, well maybe
The GOP. Robbing the Poor and giving to the Rich, who need more money like I need another hole in my head. The most egregious thing was when the GOP told their voters Biden’s plan to fund the IRS, (to tax the wealthy,) was the "guvmint cummin' fo yo munny."
Vote BLUE.
Exactly what my bro said, and he has ZIP
"As soon as Mike Johnson (R-LA) became House speaker, he called for a “debt commission” to address the growing budget deficit."
Reagan proved deficits* don't matter. (attributed to Dick Cheney)
*Republican created deficits
American history is full of deep, dark pockets; D.J. Trump’s attraction to dictators is nothing new.
'The Real Reason Trump Loves Putin' (Atlantic Magazine, excerpts)
'A new book explores the American right’s tendency to admire and want to emulate foreign dictators.'
By Franklin Foer
MARCH 1, 2024, 8:17 AM ET
‘FOR NEARLY THE ENTIRETY of the past decade, a question has stalked, and sometimes consumed, American politics: Why do Donald Trump and his acolytes heap such reverent praise on Vladimir Putin? The question is born of disbelief. Adoration of the Russian leader, who murders his domestic opponents, kidnaps thousands of Ukrainian children, and interferes in American presidential elections, is so hard to comprehend that it seems only plausibly explained by venal motives—thus the search to find the supposed kompromat the Kremlin lords over Trump or compromising business deals that Trump has pursued in Moscow.’
‘But there’s a deeper, more nefarious truth about people on the right’s baffling unwillingness to criticize the Kremlin: They actually share its worldview. Putin worship isn’t even an aberration in the history of conservatism, merely the latest instance of a long tradition of admiring foreign dictators. Over the past century, without ever really blushing, the American right has similarly celebrated the likes of Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco, and just about every Latin American military junta that called itself anti-communist.’
‘The right hails these dictators as ideological comrades in the war to preserve traditional society, the values of order and patriarchy, against the assault of the decadent left. Unlike conservative politicians in the United States, these foreign leaders don’t even need to bother with mouthing encomiums to concepts like tolerance, freedom, and democracy. They can deliver reactionary politics in the unvarnished form that some hard-liners on the American right have always hoped would take root in their own country. As the journalist Jacob Heilbrunn argues in America Last, his history of conservatives’ romance with dictators, “Conservatives have searched for a paradise abroad that can serve as a model at home.”
‘Heilbrunn makes the interesting decision to begin his history on the eve of World War I. A primary villain in these chapters is the newspaper columnist H. L. Mencken, perhaps the most celebrated curmudgeon in the history of American letters. Walter Lippmann called him “the most powerful influence on this whole generation of educated people.” A conservative movement as such did not exist in the earliest decades of the 20th century, just a constellation of reactionary intellectuals and their wealthy patrons who nodded in agreement, nostalgic for the antebellum South and a world before mass suffrage. Mencken, the most eloquent of the reactionaries, put their cantankerous thoughts into ornate, often quite funny prose.’
‘Mencken believed fervently in the superiority of German civilization—and in the leadership of its racist, war-mongering monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm. This reverence stemmed from ancestral pride; Mencken’s paternal grandfather came from Saxony. But his affection for Germany also grew from his disdain of American democracy, which he believed ceded control of society to mediocre politicians. By contrast, he liked that Germany was “governed by an oligarchy of its best men.” Just before America officially entered World War I, he submitted an article to The Atlantic in which he imagined that Germany might one day conquer the United States and create a new utopia on its shores. Ellery Sedgwick, then the editor of this magazine, had the good sense to reject it. “I have no desire to foment treason,” Sedgwick wrote him.’
‘Looking back on World War I, there were compelling conservative reasons for considering intervention a catastrophe. Financing the war required the imposition of a federal income tax, which never went away in peacetime. And no matter one’s political stripe, the war’s staggering body count was hard to justify. But what emerged on the right in the aftermath of the fighting wasn’t a form of pacifism—rather, it was a set of conspiratorial arguments that became a dishonorable tradition of isolationism. This pattern would repeat itself at the onset of every war: The isolationists would point an accusatory finger at bankers, whom they accused of being eager to profit off bloodshed. They would describe the authoritarian enemies of the United States as helpless victims, peaceful governments minding their own business. In the course of casting the dictators as the injured party, conservatives airbrushed their records of militarism and racism. Minimizing these sins wasn’t just a matter of rhetorical convenience; it was an act of sympathy. In the case of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, a significant segment of the intellectual American right shared their racialist views about the superiority of Nordic peoples.’
‘HEILBRUNN ISN’T THE FIRST to tell the story of the right’s barely submerged affinity for Hitler. Philip Roth’s great counterfactual novel, The Plot Against America, takes this affinity as its premise—and as does Rachel Maddow’s recently published history, Prequel. But it’s always bracing to be reminded of how former President Herbert Hoover made excuses for Hitler before the war and how the press baron William Randolph Hearst commissioned stories by him.’
‘The biggest fans of fascist autocracy weren’t yokels shaking their pitchforks, but cultivated patricians from the oldest New England families. Benito Mussolini’s American fan section consisted of the eminent literary critic Irving Babbitt, a legendary Harvard professor, and the modernist poet Ezra Pound. Not just Hearst but also Henry Ford and others among the nation’s richest men were some of the chief apologists for Nazi Germany. Their attraction—sometimes subconscious, but quite often stated flatly—was born of fear that America was slipping away from them, as immigrants poured into the country and mass democracy took hold. Fascism represented a hopeful example of a revanchist elite reversing the tide.’
‘Hitler’s defeat, and the full knowledge of the horrors of the Holocaust, did little to spur the right to rethink its admiration of authoritarianism. In fact, the historian Fred Siegel once described the late 1940s and early ’50s as the moment when the isolationists attempted to exact revenge. Senator Joe McCarthy and his allies tried to tear down the reputations of the internationalist proponents of the New Deal who most fervently advocated for the war, by smearing them as Communists. But McCarthy was also waging a retrospective argument about World War II: that the Americans had no claim to superiority over the Germans. When he burst onto the scene, in 1949, McCarthy held hearings into what he described as the mistreatment of a Nazi Panzer division, on trial for murdering dozens of American prisoners of war. McCarthy speciously argued that the Germans were being tried on trumped-up evidence. Such accusations about America’s supposed abusive treatment of Nazis became a right-wing trope. Henry Regnery’s publishing house provided an outlet for criticism of the Nuremberg trials, before it went on to print books by William F. Buckley, James Burnham, and Whitaker Chambers that launched the modern conservative movement. '(Atlantic Magazine, By Franklin Foer) The gifted link below will only be available for the next 13 days)
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/03/jacob-heilbrunn-america-last-trump-putin/677609/?gift=HXqjFN-j-dud0TbzU8NbDkj0-2fc_M2m6rfCLbYS-eo&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
I want to read Jacob Heilbrunn’s book. It seems to me that the Americans who share these world views are supporting mediocre or corrupt politicians who want to maintain their power at any cost, including the destruction of our polity. We definitely do not need dictatorship, and we need to educate our children and adults about how government is structured, and that self-government is not a spectator sport. The people who think having Trump as dictator for life is a great idea will find out the hard way it will hurt all of us.
Thank you Fern.
Hi Mark, good to 'see' you. Thanks for reading. It is worthwhile to know the threads
sewn through the US. Salud!
I appreciate your many additions to Heather’s Substack.
Me, too!!!
Thank you, pal.
It was CONservative that you find in Prequel (Rachel Maddow) supporting Hitler and Mussolini.
Mr Johnson's term "debt commission" actually refers to the debt he and the GOP owe to the mega-corporations in keeping their taxes non-existent for their "investment" (translation,...donors) in the republican pay-to-play scheme and providing them their insider trading tips.
"The idea that corporate leaders should take responsibility for the community rather than paying taxes to the government so the community can take care of itself..."
Right... like Walmart (and others) shifting the healthcare costs of their underpaid workers to the community (Medicaid) *and* not paying their share of taxes. Win-win for them.
If you spend your money at these types of sleazy businesses, don't expect much of it to come back to your community, or any community.
I hear sponsorship lines on NPR about the Walton Foundation, and it seems to me that it’s a rearguard action to fix problems their very monopolistic practices have helped to cause.
A large part of the reason the economy boomed in the 50’s was due to stakeholder capitalism —business does best when all the stakeholders do well. An early version of this was Henry Ford paying his workers more than other car manufacturers so they could afford to purchase his cars.
Milton Friedman said in the mid-60’s that stakeholder capitalism was wrong. Business does best when the owners(shareholders) do best so they have the money to re-invest in their businesses (shareholder capitalism). After watching the decimation of the working class and stock buybacks, Friedman admitted at the end of his life he hadn’t foreseen his theory’s unintended consequences and effects on the US. Huh? After The Gilded Age?
Except, don't conflate the robber barons' agenda. Saying he magnanimously paid his workers more so they could buy his cars gaslights his real agenda - selling more cars and making more money, but not actually supporting workers. They are faceless here. Pardon the pun, they were just the vehicle for his greed. Arbeit macht frei.
“One sacrificed himself to save the country, the other one sacrificed the country to save himself.”
Putin like Trump
I am on an expedition ship and overheard some Brits talking about the incredible negative impact another trump term would have on the world. They can’t believe it is even a reality that might happen. We our an international embarrassment. Nothing great about maga.
Our Heather begins with a look back at an era that seems almost quaint today.
The predators who want themselves, the 1%, to be separate from the rest of us, now have friends like Putin with his army sicced on Ukraine, his agents sicced on American democracy. Same U.S. billionaire predators aren't satisfied with just growing their wealth gap from working Americans -- they also turned the Clarence court into an entity to protect the fat orange demagogue, and fixed the same corrupt court into being a zealous tyrant over how women and their families might make their most personal, private decisions.
Nothing is personal in a land where the rich pay for and license demagogues, as float the Clarences on the court.
But our finest Dems may now be willing to stand properly against the billionaire would-be tyrants.
A couple days ago, some of these finest appeared together, at the Capitol, three of them speaking, from among Jamie Raskin, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Dan Goldman, Eric Swalwell, Robert Garcia, and Robert Frost: Dems Take Turns Roasting GOP After Hunter Biden Testimony (mediaite.com)
They should do this again – often – in public, members like them revolving in groups of three and four. But they should have and stick to a strategy:
1) intro each other fully – citing members’ names and states, and also at least one piece of legislation for which each has worked;
2) have each speaker also cite something human and personal – another person from one's home community or a character in an some aptly analogous movie, novel, memoir, or song.
It’s by making these connections apt, between the personal and the policy, that will best defend against the new tyranny, will best elevate, celebrate America and democracy.
We’re living in a time where the rich, the dictators, and the theocrats unite in bludgeoning us into their groups. So our Dems may better than at any other time center their policies on the personal – as the rule of law, democracy itself, both center on people’s rights to be free of the billionaires, dictators, and theocrats aiming to package all.
'Our' Heather! I find that 'sense' of ownership of HCR, author of Letters from an American, what -- familiar - familial - romantic - inappropriate? I know that she's not mine, while highly respected. along with other important sources of knowledge -- teachers, journalists, political analysts, social commentators, writers, engaged citizens... democracy's strong advocates!
Thank you for calling out such possession. As soon as he starts with the phrase, I skip his comment.
If you have literacy, Emily, you'll see "our" does not denote only possession.
Take "This land is your land, this land is my land," by Woody Guthrie. The pronouns, as the rest of the song amply shows, celebrate participation, engagement. Nothing at all of possession.
Or, "This is my country, land that I love" -- again celebrates community, joining in, heartfelt delight in others.
Or, "My Country, Tis of Thee"? Again, any literacy in humanities recognizes the pronoun as expansive, democratically widening to others.
Literacy matters, Emily -- our humanities richly suggest solidarity as in equality, deference to wider community.
We need our enveloping, generous humanities, Emily, lest those ignorant of them narrow, distort, pervert needed community, literacy.
If you have literacy, Fern, you'll see "our" does not denote only ownership.
Take "This land is your land, this land is my land," by Woody Guthrie. The pronouns, as the rest of the song amply shows, celebrate participation, engagement. Nothing at all of ownership.
Or, "This is my country, land that I love" -- again celebrates community, joining in, heartfelt delight in others.
Or, "My Country, Tis of Thee"? Again, any literacy in humanities recognizes the pronoun as expansive, democratically widening to others.
Literacy matters, Fern -- our humanities richly suggest solidarity as in equality, deference to wider community.
We need our enveloping, generous humanities, Fern, lest those ignorant of them narrow and pervert needed community, literacy.
Phil Balla, have you emailed your 'literacy' lecture to the other subscribers who liked the points that I made? We are literate and understand the difference between respect and appreciation for HCR's work and a tone that may imply being an agent of her points of view.
I am sorry that raising a difference between us about your use the word 'our' led you to so roundly rebuke my knowledge of the English language, in terms of literacy, as well as the principles of equality and solidarity
HCR does not speak for me. While we agree about many issues and I learn from her, our perspectives, interests and points of emphasis differ in some ways. I know HCR to be an excellent teacher: a model of clear and deeply thoughtful communication.
I hope that our exchanges in the future, Phil, will be friendly and worthwhile.
Phil, it was not a couple of subscribers that questioned you calling HCR, 'our Heather' on behalf of all of us. With an appeal for accuracy there were 19 subscribers who liked my comment. I also object you questioning our commitment to the humanities. You've credited yourself quite highly in that department and disparage those that found fault with your use of language without an iota of knowledge about each of our concern for human beings, our culture, processes concerning inquiry and appreciation of human values. Did it not occur to you that subscribers to LFAA are people who want to learn, concerned with knowing more about American history and are supporters of Democracy, which I think are indications of our interest in the humanities?
Sorry, Fern, but your idea of "our" shows your ignorance of most vital American humanities.
I'll grant that this exchange with you, Phil, has not truly been an exchange. I did learn, however, the extent to which you would go on the offensive when questioned. Cheers!