This morning, President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping spoke about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, speaking personally for the first time since last November.
"...and discussion of race will be banned from American society."
Well, Sen. Scott, that simply isn't possible. Unless of course your diabolical plan includes a section written in invisible ink that includes burning the Constitution, shuttering Congress, neutering the Supreme Court, and rigging the "election" to put Trump or DeSantis or other Putin wannabes in the White House. Not as president but dictators.
But thank you for releasing the plan so America is forewarned that Republicans like you are more vile than we imagined.
Talk about soft on sexual offenders: like all the Republicans voting to confirm the likes of Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh? Sounds like some neutering of the Supreme Court might not be such a bad idea. Of course, I like RBG's answer to when are there enough women on SCOTUS. Nine was her answer.
I hate letting the deep Republican obsession with “pedophiles” rent space in my head.
However, when you look at the faces of Gaetz, Scott and Lindsay Graham (no easy task) one finds it almost impossible not to see the face of a pedophile.
I believe that a huge number of Republicans suffered child sexual and traumatic abuse at the hands of parents and others in their early developmental stages. The intense relationship with Christian Nationalism is also another strong indicator of trying to order the world under a strict and often cruel parent (Lakoff deserves a huge recognition for this dating back to Bush Jr.)
I really believe that the sense of fear, aggrievement and revenge that Republicans feel is driven by these dark and deeply rooted psychological issues.
I don’t see a pedophiles when I view them, especially because that term is used so casually to disdain someone, it makes me tread very carefully. But I agree that the right-wing seems to find easy fear-control of their supporters by raging about everything sex related. I feel progressives are trying to understand sex and its roll in our society, the problems ignoring or being ignorant of it brings, and compassion and restorative justice for the victims of sexual abuse and exploitation. And I hope deeply we extend hope and effort for understanding the sickness and compulsions behind the massive problem of hurtful sexual actions so many people perpetuate and burden others with. Hurt people hurt people. We cannot incarcerate or punish our way out of this driver of human misery. It’s a quiet, pernicious violence we ignore, ridicule or fear monger at our peril.
Thank you for such a thoughtful response to some troubling posts, Michele. I agree with you wholeheartedly. It's important to start from a base of compassion, and let meaningful policy arise from that. Otherwise, I fear that we will end up making the situation worse by cutting off exit avenues for people who need to learn ways to express pain in other ways than hurting that which they fear most in themselves.
The "strict parent" is needed if you (we) are inherently depraved, i.e.there is "original sin". Christianity seems to have gone down that patriarchal road centuries ago. But it is interesting that early "gnostic" texts which often express women's views disclose a very different early Christianity. In The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, for example, Peter asks Jesus what is the "sin of the world". The response: "Sin as such does not exist. " It goes on to say that humans bring it into manifestation when they act in ways contrary to their original, spiritual nature. For deep reasons "conservatives" fear the rise of the feminine
Flat earthers, they make a lot of fuss about Darwin... But their problem lies far deeper, they are pre-Copernican, they see Earth as the center of the Universe and the Universe turning around their puny selves...
Such tight, poky little minds that they've not got a clue what a symbol is or how to read Genesis and seem to attribute our sublunary days to the Deity, as though the creation of the universe was the work of a being wearing a Rolex watch.
As for basic biology, they seem to be stuck with the misguided notion that the male is the active sower and the female the totally passive soil that receives the seed.
Other traditions had understood the truth for millennia.
"Just as God is our Father, so God is also our Mother."
...and of course Julian of Norwich being a woman, couldn't possibly been important, right? S/ Wikipedia quote: "The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes from Revelations of Divine Love in its explanation of how God can draw a greater good, even from evil." So obviously, the Catholic hierarchy did think she was at least of minor importance, despite her being a woman. Next question, did the Church acknowledge who wrote the statement...probably not.
Barbara, the record’s bad enough as it is—no need to give extra weight to clerical misogyny… After all, among the saints of the Catholic church there are women who were both powerful and influential—Catherine of Siena is an obvious example, and so is Teresa of Avila. Then there’s Clare who accompanied Francis of Assisi on his journey to radical simplicity and succeeded in overcoming all attempts by prelates to water down her order’s rule of holy poverty…
Weigh this against the persecution of the Beguines and the burning of Marguerite Porete, or later, the burning of Joan of Arc.
Women’s role will be crucial for the survival of many religious movements… and of mankind and the planet…
Ironically, Norwich was also the home of William of Norwich, the little boy whose death gave rise to the "blood libel" that served as the basis of many anti-semitic incidents, including murder and torture.
Endless, this projection of men's darkness, their shadowy inner demons onto the defenceless -- old women burned as witches -- and onto those of whom the less they know, the more they hate. Haman and Mordecai...
Hence the need to turn to sources of light and love. Especially at a time like this.
One wonders how aware the Church Fathers were of that text. The Catholic Church would have proceeded in a vastly different direction if Jesus were credited with saying, "Sin as such does not exist." Obviously sin was necessary for the church to exert its power over the people.
Bill, From time to time I become fascinated with the work of Biblical Scholars. Bart Ehrman, Elaine Pagels, and Bishop Spong have been a well source of insight on how Christianity took an itinerant Jewish Rabbi preaching an end times scenario to a religion that has greatly shaped world events to this day.
Of course the teachings of the Gnostics were pretty quickly brought under attack as heretical literature. It just didn’t fall in line with the doctrine and dogma that were being decided on by people like the Egyptian bishop Athanasius, who worked diligently to identify and root out heretical works with Gnostic interpretation.
It’s always interesting to consider “what if” scenarios and the impact Gnosticism could have had on Christian dogma if the Gospels of Thomas, Philip, or Mary Magdalene had become part of the canon.
But, your point is well made in that the far more didactic, misogynist, and punitive Christianity that is alive an well today in the evangelical right is still impacting on whether the U.S. and even the world will slide back into a Neo-Feudal world.
You might find value in the French theologian Jean-Yves Leloup. He translated and commented on the three gospels you mentioned (Thomas, Philip, Mary Magdalene) as well as the canonical gospel of John. Leloup's work has been well translated into English. I first stumbled on this different possibility with Jacob Needleman's Lost Christianity. It was written in 1980 not long after the first English publication of the Nag Hammadi discoveries.
Leloup sounds really useful to me, too. I'd come across the name and must have read some articlse of his, but his site is very interesting indeed. Also what he's writing about the attack on Ukraine...
Unfortunately, the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church has become the KGB at prayer...
Thanks Bill, my hope is that once I finish my work on Fascism 2.0 in America, that I can again ponder some of the history of the early church and the phenomenon of how this cult grew to a major world religion.
To Ol' Floriduh Cracker -- and anyone else who's interested...
I'm a translator -- to my native English from French, Italian, Spanish, sometimes German. I started out as a British civil servant, then spent most of my working life as a staff translator with the EU. Hence, much exposure to politics... from a ringside seat.
In retirement, I translated mainly novels -- and thought I was getting quite good at the job, until... Until a friend suggested me for work that turned out to be almost impossibly difficult for me -- a penance -- because it meant walking a tightrope above the void, understanding and expressing words at the limit of the inexpressible: translating from Spanish the best part of 1000 pages of commentary on the Gospel of Thomas, a text found in Egypt in 1945, together with a cache of Gnostic writings. 114 sayings of Jesus, many of them close to passages in the canonical gospels, many to be found nowhere else, often very difficult to interpret...
And me, diving into Christian theology at the deep end, with no preparation... I hope that doesn't show too much; but there are some real advantages in tackling a subject like this without the familiarity of specialists. Even when you know a subject, it is best to approach new knowledge with a completely fresh mind...
The book itself can be obtained through Amazon. Not light reading (probably better to browse through commentaries on this or that saying). Yet the central message is quite simple...
If you look at the section of the website entitled THE BOOK, you can find my take on it under the heading "Getting Lost in Translation". And at the end of this, the substance of the message:
"Christ is no mere exemplar; he shows us, not what we should be or aspire to be, but
the perfection we intrinsically are."
So... I've read Elaine Pagels but not the other two you mention, and it goes without saying that the "itinerant teacher" is... rather like the visible tip of a vast iceberg. And no, he wasn't preaching end times -- the hunger and thirst for those in Jewish society was so great then that many of those he met with projected onto him the ardently awaited Machia'h. (Which is just what led to the crucifixion.)
Same kind of confusion about the Kingdom Christ preached, no "place" either earthly or other-worldly, it is close to us -- but not in historical time, "close" because it transcends time and so is, ever was and will be, within us and among us.
A huge amount of confusion arose when Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire, thus becoming subject to political imperatives -- hence "orthodoxy", "dogma", "creeds" and "heresy", fixing what had hitherto been fluid, while banishing paradox and an entire dimension of hermeneutics.
(Something similar seems to have happened to the US Constitution, stolen by its high priests and solidified into a dead weight, a beautifully inscribed tombstone...)
Where there was a feminine influence this was more likely to be an empress than an anchorite. Examples include Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, and Theodora, who ruled alongside Emperor Justinian... (I'll have something to say to Barbara D. Reed about this... but I think I have already written too much...)
Peter, I’m honored to have your response. I was using a shoot from the hip version to suggest that Jesus… Here, I knew it came from someone w/ far better expertise then myself “ He was a Jewish apocalypticist who firmly believed the judgment of God was coming on the earth.” — Bart Ehrman
Completely unrelated, I need someone who can help me read German handwritten military records from WWI - Mostly trying to de-cipher where my Great Grandfather served as a Hauptmann before his death about 4 months prior to Armistice.
His son, my (blood related) Grandfather died in 1941 in the Crimea outside Sevastapol and there are a few docs I’m just stuck on.
Think about how many fundamentalist sects have no problem with old men marrying adolescent girls. Their goal is to have as many babies as possible to prop up the church. Not to mention having sex with a kid.
Good morning Michael. I decided to put my comment under your post because I more than agree with it, but will probably be censored for name calling. Being from Florida, I have long and emphatically opposed Scott’s tendencies towards autocratic and emotionally violent leadership. First it was as the Governor of Florida and then shockingly chosen as a Senator with a much wider locus and sphere of control. Earlier in post, I referred to him as “Scott” for the first time in years. He is Voldemort personified. In looks and evil intent. There are people I know that blame him for deaths of family members because of his horrific actions in healthcare scandals. He is Senator Voldemort and I stand by it. Just as the Republican leadership now pulls him out from the closet to state their agenda for a “Republican controlled” dystopian future. Such a perfect player to do so.
I pray for our own Harry Potter in real time “Deathly Hallows”.
Glory to Democracy. Glory to We the People. Glory to Freedom. Slavi Ukraini. Right now President Zelensky is Harry Potter. May he have the full and mighty support of free nations around the world. Autocracy and the Voldemort leaders must not win the battle and war on any front.
Salud brothers and sisters! We cannot afford any moment of distraction capturing our attention to detail and truth. We are the Light.
I look more to Thomas Paine than Harry Potter for insight and inspiration. I’m ignorant on Harry Potter’s world, but if Sen. Rick “Voldemort” Scott as an analogy motivates your generation to preserve what millions of actual Americans fought and died for then I’m delighted that you find meaning and inspiration in the work of J.K. Rowling.
In addition to being all-around reprehensible and dishonest, Scott's program is even flawed on the level of Bible study.
Scott's point 7 on gender asserts that he follows science; backs that up with a quote from the most recent science he has apparently read, the first book of the Hebrew Bible; then totally misinterprets that text. It's actually one of the most transgender and non-binary supportive texts in the whole canon.
Scott quotes the second half of Genesis 1:27, “male and female He created them.” That English is an accurate translation of the original Hebrew. It's the last phrase of a sentence. The rest of the sentence says that Gd created the first human being in the image of Gd. So we are literally being told that the first human, the one created directly by Gd in the image of Gd, was of both male and female gender, and we see Gd (as the creator of both the world and the Hebrew Bible) choose to use the pronoun 'them' to refer to this being. It's one of the most transgender and non-binary supportive texts in the whole canon.
I'm neither Judeo nor Christian, but long fascinated by these texts because of the impact the use of them has had on the culture in which I live. What you wrote is exactly what Jewish friends of mine told me long ago. There is beauty and truth in these writings, and it is sad that so much has been lost by the deliberate misuse and intentional politicizing (through selective choice and editing of texts) that has gone on since the earliest days of European based Christianity.
Is it any wonder that more people in America, especially the under 40 crowd identify themselves as “nones” no religious affiliation. The Rick Scott Republicans are the every man for himself crowd.
they remind me of a guy who walks a child to the school bus stop in the morning, stands guard like a marine, looking behind every bush for a kidnapper, and after the child is on the bus goes home and does nothing the rest of the day, until it is time for a similar performance in the afternoon. somehow he thinks this makes him a wonderful father. meanwhile, you have to laugh at the republican business of getting the government out of their lives, except for disaster relief. and where are these disasters occurring? most are tornadoes and hurricanes in the south, which is solidly republican. once in awhile there is a disaster up north a la super storm sandy. large forest fires used to be a california thing, but now they are spreading to other western states, also solidly republican. you don't see texas stopping FEMA at the border. in LA they know that no church group is going to rebuild a bridge across the mississippi or get a shrimp boat sitting 30 feet up in a tree back into the water. if it weren't for dems, some of these states would still not have electricity.
Absolutely correct. I am a member of AU and they as well as others are working hard to expose the Christo-Fascist plans that the Christian Nationalists have in store for decent Americans
Jesus Christ.., please..Jesus (heyzuss)., Puleaseee..step aside.., we have now "the Church of Trump".. far more able to bring my desiree's to bare. And..HeyZuss.. we The COT have a place for those 'pedo-files'. And Hey Soose.. if you know of any teenage girls, molested or un-molested...please send this way. The COT will provide gifts. Hey men! Hey men! PS.. let the Pooo-shh no.
Do NOT underestimate Rick Scott. He committed huge Medicare fraud and his partners went to prison while HE was elected governor of Fla twice and rigged his election to beat Sen Bill Nelson, a very popular politician who served ALL Floridians regardless of party. So he’s very crafty and clever and has LOTS of money. He was called Skeletor by Dems - yes he’s part of the Repug Death Cult. He cultivates power everywhere. Sickening guy. Beware. A Former Floridian now in blue Colorado
I am curious about who you are referring to when you use the term "rethuglicans"? If you have a particular group in mind, could you be specific about what group that is? I don't know if you are throwing that term at everyone who identifies as a republican or if there are exceptions for those who are still adhering primarily to conservative fiscal policies. Or is the term meant only for people who still support Trump et al. Could you clarify for me?
To me the entire Republican Party has fallen into a league that I identify as “thugs”. Yes, there are some who are not in league with the “party line”, but on a national level, there are more “thugs” than not,IMHO.
Got to question the idea that talking about something is dangerous. On another comment string , someone smarter than me noted that he had learned about WWII in school, but he has not invaded Poland.
The Supreme Court is only gone if we settle for 9 justices, thus allowing outright Republican (McConnell) theft of two seats to stand. I don't know that I'm advocating it, but the Court size has fluctuated in history.
It is clear to me why Rick Scott was selected to chair the National Republican Senatorial Committee; he is another Republican crook! Don't they have any decent people in the Republican party? And was Abraham Lincoln the last decent Republican?
Imagine that Rick Scott’s ideas would follow right along with the Koch master plan?! They really don’t want any laws or restraints on their behavior. Robber barons for sure!
So much of Scott's plan for the country strikes me as a 21st century reworking of of James Henry Hammond's "mudsill" theory: those at the bottom deserve to be there and the government should stop all supports for them, while those at the top (read Trump acolytes) deserve all the benefits of their wealth.
For the country to survive, ALL believers in democracy must get out to vote this cycle.
Fran, I would add that because no impactful federal legislation currently exists that would supersede state laws slated increasingly to restrict voting and to nullify votes, we need to fixate on how we can defend democracy at the state and local levels. For example, we’ll need poll workers and other election officials—county clerks and election judges—who can help people to ensure that their votes are counted. We’ll also have to out-organize Republicans, who ruthlessly are organizing to fill state and local positions with their own people—people who don’t believe in free and fair elections.
Though I haven’t given up on getting some federal voter safeguards passed, I, nonetheless, think we need to get started mobilizing for democracy at the state and local levels.
Jeri, Though I imagine I fret more than most about the increasing number of election subversion measures advancing through GOP-controlled state legislatures that would change state election rules to change who can be in charge, how votes are counted, and how they’re certified, I also know the stakes are too high to submit, under any circumstances, that “we are done.”
My point is, whatever happens, we stay in the fight, try to affect the outcome, swallow the medicine if we’re outvoted and unable to remedy the situation, and be back again next time.
Thank you, Barbara. I am so tired of this abolutist thinking and the accompanying tone of futility. It is NOT futile.
Today I sat in on a meeting in which a well-thought-out state-wide strategy was presented for building votes, building oversigth of elections, building coalition for protecting elections. This strategy is dynamic and hopeful, and that helps the people implementing feel that the work they do is meaningful. WHICH IT IS!
My state has three important elections and we know that wealthy right-wing donors have us in their sights. The folks (including me) doing the work to keep the focus on what is most needed here will also help other states as we all try to move forward. I am limited in what I can do, but I will join what I can do with what others can to make sure the elections in my state are safe.
To condition everything on the decisions of one person is not how we will win these elections. When individual states, counties, cities demonstrate that we will work together to put up good candidates and get them elected, opportunists like Mancheon will come around because then that is where the opportunities will be.
And if we get together and really go at it, then it will no longer matter what Mancheon does or thinks. He will be redundant.
Annie. I appreciate you relating your and your community’s engagement, your energy, your caring and your work and showing how, as engaged citizens working to make democracy real, we can, as you say, render the likes of a Manchin as irrelevant.
Jeri, please don’t join the Chicken Little Caucus. Even without federal legislation, if enough people will get out and vote, we can add a couple of Democrats in the Senate, render some people (you know who I’m talking about) irrelevant, and pass good bills next year.
Well, gosh, Jon, I should've scrolled down a little further before posting and saved myself some typing- you said most of what I did, only more succinctly. (I need sleep.)
Absolutely! If you haven’t already, get in touch with Movement Voter Project. They fund small, grassroots groups working for people running for offices on all levels.
Sarah, Thank you for posting and for recommending MVP. Ezra Levin, former Congressional staffer and co-founder of Indivisible, also leads an extraordinary team replete with local chapters nationwide.
Barbara Jo, I agree that “we need to fixate on how we can defend democracy at the state and local level. And what I am understanding more and more is that no one level: State, Local, or Federal is more important. We need to respect the need for strength and engagement at all levels. Yet finding a personal place to affect change in this need leaves me very conscious that I’m probably like most, in that I hope others do it. I’ll send money. This is the reason why I worry about ‘22. I still have not reached out to my local precinct or Dem organization to ask: “What can I do?” I send $support, but I have not been “boots on the ground” for two years. I need to change that.
Lincoln Project's Joe Trippi has launched The Union, a grassroots organization of different action corps and coalitions to preserve democracy:
"Join Joe Trippi, host Maya May, and special guests representing organizations joining The Union. Learn about what we’ve accomplished and what’s next. You won’t want to miss this!
The Town Hall is at 7:00PM ET on Monday, March 21st. Link will be provided via social media on Monday."
Michelle, I especially appreciated your honesty and awareness as to the importance of resisting reliance on others to carry the weight for us. I believe we’re all becoming increasingly appreciative that democracy is government where ordinary men and women take responsibility for helping to preserve all we’ve been given.
Darn, can't get the heart to light up. So "hearting" Michele, and Ellie, and MaryPat, and all those below who are speaking up for action. Thank you all. <3 <3 <3
Yes! Dems need to volunteer to be poll watchers and workers and other local and state offices.
Democracy is under GQP attack in every state. We Mainers are beginning to hear rumblings of this repub policy from our former-and now-wannabe-again national embarrassment of a GQP guv, the notoriously vulgar Paul LePage. Rally Dems or prepare to live under authoritarian rule.
As I read I see, on my muted TV, an animated Putin waving his arms and hollering through a mike to thousands of his purported followers in front of him, resplendent with response and color, in the stands of a huge stadium. Somehow that strikingly reminds me of what I saw in news reels and learned in school around the middle of the last century.
So imperative that we VOTE, VOTE, VOTE if and while we still can!
Bill, I merely would add the importance of helping, in any way we can, to support measures aimed at superseding GOP efforts to suppress and nullify our votes.
Well, we are witnessing daily their friend in the Kremlin's Final Solution for democracy.
Seems I was close to the truth when, in November 2016, I wondered if the Syrian dictator was not showing the world what will happen to all who dare resist oligarchy.
As for the threat to Bosnia-Herzegovina... that is the country where, only a generation ago, the people of the capital were live targets and... as in Ukraine today, a bread queue was deliberately massacred, the country of concentration camps where men and women were starved, tortured and murdered at will, the country where rape camps were set up, the country of Srebrenica, where all the men and boys were taken out and shot.
Diplomacy... diplomacy... That too has been murdered. We look down on the Middle Ages, but ambassadors were civilized then, not beings on furlough from hell.
Morning Fran. Not sure if you follow Politics Girl, Leigh McGowan. She echoes your message to “ALL believers in democracy”. I do and appreciate her voice from her kitchen. She is on fire in latest post. I swear, I see her hair sizzlin’.
Argh…. Rick Scott the CEO of hospital corporation who defrauded Medicare with fraudulent claims and who was forced to resign. “he co-founded Columbia Hospital Corporation. Columbia later merged with another corporation to form Columbia/HCA, which eventually became the nation's largest private for-profit health care company.[6] Scott was pressured to resign as chief executive of Columbia/HCA in 1997. During his tenure as chief executive, the company defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs. The Department of Justice ultimately fined the company $1.7 billion in what was at the time the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history.[7][8] Following his departure from Columbia/HCA, Scott became a venture capitalist and pursued other business interests.
He and so many others like him present themselves as pure and true. But they use that image to steal and gather more power. Not unlike the lead German Nazis who presented as the pure family men, while having illicit affairs, and go on to murder, pillage and torture, those who weren’t “pure”.
Rick Scott, and men like him have no internal conscience. Why do we as a people, not remember and learn to “see these monsters for what they Are?
It’s hard to believe the repubs would ever adopt Scott’s absurd “blueprint.” Then again, it was hard to believe the repubs would recruit TFG as their presidential candidate.
Private insurers correctly assumed if Coumbia/HCA had ripped off Medicare, they had been ripped off in the scheme, too. Years of investigation and proof of the fraud resulted in substantial settlements long after Scott was removed. Didya read about it in the news? Nope! There were gag clauses in the settlement agreements. Meanwhile, you and I paid higher insurance premiums than we should have. Did state regulators investigate and take action? After all, states were defrauded, too. Medicaid is a shared program between state and federal governments. Nope! Why not? The blueprint for the fraud was in the Medicare case. There was virtually no such thing as simple pneumonia at a Columbia/HCA hospital. Claims were upcoded to more complex diagnoses with higher reimbursements when the medical record didn't support it. Had state regulators taken action where the feds did not, maybe the pernicious Rick Scott wouldn't have been able to buy a governorship with his ill gotten gains and still be the swindler he is today. Granted, the Medicare case was huge in its time, but Rick Scott was let off the hook to crime another day. In depositions, he pled the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination 75 times. Yet, no follow up. And don't get me started about what he did as governor while the Republican dominated legislature looked the other way.
Thank you for this Politifact link. 2010!!!I know about Medicare “errors” in billing now, this decade. In this year, and it’s still happening. Many consumers meet dead ends in questioning their bills and more never see them. $million !!! for wrong code in a monthly shot for Crohn’s disease. Or sudden charges for covered services. Who has time to investigate? Or knows where to start? Your congressperson!!!Some plans are easier than others. But in todays market, people often change plans because of covered meds. Time for Medicare for All. And more transparency. Fraud or a “simple” error?
Local hospitals would code the record for billing. They were then required to send the billing thru HQ in Nashville, who upcoded and added services that weren't provided, although commonly provided for the diagnosis. The bill was returned to the providing hospital for submission to the payor. Straight up fraud.
And who would think about fraud. Just concerned about mistakes. And often people don’t notice if their insurance is paid and/or they don’t keep track. Sigh!
“Instead, Trump’s CMMI came up with this scam…a privatization scheme which would automatically enroll more than 30 million seniors who’d deliberately chosen traditional Medicare into for-profit “Direct Contracting Entities,” (DCEs) instead, without their full knowledge or consent.”
Indeed, why. why were reports about his pending litigation on defrauding Medicare banned from discussion while he was running for governor of floriduhhhhh?
Because people don't read the whole story. I had no idea about Rick Scott before reading this. I only knew he was a Republican with power. No doubt if I was a Republican, I would have believed he a very smart man looking out for my best interest and therefore the little I would know about him and I saw he was running for whatever I would vote for him. Just like here in Indiana! Most people do not have an idea who or what they are voting for when they go to the polls! They never research the candidates and therefore most of the time vote against themselves and their families. Voting needs taught to school children and they need to be taught how to research....it is available with little effort if they have a computer today. By the time they are adults it should be a simple matter how to vote when they are of voting age instead of learning the "Pledge to Allegiance to the Flag". That even needs to be broken down, so they understand what it means instead of just learning the words!
A big part of the reason Americans don't have an idea of who or what they are voting for is because we don't make it simple and direct and honest enough for folks to understand. The League of Women Voters probably does the best analysis of candidates and issues, from local to national, across this country, with publications available to many voters. But that's not enough. I think we need a clear scale of evaluation, like grades in school. Or, anymore, just descriptors we can all agree on: Criminal. Pedophile. Thief. Kind of like, oh, the Ten Commandments?
Oh my, dear Jeri! Be careful how you choose your words and who you choose to malign. Look at what you wrote and then look again. Do your words echo any you have heard others say? Others you may not respect? Those “others” may not be as articulate as you, but be wary of snappy replies.
Ummmmm. Why would you warn Jeri? Her reply to an earlier post by Margaret Fisher was anything but snappy and completely appropriate. What are you, a censor? Your comment is offensive.
Hi, Christine. I’m sorry you found my comment offensive and that you thought I was acting like a censor. Jeri didn’t say anything to me, but I’m happy to tell you what I saw. Her comment about the MSM being propagandist sounded *to me* like something I might have heard on Fox or from a hard right commentator or even from someone in my local paper with a grievance about how my paper shuts out right-wing letters to the editor. (Right, Buddy, every time you write!) Just as my comment hit you wrong, her’s hit me wrong. I will give you I could have better worded my comment, but I didn’t want to flat out call her out on something she didn’t intend. So there you have it. I wasn’t trying to censor anyone and I certainly didn’t intend to offend you or anyone else. My genuine apologies to you, Jeri and anybody else who didn’t like what I had to say. I will do better next time or choose not to remark at all.
Perhaps those people with thinning (or no) hair on their heads should not read that portion of this column where the Republican campaign "plan/platform" has been written out by Rick Scott. Even those of us with remaining strands will find them standing on end. Democrats definitely need to make the platform plans well known to voters of all parties. Shades of living under Putin right here at home!
As to the issue of world hunger which will be made only worse by the absence of grain grown in Ukraine this year - no thanks to Russian troops - perhaps American farmers should be encouraged to plant as much as they can so that we will be able to include grain as part of the U.S. support of humanitarian aid to Ukraine (and all other countries that usually depend on that heroic country).
Seems to me the Republicans will try to use the attention to the war in Ukraine as cover and distraction from its own political plans for an autocracy if they are successful in the November 2022 elections. There can be no sleep or rest here at home for any of us if we want to save democracy here as well as in Ukraine.
"As to the issue of world hunger which will be made only worse by the absence of grain grown in Ukraine this year - no thanks to Russian troops - perhaps American farmers should be encouraged to plant as much as they can so that we will be able to include grain as part of the U.S. support of humanitarian aid to Ukraine (and all other countries that usually depend on that heroic country). "
What we need to do is end the idiot Ethanol program, which was nothing but the attempt of the government 44 years ago to look like they were "doing something" during the Iranian gas crisis of 1978. It has led to a 45% drop in US wheat production in favor of corn, which is purchased for the idiot ethanol program.
Same here in Sweden, but the ethanol is enforced for "meeting the climate targets". Seems to be the moment when it will be clear that we take the food off the table of poor people to drive our cars.
"Ethanol has become a Washington joke. John McCain often quipped that he started his day with a glass of ethanol. Who could blame him? The ethanol program is a giveaway so big, so entrenched, and so wasteful that laughter might seem like the best response. "
Jeff The lobbyists are laughing as we continue to pul the junk called ethanol
Into our cars and trucks and pay many billions to farmers for either growing or not growing crops.
My laughter turns to tears when I think of the many members of Congress who privately laugh at the stupid ethanol policy of nearly two generations and continue to rubber stamp it.
And now with have a global wheat shortage because of the massive short fall anticipated in Ukraine and Russia.
Perhaps “Idiot Ethanol” should be the catchphrase for an anti-corn oil campaign, TC. It could highlight all the negative effects of putting ethanol into your vehicle’s gas tank! All that in addition to its detrimental impact on the agricultural sector and to us humans.
Man have you ever got that right, it’s like adding water to gasoline, yes it will burn but it reduces the amount of energy that can be extracted by about 10%. With many people on the planet starving every year we turn food into fuel, it’s lunacy as well as immoral, not to mention that it pollutes the water supply where it is produced.
... and since that time, it has been near impossible to find quality organic (affordable) corn oil for cooking, salad dressing, or any other use - the only corn oil I have seen for years is mixed with cheaper oils like palm or safflower oils - in plastic containers ....
Very good info in this link, most folks think of spring planning, but hard red wheat is winter wheat and planted in the fall. Soft wheat is planted in the spring. Think bread (hard) vs biscuits (soft). Our red wheat came from Ukraine, brought by Mennonite farmers in the post Civil War time period.
We might want to eat corn bread instead of ethanol for cars.
Indeed yes. And given conditions, Ukraine winter wheat crop will go unharvested, there will not be transport, fuel, equipment, farmers, ports for export are overrun or bombed. Harvest for them this year looks very difficult, as does this fall’s planting. And so for many other summer crops too. Maybe that production is offline for another year, or two or more. US and Canada produce a lot of wheat, we in US should not be hurting for bread, but, the world market will be strained - multinational corporations. Look to see what they do: Cargill, ADM, Bunge. Just like oil, the world price makes the market, and domestic production goes where the money is fattest. Poor nations starve.
Would love to see your info on the 45% drop from wheat to corn, in US.
As to WHY there was a shift, linking just the ethanol program is simplistic.
There have been a lot of disease issues in some areas with wheat, reducing yields, and no solutions.
Ethanol and biodiesel used to pencil out as viable when oil is in today’s price range, over $60, $80, $100 a barrel. There are mothballed ethanol plants from when oil was below $50/bbl. Now with corn getting $6/bu+ price at the elevator, and soybeans 16$/bu+, double+ from two-three years ago, I don’t know if those plant-based fuels are economically viable.
Thank you for the info and insight, RM. I appreciate hearing from people who can contribute useful info that helps me understand how things fit together. The rants probably make their authors feel they have done something useful (or at least get something out of their system), but it's info like yours that helps me "get" things. And you raise interesting questions that makes me want to dig deeper.
From the first chart: yes, U.S. acres planted to wheat did decline a lot from 1981 to now (45%), but total U.S. production of wheat did not decline as much (say, 40%): so, more production gains by farmers improving their yields and growing it in the right spots.
Since that 1981 turn, the piece cites many other fluctuations in diet, preference, exports and imports, and raw per-capita consumption. A..."decades-long growth in per capita consumption came to an end in 1997 as changing consumer preferences, led by the adoption of low-carbohydrate diets, reduced per capita wheat consumption once again. Consumer interest in these diets spiked in the early 2000s, resulting in a sharp decline in bread consumption and—ultimately—in per capita flour consumption."
Also, it shows Russia and Europe gained an increasing share of the world wheat trade since the 2000's. We will see what happens to that in 2022 and beyond.
Some of the food versus fuel arguments can be read here, though the page does not seem to have been updated for a while: focus is the 2000 - 2010 period.
You realize that the hollowing out of the middle class by stagnant wages and all the profits going to a few investors at the top is happening to the farmers as well with big farm consortiums taking any and all the profits out of the farmers' pockets. This needs to be solved! Yes, this has happened to farmers and ranchers for millenia it would seem, but now is the moment to solve it.
Yes, 'Grapes of Wrath' isn't just history. It has been reoccurring with every recession in the economy, with the result that land ownership has been ever more concentrated.
I am in full agreement. These mega buy outs or take-overs of smaller and family-owned farms by corporate agriculture is NOT in the best interest of the country and should be prohibited. More reasons why Democrats needs to be elected up and down the tickets. (I make exceptions re: Joe Manchin since I don't believe his concern extends to the hard-working middle and lower income classes. Nor do I think Krysten Sinema is a true Democrat. Both are currently taking campaign funding from Republican donors. We will have work to do in 2024 when, I believe, both are up for re-election.
We were talking to our pork guy a couple weeks ago and he has problems finding a place that will process his pigs. He lost several thousand dollars when people stole the van packed with processed meat from the processor in southern Oregon. The processor will not make it good and it's law suit time. The laws also make it more difficult for him to sell to the public without going to a USDA certified processor. It was clear to us the the big meat companies make it difficult for the small farmers. He has heritage pigs and it is delicious pork. We make an effort to support our local farmers.
Seems to me that the fraudster Scott has supplied lots of material for Ds to use. Here in Oregon wheat growing occurs mainly in central and eastern Oregon. Yes, it is raining today, but we are still in a drought. A couple years ago large amounts of wheat burned. And as an aside a political note about Kurt Schrader, who is in a new district and trying to pretend he is just a regular guy driving his tractor, etc has not obtained the endorsement of four D county parties which went to his opponent in the primary. We'll see.
One piece of nice news. When the new Russian crew arrived today at the International Space Station, they were conspicuously wearing yellow flight suits trimmed in blue.
In the twitterverse there were people saying they make the flight suits months ahead of time so they are questioning whether they are showing support or they had intended to celebrate a military victory.
Plausible deniability when (a) protest language can get you 15 years in prison, and (b) your safe return to the earth's surface depends on those Russian mission control engineers not having guns to their heads to leave you up there?
Twitterverse pointed out the jumpsuits were the colors of their university alma mater, but selected when they had other choices.
And "Soyuz mission commander Oleg Artemyev was born in Latvia, this could very well be his "don't step on the little neighbor" statement:"
That's beautiful! As well as an incredibly sophisticated uptick on Chuck Close's breakthrough in art.
But check this out: Ivanchak is even more incredible in his blindfolded resolution of a rubik's cube in 40 seconds of mesmerizing flickerings of memorized hand movements:
Thank you, Heather, for discussing Rick Scott's insidious plan for America. I balked when I read it...it's a vision of a dystopian wasteland if ever there was one.
Daria, what I find interesting is that there are a whole bunch of people who find nothing wrong with those 11 Points. For them it is a beacon of hope to get “THEIR” country back. The American family is facing so much greater dismantling forces than the loved child down the block with two dads. Banning talking about race in America? Like HOW? Yet I know some culturally frightened people are drinking their coffee this morning feeling Rick Scott has their back.
Michele, You're right and those people are going to drive our policies unless we start taking local and state level politics more seriously. I have family members who are beside themselves with joy because of Scott's Plan. They make my angry and ill.
Do away with Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid if you want to be the support of your elderly parents when you are 50 or 60. Only the very wealthy will ever be able to retire. Send kids to college or support their grandparents, which will it be, when you yourself will face age discrimination in hiring?
Such a contrast between the humanitarian actions of people and countries to shelter Ukrainians—and Rick Scott’s utopia of selfishness, ignorance, and fear.
It is the bleak picture painted in so many works of fiction over the years. It is a harsh reality of poverty that will wipe the smug smirks off the faces of the haughty self righteous right wing sheep when they, too, are reduced to groveling for food, housing, and medicine.
Absolutely, Mary Beth! Its 11- point plan rings a death knell for all progress that has been made with DEI issues -- race, class, gender, disabilities, etc. -- in the last decades. It will kill any form of decent education for our children. It will eliminate the middle class. It will reduce US society to rich and poor, no more no less. Our culture will be literally whitewashed!
So they will claim but in reality, neither will flourish. Their efforts will continue to drive people from formalized religion and families will suffer because of the lack of a safety net for all not able to afford a good education (because public education will be dumbed-down), necessary medical care, much less afford a comfortable retirement (if at all).
I think the Green New Deal should be mainstream. Any better ideas should get a hearing, too, of course. The news that global warming is happening even faster than we thought has been buried by the Ukraine war news. So many refugees! We see them now on tv. Climate refugees will dwarf their numbers. Can’t we walk and chew gum at the same time?
"Republicans, the plan says, will dramatically increase taxes on Americans earning less than $100,000, raising $1 trillion over ten years, although since they will also cut the Internal Revenue Service by 50%, the government might be hard pressed to collect those taxes"
What it means is the IRS will go after the "low-hanging fruit" of lower-income taxpayers who can't afford tax avoidance schemes and lawyers and accountants who make it hard for the IRS to collect from the rich. It's what they do now, with the cuts the Republicans made to the IRS when they were last in power. (Ask me how I know this)
Right now the IRS has not processed the 2020 tax returns of some 24 million citizens (including mine) because they already don't have half the people they need. In my interactions with the IRS over the years I have always come away impressed by the people you talk to on the phone -- their politeness, their knowledge, their ability to make a decision right then and there, their suggestions on what to pay attention to, all of it.
Yes, they do. I know about how they have had to modify their pursuit of taxes because I was told about it by the guy I was negotiating with to get them to back off of a woman who is now bedridden with final-stage Parkinson's from her accidental tax problem. (My wife)
TC, my heart goes out to you and to your dear wife. I have early-stage Parkinson’s and still have fairly good control of my body. I can’t fully imagine the pain and sorrow that you two are enduring. Be assured of my prayers and those of my wife for your family. I don’t know what more I can do for you from the “other” coast. But I will be searching for ways to help.
For those with an iPhone, Substack now has an app that works great; I haven’t run across the many quirks and anomalies I used to run across when accessing from my browser. I understand there will be an android app soon.
As always TC, you have my prayers for what you cope with every day. Having cared for my husband with ALS, I know something of how challenging it is to care for a sick spouse. Its a rough-as-hell world you live in. Take care of yourself.
My condolences, TC. My brother-in-law went through that with his Dad 4 years ago (Parkinson’s, not the IRS).
I have a good friend who just retired from the IRS; her take was that there is no joy going after “ordinary people who screw up” and most of her cohort worked hard to help as much as they could.
TC, once again I give in. You still make me crazy, but as always I learn something about you that gives me a whole other view of you. I send love, and hope for your wife for whatever good it does.
I live with health issues, but nothing like Parkinson's. Just an immune system run amok and getting in my way. But one of the people I like best here has it, and I've seen it take not only his ability to do things, but his sense of himself as well. I saw him for the first time in two years the other day (both of us forced into seclusion for too long). He is bound in a wheelchair, and could not smile with his face, but I could see it in his eyes. I'd cry if it didn't make my eyes hurt. We "chatted" with the help of his carer for a few minutes about, of all things, dog leashes (his had the kind of leach I am trying to find for mine), but mostly it was just nice to spend a few minutes with someone I like very much. Dang it, now I have to extend the same to you, friend.
I wonder how many of us critters have perfect bodies - my brother had one, but he needed too much alcohol to withstand the meanness of a brutal step-father and died young. Parkinson's is cruel - my heart goes out to you and your wife, TC.
“Republicans, the plan says, will dramatically increase taxes on Americans earning less than $100,000, raising $1 trillion over ten years.” I’m confused. A republican saying “Increasing taxes”? Increasing taxes on most Americans AND cutting the Social Safety Net should make for easy to understand bumper stickers in favor of Dems, shouldn’t it? Did I read this wrong?
Remember when you, Dr Richardson, spoke of gaming Facebook? Forget the glory articles about the Biden party helping Americans; make the RICK SCOTT RNC article go viral. Make sure everybody knows they’re going to get hit w a bigger tax bill by voting Republican! IT IS IN THEIR PLATFORM STATEMENT!
Mitch McConnell is furious! If I had to guess, at least 3/4 of all Kentuckians make less than 100k, and now they’re going to raise taxes?
If this isn’t the foundation of every DNC ad running this summer, they have forgotten how to fight.
Did they ever know, that high road is awfully isolated. Put Kristen Gillibrand in charge. She will find more Dems to demonize. (Still pissed about Al).
It may be in their platform statement but it's not in the "11 Point Plan" outline posted online. I just browsed the listed elements of each point. Here and there are sprinkled points we all might support such as increased penalties for spousal abuse and failure to pay child support. Most are disturbing when you consider how they could be applied if ever in force. https://rescueamerica.com/11-point-plan/
Republicans always use the cookie-cutter family culture to cover their real agenda: shifting tax responsibility to working Americans. He says so in his WSJ article and in this interview. McConnell decided to keep the tax increase out of their famous 11 Point Plan, because tax increases don’t garner votes. (Duh!)
Below that interview is the Republican Contract With America: another big promise they made that wasn’t worth the paper or ink they used to write it.
I've been reflecting on the many waves of losses sustained by this war. There's the loss of humans; lives that won't be lived, books not written, work not produced, creativity not express, contributions lost, "life-years" of loss due to premature death. There's the loss of useful work by those who survive, but diverted their attention towards acts of war and the consequences; millions displaced from homes, jobs, farms, factories, institutions of education and social progress. There's the loss of goods and services that would have otherwise been produced. There's the massive, wanton destruction of property, infrastructure that will have to be torn down, cleaned up, rebuilt. There's the crops not planted, mouths not fed, wasted articles of war like munitions, vehicles, aircraft. The rippling effects across geography, time, nations, cultures are bills that won't be paid by the perpetrators of war. They'll be absorbed, "paid" by those affected. Where would we be as societies had all the wars of the 20th century not been fought? This current war only directly effects 0.5% of the world's population but is creating disruption of one sort or another for at least a third of the 7.9 billion people on the planet. Who will pay for that? All of us. How can we possibly allow the precondition (autocracy) to allow a single human being to make a decision that has such an impact on so many of our species here on earth? We already watched this scenario a short 80 years ago, and potentially again several times since. When are we going to learn to expend our strenuous energies BEFORE the destruction and the killing starts, rather than after the tanks roll? We had literally months of forewarning for this one, even years. There may be 100+ billion dollars in damage to Ukraine already, but I'll wager the total bill for this war already exceeds 1 trillion dollars to the world. How much hunger could we have addressed, climate change averted with a similar investment?
"How can we possibly allow the precondition (autocracy) to allow a single human being to make a decision that has such an impact on so many of our species here on earth?"
First, thank you for your thoughtful, insightful comment on war and its broad impact brought to us by one man, and probably an insane one at that.
I am not sure how to answer your question above except to say: For some reason, unknown to me, humans have historically organized around "one man" often.
Native American tribes had a chief. America has a President (who is apparently in total control of the military based on the last 20 years). Christianity had Constantine (who conqured lots of land area and sponsored the growth of Christianity). Britain had a bunch of Kings. The Middle East had Muhammad.
American corporations are run on the old British fiefdom model (one man as the king).
Democracy, in fact, is fairly new and/or rare in human group management (although the earliest apostles of Christ DID live communally and democratically as described in the Acts of the Apostles).
I don't know why Democracy is so rare. Maybe because of what we see now? Democracy is too easily corrupted by nuts who want power.
So, the solution is a nut who wants power.
Honestly, that would make such little sense that it might be the reason.
In many cases, Native American chiefs held power with strict limits. Lakota chiefs’ followers could easily melt away and follow someone else. Iroquois chiefs could be replaced at any time by the council of women elders.
The climate crisis and resulting collapse of the environment will inexorably bring what remains of our species to fully face this question, and hopefully settle on some form of global government of all the people, for all the people.
Nathan, I resonated completely with this comment because it is all I have thought about this week. My daughter carries either Russian or Ukrainian blood in her veins. Her paternal great grandparents left their home and their culture behind, came to America and never spoke of what they left behind. The culture,language, skills and heritage they carried disappeared. Forever.
What have we lost in just three weeks? Mind boggling losses, never to be found.
And they have had unbelievably warm weather (as much as 70+ degrees Fahrenheit above average) in Antarctic. The climate is reeling into chaos. We need all hands on deck on climate and hunger and we are fighting a war. Gads…..
The tragedy is, that countries act like adolescent children when threatened. Unfortunately this post does not consider the current intensification, but the point is made - it is all to do with regional power politics, the citizens get dragged along..
Thank you for this Mearsheimer analysis. Well reasoned. Chilling. I'm glad to have come to this understanding.
"The Russians made it clear in 2008 that expansion of NATO (into their bordering countries) was an existential threat, one that they could not accept."
"The Americans (government) have made it clear that they will not fight for Ukraine. But they will support them to the last Ukrainian."
This 11-point plan is more terrifying than anything ever written by Stephen King. It would not only reverse the gains of the last 80 years, it would hurl us back to the 17th century.
I live on my social security, which I paid into since I was 16. It's not enough for me to live in the USA, but if it gets cut off, I'll be on a bread line.
Oh Heather! What a letter. So much to consider, world and domestic challenges! And the repubs and Senator Rick Scott must hope Americans are too distracted to notice his blueprint for America that threatens to take us back to the dark ages. Everyone must read the platform and proposals. He wants to blow up every positive social and economic policy, racial and gender equality, human rights, and the list goes on. “The third story that has flown under the radar is that the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Florida senator Rick Scott, has provided a blueprint for what the Republicans will do if they get a majority in the next election. In “An 11-point plan to rescue America,” produced by the group responsible for electing Republican senators, Scott promised that the Republicans “will protect, defend, and promote the American Family at all costs.” We indeed need to rescue America from the repubs and maintain a Democratic majority in Congress. At the same time, continue the cooperation with other nations we have returned to since President Biden was elected. A lot of work for our Democracy.
Researcher, sociologist, “ “The Way We Never Were” and “The Way We Really Are” written in 1992+ “American Families and the Nostalgia Trap.” And “Marriage a History: How Love Conquered Marriage”. 2006. Can’t believe the level of ignorance and or deceit repubs like Scott. They’re trying and often succeeding in keeping Americans at their level of ignorance. In the dark.
Rick Scott’s rhetoric is all to get votes and his constituents will vote against their best interests to fulfill the Repub agenda promise. Last paragraph tells it all, but I don’t agree that the Democrats are in the same league as repubs (in this Counterpunch report) Do you? : “You get the idea. Lots of fearmongering to scare the bejeezus out of his MAGA base. Not a care in the world for the working men and women of Florida or the United States. Just what we have come to expect from GOP (and, to be honest, Democrat) lawmakers.”
"...and discussion of race will be banned from American society."
Well, Sen. Scott, that simply isn't possible. Unless of course your diabolical plan includes a section written in invisible ink that includes burning the Constitution, shuttering Congress, neutering the Supreme Court, and rigging the "election" to put Trump or DeSantis or other Putin wannabes in the White House. Not as president but dictators.
But thank you for releasing the plan so America is forewarned that Republicans like you are more vile than we imagined.
Talk about soft on sexual offenders: like all the Republicans voting to confirm the likes of Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh? Sounds like some neutering of the Supreme Court might not be such a bad idea. Of course, I like RBG's answer to when are there enough women on SCOTUS. Nine was her answer.
If, in fact, Judge Jackson is soft on sex offenders, you would think these guys would want to vote her in ASAP!!
Especially Gaetz!
You made me chuckle in a situation that isn't laughable. I needed that after reading about Sen Scott's plan.
Ditto!
😏😉😏
LOL
Judging from the number of stories we hear about GQP officials all over the country it sounds like it's their "jam".
"neutering of the Supreme Court might not be such a bad idea".
Best laugh of the day! Thanks!
I hate letting the deep Republican obsession with “pedophiles” rent space in my head.
However, when you look at the faces of Gaetz, Scott and Lindsay Graham (no easy task) one finds it almost impossible not to see the face of a pedophile.
I believe that a huge number of Republicans suffered child sexual and traumatic abuse at the hands of parents and others in their early developmental stages. The intense relationship with Christian Nationalism is also another strong indicator of trying to order the world under a strict and often cruel parent (Lakoff deserves a huge recognition for this dating back to Bush Jr.)
I really believe that the sense of fear, aggrievement and revenge that Republicans feel is driven by these dark and deeply rooted psychological issues.
I don’t see a pedophiles when I view them, especially because that term is used so casually to disdain someone, it makes me tread very carefully. But I agree that the right-wing seems to find easy fear-control of their supporters by raging about everything sex related. I feel progressives are trying to understand sex and its roll in our society, the problems ignoring or being ignorant of it brings, and compassion and restorative justice for the victims of sexual abuse and exploitation. And I hope deeply we extend hope and effort for understanding the sickness and compulsions behind the massive problem of hurtful sexual actions so many people perpetuate and burden others with. Hurt people hurt people. We cannot incarcerate or punish our way out of this driver of human misery. It’s a quiet, pernicious violence we ignore, ridicule or fear monger at our peril.
Thank you for such a thoughtful response to some troubling posts, Michele. I agree with you wholeheartedly. It's important to start from a base of compassion, and let meaningful policy arise from that. Otherwise, I fear that we will end up making the situation worse by cutting off exit avenues for people who need to learn ways to express pain in other ways than hurting that which they fear most in themselves.
The "strict parent" is needed if you (we) are inherently depraved, i.e.there is "original sin". Christianity seems to have gone down that patriarchal road centuries ago. But it is interesting that early "gnostic" texts which often express women's views disclose a very different early Christianity. In The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, for example, Peter asks Jesus what is the "sin of the world". The response: "Sin as such does not exist. " It goes on to say that humans bring it into manifestation when they act in ways contrary to their original, spiritual nature. For deep reasons "conservatives" fear the rise of the feminine
Flat earthers, they make a lot of fuss about Darwin... But their problem lies far deeper, they are pre-Copernican, they see Earth as the center of the Universe and the Universe turning around their puny selves...
Such tight, poky little minds that they've not got a clue what a symbol is or how to read Genesis and seem to attribute our sublunary days to the Deity, as though the creation of the universe was the work of a being wearing a Rolex watch.
As for basic biology, they seem to be stuck with the misguided notion that the male is the active sower and the female the totally passive soil that receives the seed.
Other traditions had understood the truth for millennia.
"Just as God is our Father, so God is also our Mother."
Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love.
...and of course Julian of Norwich being a woman, couldn't possibly been important, right? S/ Wikipedia quote: "The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes from Revelations of Divine Love in its explanation of how God can draw a greater good, even from evil." So obviously, the Catholic hierarchy did think she was at least of minor importance, despite her being a woman. Next question, did the Church acknowledge who wrote the statement...probably not.
Barbara, the record’s bad enough as it is—no need to give extra weight to clerical misogyny… After all, among the saints of the Catholic church there are women who were both powerful and influential—Catherine of Siena is an obvious example, and so is Teresa of Avila. Then there’s Clare who accompanied Francis of Assisi on his journey to radical simplicity and succeeded in overcoming all attempts by prelates to water down her order’s rule of holy poverty…
Weigh this against the persecution of the Beguines and the burning of Marguerite Porete, or later, the burning of Joan of Arc.
Women’s role will be crucial for the survival of many religious movements… and of mankind and the planet…
Ironically, Norwich was also the home of William of Norwich, the little boy whose death gave rise to the "blood libel" that served as the basis of many anti-semitic incidents, including murder and torture.
That was two centuries earlier.
Endless, this projection of men's darkness, their shadowy inner demons onto the defenceless -- old women burned as witches -- and onto those of whom the less they know, the more they hate. Haman and Mordecai...
Hence the need to turn to sources of light and love. Especially at a time like this.
Who can not give a special shout out to the likes of Henry Ford Sr. or the delightful Sarah Palin for making sure to sustain anti-Semitism.
One wonders how aware the Church Fathers were of that text. The Catholic Church would have proceeded in a vastly different direction if Jesus were credited with saying, "Sin as such does not exist." Obviously sin was necessary for the church to exert its power over the people.
Read Julian of Norwich:
The love of God is hard and marvelous. It cannot and will not be broken because of our sins.
This, and so much else.
Bill, From time to time I become fascinated with the work of Biblical Scholars. Bart Ehrman, Elaine Pagels, and Bishop Spong have been a well source of insight on how Christianity took an itinerant Jewish Rabbi preaching an end times scenario to a religion that has greatly shaped world events to this day.
Of course the teachings of the Gnostics were pretty quickly brought under attack as heretical literature. It just didn’t fall in line with the doctrine and dogma that were being decided on by people like the Egyptian bishop Athanasius, who worked diligently to identify and root out heretical works with Gnostic interpretation.
It’s always interesting to consider “what if” scenarios and the impact Gnosticism could have had on Christian dogma if the Gospels of Thomas, Philip, or Mary Magdalene had become part of the canon.
But, your point is well made in that the far more didactic, misogynist, and punitive Christianity that is alive an well today in the evangelical right is still impacting on whether the U.S. and even the world will slide back into a Neo-Feudal world.
You might find value in the French theologian Jean-Yves Leloup. He translated and commented on the three gospels you mentioned (Thomas, Philip, Mary Magdalene) as well as the canonical gospel of John. Leloup's work has been well translated into English. I first stumbled on this different possibility with Jacob Needleman's Lost Christianity. It was written in 1980 not long after the first English publication of the Nag Hammadi discoveries.
Leloup sounds really useful to me, too. I'd come across the name and must have read some articlse of his, but his site is very interesting indeed. Also what he's writing about the attack on Ukraine...
Unfortunately, the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church has become the KGB at prayer...
Thanks Bill, my hope is that once I finish my work on Fascism 2.0 in America, that I can again ponder some of the history of the early church and the phenomenon of how this cult grew to a major world religion.
To Ol' Floriduh Cracker -- and anyone else who's interested...
I'm a translator -- to my native English from French, Italian, Spanish, sometimes German. I started out as a British civil servant, then spent most of my working life as a staff translator with the EU. Hence, much exposure to politics... from a ringside seat.
In retirement, I translated mainly novels -- and thought I was getting quite good at the job, until... Until a friend suggested me for work that turned out to be almost impossibly difficult for me -- a penance -- because it meant walking a tightrope above the void, understanding and expressing words at the limit of the inexpressible: translating from Spanish the best part of 1000 pages of commentary on the Gospel of Thomas, a text found in Egypt in 1945, together with a cache of Gnostic writings. 114 sayings of Jesus, many of them close to passages in the canonical gospels, many to be found nowhere else, often very difficult to interpret...
And me, diving into Christian theology at the deep end, with no preparation... I hope that doesn't show too much; but there are some real advantages in tackling a subject like this without the familiarity of specialists. Even when you know a subject, it is best to approach new knowledge with a completely fresh mind...
Here's the website.
https://evangeliodetomas-interpretacion.com/en/
The book itself can be obtained through Amazon. Not light reading (probably better to browse through commentaries on this or that saying). Yet the central message is quite simple...
If you look at the section of the website entitled THE BOOK, you can find my take on it under the heading "Getting Lost in Translation". And at the end of this, the substance of the message:
"Christ is no mere exemplar; he shows us, not what we should be or aspire to be, but
the perfection we intrinsically are."
So... I've read Elaine Pagels but not the other two you mention, and it goes without saying that the "itinerant teacher" is... rather like the visible tip of a vast iceberg. And no, he wasn't preaching end times -- the hunger and thirst for those in Jewish society was so great then that many of those he met with projected onto him the ardently awaited Machia'h. (Which is just what led to the crucifixion.)
Same kind of confusion about the Kingdom Christ preached, no "place" either earthly or other-worldly, it is close to us -- but not in historical time, "close" because it transcends time and so is, ever was and will be, within us and among us.
A huge amount of confusion arose when Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire, thus becoming subject to political imperatives -- hence "orthodoxy", "dogma", "creeds" and "heresy", fixing what had hitherto been fluid, while banishing paradox and an entire dimension of hermeneutics.
(Something similar seems to have happened to the US Constitution, stolen by its high priests and solidified into a dead weight, a beautifully inscribed tombstone...)
Where there was a feminine influence this was more likely to be an empress than an anchorite. Examples include Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, and Theodora, who ruled alongside Emperor Justinian... (I'll have something to say to Barbara D. Reed about this... but I think I have already written too much...)
Peter, I’m honored to have your response. I was using a shoot from the hip version to suggest that Jesus… Here, I knew it came from someone w/ far better expertise then myself “ He was a Jewish apocalypticist who firmly believed the judgment of God was coming on the earth.” — Bart Ehrman
https://bit.ly/3JqlLn6
Completely unrelated, I need someone who can help me read German handwritten military records from WWI - Mostly trying to de-cipher where my Great Grandfather served as a Hauptmann before his death about 4 months prior to Armistice.
His son, my (blood related) Grandfather died in 1941 in the Crimea outside Sevastapol and there are a few docs I’m just stuck on.
I’m willing to pay for the help.
You have an amazing background friend!
Think about how many fundamentalist sects have no problem with old men marrying adolescent girls. Their goal is to have as many babies as possible to prop up the church. Not to mention having sex with a kid.
... not my child - unborn into this world of hell ....
Good morning Michael. I decided to put my comment under your post because I more than agree with it, but will probably be censored for name calling. Being from Florida, I have long and emphatically opposed Scott’s tendencies towards autocratic and emotionally violent leadership. First it was as the Governor of Florida and then shockingly chosen as a Senator with a much wider locus and sphere of control. Earlier in post, I referred to him as “Scott” for the first time in years. He is Voldemort personified. In looks and evil intent. There are people I know that blame him for deaths of family members because of his horrific actions in healthcare scandals. He is Senator Voldemort and I stand by it. Just as the Republican leadership now pulls him out from the closet to state their agenda for a “Republican controlled” dystopian future. Such a perfect player to do so.
I pray for our own Harry Potter in real time “Deathly Hallows”.
Glory to Democracy. Glory to We the People. Glory to Freedom. Slavi Ukraini. Right now President Zelensky is Harry Potter. May he have the full and mighty support of free nations around the world. Autocracy and the Voldemort leaders must not win the battle and war on any front.
Salud brothers and sisters! We cannot afford any moment of distraction capturing our attention to detail and truth. We are the Light.
☮️💫
Good one, Christine.
great post.
I look more to Thomas Paine than Harry Potter for insight and inspiration. I’m ignorant on Harry Potter’s world, but if Sen. Rick “Voldemort” Scott as an analogy motivates your generation to preserve what millions of actual Americans fought and died for then I’m delighted that you find meaning and inspiration in the work of J.K. Rowling.
E pluribus Unum
love this response!
In addition to being all-around reprehensible and dishonest, Scott's program is even flawed on the level of Bible study.
Scott's point 7 on gender asserts that he follows science; backs that up with a quote from the most recent science he has apparently read, the first book of the Hebrew Bible; then totally misinterprets that text. It's actually one of the most transgender and non-binary supportive texts in the whole canon.
Scott quotes the second half of Genesis 1:27, “male and female He created them.” That English is an accurate translation of the original Hebrew. It's the last phrase of a sentence. The rest of the sentence says that Gd created the first human being in the image of Gd. So we are literally being told that the first human, the one created directly by Gd in the image of Gd, was of both male and female gender, and we see Gd (as the creator of both the world and the Hebrew Bible) choose to use the pronoun 'them' to refer to this being. It's one of the most transgender and non-binary supportive texts in the whole canon.
I'm neither Judeo nor Christian, but long fascinated by these texts because of the impact the use of them has had on the culture in which I live. What you wrote is exactly what Jewish friends of mine told me long ago. There is beauty and truth in these writings, and it is sad that so much has been lost by the deliberate misuse and intentional politicizing (through selective choice and editing of texts) that has gone on since the earliest days of European based Christianity.
Thank you for this, Joan. Can you send it to Scott?
Wow!
But the religious zealots love it, and many churches are arms of the Republican Party. By design
Only one real religion there: the cult of money. The rest is a smokescreen, a total perversion of Christ's religion.
Is it any wonder that more people in America, especially the under 40 crowd identify themselves as “nones” no religious affiliation. The Rick Scott Republicans are the every man for himself crowd.
“Man” being the operative word there.
Absolutely!
they remind me of a guy who walks a child to the school bus stop in the morning, stands guard like a marine, looking behind every bush for a kidnapper, and after the child is on the bus goes home and does nothing the rest of the day, until it is time for a similar performance in the afternoon. somehow he thinks this makes him a wonderful father. meanwhile, you have to laugh at the republican business of getting the government out of their lives, except for disaster relief. and where are these disasters occurring? most are tornadoes and hurricanes in the south, which is solidly republican. once in awhile there is a disaster up north a la super storm sandy. large forest fires used to be a california thing, but now they are spreading to other western states, also solidly republican. you don't see texas stopping FEMA at the border. in LA they know that no church group is going to rebuild a bridge across the mississippi or get a shrimp boat sitting 30 feet up in a tree back into the water. if it weren't for dems, some of these states would still not have electricity.
and who turned all those small southern forts into huge military installations? (FDR of course.) you don't hear anything about shutting those down.
Absolutely correct. I am a member of AU and they as well as others are working hard to expose the Christo-Fascist plans that the Christian Nationalists have in store for decent Americans
AU?
Americans United for the Separation Church and State —- https://au.org
Thanks for the clarification of the acronym. I didn't know it either.
Jesus Christ.., please..Jesus (heyzuss)., Puleaseee..step aside.., we have now "the Church of Trump".. far more able to bring my desiree's to bare. And..HeyZuss.. we The COT have a place for those 'pedo-files'. And Hey Soose.. if you know of any teenage girls, molested or un-molested...please send this way. The COT will provide gifts. Hey men! Hey men! PS.. let the Pooo-shh no.
Do NOT underestimate Rick Scott. He committed huge Medicare fraud and his partners went to prison while HE was elected governor of Fla twice and rigged his election to beat Sen Bill Nelson, a very popular politician who served ALL Floridians regardless of party. So he’s very crafty and clever and has LOTS of money. He was called Skeletor by Dems - yes he’s part of the Repug Death Cult. He cultivates power everywhere. Sickening guy. Beware. A Former Floridian now in blue Colorado
At least the rethuglicans have a plan/platform now. Better to have it in the open rather than just being the party of "no".
I am curious about who you are referring to when you use the term "rethuglicans"? If you have a particular group in mind, could you be specific about what group that is? I don't know if you are throwing that term at everyone who identifies as a republican or if there are exceptions for those who are still adhering primarily to conservative fiscal policies. Or is the term meant only for people who still support Trump et al. Could you clarify for me?
To me the entire Republican Party has fallen into a league that I identify as “thugs”. Yes, there are some who are not in league with the “party line”, but on a national level, there are more “thugs” than not,IMHO.
Got to question the idea that talking about something is dangerous. On another comment string , someone smarter than me noted that he had learned about WWII in school, but he has not invaded Poland.
Have you read 1984?
Wow! I rest so easy knowing that “It Can’t Happen Here” ;-)
I am beginning to wonder! I haven't finished the book yet!
The Supreme Court is already gone, I’m afraid.
At least for a generation unless Thomas and Kavenaugh can be impeached.
The Supreme Court is only gone if we settle for 9 justices, thus allowing outright Republican (McConnell) theft of two seats to stand. I don't know that I'm advocating it, but the Court size has fluctuated in history.
Would that we could SANCTION this party and all its members.
Let's hope not, Sen. Scott! Thank you HCR for alerting us to the "plan"
This is the diabolical plan of the Republican Fascist Right. There is much more in the details, but the dream is a Fascist White Theocracy.
I’ve been blogging for months on this “fifth column” multi-decade action by far right Billionaires and their minions for several months.
https://olflawriduhcracker.substack.com/p/fascism-in-america-born-in-the-usa?s=w
It is clear to me why Rick Scott was selected to chair the National Republican Senatorial Committee; he is another Republican crook! Don't they have any decent people in the Republican party? And was Abraham Lincoln the last decent Republican?
Rick Scott is the wealthiest member of congress.$$$$$ His platform eerily parallels the Koch master plan.
Imagine that Rick Scott’s ideas would follow right along with the Koch master plan?! They really don’t want any laws or restraints on their behavior. Robber barons for sure!
Following their leader.....Putin!
I'd like to know more about the Koch master plan. The Irvine Company had a 100 year plan. Same thing?
Very informative book about the Koch plan:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/533763/democracy-in-chains-by-nancy-maclean/
Oh my!
Dwight David Eisenhower was a more recent Republican, and a decent person if you don’t count an alleged affair.
Presidents who never knew their fathers or who lost their fathers by age 13 are as follows:
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
James Monroe
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Johnson
Rutherford B. Hayes
James Garfield
Grover Cleveland
Herbert Hoover
Gerald Ford
William Jefferson Clinton
Barack Obama
So much of Scott's plan for the country strikes me as a 21st century reworking of of James Henry Hammond's "mudsill" theory: those at the bottom deserve to be there and the government should stop all supports for them, while those at the top (read Trump acolytes) deserve all the benefits of their wealth.
For the country to survive, ALL believers in democracy must get out to vote this cycle.
Fran, I would add that because no impactful federal legislation currently exists that would supersede state laws slated increasingly to restrict voting and to nullify votes, we need to fixate on how we can defend democracy at the state and local levels. For example, we’ll need poll workers and other election officials—county clerks and election judges—who can help people to ensure that their votes are counted. We’ll also have to out-organize Republicans, who ruthlessly are organizing to fill state and local positions with their own people—people who don’t believe in free and fair elections.
Though I haven’t given up on getting some federal voter safeguards passed, I, nonetheless, think we need to get started mobilizing for democracy at the state and local levels.
Without federal legislation, we are done. Manchin knows that
Jeri, Though I imagine I fret more than most about the increasing number of election subversion measures advancing through GOP-controlled state legislatures that would change state election rules to change who can be in charge, how votes are counted, and how they’re certified, I also know the stakes are too high to submit, under any circumstances, that “we are done.”
My point is, whatever happens, we stay in the fight, try to affect the outcome, swallow the medicine if we’re outvoted and unable to remedy the situation, and be back again next time.
Thank you, Barbara. I am so tired of this abolutist thinking and the accompanying tone of futility. It is NOT futile.
Today I sat in on a meeting in which a well-thought-out state-wide strategy was presented for building votes, building oversigth of elections, building coalition for protecting elections. This strategy is dynamic and hopeful, and that helps the people implementing feel that the work they do is meaningful. WHICH IT IS!
My state has three important elections and we know that wealthy right-wing donors have us in their sights. The folks (including me) doing the work to keep the focus on what is most needed here will also help other states as we all try to move forward. I am limited in what I can do, but I will join what I can do with what others can to make sure the elections in my state are safe.
To condition everything on the decisions of one person is not how we will win these elections. When individual states, counties, cities demonstrate that we will work together to put up good candidates and get them elected, opportunists like Mancheon will come around because then that is where the opportunities will be.
And if we get together and really go at it, then it will no longer matter what Mancheon does or thinks. He will be redundant.
Annie. I appreciate you relating your and your community’s engagement, your energy, your caring and your work and showing how, as engaged citizens working to make democracy real, we can, as you say, render the likes of a Manchin as irrelevant.
Well said, barbara Jo. thank you.
Jeri, please don’t join the Chicken Little Caucus. Even without federal legislation, if enough people will get out and vote, we can add a couple of Democrats in the Senate, render some people (you know who I’m talking about) irrelevant, and pass good bills next year.
Well, gosh, Jon, I should've scrolled down a little further before posting and saved myself some typing- you said most of what I did, only more succinctly. (I need sleep.)
Jeri, that's been the plan all along.
Absolutely! If you haven’t already, get in touch with Movement Voter Project. They fund small, grassroots groups working for people running for offices on all levels.
Sarah, Thank you for posting and for recommending MVP. Ezra Levin, former Congressional staffer and co-founder of Indivisible, also leads an extraordinary team replete with local chapters nationwide.
❤️
Barbara Jo, I agree that “we need to fixate on how we can defend democracy at the state and local level. And what I am understanding more and more is that no one level: State, Local, or Federal is more important. We need to respect the need for strength and engagement at all levels. Yet finding a personal place to affect change in this need leaves me very conscious that I’m probably like most, in that I hope others do it. I’ll send money. This is the reason why I worry about ‘22. I still have not reached out to my local precinct or Dem organization to ask: “What can I do?” I send $support, but I have not been “boots on the ground” for two years. I need to change that.
For what we can do:
Lincoln Project's Joe Trippi has launched The Union, a grassroots organization of different action corps and coalitions to preserve democracy:
"Join Joe Trippi, host Maya May, and special guests representing organizations joining The Union. Learn about what we’ve accomplished and what’s next. You won’t want to miss this!
The Town Hall is at 7:00PM ET on Monday, March 21st. Link will be provided via social media on Monday."
https://jointheunion.us/townhall/
Ellie, For as long as I’ve been an LFAA subscriber, I continue to be grateful both for your wisdom and for your enormously valuable resources.
Michelle, I especially appreciated your honesty and awareness as to the importance of resisting reliance on others to carry the weight for us. I believe we’re all becoming increasingly appreciative that democracy is government where ordinary men and women take responsibility for helping to preserve all we’ve been given.
Yes! Do it! We all should! Contact your local Dems and ask, "What can I do?" Thank You, Michelle!
Darn, can't get the heart to light up. So "hearting" Michele, and Ellie, and MaryPat, and all those below who are speaking up for action. Thank you all. <3 <3 <3
Yes! Dems need to volunteer to be poll watchers and workers and other local and state offices.
Democracy is under GQP attack in every state. We Mainers are beginning to hear rumblings of this repub policy from our former-and now-wannabe-again national embarrassment of a GQP guv, the notoriously vulgar Paul LePage. Rally Dems or prepare to live under authoritarian rule.
As I read I see, on my muted TV, an animated Putin waving his arms and hollering through a mike to thousands of his purported followers in front of him, resplendent with response and color, in the stands of a huge stadium. Somehow that strikingly reminds me of what I saw in news reels and learned in school around the middle of the last century.
So imperative that we VOTE, VOTE, VOTE if and while we still can!
Bill, I merely would add the importance of helping, in any way we can, to support measures aimed at superseding GOP efforts to suppress and nullify our votes.
Well, we are witnessing daily their friend in the Kremlin's Final Solution for democracy.
Seems I was close to the truth when, in November 2016, I wondered if the Syrian dictator was not showing the world what will happen to all who dare resist oligarchy.
As for the threat to Bosnia-Herzegovina... that is the country where, only a generation ago, the people of the capital were live targets and... as in Ukraine today, a bread queue was deliberately massacred, the country of concentration camps where men and women were starved, tortured and murdered at will, the country where rape camps were set up, the country of Srebrenica, where all the men and boys were taken out and shot.
Diplomacy... diplomacy... That too has been murdered. We look down on the Middle Ages, but ambassadors were civilized then, not beings on furlough from hell.
So, Substack, I have said all this twice... Yet what's written above did not appear on my screen...
No worry. I know from painful personal experience that the truth can never be repeated enough.
Morning Fran. Not sure if you follow Politics Girl, Leigh McGowan. She echoes your message to “ALL believers in democracy”. I do and appreciate her voice from her kitchen. She is on fire in latest post. I swear, I see her hair sizzlin’.
Salud, Fran!
https://youtu.be/Nd4xJJ5pQqo
Thank you I’ve signed up for Leigh’s podcast!
Thanks. This was good.
Loved that! Thank you, Christine!
Thanks! Love her!
Sadly, most have no clue, maybe Texas is dumber than most but I doubt it. MSM doesn’t have a clue either
Argh…. Rick Scott the CEO of hospital corporation who defrauded Medicare with fraudulent claims and who was forced to resign. “he co-founded Columbia Hospital Corporation. Columbia later merged with another corporation to form Columbia/HCA, which eventually became the nation's largest private for-profit health care company.[6] Scott was pressured to resign as chief executive of Columbia/HCA in 1997. During his tenure as chief executive, the company defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs. The Department of Justice ultimately fined the company $1.7 billion in what was at the time the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history.[7][8] Following his departure from Columbia/HCA, Scott became a venture capitalist and pursued other business interests.
He and so many others like him present themselves as pure and true. But they use that image to steal and gather more power. Not unlike the lead German Nazis who presented as the pure family men, while having illicit affairs, and go on to murder, pillage and torture, those who weren’t “pure”.
Rick Scott, and men like him have no internal conscience. Why do we as a people, not remember and learn to “see these monsters for what they Are?
It’s hard to believe the repubs would ever adopt Scott’s absurd “blueprint.” Then again, it was hard to believe the repubs would recruit TFG as their presidential candidate.
Hard to believe is republican orthodoxy
Don’t worry! McConnell shot Scott’s manifesto out of the water before it had a chance to swim!
Yeah, right!
Margaret, great 'rap sheet' of a true monster. Pity the country has no idea, or has no memory of these people's criminality, then and now.
Have NO clue, Dems won’t tell
Private insurers correctly assumed if Coumbia/HCA had ripped off Medicare, they had been ripped off in the scheme, too. Years of investigation and proof of the fraud resulted in substantial settlements long after Scott was removed. Didya read about it in the news? Nope! There were gag clauses in the settlement agreements. Meanwhile, you and I paid higher insurance premiums than we should have. Did state regulators investigate and take action? After all, states were defrauded, too. Medicaid is a shared program between state and federal governments. Nope! Why not? The blueprint for the fraud was in the Medicare case. There was virtually no such thing as simple pneumonia at a Columbia/HCA hospital. Claims were upcoded to more complex diagnoses with higher reimbursements when the medical record didn't support it. Had state regulators taken action where the feds did not, maybe the pernicious Rick Scott wouldn't have been able to buy a governorship with his ill gotten gains and still be the swindler he is today. Granted, the Medicare case was huge in its time, but Rick Scott was let off the hook to crime another day. In depositions, he pled the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination 75 times. Yet, no follow up. And don't get me started about what he did as governor while the Republican dominated legislature looked the other way.
How is it possible this man never went to jail?!
More details here:
https://www.politifact.com/article/2010/jun/11/rick-scott-and-fraud-case-columbiahca/
Thank you for this Politifact link. 2010!!!I know about Medicare “errors” in billing now, this decade. In this year, and it’s still happening. Many consumers meet dead ends in questioning their bills and more never see them. $million !!! for wrong code in a monthly shot for Crohn’s disease. Or sudden charges for covered services. Who has time to investigate? Or knows where to start? Your congressperson!!!Some plans are easier than others. But in todays market, people often change plans because of covered meds. Time for Medicare for All. And more transparency. Fraud or a “simple” error?
Local hospitals would code the record for billing. They were then required to send the billing thru HQ in Nashville, who upcoded and added services that weren't provided, although commonly provided for the diagnosis. The bill was returned to the providing hospital for submission to the payor. Straight up fraud.
And who would think about fraud. Just concerned about mistakes. And often people don’t notice if their insurance is paid and/or they don’t keep track. Sigh!
Direct Contracting Entities. Katie Porter is on it ! Most have no idea..
https://indivisibleventura.org/2021/12/07/trump-left-behind-a-ticking-health-care-bomb-that-will-allow-wall-street-to-destroy-medicare-most-legislators-have-no-idea-this-is-coming/
“Instead, Trump’s CMMI came up with this scam…a privatization scheme which would automatically enroll more than 30 million seniors who’d deliberately chosen traditional Medicare into for-profit “Direct Contracting Entities,” (DCEs) instead, without their full knowledge or consent.”
Thanks for this knowledge, KellyR.
Indeed, why. why were reports about his pending litigation on defrauding Medicare banned from discussion while he was running for governor of floriduhhhhh?
Because people don't read the whole story. I had no idea about Rick Scott before reading this. I only knew he was a Republican with power. No doubt if I was a Republican, I would have believed he a very smart man looking out for my best interest and therefore the little I would know about him and I saw he was running for whatever I would vote for him. Just like here in Indiana! Most people do not have an idea who or what they are voting for when they go to the polls! They never research the candidates and therefore most of the time vote against themselves and their families. Voting needs taught to school children and they need to be taught how to research....it is available with little effort if they have a computer today. By the time they are adults it should be a simple matter how to vote when they are of voting age instead of learning the "Pledge to Allegiance to the Flag". That even needs to be broken down, so they understand what it means instead of just learning the words!
A big part of the reason Americans don't have an idea of who or what they are voting for is because we don't make it simple and direct and honest enough for folks to understand. The League of Women Voters probably does the best analysis of candidates and issues, from local to national, across this country, with publications available to many voters. But that's not enough. I think we need a clear scale of evaluation, like grades in school. Or, anymore, just descriptors we can all agree on: Criminal. Pedophile. Thief. Kind of like, oh, the Ten Commandments?
MSM is blind and propaganda is the spokesmodel for money
Oh my, dear Jeri! Be careful how you choose your words and who you choose to malign. Look at what you wrote and then look again. Do your words echo any you have heard others say? Others you may not respect? Those “others” may not be as articulate as you, but be wary of snappy replies.
Ummmmm. Why would you warn Jeri? Her reply to an earlier post by Margaret Fisher was anything but snappy and completely appropriate. What are you, a censor? Your comment is offensive.
Hi, Christine. I’m sorry you found my comment offensive and that you thought I was acting like a censor. Jeri didn’t say anything to me, but I’m happy to tell you what I saw. Her comment about the MSM being propagandist sounded *to me* like something I might have heard on Fox or from a hard right commentator or even from someone in my local paper with a grievance about how my paper shuts out right-wing letters to the editor. (Right, Buddy, every time you write!) Just as my comment hit you wrong, her’s hit me wrong. I will give you I could have better worded my comment, but I didn’t want to flat out call her out on something she didn’t intend. So there you have it. I wasn’t trying to censor anyone and I certainly didn’t intend to offend you or anyone else. My genuine apologies to you, Jeri and anybody else who didn’t like what I had to say. I will do better next time or choose not to remark at all.
Christine, did you get my apology, or are you ignoring me?
👍🏼
Psy ops are the mainstream these days.
👍🏼
Rick Scott is a crook who oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in American history. Why he is not behind bars amazes me.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/rick-scott-is-an-odd-choice-to-lead-gops-health-care-reform.html
Yes! I have never understood why every reference to him from Florida Democrats does not begin, “Admitted thief Rick Scot…”
He used some of the money stolen from Medicare to obtain “a get out of jail free card.”
I’ll bet Scott loved socialism then.
👍🏼
Perhaps those people with thinning (or no) hair on their heads should not read that portion of this column where the Republican campaign "plan/platform" has been written out by Rick Scott. Even those of us with remaining strands will find them standing on end. Democrats definitely need to make the platform plans well known to voters of all parties. Shades of living under Putin right here at home!
As to the issue of world hunger which will be made only worse by the absence of grain grown in Ukraine this year - no thanks to Russian troops - perhaps American farmers should be encouraged to plant as much as they can so that we will be able to include grain as part of the U.S. support of humanitarian aid to Ukraine (and all other countries that usually depend on that heroic country).
Seems to me the Republicans will try to use the attention to the war in Ukraine as cover and distraction from its own political plans for an autocracy if they are successful in the November 2022 elections. There can be no sleep or rest here at home for any of us if we want to save democracy here as well as in Ukraine.
"As to the issue of world hunger which will be made only worse by the absence of grain grown in Ukraine this year - no thanks to Russian troops - perhaps American farmers should be encouraged to plant as much as they can so that we will be able to include grain as part of the U.S. support of humanitarian aid to Ukraine (and all other countries that usually depend on that heroic country). "
What we need to do is end the idiot Ethanol program, which was nothing but the attempt of the government 44 years ago to look like they were "doing something" during the Iranian gas crisis of 1978. It has led to a 45% drop in US wheat production in favor of corn, which is purchased for the idiot ethanol program.
Same here in Sweden, but the ethanol is enforced for "meeting the climate targets". Seems to be the moment when it will be clear that we take the food off the table of poor people to drive our cars.
"The U.S. Subsidy That Empowers Putin"
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/gas-prices-ethanol-subsidies-putin/627053/
"Ethanol has become a Washington joke. John McCain often quipped that he started his day with a glass of ethanol. Who could blame him? The ethanol program is a giveaway so big, so entrenched, and so wasteful that laughter might seem like the best response. "
Jeff The lobbyists are laughing as we continue to pul the junk called ethanol
Into our cars and trucks and pay many billions to farmers for either growing or not growing crops.
My laughter turns to tears when I think of the many members of Congress who privately laugh at the stupid ethanol policy of nearly two generations and continue to rubber stamp it.
And now with have a global wheat shortage because of the massive short fall anticipated in Ukraine and Russia.
Yes, it's an insidious con game.
I heart this.
We really are our worst enemy so often
Exactly the one I was thinking of.
Yes, that subsidy was criminal and now it is more than criminal, a spur to famine.
Thank You Michael.
Perhaps “Idiot Ethanol” should be the catchphrase for an anti-corn oil campaign, TC. It could highlight all the negative effects of putting ethanol into your vehicle’s gas tank! All that in addition to its detrimental impact on the agricultural sector and to us humans.
Man have you ever got that right, it’s like adding water to gasoline, yes it will burn but it reduces the amount of energy that can be extracted by about 10%. With many people on the planet starving every year we turn food into fuel, it’s lunacy as well as immoral, not to mention that it pollutes the water supply where it is produced.
... and since that time, it has been near impossible to find quality organic (affordable) corn oil for cooking, salad dressing, or any other use - the only corn oil I have seen for years is mixed with cheaper oils like palm or safflower oils - in plastic containers ....
Organic corn oil is difficult to find because 90% of American corn is GMO; thus, it is not classified as organic corn.
Even that is hard to find, except combined with other oils - in plastic ...
Palm oil is an environmental catastrophe. Can’t we do better
There’s only one palm that oil is greasing.
... one would think so ...
Dietary catastrophe too.
Regarding wheat https://www.opb.org/article/2022/03/16/oregon-wheat-farmers-war-ukraine-russia-invasion-economic-impact/
Very good info in this link, most folks think of spring planning, but hard red wheat is winter wheat and planted in the fall. Soft wheat is planted in the spring. Think bread (hard) vs biscuits (soft). Our red wheat came from Ukraine, brought by Mennonite farmers in the post Civil War time period.
We might want to eat corn bread instead of ethanol for cars.
Indeed yes. And given conditions, Ukraine winter wheat crop will go unharvested, there will not be transport, fuel, equipment, farmers, ports for export are overrun or bombed. Harvest for them this year looks very difficult, as does this fall’s planting. And so for many other summer crops too. Maybe that production is offline for another year, or two or more. US and Canada produce a lot of wheat, we in US should not be hurting for bread, but, the world market will be strained - multinational corporations. Look to see what they do: Cargill, ADM, Bunge. Just like oil, the world price makes the market, and domestic production goes where the money is fattest. Poor nations starve.
"...fertilizer costs were already high when he planted last fall — now they have gone up more than 300%."
Would love to see your info on the 45% drop from wheat to corn, in US.
As to WHY there was a shift, linking just the ethanol program is simplistic.
There have been a lot of disease issues in some areas with wheat, reducing yields, and no solutions.
Ethanol and biodiesel used to pencil out as viable when oil is in today’s price range, over $60, $80, $100 a barrel. There are mothballed ethanol plants from when oil was below $50/bbl. Now with corn getting $6/bu+ price at the elevator, and soybeans 16$/bu+, double+ from two-three years ago, I don’t know if those plant-based fuels are economically viable.
Thank you for the info and insight, RM. I appreciate hearing from people who can contribute useful info that helps me understand how things fit together. The rants probably make their authors feel they have done something useful (or at least get something out of their system), but it's info like yours that helps me "get" things. And you raise interesting questions that makes me want to dig deeper.
Here is a deeper dive, USDA has a good page explaining wheat here.
https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/wheat/wheat-sector-at-a-glance/
From the first chart: yes, U.S. acres planted to wheat did decline a lot from 1981 to now (45%), but total U.S. production of wheat did not decline as much (say, 40%): so, more production gains by farmers improving their yields and growing it in the right spots.
Since that 1981 turn, the piece cites many other fluctuations in diet, preference, exports and imports, and raw per-capita consumption. A..."decades-long growth in per capita consumption came to an end in 1997 as changing consumer preferences, led by the adoption of low-carbohydrate diets, reduced per capita wheat consumption once again. Consumer interest in these diets spiked in the early 2000s, resulting in a sharp decline in bread consumption and—ultimately—in per capita flour consumption."
Also, it shows Russia and Europe gained an increasing share of the world wheat trade since the 2000's. We will see what happens to that in 2022 and beyond.
Some of the food versus fuel arguments can be read here, though the page does not seem to have been updated for a while: focus is the 2000 - 2010 period.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_vs._fuel
TC, 100%!
👍🏼
so true!
YES!
You realize that the hollowing out of the middle class by stagnant wages and all the profits going to a few investors at the top is happening to the farmers as well with big farm consortiums taking any and all the profits out of the farmers' pockets. This needs to be solved! Yes, this has happened to farmers and ranchers for millenia it would seem, but now is the moment to solve it.
Yes, 'Grapes of Wrath' isn't just history. It has been reoccurring with every recession in the economy, with the result that land ownership has been ever more concentrated.
"Since the 1980s, the four largest meatpackers have used a wave of mergers to increase their share of the market from 36 percent to 85 percent," https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/business/beef-prices-cattle-ranchers.html
I am in full agreement. These mega buy outs or take-overs of smaller and family-owned farms by corporate agriculture is NOT in the best interest of the country and should be prohibited. More reasons why Democrats needs to be elected up and down the tickets. (I make exceptions re: Joe Manchin since I don't believe his concern extends to the hard-working middle and lower income classes. Nor do I think Krysten Sinema is a true Democrat. Both are currently taking campaign funding from Republican donors. We will have work to do in 2024 when, I believe, both are up for re-election.
We were talking to our pork guy a couple weeks ago and he has problems finding a place that will process his pigs. He lost several thousand dollars when people stole the van packed with processed meat from the processor in southern Oregon. The processor will not make it good and it's law suit time. The laws also make it more difficult for him to sell to the public without going to a USDA certified processor. It was clear to us the the big meat companies make it difficult for the small farmers. He has heritage pigs and it is delicious pork. We make an effort to support our local farmers.
True words, we are in as much jeopardy as Ukraine. Believe it. Rick told us
Seems to me that the fraudster Scott has supplied lots of material for Ds to use. Here in Oregon wheat growing occurs mainly in central and eastern Oregon. Yes, it is raining today, but we are still in a drought. A couple years ago large amounts of wheat burned. And as an aside a political note about Kurt Schrader, who is in a new district and trying to pretend he is just a regular guy driving his tractor, etc has not obtained the endorsement of four D county parties which went to his opponent in the primary. We'll see.
He has those endorsements now.
I wasn’t aware of that news about Schrader.
Just saw it yesterday in the Oregonian.
Good idea for farmers to plant all the acreage.
One piece of nice news. When the new Russian crew arrived today at the International Space Station, they were conspicuously wearing yellow flight suits trimmed in blue.
In the twitterverse there were people saying they make the flight suits months ahead of time so they are questioning whether they are showing support or they had intended to celebrate a military victory.
I'll take an optimistic view (for now) until otherwise.
I take the humorous view.
Good point--great thought! Thanks, that's what I shall do as well.
Plausible deniability when (a) protest language can get you 15 years in prison, and (b) your safe return to the earth's surface depends on those Russian mission control engineers not having guns to their heads to leave you up there?
Twitterverse pointed out the jumpsuits were the colors of their university alma mater, but selected when they had other choices.
And "Soyuz mission commander Oleg Artemyev was born in Latvia, this could very well be his "don't step on the little neighbor" statement:"
https://twitter.com/mccannst/status/1504952164426280970?s=20&t=0hyZps1hV5DcJhMaAMq-AA
And just for Allen Hingston, here's a son of Dnipro:
Nick Knudsen's find of Ukrainian Rubik's cube champion portrait artist Alex Ivanchak's rendition of our favorite global hero:
https://twitter.com/NickKnudsenUS/status/1504945608993304577?s=20&t=0hyZps1hV5DcJhMaAMq-AA
https://constellationworld.net/creative-news/442/alex-ivanchak-rubiks-cube-art-genius/
That's beautiful! As well as an incredibly sophisticated uptick on Chuck Close's breakthrough in art.
But check this out: Ivanchak is even more incredible in his blindfolded resolution of a rubik's cube in 40 seconds of mesmerizing flickerings of memorized hand movements:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=848jznGgtbY
❤️
Great show-stopper. Watch the 'twitter' link; it's fabulous. Thank you Ellie. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Amazing!!! Thanks, Ellie!
Thank you Ellie! This is a wonderful artistic lift today. So cool!
They had better toe the line or they will be lost in space.
Liked.....but the heart didn't work.....again!
If you right-click, you get emoji's, and you can select a heart, or many other ways of expressing yourself.
renew the page and it shows up - a substack "quirk"
How ironic if the latter.
I wondered about that. It makes sense that space suits take months to make and can't be whipped up quickly.
Thank you, Heather, for discussing Rick Scott's insidious plan for America. I balked when I read it...it's a vision of a dystopian wasteland if ever there was one.
It's scary, actually.
I agree. It is scary.
Very scary particularly when we have seen these batshit crazy ideas put into practice.
Daria, what I find interesting is that there are a whole bunch of people who find nothing wrong with those 11 Points. For them it is a beacon of hope to get “THEIR” country back. The American family is facing so much greater dismantling forces than the loved child down the block with two dads. Banning talking about race in America? Like HOW? Yet I know some culturally frightened people are drinking their coffee this morning feeling Rick Scott has their back.
Michele, You're right and those people are going to drive our policies unless we start taking local and state level politics more seriously. I have family members who are beside themselves with joy because of Scott's Plan. They make my angry and ill.
Do away with Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid if you want to be the support of your elderly parents when you are 50 or 60. Only the very wealthy will ever be able to retire. Send kids to college or support their grandparents, which will it be, when you yourself will face age discrimination in hiring?
Such a contrast between the humanitarian actions of people and countries to shelter Ukrainians—and Rick Scott’s utopia of selfishness, ignorance, and fear.
It is the bleak picture painted in so many works of fiction over the years. It is a harsh reality of poverty that will wipe the smug smirks off the faces of the haughty self righteous right wing sheep when they, too, are reduced to groveling for food, housing, and medicine.
Exactly the word I used, Daria, before even finding your comments today. “dystopia”.
Truly insidious. He came early on into that shrouded world.
Talk about radical, GOP plan makes the Green New Deal seem mainstream.
Absolutely, Mary Beth! Its 11- point plan rings a death knell for all progress that has been made with DEI issues -- race, class, gender, disabilities, etc. -- in the last decades. It will kill any form of decent education for our children. It will eliminate the middle class. It will reduce US society to rich and poor, no more no less. Our culture will be literally whitewashed!
But “religion” and “family” will flourish. Buzz words that will attract MAGAts and fools
Sadly!
So they will claim but in reality, neither will flourish. Their efforts will continue to drive people from formalized religion and families will suffer because of the lack of a safety net for all not able to afford a good education (because public education will be dumbed-down), necessary medical care, much less afford a comfortable retirement (if at all).
Panem x Gilead!
Boils down to the party that looks backward versus the party that looks forward.
Senator Skeletor in action.
He graduated to Voldemort.
I think the Green New Deal should be mainstream. Any better ideas should get a hearing, too, of course. The news that global warming is happening even faster than we thought has been buried by the Ukraine war news. So many refugees! We see them now on tv. Climate refugees will dwarf their numbers. Can’t we walk and chew gum at the same time?
"Republicans, the plan says, will dramatically increase taxes on Americans earning less than $100,000, raising $1 trillion over ten years, although since they will also cut the Internal Revenue Service by 50%, the government might be hard pressed to collect those taxes"
What it means is the IRS will go after the "low-hanging fruit" of lower-income taxpayers who can't afford tax avoidance schemes and lawyers and accountants who make it hard for the IRS to collect from the rich. It's what they do now, with the cuts the Republicans made to the IRS when they were last in power. (Ask me how I know this)
Right now the IRS has not processed the 2020 tax returns of some 24 million citizens (including mine) because they already don't have half the people they need. In my interactions with the IRS over the years I have always come away impressed by the people you talk to on the phone -- their politeness, their knowledge, their ability to make a decision right then and there, their suggestions on what to pay attention to, all of it.
Yes, they do. I know about how they have had to modify their pursuit of taxes because I was told about it by the guy I was negotiating with to get them to back off of a woman who is now bedridden with final-stage Parkinson's from her accidental tax problem. (My wife)
TC, my heart goes out to you and to your dear wife. I have early-stage Parkinson’s and still have fairly good control of my body. I can’t fully imagine the pain and sorrow that you two are enduring. Be assured of my prayers and those of my wife for your family. I don’t know what more I can do for you from the “other” coast. But I will be searching for ways to help.
P.S. Substack won’t let me “heart” your post.
Whoops. Now it has.
If you renew the page, it shows up. One of the many substack quirks and anomalies.
Thanks for your post.
For those with an iPhone, Substack now has an app that works great; I haven’t run across the many quirks and anomalies I used to run across when accessing from my browser. I understand there will be an android app soon.
It’s busy
Me neither 🤷♂️
Me neither
My thoughts to you and Bill Willis. We are year 3 in journey for my love. Into remodeling versus independent/assisted care decisions.
As always TC, you have my prayers for what you cope with every day. Having cared for my husband with ALS, I know something of how challenging it is to care for a sick spouse. Its a rough-as-hell world you live in. Take care of yourself.
Keeping you and your wife in my thoughts, TC.
I am sorry to hear that, TC.
My condolences, TC. My brother-in-law went through that with his Dad 4 years ago (Parkinson’s, not the IRS).
I have a good friend who just retired from the IRS; her take was that there is no joy going after “ordinary people who screw up” and most of her cohort worked hard to help as much as they could.
Sad, TC. Good luck.
heart
Thank you TC.
Thank you TC ...
TC, once again I give in. You still make me crazy, but as always I learn something about you that gives me a whole other view of you. I send love, and hope for your wife for whatever good it does.
I live with health issues, but nothing like Parkinson's. Just an immune system run amok and getting in my way. But one of the people I like best here has it, and I've seen it take not only his ability to do things, but his sense of himself as well. I saw him for the first time in two years the other day (both of us forced into seclusion for too long). He is bound in a wheelchair, and could not smile with his face, but I could see it in his eyes. I'd cry if it didn't make my eyes hurt. We "chatted" with the help of his carer for a few minutes about, of all things, dog leashes (his had the kind of leach I am trying to find for mine), but mostly it was just nice to spend a few minutes with someone I like very much. Dang it, now I have to extend the same to you, friend.
I wonder how many of us critters have perfect bodies - my brother had one, but he needed too much alcohol to withstand the meanness of a brutal step-father and died young. Parkinson's is cruel - my heart goes out to you and your wife, TC.
Sending you love and support from afar.
You are a good man and a wonderful husband—honoring your precious vows ❤️, best to you both.
so sorry to hear this.
I'm asking, TC...
I referred to the answer elsewhere in this thread. I got told.
“Republicans, the plan says, will dramatically increase taxes on Americans earning less than $100,000, raising $1 trillion over ten years.” I’m confused. A republican saying “Increasing taxes”? Increasing taxes on most Americans AND cutting the Social Safety Net should make for easy to understand bumper stickers in favor of Dems, shouldn’t it? Did I read this wrong?
It's mind-boggling, isn't it?
No. It’s what they want.
It’s what they do now. Money buys protection.
Remember when you, Dr Richardson, spoke of gaming Facebook? Forget the glory articles about the Biden party helping Americans; make the RICK SCOTT RNC article go viral. Make sure everybody knows they’re going to get hit w a bigger tax bill by voting Republican! IT IS IN THEIR PLATFORM STATEMENT!
Mitch McConnell is furious! If I had to guess, at least 3/4 of all Kentuckians make less than 100k, and now they’re going to raise taxes?
If this isn’t the foundation of every DNC ad running this summer, they have forgotten how to fight.
Did they ever know, that high road is awfully isolated. Put Kristen Gillibrand in charge. She will find more Dems to demonize. (Still pissed about Al).
It may be in their platform statement but it's not in the "11 Point Plan" outline posted online. I just browsed the listed elements of each point. Here and there are sprinkled points we all might support such as increased penalties for spousal abuse and failure to pay child support. Most are disturbing when you consider how they could be applied if ever in force. https://rescueamerica.com/11-point-plan/
This CNN article includes a lengthy list of the most objectionable "points": https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/23/politics/rick-scott-rescue-america-plan-gop/index.html
Republicans always use the cookie-cutter family culture to cover their real agenda: shifting tax responsibility to working Americans. He says so in his WSJ article and in this interview. McConnell decided to keep the tax increase out of their famous 11 Point Plan, because tax increases don’t garner votes. (Duh!)
Below that interview is the Republican Contract With America: another big promise they made that wasn’t worth the paper or ink they used to write it.
https://www.npr.org/2022/03/17/1087137508/sen-rick-scott-wants-every-american-to-pay-at-least-some-income-taxes
https://g.co/kgs/okYwdg
I've been reflecting on the many waves of losses sustained by this war. There's the loss of humans; lives that won't be lived, books not written, work not produced, creativity not express, contributions lost, "life-years" of loss due to premature death. There's the loss of useful work by those who survive, but diverted their attention towards acts of war and the consequences; millions displaced from homes, jobs, farms, factories, institutions of education and social progress. There's the loss of goods and services that would have otherwise been produced. There's the massive, wanton destruction of property, infrastructure that will have to be torn down, cleaned up, rebuilt. There's the crops not planted, mouths not fed, wasted articles of war like munitions, vehicles, aircraft. The rippling effects across geography, time, nations, cultures are bills that won't be paid by the perpetrators of war. They'll be absorbed, "paid" by those affected. Where would we be as societies had all the wars of the 20th century not been fought? This current war only directly effects 0.5% of the world's population but is creating disruption of one sort or another for at least a third of the 7.9 billion people on the planet. Who will pay for that? All of us. How can we possibly allow the precondition (autocracy) to allow a single human being to make a decision that has such an impact on so many of our species here on earth? We already watched this scenario a short 80 years ago, and potentially again several times since. When are we going to learn to expend our strenuous energies BEFORE the destruction and the killing starts, rather than after the tanks roll? We had literally months of forewarning for this one, even years. There may be 100+ billion dollars in damage to Ukraine already, but I'll wager the total bill for this war already exceeds 1 trillion dollars to the world. How much hunger could we have addressed, climate change averted with a similar investment?
"How can we possibly allow the precondition (autocracy) to allow a single human being to make a decision that has such an impact on so many of our species here on earth?"
First, thank you for your thoughtful, insightful comment on war and its broad impact brought to us by one man, and probably an insane one at that.
I am not sure how to answer your question above except to say: For some reason, unknown to me, humans have historically organized around "one man" often.
Native American tribes had a chief. America has a President (who is apparently in total control of the military based on the last 20 years). Christianity had Constantine (who conqured lots of land area and sponsored the growth of Christianity). Britain had a bunch of Kings. The Middle East had Muhammad.
American corporations are run on the old British fiefdom model (one man as the king).
Democracy, in fact, is fairly new and/or rare in human group management (although the earliest apostles of Christ DID live communally and democratically as described in the Acts of the Apostles).
I don't know why Democracy is so rare. Maybe because of what we see now? Democracy is too easily corrupted by nuts who want power.
So, the solution is a nut who wants power.
Honestly, that would make such little sense that it might be the reason.
In many cases, Native American chiefs held power with strict limits. Lakota chiefs’ followers could easily melt away and follow someone else. Iroquois chiefs could be replaced at any time by the council of women elders.
Yes. Also, I think Native American women had fair bit of power in the tribe likely bringing some intelligence and rational thinking to the mix.
https://blog.nativehope.org/celebrating-native-women#:~:text=Traditionally%2C%20American%20Indian%20women%20played,building%20the%20homes%20for%20everyone.
Not disagreeing with your point about leaders but thought this description of Native American tribal governance might be of interest. https://nnigovernance.arizona.edu/crc/defining/how-did-native-nations-govern-prior-colonization
The climate crisis and resulting collapse of the environment will inexorably bring what remains of our species to fully face this question, and hopefully settle on some form of global government of all the people, for all the people.
That's a great big hope from a great big optometrist(?) I like it and support it, Jeff.
Although, as anyone with experience of addiction knows, it will get very ugly before that breakthrough occurs.
Nathan, I resonated completely with this comment because it is all I have thought about this week. My daughter carries either Russian or Ukrainian blood in her veins. Her paternal great grandparents left their home and their culture behind, came to America and never spoke of what they left behind. The culture,language, skills and heritage they carried disappeared. Forever.
What have we lost in just three weeks? Mind boggling losses, never to be found.
And they have had unbelievably warm weather (as much as 70+ degrees Fahrenheit above average) in Antarctic. The climate is reeling into chaos. We need all hands on deck on climate and hunger and we are fighting a war. Gads…..
Washington Post: "It’s 70 degrees warmer than normal in eastern Antarctica. Scientists are flabbergasted." https://wapo.st/37L7lA8
Beautifully said, and clearly reasoned. Thank you.
The tragedy is, that countries act like adolescent children when threatened. Unfortunately this post does not consider the current intensification, but the point is made - it is all to do with regional power politics, the citizens get dragged along..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ABVtsdip3U
You might also consider this
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/analysis/analysis-why-cultural-backlash-against-russians-is-wrong/2526384
Thank you for this Mearsheimer analysis. Well reasoned. Chilling. I'm glad to have come to this understanding.
"The Russians made it clear in 2008 that expansion of NATO (into their bordering countries) was an existential threat, one that they could not accept."
"The Americans (government) have made it clear that they will not fight for Ukraine. But they will support them to the last Ukrainian."
This 11-point plan is more terrifying than anything ever written by Stephen King. It would not only reverse the gains of the last 80 years, it would hurl us back to the 17th century.
Republicans will be horrifyingly terrible if they get power in the November 2022, election. It will be devastating.
I live on my social security, which I paid into since I was 16. It's not enough for me to live in the USA, but if it gets cut off, I'll be on a bread line.
We won’t be in breadlines long, our Putin followers will bomb the breadlines.
Me, too.
I live on SSDI since I was born with a disability and my Dad is in his 80s. I will be screwed also if the republicans cut it off.
The Right is so wrong. They are truly scary people.
Dem campaign slogan. The Right Is so Wrong.
We have seen the devil, and he is at our door
ТЯ☭м₽ was only the barker. Now we will get to see the full show.
Oh Heather! What a letter. So much to consider, world and domestic challenges! And the repubs and Senator Rick Scott must hope Americans are too distracted to notice his blueprint for America that threatens to take us back to the dark ages. Everyone must read the platform and proposals. He wants to blow up every positive social and economic policy, racial and gender equality, human rights, and the list goes on. “The third story that has flown under the radar is that the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Florida senator Rick Scott, has provided a blueprint for what the Republicans will do if they get a majority in the next election. In “An 11-point plan to rescue America,” produced by the group responsible for electing Republican senators, Scott promised that the Republicans “will protect, defend, and promote the American Family at all costs.” We indeed need to rescue America from the repubs and maintain a Democratic majority in Congress. At the same time, continue the cooperation with other nations we have returned to since President Biden was elected. A lot of work for our Democracy.
There's an "old Texanism" about what Scott is in desperate need of that applies here.
TC, and the defense for the Texanism is, "It ain't murder if he needed killing." Is that the one? Or did I cross a line here?
That's the one. :-)
Manchin knows we can’t do it without him. He is a Trojan horse.
Read Stephanie Coontz, https://www.stephaniecoontz.com/
Researcher, sociologist, “ “The Way We Never Were” and “The Way We Really Are” written in 1992+ “American Families and the Nostalgia Trap.” And “Marriage a History: How Love Conquered Marriage”. 2006. Can’t believe the level of ignorance and or deceit repubs like Scott. They’re trying and often succeeding in keeping Americans at their level of ignorance. In the dark.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/02/28/sen-rick-scotts-11-point-anti-worker-plan-for-america/
Rick Scott’s rhetoric is all to get votes and his constituents will vote against their best interests to fulfill the Repub agenda promise. Last paragraph tells it all, but I don’t agree that the Democrats are in the same league as repubs (in this Counterpunch report) Do you? : “You get the idea. Lots of fearmongering to scare the bejeezus out of his MAGA base. Not a care in the world for the working men and women of Florida or the United States. Just what we have come to expect from GOP (and, to be honest, Democrat) lawmakers.”
Did you ever imagine writing something like this?
Last night as I woke around 3am listening to the soft rain, I remembered a Haiku from the 70's which reminded me of Ukraine:
From Vietnam: Tonight
Wishing the lightening were lightening
The thunder, thunder