Among the things Roosevelt said that have been mostly forgotten, this is a gem:
“The citizens of the United States must effectively control the mighty commercial forces which they have called into being,” he said.
We tend to forget that we created corporations.
Another gem:
“ He warned that “[t]here can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains…. We must have complete and effective publicity of corporate affairs, so that the people may know…whether the corporations obey the law and whether their management entitles them to the confidence of the public.”
Their political activity. That means Citizens United has to go.
Publicity of corporate affairs. That means shell corporations, offshore headquarters, and more.
We need, but cannot get, a court ruling that corporations in fact are not people. They only exist to maximize profit for shareholders, and so of course aren't people taking civics into account.
Any liberal Supreme Court justice would agree with my opinion, I think. The conservatives justices on the other hand have no intellectual capacity outside of their bubbles.
AI is the modern day railroad. We are seeing only one company dominate the GPU market for AI computation, NVDA. There's no way they can use their trillions of market cap to normalize the supply chain without competition in chip fabrication away from Taiwan. If China takes over Taiwan, NVDA and all other fabless chip companies will lose their Intellectual Property. That's why Biden is fighting to on-shore and regulate this capability using private capital and tax breaks while defending Taiwan with military aid. All Trump cares about are more exclusive golf courses and the corrupt super rich that hang out there on corporate expense accounts.
Yet his biggest concern is getting elected to pardon himself. What a stain on Democracy that will be. He said the border is a huge and important issue —-that needs to wait until his coronation in January and Congress obeyed. People literally dying to get across, fentanyl coming across killing Americans every day and the mass murderer wins 3 more primaries!!? SMH till it hurts. 16 states and American Samoa vote Super Tuesday. 💙🙏🏼 make the news blue and vote.
hence his takeover over the RNC. luckily, he doesn't seem to get that all the real campaign money is in, how apropos, Corporate Funded PACS these days. And even the Monopolists are losing faith in his political viability. I think. I mean, isn't that while Haley the Hale Mary is still running?
Incidentally, I think it's well passed time to talk about how our intellectual property protections can best serve both creators or a product and society as a whole. In my observation, innovation is rarely only one person or organization far ahead of the pack, but more often a wave of innovative potential spreads from the state of what is known and we lock right in with the first past the post, often with many close on their heels. Not that rewards and protections to first past the post are unwarranted, but innovation is enabled by a confluence of sources, and at some point monopolies become the enemy of the common weal.
Oh they certainly are aware. They once again have a chance to surprise us all (now that we are sufficiently suspicious of their integrity), by yielding to popular demand and acting quickly on this absolute immunity debacle. If I were a betting man, I would bet against it heavily. Which is why this situation is so dangerous. If I am right (my track record of predictions on Trump and his legal issues is stellar so far), and SCOTUS continues delaying a "lay-up" legal decision deep into the election season, that means the SCOTUS is a major player in the hostile takeover of our government by anti-democratic authoritarian forces. An outcome nobody could have anticipated I think.
The coup has already taken place. The court was McConnell's gift to his backers. The US Oligarchs? The Russians? The Chinese? I'd say all of the above. Why oh why has there not been an exposé. This fact alone threatens my resolve.
Good to know, Ally. Now, if I can just get my weather people to narrow their reporting to say, "A ton of snow has just fallen all around Oregon except at Ally's house!" Or, "A curious oddity is there are 60-mile-an-hour winds blowing everywhere except at Ally's house!" 🤣🤣🤣
$285,400 per year should be enough in salary to maintain independence. I'm open to them having an increased salary, when CEOs are making 10s of millions or more. Then the President must also get a raise.
Would a little more pay just make them more greedy and more corrupt? I'm not sure.
That $285k can go straight to the bank since all meals, travel, vacays, homes, kids' college, parents' homes, your own home and basically everything else you might want or need in life is bought-and-paid-for by your "donors",....all for the small return of your vote on the actions they have before the court, of course,......speaking 2 U Clarence
Well, Clarence threatened to quit unless he could squeeze more money out of donors. He did, and is a happy camper. I’m sure the other cretins can command similar perks. Doubt the Dem types get much “extra.”
And "Corporate Joe" Biden (from tiny Delaware, a corporatist suburb of Wall Street) is just as bad as the Supreme Court. He wants more and more illegal aliens to drive down the price of labor.
Not sure why you call Joe Biden "Corporate". He doesn't own any Corporations and actually walked the picket line. So unless it is for the sheer pleasure of giving him a derogatory moniker, you are all wet.
You speak only of "illegal" Aliens. Do you know that by LAW we have a duty to help REFUGEES? You may not agree with it, but it is the LAW.
I should add that NO, Aliens, illegal or not, do NOT drive down the cost of labor: In part because of the language barrier, they tend to get menial jobs that Americans refuse to take, and it is easy to see why: The standard of living in this country makes it extremely difficult to live on $7.25/hour.
While we are on this topic, It is false to say that compared to Americans, they tend to be criminals.
and if the various articles cited do not convince you, perhaps common sense will:
Folks who sneak through the border are hoping to remain undetected so that "la migra" does not deport them. Remember that once they are deported, even once, the ability to become an American Citizen is basically nil: It remains a blotch, a stain on their record that guarantees they will not have access to citizenship and the work and voting rights that go with it. They don't want to risk that.
Yeah, I know, that the "problem at the border" is all we hear from a certain segment of the political spectrum. Yet the same people are spitting on any solution, even the ones they've worked on, just to give Mr. Trump a plank to run on. [Since 2016, the RNC has not bothered to write a platform. They still don't have one: they don't know where they want to drive the Country past listening to Mr. Trump who, remember, in 2017 passed a tax break he was so proud of that he had a meeting with his CORPORATE donors and stated: "Today, I saved you all a lot of money". and indeed, he added trillions to the National debt by giving away all that money to the richest of the rich.
So the moniker "Corporate Trump" would apply much better .
[Well, except that in spite of all his criming, Mr. Trump still had at least 7 bankruptcies, so maybe he is not such a great Businessman after all. Not a capable Captain of Industry, this Mr. Trump]
Thank you Cécile for your strong denunciation of tfgmanbaby. It’s become apparent to me that magnuts like schmeckle have been carefully taught that the only response to facts about 🎃🤡💩 is lies about Biden. They need reprogramming.
Cecile: no need to preach. We know the guy is false, is a demon that must not be allowed back into the White House. Which is only one reason why Biden must show spine dealing with border restrictions until Congress finally acts. But we know they don’t want to act in order to use it in November. Which is double why Biden must use executive hand.
Cecile's comment was good & very informative. It's important that, before making public statements, we have all the facts. Those who rant & make false statements about immigrants often don't have all the facts.
Cecile: I understand what you say and you are correct. When some of us say the border is broken, we really mean that the laws need to be amended because as they are now written, they (immigration laws) are being abused, arguably. We need to create more stringent laws. In my opinion, the same goes for parts of the 14th amendment which will never happen. We no longer need the birthright portion. It was enacted to prevent Afrocentric former enslaved from being returned to Africa. This is no longer an issue. But the border is being exploited by those the world over. And besides, you must not forget this last point, we on the democratic side will lose many votes if we don’t show backbone and respond appropriately.
Which laws Bill must be amended, abolish asylum? Chisel out the motto on the Statue of Liberty or re-write it: "Don't gives your poor or sick.Add "No Irish please. Absolutely no refugees from the Third Reich." Yikes -- send them back on the boat they rode in on.
How does one amend any law Mr. Speaker? Mr Speaker, Mr. Speaker -- does anyone know where the Dude is?
Thank you Cecile .. you’ve cleared a good bit of my misinformation and given me new factual sources which I’ve avoided searching in past as it’s been my head-in-the-sand (“I’m still working, I don’t have time to examine these statements” … etc)
Aliens do drive down the cost of labor. And companies have been importing foreign laborers for 200 years.
For example, did you know that as late as 1980, meat packers were black, and they earned decent middle class wages, thanks to decades of organizing? But that by that decade's end, they were immigrants, toiling under atrocious conditions for barely more than minimum wage? And that the same thing happened to most of the rest of unskilled work beginning around the same time?
See: Back of the Hiring Line: A 200 Year history of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, by Roy Beck. ($14 on Amazon).
Beck gives the lie to the notion that there are jobs American workers won't do. As part of his research, he interviewed poultry workers recently laid off, in favor of immigrants. He asked the laid off workers if they'd take their jobs back if offered. No, they told him, becuase the wages were now so low that they'd have to sleep in their cars or live many to a house.
By the way, just so you know, I'm a lifelong Democrat, from a Democratic family. My great uncle, Philip Hornbein, a labor lawyer on labor's side, was de facto head of the Colorado Democratic Party for the first half of the last century, and he gave the speech at the '32 convention recommending an end to prohibition. Biden is the best president of my lifetime, which began in the first summer of the Eisenhower ADministration.
Cecile Stelzer-Johnson, you actually make my point. "Nobody" will work minimum-wage jobs as long as Biden ensures a continuing supply of "nobodies" (illegal aliens). Cut off the supply of illegals, and companies will have to pay a living wage for unskilled labor.
"Corporate Joe" Biden comes from tiny corporatist Delaware, a suburb of Wall Street, where the "grass roots" voters work in the corporate headquarters buildings that Delaware is famous for.
Wrong. I think he has been a bit slow because of the psychological trait. If one side says red the other side say blue and so on. We all should stop listening to those who use partisan divide to vomit the same message over and over. Think for yourselves.
I can agree with that. That's part of why I supported Tulsi Gabbard during the 2020 Democratic primary season. She had the ability to make common-sense suggestions in search of a bipartisan consensus.
Alright … y’all knock off the electronic duel so we can continue discussing
Issues that are important to all of us who are going to vote in November for the guy from Delaware vice the Felon from New York (no names please—if the Felon from NY becomes our next President he will seek revenge from posters such as us. You’ve been warned.)
PS. Sidebar comment correcting JS’s accusation of our choices of schools: Ole Miss vice Harvard. Hotty Tottie, y’all.
I think you, John, are putting too much emphasis on his ability to think things through. I can’t understand why he has not acted sooner on dealing with the untenable border.
Any unbiased Supreme Court Justice would agree..I agree with you Matt but think conservative and liberal...as terms have become politicized. I think if we dig deep....we will see the term isn't liberal, it's unbiased.
In the past my comments have brought up how much our language matters. Again, emotional words often misdirect the actual conversation or discussion at hand. To get to the heart of the threats to our Democracy, consider how much meaning/definition matters in that discussion. That is the beauty and importance of Professor Richardson’s writing and explaining of the facts of our history in my opinion.
The conservative justices are not independent thinkers. They take their orders and decide cases based upon the orders from Leo Leonard and the billionaires who fund the Heritage Foundation.
Matt, before the Senate changed SCOTUS Justice approval to a simple majority, Justice nominees had to be more centrist gain support of both parties. Now radical tribal judges have skewed their partisanship drastically into the hands of their oligarch benefactors
Strangely corporations are increasingly granted the rights of persons while being relieved of a person's responsibilities. Isn't that how tyranny works? Extreme privilege with little to no accountability.
There is another way that would be much easier to make happen. But first we have to beat back the MAGA idiots and regain control of both houses of congress and the executive. This will be very hard given the Biden's response to the Gaza situation and the loss of support of the Arab-American voter. Right now, backing Bebe Netanyahu is exactly equivalent to backing Trump.
But saying that a miracle happens at the polls this year (e.g. young people actually turning out to vote for a change?), a simple piece of legislation that creates a national corporate chartering and governance oversight process for companies that congress declares to be critical national assets would do the trick. Then move to grab some key corporate charters away from the State of Delaware, throw out their current boards, and establish some new oversight process consistent with what Drucker envisioned. That would change the relationship.
It's a sad situation, and I wish it were not so, but Biden has become a liability to the Democrats over the past month. I don't think any of the factors that have created this situation are fair. His age should not be an issue given how fit he is. If there wasn't a truly effective campaign by the Russians and Chinese to poison sentiment about him in social media. If the Murdoch family had a tiny shred of decency. If the IDF hadn't acted like a bunch of undisciplined brown shirts in response to an equally horrific attack. Maybe changing any one of these would have been enough, but adding them together and it's just too much. If wishes were fishes...
I've gained a whole new view of Teddy Roosevelt, from reading LFAA. Ha! I've just been reading an account of his assassination attempt: "Schrank was immediately disarmed by Czech immigrant Frank Bukovsky[1] and captured" A Czech! an immigrant! he probably spoke language! a language nobody else can speak! terrible people! Jokes aside, the whole story was fascinating, and Roosevelt the man comes through it with flying colors.
I dismissed him because of the “big hunter” rep, but I came to realize that he was so much more than that. We owe him what we had until recently, to a great extent…
We have been brainwashed from Reagan on down to detest government. We are very close to Russia, we really are. Jamie Dimon is fine with Trump again. He said so out loud. He knows even if America is a hell hole dictatorship he will be one of the oligarchs who do just fine.
The same old people(like me-70 years old!) who take Social Security and Medicare from the government without batting an eye are the same Fox News watching, immigrant hating, Trump voting idiots who very well may give us a country we will not recognize or want to live in. We are living in literally insane times. If it would not affect me, those I love, and all the other innocent people it would hurt, I would LOVE all these idiots to lose their government benefits in the new world order of Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and DJT. And oh I forget—their military retirements. Looking at you, Michael Flynn.
Again, all this “secession” talk from idiots like my Gov. Abbott is likewise insane. People are so, so stupid and brainwashed to boot. Dr. R, thank you for all the amazing history lessons, today included. Boy, do we need a trust busting TR today.
Of course the American Oligarchs would turn (publicly or secretly) to TFG. Joe is pro-labor, pro fair taxation, and anti-monopoly. Why would any self-respecting Oligarch want Joe in the White House?!
Rick A. it seems that with Reagan we saw the same government pendulum swinging back toward the big business interests similar to the era of the "Robber Barons" of the steel, railroad and banking industries following the last change of the century.
He used his suffering to mold himself. We all should do that because there is plenty of suffering these days. Use it for the good of the people. After all, the government is for the good of the people. A goal corrupted by Reagan (or Peggy Noonan) and the "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you." BTW, that's the reason I donate to the National Parks Foundation.
I agree, Pam. Not only is death star a damn criminal, he is a festering cancer on the body politic, bent on destroying everything that decent people value. And how many minions like him have come out of the wall to take advantage like rampaging cancer cells. Rs are now the party of death.
Yes, just a ball of cells with the Trick.....got a boost from RayGun, Bush I, and Dubya, and now the body politic is one big tumor....reeking rotting tumor. We need to cut (vote) it out.
Jeri, he was a man trying desperately to get over the double loss of his wife and his mother on the same day while also trying to recover and strengthen himself from a childhood of sickness and pampering. He was trying to better himself as a a man before then trying to better a government with very lopsided priorities.
But his ego didn’t say, I deserve (blank) because I have suffered. You would think that chump had a horrific personal history. Nah, just a one that made him rotten to the bone
Jeri Chilcutt, so true. My opinion of the man also. And it can be so disconcerting when we read history and because of our recent past ( ~ 40+ years) my critical thinking (and probably others) gets tangled as we read these letters and Republicans & Democratic “titles” are used. The two have flip flopped completely.
The flip flop has apparently confused many, especially during Jim Crow and on until WW2. Reagan may have had some sense before Nancy got hold of him. When I became “woke,” the repubs were the elites (couldn’t stand arrogant Bill Buckley). Rupert did a masterful job (some already greased up by Rush), of convincing people that Dems were demons. From some of the interviews I’ve seen, that BS is still gospel with MAGAts
I always enjoy your comments Jeri! I've been appreciating the voting process here in CA. Everyone got a ballot in the mail. You can complete it and take it to the polls, drop of at a large choice of places - Firestation, library etc (locked Drop boxes of course) or go vote in person. I got a text from the Secretary of State the day after I voted that my ballot had been received and counted. If only everyone had this process
Thanks for your kind words. Wow, that is awesome. The fact that repubs try to discourage and do everything they can to make it difficult, should be reason enough to never vote repub again…
There are several excellent TR quotes in the letter:
"Instead, he believed the American people must create a strong federal government that could exert public control over corporations."
Wall Street hated TR but he was a populist and the people loved him.
Excellent letter today Heather, but I'm a big TR fan. I can't imagine how much more control the corporations and the richest hundred or so Americans would have today if it wasn't for TR's bold actions 100 years ago.
Doris Kearns Goodwin did an excellent bio on TR that I highly recommend. I'm sure there are others equally good. He was - like all humans - a mixed bag. He managed to be both a man of his time, and yet far ahead of it. We need his like in Washington today, for sure.
It was an awesome read! I think of the tragedy of the loss of his mom and wife within hours of each other and how he could not bear to see his daughter.
But there are still so many individual buccaneers, so many privateering corporate pirates messing around with US national policy at home and abroad.
We may in part owe the existence of the current Putin regime to the activities of these loose cannons. It was they that deliberately humiliated Russia when she was down, they that delivered "more shit for your face" -- quoting Bill Clinton to Boris Yeltsin.
They bear huge responsibility for the failure of democracy in Russia. Their activity so strengthened the defeated Communist Party that Yeltsin et al. had to doctor national elections to sideline the CP. The beginning of the end for democracy. Next came the installation of Putin.
Even this dangerous crook could have been handled more skilfully... as so many other s.o.b.s have been. Even without becoming another OUR S.O.B like Anastasio Somoza...
I wonder what Teddy Roosevelt would have thought of Tesla, Amazon, and Nvidia? I bet if he were with us today, he would have gone after Private Equity too, and the way they buy solid mom and pop companies, suck all the value from them with impunity, fire the knowledgeable employees, lock the doors, and leave communities weaker.
OMG, Patricia, Private Equity (formerly known as 'leveraged buy-outs') a ruining entire segments of the economy. They may well be one of the root causes of the housing/rent crisis, since some of them swooped in and bought up every foreclosed house they could after the housing crash, and turned them into rentals or flipped them later. Now they've moved into the medical/industrial complex....................
They are a blight in our neighborhood. Our neighbor, a former banker, mentioned the number of rentals in the our neighborhood. Then there is also corporate buy out of businesses like vet clinics. Ours in independent but swamped because a corporation bought out a local one nearby. Many years ago, I used to buy lots of seeds from the British company, Thompson and Morgan. Then they were bought out, sucked dry, and I doubt they even exist anymore. I have seen this happen to many companies. When I am grocery shopping at our local natural foods market, I try to buy brands that have not been bought by some large conglomerate. The local Saturday outdoor market started yesterday, another opportunity to support local farmers, ranchers, and artists. We didn't go because the weather early was not good, but well go next weekend. People line up for the good stuff. A friend bought some pastries for our coffee get together from a supermarket that is now part of a Canadian company. She paid 8.79 for each one. Eek.
Does anyone know of a legislator who is willing to write legislation to regulate Private Equity? Maybe we could all write to him/her. There must be one of them out there whose hand isn't getting greased.
Not just mom and pop--remember the rash of "buy, deplete, and bankrupt" raids on airlines? Travel today suffers from the aftermath of those mergers, in service, safety, and squishing travelers like sardines.
KEM, you, Matt Fulkerson and Ally House beat me to these comments. I hope that I live to see our government tame the Supreme Court's rampage against our citizens' rights by overturning Citizens United and codifying Roe v. Wade, for starters.
No more corporate attorneys on the courts, especially the Supreme Court.
Corporations are not people, my friend.
The question this court has framed to consider re immunity smacked to me of the overreach that the citizens United case, which originally was much narrower, exhibited.
I actually think they framed the question as the overriding Constitutional question. The Supreme Court is only supposed to hear matters regarding Constitutional or Federal law issues. My complaint is that the actions under consideration are so flagrantly unconstitutional that they should have refused to hear the appeal.
Doesn't the name "Citizens United" catch an Orwell prize for sound like exactly what it's not?
And yes, if we are the ultimate authority for our government's direction and legitimacy, we have complete control over what behaviors those with a corporate license are and are not permitted to perform, over and above the rights of any citizen. Do we not wield just powers from the consent of the governed? We have been conned into recreating an overarching (think Musk) aristocracy of quasi-feudal lords.
Yes, the name CU makes my blood churn. I was trying to say that so many folks think we just can’t fight the billionaires and their practices and policies. But that’s not true. We fight them by electing as our representatives people who will vote for campaign reform. Amy Klobuchar introduces legislation every session; we can elect people who will join that fight.
It is like a damn Monopoly game played over and over. Capitalism versus representative government. "IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said the total "financial activity" associated with the unfiled returns tops $100 billion, and unpaid tax liabilities could easily run into the hundreds of millions of dollars." Don't pass go, pay your taxes. Slow them down, at least. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/taxes/us-irs-aims-to-collect-on-125000-unfiled-high-income-tax-returns/ar-BB1j86bZ
Yes and Bobby is the only candidate that can break us free from the corporate capture. He is campaigning on it.Biden has proven ineffective on it. Sinema and Manchin are examples of it.
RFKJR said Biden has appointed the wrong people to the head of government agencies. For example, the head of the NIH came from a pharmaceutical company. He made rules to favor that company. He then went back to work for that company and raked in millions!
Yes I am and I want to correct myself.I do not want to spread misinformation . Please forgive me for texting off the top of my head and getting it wrong. What I was referring to was Scott Gottlieb, a business partner to Pfizer . He was the one who worked for our government and then went back to Pfizer and raked in millions . Is that correct?
It’s too late. The monied class controls government. The fight is all but over. If we can gain super majorities in Congress, maybe there is a chance. But I am doubtful.
Many of us seem to have forgotten that “[t]he object of government is the welfare of the people.” Many seem to believe that providing for the welfare of one individual has become our sole concern. We, the people, must defeat those who negate the public interest, who place profits above people. Proposed outsized grocery store mergers today do no more to help the average shopper than did the mergers of steel companies or railroads in Roosevelt's time. The need for transparency, not just in the corporate world, but also in government, is even more essential now. It is up to us to make sure that we elect truth-tellers who place the greater good above their own personal desire for power. Voting is the most powerful tool that the people possess. We must use it wisely.
"These measures will require the oil companies and other energy producers to provide the public with the necessary information on their supplies. They will prevent the injustice of windfall profits for a few as a result of the sacrifices of the millions of Americans. "
1. Stalin
2. Satan
3. Nixon - Winner!
Not that Nixon was a fountain of light, but imagine a Republican saying anything similar today?
He also started the EPA, adfter seeing the large public response to the first Earth Day. in 1971. Imagine a Republican doing that! Things are so bad now even old Trickster Dick looks good.
He quietly fomented evil, being the good Quaker that he was, in addition to being a war monger. But he wasn’t 100% useless, like chump. I think he just wanted to fool some in the public square so that he could do his evil behind the scenes.
I think some portion of the Quaker heritage may have rubbed off. There was a very nasty streak in him, and he caused a lot of suffering for selfish reasons; and yet not so thoroughly reprehensible as St. Reagan (especially on environmental issues), let alone Trump.
But he, like both of them (and I’ll add W), apparently felt/feel like they are entitled to whatever. That’s a core problem as far as I’m concerned. I can’t think of one of our founders who thought it was all about them…
Nixon did a few really good things while he was President, unlike Trump who accomplished nothing but enabling Corporations, the 1% and the white faux-Christian Nationalists.
Thank you. Nixon was a son of a bitch but he had some decency. I truly believe he loved his wife and his dog Checkers. And I think he had some struggles with his conscience about Vietnam.
I agree with your points. That said, the grocery companies wanting to merge would say they’re just trying to remain competitive with the likes of Walmart and Amazon. 🥴
To big to fail is just another phrase to justify corporate bailouts with tax payers money. We pay twice....first through higher prices...because they can raise them...then we bail them out with our tax dollars during national crisis.
Everytime I hear proponents of 'too big to fail' I always pose the question, 'dont you believe in capitalism? Isn't a premise of capitalism that poorly managed corporations will fail and well managed will survive...and there is always a new and eager upstart corporation willing to buy the failed organization and work like the devil to make it work."
What is the corporation equivalent of pull yourself up by your bootstraps? (Stay solvent and make it work....or something like that?)
It's neo-feudalism dressed up as religious piety/patriotism. Allegedly government-enabled wealth transfers upward fosters morality and "jobs, jobs, jobs", in spite of plentiful evidence to the contrary. Allegedly, aid to those in misfortune creates "moral hazard", and aid or protection for workers is "job killing". You can find very pattern articulated in the news over the last several decades.
You will find a related argument in an even more pernicious form of feudalism in slavery. It's really a smokescreen over naked greed and sociopathy. If you think of it as it plays out in reality, it is pretty much the antithesis of Christian ethics, as well as patriotism.
One of the many nice things about living in France is buying perishables in the market. Every precinct has its market, three times a week, 7 am to about 2 pm. People talk to each other, the stallholders make jokes, there's food...
And it's so beautiful! Shapes and colours. Yellow, red, green, black. The fish all arranged according to their shape, usually swirling up to a swordfish peak. 2 pm it shuts, everything gets packed up or out, and by 3 pm the marketplace is empty and hosed down.
"I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. " Former AG Eric Holder
And if you don't prosecute and let them get even bigger (they did) what then?
The derivatives and the sub-prime mortgages were also major contributors to the collapse.
Howard Clark spoke out against sub-prime mortgages for at least a couple of years before the crash. He warned homebuyers not to fall into the trap of 100% variable interest home loans.
I'm sure that many people listened and didn't fall in to the trap but millions more ended up losing their homes. I'll never understand why Obama didn't cap the interest rate increases on the mortgages at .5% a year. He bailed out the big banks but left millions of people literally out in the cold.
Trump's Treasury Secretary was brutal with foreclosures in CA throwing elderly people out of their homes for owing less than $100.
And now he's partners with Kushner on his Saudi Arabia deal. What a putz!
Right! And then there will be 3 and only 3. It will crush all others and we will be screwed.
We are talking about FOOD! Not to mention all the other staples we need like 'safe water' and TP and laundry soap and toothpaste etc that we buy when we're there buying FOOD.
They are doing it now, just not in the daylight. Take a look at a bar of soap. It has this 'interesting' shape - a concave rectangle, not a full rectangle like it used to be. How much soap was taken out of that bar, to be sold at the same or similar price? Where'd the extra soap go? Did the price of that bar go down? Take a look at your toilet paper (should I say 'bathroom tissue'?). How much distance is there, end to end on the holder, compared to just a few years ago. I figure 3/4" to 1." Where'd the paper go? How much less did a package of tissue cost? One more - my favorite. Miracle Whip, a staple of Kraft. The product used to be in a 1 quart or 32 oz. jar. What is it now? 28 oz? Where'd the other four ounces go? What no one here is talking too much about is the lack of visible, ethical companies. BTW: Do MBA students still study business ethics? If so, what do they do with the knowledge gained? Then, let me push the concept of business ethics to personal conscience. Where did it go? It got trampled under the feet of all the good Congressional representatives who bought what the lobbyists were selling. I listen and watch James Comer and I think, "How in hell did this dim bulb get into Congress? I wonder what his net worth will be once he leaves the hallowed halls. And, where's Rex Tillerson these days? I'm starting to rant. It's Sunday. No rants on Sunday! Peace, all.
Mike, good point about Walmart & Amazon. The more we lean on Amazon or Walmart to deliver many of the groceries we consume without needing to "go out" to the store, the more we feed the polluting effects of all their delivery trucks and excess packaging! A minor convenience for a major impact on climate-changing resources.
I’d add outsized that businesses with huge reserves of cash buying up local houses (single and multi family homes) do no more to help the average renter, much less anyone hoping to buy their 1st house (home) than I’ve ever seen.
These businesses (largely located out of state) will then raise the rents of the current renters for the next month. In most cases doubling or sometimes even tripling the rent. With just a 30 day notice this puts the current renter in a tough place. Now the average wage earner has to pay more of their weekly income simply to afford their rent. Their lives which were reasonably stable financially now have become more hand to mouth.
I know a few who live in two or three bedroom apartments getting more roommates than the bedrooms available simply to afford the rent. Living rooms become bedrooms. Storage closets become bedrooms. And those people moving in have been forced out by the place they lived being bought and their rent doubled. They couldn’t afford to stay so they move.
As mentioned the businesses buying up local properties are often located out of state. Their onslaught of buying as many houses as they can has driven the price of single and multi family homes through the roof. While real estate has always been a commodity the number of homes and apartments in one town being owned by one large corporation are becoming the next monopolies. I’m lucky enough to own my house. If not I couldn’t afford to live here.
Yes the power to vote must be used and by more than 50% of registered voters. Use it or lose it folks. What do you think Dictator Trump will do in his next term? Have caucuses take over voting from Pesky People?
Yes and RFKJR is campaigning on that. But as he has said , and what JFK wanted on his grave - He kept the peace. That’s the first priority of government.
Yes Jen, I get that. I’m still laughing over the comment someone made last Sunday when she posted a picture of the full moon. Someone first quoted the Creedence song - there’s a bad moon on the rise. And then, someone else said , back in that time she was driving around partying with friends singing that tune when she had to go. And so she sang There’s a bathroom on the right!
I think you have credentials and in house knowledge about vaccines. Have you seen the club Random with Bill Maher talking to RFKJR about that?Isn’t there some good reason to be skeptical about the vaccines?
If government ensures its real priorities, namely life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, keeping the peace will naturally ensue. When keeping the peace, whether within the country or internationally, becomes the number one priority, we have we have dictators and wars (see Chamberlain).
The accurate telling of history is only told if "we the people" make sure of it. Otherwise you get twisted views, like that of "slavery - they benefited from it" that is being put forward by the dolts in Florida.
When the media reported on the list of presidents it was without guile as if these people have the right to determine this. If I had drawn up the list of presidents from best to worst I would not have put Reagan above Biden, he would be more towards the bottom.
I also would not have put Obama above Biden. I would not have put George Washington above Biden. I would have put Theodore Roosevelt above George Washington too. Biden is the best president in my lifetime, and so much of that is because of his social economic agenda, which puts the people first. His is a more inclusive government than was Roosevelt's though. In fact, if inclusivity were a criteria then Biden should go to the top. He saved our economy from Covid, not small feat. Got our supply chains working again. Started evaluating who we are doing business with. Is funding education which is the underpinning of a modern economy, and makes it about the environment. So, if I were to say who was the better president it would have to be Biden. Under him Native Americans are included in the agenda, in a greater way than they have been by any President. Reagan is the person most responsible for global warming, which is destroying life on the planet. He also destroyed our economy and Biden is the first president to eschew "trickle down" and right our economy from that piece of fallacy. I was just discussing with friends how crazy it is that Red States governors turn down federal monies for their people for things like health care. Why would they do that? It is crazy and bad governance. Also, why do people vote for them? Biden is doing things in a bipartisan way, and was even when he had a majority in both houses, which is important, even though the Republican Party has totally sold out to Trump, who would go with Reagan at the bottom of the list because they are so damaging for the environment globally. I guess people that vote for Trump do not realize that they need clean air to breath, clean water to drink, safe foods to eat, and a climate that does not lead to devastation such as fires, floods, drought, too much heat. We need a government that helps families out with raising and educating their children. It is not rocket science to understand that, but it seems beyond many people's ken to understand that. I am glad that under Biden antitrust law is actually being used to block many deals. Now we also need courts that do not rule for business as a person, like a clump of frozen cells, conservative Republicans justices have given personhood where it does not exist, all to line their pockets.
Same here Linda and Joanna. How can people not see this? If my memory was better, I'd be constantly spreading the news. I still argue with people who say they voted for T because of his business acumen and negotiation skills. OMG it makes me sick.
Even before Reagan started showing signs of dementia during his second term in office, he had a tendency to conflate the movie roles he had played with reality. Amiable Dunce was an accurate description of Reagan. I was never fond of him or George H.W. Bush, but I detested George W. Bush and positively loathe Donald J. Trump and his grifting 3 elder children. Don, Jr., Ivanka, and Eric learned the art of grifting from their father.
You nailed it Kathy. TFFG is definitely showing many signs of dementia.
And few in the media comment on it. Instead they dwell on his hate filled comments.
If Trump wins in November, I totally blame it on the MSM. The Republican political machine is too stupid to win the election for him. But then again, so is his base.
It seems absurd to even TRY to compare an unreconstructed narcissistic grifter with presidents and actual working politicians, no matter how loathsome many of the latter are.
There was not one good thing about him. I had grown up with dual citizenship, but had let my German passport lag, not really thinking about it. However, when Reagan was elected, after spending 2 weeks in shock, I renewed my passport and have kept it current ever since. When Trump got elected I decided to find property in Germany just in case we needed to leave, although I thought we could live with relatives if we had to, life is easier if one does not need to steal away in the dead of the night. Bush senior was not bright, and his son even less so. His presidency was stolen for him by his brother and the Supreme Court. Americans have put up with a lot of elements of fascism from the Republicans. I think it is time to say, "NO MORE!"
Yes. It was my understanding that he could not even read the one page briefs that were prepared for him on all topics. I just know that in the book Losing Earth: A Recent History by Nathaniel Rich, he discusses that Reagan was told about global warming at a time when the fossil fuel industry in the USA was ready to listen and change their investments to something else. However, Reagan told them not to worry, someone could solve the problems created down the road, and he put an industry insider in charge of regulating the industry.
Look where that decision making got us! So in terms of destruction of the planet, Reagan is gone, but we are all here to inherit his idea to kick the can down the road. That is one of the most impactful decisions in the history of the world for the future of our species on this planet. Now we have Trump encouraging Putin to make nuclear war. I have been reading articles on nuclear shelters yesterday. Particularly of the city where I am right now, which is in the EU. In my USA city, I know where the bomb shelter is near my house. It is in a fire station a few blocks away and can only hold 200 people. It also does not have up to date supplies of food and water. So, there you go.
In my supermajority red state, which has never expanded “Obamacare” (and that is the problem), a man who plans to run for governor said he opposes expansion because people need to rely on God!!!
Thank you! Biden has done so much in this incredibly fractured political landscape- I, too, have been VERY impressed with his success… which is what I was expecting when I voted for him the first time. It is a shame that “peace love and light” does not sell in the news as much as “fear hate and shock.” Otherwise , more people would be aware of Biden’s long list of wins. Hard fought wins, at that!
Linda, in asking about "Red States governors turn down federal monies for their people for things like health care. Why would they do that?" I would reply that I think it's because for much of that federal money, (Medicaid money?) the states have to supply the other half of the money, that the money isn't entirely free without state obligation to match it. One assumes that for red states it is more important to NOT go along with programs created by blue politicians which benefit actual people. Perverse as is much among the Rethuglicans these days.
My understanding is that the state pays 10% the federal government 90%, so it seems like this saves the states money, because the costs of uninsured must be greater.
If a politician is in government because they want to do good, then they would be supporting it. However, Republicans seem to have bought into the uncivilized idea that it is not the job of the government to support the well-being of the people. If the USA is not to be like Russia, people need to get out on the streets and protest more. Also, fight against these right-to-work oxymoronic laws.
Super Tuesday is your chance to send a message to the bully ( not Teddy’s kind of bully) that Americans want a president who believes in peace and freedom and democracy not a selfish nasty greedy manbaby. Voter turnout in every election in a democracy should be close to 90% not 9%. Please do your part and vote Tuesday in your super state. Take your mail in ballot to an official box. Your state or city website will give you details. 💙💙🇺🇸🥳💙💙
I was out with people from Democrats Abroad Germany on Friday talking about how we get more of the 1 mil Americans living abroad to vote. We have heard the stat that it was Democrats Abroad who brought home Georgia for Biden in 2020. In the city I am living in there are 1000 Americans, and only 80 are registered with Democrats Abroad, so we are trying to do outreach. https://www.democratsabroad.org/
Please ask all your expat friends to join. We are having the Global Presidential Primary this coming week.
Ever since I read TR's biography he is my hero. Corporations today are not guided by his principle, but instead, what will produce the most wealth for stockholders, which is often executives and corporate board members. Yesterday Andrew Carnegie was in HCR'S spotlight, and we do appreciate the libraries, though many are now under fire for having books. But the billionaires are there because they accumulate. And then rarely give away. Bill Gates is an exception, so was Paul Allen, and his sister does a good job giving away his fortune since his death. Some people, like Bezos's ex wife, are in that group. The woman who gave a billion dollars for the Einstein med center and med school is in that group.
Ruth Gottesman's $1 billion donation to the Bronx medical center was such a great counter to the Barre Seid $1.6 billion donation to Leonard Leo's right wing foundation. I did a quiet "whoohoo" when I read about it!
Corporation were always guided by greed, but only as much as they are allowed to get away with. TR et al, and social movements imposed some manners on US corporations between the "Gilded Age" and "Reaganomics".
Yes it's a generalization, and my wife incorporated when she consulted on training for visually impaired students, but a lot of big corporations have a creepy legacy, such as the British East India Company in India. Commerce has something of a cutthroat history.
Frank, do you remember Ted Turner's call to the billionaires to give away part of their fortunes. Anyway, many of them have. The following is a link and partial article from Forbes.
Many people tithe in the US mostly giving to their churches and other philanthropic organizations. Millions others are generous with their time which is often more valuable than the cash.
From Warren Buffett to newcomer Jeff Bezos, the nation's most generous billionaires have given away a collective $169 billion in their lifetimes–and are still richer than ever.
The billions keep piling up for many of America’s great philanthropists. So, too, do their charitable contributions. The nation’s 25 biggest givers have donated a total of $169 billion over the course of their lifetimes, according to Forbes’ estimates. That’s up from $149 billion last year, partly due to new information uncovered by Forbes—but mostly due to another year of huge giving by these 25 mega-donors.
Leading the pack: Warren Buffett, whose annual summer gift of Berkshire Hathaway stock topped $4.1 billion this year. The funds, as usual, went to The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—where they are being put to work on poverty and healthcare initiatives, including research and vaccines for Covid-19—plus to foundations set up by his late wife and three children.
Not far behind (and maybe even ahead): MacKenzie Scott, whose shoestring operation—she has no foundation and gives her wealth away in stealth—donated $5.8 billion to 500 different groups across the country in 2020. Last year, she continued giving her fortune away faster than any billionaire ever, announcing in June another $2.7 billion in gifts to 286 “high-impact” groups such as the Children’s Defense Fund and the National Council of Nonprofits—pushing her estimated lifetime donations above $8.6 billion. Then, in December, Scott published a Medium post mentioning that she’d made another round of gifts—but provided no details on who got the grants or how much she doled out. She quickly clarified that she would share details about the gifts "in the year to come." In the meantime, Forbes is only crediting her with her known, public donations.
Two fresh faces have joined the top philanthropist ranks since last year: Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna, and Scott’s ex-husband, Jeff Bezos, who has taken to philanthropy—announcing $1 billion in gifts in 2021—since stepping down as Amazon’s CEO in July.
Other big donations: a $500 million pledge to a small liberal arts college by George Soros, a $3.4 billion initiative over ten years from Mark Zuckerberg to measure and analyze biological processes in the human body and a $5 billion, ten-year pledge toward biodiversity conservation by a handful of groups, include three top givers: Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and Gordon and Betty Moore.
Of course, with markets riding high, it’s easier to dole out billions. These 25 philanthropists are a collective $150 billion richer than they were a year ago, up 18% each on average. In all, they’re worth an estimated $1.1 trillion. Seventeen of them have signed The Giving Pledge, promising to donate at least half their fortune to charity over their lifetimes or upon their deaths. But only two—Chuck Feeney and Soros (who has not signed The Giving Pledge)—have hit the mark so far. Nearly two-thirds have yet to give away even a quarter of their wealth, meaning there are a lot more zeros earmarked for charities in the years to come.
Our estimates factor in the total lifetime giving of American billionaires, measured in dollars given to charitable recipients—in other words, we are not including money parked in a foundation that has yet to do any good. To that end, we also do not include gifts that have been pledged but not yet paid out, or money given to donor-advised funds—opaque, tax-advantaged accounts that have neither disclosure nor distribution requirements—unless the giver shared details about the grants that were actually paid by such entities. This is a list of individuals and couples who are U.S. citizens; as a result, we excluded extended families like the Waltons, controlling shareholders of Walmart, and excluded big givers like Hansjoerg Wyss, who lives in the U.S. but is a Swiss citizen. Net worths are as of January 18, 2022.
I don't think the philanthropic whims of some grossly wealthy should negate the fact that such extraordinary wealth was illicitly accumulated to begin with. Bezos paying his workers slave wages, for example.
Paul Allen's sister is busy turning every good thing he did into cash for herself. She canceled the RV Petrel that had been discovering all the World War II ships in the Pacific and wanted to sell off the Air Museum to collectors. At least one of the Walmart heirs bought the whole air museum and is keeping it as it is. She's not "good guy." No more financing of aerospace advances, she wants the cash for herself.
Seems I recall the then-Boeing exec hanging out with chump at the WH before the crashes that brought scrutiny. Not saying it was nefarious, but I wondered why at the time, and more why as Boeing’s problems starting killing passengers.
My husband used to travel to Boeing when he was a contracting officer for NASA. Had most respect for them. That was a while back and they have hit the skids. I still think that NASA will regret their alliance with Elon. Maybe they already do.
Have you seen the PBS blurb about Jack Kilby, where he says "I'm just an engineer, I don't deserve the Nobel Prize." Love it. An MBA would have "regulated" his brain.
My dad managed mfg for the electronics package on the airborne command post, and worked on the Saturn V rocket. I keep telling him he should write a bio. He has pictures of him walking w Bandar Bush, holding hands and carrying one of his kids. He was delivering AWACS to the saudis.
He says " I'm nobody" to my autobiography suggestion.
Old time Boeing.
He agrees with you the Musk alliance is a mistake.
Indeed he should write his bio. So many stories from long ago, at the dawn of the age that has changed the world. Good stories from people who think they are ""nobody." Glad he agrees about Musk, seems like a no-brainer to me.
I've heard several ex-Boeing employees on NPR lately. It's obvious that Boeing has put money over the safety of their passengers. Greed will be the death of us all. Makes me wonder how these decision makers can look themselves in the mirror or sleep at night.
Though we could learn a thing or two about anti-trust from TR. "not trying to destroy corporations but rather wanted to make them act in the public interest. He demanded a “square deal” for everyone"? And why not?
JL Despite historical focus on Teddy Roosevelt’s anti-trust ‘crusade,’ his successor President Taft initiated more comprehensive anti-trust initiatives that did Teddy. Teddy’s Bully Pulpit was great PR, but Teddy tended to exaggerate.
We could get it through Congress if we flipped the house and senate, but I don’t think Rick Scott will be any less ruinous than Mitch McConnell was as senate minority of majority leader.
I was sick when Citizens United happened. I still don’t see how the title has anything to do with the reality. It should be called “Eyes Wide Shut.” Of course that can be said for a thousand other coalition names that stand for the opposite of what they really represent… mainly created by the conservative leaning.
History connects with the present moment when it reveals more or less how thing got to be the way they are. For the most part, is wasn't taught that way in school, in my individual experience. The college I attended was historically oriented and focused on the evolution of Western thought. We read a sequence of individual books and papers from the Ancient Greeks to the present. Only scratching the surface, but you could see things taking shape. K-12 was mostly memorizing names and dates.
And K-12 is worse than that now, "teach to the test." And don't teach cursive, we wouldn't want our good little Gammas to actually be able to read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, or Lincoln's Gettyburg Address - or the World War II diaries from their grandfathers that I use in my books - among many others. Nobody under 30 can read or write cursive now.
Recently, my granddaughter watched me write cursive and was so intrigued. She thought it was sort of like magic. No, I said, just practice, practice, practice. How cheated these young critters have been.
Jeri, for the record, there have now been studies suggesting that learning retention is significantly better for notes takien in cursive than (often more copious) typed notes. [Science News, 2/24/2024, p. 12]
The worst educational ideas I’ve seen are teaching to the test while abandoning education on non-tested topics, abandoning cursive education, and the censorship of books and the teaching the true and more unsavory and racist aspects of our history.
I view deliberately teaching lies to kids a criminal, at least for matters that matter. There were things about human behavior that we didn't detail with our daughter till she seemed "ready", but we also tried to not misrepresent. I believe "fortune favors the prepared mind".
I see standardized testing as an administrative convenience. It produces a number for qualities that in reality can be hard to articulately define, so it seem like it gives us a handle to hang on them, but I think that in some ways the number becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy, like measuring yardsticks with yardsticks to give congruent results becomes less useful capturing the power of a symphony. As Einstein remarked, “It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.” We can quantify that wave pressure, but what does the number alone leave out?
We treat biodiversity and desperate interests as a bug in our system, when it arguably key to our resilience as a species and our human ability to know and do so, so many things. Yes, we need a common language and a kit of practical skills, but we want to industrialize education when it seems to me that it is best addressed as process of discovery for the pupil and everyone involved, a conversation, not a lecture. Yes, a guided process of discovery, and yes, with the aid of practiced mentors, but I think that if curricula spent as much time encouraging questions as dispensing answers, we would not see nearly as much unhelpful (and sometimes deadly) misinformation circulating in our society.
Kind of like the Catholic Church speaking and writing in Latin. How much of what they we blathering was made up to enrich themselves and keep the peons in line.
I started messing about with computers in the mid 1970's but I still carry a pen. I realize it would be different were I not a retired old misanthrope I would probably feel differently, but I hate carrying a cell phone and rarely take with me when I venture into what passes for reality. To me, a phone seems like a fancy Swiss Army Knife, Just the thing in some situations, but a laptop is more like a well equipped machine shop and I don't have to dink around so much.
Total agreement. I messed with the @#$#@@!! "main frames" and tried to learn FORTRAN in grad school, an experience so terrible it took me six years of the new desktop revolution in the 80s to finally get one. Now that so much is digitized, I'm a happy camper. I started researching "The Frozen Chosen" the year the Marine Corps put every pice of paper from every unit in the Korean War online in a searchable database - hooray! I was also able to go to the People's Republic of China Foreign Ministry Archive and read English translations of the negotiations in the spring of 1950 between Kim Il-Sung, Stalin and Mao (Mao had the most accurate outlook on what was likely to happen) for the invasion of South Korea. Also Navy History and Heritage Command to get the Monthly Reports of every aircraft carrier that was there during the war. When I did "Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club" and "Going Downtown," I could put a old code name in Google and come up with a many-page formerly Top Secret report in PDF about what that was. No more financing a trip to DC for a week in the National Archives pawing through mislabeled boxes to look at documents I couldn't copy.
Elementary School and HIgh School was boring and did not teach to think for ourselves, just memorize the facts. I remember we had to draw maps of the U.S. and other countries and my geography is lousy!
Fortunately, Mr. Field had us play "the map game" in sixth grade - one kid on either side of the map and he would say a country or a place and the first one to get it was the winner, and got to keep going till someone beat them (I was never beaten). Kids spent all kinds of extra time learning the map. He was the only one I could remember from 12 years of public school, and fortunately we got to be friends the past ten years before he died last summer at 99.
I also played a version of this game in Mr. Delponte's 6th grade class. Can't say I was never beaten, but it did turn me into a sort of map freak, with a concomitant interest in world affairs.
Teachers like that made all the difference back then. I had a 7th grade teacher, Mr. MacAleney, who paid for each of us to have the newspaper every day in class and every day we would all do the crossword puzzle together. I ran into him many years later and thanked him and told him he was the best teacher I ever had. I thought he was going to cry. I wonder if teachers are "allowed" to do things like that anymore.
My Mom had the dubious "honor" of being assigned to teach the "Package Nine" English class her second year of teaching. That was also known as "last chance English" and was packed with seniors who needed to pass the class in order to graduate. Mom taught them to read Middle English, and read Chaucer in the original. They ate it up, and for the first time in the history of "Package Nine" ALL of the seniors passed and graduated.
Those kids came to visit her after she quit teaching for 20 years (before moving out of the Rogue Valley). Two of them came to her memorial service 30 years after she quit.
Elementary School was mostly a bust for me, though I did pick up the "3Rs". Much of the history I was taught was just plain wrong, or so further studies seemed to indicate.
Fortunately my two grandmothers, both teachers, taught me phonics at age 4. My first grade class was the last class in the Denver public schools to get phonics before everything turned to "word (non) recognition" and the long slow decline in literacy created by all the edumacashunil refirmers began. The Ed.D. is a degree that should go in the garbage heap with the MBA.
I was reading before kindergarten and public school used ITA (Pitman) alphabet and spelling. I was excused from class then and allowed to read books without Pitman/ITA. For me, ITA was like having to learn s different alphabet. In Catholic school, we learned phonics, which in my view works best. I will say however, that students with reading disabilities, such as dyslexia, might require extra help to leam, and they may need tutoring to enable them to learn to read well.
TC, I don't know what they system is called, but I learned to read from a book called "Nose is not Toes" where one word was read and the other green. I think I was in my 5th year when my Mom (a writer, a poet, and eventually and briefly a high school English teacher before settling in as an adjunct reader and sometimes instructor at our local college) taught me to read.
I was thrilled to go to school and read, and was sorely dismayed when the only "reading" on our first day involved me being able to read an illustration sign that said "Lemonade, 5 (abbreviation of cents with the c and a line drawn through it)".
Not me. My catholic grade school the Sisters of Mercy taught us to use our reasoning and logic as our guides in life and I eventually reasoned that there wasn’t a God. They found a way to expel me before graduating. I’m eternally grateful for them. Wish I could give them a big hug.
History is the light the past shines on the present that in turn can guide us into the future. When that light is dimmed or distorted, we stumble and fall. This is why things like the 1776 curriculum and the 2025 project are so dangerous.
Only takes one generation removed for the lessons to weaken and another for them to disappear altogether. When the grandchildren dismiss the lessons of their elders because they no longer feel the pain, the link is gone. Teaching can help but not much can restore the personal connections. Maybe that is a good thing in some ways, but the cost is incalculable.
Children in the early 20th century in Chicago as part of their education were required to study “the Wacker Manual” which promoted the development of the famous Burnham Plan that projected the infrastructure to make a healthy city. A quote from this manual “our children shall be taught that they are the coming responsible heads of their various communities… We direct the national patriotic impulse into the paths of duty, and it is vital that we do the same with the new impulse for civic good." Part of the education in grade school was to teach children their responsibility to the greater community. Not only is that lacking in big business today but also politics. The manual did not distinguish those of different races, religion or political leanings. Everyone was part of a community and as quoted above supported the principle that government worked for the welfare of the people. Thank you Heather for this well timed letter. Vote for Biden!!!!!!
Oops, somehow I posted twice & tried to delete one, but both comments deleted. So I’ll try again…
Agree with what you write. It’s like the concept of “the commons”….that from which we all receive and that which we all contribute: air, water, food production, clean towns & cities, etc. We are all in this together making our way along with other species and ecosystems we share this pale blue dot with. Homo sapiens (I call us Hubris sapiens) have mostly, tho not entirely, made a muck of things and we may not last much longer….nice to know Gaia (Mother Earth) will be spinning for another 5 billion years or so (til our sun goes all red giant on it), so who knows what may evolve? As I have posted here multiple times, the only reason I want to live forever is to find out how it all turns out!
Barbara, great comment , I just finished read “Facing Gaia by Bruno Latour which is a compilation of 8 lectures which address your comments. The idea that the rights of air, water , land and all species should have agency and voice in our political systems and they recognize no nation states or borders.
Sadly, we have been encouraged to ignore the existence of the common good and treat our fellow humans with respect and dignity, no matter what their faith (or lack thereof,) skin color, national origin, gender, or sexual orientation.
I'm guessing that's where the roads Upper Wacker and Lower Wacker come from along the Chicago River?
One of my Congressman-Doug Bereuter--earned his master's degree from Harvard in Urban planning. Ironically, most of his district was rural except for Lincoln, NE. But he saw the importance of Urban planning and was a big supporter of infrastructure. Dennis Hassert soured him on his career in Congress and he resigned a year or so before Hassert was found to be diddling with little boys. Very unfortunate for us all.
Just think of all of the good things that Congress could accomplish if it weren't for the power hungry assholes like Trump's flaccid little Johnson getting in the way and Mitch McConnell.
I grew up in Chicago but don't recall the Wacker Manual or the Burnham Plan in my curriculum. Those names are still in use as Wacker Drive and Burnham Harbor on Lake Michigan, but it took my reading The Devil in the White City to learn about Louis Sullivan and other industry titans who created some of the first skyscrapers in my home city. My love of architecture and numerous field trips downtown primed my ears to hear these stories. Vote Biden!
Today we have virtual monopolies in industries from baby formula to railroads to meat packing. Biden opened up the baby formula market by working with the FDA to license baby formula made in Europe that met all FDA standards except labeling templates.
We need to, just as President Teddy Roosevelt did, revisit the anti-monopoly laws and update them for today’s market.
Taking the top 100 CEOs and charging them with conspiracy and putting them in prisons that aren't "club Fed" would get the attention of the rest of the crooks.
Right now we’re seeing even more proposed monopolies like Kroger’s proposed merger with Albertsons and Capital One’s proposed merger with Discover. These are very bad proposals, and we need to break up the monopolies instead of encouraging them. I only see the Republicans encouraging this sort of thing.
We were among the first countries that enacted and enforced laws against vertical and horizontal monopolies. Beginning with Robert Bork, the Federal courts started to retreat from enforcing our anti immigration monopoly laws, and the consequences are that consumers pay more for inferior products.
You are a little misguided. No one is in favor of anti anything. What we are in favor of controlled immigration. Period. It’s out of control just like it was when both sides of my grandparents came in around turn of the century. Eastern Europe and southern Italy. I was once hitching in Sicily and recal a conversation with a resident that spoke of entire towns emptying and migrating to America. The in 1923, The Immigration Act was passed limiting such huge movement of people.
Bill, I just read up on the 1923 Immigration Act—its purpose was to limit immigration from anywhere other than Western European countries. “Congress used the 1890 one to increase immigrants from Northern and Western Europe and to decrease those from Eastern and Southern Europe.” Japanese immigrants were totally banned.
Good response. The biggest point that I want to make is that sometimes, we must compromise on some issues in order to gain political ground. This issue is poison to democrats. We will lose votes and elections. What is really more important to you and be honest because you can’t and no one can have it their way all the time. We continue unabated letting in hundreds of thousands, nay, millions and lose our democracy to MAGAs? Is that what you want because as I have stated, we live in an imperfect world. If I need to choose between the two, you know which way I’m going. Many cities are over burdened with the influx especially after TX governor has sent bus loads out across America. Perhaps you are being a big naive thinking that the larger percentage of Americans want open borders. We don’t and we simply lose with that attitude. Forget about super majorities. We may get lucky and squeeze by with a win.
The undocumented population in the US has remained pretty much stable over the past 15 years. From 1990 to 2007 this population increased from 3.5 million to 12million. It has stayed around 11 million for the last 15 years. In NYC the undocumented population has been declining.
I think we need to look at facts and statistics before using the emotion-driven fear of the "other".
Read lips or hips. :) I’m watching republican Rep Byron Daniels of Florida spouting about how bad the economy is and this is simply not true. So everything is a smokescreen in an effort to win election. I want, for lack of a better or strong candidate, Biden to win. He is the only choice unless he were to step down and open things for someone like Adam Schiff to run. Great politician. The issues about the border will largely determine who wins.
Bill, I’m not arguing for open borders—I just want a fairer allocation of people allowed to get green cards. Right now, if you’re a Mexican citizen without a sponsor, the time period from application to green card is over 20 years.
Piquant how today's letter "from an American" cites long-ago Republicans as key to "a square deal."
The difference between then and now?
Back then Americans had a healthy, strong, and affordable system of public colleges and universities. We can thank the Justin Morrill land grant legislation Lincoln signed into law in 1862. We can thank the appetites Americans overwhelmingly had (at least outside the slave states) for literacy.
Compare that to today, long after the Powell memo of 1971 sank American higher education into the neutered silo culture now long reigning. Neutered because no one in any department uses any humanities outside each departmental narrowness. Silo culture because group identity no longer has individual people, as group identity, group packaging, group slogans have turned all into units, each replicating each other by the stereotypes tyrant HR deems orthodox for each group.
Good, though, to see Heather Cox Richardson remembering a far different time, when humanities roamed wider, literacy higher, so even Republicans could uphold standards where the federal government and the rule of law could and did protect people as if all might have personal lives evident, too, in humanities of all, by all, and for all.
You have to realize that Lincoln, TR and Eisenhower - the three good Republican presidents - were all flukes. Lincoln got the nomination because he was the only one with a national reputation. TR got it when the bastard McKinley got his, and Eisenhower got it because they didn't have anyone else the majority of the country would vote for and they were so desperate they took a guy who all the ex-GIs would vote for.
My dad, A WWII vet, voted Ike in '52, and '56. Then Kennedy.
Sad to think that, over 166 years, Republicans have had, as you say, "three good" ones. That's it.
Though I have my reservations about Ike and his leadership for the interstate highway system. Though I must admit, too, that my dad, when he voted Ike, was a fairly prominent designer of cars, all through the chrome-&-tail-fin 1950s, and I growing up in a couple Detroit-area suburbs.
Imagine had the U.S. instead then dedicated itself nationwide to really good trains -- as a public service, not as second-class (and much worse) 2nd fiddle to freight lines.
And, too, Emily, joined in by Goodyear and other rubber tire companies.
Plus GM, and other car makers who bought up dozens of public streetcar companies beginning 90 years ago in massive campaign by them to gut, kill, replace all street rail with buses, then reduce, kill even those meager public resources.
J. Michael Straczynski wrote, and Clint Eastwood directed "Changeling," a 2008 crime drama set in L.A. and nearby then-named Wineville, now Mira Loma, where murders of children took place in 1928.
I was born in 1947 (Jan. 4 of that year) in Glendale, Los Angeles county, when the Red line connected, united all those far-flung communities -- which figures nicely in that 2008 movie.
The history lesson above is well taken and it seems obvious, then as now, that a strong government committed to the welfare of the nation, perhaps even the world, is the only possible foil to use against the power of Big Business. I find it interesting that Dr. Richardson did not mentioned the latest dodge Business has created to cloud the transparency that Roosevelt demanded -- private equity firms, who keep their processes secret and, as of 2021, own up to 20% of all U.S. companies, up from 4% in 2000. (Karma, Roge; The Atlantic, October 30, 2023.) I assume she was leaving it as an exercise for the reader.
The rapid rise of private equity enterprises will lead to similar abuses. While they currently operate in narrow market sectors, they’re having significant impact; rental housing, and private medical practices are just two I see. They will create a lot of low-level economic damage before they too are reined-in.
Mike, totally agree…am having a serious madz at the whole concept right now….they remind me of a swarm of locusts descending on us. Greed in action…what could possibly go wrong? SMH
Among the things Roosevelt said that have been mostly forgotten, this is a gem:
“The citizens of the United States must effectively control the mighty commercial forces which they have called into being,” he said.
We tend to forget that we created corporations.
Another gem:
“ He warned that “[t]here can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains…. We must have complete and effective publicity of corporate affairs, so that the people may know…whether the corporations obey the law and whether their management entitles them to the confidence of the public.”
Their political activity. That means Citizens United has to go.
Publicity of corporate affairs. That means shell corporations, offshore headquarters, and more.
Great quotes, Professor! Thank you!
We need, but cannot get, a court ruling that corporations in fact are not people. They only exist to maximize profit for shareholders, and so of course aren't people taking civics into account.
Any liberal Supreme Court justice would agree with my opinion, I think. The conservatives justices on the other hand have no intellectual capacity outside of their bubbles.
Agreed, although I think they are well aware of where their owners' interests lie.
AI is the modern day railroad. We are seeing only one company dominate the GPU market for AI computation, NVDA. There's no way they can use their trillions of market cap to normalize the supply chain without competition in chip fabrication away from Taiwan. If China takes over Taiwan, NVDA and all other fabless chip companies will lose their Intellectual Property. That's why Biden is fighting to on-shore and regulate this capability using private capital and tax breaks while defending Taiwan with military aid. All Trump cares about are more exclusive golf courses and the corrupt super rich that hang out there on corporate expense accounts.
At this point, Trump is very concerned with paying judgments against him and his huge legal fees, plus keeping his sorry ass out of jail.
Yet his biggest concern is getting elected to pardon himself. What a stain on Democracy that will be. He said the border is a huge and important issue —-that needs to wait until his coronation in January and Congress obeyed. People literally dying to get across, fentanyl coming across killing Americans every day and the mass murderer wins 3 more primaries!!? SMH till it hurts. 16 states and American Samoa vote Super Tuesday. 💙🙏🏼 make the news blue and vote.
Come on America open your ears, listen to what is happening🙏
Thanks, Gigi .... well put
Sort of like Bibi.
That is why he has invited Orban to visit!$$
My thoughts exactly!!
And a "world leader" who pretends to like him.
hence his takeover over the RNC. luckily, he doesn't seem to get that all the real campaign money is in, how apropos, Corporate Funded PACS these days. And even the Monopolists are losing faith in his political viability. I think. I mean, isn't that while Haley the Hale Mary is still running?
Incidentally, I think it's well passed time to talk about how our intellectual property protections can best serve both creators or a product and society as a whole. In my observation, innovation is rarely only one person or organization far ahead of the pack, but more often a wave of innovative potential spreads from the state of what is known and we lock right in with the first past the post, often with many close on their heels. Not that rewards and protections to first past the post are unwarranted, but innovation is enabled by a confluence of sources, and at some point monopolies become the enemy of the common weal.
Not to mention more control over what gets built into to complex products, such as spyware.
Oh they certainly are aware. They once again have a chance to surprise us all (now that we are sufficiently suspicious of their integrity), by yielding to popular demand and acting quickly on this absolute immunity debacle. If I were a betting man, I would bet against it heavily. Which is why this situation is so dangerous. If I am right (my track record of predictions on Trump and his legal issues is stellar so far), and SCOTUS continues delaying a "lay-up" legal decision deep into the election season, that means the SCOTUS is a major player in the hostile takeover of our government by anti-democratic authoritarian forces. An outcome nobody could have anticipated I think.
The coup has already taken place. The court was McConnell's gift to his backers. The US Oligarchs? The Russians? The Chinese? I'd say all of the above. Why oh why has there not been an exposé. This fact alone threatens my resolve.
Morning, Ally! Have been thinking of you, hoping you are weathering the storms that I've seen on the news this past week.
Thanks! The brunt of the weather is far south of us, although we have had measurable snow (1") each of the last two mornings.
I am in Southern Oregon and am happy to report that the four or five inches of snow are beautiful.
My in laws live just south of Ashland on Hwy 66. They’re sharing some cool photos.
Good to know, Ally. Now, if I can just get my weather people to narrow their reporting to say, "A ton of snow has just fallen all around Oregon except at Ally's house!" Or, "A curious oddity is there are 60-mile-an-hour winds blowing everywhere except at Ally's house!" 🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣
$285,400 per year should be enough in salary to maintain independence. I'm open to them having an increased salary, when CEOs are making 10s of millions or more. Then the President must also get a raise.
Would a little more pay just make them more greedy and more corrupt? I'm not sure.
That $285k can go straight to the bank since all meals, travel, vacays, homes, kids' college, parents' homes, your own home and basically everything else you might want or need in life is bought-and-paid-for by your "donors",....all for the small return of your vote on the actions they have before the court, of course,......speaking 2 U Clarence
Well, Clarence threatened to quit unless he could squeeze more money out of donors. He did, and is a happy camper. I’m sure the other cretins can command similar perks. Doubt the Dem types get much “extra.”
I still wonder if Thomas's mother continues to live in the house that Crow bought.
Probably, since he’s does what Crow wants.
Sounds like the old quip about NYPD cops:
THE BEST THAT MONEY CAN BUY.
If only that were true. We don't get the best bang for our buck - there or in congress.
Our reluctant buck, I should say..............
EVEN more greedy and corrupt...
And "Corporate Joe" Biden (from tiny Delaware, a corporatist suburb of Wall Street) is just as bad as the Supreme Court. He wants more and more illegal aliens to drive down the price of labor.
Not sure why you call Joe Biden "Corporate". He doesn't own any Corporations and actually walked the picket line. So unless it is for the sheer pleasure of giving him a derogatory moniker, you are all wet.
You speak only of "illegal" Aliens. Do you know that by LAW we have a duty to help REFUGEES? You may not agree with it, but it is the LAW.
I should add that NO, Aliens, illegal or not, do NOT drive down the cost of labor: In part because of the language barrier, they tend to get menial jobs that Americans refuse to take, and it is easy to see why: The standard of living in this country makes it extremely difficult to live on $7.25/hour.
While we are on this topic, It is false to say that compared to Americans, they tend to be criminals.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/03/01/undocumented-immigrant-crime-rate-not-higher/72788637007/
and
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trumps-claims-migrant-crime-wave-are-not-supported-national-data-rcna140896
and
https://www.aol.com/news/myth-migrant-crime-wave-221559025.html
and if the various articles cited do not convince you, perhaps common sense will:
Folks who sneak through the border are hoping to remain undetected so that "la migra" does not deport them. Remember that once they are deported, even once, the ability to become an American Citizen is basically nil: It remains a blotch, a stain on their record that guarantees they will not have access to citizenship and the work and voting rights that go with it. They don't want to risk that.
Yeah, I know, that the "problem at the border" is all we hear from a certain segment of the political spectrum. Yet the same people are spitting on any solution, even the ones they've worked on, just to give Mr. Trump a plank to run on. [Since 2016, the RNC has not bothered to write a platform. They still don't have one: they don't know where they want to drive the Country past listening to Mr. Trump who, remember, in 2017 passed a tax break he was so proud of that he had a meeting with his CORPORATE donors and stated: "Today, I saved you all a lot of money". and indeed, he added trillions to the National debt by giving away all that money to the richest of the rich.
https://equitablegrowth.org/six-years-later-more-evidence-shows-the-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-benefits-u-s-business-owners-and-executives-not-average-workers/#:~:text=Yet%20the%20empirical%20evidence%20has,vast%20majority%20of%20U.S.%20workers.
So the moniker "Corporate Trump" would apply much better .
[Well, except that in spite of all his criming, Mr. Trump still had at least 7 bankruptcies, so maybe he is not such a great Businessman after all. Not a capable Captain of Industry, this Mr. Trump]
Please, do not feed the troll.
Yes he's a troll, but Cécile Stelzer-Johnson - you have said it so well.
Sharon, I agree. Always always ignore him!
Thank you Cécile for your strong denunciation of tfgmanbaby. It’s become apparent to me that magnuts like schmeckle have been carefully taught that the only response to facts about 🎃🤡💩 is lies about Biden. They need reprogramming.
You get a smile from me after a long days work .. thanks!
Gigi, you might check my reply to Cecile Stelzer-Johnson:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-2-2024/comment/50828462
p.s. You blatantly lie by associating me with Trump.
Cecile: no need to preach. We know the guy is false, is a demon that must not be allowed back into the White House. Which is only one reason why Biden must show spine dealing with border restrictions until Congress finally acts. But we know they don’t want to act in order to use it in November. Which is double why Biden must use executive hand.
Cecile's comment was good & very informative. It's important that, before making public statements, we have all the facts. Those who rant & make false statements about immigrants often don't have all the facts.
No such thing as an "Illegal alien".
"It's no fun being an illegal alien."
https://youtu.be/aqQv3qef21A?si=l7G6Croz4uB_UImp
"I'm an alien, I'm a legal alien"
https://youtu.be/d27gTrPPAyk?si=Ayhy0Dcd1unqKjeH
I detest that term and completely agree with you.
Cecile: I understand what you say and you are correct. When some of us say the border is broken, we really mean that the laws need to be amended because as they are now written, they (immigration laws) are being abused, arguably. We need to create more stringent laws. In my opinion, the same goes for parts of the 14th amendment which will never happen. We no longer need the birthright portion. It was enacted to prevent Afrocentric former enslaved from being returned to Africa. This is no longer an issue. But the border is being exploited by those the world over. And besides, you must not forget this last point, we on the democratic side will lose many votes if we don’t show backbone and respond appropriately.
Which laws Bill must be amended, abolish asylum? Chisel out the motto on the Statue of Liberty or re-write it: "Don't gives your poor or sick.Add "No Irish please. Absolutely no refugees from the Third Reich." Yikes -- send them back on the boat they rode in on.
How does one amend any law Mr. Speaker? Mr Speaker, Mr. Speaker -- does anyone know where the Dude is?
Not to mention, Bill, the urgent need for more agents and judges (or administrators?) to process the prodigious and growing backlog of cases!
Ah, if only it were a plank to Walk... tick tock
Thank you Cecile .. you’ve cleared a good bit of my misinformation and given me new factual sources which I’ve avoided searching in past as it’s been my head-in-the-sand (“I’m still working, I don’t have time to examine these statements” … etc)
You’ve made my day! Thank you!
Aliens do drive down the cost of labor. And companies have been importing foreign laborers for 200 years.
For example, did you know that as late as 1980, meat packers were black, and they earned decent middle class wages, thanks to decades of organizing? But that by that decade's end, they were immigrants, toiling under atrocious conditions for barely more than minimum wage? And that the same thing happened to most of the rest of unskilled work beginning around the same time?
See: Back of the Hiring Line: A 200 Year history of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, by Roy Beck. ($14 on Amazon).
Beck gives the lie to the notion that there are jobs American workers won't do. As part of his research, he interviewed poultry workers recently laid off, in favor of immigrants. He asked the laid off workers if they'd take their jobs back if offered. No, they told him, becuase the wages were now so low that they'd have to sleep in their cars or live many to a house.
By the way, just so you know, I'm a lifelong Democrat, from a Democratic family. My great uncle, Philip Hornbein, a labor lawyer on labor's side, was de facto head of the Colorado Democratic Party for the first half of the last century, and he gave the speech at the '32 convention recommending an end to prohibition. Biden is the best president of my lifetime, which began in the first summer of the Eisenhower ADministration.
Don’t feed the troll.
Cecile Stelzer-Johnson, you actually make my point. "Nobody" will work minimum-wage jobs as long as Biden ensures a continuing supply of "nobodies" (illegal aliens). Cut off the supply of illegals, and companies will have to pay a living wage for unskilled labor.
"Corporate Joe" Biden comes from tiny corporatist Delaware, a suburb of Wall Street, where the "grass roots" voters work in the corporate headquarters buildings that Delaware is famous for.
The only truth in your post is that Biden is from Delaware. Stop posting nonsense
Please, do not feed the troll.
...said the hungry troll.
Rick Smith, you might check my reply to Cecile Stelzer-Johnson:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-2-2024/comment/50828462
Sorry to see you are still around. Get a life JS.
Please do not feed the troll.
Stop it both of you children.
...said the hungry troll.
Yes, Steve Wagener, you are sorry, with your content-free trollish sneer.
Cecile Stelzer-Johnson actually tried her hand at a rebuttal:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-2-2024/comment/50828462
Wrong. I think he has been a bit slow because of the psychological trait. If one side says red the other side say blue and so on. We all should stop listening to those who use partisan divide to vomit the same message over and over. Think for yourselves.
I can agree with that. That's part of why I supported Tulsi Gabbard during the 2020 Democratic primary season. She had the ability to make common-sense suggestions in search of a bipartisan consensus.
Hello! Our favorite troll retuns 👋👋👋👋👋👋👋
..to this hell-hole of lily-white Bidenista Harvard elitists.
Alright … y’all knock off the electronic duel so we can continue discussing
Issues that are important to all of us who are going to vote in November for the guy from Delaware vice the Felon from New York (no names please—if the Felon from NY becomes our next President he will seek revenge from posters such as us. You’ve been warned.)
PS. Sidebar comment correcting JS’s accusation of our choices of schools: Ole Miss vice Harvard. Hotty Tottie, y’all.
I think you, John, are putting too much emphasis on his ability to think things through. I can’t understand why he has not acted sooner on dealing with the untenable border.
Please do not feed the troll.
This is a comment post please don’t tell me what to do.
...said the hungry troll.
Any unbiased Supreme Court Justice would agree..I agree with you Matt but think conservative and liberal...as terms have become politicized. I think if we dig deep....we will see the term isn't liberal, it's unbiased.
In the past my comments have brought up how much our language matters. Again, emotional words often misdirect the actual conversation or discussion at hand. To get to the heart of the threats to our Democracy, consider how much meaning/definition matters in that discussion. That is the beauty and importance of Professor Richardson’s writing and explaining of the facts of our history in my opinion.
Don’t forget “corrupt”😡
The conservative justices are not independent thinkers. They take their orders and decide cases based upon the orders from Leo Leonard and the billionaires who fund the Heritage Foundation.
Matt, before the Senate changed SCOTUS Justice approval to a simple majority, Justice nominees had to be more centrist gain support of both parties. Now radical tribal judges have skewed their partisanship drastically into the hands of their oligarch benefactors
They presumably have the capacity, but space without content is just empty air.
Strangely corporations are increasingly granted the rights of persons while being relieved of a person's responsibilities. Isn't that how tyranny works? Extreme privilege with little to no accountability.
There is another way that would be much easier to make happen. But first we have to beat back the MAGA idiots and regain control of both houses of congress and the executive. This will be very hard given the Biden's response to the Gaza situation and the loss of support of the Arab-American voter. Right now, backing Bebe Netanyahu is exactly equivalent to backing Trump.
But saying that a miracle happens at the polls this year (e.g. young people actually turning out to vote for a change?), a simple piece of legislation that creates a national corporate chartering and governance oversight process for companies that congress declares to be critical national assets would do the trick. Then move to grab some key corporate charters away from the State of Delaware, throw out their current boards, and establish some new oversight process consistent with what Drucker envisioned. That would change the relationship.
Thanks for opening my head to broader ‘view’ of complexity and possibility for change … very messy c
It's a sad situation, and I wish it were not so, but Biden has become a liability to the Democrats over the past month. I don't think any of the factors that have created this situation are fair. His age should not be an issue given how fit he is. If there wasn't a truly effective campaign by the Russians and Chinese to poison sentiment about him in social media. If the Murdoch family had a tiny shred of decency. If the IDF hadn't acted like a bunch of undisciplined brown shirts in response to an equally horrific attack. Maybe changing any one of these would have been enough, but adding them together and it's just too much. If wishes were fishes...
I've gained a whole new view of Teddy Roosevelt, from reading LFAA. Ha! I've just been reading an account of his assassination attempt: "Schrank was immediately disarmed by Czech immigrant Frank Bukovsky[1] and captured" A Czech! an immigrant! he probably spoke language! a language nobody else can speak! terrible people! Jokes aside, the whole story was fascinating, and Roosevelt the man comes through it with flying colors.
I dismissed him because of the “big hunter” rep, but I came to realize that he was so much more than that. We owe him what we had until recently, to a great extent…
We have been brainwashed from Reagan on down to detest government. We are very close to Russia, we really are. Jamie Dimon is fine with Trump again. He said so out loud. He knows even if America is a hell hole dictatorship he will be one of the oligarchs who do just fine.
The same old people(like me-70 years old!) who take Social Security and Medicare from the government without batting an eye are the same Fox News watching, immigrant hating, Trump voting idiots who very well may give us a country we will not recognize or want to live in. We are living in literally insane times. If it would not affect me, those I love, and all the other innocent people it would hurt, I would LOVE all these idiots to lose their government benefits in the new world order of Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and DJT. And oh I forget—their military retirements. Looking at you, Michael Flynn.
Again, all this “secession” talk from idiots like my Gov. Abbott is likewise insane. People are so, so stupid and brainwashed to boot. Dr. R, thank you for all the amazing history lessons, today included. Boy, do we need a trust busting TR today.
Of course the American Oligarchs would turn (publicly or secretly) to TFG. Joe is pro-labor, pro fair taxation, and anti-monopoly. Why would any self-respecting Oligarch want Joe in the White House?!
Why would any self-respecting poor slob want chump back in the WH….
Rick A. it seems that with Reagan we saw the same government pendulum swinging back toward the big business interests similar to the era of the "Robber Barons" of the steel, railroad and banking industries following the last change of the century.
Almost choked when I read the Dimon quote. He knows better, but “I got mine.”
His time in the west increased his reverence for the value of wilderness and the establishment of national parks.
He used his suffering to mold himself. We all should do that because there is plenty of suffering these days. Use it for the good of the people. After all, the government is for the good of the people. A goal corrupted by Reagan (or Peggy Noonan) and the "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you." BTW, that's the reason I donate to the National Parks Foundation.
He has that in common with President Biden.
Indeed
And, boy, have some of us taken advantage of that reverence. The value of the wilderness....one of my top values.
I agree!!
Yes!
Jeri, I'd much rather have a "damn cowboy" as president than a damn criminal as president.
What a world!
I agree, Pam. Not only is death star a damn criminal, he is a festering cancer on the body politic, bent on destroying everything that decent people value. And how many minions like him have come out of the wall to take advantage like rampaging cancer cells. Rs are now the party of death.
Me thinks a cancer that started Out as a Nixon zygote but has grown Into a T. rex sized monster…
Yes, just a ball of cells with the Trick.....got a boost from RayGun, Bush I, and Dubya, and now the body politic is one big tumor....reeking rotting tumor. We need to cut (vote) it out.
You have said it!!
Jeri, he was a man trying desperately to get over the double loss of his wife and his mother on the same day while also trying to recover and strengthen himself from a childhood of sickness and pampering. He was trying to better himself as a a man before then trying to better a government with very lopsided priorities.
But his ego didn’t say, I deserve (blank) because I have suffered. You would think that chump had a horrific personal history. Nah, just a one that made him rotten to the bone
Jeri Chilcutt, so true. My opinion of the man also. And it can be so disconcerting when we read history and because of our recent past ( ~ 40+ years) my critical thinking (and probably others) gets tangled as we read these letters and Republicans & Democratic “titles” are used. The two have flip flopped completely.
The flip flop has apparently confused many, especially during Jim Crow and on until WW2. Reagan may have had some sense before Nancy got hold of him. When I became “woke,” the repubs were the elites (couldn’t stand arrogant Bill Buckley). Rupert did a masterful job (some already greased up by Rush), of convincing people that Dems were demons. From some of the interviews I’ve seen, that BS is still gospel with MAGAts
I always enjoy your comments Jeri! I've been appreciating the voting process here in CA. Everyone got a ballot in the mail. You can complete it and take it to the polls, drop of at a large choice of places - Firestation, library etc (locked Drop boxes of course) or go vote in person. I got a text from the Secretary of State the day after I voted that my ballot had been received and counted. If only everyone had this process
Thanks for your kind words. Wow, that is awesome. The fact that repubs try to discourage and do everything they can to make it difficult, should be reason enough to never vote repub again…
Very very true!!!!
The problem with tfg’s statement is at least ONE person can speak the language, not “no one.”
"Mornings on Horseback" is a brilliant read.
There are several excellent TR quotes in the letter:
"Instead, he believed the American people must create a strong federal government that could exert public control over corporations."
Wall Street hated TR but he was a populist and the people loved him.
Excellent letter today Heather, but I'm a big TR fan. I can't imagine how much more control the corporations and the richest hundred or so Americans would have today if it wasn't for TR's bold actions 100 years ago.
Doris Kearns Goodwin did an excellent bio on TR that I highly recommend. I'm sure there are others equally good. He was - like all humans - a mixed bag. He managed to be both a man of his time, and yet far ahead of it. We need his like in Washington today, for sure.
It was an awesome read! I think of the tragedy of the loss of his mom and wife within hours of each other and how he could not bear to see his daughter.
But there are still so many individual buccaneers, so many privateering corporate pirates messing around with US national policy at home and abroad.
We may in part owe the existence of the current Putin regime to the activities of these loose cannons. It was they that deliberately humiliated Russia when she was down, they that delivered "more shit for your face" -- quoting Bill Clinton to Boris Yeltsin.
They bear huge responsibility for the failure of democracy in Russia. Their activity so strengthened the defeated Communist Party that Yeltsin et al. had to doctor national elections to sideline the CP. The beginning of the end for democracy. Next came the installation of Putin.
Even this dangerous crook could have been handled more skilfully... as so many other s.o.b.s have been. Even without becoming another OUR S.O.B like Anastasio Somoza...
Our Democracy may have died long ago Gary Loft. The right leader at the right time. That’s how I view “old President Biden”
We are the board of directors of the boards of directors.
We have to do a much better job of it — b.rad
I wonder what Teddy Roosevelt would have thought of Tesla, Amazon, and Nvidia? I bet if he were with us today, he would have gone after Private Equity too, and the way they buy solid mom and pop companies, suck all the value from them with impunity, fire the knowledgeable employees, lock the doors, and leave communities weaker.
OMG, Patricia, Private Equity (formerly known as 'leveraged buy-outs') a ruining entire segments of the economy. They may well be one of the root causes of the housing/rent crisis, since some of them swooped in and bought up every foreclosed house they could after the housing crash, and turned them into rentals or flipped them later. Now they've moved into the medical/industrial complex....................
They’ve been there a while—
Medicine, Care, Education, and Prisons don’t belong in the for-profit sector
You are so right!
They are a blight in our neighborhood. Our neighbor, a former banker, mentioned the number of rentals in the our neighborhood. Then there is also corporate buy out of businesses like vet clinics. Ours in independent but swamped because a corporation bought out a local one nearby. Many years ago, I used to buy lots of seeds from the British company, Thompson and Morgan. Then they were bought out, sucked dry, and I doubt they even exist anymore. I have seen this happen to many companies. When I am grocery shopping at our local natural foods market, I try to buy brands that have not been bought by some large conglomerate. The local Saturday outdoor market started yesterday, another opportunity to support local farmers, ranchers, and artists. We didn't go because the weather early was not good, but well go next weekend. People line up for the good stuff. A friend bought some pastries for our coffee get together from a supermarket that is now part of a Canadian company. She paid 8.79 for each one. Eek.
Does anyone know of a legislator who is willing to write legislation to regulate Private Equity? Maybe we could all write to him/her. There must be one of them out there whose hand isn't getting greased.
Not just mom and pop--remember the rash of "buy, deplete, and bankrupt" raids on airlines? Travel today suffers from the aftermath of those mergers, in service, safety, and squishing travelers like sardines.
Don't forget hostile takeovers!
Are you referring to Bain Capital - Romney’s company?
Would love to see Citizens United ride off into the sunset on a rough ridin' horse!
Yes, but it won't ride off by itself...
True. Vote ‘em out!
Juxtapose Trump saying that for every new regulation, 5 regulations should be dismantled. The party of Lincoln is no more. But we already knew this.
Kem, I was about to say the same thing. Now, I will just share your post.
KEM, you, Matt Fulkerson and Ally House beat me to these comments. I hope that I live to see our government tame the Supreme Court's rampage against our citizens' rights by overturning Citizens United and codifying Roe v. Wade, for starters.
If only
No more corporate attorneys on the courts, especially the Supreme Court.
Corporations are not people, my friend.
The question this court has framed to consider re immunity smacked to me of the overreach that the citizens United case, which originally was much narrower, exhibited.
I actually think they framed the question as the overriding Constitutional question. The Supreme Court is only supposed to hear matters regarding Constitutional or Federal law issues. My complaint is that the actions under consideration are so flagrantly unconstitutional that they should have refused to hear the appeal.
Doesn't the name "Citizens United" catch an Orwell prize for sound like exactly what it's not?
And yes, if we are the ultimate authority for our government's direction and legitimacy, we have complete control over what behaviors those with a corporate license are and are not permitted to perform, over and above the rights of any citizen. Do we not wield just powers from the consent of the governed? We have been conned into recreating an overarching (think Musk) aristocracy of quasi-feudal lords.
Yes, the name CU makes my blood churn. I was trying to say that so many folks think we just can’t fight the billionaires and their practices and policies. But that’s not true. We fight them by electing as our representatives people who will vote for campaign reform. Amy Klobuchar introduces legislation every session; we can elect people who will join that fight.
It is like a damn Monopoly game played over and over. Capitalism versus representative government. "IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said the total "financial activity" associated with the unfiled returns tops $100 billion, and unpaid tax liabilities could easily run into the hundreds of millions of dollars." Don't pass go, pay your taxes. Slow them down, at least. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/taxes/us-irs-aims-to-collect-on-125000-unfiled-high-income-tax-returns/ar-BB1j86bZ
Great complements KEM
Yes and Bobby is the only candidate that can break us free from the corporate capture. He is campaigning on it.Biden has proven ineffective on it. Sinema and Manchin are examples of it.
What could Biden have done to "break us free from the corporate capture"?
And what will Bobby be able to accomplish that Biden couldn't?
Careful Gary you might get blocked for talking to me.That’s what HCR did to me on her facebook politics chats.
Waaugh.
RFKJR said Biden has appointed the wrong people to the head of government agencies. For example, the head of the NIH came from a pharmaceutical company. He made rules to favor that company. He then went back to work for that company and raked in millions!
The head of NIH is a woman, and she did not come from a pharmaceutical company. You are spreading propaganda.
Yes I am and I want to correct myself.I do not want to spread misinformation . Please forgive me for texting off the top of my head and getting it wrong. What I was referring to was Scott Gottlieb, a business partner to Pfizer . He was the one who worked for our government and then went back to Pfizer and raked in millions . Is that correct?
Or RFKJR is.
It’s in a Kennedy video 2 weeks ago titled Do you think Trump drained the swamp . Please look it up Kathy and thanks for correcting me!
It’s too late. The monied class controls government. The fight is all but over. If we can gain super majorities in Congress, maybe there is a chance. But I am doubtful.
Many of us seem to have forgotten that “[t]he object of government is the welfare of the people.” Many seem to believe that providing for the welfare of one individual has become our sole concern. We, the people, must defeat those who negate the public interest, who place profits above people. Proposed outsized grocery store mergers today do no more to help the average shopper than did the mergers of steel companies or railroads in Roosevelt's time. The need for transparency, not just in the corporate world, but also in government, is even more essential now. It is up to us to make sure that we elect truth-tellers who place the greater good above their own personal desire for power. Voting is the most powerful tool that the people possess. We must use it wisely.
Who said:
"These measures will require the oil companies and other energy producers to provide the public with the necessary information on their supplies. They will prevent the injustice of windfall profits for a few as a result of the sacrifices of the millions of Americans. "
1. Stalin
2. Satan
3. Nixon - Winner!
Not that Nixon was a fountain of light, but imagine a Republican saying anything similar today?
He also started the EPA, adfter seeing the large public response to the first Earth Day. in 1971. Imagine a Republican doing that! Things are so bad now even old Trickster Dick looks good.
He quietly fomented evil, being the good Quaker that he was, in addition to being a war monger. But he wasn’t 100% useless, like chump. I think he just wanted to fool some in the public square so that he could do his evil behind the scenes.
I think some portion of the Quaker heritage may have rubbed off. There was a very nasty streak in him, and he caused a lot of suffering for selfish reasons; and yet not so thoroughly reprehensible as St. Reagan (especially on environmental issues), let alone Trump.
But he, like both of them (and I’ll add W), apparently felt/feel like they are entitled to whatever. That’s a core problem as far as I’m concerned. I can’t think of one of our founders who thought it was all about them…
Nixon did a few really good things while he was President, unlike Trump who accomplished nothing but enabling Corporations, the 1% and the white faux-Christian Nationalists.
Some quite good and others very bad. He was the last Republican president to defend our earthy environment.
Thank you. Nixon was a son of a bitch but he had some decency. I truly believe he loved his wife and his dog Checkers. And I think he had some struggles with his conscience about Vietnam.
I agree with your points. That said, the grocery companies wanting to merge would say they’re just trying to remain competitive with the likes of Walmart and Amazon. 🥴
Or we could enforce anti-trust. Albertson- Kroger got resistance, as they should. Too Big to fail is just plain too big.
To big to fail is just another phrase to justify corporate bailouts with tax payers money. We pay twice....first through higher prices...because they can raise them...then we bail them out with our tax dollars during national crisis.
Everytime I hear proponents of 'too big to fail' I always pose the question, 'dont you believe in capitalism? Isn't a premise of capitalism that poorly managed corporations will fail and well managed will survive...and there is always a new and eager upstart corporation willing to buy the failed organization and work like the devil to make it work."
What is the corporation equivalent of pull yourself up by your bootstraps? (Stay solvent and make it work....or something like that?)
It's neo-feudalism dressed up as religious piety/patriotism. Allegedly government-enabled wealth transfers upward fosters morality and "jobs, jobs, jobs", in spite of plentiful evidence to the contrary. Allegedly, aid to those in misfortune creates "moral hazard", and aid or protection for workers is "job killing". You can find very pattern articulated in the news over the last several decades.
You will find a related argument in an even more pernicious form of feudalism in slavery. It's really a smokescreen over naked greed and sociopathy. If you think of it as it plays out in reality, it is pretty much the antithesis of Christian ethics, as well as patriotism.
No, the merger will be a loss if employees, fewer grocery stores, and higher food prices.
One of the many nice things about living in France is buying perishables in the market. Every precinct has its market, three times a week, 7 am to about 2 pm. People talk to each other, the stallholders make jokes, there's food...
I’ve seen those when I’ve been in France. I’m so jealous. You don’t even have to get in your car and drive there.
And it's so beautiful! Shapes and colours. Yellow, red, green, black. The fish all arranged according to their shape, usually swirling up to a swordfish peak. 2 pm it shuts, everything gets packed up or out, and by 3 pm the marketplace is empty and hosed down.
Ahhh. I would love that!
I agree, they’ve all gotten too big. My point is only that Walmart and Amazon are far bigger problems than Kroger and Albertsons.
"I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. " Former AG Eric Holder
And if you don't prosecute and let them get even bigger (they did) what then?
2008 Financial collapse—“too big to fail”
The derivatives and the sub-prime mortgages were also major contributors to the collapse.
Howard Clark spoke out against sub-prime mortgages for at least a couple of years before the crash. He warned homebuyers not to fall into the trap of 100% variable interest home loans.
I'm sure that many people listened and didn't fall in to the trap but millions more ended up losing their homes. I'll never understand why Obama didn't cap the interest rate increases on the mortgages at .5% a year. He bailed out the big banks but left millions of people literally out in the cold.
Trump's Treasury Secretary was brutal with foreclosures in CA throwing elderly people out of their homes for owing less than $100.
And now he's partners with Kushner on his Saudi Arabia deal. What a putz!
I have stopped ordering from Amazon. It’s a little something…
And will create food deserts.
MORE food deserts
Colorado AG is suing to stop it
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has sued to stop the Kroger Albertsons grocery store merger.
https://coag.gov/2024/colorado-attorney-general-phil-weiser-files-lawsuit-to-block-proposed-kroger-albertsons-merger/#:~:text=Feb.%2014%2C%202024%20(DENVER,largest%20supermarket%20chains%20in%20Colorado.
Love this is happening in our state and do hope it is effective.
Right! And then there will be 3 and only 3. It will crush all others and we will be screwed.
We are talking about FOOD! Not to mention all the other staples we need like 'safe water' and TP and laundry soap and toothpaste etc that we buy when we're there buying FOOD.
They are doing it now, just not in the daylight. Take a look at a bar of soap. It has this 'interesting' shape - a concave rectangle, not a full rectangle like it used to be. How much soap was taken out of that bar, to be sold at the same or similar price? Where'd the extra soap go? Did the price of that bar go down? Take a look at your toilet paper (should I say 'bathroom tissue'?). How much distance is there, end to end on the holder, compared to just a few years ago. I figure 3/4" to 1." Where'd the paper go? How much less did a package of tissue cost? One more - my favorite. Miracle Whip, a staple of Kraft. The product used to be in a 1 quart or 32 oz. jar. What is it now? 28 oz? Where'd the other four ounces go? What no one here is talking too much about is the lack of visible, ethical companies. BTW: Do MBA students still study business ethics? If so, what do they do with the knowledge gained? Then, let me push the concept of business ethics to personal conscience. Where did it go? It got trampled under the feet of all the good Congressional representatives who bought what the lobbyists were selling. I listen and watch James Comer and I think, "How in hell did this dim bulb get into Congress? I wonder what his net worth will be once he leaves the hallowed halls. And, where's Rex Tillerson these days? I'm starting to rant. It's Sunday. No rants on Sunday! Peace, all.
President Biden spoke about that shrinking but there must have been bigger news that day. (Don the con called someone a bad name?)
Mike, good point about Walmart & Amazon. The more we lean on Amazon or Walmart to deliver many of the groceries we consume without needing to "go out" to the store, the more we feed the polluting effects of all their delivery trucks and excess packaging! A minor convenience for a major impact on climate-changing resources.
Thank you, Betsy Smith, brilliantly conveyed, especially the kicker:
“Voting is the most powerful tool that the people possess. We must use it wisely.”
Yes, “use it wisely” — but for the love of democracy, USE IT!
I’d add outsized that businesses with huge reserves of cash buying up local houses (single and multi family homes) do no more to help the average renter, much less anyone hoping to buy their 1st house (home) than I’ve ever seen.
These businesses (largely located out of state) will then raise the rents of the current renters for the next month. In most cases doubling or sometimes even tripling the rent. With just a 30 day notice this puts the current renter in a tough place. Now the average wage earner has to pay more of their weekly income simply to afford their rent. Their lives which were reasonably stable financially now have become more hand to mouth.
I know a few who live in two or three bedroom apartments getting more roommates than the bedrooms available simply to afford the rent. Living rooms become bedrooms. Storage closets become bedrooms. And those people moving in have been forced out by the place they lived being bought and their rent doubled. They couldn’t afford to stay so they move.
As mentioned the businesses buying up local properties are often located out of state. Their onslaught of buying as many houses as they can has driven the price of single and multi family homes through the roof. While real estate has always been a commodity the number of homes and apartments in one town being owned by one large corporation are becoming the next monopolies. I’m lucky enough to own my house. If not I couldn’t afford to live here.
Yes the power to vote must be used and by more than 50% of registered voters. Use it or lose it folks. What do you think Dictator Trump will do in his next term? Have caucuses take over voting from Pesky People?
It's up to us right now to keep him from having another term.
Lest we lose it forever.
Yes and RFKJR is campaigning on that. But as he has said , and what JFK wanted on his grave - He kept the peace. That’s the first priority of government.
People re ignoring you for a reason. We don't believe in saviors
Yes Jen, I get that. I’m still laughing over the comment someone made last Sunday when she posted a picture of the full moon. Someone first quoted the Creedence song - there’s a bad moon on the rise. And then, someone else said , back in that time she was driving around partying with friends singing that tune when she had to go. And so she sang There’s a bathroom on the right!
I think you have credentials and in house knowledge about vaccines. Have you seen the club Random with Bill Maher talking to RFKJR about that?Isn’t there some good reason to be skeptical about the vaccines?
If government ensures its real priorities, namely life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, keeping the peace will naturally ensue. When keeping the peace, whether within the country or internationally, becomes the number one priority, we have we have dictators and wars (see Chamberlain).
How quickly we forget where we've been. Thanks for reminding us.
The accurate telling of history is only told if "we the people" make sure of it. Otherwise you get twisted views, like that of "slavery - they benefited from it" that is being put forward by the dolts in Florida.
When the media reported on the list of presidents it was without guile as if these people have the right to determine this. If I had drawn up the list of presidents from best to worst I would not have put Reagan above Biden, he would be more towards the bottom.
https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2021/?page=overall
I also would not have put Obama above Biden. I would not have put George Washington above Biden. I would have put Theodore Roosevelt above George Washington too. Biden is the best president in my lifetime, and so much of that is because of his social economic agenda, which puts the people first. His is a more inclusive government than was Roosevelt's though. In fact, if inclusivity were a criteria then Biden should go to the top. He saved our economy from Covid, not small feat. Got our supply chains working again. Started evaluating who we are doing business with. Is funding education which is the underpinning of a modern economy, and makes it about the environment. So, if I were to say who was the better president it would have to be Biden. Under him Native Americans are included in the agenda, in a greater way than they have been by any President. Reagan is the person most responsible for global warming, which is destroying life on the planet. He also destroyed our economy and Biden is the first president to eschew "trickle down" and right our economy from that piece of fallacy. I was just discussing with friends how crazy it is that Red States governors turn down federal monies for their people for things like health care. Why would they do that? It is crazy and bad governance. Also, why do people vote for them? Biden is doing things in a bipartisan way, and was even when he had a majority in both houses, which is important, even though the Republican Party has totally sold out to Trump, who would go with Reagan at the bottom of the list because they are so damaging for the environment globally. I guess people that vote for Trump do not realize that they need clean air to breath, clean water to drink, safe foods to eat, and a climate that does not lead to devastation such as fires, floods, drought, too much heat. We need a government that helps families out with raising and educating their children. It is not rocket science to understand that, but it seems beyond many people's ken to understand that. I am glad that under Biden antitrust law is actually being used to block many deals. Now we also need courts that do not rule for business as a person, like a clump of frozen cells, conservative Republicans justices have given personhood where it does not exist, all to line their pockets.
Thank you, Linda. I have also thought Biden to be the greatest president of my lifetime.
My mom said the same thing and she is turning 90. She includes in that both German and US presidents because she has lived under both.
Same here Linda and Joanna. How can people not see this? If my memory was better, I'd be constantly spreading the news. I still argue with people who say they voted for T because of his business acumen and negotiation skills. OMG it makes me sick.
Ditto, Jeanne!
As James Garner described Reagan, with whom he worked as a VP of SAG when Reagan was Pres of the union, "Amiable Dunce."
Even before Reagan started showing signs of dementia during his second term in office, he had a tendency to conflate the movie roles he had played with reality. Amiable Dunce was an accurate description of Reagan. I was never fond of him or George H.W. Bush, but I detested George W. Bush and positively loathe Donald J. Trump and his grifting 3 elder children. Don, Jr., Ivanka, and Eric learned the art of grifting from their father.
You nailed it Kathy. TFFG is definitely showing many signs of dementia.
And few in the media comment on it. Instead they dwell on his hate filled comments.
If Trump wins in November, I totally blame it on the MSM. The Republican political machine is too stupid to win the election for him. But then again, so is his base.
The media outlets are not paying attention to the signs of dementia.
Twitter is, particularly Acyn, who posts clips of his rallies. Yesterday’s was a doozy - the man can hardly talk.
It seems absurd to even TRY to compare an unreconstructed narcissistic grifter with presidents and actual working politicians, no matter how loathsome many of the latter are.
I was just looking up Reagan after remembering how they said he would not read his briefings. Here I see that they considered using the 25th amendment to remove him. https://www.history.com/news/reagan-health-25th-amendment
There was not one good thing about him. I had grown up with dual citizenship, but had let my German passport lag, not really thinking about it. However, when Reagan was elected, after spending 2 weeks in shock, I renewed my passport and have kept it current ever since. When Trump got elected I decided to find property in Germany just in case we needed to leave, although I thought we could live with relatives if we had to, life is easier if one does not need to steal away in the dead of the night. Bush senior was not bright, and his son even less so. His presidency was stolen for him by his brother and the Supreme Court. Americans have put up with a lot of elements of fascism from the Republicans. I think it is time to say, "NO MORE!"
Yes. It was my understanding that he could not even read the one page briefs that were prepared for him on all topics. I just know that in the book Losing Earth: A Recent History by Nathaniel Rich, he discusses that Reagan was told about global warming at a time when the fossil fuel industry in the USA was ready to listen and change their investments to something else. However, Reagan told them not to worry, someone could solve the problems created down the road, and he put an industry insider in charge of regulating the industry.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41940347-losing-earth
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html
Look where that decision making got us! So in terms of destruction of the planet, Reagan is gone, but we are all here to inherit his idea to kick the can down the road. That is one of the most impactful decisions in the history of the world for the future of our species on this planet. Now we have Trump encouraging Putin to make nuclear war. I have been reading articles on nuclear shelters yesterday. Particularly of the city where I am right now, which is in the EU. In my USA city, I know where the bomb shelter is near my house. It is in a fire station a few blocks away and can only hold 200 people. It also does not have up to date supplies of food and water. So, there you go.
Bravo, Linda, for saying the quiet(?) part outloud!
Linda……👍👍👍!!!!!!
Thank You, Linda!!
Your memory is in sync with mine, so thank you.
In my supermajority red state, which has never expanded “Obamacare” (and that is the problem), a man who plans to run for governor said he opposes expansion because people need to rely on God!!!
Jeebus.
Exactly....
What happens to God helps those who help themselves? He just sounds evil, and stupid! The worst combination ever!
Wow.
Thank you! Biden has done so much in this incredibly fractured political landscape- I, too, have been VERY impressed with his success… which is what I was expecting when I voted for him the first time. It is a shame that “peace love and light” does not sell in the news as much as “fear hate and shock.” Otherwise , more people would be aware of Biden’s long list of wins. Hard fought wins, at that!
Yes, thank you Linda!!!
Linda, in asking about "Red States governors turn down federal monies for their people for things like health care. Why would they do that?" I would reply that I think it's because for much of that federal money, (Medicaid money?) the states have to supply the other half of the money, that the money isn't entirely free without state obligation to match it. One assumes that for red states it is more important to NOT go along with programs created by blue politicians which benefit actual people. Perverse as is much among the Rethuglicans these days.
My understanding is that the state pays 10% the federal government 90%, so it seems like this saves the states money, because the costs of uninsured must be greater.
https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/how-many-uninsured-are-in-the-coverage-gap-and-how-many-could-be-eligible-if-all-states-adopted-the-medicaid-expansion/#:~:text=This%20incentive%20does%20not%20apply,65%20plus%20or%20disability)%3B
This work requirement seems cruel and is just cruel, and removing a lot of people from eligibility.
https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/tough-tradeoffs-under-republican-work-requirement-plan-some-people-lose-medicaid-or-states-could-pay-to-maintain-coverage/
If a politician is in government because they want to do good, then they would be supporting it. However, Republicans seem to have bought into the uncivilized idea that it is not the job of the government to support the well-being of the people. If the USA is not to be like Russia, people need to get out on the streets and protest more. Also, fight against these right-to-work oxymoronic laws.
Super Tuesday is your chance to send a message to the bully ( not Teddy’s kind of bully) that Americans want a president who believes in peace and freedom and democracy not a selfish nasty greedy manbaby. Voter turnout in every election in a democracy should be close to 90% not 9%. Please do your part and vote Tuesday in your super state. Take your mail in ballot to an official box. Your state or city website will give you details. 💙💙🇺🇸🥳💙💙
I was out with people from Democrats Abroad Germany on Friday talking about how we get more of the 1 mil Americans living abroad to vote. We have heard the stat that it was Democrats Abroad who brought home Georgia for Biden in 2020. In the city I am living in there are 1000 Americans, and only 80 are registered with Democrats Abroad, so we are trying to do outreach. https://www.democratsabroad.org/
Please ask all your expat friends to join. We are having the Global Presidential Primary this coming week.
Ever since I read TR's biography he is my hero. Corporations today are not guided by his principle, but instead, what will produce the most wealth for stockholders, which is often executives and corporate board members. Yesterday Andrew Carnegie was in HCR'S spotlight, and we do appreciate the libraries, though many are now under fire for having books. But the billionaires are there because they accumulate. And then rarely give away. Bill Gates is an exception, so was Paul Allen, and his sister does a good job giving away his fortune since his death. Some people, like Bezos's ex wife, are in that group. The woman who gave a billion dollars for the Einstein med center and med school is in that group.
And then there's Boeing...and Trump....
Ruth Gottesman's $1 billion donation to the Bronx medical center was such a great counter to the Barre Seid $1.6 billion donation to Leonard Leo's right wing foundation. I did a quiet "whoohoo" when I read about it!
Corporation were always guided by greed, but only as much as they are allowed to get away with. TR et al, and social movements imposed some manners on US corporations between the "Gilded Age" and "Reaganomics".
I don't think there is enough data to say "always".
Yes it's a generalization, and my wife incorporated when she consulted on training for visually impaired students, but a lot of big corporations have a creepy legacy, such as the British East India Company in India. Commerce has something of a cutthroat history.
Frank, do you remember Ted Turner's call to the billionaires to give away part of their fortunes. Anyway, many of them have. The following is a link and partial article from Forbes.
Many people tithe in the US mostly giving to their churches and other philanthropic organizations. Millions others are generous with their time which is often more valuable than the cash.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeswealthteam/2022/01/19/americas-top-givers-2022-the-25-most-philanthropic-billionaires/?sh=4fb70eff3a6c
From Warren Buffett to newcomer Jeff Bezos, the nation's most generous billionaires have given away a collective $169 billion in their lifetimes–and are still richer than ever.
The billions keep piling up for many of America’s great philanthropists. So, too, do their charitable contributions. The nation’s 25 biggest givers have donated a total of $169 billion over the course of their lifetimes, according to Forbes’ estimates. That’s up from $149 billion last year, partly due to new information uncovered by Forbes—but mostly due to another year of huge giving by these 25 mega-donors.
Leading the pack: Warren Buffett, whose annual summer gift of Berkshire Hathaway stock topped $4.1 billion this year. The funds, as usual, went to The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—where they are being put to work on poverty and healthcare initiatives, including research and vaccines for Covid-19—plus to foundations set up by his late wife and three children.
Not far behind (and maybe even ahead): MacKenzie Scott, whose shoestring operation—she has no foundation and gives her wealth away in stealth—donated $5.8 billion to 500 different groups across the country in 2020. Last year, she continued giving her fortune away faster than any billionaire ever, announcing in June another $2.7 billion in gifts to 286 “high-impact” groups such as the Children’s Defense Fund and the National Council of Nonprofits—pushing her estimated lifetime donations above $8.6 billion. Then, in December, Scott published a Medium post mentioning that she’d made another round of gifts—but provided no details on who got the grants or how much she doled out. She quickly clarified that she would share details about the gifts "in the year to come." In the meantime, Forbes is only crediting her with her known, public donations.
Two fresh faces have joined the top philanthropist ranks since last year: Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna, and Scott’s ex-husband, Jeff Bezos, who has taken to philanthropy—announcing $1 billion in gifts in 2021—since stepping down as Amazon’s CEO in July.
Other big donations: a $500 million pledge to a small liberal arts college by George Soros, a $3.4 billion initiative over ten years from Mark Zuckerberg to measure and analyze biological processes in the human body and a $5 billion, ten-year pledge toward biodiversity conservation by a handful of groups, include three top givers: Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and Gordon and Betty Moore.
Of course, with markets riding high, it’s easier to dole out billions. These 25 philanthropists are a collective $150 billion richer than they were a year ago, up 18% each on average. In all, they’re worth an estimated $1.1 trillion. Seventeen of them have signed The Giving Pledge, promising to donate at least half their fortune to charity over their lifetimes or upon their deaths. But only two—Chuck Feeney and Soros (who has not signed The Giving Pledge)—have hit the mark so far. Nearly two-thirds have yet to give away even a quarter of their wealth, meaning there are a lot more zeros earmarked for charities in the years to come.
Our estimates factor in the total lifetime giving of American billionaires, measured in dollars given to charitable recipients—in other words, we are not including money parked in a foundation that has yet to do any good. To that end, we also do not include gifts that have been pledged but not yet paid out, or money given to donor-advised funds—opaque, tax-advantaged accounts that have neither disclosure nor distribution requirements—unless the giver shared details about the grants that were actually paid by such entities. This is a list of individuals and couples who are U.S. citizens; as a result, we excluded extended families like the Waltons, controlling shareholders of Walmart, and excluded big givers like Hansjoerg Wyss, who lives in the U.S. but is a Swiss citizen. Net worths are as of January 18, 2022.
I don't think the philanthropic whims of some grossly wealthy should negate the fact that such extraordinary wealth was illicitly accumulated to begin with. Bezos paying his workers slave wages, for example.
Stinky as hell.
But compared to Trump and Musk they are at least doing something. Trump has one driving principle -- "He who dies with the most money wins."
Paul Allen's sister is busy turning every good thing he did into cash for herself. She canceled the RV Petrel that had been discovering all the World War II ships in the Pacific and wanted to sell off the Air Museum to collectors. At least one of the Walmart heirs bought the whole air museum and is keeping it as it is. She's not "good guy." No more financing of aerospace advances, she wants the cash for herself.
Damn, that greedy gene sneaks in by osmosis sometimes…
Greed - WTF?
Seems I recall the then-Boeing exec hanging out with chump at the WH before the crashes that brought scrutiny. Not saying it was nefarious, but I wondered why at the time, and more why as Boeing’s problems starting killing passengers.
My family were life long Boeing people. It was run by engineers.
Current management are MBA types. All you need to know.
My husband used to travel to Boeing when he was a contracting officer for NASA. Had most respect for them. That was a while back and they have hit the skids. I still think that NASA will regret their alliance with Elon. Maybe they already do.
Have you seen the PBS blurb about Jack Kilby, where he says "I'm just an engineer, I don't deserve the Nobel Prize." Love it. An MBA would have "regulated" his brain.
My dad managed mfg for the electronics package on the airborne command post, and worked on the Saturn V rocket. I keep telling him he should write a bio. He has pictures of him walking w Bandar Bush, holding hands and carrying one of his kids. He was delivering AWACS to the saudis.
He says " I'm nobody" to my autobiography suggestion.
Old time Boeing.
He agrees with you the Musk alliance is a mistake.
Indeed he should write his bio. So many stories from long ago, at the dawn of the age that has changed the world. Good stories from people who think they are ""nobody." Glad he agrees about Musk, seems like a no-brainer to me.
I've heard several ex-Boeing employees on NPR lately. It's obvious that Boeing has put money over the safety of their passengers. Greed will be the death of us all. Makes me wonder how these decision makers can look themselves in the mirror or sleep at night.
Bet that they sleep better than I do. Comes from that empathy deficit.
Redolent of so much going on in this current climate. Wonderful history to remind us to do our best not to repeat it.
Though we could learn a thing or two about anti-trust from TR. "not trying to destroy corporations but rather wanted to make them act in the public interest. He demanded a “square deal” for everyone"? And why not?
The public interest is key!
A "commonwealth".
JL Despite historical focus on Teddy Roosevelt’s anti-trust ‘crusade,’ his successor President Taft initiated more comprehensive anti-trust initiatives that did Teddy. Teddy’s Bully Pulpit was great PR, but Teddy tended to exaggerate.
RBG was right, Citizens United was one of the worst decisions the SCOTUS ever made. Maybe soon it can be reversed, just as Roe V. Wade was reversed.
We the people would have to make it happen, or maybe an asteroid hits the current court.
Or a bomb in the men's room, the next time they're "consulting."
TC, you’re so naughty.
I do enjoy your wit and pov.
Likewise!
Oof, TC!
We could get it through Congress if we flipped the house and senate, but I don’t think Rick Scott will be any less ruinous than Mitch McConnell was as senate minority of majority leader.
No NO NO on the Rick Scott idea…..He is as corrupt as they come……look up his history….I want to vote him out!!!
Very very true!!He’s terrible !!
I agree with you both. Scott’s as rotten as they come and made a fortune by cheating the government.
McConnell has shown flickers of conscience, though he does not act on them.
I was sick when Citizens United happened. I still don’t see how the title has anything to do with the reality. It should be called “Eyes Wide Shut.” Of course that can be said for a thousand other coalition names that stand for the opposite of what they really represent… mainly created by the conservative leaning.
I wanted to laugh cynically but cried instead.
Thank you, Jen. Your words express my feelings as well.
I read somewhere that what we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.smh
Yes, perhaps, but mostly we forget, or it wasn't taught properly. Thankfully, we have our dear Professor Richardson.
History connects with the present moment when it reveals more or less how thing got to be the way they are. For the most part, is wasn't taught that way in school, in my individual experience. The college I attended was historically oriented and focused on the evolution of Western thought. We read a sequence of individual books and papers from the Ancient Greeks to the present. Only scratching the surface, but you could see things taking shape. K-12 was mostly memorizing names and dates.
And K-12 is worse than that now, "teach to the test." And don't teach cursive, we wouldn't want our good little Gammas to actually be able to read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, or Lincoln's Gettyburg Address - or the World War II diaries from their grandfathers that I use in my books - among many others. Nobody under 30 can read or write cursive now.
Recently, my granddaughter watched me write cursive and was so intrigued. She thought it was sort of like magic. No, I said, just practice, practice, practice. How cheated these young critters have been.
Jeri, for the record, there have now been studies suggesting that learning retention is significantly better for notes takien in cursive than (often more copious) typed notes. [Science News, 2/24/2024, p. 12]
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/handwriting-brain-connections-learning
I believe that, just from my efforts, if I reread them before too much time passes
The worst educational ideas I’ve seen are teaching to the test while abandoning education on non-tested topics, abandoning cursive education, and the censorship of books and the teaching the true and more unsavory and racist aspects of our history.
I view deliberately teaching lies to kids a criminal, at least for matters that matter. There were things about human behavior that we didn't detail with our daughter till she seemed "ready", but we also tried to not misrepresent. I believe "fortune favors the prepared mind".
I see standardized testing as an administrative convenience. It produces a number for qualities that in reality can be hard to articulately define, so it seem like it gives us a handle to hang on them, but I think that in some ways the number becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy, like measuring yardsticks with yardsticks to give congruent results becomes less useful capturing the power of a symphony. As Einstein remarked, “It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.” We can quantify that wave pressure, but what does the number alone leave out?
We treat biodiversity and desperate interests as a bug in our system, when it arguably key to our resilience as a species and our human ability to know and do so, so many things. Yes, we need a common language and a kit of practical skills, but we want to industrialize education when it seems to me that it is best addressed as process of discovery for the pupil and everyone involved, a conversation, not a lecture. Yes, a guided process of discovery, and yes, with the aid of practiced mentors, but I think that if curricula spent as much time encouraging questions as dispensing answers, we would not see nearly as much unhelpful (and sometimes deadly) misinformation circulating in our society.
I think you are correct.
Kind of like the Catholic Church speaking and writing in Latin. How much of what they we blathering was made up to enrich themselves and keep the peons in line.
I started messing about with computers in the mid 1970's but I still carry a pen. I realize it would be different were I not a retired old misanthrope I would probably feel differently, but I hate carrying a cell phone and rarely take with me when I venture into what passes for reality. To me, a phone seems like a fancy Swiss Army Knife, Just the thing in some situations, but a laptop is more like a well equipped machine shop and I don't have to dink around so much.
Total agreement. I messed with the @#$#@@!! "main frames" and tried to learn FORTRAN in grad school, an experience so terrible it took me six years of the new desktop revolution in the 80s to finally get one. Now that so much is digitized, I'm a happy camper. I started researching "The Frozen Chosen" the year the Marine Corps put every pice of paper from every unit in the Korean War online in a searchable database - hooray! I was also able to go to the People's Republic of China Foreign Ministry Archive and read English translations of the negotiations in the spring of 1950 between Kim Il-Sung, Stalin and Mao (Mao had the most accurate outlook on what was likely to happen) for the invasion of South Korea. Also Navy History and Heritage Command to get the Monthly Reports of every aircraft carrier that was there during the war. When I did "Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club" and "Going Downtown," I could put a old code name in Google and come up with a many-page formerly Top Secret report in PDF about what that was. No more financing a trip to DC for a week in the National Archives pawing through mislabeled boxes to look at documents I couldn't copy.
I'll never understand why they stopped teaching cursive writing. Whose bright idea was that? Do these kids really not know how to sign their own name?
Will they ever be able to write postcards?
Elementary School and HIgh School was boring and did not teach to think for ourselves, just memorize the facts. I remember we had to draw maps of the U.S. and other countries and my geography is lousy!
Fortunately, Mr. Field had us play "the map game" in sixth grade - one kid on either side of the map and he would say a country or a place and the first one to get it was the winner, and got to keep going till someone beat them (I was never beaten). Kids spent all kinds of extra time learning the map. He was the only one I could remember from 12 years of public school, and fortunately we got to be friends the past ten years before he died last summer at 99.
I also played a version of this game in Mr. Delponte's 6th grade class. Can't say I was never beaten, but it did turn me into a sort of map freak, with a concomitant interest in world affairs.
A legacy that lives on, past his passing.
Teachers like that made all the difference back then. I had a 7th grade teacher, Mr. MacAleney, who paid for each of us to have the newspaper every day in class and every day we would all do the crossword puzzle together. I ran into him many years later and thanked him and told him he was the best teacher I ever had. I thought he was going to cry. I wonder if teachers are "allowed" to do things like that anymore.
My Mom had the dubious "honor" of being assigned to teach the "Package Nine" English class her second year of teaching. That was also known as "last chance English" and was packed with seniors who needed to pass the class in order to graduate. Mom taught them to read Middle English, and read Chaucer in the original. They ate it up, and for the first time in the history of "Package Nine" ALL of the seniors passed and graduated.
Those kids came to visit her after she quit teaching for 20 years (before moving out of the Rogue Valley). Two of them came to her memorial service 30 years after she quit.
TC, how did you do with African countries?
Elementary School was mostly a bust for me, though I did pick up the "3Rs". Much of the history I was taught was just plain wrong, or so further studies seemed to indicate.
Fortunately my two grandmothers, both teachers, taught me phonics at age 4. My first grade class was the last class in the Denver public schools to get phonics before everything turned to "word (non) recognition" and the long slow decline in literacy created by all the edumacashunil refirmers began. The Ed.D. is a degree that should go in the garbage heap with the MBA.
I was reading before kindergarten and public school used ITA (Pitman) alphabet and spelling. I was excused from class then and allowed to read books without Pitman/ITA. For me, ITA was like having to learn s different alphabet. In Catholic school, we learned phonics, which in my view works best. I will say however, that students with reading disabilities, such as dyslexia, might require extra help to leam, and they may need tutoring to enable them to learn to read well.
TC, I don't know what they system is called, but I learned to read from a book called "Nose is not Toes" where one word was read and the other green. I think I was in my 5th year when my Mom (a writer, a poet, and eventually and briefly a high school English teacher before settling in as an adjunct reader and sometimes instructor at our local college) taught me to read.
I was thrilled to go to school and read, and was sorely dismayed when the only "reading" on our first day involved me being able to read an illustration sign that said "Lemonade, 5 (abbreviation of cents with the c and a line drawn through it)".
Not me. My catholic grade school the Sisters of Mercy taught us to use our reasoning and logic as our guides in life and I eventually reasoned that there wasn’t a God. They found a way to expel me before graduating. I’m eternally grateful for them. Wish I could give them a big hug.
History is the light the past shines on the present that in turn can guide us into the future. When that light is dimmed or distorted, we stumble and fall. This is why things like the 1776 curriculum and the 2025 project are so dangerous.
I think it's Hegel. Science learns quite a lot from history. Politics not so much.
Only takes one generation removed for the lessons to weaken and another for them to disappear altogether. When the grandchildren dismiss the lessons of their elders because they no longer feel the pain, the link is gone. Teaching can help but not much can restore the personal connections. Maybe that is a good thing in some ways, but the cost is incalculable.
The problem with learning from history is that those that do, make decisions that aren't recognized with enthusiasm.
It's when someone like a President makes a mistake that was made in history, it is often question by the MSM and others.
Children in the early 20th century in Chicago as part of their education were required to study “the Wacker Manual” which promoted the development of the famous Burnham Plan that projected the infrastructure to make a healthy city. A quote from this manual “our children shall be taught that they are the coming responsible heads of their various communities… We direct the national patriotic impulse into the paths of duty, and it is vital that we do the same with the new impulse for civic good." Part of the education in grade school was to teach children their responsibility to the greater community. Not only is that lacking in big business today but also politics. The manual did not distinguish those of different races, religion or political leanings. Everyone was part of a community and as quoted above supported the principle that government worked for the welfare of the people. Thank you Heather for this well timed letter. Vote for Biden!!!!!!
Oops, somehow I posted twice & tried to delete one, but both comments deleted. So I’ll try again…
Agree with what you write. It’s like the concept of “the commons”….that from which we all receive and that which we all contribute: air, water, food production, clean towns & cities, etc. We are all in this together making our way along with other species and ecosystems we share this pale blue dot with. Homo sapiens (I call us Hubris sapiens) have mostly, tho not entirely, made a muck of things and we may not last much longer….nice to know Gaia (Mother Earth) will be spinning for another 5 billion years or so (til our sun goes all red giant on it), so who knows what may evolve? As I have posted here multiple times, the only reason I want to live forever is to find out how it all turns out!
Barbara, great comment , I just finished read “Facing Gaia by Bruno Latour which is a compilation of 8 lectures which address your comments. The idea that the rights of air, water , land and all species should have agency and voice in our political systems and they recognize no nation states or borders.
Christopher, thanks for the info, will check it out…it just seems to me, well, to be so obvious….smacking us right in the face!!!!
Sadly, we have been encouraged to ignore the existence of the common good and treat our fellow humans with respect and dignity, no matter what their faith (or lack thereof,) skin color, national origin, gender, or sexual orientation.
Kaboom there now you may rest in peace.
I'm guessing that's where the roads Upper Wacker and Lower Wacker come from along the Chicago River?
One of my Congressman-Doug Bereuter--earned his master's degree from Harvard in Urban planning. Ironically, most of his district was rural except for Lincoln, NE. But he saw the importance of Urban planning and was a big supporter of infrastructure. Dennis Hassert soured him on his career in Congress and he resigned a year or so before Hassert was found to be diddling with little boys. Very unfortunate for us all.
Just think of all of the good things that Congress could accomplish if it weren't for the power hungry assholes like Trump's flaccid little Johnson getting in the way and Mitch McConnell.
Ouch
I grew up in Chicago but don't recall the Wacker Manual or the Burnham Plan in my curriculum. Those names are still in use as Wacker Drive and Burnham Harbor on Lake Michigan, but it took my reading The Devil in the White City to learn about Louis Sullivan and other industry titans who created some of the first skyscrapers in my home city. My love of architecture and numerous field trips downtown primed my ears to hear these stories. Vote Biden!
By after WWll it probably wasn’t used at that point but it influence can be seen in Chicago today
I say bring the "Wacker Manual" back into all of the schools. Sounds wonderful.
Today we have virtual monopolies in industries from baby formula to railroads to meat packing. Biden opened up the baby formula market by working with the FDA to license baby formula made in Europe that met all FDA standards except labeling templates.
We need to, just as President Teddy Roosevelt did, revisit the anti-monopoly laws and update them for today’s market.
Taking the top 100 CEOs and charging them with conspiracy and putting them in prisons that aren't "club Fed" would get the attention of the rest of the crooks.
This is a useful website
https://theyrule.net/
Wishful thinking.
Tom, What law(s) are they conspiring to break?
Right now we’re seeing even more proposed monopolies like Kroger’s proposed merger with Albertsons and Capital One’s proposed merger with Discover. These are very bad proposals, and we need to break up the monopolies instead of encouraging them. I only see the Republicans encouraging this sort of thing.
We were among the first countries that enacted and enforced laws against vertical and horizontal monopolies. Beginning with Robert Bork, the Federal courts started to retreat from enforcing our anti immigration monopoly laws, and the consequences are that consumers pay more for inferior products.
You are a little misguided. No one is in favor of anti anything. What we are in favor of controlled immigration. Period. It’s out of control just like it was when both sides of my grandparents came in around turn of the century. Eastern Europe and southern Italy. I was once hitching in Sicily and recal a conversation with a resident that spoke of entire towns emptying and migrating to America. The in 1923, The Immigration Act was passed limiting such huge movement of people.
Bill, I just read up on the 1923 Immigration Act—its purpose was to limit immigration from anywhere other than Western European countries. “Congress used the 1890 one to increase immigrants from Northern and Western Europe and to decrease those from Eastern and Southern Europe.” Japanese immigrants were totally banned.
Good response. The biggest point that I want to make is that sometimes, we must compromise on some issues in order to gain political ground. This issue is poison to democrats. We will lose votes and elections. What is really more important to you and be honest because you can’t and no one can have it their way all the time. We continue unabated letting in hundreds of thousands, nay, millions and lose our democracy to MAGAs? Is that what you want because as I have stated, we live in an imperfect world. If I need to choose between the two, you know which way I’m going. Many cities are over burdened with the influx especially after TX governor has sent bus loads out across America. Perhaps you are being a big naive thinking that the larger percentage of Americans want open borders. We don’t and we simply lose with that attitude. Forget about super majorities. We may get lucky and squeeze by with a win.
The undocumented population in the US has remained pretty much stable over the past 15 years. From 1990 to 2007 this population increased from 3.5 million to 12million. It has stayed around 11 million for the last 15 years. In NYC the undocumented population has been declining.
I think we need to look at facts and statistics before using the emotion-driven fear of the "other".
Read lips or hips. :) I’m watching republican Rep Byron Daniels of Florida spouting about how bad the economy is and this is simply not true. So everything is a smokescreen in an effort to win election. I want, for lack of a better or strong candidate, Biden to win. He is the only choice unless he were to step down and open things for someone like Adam Schiff to run. Great politician. The issues about the border will largely determine who wins.
Bill, I’m not arguing for open borders—I just want a fairer allocation of people allowed to get green cards. Right now, if you’re a Mexican citizen without a sponsor, the time period from application to green card is over 20 years.
https://immigrationforum.org/article/legal-immigration-to-the-united-states-national-quotas-americas-immigration-system/
Tonight’s history lesson is very timely…
Thank you 💙 🇺🇸
Piquant how today's letter "from an American" cites long-ago Republicans as key to "a square deal."
The difference between then and now?
Back then Americans had a healthy, strong, and affordable system of public colleges and universities. We can thank the Justin Morrill land grant legislation Lincoln signed into law in 1862. We can thank the appetites Americans overwhelmingly had (at least outside the slave states) for literacy.
Compare that to today, long after the Powell memo of 1971 sank American higher education into the neutered silo culture now long reigning. Neutered because no one in any department uses any humanities outside each departmental narrowness. Silo culture because group identity no longer has individual people, as group identity, group packaging, group slogans have turned all into units, each replicating each other by the stereotypes tyrant HR deems orthodox for each group.
Good, though, to see Heather Cox Richardson remembering a far different time, when humanities roamed wider, literacy higher, so even Republicans could uphold standards where the federal government and the rule of law could and did protect people as if all might have personal lives evident, too, in humanities of all, by all, and for all.
You have to realize that Lincoln, TR and Eisenhower - the three good Republican presidents - were all flukes. Lincoln got the nomination because he was the only one with a national reputation. TR got it when the bastard McKinley got his, and Eisenhower got it because they didn't have anyone else the majority of the country would vote for and they were so desperate they took a guy who all the ex-GIs would vote for.
Yes, TCinLA.
My dad, A WWII vet, voted Ike in '52, and '56. Then Kennedy.
Sad to think that, over 166 years, Republicans have had, as you say, "three good" ones. That's it.
Though I have my reservations about Ike and his leadership for the interstate highway system. Though I must admit, too, that my dad, when he voted Ike, was a fairly prominent designer of cars, all through the chrome-&-tail-fin 1950s, and I growing up in a couple Detroit-area suburbs.
Imagine had the U.S. instead then dedicated itself nationwide to really good trains -- as a public service, not as second-class (and much worse) 2nd fiddle to freight lines.
Ahhhh.....but the truck lobby.
And the gasoline, oil, fossil fuel giants.
And, too, Emily, joined in by Goodyear and other rubber tire companies.
Plus GM, and other car makers who bought up dozens of public streetcar companies beginning 90 years ago in massive campaign by them to gut, kill, replace all street rail with buses, then reduce, kill even those meager public resources.
The story of the Red Line here in LA.
Yes, TCinLA.
J. Michael Straczynski wrote, and Clint Eastwood directed "Changeling," a 2008 crime drama set in L.A. and nearby then-named Wineville, now Mira Loma, where murders of children took place in 1928.
I was born in 1947 (Jan. 4 of that year) in Glendale, Los Angeles county, when the Red line connected, united all those far-flung communities -- which figures nicely in that 2008 movie.
Sorry, Kathy, I got mixed up.
In mine to you, thanking you, I used the name of another person, not you.
Nothing like reducing history to simple terms.
The history lesson above is well taken and it seems obvious, then as now, that a strong government committed to the welfare of the nation, perhaps even the world, is the only possible foil to use against the power of Big Business. I find it interesting that Dr. Richardson did not mentioned the latest dodge Business has created to cloud the transparency that Roosevelt demanded -- private equity firms, who keep their processes secret and, as of 2021, own up to 20% of all U.S. companies, up from 4% in 2000. (Karma, Roge; The Atlantic, October 30, 2023.) I assume she was leaving it as an exercise for the reader.
Good lesson Professor ⭐
Thank you and "Bully"
The rapid rise of private equity enterprises will lead to similar abuses. While they currently operate in narrow market sectors, they’re having significant impact; rental housing, and private medical practices are just two I see. They will create a lot of low-level economic damage before they too are reined-in.
Mike, totally agree…am having a serious madz at the whole concept right now….they remind me of a swarm of locusts descending on us. Greed in action…what could possibly go wrong? SMH