The Biden administration has been quite open about its belief that we are in a global war to reestablish the security of democracy in the face of rising authoritarianism. On February 4, President Biden said in a speech at the State Department that American diplomacy must be “rooted in America’s most cherished democratic values: defending freedom, championing opportunity, upholding universal rights, respecting the rule of law, and treating every person with dignity.”
It is good to have an admin that foregrounds human rights issues, just as it's necessary to directly confront America's own dismal, violent history of violating those rights. For most of the past 250 years the US has displayed rank hypocrisy, with only the 1970 and 80s offering any substantial respite from slavery, racist terror, lynchings, massacres and riots, biased and draconian laws, and police brutality.
Like many readers, I hope that Dr Richardson will again, and soon, address the matter of the Atlanta mass murders in the context of struggles over rights. This could be a watershed moment -- hopefully the Atlanta atrocity galvanizes American support behind equal rights for all, as the George Floyd protests did last year. In one week the Asian American community has made dramatic strides in organizing for protests; there is still much to learn from Black American political organization.
A key sign will be the extent to which different segments of society identify their own struggles with other, related ones. That is another promising type of political action that Republicans face with mortal dread. I can't wait to be part of regular large, well-integrated crowds in the coming summer protests. We The People, All Of Us This Time, Every Time, For All Time!
It is refreshing to read about a global foreign policy goal that includes human rights. So far it has been looking like China will be the superpower of the 21st century and that the United States may very well be in the position of a has been super power. If the For the People Act is not passed we will no longer be a democracy at all by 2024 when the last election ever becomes the death knell of democracy by putting a Republican President in the White House after the Senate and perhaps the House are back in Republican hands in 2022. There is hope that the Biden administration will pass the For the People Act and will start bringing both the United States and the global community back to democracy. There must be a major shift in our perspective from a we vs they hate, the winner-take-all competition, one is up only if others are down, and the only measure of success is not happiness but how many material goods you can accumulate and hoard before you die society to one of teamwork and community, where we all do the right thing for all around us and we value our differences which makes the pie grow bigger so we, all of us, are all winners, and wealth is measured by well-being and generosity toward others where everyone is treated with respect and feels they truly belong. That's how I felt at M.I.T. where the feeling of community, respect and belonging were felt by everyone there; all with the mission of making the world a better place. Not the OR world of patriarchy but the AND world of egalitarianism. A world of synergy. A world For the People, ALL of us this time. This year can be, NO is.. the pivotal year with the passage of the For the People Act as the defining act and tipping point.
I was incredibly amused by Sidney Powell arguing that the defamation case that Dominion voting machine company brought against her should be dismissed on the basis that what she said as a member of the Donald's legal team was so outlandish that no reasonable person would believe her!
Wow, HCR, you laid it all out. It's as if this letter is from a sprots reporter laying out at half time the strategies Democratic Capitalism needs to do to take back the field from Authoritarianism after the last quarterback was acused of trying to throw the game to the world Oligarchs.
My commentary is that the United States has not yet figured out that the game has changed to soccar also known as Democratic Socialism. The uniform has changed from cold war militarism with helmets and 300 pound line backers to agile runners. Capitalism is antithical to human rights, civil rights, and a sustainable planet. Democracy cannot free the world as long as markets are run by the invisible hand of capitalist Oligarchs.
A few days ago Greg Olear sent me a private email asking if everything was OK at home. He’s barely seen me in the last few weeks in the comments.
We are no longer chewing our fingernails off. We are no longer waking up in the middle of the night in a sweat. We are no longer obsessed with looking anxiously and with dread at our news sources for the latest atrocity committed by a racist sexist gender-identity-ist human Frankenstein monster with characteristics of a rabid animal.
So guess what? I actually have time to spend on my story project! I am actually relaxed a lot of the time! And feeling joy and satisfaction with myself and my world.
A week or two after I posted here that, against my better judgment, I was wondering if Joe Biden might be the best president of my lifetime, my wife started telling me the same thing. She doesn’t read what I write here, and I don’t usually talk about it. She came up with that echo unprompted.
The Biden administration looks for all the world like my highest expectation for a Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren presidency.
Now that is truly remarkable. Another miracle to go along with the miracle of a Senate led by Chuck Schumer and not Mitch McConnell. And of course we couldn’t have some of this legislation if it weren’t for this Senate.
Great coverage of the multiple moves by Joe Biden and company to restore the Strength and Dignity of America.
I was born in the sixth year of the Great Depression and raised in the midst of the Sacrifices and Patriotism of WWII. I am proud that my love of my nation can be challenged with temporary crappy Political Styles the American Way of magnificent open sharing of our bounty and our Freedom always triumphs.
I watched those Chinese Apparatchiks try to lecture Secretary of State Antony Blinken about Human Rights obviously not realizing the difference between State sponsored crushing of human rights across the entire spectrum of China and American Government efforts at ending Racial Prejudice that result despite a Civil War that ended State Sponsored Slavery.
It is also amusing to note China’s appraisal of a “waning,” America. Especially in view of their two 1970 style Aircraft Carriers supposedly ready to challenge the might of 11 US Carrier Groups.
But the emergence of the State Department and stern assertion of the Defense Department in India are indications the nation returns to active stalwart policies that are thoughtful, clear cut and the chaos of the past four years not being dumped in The dust bin of History.
I am joyous I lived long enough to see my values back in the Shared Public Square.
The lead Chinese diplomat accuses the U.S. of arrogance and hypocrisy when it presents itself as a global champion of democracy and human rights. There is, unfortunately, considerable truth in his criticism. All too often, our foreign policy advances not our proclaimed ideals but the economic interests of our corporations. A step in the right direction would be to reduce the powerful influence of our war (not "defense") industry, but the Biden Administration shows no sign of doing this. If it tried, it's likely the Dems would lose the 2022 and 2024 elections.
As he left office, Eisenhower warned about the growing influence of a powerful military-industrial complex. Subsequent decades of bloated military spending, and an attendant proclivity of belligerence, small-scale interventions, and all-out warfare--in service of corporate interests-- have proven his concern to be all too correct.
I’m so glad to hear you bring it back around to HR1/S1 the For The People Act. I was worrying the whole way through that you weren’t going to get there. I bet it is hard to hear us newbies and amateurs commenting on your project. Yet we do.
This is such a crux time though. We are like rock climbers who have gotten to the hard part and rather than study our way through it we are looking up past it to some place that looks easier, looks like it makes more sense. But the crux remains in front of us. Without the For The People Act and thus the ability to elect representative leadership, leadership that voices the actual concerns of the majority of Americans, our future path is for-ordained and it involves partnering with the inhumane monsters in the closet that are no longer contained there for the purpose of short term profit. And, it doesn’t involve an America that shines a light into the future with the integrity to speak to the world’s injustice because we just won’t have that right.
There are so many topics addressed in the comments. So many that preceded your voice on the For The People Act and yet none of them can be sustainably addressed without it. Wouldn’t it be more effective to focus on what is absolutely next, what must be done before anything else can be done?
What if it was full stop until The For The People Act was passed? What ever it takes. It is the discussion, the event, that exposes all else.
Is it time for all of us to ask President Biden to do this job so that we can move forward for longer than 12 months? https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
And what is happening with it now? 12 days it has been in the Senate. What? Is it on a shelf?
Something that has been wandering around in my mind for the last couple of years is the possibility of our country itself breaking apart in the sense of beginning to function as a set of regions building relationships and coalitions to get things done. States have always done this kind of collaboration, but it seems to me that there is developing an increasing tendency for state governments to turn to each other for ideas, mutual support, and coordination of actions. I note that New England states have coordinated border openings and closings (speaking of state borders, not Canada here), quarantine periods, etc. as an example. Despite some distinct differences in politics, these seem to be effective. This is going on in other geo regions as well, some well, some contentious. I think the effort at base is one of convenience as well as necessity, particularly when the other guy was in office and there was no national coordination going on. That has changed to a remarkable degree since Biden/Harris took office, but there are still uncertainties, particularly around the ability of the Senate to return to a functioning body that is able to pass legislation that states rely on to recover economically and people to recover their lives and communities. I am conjecturing here, but I wonder if interstate collaboration will continue to increase as a practical matter to ensure that we have, for instance, functioning infrastructure, trade among states, and the exchange of ideas that can move us forward. No idea if I'm blowing air out my ears with this, and certainly no sense if this would help unite us or result in stresses that could lead to a kind of balkanization. I can see it being a positive thing, but I can also see it going the other way, manipulated by some of the politicians who've lost a sense of public good. I don't have an answer, just a question that brings with it a worry.
An aside: I am still up because one of my smoke alarms apparently got a bad battery in the changeover, and is beeping every half minute. AND I CAN'T FIND THE EFFING 9 V BATTERIES! The downside of living in a small, picturesque VT village is that there is no place to buy batteries in the middle of the night without driving about 25 miles and back. Nope. Gonna go bury myself in my bed with a pillow covering my ears.
Thank you HCR! You have clarified the state of the union. You have made clear the agenda of President Biden and his cabinet. You have outlined obstructions to the President's efforts to reclaim the government for the American people. We must not get caught up in an argument about Red states and Blue states. Red or Blue citizens. All states, All citizens are American. President Biden understands that.
I am continually amazed at the stark contrast and growing gulf between our two major political parties. It is not exaggerating to say that the near-term future of democracy in America hangs in the balance. Ever since the founding of our country, the electorate has, slowly but surely ben expanded (with some obvious backsliding along the way). We can't afford to lose the momentum of this moment in history. Biden has many important policy initiatives deserving of consideration, but kiss them goodbye if HR 1 does not pas when it gets to the Senate.
“be absolutely devastating for Republicans in this country.”
There's another option. Republicans can shift their agenda to be closer to aligning with the majority of Americans. Hell, they "shift" anything and everything else that suits their sponsors... uh, I mean purpose.
Good Heavens! Our arrogant self-righteous attitude dictating what and how other countries should act as a cover for our own imperialist materialist and power hungry interests has become utterly sickening. Our own democracy hangs by a tenuous thread because of our ever expanding allowances given corporations and the wealthy not just expand but to cement their pre-eminence over the public will. Our abominable treatment of our own people - no health care for all (the only country in the so-called 1st world), 1 in 5 children with food scarcity, structural racism hurting blacks, browns, yellows, militarized police and police thuggery, evisceration of voting rights, caging children at the border, "As of June 2020, the United States had the highest prisoner rate, with 655 prisoners per 100,000 of the national population. El Salvador, Turkmenistan, Thailand, and Palau rounded out the top five countries with the highest rate of incarceration.".......and this "48.8 million Americans , including 16.2 million children, live in households that lack the means to get enough nutritious food on a regular basis. As a result, about 1 in 5 children go hungry at some point during the year."(google), and this...."800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad"....When did we become pure as the driven snow dictating to others about the unfairness of their elections? "the U.S. performed at least 81 overt and covert known interventions in foreign elections during the period 1946–2000. Another study found that the U.S. engaged in 64 covert and six overt attempts at regime change during the Cold War." (Google). "The" imperial power IS waning. Sending more dragon breaths to singe other countries is breath better redirected toward cleaning up our own democracy.
Reform the filibuster by requiring those who would use it to remain in the chamber and talk. No proxies. No remote appearances. Live, and in person!
It is good to have an admin that foregrounds human rights issues, just as it's necessary to directly confront America's own dismal, violent history of violating those rights. For most of the past 250 years the US has displayed rank hypocrisy, with only the 1970 and 80s offering any substantial respite from slavery, racist terror, lynchings, massacres and riots, biased and draconian laws, and police brutality.
Like many readers, I hope that Dr Richardson will again, and soon, address the matter of the Atlanta mass murders in the context of struggles over rights. This could be a watershed moment -- hopefully the Atlanta atrocity galvanizes American support behind equal rights for all, as the George Floyd protests did last year. In one week the Asian American community has made dramatic strides in organizing for protests; there is still much to learn from Black American political organization.
A key sign will be the extent to which different segments of society identify their own struggles with other, related ones. That is another promising type of political action that Republicans face with mortal dread. I can't wait to be part of regular large, well-integrated crowds in the coming summer protests. We The People, All Of Us This Time, Every Time, For All Time!
It is refreshing to read about a global foreign policy goal that includes human rights. So far it has been looking like China will be the superpower of the 21st century and that the United States may very well be in the position of a has been super power. If the For the People Act is not passed we will no longer be a democracy at all by 2024 when the last election ever becomes the death knell of democracy by putting a Republican President in the White House after the Senate and perhaps the House are back in Republican hands in 2022. There is hope that the Biden administration will pass the For the People Act and will start bringing both the United States and the global community back to democracy. There must be a major shift in our perspective from a we vs they hate, the winner-take-all competition, one is up only if others are down, and the only measure of success is not happiness but how many material goods you can accumulate and hoard before you die society to one of teamwork and community, where we all do the right thing for all around us and we value our differences which makes the pie grow bigger so we, all of us, are all winners, and wealth is measured by well-being and generosity toward others where everyone is treated with respect and feels they truly belong. That's how I felt at M.I.T. where the feeling of community, respect and belonging were felt by everyone there; all with the mission of making the world a better place. Not the OR world of patriarchy but the AND world of egalitarianism. A world of synergy. A world For the People, ALL of us this time. This year can be, NO is.. the pivotal year with the passage of the For the People Act as the defining act and tipping point.
I was incredibly amused by Sidney Powell arguing that the defamation case that Dominion voting machine company brought against her should be dismissed on the basis that what she said as a member of the Donald's legal team was so outlandish that no reasonable person would believe her!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/03/22/sidney-powell-argues-her-dominion-defamation-lawsuit-should-be-dropped-because-no-reasonable-person-would-believe-her/?sh=52f555811dad
Wow, HCR, you laid it all out. It's as if this letter is from a sprots reporter laying out at half time the strategies Democratic Capitalism needs to do to take back the field from Authoritarianism after the last quarterback was acused of trying to throw the game to the world Oligarchs.
My commentary is that the United States has not yet figured out that the game has changed to soccar also known as Democratic Socialism. The uniform has changed from cold war militarism with helmets and 300 pound line backers to agile runners. Capitalism is antithical to human rights, civil rights, and a sustainable planet. Democracy cannot free the world as long as markets are run by the invisible hand of capitalist Oligarchs.
A few days ago Greg Olear sent me a private email asking if everything was OK at home. He’s barely seen me in the last few weeks in the comments.
We are no longer chewing our fingernails off. We are no longer waking up in the middle of the night in a sweat. We are no longer obsessed with looking anxiously and with dread at our news sources for the latest atrocity committed by a racist sexist gender-identity-ist human Frankenstein monster with characteristics of a rabid animal.
So guess what? I actually have time to spend on my story project! I am actually relaxed a lot of the time! And feeling joy and satisfaction with myself and my world.
A week or two after I posted here that, against my better judgment, I was wondering if Joe Biden might be the best president of my lifetime, my wife started telling me the same thing. She doesn’t read what I write here, and I don’t usually talk about it. She came up with that echo unprompted.
The Biden administration looks for all the world like my highest expectation for a Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren presidency.
Now that is truly remarkable. Another miracle to go along with the miracle of a Senate led by Chuck Schumer and not Mitch McConnell. And of course we couldn’t have some of this legislation if it weren’t for this Senate.
Great coverage of the multiple moves by Joe Biden and company to restore the Strength and Dignity of America.
I was born in the sixth year of the Great Depression and raised in the midst of the Sacrifices and Patriotism of WWII. I am proud that my love of my nation can be challenged with temporary crappy Political Styles the American Way of magnificent open sharing of our bounty and our Freedom always triumphs.
I watched those Chinese Apparatchiks try to lecture Secretary of State Antony Blinken about Human Rights obviously not realizing the difference between State sponsored crushing of human rights across the entire spectrum of China and American Government efforts at ending Racial Prejudice that result despite a Civil War that ended State Sponsored Slavery.
It is also amusing to note China’s appraisal of a “waning,” America. Especially in view of their two 1970 style Aircraft Carriers supposedly ready to challenge the might of 11 US Carrier Groups.
But the emergence of the State Department and stern assertion of the Defense Department in India are indications the nation returns to active stalwart policies that are thoughtful, clear cut and the chaos of the past four years not being dumped in The dust bin of History.
I am joyous I lived long enough to see my values back in the Shared Public Square.
The lead Chinese diplomat accuses the U.S. of arrogance and hypocrisy when it presents itself as a global champion of democracy and human rights. There is, unfortunately, considerable truth in his criticism. All too often, our foreign policy advances not our proclaimed ideals but the economic interests of our corporations. A step in the right direction would be to reduce the powerful influence of our war (not "defense") industry, but the Biden Administration shows no sign of doing this. If it tried, it's likely the Dems would lose the 2022 and 2024 elections.
As he left office, Eisenhower warned about the growing influence of a powerful military-industrial complex. Subsequent decades of bloated military spending, and an attendant proclivity of belligerence, small-scale interventions, and all-out warfare--in service of corporate interests-- have proven his concern to be all too correct.
I’m so glad to hear you bring it back around to HR1/S1 the For The People Act. I was worrying the whole way through that you weren’t going to get there. I bet it is hard to hear us newbies and amateurs commenting on your project. Yet we do.
This is such a crux time though. We are like rock climbers who have gotten to the hard part and rather than study our way through it we are looking up past it to some place that looks easier, looks like it makes more sense. But the crux remains in front of us. Without the For The People Act and thus the ability to elect representative leadership, leadership that voices the actual concerns of the majority of Americans, our future path is for-ordained and it involves partnering with the inhumane monsters in the closet that are no longer contained there for the purpose of short term profit. And, it doesn’t involve an America that shines a light into the future with the integrity to speak to the world’s injustice because we just won’t have that right.
There are so many topics addressed in the comments. So many that preceded your voice on the For The People Act and yet none of them can be sustainably addressed without it. Wouldn’t it be more effective to focus on what is absolutely next, what must be done before anything else can be done?
What if it was full stop until The For The People Act was passed? What ever it takes. It is the discussion, the event, that exposes all else.
Is it time for all of us to ask President Biden to do this job so that we can move forward for longer than 12 months? https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
And what is happening with it now? 12 days it has been in the Senate. What? Is it on a shelf?
Something that has been wandering around in my mind for the last couple of years is the possibility of our country itself breaking apart in the sense of beginning to function as a set of regions building relationships and coalitions to get things done. States have always done this kind of collaboration, but it seems to me that there is developing an increasing tendency for state governments to turn to each other for ideas, mutual support, and coordination of actions. I note that New England states have coordinated border openings and closings (speaking of state borders, not Canada here), quarantine periods, etc. as an example. Despite some distinct differences in politics, these seem to be effective. This is going on in other geo regions as well, some well, some contentious. I think the effort at base is one of convenience as well as necessity, particularly when the other guy was in office and there was no national coordination going on. That has changed to a remarkable degree since Biden/Harris took office, but there are still uncertainties, particularly around the ability of the Senate to return to a functioning body that is able to pass legislation that states rely on to recover economically and people to recover their lives and communities. I am conjecturing here, but I wonder if interstate collaboration will continue to increase as a practical matter to ensure that we have, for instance, functioning infrastructure, trade among states, and the exchange of ideas that can move us forward. No idea if I'm blowing air out my ears with this, and certainly no sense if this would help unite us or result in stresses that could lead to a kind of balkanization. I can see it being a positive thing, but I can also see it going the other way, manipulated by some of the politicians who've lost a sense of public good. I don't have an answer, just a question that brings with it a worry.
An aside: I am still up because one of my smoke alarms apparently got a bad battery in the changeover, and is beeping every half minute. AND I CAN'T FIND THE EFFING 9 V BATTERIES! The downside of living in a small, picturesque VT village is that there is no place to buy batteries in the middle of the night without driving about 25 miles and back. Nope. Gonna go bury myself in my bed with a pillow covering my ears.
Thank you HCR! You have clarified the state of the union. You have made clear the agenda of President Biden and his cabinet. You have outlined obstructions to the President's efforts to reclaim the government for the American people. We must not get caught up in an argument about Red states and Blue states. Red or Blue citizens. All states, All citizens are American. President Biden understands that.
I am continually amazed at the stark contrast and growing gulf between our two major political parties. It is not exaggerating to say that the near-term future of democracy in America hangs in the balance. Ever since the founding of our country, the electorate has, slowly but surely ben expanded (with some obvious backsliding along the way). We can't afford to lose the momentum of this moment in history. Biden has many important policy initiatives deserving of consideration, but kiss them goodbye if HR 1 does not pas when it gets to the Senate.
“be absolutely devastating for Republicans in this country.”
There's another option. Republicans can shift their agenda to be closer to aligning with the majority of Americans. Hell, they "shift" anything and everything else that suits their sponsors... uh, I mean purpose.
The filibuster is a relic of Jim Crow and needs to be gone. Full stop.
Today I am mourning Boulder.
Good Heavens! Our arrogant self-righteous attitude dictating what and how other countries should act as a cover for our own imperialist materialist and power hungry interests has become utterly sickening. Our own democracy hangs by a tenuous thread because of our ever expanding allowances given corporations and the wealthy not just expand but to cement their pre-eminence over the public will. Our abominable treatment of our own people - no health care for all (the only country in the so-called 1st world), 1 in 5 children with food scarcity, structural racism hurting blacks, browns, yellows, militarized police and police thuggery, evisceration of voting rights, caging children at the border, "As of June 2020, the United States had the highest prisoner rate, with 655 prisoners per 100,000 of the national population. El Salvador, Turkmenistan, Thailand, and Palau rounded out the top five countries with the highest rate of incarceration.".......and this "48.8 million Americans , including 16.2 million children, live in households that lack the means to get enough nutritious food on a regular basis. As a result, about 1 in 5 children go hungry at some point during the year."(google), and this...."800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad"....When did we become pure as the driven snow dictating to others about the unfairness of their elections? "the U.S. performed at least 81 overt and covert known interventions in foreign elections during the period 1946–2000. Another study found that the U.S. engaged in 64 covert and six overt attempts at regime change during the Cold War." (Google). "The" imperial power IS waning. Sending more dragon breaths to singe other countries is breath better redirected toward cleaning up our own democracy.