The news that NBC News reconsidered its invitation to former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel to become a paid contributor has buried the recent news about some of the other participants in Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
It's important for all to understand that this has been a multi-generational fight for the soul of America. I earlier published that I, among many, tracked it back to the Lewis Powell memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in August of 1971 -a memorandum that everyone should be familiar with at this point. The Powell memo defined the roadmap for a right-wing takeover of the United States. With that as a starting point, the pardoning of Nixon, Reagan's implementation of economics policy intended to concentrate wealth to the top, and purveyors of propaganda like Heritage (the so-called 'Think tank' behind the sinister Project 2025) and people can understand that January 6th, 2021 was simply a flash point in a generations long battle.
While we continue to do short-term monumental work, sprinting election cycle to election cycle, our short term focus has largely compromised our ability to fund and develop a competing framework to what Lewis Powell set forth upon our political and economic system.
Project 2025 is a natural and comprehensive framework which, at its core, assumes the complete elevation of organized (extremely concentrated) wealth and authoritarianism over organized people and aspirations of democracy. It is a framework defining how to operate and maintain status quo.
We the people must not only do all we can to elevate elected members to State legislature, Congress, and the Executive Branch, we must also fund and develop a lowest common denominator framework for the long-term (Our response to Project 2025 focused on justice, equity, and democracy). Even if we emerge with a fragile democracy in November, there will be a Project 2029 and so on, each time we will be fighting against greater wealth and power.
"and people can understand that January 6th, 2021 was simply a flash point in a generations long battle."
Perhaps millennia long battles. Bullies vs those who would rather negotiate and cooperate. We were making progress in fits and starts for a number of decades before the Empire struck back. That progress did not die completely, but its scope was constrained, and is under threat.
when will we move from saying 'anyone else would..' to actually treating this man like everyone else when he defies gag orders. Anyone else would have at least fines if not the threat of confinement in a small, locked room.
Solange, my understanding is that Judge Merchan didn't include comments to be made against himself (or I suppose, by extension his family), nor to Alvin Bragg in his gag order. It only covered witnesses, prosecutors and jurors (and perhaps court staff?)
But I agree nevertheless: the amount of rope given Defendant Donny is way more than sufficient to hang anybody else who has done what the Defendant continues to do.
When is someone going to put tape over that man's mouth already?! (I mean that metaphorically - since tfg uses social media. Tie both hands behind his back?)
Alas, societies have been way too tolerant of crimes by wealthy and powerful. Not always, of course, but it's easier to smooth such cases over than fight the well armed. On the other end, the power-deprived often suffer draconian sentences for mild offenses. In the end such dynamics seriously undermine justice and rule of law, but enough of the public seem to tolerate it to frustrate reform.
I'm not sure if it's because the public "tolerate" it so much as we feel helpless to do anything about it. Unequal justice has always been, and will always likely be. We accept what we cannot change (and a glance at the French Revolution shows how justice can be handed out unequally when the power is transferred.)
Hold on JL! Look at how many people in trump's orbit have been indicted and/or fined and going broke...it's just not fast enough but their day is coming (look at Peter Navarro). What has kept trump out of jail is spending $100 million of donors' money! From my vantage point, the real show has yet to begin....
If you are a fair minded person, you tend to think others are as well. Enough of that! Those of us who support democracy need to have teams of folks concentrating on the long haul and looking at the R's to see what they are doing. Project 2025 needs to be shouted out all over the place. The Federalist Society is Robert Bork's revenge for the treatment of his SC nomination. Joseph Coors (yes, Coors beer) helped found the Heritage Foundation. These are lengthy long term projects that are seeking to advance a superior moral justification for selfishness, as John Kenneth Galbraith would say. They are probably more libertarian than conservative because they don't want ANY constraints on their ability ti garner wealth. There are more regular people than morbidly rich, we need to vote our numbers.
JennSH, I love your description, morbidly rich. They are obscene and their tentacles are everywhere buying up everything they possibly can and ruining things like health care clinics and vet clinics to use two examples here in Oregon. There was an article yesterday about a subsidiary of United Health (Death) buying a large Eugene medical clinic. Many doctors left. Now the ones who are still there have huge patient loads and great numbers of patients have been told they no longer have a doctor. These morbidly rich are greedy to the core.
I know and agree about the vet clinics. Every sizable one is going corporate. I am on the East Coast, and I understand that the same thing is happening to marinas.
Anne, sometime ago I read that private equity firms are also buying up smaller oil producing companies—what could possibly go wrong?!!! Imagine all profits squeezed out, cautions and controls let lapse before selling off what remains….likely to let the public dollar fund any necessary remediation. IMHO they are like a plague of locusts moving from field (businesses) to field. Sad that for some “more” is never enough.
All the nice, cheap (Pacific) ocean-side places to stay around here for clamdiggers and families (with sand on the floors) are being bought up and gentrified, charging astronomical prices.
It's a damn shame the "morbidly rich" cannot fund projects which enhance the lives of people, animals, our environment, rather than what they are doing; taking away, making our choices more limited, doing the exact opposite of "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" (the U.S. Declaration of Independence).
"The phrase gives three examples of the unalienable rights which the Declaration says have been given to all humans by their Creator, and which governments are created to protect." Wikipedia
Thankfully, there are a few exceptions, like Mackenzie Scott (Jeff Bezo's ex-wife), who has made huge contributions to numerous community-based organizations. I love what she is doing.
Voting our numbers has always been the challenge. Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States is an excellent compilation of the success that the morbidly rich and powerful have had in suppressing, coopting, or simply ignoring the will of the people whose labor and money they build their empires on. If/when the failed insurrectionist is finally brought to book for his crimes it will be a notable step in a direction that is rarely, if ever, traveled.
Good idea, but the Coors family cashed out a long time ago when Miller Brewing bought Coors. The deal avoided anti-trust examination because of the dominance at the time of Anheuser-Busch in the beer market.
Yes, we do! Need to vote and shout about Project 2025.
“Libertarian” has always had such a patriotic sound to it. To the adolescent intellect it sounds like “I can do whatever I want, nobody can make me.” Ignore other people who want liberty of their own. Bless Galbraith for his phrase “the moral justification for selfishness.”
It seems to me that there is more than one flavor of "Libertarian" and in any case many who call themselves "Conservative" or "Libertarian" are just spinning an obfuscatory pretext for their own malignant narcissism. The same was done for feudalism, and for slavery; pious justifications, backed up by violence. I have met self-labeled "conservatives" and "libertarians" wit seeming conscience and integrity, but they seem like outliers.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat's book "Strongmen" is the go too source for authoritatian rulers. Trump has studied and learned much from despots of the past. Bottom line is simple. Vote Blue . Cut him and MAGA off. Save democracy.
To your metaphor, JLG of "the Empire Strikes Back", we need the spirit & strength of Luke Skywalker, Frodo, Bilbo & the entire Fellowship, Batman, Superman, Thor, Ironman, Capt America and all of Marvel's superheroes and maybe even Neo. Deadpool and Paul Atreides wouldn't hurt either. It's going to be a long haul against the villains and we'll need $$$ and big resources against the trillions they've amassed and their cult & media projects to weaponize their "base".
We've seen the results of their decades-long efforts to install right-wing judges who are now ruling in their favor time after time against "settled law" and more. This means to George's accurate point of 2029 and beyond that we will also want to grow and expand our thinking to be more inclusive of those that have been thrown out of their previously "big tent",...the RINOs,...the Liz Cheneys, Adam Kinzingers and others that now have no home. Rather than them splintering off and away somehow, hard as it may be, finding whatever common ground there is With them to fight-the-good-fight and save not just Democracy but, America itself. Joe Biden's idea is to welcome them. It will be hard. Very hard. But, he is likely right. Yes, it's controversial but, we will need (many or most of) them to win the bigger battle. One example may be in the article below - a former MAGA who is creating a new group called "Leaving MAGA".
Gina, just yesterday I was talking to someone about Wonder Woman & her golden lasso…which, when she wrapped it around you, compelled you to speak the truth….boy oh boy could we use that now!!!!
Wow, long but interesting. We don’t have to wonder long to understand people being duped. History has shown this over and over, Hitler, Jones and other cults that draw in somewhat innocent people into lies and destruction.
“In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.” - Lincoln
Please don’t forget GenZ and other young voters. There are several Gen Z substack communities and I am excited by their knowledge and enthusiasm. They can be a vital part of this battle against fascism along with us- in my case late 70s. This campaign will be theirs long after Trump is gone as he is backed by billionaires who are driven to have more.
Also I am motivated by Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium, Heather Cox Richardson, and Robert Hubbell. It’s actually early in this presidential campaign. It will heat up come summer and we will need all the positive influence we can garner but we CAN do this.
Sad, Marie, but we'd be lucky were the billionaires driven just "to have more."
Their program of greed for themselves also requires they impoverish most Americans -- offshore the jobs, deny health care, kill state aid for nursery schools for working parents, up the number of AR-15s in crazed hands, and keep humanities out of education, to guarantee all anesthetized to the predators, social media hate mongers, and theocrats as on the Clarence court.
U.S. cynical young Ivy League hedge funders and high finance invested in the former Soviet nomenklatura to rob all the public assets in the 1990s there. The history of how those former Soviet republics fell into serfdom, ill health, and dictatorship illustrates exactly how U.S. billionaires don't just want more for themselves, but dehumanization and end of democracy for the rest of us.
Yes. That Powell memo was and continues to be chilling, though, this type of battle has been ongoing since the 1700s. My concern is and has been since the 1970s, that the Democrats have turned, and often still turn, a blind eye to the steady takeover efforts of ALL segments of government, local and statewide, including the courts. Time and time again the conservative "think tanks" and the RNC have pumped out a steady, streamlined daily set of propaganda talking points that nearly all of the media regurgitate. The Democrats have nothing like that. When something is repeated enough, people start believing it and as we see with the Maga cult, will seldom change their "beliefs" even if those beliefs are to their own detriment. Now the Magas are being further primed to commit violence if the presidential election does not produce results to their liking. Are. We. Ready? I doubt it.
Indeed Carol -and that is my call for a comprehensive progressive framework -legislation and policy geared toward addressing a sweeping set of societal imperatives intended to evolve the US toward democracy, equity, and justice.
The Powell memo is brilliant, and not vitriolic, however its incremental implementation over time -truly a slow-motion revolt against our system, with no apparent long-term opposition has certainly been chilling. I have written about it and talked about it for over 20 years now -seemingly, a voice in the wilderness (with too few others). I'm grateful when donations pour into helping to elect good people -but we really need people to step up and resource the fundamentals -any meaningful democracy requires an educated, informed, and engaged society. And all three pillars have been successfully eroded for multiple generations.
Amen, George, as to how "we really need people to step up."
Further amen to the next part of that sentence of yours, that good souls "resource the fundamentals."
But let's get very clear about these fundamentals. They are human. And for this our best Dems really, truly, often, and powerfully ought to be citing, stressing, zeroing in on the humanities that get these fundamentals human.
Dems should be holding public events, in groups of Dem speakers two, three, and four -- all equipped to cite each other's good programs at national, state, and local levels. More, that they be also equipped to cite American humanities that center the human in a land under organized attack, as you note, since August 23, 1971.
That Powell memo eventually geared its far-right foundations to offshore the millions of working-class jobs, to reduce the Supreme Court to bribed, perjured theocrats, and in many other organized, well-funded ways to poison the land in debilitating divisiveness. But before this, its foundations (Heritage, Hoover, ALEC) attacked higher ed, with the plan to gut humanities everywhere there, so all elites evermore would be totally out of touch with effects of the great predation.
Then, suck humanities out of K-12, replaced with the living dead of standardized testing.
You've aptly, eloquently got the scenario facing us, George.
Of course. Educated people, those who entertain critical thinking and discussion, can see right through him, and would probably not vote for him. Educated people are harder to take advantage of and con. He has no use for them.
The right wing prefers drill and kill, memorize and this is how to do it policies. Evidenced all the holders of Ivy League degrees in the house and senate who are maga loyalists! No rational thinking skills needed!
I am also a history major and I know that people can write or rewrite history to suit themselves. When in grad school taking a class in 19th century American history, I had to read five additional books per term(3) and write book reports on them, as well as reading the 4-5 assigned. So I shortly decided to focus on books about slavery and read 14. It was interesting to note how the tone changed through the years. Now we have many more books including one about cotton slavery which I haven't finished because it is so upsetting.
Historiography has indeed changed! when i was in HS some decades ago we were absolutely taught Lost Cause history of the South, with the evil carpetbaggers, etc. thank goodness the discipline has reexamined assumptions.
The sad, thing about "majors," Carmen, shows in how isolated all are from other silos.
Central stress on humanities could connect the human in the deliberately, mutually-isolated silos. So, too, could an essaying program centering the human in all departments, communities, nations and cultures.
Ah, but once upon a time there was a curriculum of required courses that helped to engender that broader understanding you reference, Phil. I agree that isolating one discipline from others dilutes the effectiveness of perspicacity and critical thinking that a liberal arts degree was/is supposed to confer.
As wonderful as the Alabama win was to the state legislature the abysmal turnout (14% or so) exemplifies the erosion of the three pillars you mention George. Educated, informed and engaged…I have never understood nor accepted the choice people make to not exercise the hard earned right to vote.
In Australia, voting is mandatory. The fine is small ($20) - but it sends a symbolic and clear message. "This is your country and your democracy. It's your responsibility to participate."
According to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), 16.4 million people were enrolled to vote in the 2019 federal election. Of these, 92% voted.
Australia has one of the highest voter turnouts in the world. Since voting became compulsory in 1924, over 90 percent of those registered have voted in every federal election. Compulsory voting means every eligible Australian citizen (18 years or older) is required by law to enroll and vote. For more information about elections, visit the Australian Electoral Commission website.
Bill, do you have any information as to how knowledgeable Australian voters are? I can see uninformed voters choosing virtually anybody simply to fulfill their obligation and avoid a fine. If it results in a better civically-informed roster, then I'm all for it.
I'm not sure how well that system would work here, though -- I'm much more in favor of getting rid of outside money in politics, at least on the federal level, and having publicly-funded campaigns. Each party would be financed via a quasi-public group.
Glenis, I totally agree with your mom! For years I have wondered why we seem to be in a perennial “election season”. No wonder it’s so expensive, and exhausting too….perhaps that’s one reason folks tune out….like all those “Medicare” Advantage ads on TV/mailers….snore….
A good point Christine. I think much of it is a happy (for the GOP) by-product of toxic, negative political campaigns. Many folks working paycheck to paycheck, barely getting by think the system is so corrupt and poisoned -they don't want to be involved. It is self-disenfranchisement.
George, perhaps naively, I truly thought that the whole purpose of the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution WERE that "comprehensive progressive framework" for how a nation of individuals could come together and rule themselves without a king or dictator!
Good point John. A springboard to be sure. The founders also knew it was imperfect and had hope that we would evolve toward a more perfect union. Instead we had Reagan, 'W', Trump, MT Greene (as I now know to call her), and 'Justice' Clarence.
I know there are smarter, more capable people in Georgia. One wonders if Georgia voters simply wanted her out of the area and sent her to DC thinking she couldn't possibly find her way back?
Robin, and in partnership with student aid loans, created a life altering debt crisis for so many. Having worked in Univ student aid for over 40 years & counseling students on their debt level (and implications & strategies to best deal with them), I recommend John Oliver’s recent showcasing of this issue—he is spot-on:
So now is the time for baby boomers to reverse their legacy. To take a stand and create a vision for America.
I am a baby boomer and believe ours was a generation that was distracted by the shiny objects brought by moderate wealth....big homes, vacations, fancy cars, helping our children get ahead. I remember, following politics, but being caught up just enough in my daily efforts to live the good life, I cherished the wins for the common good and believed we would survive the losses.
I knew Reagan was bad, I knew certain twists and turns moved us ahead as a generous society. But never took the time to understand the complex set of actions that were in play to undermine our society, our environment, and our children's future.
So how can we forge ahead with a think tank driven by the many patriotic politicians in the House and Senate who have brilliantly defended democracy?
I don't think of the DNC -because any political organization would have a politics-first context. And I don't think of it as any one thing Susan. I see more of an "ecosphere" approach. That is a loosely-coupled network of entities that serve a common purpose -toward democracy, justice, and equity, while rebuilding a foundation predicated upon education, information, and engagement.
It would require funding to be economically viable, an accessible and engaging vision as to what would be the tangible milestone results produced over a year, two years, and so on, organizational leadership in each specific area of societal imperative, and an overarching leadership to tie it all together. Then the tactical components around communication and messaging. Helping to educate people, and continuing to evolve and refine the vision.
May I suggest that "we" consider SM participation? Several cohorts (Millennials, Gens XYZ) need more civil discourse/civics education. When memes on YouTube, for example, influence 10's of thousands, can we ignore the media? Most of us here are aging and idealistic, but for all our best intentions, we fall short of passing the baton. Yesterday, I read that Gen Alpha, still children, have received almost all their social conditioning via SM. They are poor readers and are falling behind in school (if they attend at all) and, as a group, lack empathy.
I will try to find the article and get back to you (I scan the NYT and read The Guardian.) Ahh, here it is: (Daily Mail is not the best journalism, as you probably know. My apologies if I offended your family.) I believe these children are younger than teenagers.
"Fears are growing for the 'feral' Generation Alpha cohort of kids
There are over two billion iPad obsessed, TikTok-numbed youngsters
Poor parenting among Millennials is blamed for raising a doomed generation."
Incremental really is the cornerstone. Every potential opportunity to gain an inch adds to or opens another tranch. No regretting a setback, nothing is ever a devastating loss, everything can add something, every March or rally picks up one or two supporters, a lesson, some intelligence. I've thought the Right to Life campaign over the past 50 years was the best example of the enevitability of incrementalism. Keep plodding away. Never a great gesture or big win all battle. Just keep the masses plowing the field, picking u] a scrap that just might be possibly useful.
Yes. Whittling away, patience and time. And as education eroded, information is consolidated, and people have less time for engagement (as Unions were weakened and power shifted to employers) they had to work harder and longer for less -the water in the pot heated a little more at a time until it was too late.
Yes, where is the left-leaning - or even moderate’s - think tank? It’s almost passed the time for a new silent majority to emerge … one that helps steer this ship called Democracy along the path intended by our country’s founders! [No mean intentions intended by this example].
The conservative “think tanks” came about because those “on the right” [no matter how wrong they maybe] felt and feel that most of our nation’s academic institutions seem to have a monopoly on presenting the liberal (progressive) views in American society. Googling or searching Wikipedia for the two that you mentioned should provide the answer to the question you posed.
Thanks Jenn -- I just checked them out. I've heard the name before, but really don't know anything other than what I just read. Hopefully their influence is like a river, where it's said "still waters run deep."
JL, I have long wondered this as well, but then noticed that the uber-right wing groups are backed by BIG money. Are there many (any?) big money centrists-progressives that could bankroll such endeavors? It seems like those really wealthy folk like to have more-than-enough and share it with efforts/orgs that back the “more for me & mine” philosophy. I notice, too, that because running for office is SO expensive, most folks making it into office either have money already, or are bankrolled by folks who perceive they can call in favors down the line—and, if fundraising wasn’t a perennial “dialing for dollars”, maybe that time could be better spent, I don’t know, on actually legislating? . No wonder so many policies enacted send resources trickling up to the “haves”.
There are some on the left (yeah, Soros, McKenzie Scott—Bezos’ ex; Gates, Steyer & a few others) but not at the number w/ deep pockets on the right/far-right. One story I like is about a fave of mine 30’s-40’s actress Carole Lombard (married to Clark Gable). She would tell Clark that she loved to pay her taxes & as she liked helping her country. Sadly she died in an airplane crash at just 33 years old; I have read she was identified only (mostly) by a lock of her blond hair, which was given to Clark. Edit: got interrupted making this comment & now forget what my point was about Carole Lombard…decided to leave it in anyway (check out the old movies she’s in if you like classic films).
Thank you for the link! Powell’s appointment to the stench court was a reward for being the propaganda minister (aka their Goebbels) of the corporate and alleged free market moguls! Apparently, choir boy kavanaugh ‘earned his seat’ by doing the leg work for little bush in 2000 and writing a sleazy final report for the useless Whitewater investigation! And I bought into the ‘Justice is blind’ B.S.
The only way for our democracy to survive is to REbalance the court!
A friend told me, 30 years ago about the think tanks and their agenda. I had no idea but I learned. Others are still where I was 30 years ago. Time for a message update.
I think of Brookings as being apolitical. You're right, there are definitely left-leaning (or - leading, as you aptly wrote!) think tanks, but I can't think of any names at the moment.
Good catch, Ellen! I edited my misspelling. As to Brookings, I always thought of them as center-left, but a quick read of its wiki page places them all over the political spectrum, depending on who is being quoted.
As a non-profit 501(c)3, they must be non-political. I've always enjoyed E.J. Dionne's writings -- he's a Fellow, and certainly left of center.
Don't bet the farm on 501(c)(3) organizations being apolitical. The Heritage Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization. It is very political. It a wolf in sheep's clothing.
By legalizing bribery, the High Holy Catholic Federalist Court (HHCFC), formerly known as SCOTUS, has hamstrung the Democrats ability fight against this takeover and still win office. A corrupt SCOTUS, even before the HHCFC takeover, ensured all elected officials be accountable to The Money.
"Money doesn't always equal victory — but it usually does. Sometimes contributions flow to the candidate who is already viewed as being much stronger than his or her opponent. Sometimes the money goes to the less well-known candidate and results in a surge in popularity.
I disagree. Coming from a pro-business and Republican family, I find the memorandum -- or the half-plus that I have read -- simply to be a strategic communications plan to get the business side of the argument into the popular culture, particularly the academy. At the time that memo was written, American free entreprise was under attack, far beyond legitimate criticism for its excesses. What Justice Powell was saying is instructive to all of us concerned with the state of play these days.
As the 'radical left' had insinuated itself (sic) into various facets of American life over several preceding decades, so must business and business-aligned conservatives do the same in the decades following 1970. Republicans got the message while Democrats got confused and complacent. The conservative resurgence had fertile soil in which plant its seeds as the New Deal coalition was breaking down in 1970 and its underlying ideology exhausted.
Simply said, almost all of the F.D.R.-inspired goals had been accomplished, so ¿what now? The Democrats have struggled since, while classical economics, re-packaged as supply-side economics, has reigned triumphant until somewhere between 2000 and 2010. Now its bag of tricks, primarily bankrupting tax cuts, no longer work. What we have seen, I remain convinced, is the pendulum of public discourse arguably swinging from one extreme to the other.
Now the Reaganist ideology is exhausted and its defects, like accepting racism among its followers, well exposed. (As a side note, I am not convinced that the tax cuts primarily led to the prosperity of the information age, but the passage of the bi-partisan "Bayh-Dole Act" in 1980 under Democratic President Carter.) https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2002/12/14/innovations-golden-goose
The answer, in this end of this conservative ascendency, to ¿now what? has been this corrosive mix of Trump's populist demagogy and the single minded pursuit of share-holder wealth maximization; as corrosive as the hard-core Leninism of the New Left. Ironically, these narrow-minded conservatives are employing the same methods of re-writing history decried by Justice Powell. Hopefully the Democratic Party will forge an enduring coalition dedicated to restoring the basic idealism of the New Deal.
What form that will take is above both my pay-grade and I.Q. Knowingly, I expect to be left behind in the middle by y'all. Nevertheless, just for today, we have a common dragon figuratively to slay in Trump and his M.A.G.A. cult; though, I surmise, this particular dragon's head (i.e., Trump) exhales hot air (of flatulence) rather than flame.
The liberals had and still have some think tanks out there. Mostly, though, the liberals policies were coming out of learning institutions. That is why Obran targeted universities in Hungary and why CONservatives here target public universities and liberal arts schools in rhe U S.
I think a second factor must be acknowledged as well; the theft of land by whites from the Indigenous Peoples. Theft and chattel slavery are the foundations that built the wealth of this country. Racism/sexism are its fundamental core beliefs.
Ally, I recently read a short piece that wondered what humans would do if we discovered/visited a world that had an intelligent species, but that were less “advanced” (as defined by our hubris) than we…..didn’t even take a nanosecond to know the answer, tho’ you’d think we would be more “aware” than that now. Probably not, sadly. [At least in the movie Avatar they fought back and prevailed!]
We need our own Project 2025. I fear the Republican's have somehow figured out the long game better than the Democrats. Even when the leaders are like Reagan and Trump, there's a vast ground game beneath their wings. The Courts have been very effectively converted to overt partisanship under the gentle hand of the Federalist Society. They use the "Christian Right" for their own purposes and the "Christian Right" has gone along with it. But, at its core, its a program to make sure that the world's largest economy is for the few, by the few. The center left was doing great under Roosevelt and Johnson but sat on its laurels for far too long. If we actually survive Trump, we'll need to re-build the middle class, ensure women's freedom to choose, and stop promoting a tax code that benefits so narrow a group of the lucky and privileged. There are center-left thought leaders out there, many reading HCR I hope, but there's not enough cohesion to effectively battle the authors of project 2025 and their running mates.
Interestingly -I wrote about this twenty years ago. I warned that the far right had developed something analogous to a centralized machine that had the capability to distribute common messaging using political linguistics well-described by George Lakoff.
From the progressive side, while we had many great organizations and people, we remained heavily siloed. If you were working on gun violence prevention -you were heads down focused on that. Women's reproductive freedom -again heads down on that and so on. As most of my career was devoted to technology while at Oracle, I compared the progressive organizations doing great work to a massively parallel computer architecture -thousands of CPU's dedicated to specific things (a thousand points of light?). What was lacking then (and still is) is a "communications bus or backplane". When one progressive organization is under siege (such as Women's rights, or climate action) -all organizations should be engaging with the full weight of their membership. This transcends the thought of intersectionality -into a mesh-type response. I thought this would be a good mechanism to react to horrific policy and legislation (then unfolding during "W.'s" time, and could evolve toward producing a strategic and comprehensive framework to move American society forward -truly the 99% working toward a "more perfect Union" if such a thing is defined as a true model for democracy, equity, and justice.
While the democratic platform is good (in spite of drifting toward the right over a generation or two) -the ego's and people tend to place their own political and power aspirations over a truly cooperative and collaborative framework. And the progressive organizations tend to be similar -if it's not invented here, it can't be any good. Note that there are some who will put ego aside and engage, but sadly they are the exception and not the rule.
So building the type of overarching and strategic group you articulate Swbv -and I wholeheartedly believe is necessary will require new and egoless thinking. An understanding that we start with a lowest common denominator foundation and build up toward a perpetually powerful collaborative model to save and then strengthen democracy in the United States and throughout the world.
I also find it interesting that the hard right's ground game has enabled so many truly venal creatures to bubble to the surface. It's beyond me to explain how it is possible that a Clarence Thomas survives on the Supreme Court unchallenged. or how, of all things, a Marjorie Taylor Greene can be a thought leader and actually help bring down a Speaker of the House. or how a Ron Johnson can be a lie spewing machine for years on end and still be re-elected. This tells me that the rot runs deep. And it won't just vanish in November 2024. It will take years to turn our ship around. I just hope we do before it founders.
Any meaningful form of democracy requires an educated, informed, and engaged society. Because a well-educated society doesn't elevate the incompetent, the corrupt, and/or sociopathic to lead.
I am following all you say here, George. I do get stuck on the word "educated" as a requirement for maintaining a democracy. To me, that word connotes those who have attained the heights of a formal education, something of a turnoff for many who do not belong to that club.
I personally belong to and am proud of being a member of the "woke" club, meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination...a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights." Just my two cents!
A good point Lynell. When I think of "educated" it is not as a graduate or post-graduate level individual. I think of a fundamental education that facilitates being able to process information and distinguish between propaganda, disinformation, and lies versus information with a basis in fact.
For example, someone who might question if someone with multiple bankruptcies and massive debt is a shrewd businessperson who should lead the United States.
If we just elect people on the basis of who has the cooler yard sign -that is no longer a meaningful democracy. And it is incumbent upon us, if we truly care to continue to evolve a vibrant, meaningful democracy -to make funding for education an absolute priority, to honor and pay teachers well, to not allow the classroom to be politicized by eradicating actual history, and to provide affordable higher education for all who would like to pursue it.
Morning, Lynell. I think that "educated" in the broadest sense can be viewed as "knowing how to learn" combined with being exposed to various assessment tools to evaluate information, and the ability to utilize critical thinking skills. And certainly "woke" as you describe it!!
Lynell, my grandmother was born in 1898 & never went beyond high school, but was “educated” in that she was curious, open-minded and well-read. She poked and prodded and questioned as curious folks do & she fostered that in her daughters, grandkids & the great-grands who were lucky enough to know her.
It is not hard to understand this way beyond behavior when you look at the unquestioned thought process is behind it if you can call them thought. They are beliefs and sconced in both capitalism which is divisive and profit over people oriented, and religion which wants you to believe just one way or else. They both get permission for such behaviors because people think their beliefs trump everything else, put them beyond the Civic pale so to speak.
Just imagine the internal mind games at NBC that led to the hiring of election denying McDaniel. Although wisdom finally made its way to the surface, the Board at Comcast should fire the NBC exec(s) who hired her. And personally, I hope McDaniel is able to have a moment of self reflection. I fear, OTOH, that she'll wind up at Fox where lying is an accepted variant for Journalism.
I wonder if Australia is just tougher? Tougher on the lies? And, though probably unrelated, Australians did ban assault weapons quite a while ago after a mass shooting. Something we in the US have been unable to bring ourselves to do despite multiple killings per year.
Educationally speaking we have to deal with the psychological forces so deeply embedded in the embracing of largely unquestioned religion for the last 2,000 years,
So true. I was fortunate to grow up (or at least begin the process) in Los Angeles with a catholic mom and a jewish dad. They mostly left me to figure things out on my own, and when you leave it up to someone growing up in LA, you pretty much end up with a taoist. Admittedly, a really bad taoist, but taoist, nevertheless.
Oh, George, this brought back a memory from 1967! My soon to be husband (20) and I (17, would turn 18 3 days prior to our wedding) were looking for a place to be married. There was a cute little church near the beach in Montecito, CA that we thought would be nice, so scheduled an appointment. In the very short meeting the pastor asked if we were congregants & we replied no. He asked our religious affiliation & Greg answered that the closest he could come to “religion” was Taoist-Confucianist….you cudda heard a pin drop for the several beats the pastor paused before telling us he didn’t think he could help us. I don’t even think we even knew that it was an Episcopal church. Ended up getting married at a Unitarian Universalist church and a ceremony w/ quotations from Khalil Gibran. I don’t have a religious bone in my body, just a bunch of curious ones with more questions than answers!
I was married by Father Ted -forever in my heart for his sincerity and sense of humor. Patti and I had to go through reconciliation sessions with him. When we talked about the ceremony he was struggling to remember the name of the celebratory candle. I tried to help. “You mean the Menorah, Father?”. We became friends in spite of my antipathy toward religion.
Yes! At the core of most religions are some good intentions. But then, they have been twisted to embrace bigotry and hate for others. Used for power and control over the peasants. That's not what any of the originators had hoped for. How many hundreds of millions have died in the name of a god they thought had their backs?
Educationally speaking we have to deal with the psychological aspects embedded in religious belief, I don't mean spiritual ones, for especially the last 2,000 years of largely hierarchically organized religious organizations. We can now see their enormous imperfections in commanding people for all the wrong reasons. People get captured by this in ways that they themselves could not explain but that give them permission. comfort. and imperatives. to run everything in ways that make them feel comfortable in their own apparent need for everybody else to think like them, to believe like them. Which obviously does not suit small-d democracy.
The impulse to run the thoughts and lives of others you do not understand or even feel fearful of because of their differentness or supposed non-belief, has been so instrumental In people's thoughtlessness that we somehow have to deal with it up front beyond just stating the obvious in our founding statements of the 18th century. Capitalism which seems to have largely begun with the founding of the church in the 4th century, has thrived on selling sameness and salvation, as fashion for instance, along with dividing people against each other for profit. It is a religion unto itself and many people have not begun to question it nearly enough. Though the ones defending it heavily cast the word socialism out as so it were the worst poison in the world. We probably have to let go of both those monikers.
Who is funding Kennedy, John? Dig a little deeper. “Corporations” is a broad brush to try to tar someone with. Which corporations are “funding” Biden? Which “corporations” are funding Trump? Life is not at simple as you would like it to be. Biden stand for support of democracy, and elections, and support of the 99%. Kennedy stands for vaccine denial, and he just picked the x-wife of Google for a running mate. What does she stand for, do you know anything about her except the size of her divorce settlement? Trump stands for election denial and the right to break any law with no consequences. Who do you want running our great country? Vote for the person who will make sure your grandchildren get to vote when they grow up.
Kennedy stands for free choice on vaccines, abortion rights, and speech.Kennedy stands for transparency and truth from him and his government. He stands for respectfully discussing our problems together, and takes Niether the DNC’s side nor the RNC’s side.HCR says she believes in democracy, and that a third party candidate is a good thing for democracy,accept in this election.That is just wrong, debate is always good for democracy, especially in this election. It’s never good to try to silence the third party candidates because the end result (Trump becoming president) justifies that.Bobby’s positive message will be picked up by more and more of us and that will make Bobby president and Trump a goner.
I beg to differ with your analysis that Kennedy will win. Third party candidates cannot be victorious in a “winner takes all” electoral system that we have in the U.S. For real third party engagement the U.S. would have to adopt a parliamentarian form of government that allows third parties to actually participate in governing. It promotes coalition building and compromise in order to form a government.
An excellent analysis and an easy read regarding the value of a parliamentarian system is : Parlimentary America by Maxwell Stearns a law professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.
Everyone who is disgusted, put off or disillusioned by our two party system and wants to see viable third party engagement owes it to themselves to read this book.
Hi Notes! Could you please watch Nicole Shanahan’s acceptance speech ? It’s too early to form a real opinion of her yet, I understand this, but she looks genuine and like what I want to run our country-great first impression. She is from a broken family, her mom was an immigrant who supported them because her dad was an addict of some sort.She accomplished the American Dream , and now wants to help others.
No, Bobby can't do it at all. He's not his dad--he's nothing like his dad. I pray his vanity campaign will draw more right wing wackadoodle vaccine deniers than people who yearn for the charisma of his dad.
I truly believe he has learned from his dad and uncles, and wants to continue their respectful positive democratic leadership and unite our country again.Even Rory Kennedy acknowledged on CNN that his danger lies not toward ruining our country, but in ruining Biden’s attempt at re-election.
I add my thanks by quoting you to emphasize what I see playing out as a norm. That is, "While the democratic platform is good (in spite of drifting toward the right over a generation or two) -the ego's and people tend to place their own political and power aspirations over a truly cooperative and collaborative framework. And the progressive organizations tend to be similar -if it's not invented here, it can't be any good. Note that there are some who will put ego aside and engage, but sadly they are the exception and not the rule."
Agree. One thing at the lowest levels liberals should focus on: the CONservative use of state level government to strip local control when actual conservative or liberal locally elected officials get barred from doing what their voters elected them to do.
I'm distinctly remembering much of the organizing I was part of in the '60s which was collaborative across those various groups, concentrating all our energies on one issue no matter what group you are in and it was pretty successful. This intersectionality stuff is a little too wonky and manipulative also off putting.
Unsure as I am what you mean regarding intersectionality, is there any similarity to the support unions should give to each other? Workers of the world unite?
Les, fat finger sorry. Working on a much longer reply, although I never rule out a poem. Basically they are the same genre, but with really essential differences. Back in the collaborative times of the '60s especially people came across all barriers to come together on one issue at a time which worked very well. Workers rights. Peace. Basic human needs. For instance college students in Ohio stepping in to picket for workers who had been legally prevented from striking their own companies. Dr. King"s march on D. C. Many many peace marches etc. Various organized groups were called together over one issue at a time and it was very effective. Then all kinds of egos got involved out of the me me me generation. I was at one point a member of the IWW which had the international capitalist community really worried because dock workers across the world were supporting each other. All this and I'm not even out of my favorite horizontal position yet.
I can dig it, each group cooperating on the issues that matter most at the moment, no egos getting in the way. Exactly how unions might be hoped to operate.
What I and many others have observed is that the cyclical emergence of authoritarianism often emerges in response to economic downturns, social unrest, and a breakdown in democratic institutions and norms. These conditions allow authoritarian leaders to exploit societal divisions, promising stability and order but ultimately leading to a further erosion of democratic principles. The cycle is fueled by economic insecurities, political polarization, and the weakening of checks and balances within democratic systems, which authoritarian figures exacerbate to consolidate their power.
To counteract the rise of authoritarianism, it is crucial to strengthen democratic institutions, encourage civic engagement, address economic and social grievances, and foster political unity. Additionally, supporting international norms and alliances that uphold democracy, as well as responsibly leveraging technology, can enhance democratic resilience. By addressing the underlying causes of authoritarian appeal and reinforcing the foundations of democratic governance, societies can break the authoritarian cycle and promote a more stable and inclusive democratic system. What I and others have concluded is that through these concerted efforts, it is possible to hasten the swing away from authoritarianism and ensure a robust democratic future.
It is certainly interesting that despite a high stock market and low unemplyment and a good economic growth rate, the hard right media of Fox, the WSJ, et al, to say nothing of serving members of the GOP like Matt Gaetz, Ron Johnson and DJT, have been focusing on (fabricating) how dissatisfied Americans are w Biden, the economy, and the fate of the world. They are sowing seeds of discontent even while, for most Americans, things are pretty good. They are doing all they can to usher in authoritarianism.
I think of gathering like Davos, Jackson Hole, Aspen, palm springs where these folks fly in on private planes, bypass airport security the rest of us endure, and then attend closed door meetings.
Great info to share on Project 2025.📣 Andra Watkins is a NYT bestselling author and former CPA who has read and dissected the almost 1000 pages of Project 2025.
Her insights are also valuable because she “escaped” a fundamentalist church years ago.
Project 2025: How Intermediate Tax Reform Screws the Middle Class
VoteVets.org is a great organization taking the fight right into the heart of the red states. I support the group financially. It's one way of helping to elevate Democrats to elected office and defeat MAGA members.
As do I, Richard. Been with them almost from their beginning. We need to get more funding to them, so they can be even more vocal, across a wider spectrum.
And yet, so many still cling to the myth of the Lincoln Republican Party. It must be exposed, denigrated and stomped into the ground. It may take generations because the propaganda has money behind it and includes not only greedy billionaires but legal eagles, ideologues, idiots, and the poor who have forgotten who had their backs before the hate brigade gave them somebody to blame. And let’s don’t forget the “others” (let’s include women here) who think that repubs give a whit about their struggles. Chump blathers constantly about how he has been persecuted. Tell him a thing or two, women, blacks, Latinos, gays, etc. tell him what it’s really like.
Very true Jeri. It would be interesting to see how long a Trump, Tucker Carlson, or Ronna McDaniel would last in the late, great Barbara Ehrenreich's experiment to live paycheck to paycheck in middle America. I doubt they would last a minute.
At the time Powell wrote it -I doubt many people knew what the historical impact his memo would have in shaping our system for multiple generations. I'm truly surprised Heritage published Project 2025 -it's almost like touting "we've already won and we don't care if we fly this in your face."
My thoughts too, George, they not only said the quiet part out loud, but even published a damn book* of over 900 pages about it! They must feel really “safe” to do so now—makes me wonder what they know that we don’t about our current political/economic/societal climate? Or maybe they mistimed it…and we can mount sufficient opposition to push back, hard, against what it stands for—that’s my hope.
*When I can stomach it, I go to their website & see what’s new….been awhile, but last time I saw they were offering online courses to “like minded” folks to educate/train them to be prepared to be loyal-to-the-cause “public” servants in the, um, “new” government. Shudder…..
Eva, I have actually been seeing an increase in mentioning it and thought “finally”!—mostly on MSNBC (my satellite receiver is all wonky right now & is stuck on that channel, so don’t know about other outlets coverage). Wish it was covered more in other kinds of media as well (newspapers & periodicals, etc.).
Exactly why we need to keep spreading the link. Here is who I know haven't mentioned it. " Electoral Vote, Heather, Farron Cousins, Political Wire (maybe that one has, I stopped subcribing when he wanted a sign in each time) Dan Rather. To me this is the more important part of this election. It can be reported on without mentioning the former Presidents name. There are many more I come across who haven't mentioned it. I know all about temperatmental Dishes and wired internet so I have both.
Yeah, I’ve been putting off dealing w/ my satellite provider as I live in a rural area and actual technicians may not be available (I’ve done all I can from my end & it’s just getting worse)…of course my receiver is the original one, so not quite an antique, but close! Lol…recently had to have my internet modem replaced (when I placed the call for help, I told the person scheduling to make sure they brought a replacement with them). When the tech saw my modem he asked how long I’d had it….um, since I had the internet…some number of years. He laughed and said they hadn’t made my model since he was in high school!
I'm very rural and went to dish. Hughes net. $12 a month to get a repairman. I've been through hell and back with no one available. They launched a new satellite. Goes on and off , on and off. But I have another (because I'm rural) telephone wire service. Haven't had TV for the last 60 years. Watching baseball now, with the pond in the back ground. I wanted to move to Maine, Ellsworth area. But I settled for western NY. One hour south of Rochester and two hours from Buffalo. Heaven on earth.
Eva, I’m on the other side of the continent….in a small Humboldt County (about an hour south of the Oregon border) town of Blue Lake pop.1200, near Arcata w/ Cal Poly Humboldt (new designation as it used to be Humboldt State Univ & where I worked for 40 yrs) & having a college nearby & redwood forests, Pacific Ocean, lagoons, rivers and bay…a beautiful place, but can be remote & can be entirely cut off (there have been times!) if there are problems with only one north-south highway and one east-west highway. Larger towns/populations are min of 3-4 hours away. But still love it & folks come from around the world to visit. There is a move by AT&T to abandon wired landlines—many folks here cannot access web-based or cell-tower based communications because they can’t get signals, so they would be cut adrift, especially during emergencies. I’ve always wanted to visit the East Coast—well, ALL of America actually—have cousin who is bi-coastal & has lived in NYC for decades (she’s an artist/illustrator who collaborated with Jamie Lee Curtis on a series of children’s books) and always wanted to go visit her and have her show me the sights.
Thankfully it was briefly discussed on PBS Newshour last night, but the "experts" they went to for further elucidation were useless. They essentially said that if Congress, the Courts and the American people don't do anything to prevent it, then there's nothing to stop Trump from enacting it. Duh...
Good point Ann. The status quo I refer to is to maintain their iron grip on power and do whatever they would like. So to your point, yes -more sinister and requisite hardening of anti-democratic policy and legislation.
Interesting that Lewis Powell, a Virginian, should have been behind this huge test of a democracy whose first president was another Virginian. This Virginian is calling on other Virginians to rise up and vote out the traitors.
We democrats and MAGAS keep fighting each other mostly over the border as the MAGAS know that it's the one game they have to potentially win. Our side keeps lamenting our history and so on not realizing that the very nation is in transit to an autocracy. It's real, friends.
I'm reminded of lyrics in an old Bob Dylan song and I admit the analogy is a stretch but we are fighting the wrong fight.
"Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, fighting in the captain's tower
While Calypso sailors laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers.
Between the windows of the sea where lovely mermaids go.
And no one has to think too much
About Desolation Row."
We insist on fighting each other all the while taking our eyes off the ball and the ball is not rolling in our favor.
As I road home from Nashville on one August day in 2019, lyrics began repeating in my head and I knew I had to pull over and write them down or lose them forever. The lines: "There are good people and bad ones wherever you go... Just seems like the bad ones are stealing the show."
I think the Dems didn't do much to reverse those tax breaks and deregulation which led to continuation of nasty market crashes, esp the mortgage subprime thing, a making of the financial establishment at large - such is American capitalism. I'm hoping if 2024 is a big enough disaster for the GOP, the party might finally self-implode into a couple parts, but I' m not enjoying the polls and some of the critiquing still coming out. Dems need more political capital. Biden is making this a hallmark of his campaign, esp women's reproductive rights.
There certainly are, a rebounding economy to boot, sadly international affairs are a mess, Ukraine aid held to ransom in the House, and Israel - i think the Dems have bought themselves into a pigsty, and were it Trump, it would have been "pound away boys" and Ukraine would have gone down the sewer pronto with a new gulag in its wake. I keep my eye out for informed commentators on the "polls". Dems just made it in Alabama, Lands going from a 45% 2022 loss to a 65% win, mind you for the state legislature, just hope it's a good electoral mark that indicates something the polls at large are missing. This wouldnt be the first time by a stretch. Truman for example.
The LPM is why I say that the CONservative movement has arrived at its logical place. James Buchanan and Milton Friedman with were very explicit that they could never be truthful of the real aims of their proposals. Stealth would be needed to convince the voters to support their ideas. Even the Kochs knew that they had to be subtle and hide their real plans and did so by naming organizations like American For Prosperity. It was their prosperity they looked after at the expense of the rest of us.
I say this is all honesty, no one achieves ultra wealth without the exploitation of people and the law. No one.
George's call for American citizens to understand the roots of the far-rights' goal to overthrow the democratic principles in the US and take over our government, some of which has already taken place, merits attention from several perspectives. George didn't indicate that he has any knowledge of what the Democratic Party, Biden, along with others have developed as a strategy to strengthen our democracy and counteract the far right-wing's war against democracy. George also made no reference to what the Biden administration through policies and legislation has accomplished in securing a more equitable economic system and improved the living conditions for many Americans. Withal, our immediate responsibility is to defeat Trump and his comrades in the upcoming elections. The coming together of the three living presidents, members of the Democratic Party, strengthens our position.
'WASHINGTON (AP) — A fundraiser for President Joe Biden on Thursday in New York City that also stars Barack Obama and Bill Clinton is raising a whopping $25 million, setting a record for the biggest haul for a political event, his campaign said.' (AP, excerpt)
'The eye-popping amount was a major show of Democratic support for Biden at a time of persistently low poll numbers. The president will test the power of the campaign cash as he faces off with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has already proved with his 2016 win over Democrat Hillary Clinton that he didn’t need to raise the most money to seize the presidency.'
'The Radio City Music Hall event will be a gilded exclamation mark on a recent burst of presidential campaign travel. Biden has visited several political battlegrounds in the three weeks since his State of the Union address served as a rallying cry for his reelection bid. The event also brings together more than three decades of Democratic leadership.'
'The hours long event has different tiers of access depending on donors’ generosity. The centerpiece is an onstage conversation with the three presidents, moderated by late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert. There’s also a lineup of musical performers — Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele — that will be hosted by actress Mindy Kaling. Thousands are expected, and tickets are as low as $225.'
'More money gets donors more intimate time with the presidents. A photo with all three is $100,000. A donation of $250,000 earns donors access to one reception, and $500,000 gets them into an even more exclusive gathering.'
“But the party doesn’t stop there,” 'according to the campaign. First lady Jill Biden and DJ D-Nice are hosting an after-party at Radio City Music Hall with 500 guests.'
'Obama and Clinton are helping Biden expand his already significant cash advantage over Trump. Biden had $155 million in cash on hand through the end of February, compared with $37 million for Trump and his Save America political action committee.'
'The $25 million tally for the New York City event Thursday includes money from supporters who handed over cash in the weeks ahead of the fundraiser for a chance to attend. It's raising $5 million more than Trump raised during February.
“This historic raise is a show of strong enthusiasm for President Biden and Vice President Harris and a testament to the unprecedented fundraising machine we’ve built,” said campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg.' “Unlike our opponent, every dollar we’re raising is going to reach the voters who will decide this election — communicating the president’s historic record, his vision for the future and laying plain the stakes of this election."
'Trump has kept a low profile in recent weeks, partially because of courtroom appearances for various legal cases, the bills for which he's paying with funds from donors. He is also expected to be in the area on Thursday, attending the Long Island wake of a New York City police officer who was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Queens.'
'His next political rally is scheduled for Tuesday in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Some Republican leaders have become concerned that his campaign doesn't have the infrastructure ready for a general election battle with Biden.'
'Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson, dismissed the import of Biden's Thursday fundraiser.'
“Crooked Joe is so mentally deficient that he needs to trot out some retreads like Clinton and Obama,"' he said.'
'Leon Panetta, who served in top positions under Clinton and Obama, described the fundraiser as an important moment for Biden's campaign.'
“What it does, first and foremost, is to broaden and reinforce the support of all Democrats,” 'he said.'
'Panetta said Clinton and Obama, both known as effective political communicators, could help Biden develop a better pitch for his reelection.'
“I can’t think of two people who would be better at putting together that kind of message," 'he said.'
'Obama's attendance on Thursday is a reminder of his role in boosting Biden's reelection. A joint fundraiser with Biden and Obama raised nearly $3 million in December. And people who served in the Obama administration are also raising money for Biden, scheduling their own event on April 11.'
Thank you Fern. Well-detailed and good cause for optimism. Nevertheless I would like to see a long-term countervailing framework to address what Powell architected.
George, your interest is shared with many, who also believe that President Biden's policies, legislative initiatives and positions have strengthen the country's democracy, while countering Trump & party's chaotic, autocratic and divisive abuse of government and the American people. Many of HCR's Letters detail and laud the administration's accomplishments on that score.
We can’t say we weren’t warned but back then the talking heads all said Hillary was just being hysterical or words to that effect. That giant right wing conspiracy was well underway by the time she spoke those prophetic words.
“Eastman’s lawyer said it was unfair to take Eastman’s law license because he needs to make money to fight the criminal charges against him in Georgia…”
Chutzpah!
A child convicted of murdering his parents asks for mercy at sentencing because he’s an orphan.
I can't help wondering why the disbarment of so many of the lawyers surrounding Trump hasn't received more attention in the mainstream press and why their actions that led to disbarment have not also led to criminal prosecution. The refusal of so many of Trump's supporters, from those closest to the multiple deceits to those in his base, to acknowledge wrong-doing despite all of the evidence is astonishing. Why and how have so many lost the ability to take responsibility for their actions? While it is reassuring to know that justice is prevailing, however slowly, it is alarming that election denialism retains its power.
Wouldn't it be nice if G Orwell began contributing to this forum! I guess he already does, in a way. When I was working in London in the late 1990s I used to walk past the Senate House of London University every day, and think of George Orwell. It was his model for the Ministry of Truth. I can't paste the picture, but just look up Senate House, Bloomsbury.
When the fourth estate doesn't do its job, democracy is in trouble. It was appalling when NBC hired Ronna McDaniel, but it was reassuring when they reacted to the outcry, both from newscasters and ordinary citizens. We all have a responsibility to speak up, even if it's just signing a petition, when the powerful step over the line.
Like they say, Ann, follow the money! And increasingly right-to- far right broadcasting, such as Sinclair, are buying up rural stations. Although they don’t control all content, they do “flavor” what is promoted or what receives less coverage.
Sometimes violations of attorney disciplinary rules might involve lawbreaking (e.g., stealing money from clients,) and sometimes they may not. In Eastman’s case, it involved both criminal action, participation in a scheme to unconstitutionally overthrow an election, and a violation of his attorney’s oath to uphold the Constitution and statutes of the U.S. and the state of California. Both Eastman and Giuliani face disbarment (Giuliani in DC with reciprocal disbarment in New York,) and are facing criminal charges in Georgia. I find the election denial stupid, but they have helped to falsely cultivate this lie among the rank and Trump groupies.
Capitalist thinking has hijacked democracy's all inclusiveness so therefore anything that benefits and profits no matter what the cost or the standards violated is perfectly okay. Our work is apparently vital to redefine the limits of democracy, something which probably nobody really wants to take on easily.
It seems all through humanity’s stormy past after the victor had slashed and burned what others had built and cherished, came the re-writing of history. As long as one never actually admits his guilt, history is more likely to cooperate and white-wash those perpetrators so that they are covered, no matter who comes into power (as long as the dirty little secrets never come into light of day and publicized).
Now, however, there’s so much conflicting information, it’s all abut confusion. There is so much outright lies and bad reporting of facts that God knows how history will be written, or seen, much less interpreted in the years to come. There seems to be people who have amassed so much resources of cash and influence, that they possess the power to re-write history on a whim.
This is a great Letter From An American, Dr. Richards. It's amazing how you have packaged the goings on behind the scenes of these criminals. Somebody or "sombodies" are pulling the strings and have been doing so for a long time. All these folks like Lindell, Lake, Eastman and others are playing with Truth and Justice ! It's comforting to hear that they are beginning to face some real resistance !
I agree Bill about this being an important letter. It's easy to lose site of all of these cases. The Smartmatic cases penalties could easily dwarf those of the Dominion cases. If you do a Google search on defamation cases the results show many more cases that are not mentioned in Professor Richardson's letter. It would need to be a novel instead of a letter.
Hmmmm, maybe that's what her next book will be about or at least a few chapters. One could easily specialize in the US historical defamation cases.
" Ford issued a preemptive pardon for any crimes the former president might have committed against the United States while in office. "
From the day the news announced this, I never understood how a "pardon" can be preemptive. It is not a pardon, and certainly not a reconsideration of a conviction that might not have been justified in the light of hindsight, the only legitimate reason I can think of for a pardon to be granted. It is blanket immunity: A repudiation of equal justice under law to accomplish a political end. Well intentioned or not, it blew a huge hole in the accountability of those we entrust with dangerous-when-misused governmental powers.
I do believe some (like donors), started hiding the crimes better but others became more brazen like Nixon claiming he was actually declared innocent while Ford supposedly kept a copy of the pardon in his pocket, tempted to go more public with his firm belief that acceptance of the pardon was an admission of guilt.
After the Civil War there were pardons and amnesty grants which required taking an oath to defend the Constitution and the Union (and that they obey all Federal Laws) There were exclusions that required certain categories to apply to the President for Amnesty, described at https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1187/
"...The records contained in this database primarily consist of about 14,000 files of pardon applications with related records (affidavits, oaths of allegiance, recommendations for executive clemency, etc.) submitted between 1865 and 1867 for President Johnson’s 1865 amnesty proclamation. A few of the applications had been submitted to President Lincoln for earlier amnesty proclamations. These files usually contain a lot of information on the applicant’s background and activities during the war..."
Trivia - Robert E Lee's application wasn't approved until August 5, 1975 (just 4 days short of his first year in office, by President Gerald Ford, when long deceased Lee could no longer violate it even if he wanted to).
"...The Constitution establishes the President’s authority to grant clemency, encompassing not only pardons of individuals but several other forms of relief from criminal punishment as well.1 The power, which has historical roots in early English law,2 has been recognized by the Supreme Court as quite broad. In the 1886 case Ex parte Garland, the Court referred to the President’s authority to pardon as "unlimited" except in cases of impeachment, extending to "every offence known to the law" and able to be exercised "either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment."3 Much later, the Court wrote that the "broad power conferred" in the Constitution gives the President "plenary authority" to "'forgive’ [a] convicted person in part or entirely, to reduce a penalty in terms of a specified number of years, or to alter it" with certain conditions.4
Despite the breadth of the President’s authority under the Pardon Clause, the Constitution’s text provides for at least two limits on the power: first, clemency may only be granted for "Offenses against the United States,"5 meaning that state criminal offenses and federal or state civil claims are not covered.6 Second, the President’s clemency authority cannot be used "in Cases of impeachment.."
I see a need for a process of pardon, but we dispense it as an autocratic power. Those who may deserve it easily denied and those who clearly do not merit it given clemency without any reference to justice or prejudice. It has taken on a new and evil wrinkle with promises of pardon even for crimes not yet committed, at the pleasure of the autocrat.
"Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people." - John Adams
That pardon of Nixon should have been challenged in court. It was another case of legal fatigue after getting that older chief schmuck out of office. That would have been similar to chemotherapy after a successful cancer operation. The illiberal right learned the lesson of delay, obfuscation and confusion well from that. The left keeps falling into that trap.
The left, or in any case, the Democratic party has been on the back foot since Reagan, or so it seems to me. We have smoothed over things that would have been wiser to hash out, and set firmer boundaries. The more we cowered or shortcut, the more ruthless the "Party of privilege" has become.
Thank you, Dr Richardson. I'd shed a tear for these "poor misguided souls" if I wasn't laughing so hard at their ridiculous self pity. It really is too bad that Gerald Ford set the precedence for eternal innocence of criminal liability by pardoning Nixon. Nixon did indeed set the stage for the trumpster and his deplorables.
Yes, I thought evil was vanquished when Nixon resigned. I thought at the time that his "pardon" set a terrible precedent, but had no sense of just how bad. Republicans, it turned out, took entirely the wrong lesson from Nixon (and Joe McCarthy) and swore off "decency" entirely.
Plus, Nixon was at least protective of "Nature", while Reagan despised it. Nixon lied, but Reagan and his sponsors turned lying with Orwellian Big Lies into a core "Republican" strategy. The Trump mantra "You've got to be aggressive. You've got to push back hard. You've got to deny anything that's said about you. Never admit."
Yep, his quote from "Sun" on September 12, 2005. Never admit it if you do something wrong. And he never has, despite being the "wrongest" arse on the planet.
Ronna McDaniel, Mike Lindell, Kari Lake, John Eastman—-what a disgusting collection of rotten fish.
This is only the appetizer in a meal that could include Trump Turd, Giuliani a la Ukraine, Stephen Miller Himmleresque, and other blobs of #2.
I am appalled by some of the names that are being associated with Project 2025, a blue print for a second Trump presidency. I am tempted to call it the ‘Pardon Me Project,’ since a number of the folks pardoned by Trump are on his 2025 White House runway.
Mike Flynn, whose moments as National Security Advisor swiftly ended and whose rap sheet should had resulted in years of slammer time, is representative of Trump’s proposed ‘Pardon Me’ Praetorian Guard.
I find that the character of a person is reflected in who he/she associates with. The Trumpian personnel bouillabaisse is the most rotten in American history except, perhaps for some Mafia gang.
Ann Trump’s Project 2025 gang is the ‘deep state’ (’deep shit’)that we all should fear. It would replace professionals with Trumpists, with emphasis on pissers.
Keith, I posted a comment elsewhere here about the Project doing training (I check the site now and then to see what they’re up to), but did not post the link: https://www.project2025.org/training/presidential-administration-academy/ It really increased my dread about how aggressive they are being with this push to broaden their “believer” pool.
Trump's gang has been like no other. Put them all together and half of them look like the villains from the old time Dick Tracy comics. All they lacked was hoodlum nicknames:
Flat-top, Pruneface, The Mole, Flyface, The Brow, Itchy, Mumbles, Ivanka, Uday, Qusay...
With the Mafia gang, you get people who, by their words and conduct, embrace criminality and extortion. I think that when you step up from the personal gains, and turn it into political gain, it is most rotten of all, since it tries to impose nastiness on a country.
At least Navarro is now in the hoosegow…can’t wait until the cell door slams on Bannon…think that should be soon (still on appeal, but wonder why it’s taking SO long!). Now the others (including those now in Congress) need to be rounded up, given fair trials and if found guilty, be sentenced accordingly—I imagine few will have the resources (read: suckers) donating to their legal defense, so maybe not the delay delay delay we see from the mobster-in-chief.
I think corruption compounds crime. Government is in part our defense against malicious behavior. When those we choose and pay to defend us are in fact the enemy, or siding with one, there is an element of betrayal over and above aid and comfort to an enemy by ordinary citizens. It's a kind of treason.
Indeed, the character of a person is reflected in who he/she associates with. Look at Biden's cabinet members! It's probably one of the best cabinets in years.
Yet Nixon did to escape potential prosecution, so even though he claimed that it's not illegal if a president does it, even his own VP wasn't buying it.
I know, right? Looking at TFFG’s group is like standing in the post office with all those “wanted” alerts posted (well, at least there used to be those at a PO I once frequented long ago). Definitely an Ignoble Crew. I saw a clip of TFFG interviewed as a younger man & he said people would approach him on the street and just touch him (he, the germaphobe) so his Midas Touch would somehow rub off on them…..well, to me it’s more of a Merde Touch…and imagine his Ignoble Crew who are in deep doo-doo just might agree!
The Mafia managed to own some officials but not the country, though "clean" (like coal) corporate organized crime is another matter. Ask Dick Durbin. I am not sure that political corruption, or at least such republic-threatening corruption as we now see, has ever gone this deep in US governance (arguably native genocide and slavery, our nation's original sins, are even more antithetical to our published ideals). In any case, corruption is on a tear to a degree that we all now seem a bit numbed to it, and yet it's a deadly business.
I think corruption is abuse of power. So is tyranny.
There's a lot of food for thought in tonight's Letter.
One thing that stood out is that for several of Trump's legal advisors the most formal retribution they see appears to be disbarment from their lawyer's guild. That seems *deeply* inadequate.
It's amusing that the defense for one of them was to say that if the defendant is disbarred he can't work, and therefore won't be able to afford to defend himself in court later on when his case comes to trial. Isn't that tantamount to admitting that their client has no other abilities or social utility besides being a lawyer? That's pretty damning...
That's really no different from saying when you are caught stealing and put in jail that you're no longer able to make your living by stealing because you're in jail for stealing.
Just about any profession can become a vehicle for theft when you are a thief at heart.
But yeah, I expected some right wing judge to demand unemployment benefits for pickpockets in the pokey, so long as it was in the name of the MAGA cause.
Such fragile egos they have. Maybe we're looking at an entirely new genre of human collective behavior, though they themselves aren't collective at all which is their undoing of course.
A sobering reminder that, despite recent progress in the polls and courts, Trump and his allies are fundamentally unrepentant, and remain an enormous, fanatic, if clownish, threat to our nation and to democracy.
Trump the egotist, his fanatic followers (not just the leaders but ordinary people) and the 2025 project are dangerous to our country and our way of life.
I hope all Arizona voters run away from Kari Lake. She appears devoid of either humility or decency and is solely motivated by raw ambition. This won't end well for Arizonans or the rest of us if her ascent up the power ladder succeeds. Can you imagine if Trump wins what will be her next act? VP is on the table, but other important jobs as well. Can anyone believe that "national good" would ever take priority over "Trump good" or "Lake good"?
This is one of the most hopeful stories I have read lately, and hats off to ABC for publishing it. Adams has many positive traits, and I hope that he'll be celebrated even if he doesn't get elected to Congress. It remains interesting to me that so many prominent right-wing justice-denying Republicans have law degrees from Ivy schools—not only Adams' father but now-Senator JD Vance, Governor DeSantis, Justice Thomas and Rep. Elise Stefanik. Of course, there are plenty of Ivy grads who value democracy and the rule of law, but...
I must say, my first reaction is a MASSIVE EYEROLL to the news of Eastman still maintaining that he has done nothing wrong, similar to Nixon's, Giuliani's and tffg's claims, while they all proclaim loudly that they have been/are being unjustly accused and persecuted "for no reason."
I am pretty disgusted by constantly hearing about these MAGAts (and my sympathies to anyone with that pejorative as their legal last name).
It might help us all if we can re-image these absurd people and their statements as if they were still walking or toddling around in diapers. Screaming at their mommies. And Mommy is either helpless or clueless or worse. Does that help?
JustRaven, they are all following TFFG’s playbook….deny deny deny & play the persecuted victim. It’s their mantra. On the other hand, folks like Cohen & Parnas have accepted responsibility & their punishment (time to ponder their actions?) and make apologies and came clean with what they knew/participated in.
Stalking the children of his enemies is as heinous as his as his more blatant crimes. He is a predator, a schoolyard bully. How is it possible that this subhuman is permitted to run for one of the most prestigious positions in the world? Maybe we should begin to consider making changes as to whom may hold office and those requirements must mean an understanding of ethics, not rules based on religious beliefs. My last sentence sounds naive even to me, but I post it anyway in the spirit of optimism.
Very much my thoughts for a long time now. I had suggested to me from somebody who studied for and got naturalized as a citizen that applying that very same test that he took to all candidates for office might be a great leveling influence. It's pretty hard to test for ethics though we can see them as behavior at work or in speech. And it's quite obvious that catching someone in lies as against the facts that are being lied about is one way of judging ethics. It's tricky.
I think that ethics is both subjective and objective and hard to pin down. That said, we can compare notes. We can make arguments. We can more or less agree in an array of social contracts. When I was a kid in the 1950s, we'd agree on the rules of a game, even imaginary play. I think most would affirm core set of unalienable rights; but how do we apply them? Some of it is defined in law and some in social convention. We defend ourselves by defending all, by seeing no one is cheated of their rights.
"Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises."
Accurate description of present day confusion among magites and otherwise partly sane Republicans. Something about democracy really scares them, I believe it's the sharing and a kind of primal fear of letting go of what are considered righteous holdings. Which fails of course to understand how righteous holdings got there in the first place. In the interconnectedness of things some people are stopped by the sheer complexity, but don't have the tools or the will to get the fuller picture and their place in it. I am feeling charitable today in my description because all that counter anger doesn't seem to work after a certain point don't you think?
And our society. What do we reward/celebrate? What to reject and why? Is there any behavior that is beneath our dignity? Is there even such a thing? Are we safe for letting our neighbor's dwelling burn?
"we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
Jean, I think his groupies (not those who “know” and are just supporting him out of expediency) LOVE that he does this sh*t and actually gets away with it—getting away with it being the most important part.
You are probably right. Isn’t it too bad that we all don’t have to pass the test for citizenship as required of those that would be naturalized. If voting were not so easy, maybe we would value it more.
Jean, some years ago I was browsing the Costco book “table” when I struck up a conversation with an older woman & a younger woman (I took them to be grandmother/granddaughter, but am not sure). Must have been near the ‘16 election, because our convo touched on the upcoming election. The young woman mentioned that she didn’t vote….ha, that stopped both of us oldsters in our tracks…and we both proceeded to gently have a civics session why paying attention and being engaged is so important & that she should encourage her friends as well. Don’t know if that “lesson” landed or not, but hope it did. Also, once had a partner (mid-1970’s thru mid-1980’s), who was actually proud he never voted…used to chap my azzz & if he complained about policies, etc., I told him I didn’t think he had the right to complain if he chose not to participate!
Thank you Heather.
It's important for all to understand that this has been a multi-generational fight for the soul of America. I earlier published that I, among many, tracked it back to the Lewis Powell memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in August of 1971 -a memorandum that everyone should be familiar with at this point. The Powell memo defined the roadmap for a right-wing takeover of the United States. With that as a starting point, the pardoning of Nixon, Reagan's implementation of economics policy intended to concentrate wealth to the top, and purveyors of propaganda like Heritage (the so-called 'Think tank' behind the sinister Project 2025) and people can understand that January 6th, 2021 was simply a flash point in a generations long battle.
While we continue to do short-term monumental work, sprinting election cycle to election cycle, our short term focus has largely compromised our ability to fund and develop a competing framework to what Lewis Powell set forth upon our political and economic system.
Project 2025 is a natural and comprehensive framework which, at its core, assumes the complete elevation of organized (extremely concentrated) wealth and authoritarianism over organized people and aspirations of democracy. It is a framework defining how to operate and maintain status quo.
We the people must not only do all we can to elevate elected members to State legislature, Congress, and the Executive Branch, we must also fund and develop a lowest common denominator framework for the long-term (Our response to Project 2025 focused on justice, equity, and democracy). Even if we emerge with a fragile democracy in November, there will be a Project 2029 and so on, each time we will be fighting against greater wealth and power.
"and people can understand that January 6th, 2021 was simply a flash point in a generations long battle."
Perhaps millennia long battles. Bullies vs those who would rather negotiate and cooperate. We were making progress in fits and starts for a number of decades before the Empire struck back. That progress did not die completely, but its scope was constrained, and is under threat.
Lies. bribery, and violence are all tools of tyrants, and they work. We have been far to lax, up until now, to push back sufficiently against them.
when will we move from saying 'anyone else would..' to actually treating this man like everyone else when he defies gag orders. Anyone else would have at least fines if not the threat of confinement in a small, locked room.
Solange, my understanding is that Judge Merchan didn't include comments to be made against himself (or I suppose, by extension his family), nor to Alvin Bragg in his gag order. It only covered witnesses, prosecutors and jurors (and perhaps court staff?)
But I agree nevertheless: the amount of rope given Defendant Donny is way more than sufficient to hang anybody else who has done what the Defendant continues to do.
When is someone going to put tape over that man's mouth already?! (I mean that metaphorically - since tfg uses social media. Tie both hands behind his back?)
Trump and his cronies -in-crime all have the "I Didn't Do Anything Wrong" complex,
Their perception of "wrong" is so different from that of normal law-abiding citizens.
I think there would be plenty of volunteers. Get in line, Ellen!
Forget taping his mouth, it's past time for one of the judges to issue a gag order of such magnitude that Trumps's big mouth lans's him in jail.
Tape his forefinger and thumb together and then tape his mouth. And if the tape goes a little wide and "accidently" covers his nostrils...oh well.
It also includes family members, so 45 has already crossed the line.
Alas, societies have been way too tolerant of crimes by wealthy and powerful. Not always, of course, but it's easier to smooth such cases over than fight the well armed. On the other end, the power-deprived often suffer draconian sentences for mild offenses. In the end such dynamics seriously undermine justice and rule of law, but enough of the public seem to tolerate it to frustrate reform.
I'm not sure if it's because the public "tolerate" it so much as we feel helpless to do anything about it. Unequal justice has always been, and will always likely be. We accept what we cannot change (and a glance at the French Revolution shows how justice can be handed out unequally when the power is transferred.)
Hold on JL! Look at how many people in trump's orbit have been indicted and/or fined and going broke...it's just not fast enough but their day is coming (look at Peter Navarro). What has kept trump out of jail is spending $100 million of donors' money! From my vantage point, the real show has yet to begin....
Anyone else would be moved from Mar-a Lago to Quantanamo.
Maybe if they lived in a squat.
He needed lock in a small room on day one. That would have stopped the "bully"!
If you are a fair minded person, you tend to think others are as well. Enough of that! Those of us who support democracy need to have teams of folks concentrating on the long haul and looking at the R's to see what they are doing. Project 2025 needs to be shouted out all over the place. The Federalist Society is Robert Bork's revenge for the treatment of his SC nomination. Joseph Coors (yes, Coors beer) helped found the Heritage Foundation. These are lengthy long term projects that are seeking to advance a superior moral justification for selfishness, as John Kenneth Galbraith would say. They are probably more libertarian than conservative because they don't want ANY constraints on their ability ti garner wealth. There are more regular people than morbidly rich, we need to vote our numbers.
JennSH, I love your description, morbidly rich. They are obscene and their tentacles are everywhere buying up everything they possibly can and ruining things like health care clinics and vet clinics to use two examples here in Oregon. There was an article yesterday about a subsidiary of United Health (Death) buying a large Eugene medical clinic. Many doctors left. Now the ones who are still there have huge patient loads and great numbers of patients have been told they no longer have a doctor. These morbidly rich are greedy to the core.
I know and agree about the vet clinics. Every sizable one is going corporate. I am on the East Coast, and I understand that the same thing is happening to marinas.
Anne, sometime ago I read that private equity firms are also buying up smaller oil producing companies—what could possibly go wrong?!!! Imagine all profits squeezed out, cautions and controls let lapse before selling off what remains….likely to let the public dollar fund any necessary remediation. IMHO they are like a plague of locusts moving from field (businesses) to field. Sad that for some “more” is never enough.
All the nice, cheap (Pacific) ocean-side places to stay around here for clamdiggers and families (with sand on the floors) are being bought up and gentrified, charging astronomical prices.
It's a damn shame the "morbidly rich" cannot fund projects which enhance the lives of people, animals, our environment, rather than what they are doing; taking away, making our choices more limited, doing the exact opposite of "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" (the U.S. Declaration of Independence).
"The phrase gives three examples of the unalienable rights which the Declaration says have been given to all humans by their Creator, and which governments are created to protect." Wikipedia
Thankfully, there are a few exceptions, like Mackenzie Scott (Jeff Bezo's ex-wife), who has made huge contributions to numerous community-based organizations. I love what she is doing.
Voting our numbers has always been the challenge. Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States is an excellent compilation of the success that the morbidly rich and powerful have had in suppressing, coopting, or simply ignoring the will of the people whose labor and money they build their empires on. If/when the failed insurrectionist is finally brought to book for his crimes it will be a notable step in a direction that is rarely, if ever, traveled.
Let's start by not buying Coors beers. It worked with Zillio.
Good idea, but the Coors family cashed out a long time ago when Miller Brewing bought Coors. The deal avoided anti-trust examination because of the dominance at the time of Anheuser-Busch in the beer market.
Yes, we do! Need to vote and shout about Project 2025.
“Libertarian” has always had such a patriotic sound to it. To the adolescent intellect it sounds like “I can do whatever I want, nobody can make me.” Ignore other people who want liberty of their own. Bless Galbraith for his phrase “the moral justification for selfishness.”
It seems to me that there is more than one flavor of "Libertarian" and in any case many who call themselves "Conservative" or "Libertarian" are just spinning an obfuscatory pretext for their own malignant narcissism. The same was done for feudalism, and for slavery; pious justifications, backed up by violence. I have met self-labeled "conservatives" and "libertarians" wit seeming conscience and integrity, but they seem like outliers.
I agree. In my mind it is equivalent to how the dominant culture responds to animal abuse. It is not vigorously just haphazard.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat's book "Strongmen" is the go too source for authoritatian rulers. Trump has studied and learned much from despots of the past. Bottom line is simple. Vote Blue . Cut him and MAGA off. Save democracy.
To your metaphor, JLG of "the Empire Strikes Back", we need the spirit & strength of Luke Skywalker, Frodo, Bilbo & the entire Fellowship, Batman, Superman, Thor, Ironman, Capt America and all of Marvel's superheroes and maybe even Neo. Deadpool and Paul Atreides wouldn't hurt either. It's going to be a long haul against the villains and we'll need $$$ and big resources against the trillions they've amassed and their cult & media projects to weaponize their "base".
We've seen the results of their decades-long efforts to install right-wing judges who are now ruling in their favor time after time against "settled law" and more. This means to George's accurate point of 2029 and beyond that we will also want to grow and expand our thinking to be more inclusive of those that have been thrown out of their previously "big tent",...the RINOs,...the Liz Cheneys, Adam Kinzingers and others that now have no home. Rather than them splintering off and away somehow, hard as it may be, finding whatever common ground there is With them to fight-the-good-fight and save not just Democracy but, America itself. Joe Biden's idea is to welcome them. It will be hard. Very hard. But, he is likely right. Yes, it's controversial but, we will need (many or most of) them to win the bigger battle. One example may be in the article below - a former MAGA who is creating a new group called "Leaving MAGA".
https://www.salon.com/2024/03/27/nbcs-ronna-blunder-a-failed-attempt-to-appeal-to-maga--except-they-hate-her-too/
And Wonder Woman!
Gina, just yesterday I was talking to someone about Wonder Woman & her golden lasso…which, when she wrapped it around you, compelled you to speak the truth….boy oh boy could we use that now!!!!
Take cover. Trump would explode.
OMG! How could I have forgotten Her! My bad. She's great :)
Thanks, Gina. Beat me to it.
BK, thank you for this link. Let's hope the "Leaving MAGA' group is successful.
Wow, long but interesting. We don’t have to wonder long to understand people being duped. History has shown this over and over, Hitler, Jones and other cults that draw in somewhat innocent people into lies and destruction.
I appreciate your insight and reference. It was an interesting read!
“In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.” - Lincoln
Please don’t forget GenZ and other young voters. There are several Gen Z substack communities and I am excited by their knowledge and enthusiasm. They can be a vital part of this battle against fascism along with us- in my case late 70s. This campaign will be theirs long after Trump is gone as he is backed by billionaires who are driven to have more.
Also I am motivated by Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium, Heather Cox Richardson, and Robert Hubbell. It’s actually early in this presidential campaign. It will heat up come summer and we will need all the positive influence we can garner but we CAN do this.
Sad, Marie, but we'd be lucky were the billionaires driven just "to have more."
Their program of greed for themselves also requires they impoverish most Americans -- offshore the jobs, deny health care, kill state aid for nursery schools for working parents, up the number of AR-15s in crazed hands, and keep humanities out of education, to guarantee all anesthetized to the predators, social media hate mongers, and theocrats as on the Clarence court.
U.S. cynical young Ivy League hedge funders and high finance invested in the former Soviet nomenklatura to rob all the public assets in the 1990s there. The history of how those former Soviet republics fell into serfdom, ill health, and dictatorship illustrates exactly how U.S. billionaires don't just want more for themselves, but dehumanization and end of democracy for the rest of us.
Thank you for that interesting link. A sliver of hope?
Yes. That Powell memo was and continues to be chilling, though, this type of battle has been ongoing since the 1700s. My concern is and has been since the 1970s, that the Democrats have turned, and often still turn, a blind eye to the steady takeover efforts of ALL segments of government, local and statewide, including the courts. Time and time again the conservative "think tanks" and the RNC have pumped out a steady, streamlined daily set of propaganda talking points that nearly all of the media regurgitate. The Democrats have nothing like that. When something is repeated enough, people start believing it and as we see with the Maga cult, will seldom change their "beliefs" even if those beliefs are to their own detriment. Now the Magas are being further primed to commit violence if the presidential election does not produce results to their liking. Are. We. Ready? I doubt it.
Indeed Carol -and that is my call for a comprehensive progressive framework -legislation and policy geared toward addressing a sweeping set of societal imperatives intended to evolve the US toward democracy, equity, and justice.
The Powell memo is brilliant, and not vitriolic, however its incremental implementation over time -truly a slow-motion revolt against our system, with no apparent long-term opposition has certainly been chilling. I have written about it and talked about it for over 20 years now -seemingly, a voice in the wilderness (with too few others). I'm grateful when donations pour into helping to elect good people -but we really need people to step up and resource the fundamentals -any meaningful democracy requires an educated, informed, and engaged society. And all three pillars have been successfully eroded for multiple generations.
Amen, George, as to how "we really need people to step up."
Further amen to the next part of that sentence of yours, that good souls "resource the fundamentals."
But let's get very clear about these fundamentals. They are human. And for this our best Dems really, truly, often, and powerfully ought to be citing, stressing, zeroing in on the humanities that get these fundamentals human.
Dems should be holding public events, in groups of Dem speakers two, three, and four -- all equipped to cite each other's good programs at national, state, and local levels. More, that they be also equipped to cite American humanities that center the human in a land under organized attack, as you note, since August 23, 1971.
That Powell memo eventually geared its far-right foundations to offshore the millions of working-class jobs, to reduce the Supreme Court to bribed, perjured theocrats, and in many other organized, well-funded ways to poison the land in debilitating divisiveness. But before this, its foundations (Heritage, Hoover, ALEC) attacked higher ed, with the plan to gut humanities everywhere there, so all elites evermore would be totally out of touch with effects of the great predation.
Then, suck humanities out of K-12, replaced with the living dead of standardized testing.
You've aptly, eloquently got the scenario facing us, George.
Our education system has been royally screwed for a long time. An uneducated populace is easier to control.
Absolutely on target! Trump has said he likes uneducated people!!!
How apopro for the most ignorant of our species
Of course. Educated people, those who entertain critical thinking and discussion, can see right through him, and would probably not vote for him. Educated people are harder to take advantage of and con. He has no use for them.
The right wing prefers drill and kill, memorize and this is how to do it policies. Evidenced all the holders of Ivy League degrees in the house and senate who are maga loyalists! No rational thinking skills needed!
And yet the likes of GWB and DeSantis were history majors. The humanities didn't seem to figure in their brains.
I am also a history major and I know that people can write or rewrite history to suit themselves. When in grad school taking a class in 19th century American history, I had to read five additional books per term(3) and write book reports on them, as well as reading the 4-5 assigned. So I shortly decided to focus on books about slavery and read 14. It was interesting to note how the tone changed through the years. Now we have many more books including one about cotton slavery which I haven't finished because it is so upsetting.
Historiography has indeed changed! when i was in HS some decades ago we were absolutely taught Lost Cause history of the South, with the evil carpetbaggers, etc. thank goodness the discipline has reexamined assumptions.
DeSantis?! Really?? He certainly enjoys rewriting and reinterpreting history for his own benefit.
Yeah, I was a history major, so it gets under my skin.
The sad, thing about "majors," Carmen, shows in how isolated all are from other silos.
Central stress on humanities could connect the human in the deliberately, mutually-isolated silos. So, too, could an essaying program centering the human in all departments, communities, nations and cultures.
Ah, but once upon a time there was a curriculum of required courses that helped to engender that broader understanding you reference, Phil. I agree that isolating one discipline from others dilutes the effectiveness of perspicacity and critical thinking that a liberal arts degree was/is supposed to confer.
As wonderful as the Alabama win was to the state legislature the abysmal turnout (14% or so) exemplifies the erosion of the three pillars you mention George. Educated, informed and engaged…I have never understood nor accepted the choice people make to not exercise the hard earned right to vote.
Me too.
In Australia, voting is mandatory. The fine is small ($20) - but it sends a symbolic and clear message. "This is your country and your democracy. It's your responsibility to participate."
According to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), 16.4 million people were enrolled to vote in the 2019 federal election. Of these, 92% voted.
Australia has one of the highest voter turnouts in the world. Since voting became compulsory in 1924, over 90 percent of those registered have voted in every federal election. Compulsory voting means every eligible Australian citizen (18 years or older) is required by law to enroll and vote. For more information about elections, visit the Australian Electoral Commission website.
https://www.aec.gov.au/
Bill, do you have any information as to how knowledgeable Australian voters are? I can see uninformed voters choosing virtually anybody simply to fulfill their obligation and avoid a fine. If it results in a better civically-informed roster, then I'm all for it.
I'm not sure how well that system would work here, though -- I'm much more in favor of getting rid of outside money in politics, at least on the federal level, and having publicly-funded campaigns. Each party would be financed via a quasi-public group.
Getting rid of big outside money in elections would be Paramount, IMO.
As to voters bring uneducated, not sure how that should be defined. After all, we Harvard educated people supporting antivax ideas and Project 2025!
I would register people to vote automatically at age 18. Then at least make it safe and easy to vote. Mail in voting should SOP.
And ranked choice voting would pull in disaffected voters as well as preventing needless third party destruction.
Brace yourself for the great howl about socialism.
My mum (aWWII war bride) often spoke of this. She also talked about how much SHORTER their elections were. Ours are ridiculously long !
Glenis, I totally agree with your mom! For years I have wondered why we seem to be in a perennial “election season”. No wonder it’s so expensive, and exhausting too….perhaps that’s one reason folks tune out….like all those “Medicare” Advantage ads on TV/mailers….snore….
A good point Christine. I think much of it is a happy (for the GOP) by-product of toxic, negative political campaigns. Many folks working paycheck to paycheck, barely getting by think the system is so corrupt and poisoned -they don't want to be involved. It is self-disenfranchisement.
Thom Hartman talks about it a lot
George, perhaps naively, I truly thought that the whole purpose of the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution WERE that "comprehensive progressive framework" for how a nation of individuals could come together and rule themselves without a king or dictator!
Good point John. A springboard to be sure. The founders also knew it was imperfect and had hope that we would evolve toward a more perfect union. Instead we had Reagan, 'W', Trump, MT Greene (as I now know to call her), and 'Justice' Clarence.
So we have more work to do.
Err.., I get it.. EMPTY GREEN? Ya... DUMPST HER. Too bad we can't just call Waste Management and haul it off. If only it was that simple.
I know there are smarter, more capable people in Georgia. One wonders if Georgia voters simply wanted her out of the area and sent her to DC thinking she couldn't possibly find her way back?
And academia has enthralled itself to a bureaucratic nightmare of money making proportions as well, turning out products instead of thinkers.
Thinkers are dangerous. Hard to manipulate and control. We just want obedient hyper-consumers. They're good for business.
Sounds like fluoridated drinking water.
I've heard that Brawndo has electrolytes. It's what plants crave.
Robin, and in partnership with student aid loans, created a life altering debt crisis for so many. Having worked in Univ student aid for over 40 years & counseling students on their debt level (and implications & strategies to best deal with them), I recommend John Oliver’s recent showcasing of this issue—he is spot-on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN2_0WC7UfU
So now is the time for baby boomers to reverse their legacy. To take a stand and create a vision for America.
I am a baby boomer and believe ours was a generation that was distracted by the shiny objects brought by moderate wealth....big homes, vacations, fancy cars, helping our children get ahead. I remember, following politics, but being caught up just enough in my daily efforts to live the good life, I cherished the wins for the common good and believed we would survive the losses.
I knew Reagan was bad, I knew certain twists and turns moved us ahead as a generous society. But never took the time to understand the complex set of actions that were in play to undermine our society, our environment, and our children's future.
So how can we forge ahead with a think tank driven by the many patriotic politicians in the House and Senate who have brilliantly defended democracy?
Would the DNC be capable of such a feat?
Susan, this Boomer must have missed that particular boat! Big homes, vacations, fancy cars…have heard of them tho’!!!!
I don't think of the DNC -because any political organization would have a politics-first context. And I don't think of it as any one thing Susan. I see more of an "ecosphere" approach. That is a loosely-coupled network of entities that serve a common purpose -toward democracy, justice, and equity, while rebuilding a foundation predicated upon education, information, and engagement.
It would require funding to be economically viable, an accessible and engaging vision as to what would be the tangible milestone results produced over a year, two years, and so on, organizational leadership in each specific area of societal imperative, and an overarching leadership to tie it all together. Then the tactical components around communication and messaging. Helping to educate people, and continuing to evolve and refine the vision.
May I suggest that "we" consider SM participation? Several cohorts (Millennials, Gens XYZ) need more civil discourse/civics education. When memes on YouTube, for example, influence 10's of thousands, can we ignore the media? Most of us here are aging and idealistic, but for all our best intentions, we fall short of passing the baton. Yesterday, I read that Gen Alpha, still children, have received almost all their social conditioning via SM. They are poor readers and are falling behind in school (if they attend at all) and, as a group, lack empathy.
So very true Hope. And now you're not only preaching to the choir -I'm trying to be the leader of at least one new orchestra! https://bomdia.substack.com/p/social-media-for-public-good
Way to go, George! Thanks for doing this.
It has been, to use the words of Dave Egger, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering, Underfunded -but still going, Genius (who is Golda Velez by the way).
Where did you read that? I have several grandchildren who remain influenced by family values. (teenagers)
I will try to find the article and get back to you (I scan the NYT and read The Guardian.) Ahh, here it is: (Daily Mail is not the best journalism, as you probably know. My apologies if I offended your family.) I believe these children are younger than teenagers.
"Fears are growing for the 'feral' Generation Alpha cohort of kids
There are over two billion iPad obsessed, TikTok-numbed youngsters
Poor parenting among Millennials is blamed for raising a doomed generation."
By WILL POTTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 02:12 EDT, 23 March 2024
Agree
Incremental really is the cornerstone. Every potential opportunity to gain an inch adds to or opens another tranch. No regretting a setback, nothing is ever a devastating loss, everything can add something, every March or rally picks up one or two supporters, a lesson, some intelligence. I've thought the Right to Life campaign over the past 50 years was the best example of the enevitability of incrementalism. Keep plodding away. Never a great gesture or big win all battle. Just keep the masses plowing the field, picking u] a scrap that just might be possibly useful.
Yes. Whittling away, patience and time. And as education eroded, information is consolidated, and people have less time for engagement (as Unions were weakened and power shifted to employers) they had to work harder and longer for less -the water in the pot heated a little more at a time until it was too late.
Definitely agree 👍
Yes, where is the left-leaning - or even moderate’s - think tank? It’s almost passed the time for a new silent majority to emerge … one that helps steer this ship called Democracy along the path intended by our country’s founders! [No mean intentions intended by this example].
I’ve wondered this for eons.
We need an organization called Friends of Democracy!
The Brookings Institute is the closest one that comes to my mind.
Yep, the quiet group; one that we rarely hear about - a good thing!
Carnegie Institute, Wilson Center........are these democratic?
The conservative “think tanks” came about because those “on the right” [no matter how wrong they maybe] felt and feel that most of our nation’s academic institutions seem to have a monopoly on presenting the liberal (progressive) views in American society. Googling or searching Wikipedia for the two that you mentioned should provide the answer to the question you posed.
Also Center for American Progress
Thanks Jenn -- I just checked them out. I've heard the name before, but really don't know anything other than what I just read. Hopefully their influence is like a river, where it's said "still waters run deep."
As a ‘thinking’ member of our society, I need no propaganda mill to indoctrinate me!
My guide ‘what you do to the least of my brother’s so you do unto me!’ Someone told me that was Christ’s fundamental message!
JL, I have long wondered this as well, but then noticed that the uber-right wing groups are backed by BIG money. Are there many (any?) big money centrists-progressives that could bankroll such endeavors? It seems like those really wealthy folk like to have more-than-enough and share it with efforts/orgs that back the “more for me & mine” philosophy. I notice, too, that because running for office is SO expensive, most folks making it into office either have money already, or are bankrolled by folks who perceive they can call in favors down the line—and, if fundraising wasn’t a perennial “dialing for dollars”, maybe that time could be better spent, I don’t know, on actually legislating? . No wonder so many policies enacted send resources trickling up to the “haves”.
Bill/Melinda Gates? Not sure if I should use the name Soros here.
There are some on the left (yeah, Soros, McKenzie Scott—Bezos’ ex; Gates, Steyer & a few others) but not at the number w/ deep pockets on the right/far-right. One story I like is about a fave of mine 30’s-40’s actress Carole Lombard (married to Clark Gable). She would tell Clark that she loved to pay her taxes & as she liked helping her country. Sadly she died in an airplane crash at just 33 years old; I have read she was identified only (mostly) by a lock of her blond hair, which was given to Clark. Edit: got interrupted making this comment & now forget what my point was about Carole Lombard…decided to leave it in anyway (check out the old movies she’s in if you like classic films).
F.Y.I. The Powell Memo via Sheldon Whitehouse:
https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/speeches/the-scheme-1-the-powell-memo
He has also produced same in a book called "The Scheme"
Joan, thanks for the link. Whitehouse is great!
Thank you for the link! Powell’s appointment to the stench court was a reward for being the propaganda minister (aka their Goebbels) of the corporate and alleged free market moguls! Apparently, choir boy kavanaugh ‘earned his seat’ by doing the leg work for little bush in 2000 and writing a sleazy final report for the useless Whitewater investigation! And I bought into the ‘Justice is blind’ B.S.
The only way for our democracy to survive is to REbalance the court!
Thank you for this.
A friend told me, 30 years ago about the think tanks and their agenda. I had no idea but I learned. Others are still where I was 30 years ago. Time for a message update.
Pleased to see quotes around the words think tanks! They are in fact right wing propaganda mills of the basest order! Goebbels would be proud!
There are center-and left-leaning think tanks as well. The closest to my mind is the Brookings Institute, but I'm sure there are others.
I think of Brookings as being apolitical. You're right, there are definitely left-leaning (or - leading, as you aptly wrote!) think tanks, but I can't think of any names at the moment.
Good catch, Ellen! I edited my misspelling. As to Brookings, I always thought of them as center-left, but a quick read of its wiki page places them all over the political spectrum, depending on who is being quoted.
As a non-profit 501(c)3, they must be non-political. I've always enjoyed E.J. Dionne's writings -- he's a Fellow, and certainly left of center.
Don't bet the farm on 501(c)(3) organizations being apolitical. The Heritage Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization. It is very political. It a wolf in sheep's clothing.
By legalizing bribery, the High Holy Catholic Federalist Court (HHCFC), formerly known as SCOTUS, has hamstrung the Democrats ability fight against this takeover and still win office. A corrupt SCOTUS, even before the HHCFC takeover, ensured all elected officials be accountable to The Money.
"Money doesn't always equal victory — but it usually does. Sometimes contributions flow to the candidate who is already viewed as being much stronger than his or her opponent. Sometimes the money goes to the less well-known candidate and results in a surge in popularity.
Even in wave elections, the candidate who spends the most usually wins. This trend is stronger in the House than the Senate but applies in both chambers." https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/winning-vs-spending?cycle=2022
I disagree. Coming from a pro-business and Republican family, I find the memorandum -- or the half-plus that I have read -- simply to be a strategic communications plan to get the business side of the argument into the popular culture, particularly the academy. At the time that memo was written, American free entreprise was under attack, far beyond legitimate criticism for its excesses. What Justice Powell was saying is instructive to all of us concerned with the state of play these days.
As the 'radical left' had insinuated itself (sic) into various facets of American life over several preceding decades, so must business and business-aligned conservatives do the same in the decades following 1970. Republicans got the message while Democrats got confused and complacent. The conservative resurgence had fertile soil in which plant its seeds as the New Deal coalition was breaking down in 1970 and its underlying ideology exhausted.
Simply said, almost all of the F.D.R.-inspired goals had been accomplished, so ¿what now? The Democrats have struggled since, while classical economics, re-packaged as supply-side economics, has reigned triumphant until somewhere between 2000 and 2010. Now its bag of tricks, primarily bankrupting tax cuts, no longer work. What we have seen, I remain convinced, is the pendulum of public discourse arguably swinging from one extreme to the other.
Now the Reaganist ideology is exhausted and its defects, like accepting racism among its followers, well exposed. (As a side note, I am not convinced that the tax cuts primarily led to the prosperity of the information age, but the passage of the bi-partisan "Bayh-Dole Act" in 1980 under Democratic President Carter.) https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2002/12/14/innovations-golden-goose
The answer, in this end of this conservative ascendency, to ¿now what? has been this corrosive mix of Trump's populist demagogy and the single minded pursuit of share-holder wealth maximization; as corrosive as the hard-core Leninism of the New Left. Ironically, these narrow-minded conservatives are employing the same methods of re-writing history decried by Justice Powell. Hopefully the Democratic Party will forge an enduring coalition dedicated to restoring the basic idealism of the New Deal.
What form that will take is above both my pay-grade and I.Q. Knowingly, I expect to be left behind in the middle by y'all. Nevertheless, just for today, we have a common dragon figuratively to slay in Trump and his M.A.G.A. cult; though, I surmise, this particular dragon's head (i.e., Trump) exhales hot air (of flatulence) rather than flame.
The liberals had and still have some think tanks out there. Mostly, though, the liberals policies were coming out of learning institutions. That is why Obran targeted universities in Hungary and why CONservatives here target public universities and liberal arts schools in rhe U S.
Yikes. Sad but true.
I think a second factor must be acknowledged as well; the theft of land by whites from the Indigenous Peoples. Theft and chattel slavery are the foundations that built the wealth of this country. Racism/sexism are its fundamental core beliefs.
Ally, I recently read a short piece that wondered what humans would do if we discovered/visited a world that had an intelligent species, but that were less “advanced” (as defined by our hubris) than we…..didn’t even take a nanosecond to know the answer, tho’ you’d think we would be more “aware” than that now. Probably not, sadly. [At least in the movie Avatar they fought back and prevailed!]
We need our own Project 2025. I fear the Republican's have somehow figured out the long game better than the Democrats. Even when the leaders are like Reagan and Trump, there's a vast ground game beneath their wings. The Courts have been very effectively converted to overt partisanship under the gentle hand of the Federalist Society. They use the "Christian Right" for their own purposes and the "Christian Right" has gone along with it. But, at its core, its a program to make sure that the world's largest economy is for the few, by the few. The center left was doing great under Roosevelt and Johnson but sat on its laurels for far too long. If we actually survive Trump, we'll need to re-build the middle class, ensure women's freedom to choose, and stop promoting a tax code that benefits so narrow a group of the lucky and privileged. There are center-left thought leaders out there, many reading HCR I hope, but there's not enough cohesion to effectively battle the authors of project 2025 and their running mates.
Interestingly -I wrote about this twenty years ago. I warned that the far right had developed something analogous to a centralized machine that had the capability to distribute common messaging using political linguistics well-described by George Lakoff.
From the progressive side, while we had many great organizations and people, we remained heavily siloed. If you were working on gun violence prevention -you were heads down focused on that. Women's reproductive freedom -again heads down on that and so on. As most of my career was devoted to technology while at Oracle, I compared the progressive organizations doing great work to a massively parallel computer architecture -thousands of CPU's dedicated to specific things (a thousand points of light?). What was lacking then (and still is) is a "communications bus or backplane". When one progressive organization is under siege (such as Women's rights, or climate action) -all organizations should be engaging with the full weight of their membership. This transcends the thought of intersectionality -into a mesh-type response. I thought this would be a good mechanism to react to horrific policy and legislation (then unfolding during "W.'s" time, and could evolve toward producing a strategic and comprehensive framework to move American society forward -truly the 99% working toward a "more perfect Union" if such a thing is defined as a true model for democracy, equity, and justice.
While the democratic platform is good (in spite of drifting toward the right over a generation or two) -the ego's and people tend to place their own political and power aspirations over a truly cooperative and collaborative framework. And the progressive organizations tend to be similar -if it's not invented here, it can't be any good. Note that there are some who will put ego aside and engage, but sadly they are the exception and not the rule.
So building the type of overarching and strategic group you articulate Swbv -and I wholeheartedly believe is necessary will require new and egoless thinking. An understanding that we start with a lowest common denominator foundation and build up toward a perpetually powerful collaborative model to save and then strengthen democracy in the United States and throughout the world.
I also find it interesting that the hard right's ground game has enabled so many truly venal creatures to bubble to the surface. It's beyond me to explain how it is possible that a Clarence Thomas survives on the Supreme Court unchallenged. or how, of all things, a Marjorie Taylor Greene can be a thought leader and actually help bring down a Speaker of the House. or how a Ron Johnson can be a lie spewing machine for years on end and still be re-elected. This tells me that the rot runs deep. And it won't just vanish in November 2024. It will take years to turn our ship around. I just hope we do before it founders.
Yes, it's why my mantra has been ...
Any meaningful form of democracy requires an educated, informed, and engaged society. Because a well-educated society doesn't elevate the incompetent, the corrupt, and/or sociopathic to lead.
WOW, stop reading my mind [or notes] George!
JL -can you move your video cam a little to the left?
Thanks. :)
I am following all you say here, George. I do get stuck on the word "educated" as a requirement for maintaining a democracy. To me, that word connotes those who have attained the heights of a formal education, something of a turnoff for many who do not belong to that club.
I personally belong to and am proud of being a member of the "woke" club, meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination...a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights." Just my two cents!
A good point Lynell. When I think of "educated" it is not as a graduate or post-graduate level individual. I think of a fundamental education that facilitates being able to process information and distinguish between propaganda, disinformation, and lies versus information with a basis in fact.
For example, someone who might question if someone with multiple bankruptcies and massive debt is a shrewd businessperson who should lead the United States.
If we just elect people on the basis of who has the cooler yard sign -that is no longer a meaningful democracy. And it is incumbent upon us, if we truly care to continue to evolve a vibrant, meaningful democracy -to make funding for education an absolute priority, to honor and pay teachers well, to not allow the classroom to be politicized by eradicating actual history, and to provide affordable higher education for all who would like to pursue it.
Morning, Lynell. I think that "educated" in the broadest sense can be viewed as "knowing how to learn" combined with being exposed to various assessment tools to evaluate information, and the ability to utilize critical thinking skills. And certainly "woke" as you describe it!!
Yes, I get what you are saying and agree. Educated does not mean credentialed. A lot of us 'thinkers' are self educated.
I feel strongly a very good free grade k-12 education is important to start kids on the right path.
Lynell, my grandmother was born in 1898 & never went beyond high school, but was “educated” in that she was curious, open-minded and well-read. She poked and prodded and questioned as curious folks do & she fostered that in her daughters, grandkids & the great-grands who were lucky enough to know her.
It is not hard to understand this way beyond behavior when you look at the unquestioned thought process is behind it if you can call them thought. They are beliefs and sconced in both capitalism which is divisive and profit over people oriented, and religion which wants you to believe just one way or else. They both get permission for such behaviors because people think their beliefs trump everything else, put them beyond the Civic pale so to speak.
Rupert changed the equation, by design. Bill Moyers knew..l
Just imagine the internal mind games at NBC that led to the hiring of election denying McDaniel. Although wisdom finally made its way to the surface, the Board at Comcast should fire the NBC exec(s) who hired her. And personally, I hope McDaniel is able to have a moment of self reflection. I fear, OTOH, that she'll wind up at Fox where lying is an accepted variant for Journalism.
Yep, but Fox is already a known quantity. When will the old bastard be exiled to his homeland.
I wonder if Australia is just tougher? Tougher on the lies? And, though probably unrelated, Australians did ban assault weapons quite a while ago after a mass shooting. Something we in the US have been unable to bring ourselves to do despite multiple killings per year.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-can-australias-reaction-to-a-mass-shooting-teach-us-about-guns-and-gun-control/
Educationally speaking we have to deal with the psychological forces so deeply embedded in the embracing of largely unquestioned religion for the last 2,000 years,
So true. I was fortunate to grow up (or at least begin the process) in Los Angeles with a catholic mom and a jewish dad. They mostly left me to figure things out on my own, and when you leave it up to someone growing up in LA, you pretty much end up with a taoist. Admittedly, a really bad taoist, but taoist, nevertheless.
A Taoist from LA! That’s funny, George!
But important to remember, a really bad one who is likely over-caffeinated at any given point in time. :)
Oh, George, this brought back a memory from 1967! My soon to be husband (20) and I (17, would turn 18 3 days prior to our wedding) were looking for a place to be married. There was a cute little church near the beach in Montecito, CA that we thought would be nice, so scheduled an appointment. In the very short meeting the pastor asked if we were congregants & we replied no. He asked our religious affiliation & Greg answered that the closest he could come to “religion” was Taoist-Confucianist….you cudda heard a pin drop for the several beats the pastor paused before telling us he didn’t think he could help us. I don’t even think we even knew that it was an Episcopal church. Ended up getting married at a Unitarian Universalist church and a ceremony w/ quotations from Khalil Gibran. I don’t have a religious bone in my body, just a bunch of curious ones with more questions than answers!
I was married by Father Ted -forever in my heart for his sincerity and sense of humor. Patti and I had to go through reconciliation sessions with him. When we talked about the ceremony he was struggling to remember the name of the celebratory candle. I tried to help. “You mean the Menorah, Father?”. We became friends in spite of my antipathy toward religion.
Yes! At the core of most religions are some good intentions. But then, they have been twisted to embrace bigotry and hate for others. Used for power and control over the peasants. That's not what any of the originators had hoped for. How many hundreds of millions have died in the name of a god they thought had their backs?
Rove embraced the Baptist in 2004, the venom spread.
Educationally speaking we have to deal with the psychological aspects embedded in religious belief, I don't mean spiritual ones, for especially the last 2,000 years of largely hierarchically organized religious organizations. We can now see their enormous imperfections in commanding people for all the wrong reasons. People get captured by this in ways that they themselves could not explain but that give them permission. comfort. and imperatives. to run everything in ways that make them feel comfortable in their own apparent need for everybody else to think like them, to believe like them. Which obviously does not suit small-d democracy.
The impulse to run the thoughts and lives of others you do not understand or even feel fearful of because of their differentness or supposed non-belief, has been so instrumental In people's thoughtlessness that we somehow have to deal with it up front beyond just stating the obvious in our founding statements of the 18th century. Capitalism which seems to have largely begun with the founding of the church in the 4th century, has thrived on selling sameness and salvation, as fashion for instance, along with dividing people against each other for profit. It is a religion unto itself and many people have not begun to question it nearly enough. Though the ones defending it heavily cast the word socialism out as so it were the worst poison in the world. We probably have to let go of both those monikers.
Yes, it really deconstructs to power and exploitation. The fantasy of "free markets".
Bobby can do it, why do you cling to Biden, ? He is controlled by the corporations.
Who is funding Kennedy, John? Dig a little deeper. “Corporations” is a broad brush to try to tar someone with. Which corporations are “funding” Biden? Which “corporations” are funding Trump? Life is not at simple as you would like it to be. Biden stand for support of democracy, and elections, and support of the 99%. Kennedy stands for vaccine denial, and he just picked the x-wife of Google for a running mate. What does she stand for, do you know anything about her except the size of her divorce settlement? Trump stands for election denial and the right to break any law with no consequences. Who do you want running our great country? Vote for the person who will make sure your grandchildren get to vote when they grow up.
Kennedy stands for free choice on vaccines, abortion rights, and speech.Kennedy stands for transparency and truth from him and his government. He stands for respectfully discussing our problems together, and takes Niether the DNC’s side nor the RNC’s side.HCR says she believes in democracy, and that a third party candidate is a good thing for democracy,accept in this election.That is just wrong, debate is always good for democracy, especially in this election. It’s never good to try to silence the third party candidates because the end result (Trump becoming president) justifies that.Bobby’s positive message will be picked up by more and more of us and that will make Bobby president and Trump a goner.
I beg to differ with your analysis that Kennedy will win. Third party candidates cannot be victorious in a “winner takes all” electoral system that we have in the U.S. For real third party engagement the U.S. would have to adopt a parliamentarian form of government that allows third parties to actually participate in governing. It promotes coalition building and compromise in order to form a government.
An excellent analysis and an easy read regarding the value of a parliamentarian system is : Parlimentary America by Maxwell Stearns a law professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.
Everyone who is disgusted, put off or disillusioned by our two party system and wants to see viable third party engagement owes it to themselves to read this book.
Hi Notes! Could you please watch Nicole Shanahan’s acceptance speech ? It’s too early to form a real opinion of her yet, I understand this, but she looks genuine and like what I want to run our country-great first impression. She is from a broken family, her mom was an immigrant who supported them because her dad was an addict of some sort.She accomplished the American Dream , and now wants to help others.
No, Bobby can't do it at all. He's not his dad--he's nothing like his dad. I pray his vanity campaign will draw more right wing wackadoodle vaccine deniers than people who yearn for the charisma of his dad.
I truly believe he has learned from his dad and uncles, and wants to continue their respectful positive democratic leadership and unite our country again.Even Rory Kennedy acknowledged on CNN that his danger lies not toward ruining our country, but in ruining Biden’s attempt at re-election.
Sorry, John, I think you've drunk the kool aid.
I add my thanks by quoting you to emphasize what I see playing out as a norm. That is, "While the democratic platform is good (in spite of drifting toward the right over a generation or two) -the ego's and people tend to place their own political and power aspirations over a truly cooperative and collaborative framework. And the progressive organizations tend to be similar -if it's not invented here, it can't be any good. Note that there are some who will put ego aside and engage, but sadly they are the exception and not the rule."
Agree. One thing at the lowest levels liberals should focus on: the CONservative use of state level government to strip local control when actual conservative or liberal locally elected officials get barred from doing what their voters elected them to do.
I'm distinctly remembering much of the organizing I was part of in the '60s which was collaborative across those various groups, concentrating all our energies on one issue no matter what group you are in and it was pretty successful. This intersectionality stuff is a little too wonky and manipulative also off putting.
Unsure as I am what you mean regarding intersectionality, is there any similarity to the support unions should give to each other? Workers of the world unite?
Les, fat finger sorry. Working on a much longer reply, although I never rule out a poem. Basically they are the same genre, but with really essential differences. Back in the collaborative times of the '60s especially people came across all barriers to come together on one issue at a time which worked very well. Workers rights. Peace. Basic human needs. For instance college students in Ohio stepping in to picket for workers who had been legally prevented from striking their own companies. Dr. King"s march on D. C. Many many peace marches etc. Various organized groups were called together over one issue at a time and it was very effective. Then all kinds of egos got involved out of the me me me generation. I was at one point a member of the IWW which had the international capitalist community really worried because dock workers across the world were supporting each other. All this and I'm not even out of my favorite horizontal position yet.
I can dig it, each group cooperating on the issues that matter most at the moment, no egos getting in the way. Exactly how unions might be hoped to operate.
RB 3: 28.24 POSSIBLE POEM
What I and many others have observed is that the cyclical emergence of authoritarianism often emerges in response to economic downturns, social unrest, and a breakdown in democratic institutions and norms. These conditions allow authoritarian leaders to exploit societal divisions, promising stability and order but ultimately leading to a further erosion of democratic principles. The cycle is fueled by economic insecurities, political polarization, and the weakening of checks and balances within democratic systems, which authoritarian figures exacerbate to consolidate their power.
To counteract the rise of authoritarianism, it is crucial to strengthen democratic institutions, encourage civic engagement, address economic and social grievances, and foster political unity. Additionally, supporting international norms and alliances that uphold democracy, as well as responsibly leveraging technology, can enhance democratic resilience. By addressing the underlying causes of authoritarian appeal and reinforcing the foundations of democratic governance, societies can break the authoritarian cycle and promote a more stable and inclusive democratic system. What I and others have concluded is that through these concerted efforts, it is possible to hasten the swing away from authoritarianism and ensure a robust democratic future.
It is certainly interesting that despite a high stock market and low unemplyment and a good economic growth rate, the hard right media of Fox, the WSJ, et al, to say nothing of serving members of the GOP like Matt Gaetz, Ron Johnson and DJT, have been focusing on (fabricating) how dissatisfied Americans are w Biden, the economy, and the fate of the world. They are sowing seeds of discontent even while, for most Americans, things are pretty good. They are doing all they can to usher in authoritarianism.
I believe FDR had a quote about how when a democratic government stopped delivering for it citizens, it would be ripe to fall.
Spot on.
"Even when the leaders are like Reagan and Trump, there's a vast ground game beneath their wings."
Almost as if HRC's "vast right-wing conspiracy" assertion was true, no?
I think of gathering like Davos, Jackson Hole, Aspen, palm springs where these folks fly in on private planes, bypass airport security the rest of us endure, and then attend closed door meetings.
Great info to share on Project 2025.📣 Andra Watkins is a NYT bestselling author and former CPA who has read and dissected the almost 1000 pages of Project 2025.
Her insights are also valuable because she “escaped” a fundamentalist church years ago.
Project 2025: How Intermediate Tax Reform Screws the Middle Class
⬇️
https://open.substack.com/pub/project2025istheocracy/p/project-2025-how-intermediate-tax?r=fqsxl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
You have been paying attention, I share your angst.
Thank you for your clear articulation of the dangers of Project 2025.
VoteVets.org is a great organization taking the fight right into the heart of the red states. I support the group financially. It's one way of helping to elevate Democrats to elected office and defeat MAGA members.
As do I, Richard. Been with them almost from their beginning. We need to get more funding to them, so they can be even more vocal, across a wider spectrum.
Will add them to my donate list.
Jeri, great move. Go to their website: votevets.org and watch their Reagan production. It is a great hit to the MAGA scheme to elevate Putin.
Thank you. Need to put my paltry sums where they will do most good.
Jeri, guaranteed, anyone who makes financial contributions towards saving our democracy will sleep much better at night. Guaranteed.
You're assuming that one has the resources to take care of other needs, I assume.
And yet, so many still cling to the myth of the Lincoln Republican Party. It must be exposed, denigrated and stomped into the ground. It may take generations because the propaganda has money behind it and includes not only greedy billionaires but legal eagles, ideologues, idiots, and the poor who have forgotten who had their backs before the hate brigade gave them somebody to blame. And let’s don’t forget the “others” (let’s include women here) who think that repubs give a whit about their struggles. Chump blathers constantly about how he has been persecuted. Tell him a thing or two, women, blacks, Latinos, gays, etc. tell him what it’s really like.
Very true Jeri. It would be interesting to see how long a Trump, Tucker Carlson, or Ronna McDaniel would last in the late, great Barbara Ehrenreich's experiment to live paycheck to paycheck in middle America. I doubt they would last a minute.
They would cry and moan about how unfair the system is. No doubt.
Why are we being persecuted!
guilty, ignorant arses need to be persecuted. Way past time.
Thank you for mentioning "Project2025 "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025
For some reason, the pundits won't mention it. It needs to be brought to the attention of the whole country, but no one mentions it. FOR SOME REASON
At the time Powell wrote it -I doubt many people knew what the historical impact his memo would have in shaping our system for multiple generations. I'm truly surprised Heritage published Project 2025 -it's almost like touting "we've already won and we don't care if we fly this in your face."
My thoughts too, George, they not only said the quiet part out loud, but even published a damn book* of over 900 pages about it! They must feel really “safe” to do so now—makes me wonder what they know that we don’t about our current political/economic/societal climate? Or maybe they mistimed it…and we can mount sufficient opposition to push back, hard, against what it stands for—that’s my hope.
*When I can stomach it, I go to their website & see what’s new….been awhile, but last time I saw they were offering online courses to “like minded” folks to educate/train them to be prepared to be loyal-to-the-cause “public” servants in the, um, “new” government. Shudder…..
Eva, I have actually been seeing an increase in mentioning it and thought “finally”!—mostly on MSNBC (my satellite receiver is all wonky right now & is stuck on that channel, so don’t know about other outlets coverage). Wish it was covered more in other kinds of media as well (newspapers & periodicals, etc.).
Exactly why we need to keep spreading the link. Here is who I know haven't mentioned it. " Electoral Vote, Heather, Farron Cousins, Political Wire (maybe that one has, I stopped subcribing when he wanted a sign in each time) Dan Rather. To me this is the more important part of this election. It can be reported on without mentioning the former Presidents name. There are many more I come across who haven't mentioned it. I know all about temperatmental Dishes and wired internet so I have both.
Also, re Project 2025, I’ve been following these two sites (signed up for their updates/posts—the unpaid version unfortunately…funds are tight):
https://www.stopthecoup2025.org/ and https://project2025istheocracy.substack.com/ . Good to know there are folks out there reaching out to inform/educate; I do my best w/ friends/family….even strangers!
Any Trump people on-line, I just paste in the link from Wikipedia. Not much they can say about that.
Yeah, I’ve been putting off dealing w/ my satellite provider as I live in a rural area and actual technicians may not be available (I’ve done all I can from my end & it’s just getting worse)…of course my receiver is the original one, so not quite an antique, but close! Lol…recently had to have my internet modem replaced (when I placed the call for help, I told the person scheduling to make sure they brought a replacement with them). When the tech saw my modem he asked how long I’d had it….um, since I had the internet…some number of years. He laughed and said they hadn’t made my model since he was in high school!
I'm very rural and went to dish. Hughes net. $12 a month to get a repairman. I've been through hell and back with no one available. They launched a new satellite. Goes on and off , on and off. But I have another (because I'm rural) telephone wire service. Haven't had TV for the last 60 years. Watching baseball now, with the pond in the back ground. I wanted to move to Maine, Ellsworth area. But I settled for western NY. One hour south of Rochester and two hours from Buffalo. Heaven on earth.
Eva, I’m on the other side of the continent….in a small Humboldt County (about an hour south of the Oregon border) town of Blue Lake pop.1200, near Arcata w/ Cal Poly Humboldt (new designation as it used to be Humboldt State Univ & where I worked for 40 yrs) & having a college nearby & redwood forests, Pacific Ocean, lagoons, rivers and bay…a beautiful place, but can be remote & can be entirely cut off (there have been times!) if there are problems with only one north-south highway and one east-west highway. Larger towns/populations are min of 3-4 hours away. But still love it & folks come from around the world to visit. There is a move by AT&T to abandon wired landlines—many folks here cannot access web-based or cell-tower based communications because they can’t get signals, so they would be cut adrift, especially during emergencies. I’ve always wanted to visit the East Coast—well, ALL of America actually—have cousin who is bi-coastal & has lived in NYC for decades (she’s an artist/illustrator who collaborated with Jamie Lee Curtis on a series of children’s books) and always wanted to go visit her and have her show me the sights.
Thankfully it was briefly discussed on PBS Newshour last night, but the "experts" they went to for further elucidation were useless. They essentially said that if Congress, the Courts and the American people don't do anything to prevent it, then there's nothing to stop Trump from enacting it. Duh...
Gee, I wonder why. NOT!!
Very very true George!!We need to fight against those who are pushing Project 2025!!We Will lose our democracy if we don’t!!
Is it to "maintain status quo" or to create a new status far more sinister and anti-democratic?
Good point Ann. The status quo I refer to is to maintain their iron grip on power and do whatever they would like. So to your point, yes -more sinister and requisite hardening of anti-democratic policy and legislation.
Interesting that Lewis Powell, a Virginian, should have been behind this huge test of a democracy whose first president was another Virginian. This Virginian is calling on other Virginians to rise up and vote out the traitors.
Thanks, Virginia. Youngkin is trying to set himself up for 2028, vetoing the bill disallowing firearms at the polls. SMH
We democrats and MAGAS keep fighting each other mostly over the border as the MAGAS know that it's the one game they have to potentially win. Our side keeps lamenting our history and so on not realizing that the very nation is in transit to an autocracy. It's real, friends.
I'm reminded of lyrics in an old Bob Dylan song and I admit the analogy is a stretch but we are fighting the wrong fight.
"Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, fighting in the captain's tower
While Calypso sailors laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers.
Between the windows of the sea where lovely mermaids go.
And no one has to think too much
About Desolation Row."
We insist on fighting each other all the while taking our eyes off the ball and the ball is not rolling in our favor.
As I road home from Nashville on one August day in 2019, lyrics began repeating in my head and I knew I had to pull over and write them down or lose them forever. The lines: "There are good people and bad ones wherever you go... Just seems like the bad ones are stealing the show."
Please enjoy my song. billkatz@substack.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYtTGIzb7OA And let's please understand the poison that the MAGAS are putting in our way.
I think the Dems didn't do much to reverse those tax breaks and deregulation which led to continuation of nasty market crashes, esp the mortgage subprime thing, a making of the financial establishment at large - such is American capitalism. I'm hoping if 2024 is a big enough disaster for the GOP, the party might finally self-implode into a couple parts, but I' m not enjoying the polls and some of the critiquing still coming out. Dems need more political capital. Biden is making this a hallmark of his campaign, esp women's reproductive rights.
Very true Frank. I'm still disappointed the ACA didn't include a public option.
Still, there is the ACA, Dodd-Frank, the CHIPS and Science Act and other positive outcomes from the Dems.
There certainly are, a rebounding economy to boot, sadly international affairs are a mess, Ukraine aid held to ransom in the House, and Israel - i think the Dems have bought themselves into a pigsty, and were it Trump, it would have been "pound away boys" and Ukraine would have gone down the sewer pronto with a new gulag in its wake. I keep my eye out for informed commentators on the "polls". Dems just made it in Alabama, Lands going from a 45% 2022 loss to a 65% win, mind you for the state legislature, just hope it's a good electoral mark that indicates something the polls at large are missing. This wouldnt be the first time by a stretch. Truman for example.
The LPM is why I say that the CONservative movement has arrived at its logical place. James Buchanan and Milton Friedman with were very explicit that they could never be truthful of the real aims of their proposals. Stealth would be needed to convince the voters to support their ideas. Even the Kochs knew that they had to be subtle and hide their real plans and did so by naming organizations like American For Prosperity. It was their prosperity they looked after at the expense of the rest of us.
I say this is all honesty, no one achieves ultra wealth without the exploitation of people and the law. No one.
George's call for American citizens to understand the roots of the far-rights' goal to overthrow the democratic principles in the US and take over our government, some of which has already taken place, merits attention from several perspectives. George didn't indicate that he has any knowledge of what the Democratic Party, Biden, along with others have developed as a strategy to strengthen our democracy and counteract the far right-wing's war against democracy. George also made no reference to what the Biden administration through policies and legislation has accomplished in securing a more equitable economic system and improved the living conditions for many Americans. Withal, our immediate responsibility is to defeat Trump and his comrades in the upcoming elections. The coming together of the three living presidents, members of the Democratic Party, strengthens our position.
'WASHINGTON (AP) — A fundraiser for President Joe Biden on Thursday in New York City that also stars Barack Obama and Bill Clinton is raising a whopping $25 million, setting a record for the biggest haul for a political event, his campaign said.' (AP, excerpt)
'The eye-popping amount was a major show of Democratic support for Biden at a time of persistently low poll numbers. The president will test the power of the campaign cash as he faces off with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has already proved with his 2016 win over Democrat Hillary Clinton that he didn’t need to raise the most money to seize the presidency.'
'The Radio City Music Hall event will be a gilded exclamation mark on a recent burst of presidential campaign travel. Biden has visited several political battlegrounds in the three weeks since his State of the Union address served as a rallying cry for his reelection bid. The event also brings together more than three decades of Democratic leadership.'
'The hours long event has different tiers of access depending on donors’ generosity. The centerpiece is an onstage conversation with the three presidents, moderated by late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert. There’s also a lineup of musical performers — Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele — that will be hosted by actress Mindy Kaling. Thousands are expected, and tickets are as low as $225.'
'More money gets donors more intimate time with the presidents. A photo with all three is $100,000. A donation of $250,000 earns donors access to one reception, and $500,000 gets them into an even more exclusive gathering.'
“But the party doesn’t stop there,” 'according to the campaign. First lady Jill Biden and DJ D-Nice are hosting an after-party at Radio City Music Hall with 500 guests.'
'Obama and Clinton are helping Biden expand his already significant cash advantage over Trump. Biden had $155 million in cash on hand through the end of February, compared with $37 million for Trump and his Save America political action committee.'
'The $25 million tally for the New York City event Thursday includes money from supporters who handed over cash in the weeks ahead of the fundraiser for a chance to attend. It's raising $5 million more than Trump raised during February.
“This historic raise is a show of strong enthusiasm for President Biden and Vice President Harris and a testament to the unprecedented fundraising machine we’ve built,” said campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg.' “Unlike our opponent, every dollar we’re raising is going to reach the voters who will decide this election — communicating the president’s historic record, his vision for the future and laying plain the stakes of this election."
'Trump has kept a low profile in recent weeks, partially because of courtroom appearances for various legal cases, the bills for which he's paying with funds from donors. He is also expected to be in the area on Thursday, attending the Long Island wake of a New York City police officer who was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Queens.'
'His next political rally is scheduled for Tuesday in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Some Republican leaders have become concerned that his campaign doesn't have the infrastructure ready for a general election battle with Biden.'
'Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson, dismissed the import of Biden's Thursday fundraiser.'
“Crooked Joe is so mentally deficient that he needs to trot out some retreads like Clinton and Obama,"' he said.'
'Leon Panetta, who served in top positions under Clinton and Obama, described the fundraiser as an important moment for Biden's campaign.'
“What it does, first and foremost, is to broaden and reinforce the support of all Democrats,” 'he said.'
'Panetta said Clinton and Obama, both known as effective political communicators, could help Biden develop a better pitch for his reelection.'
“I can’t think of two people who would be better at putting together that kind of message," 'he said.'
'Obama's attendance on Thursday is a reminder of his role in boosting Biden's reelection. A joint fundraiser with Biden and Obama raised nearly $3 million in December. And people who served in the Obama administration are also raising money for Biden, scheduling their own event on April 11.'
***
Thank you Fern. Well-detailed and good cause for optimism. Nevertheless I would like to see a long-term countervailing framework to address what Powell architected.
George, your interest is shared with many, who also believe that President Biden's policies, legislative initiatives and positions have strengthen the country's democracy, while countering Trump & party's chaotic, autocratic and divisive abuse of government and the American people. Many of HCR's Letters detail and laud the administration's accomplishments on that score.
The top billionaires are doubling their wealth. Their plan is working very well.
And much easier to write million dollar checks as political donations -huge, guaranteed return on investment.
We can’t say we weren’t warned but back then the talking heads all said Hillary was just being hysterical or words to that effect. That giant right wing conspiracy was well underway by the time she spoke those prophetic words.
I initially read the statement by Lake’s senior advisor to be: “Kari Lake maintains she’s always been awful.”
Well, that's forthright.
Then it must be a lie.
If it looks like a Lake and squawks like a Lake, it's a liar.
(Laughter)
A great example of Orwell’s quote. Don’t believe the evidence of your eyes and ears.
Christopher Dake: It DOES say "she's always been awful." You saw it correctly.
“Eastman’s lawyer said it was unfair to take Eastman’s law license because he needs to make money to fight the criminal charges against him in Georgia…”
Chutzpah!
A child convicted of murdering his parents asks for mercy at sentencing because he’s an orphan.
Georgia has public defenders I’m sure.
Hehahaha
I can't help wondering why the disbarment of so many of the lawyers surrounding Trump hasn't received more attention in the mainstream press and why their actions that led to disbarment have not also led to criminal prosecution. The refusal of so many of Trump's supporters, from those closest to the multiple deceits to those in his base, to acknowledge wrong-doing despite all of the evidence is astonishing. Why and how have so many lost the ability to take responsibility for their actions? While it is reassuring to know that justice is prevailing, however slowly, it is alarming that election denialism retains its power.
It's past time to indict the unindicted co-conspirators.
What have they got to worry about? They just say, OK, I did it, but I've done no wrong.
The ultimate Orwellian “get out of jail free card.”
Wouldn't it be nice if G Orwell began contributing to this forum! I guess he already does, in a way. When I was working in London in the late 1990s I used to walk past the Senate House of London University every day, and think of George Orwell. It was his model for the Ministry of Truth. I can't paste the picture, but just look up Senate House, Bloomsbury.
He knew us well, sorry to say. He needs to be revisited more often.
I have pretty much given up on expecting the mainstream media to do its job.
When the fourth estate doesn't do its job, democracy is in trouble. It was appalling when NBC hired Ronna McDaniel, but it was reassuring when they reacted to the outcry, both from newscasters and ordinary citizens. We all have a responsibility to speak up, even if it's just signing a petition, when the powerful step over the line.
Agreed.
Like they say, Ann, follow the money! And increasingly right-to- far right broadcasting, such as Sinclair, are buying up rural stations. Although they don’t control all content, they do “flavor” what is promoted or what receives less coverage.
Yes, Sinclair is poisoning one of our main stations here in West Michigan. I just can't stand those "news" people.
Sometimes violations of attorney disciplinary rules might involve lawbreaking (e.g., stealing money from clients,) and sometimes they may not. In Eastman’s case, it involved both criminal action, participation in a scheme to unconstitutionally overthrow an election, and a violation of his attorney’s oath to uphold the Constitution and statutes of the U.S. and the state of California. Both Eastman and Giuliani face disbarment (Giuliani in DC with reciprocal disbarment in New York,) and are facing criminal charges in Georgia. I find the election denial stupid, but they have helped to falsely cultivate this lie among the rank and Trump groupies.
To say the least.
Capitalist thinking has hijacked democracy's all inclusiveness so therefore anything that benefits and profits no matter what the cost or the standards violated is perfectly okay. Our work is apparently vital to redefine the limits of democracy, something which probably nobody really wants to take on easily.
"Many hands make light work." Find like-minded people and collaborate with them.
It seems all through humanity’s stormy past after the victor had slashed and burned what others had built and cherished, came the re-writing of history. As long as one never actually admits his guilt, history is more likely to cooperate and white-wash those perpetrators so that they are covered, no matter who comes into power (as long as the dirty little secrets never come into light of day and publicized).
Now, however, there’s so much conflicting information, it’s all abut confusion. There is so much outright lies and bad reporting of facts that God knows how history will be written, or seen, much less interpreted in the years to come. There seems to be people who have amassed so much resources of cash and influence, that they possess the power to re-write history on a whim.
The mommas failed them at a critical juncture, age 5 approximately
This is a great Letter From An American, Dr. Richards. It's amazing how you have packaged the goings on behind the scenes of these criminals. Somebody or "sombodies" are pulling the strings and have been doing so for a long time. All these folks like Lindell, Lake, Eastman and others are playing with Truth and Justice ! It's comforting to hear that they are beginning to face some real resistance !
I agree Bill about this being an important letter. It's easy to lose site of all of these cases. The Smartmatic cases penalties could easily dwarf those of the Dominion cases. If you do a Google search on defamation cases the results show many more cases that are not mentioned in Professor Richardson's letter. It would need to be a novel instead of a letter.
Hmmmm, maybe that's what her next book will be about or at least a few chapters. One could easily specialize in the US historical defamation cases.
" Ford issued a preemptive pardon for any crimes the former president might have committed against the United States while in office. "
From the day the news announced this, I never understood how a "pardon" can be preemptive. It is not a pardon, and certainly not a reconsideration of a conviction that might not have been justified in the light of hindsight, the only legitimate reason I can think of for a pardon to be granted. It is blanket immunity: A repudiation of equal justice under law to accomplish a political end. Well intentioned or not, it blew a huge hole in the accountability of those we entrust with dangerous-when-misused governmental powers.
As we’ve seen! Ford’s decision to pardon Nixon has done nothing except to encourage Republicans to hide their crimes more effectively.
I do believe some (like donors), started hiding the crimes better but others became more brazen like Nixon claiming he was actually declared innocent while Ford supposedly kept a copy of the pardon in his pocket, tempted to go more public with his firm belief that acceptance of the pardon was an admission of guilt.
After the Civil War there were pardons and amnesty grants which required taking an oath to defend the Constitution and the Union (and that they obey all Federal Laws) There were exclusions that required certain categories to apply to the President for Amnesty, described at https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1187/
"...The records contained in this database primarily consist of about 14,000 files of pardon applications with related records (affidavits, oaths of allegiance, recommendations for executive clemency, etc.) submitted between 1865 and 1867 for President Johnson’s 1865 amnesty proclamation. A few of the applications had been submitted to President Lincoln for earlier amnesty proclamations. These files usually contain a lot of information on the applicant’s background and activities during the war..."
Trivia - Robert E Lee's application wasn't approved until August 5, 1975 (just 4 days short of his first year in office, by President Gerald Ford, when long deceased Lee could no longer violate it even if he wanted to).
I don't know how many of Ford's 400+ pardons were affected by DoJ advice but found an interesting article at https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artII-S2-C1-3-1/ALDE_00013316/
"...The Constitution establishes the President’s authority to grant clemency, encompassing not only pardons of individuals but several other forms of relief from criminal punishment as well.1 The power, which has historical roots in early English law,2 has been recognized by the Supreme Court as quite broad. In the 1886 case Ex parte Garland, the Court referred to the President’s authority to pardon as "unlimited" except in cases of impeachment, extending to "every offence known to the law" and able to be exercised "either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment."3 Much later, the Court wrote that the "broad power conferred" in the Constitution gives the President "plenary authority" to "'forgive’ [a] convicted person in part or entirely, to reduce a penalty in terms of a specified number of years, or to alter it" with certain conditions.4
Despite the breadth of the President’s authority under the Pardon Clause, the Constitution’s text provides for at least two limits on the power: first, clemency may only be granted for "Offenses against the United States,"5 meaning that state criminal offenses and federal or state civil claims are not covered.6 Second, the President’s clemency authority cannot be used "in Cases of impeachment.."
I see a need for a process of pardon, but we dispense it as an autocratic power. Those who may deserve it easily denied and those who clearly do not merit it given clemency without any reference to justice or prejudice. It has taken on a new and evil wrinkle with promises of pardon even for crimes not yet committed, at the pleasure of the autocrat.
"Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people." - John Adams
Ford was not an evil man, nor was he a particularly bright light. As I recall, he was repudiated at the polls the only time he ran for President .
My impression as well.
Yes, it's Luther and the indulgences again, a few hundred years later.
Exactly, sad to say
Gives new meaning to, "I beg your pardon?"
That pardon of Nixon should have been challenged in court. It was another case of legal fatigue after getting that older chief schmuck out of office. That would have been similar to chemotherapy after a successful cancer operation. The illiberal right learned the lesson of delay, obfuscation and confusion well from that. The left keeps falling into that trap.
The left, or in any case, the Democratic party has been on the back foot since Reagan, or so it seems to me. We have smoothed over things that would have been wiser to hash out, and set firmer boundaries. The more we cowered or shortcut, the more ruthless the "Party of privilege" has become.
Thank you, Dr Richardson. I'd shed a tear for these "poor misguided souls" if I wasn't laughing so hard at their ridiculous self pity. It really is too bad that Gerald Ford set the precedence for eternal innocence of criminal liability by pardoning Nixon. Nixon did indeed set the stage for the trumpster and his deplorables.
Yep, he sure did. I was a dumbass who thought that repubs had learned their lesson. I an so ashamed of my stupidity.
Celebrate learning. XA
Sometimes my skull is thicker than it should be.
Yes, I thought evil was vanquished when Nixon resigned. I thought at the time that his "pardon" set a terrible precedent, but had no sense of just how bad. Republicans, it turned out, took entirely the wrong lesson from Nixon (and Joe McCarthy) and swore off "decency" entirely.
Plus, Nixon was at least protective of "Nature", while Reagan despised it. Nixon lied, but Reagan and his sponsors turned lying with Orwellian Big Lies into a core "Republican" strategy. The Trump mantra "You've got to be aggressive. You've got to push back hard. You've got to deny anything that's said about you. Never admit."
Yep, his quote from "Sun" on September 12, 2005. Never admit it if you do something wrong. And he never has, despite being the "wrongest" arse on the planet.
Ronna McDaniel, Mike Lindell, Kari Lake, John Eastman—-what a disgusting collection of rotten fish.
This is only the appetizer in a meal that could include Trump Turd, Giuliani a la Ukraine, Stephen Miller Himmleresque, and other blobs of #2.
I am appalled by some of the names that are being associated with Project 2025, a blue print for a second Trump presidency. I am tempted to call it the ‘Pardon Me Project,’ since a number of the folks pardoned by Trump are on his 2025 White House runway.
Mike Flynn, whose moments as National Security Advisor swiftly ended and whose rap sheet should had resulted in years of slammer time, is representative of Trump’s proposed ‘Pardon Me’ Praetorian Guard.
I find that the character of a person is reflected in who he/she associates with. The Trumpian personnel bouillabaisse is the most rotten in American history except, perhaps for some Mafia gang.
They are the swamp he pledged to get rid of.
Ann Trump’s Project 2025 gang is the ‘deep state’ (’deep shit’)that we all should fear. It would replace professionals with Trumpists, with emphasis on pissers.
Keith, I posted a comment elsewhere here about the Project doing training (I check the site now and then to see what they’re up to), but did not post the link: https://www.project2025.org/training/presidential-administration-academy/ It really increased my dread about how aggressive they are being with this push to broaden their “believer” pool.
But of course...
Trump's gang has been like no other. Put them all together and half of them look like the villains from the old time Dick Tracy comics. All they lacked was hoodlum nicknames:
Flat-top, Pruneface, The Mole, Flyface, The Brow, Itchy, Mumbles, Ivanka, Uday, Qusay...
Gary The Gang That Couldn’t Shit Straight!
Hahaha….I think one moniker I recall reading is TFFG being called “Diaper Don”.
Barbara According to Stormy Daniels this would be a very small diaper.
Ah, but his output of excrement is exceptional.
😂😂
With the Mafia gang, you get people who, by their words and conduct, embrace criminality and extortion. I think that when you step up from the personal gains, and turn it into political gain, it is most rotten of all, since it tries to impose nastiness on a country.
And why are convicted felons/criminals still running loose?
And on TV this very minute blathering about law and order. Puke
Trump says: " I am your president of law and order..."
Ask the Ministry of Truth
Yep, Goebbels would know him well.
At least Navarro is now in the hoosegow…can’t wait until the cell door slams on Bannon…think that should be soon (still on appeal, but wonder why it’s taking SO long!). Now the others (including those now in Congress) need to be rounded up, given fair trials and if found guilty, be sentenced accordingly—I imagine few will have the resources (read: suckers) donating to their legal defense, so maybe not the delay delay delay we see from the mobster-in-chief.
Good question.
I think corruption compounds crime. Government is in part our defense against malicious behavior. When those we choose and pay to defend us are in fact the enemy, or siding with one, there is an element of betrayal over and above aid and comfort to an enemy by ordinary citizens. It's a kind of treason.
Excellent point. Betrayal indeed.
Indeed, the character of a person is reflected in who he/she associates with. Look at Biden's cabinet members! It's probably one of the best cabinets in years.
Ellen Yup! None of Biden’s professionals have a rap sheet or have needed a presidential pardon.
Yet Nixon did to escape potential prosecution, so even though he claimed that it's not illegal if a president does it, even his own VP wasn't buying it.
I know, right? Looking at TFFG’s group is like standing in the post office with all those “wanted” alerts posted (well, at least there used to be those at a PO I once frequented long ago). Definitely an Ignoble Crew. I saw a clip of TFFG interviewed as a younger man & he said people would approach him on the street and just touch him (he, the germaphobe) so his Midas Touch would somehow rub off on them…..well, to me it’s more of a Merde Touch…and imagine his Ignoble Crew who are in deep doo-doo just might agree!
Barbara Merde Touch!!!! Foo foo and doo doo.
Absolutely. Trump's cohort is something else.
Trump turd, love it.
Jeri Trump is #1 in #2.
🤣
The Mafia managed to own some officials but not the country, though "clean" (like coal) corporate organized crime is another matter. Ask Dick Durbin. I am not sure that political corruption, or at least such republic-threatening corruption as we now see, has ever gone this deep in US governance (arguably native genocide and slavery, our nation's original sins, are even more antithetical to our published ideals). In any case, corruption is on a tear to a degree that we all now seem a bit numbed to it, and yet it's a deadly business.
I think corruption is abuse of power. So is tyranny.
There's a lot of food for thought in tonight's Letter.
One thing that stood out is that for several of Trump's legal advisors the most formal retribution they see appears to be disbarment from their lawyer's guild. That seems *deeply* inadequate.
It's amusing that the defense for one of them was to say that if the defendant is disbarred he can't work, and therefore won't be able to afford to defend himself in court later on when his case comes to trial. Isn't that tantamount to admitting that their client has no other abilities or social utility besides being a lawyer? That's pretty damning...
That's really no different from saying when you are caught stealing and put in jail that you're no longer able to make your living by stealing because you're in jail for stealing.
Just about any profession can become a vehicle for theft when you are a thief at heart.
But yeah, I expected some right wing judge to demand unemployment benefits for pickpockets in the pokey, so long as it was in the name of the MAGA cause.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/3/27/2231994/-Trump-Judge-Orders-Release-Of-Confederate-Flag-flying-Traitor
Such fragile egos they have. Maybe we're looking at an entirely new genre of human collective behavior, though they themselves aren't collective at all which is their undoing of course.
A sobering reminder that, despite recent progress in the polls and courts, Trump and his allies are fundamentally unrepentant, and remain an enormous, fanatic, if clownish, threat to our nation and to democracy.
Don't ever ever hold your breath expecting that they are going to repent a damn thing. You must be kidding?
Abandonment of conscience (and soul) are required for membership.
Trump the egotist, his fanatic followers (not just the leaders but ordinary people) and the 2025 project are dangerous to our country and our way of life.
Aggressive drunken clowns are a very definite problem when armed with semi-automatic rifles or steering the ship of state.
The vow to continue breaking the law. Only a Trumployal judge would find that endearing.
I hope all Arizona voters run away from Kari Lake. She appears devoid of either humility or decency and is solely motivated by raw ambition. This won't end well for Arizonans or the rest of us if her ascent up the power ladder succeeds. Can you imagine if Trump wins what will be her next act? VP is on the table, but other important jobs as well. Can anyone believe that "national good" would ever take priority over "Trump good" or "Lake good"?
Contradictions in terms.
I hope Kari Lake gets drained. Hmmm, maybe Kari Puddle?
As with Trump, good idea to replay her statements in support of election denial over and over
FYI
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-trump-integrity-trap Once you work for him, you’re trapped ROBERT REICH MAR 28
An aside, an encouraging announcement:
Oath Keepers' son emerges from traumatic childhood to tell his own story in a long shot election bid
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/oath-keepers-son-emerges-traumatic-childhood-story-long-108442264
This is one of the most hopeful stories I have read lately, and hats off to ABC for publishing it. Adams has many positive traits, and I hope that he'll be celebrated even if he doesn't get elected to Congress. It remains interesting to me that so many prominent right-wing justice-denying Republicans have law degrees from Ivy schools—not only Adams' father but now-Senator JD Vance, Governor DeSantis, Justice Thomas and Rep. Elise Stefanik. Of course, there are plenty of Ivy grads who value democracy and the rule of law, but...
Are law students exploring how to bring justice to law or how to evade it?? Many (though not all) seem expressly hired for the latter.
Thanks for the link, Susan!
I must say, my first reaction is a MASSIVE EYEROLL to the news of Eastman still maintaining that he has done nothing wrong, similar to Nixon's, Giuliani's and tffg's claims, while they all proclaim loudly that they have been/are being unjustly accused and persecuted "for no reason."
I am pretty disgusted by constantly hearing about these MAGAts (and my sympathies to anyone with that pejorative as their legal last name).
It might help us all if we can re-image these absurd people and their statements as if they were still walking or toddling around in diapers. Screaming at their mommies. And Mommy is either helpless or clueless or worse. Does that help?
Angry toddlers are more humane.
And my apologies to them. Maybe the psych people can help us out?
JustRaven, they are all following TFFG’s playbook….deny deny deny & play the persecuted victim. It’s their mantra. On the other hand, folks like Cohen & Parnas have accepted responsibility & their punishment (time to ponder their actions?) and make apologies and came clean with what they knew/participated in.
Stalking the children of his enemies is as heinous as his as his more blatant crimes. He is a predator, a schoolyard bully. How is it possible that this subhuman is permitted to run for one of the most prestigious positions in the world? Maybe we should begin to consider making changes as to whom may hold office and those requirements must mean an understanding of ethics, not rules based on religious beliefs. My last sentence sounds naive even to me, but I post it anyway in the spirit of optimism.
Very much my thoughts for a long time now. I had suggested to me from somebody who studied for and got naturalized as a citizen that applying that very same test that he took to all candidates for office might be a great leveling influence. It's pretty hard to test for ethics though we can see them as behavior at work or in speech. And it's quite obvious that catching someone in lies as against the facts that are being lied about is one way of judging ethics. It's tricky.
I think that ethics is both subjective and objective and hard to pin down. That said, we can compare notes. We can make arguments. We can more or less agree in an array of social contracts. When I was a kid in the 1950s, we'd agree on the rules of a game, even imaginary play. I think most would affirm core set of unalienable rights; but how do we apply them? Some of it is defined in law and some in social convention. We defend ourselves by defending all, by seeing no one is cheated of their rights.
"Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises."
- Lincoln
Accurate description of present day confusion among magites and otherwise partly sane Republicans. Something about democracy really scares them, I believe it's the sharing and a kind of primal fear of letting go of what are considered righteous holdings. Which fails of course to understand how righteous holdings got there in the first place. In the interconnectedness of things some people are stopped by the sheer complexity, but don't have the tools or the will to get the fuller picture and their place in it. I am feeling charitable today in my description because all that counter anger doesn't seem to work after a certain point don't you think?
We have much work to do tightening our system.
And our society. What do we reward/celebrate? What to reject and why? Is there any behavior that is beneath our dignity? Is there even such a thing? Are we safe for letting our neighbor's dwelling burn?
"we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
And MAGA? What's "sacred" in that?
Voting Tips: Just say no to thugs.
Jean, I think his groupies (not those who “know” and are just supporting him out of expediency) LOVE that he does this sh*t and actually gets away with it—getting away with it being the most important part.
You are probably right. Isn’t it too bad that we all don’t have to pass the test for citizenship as required of those that would be naturalized. If voting were not so easy, maybe we would value it more.
Jean, some years ago I was browsing the Costco book “table” when I struck up a conversation with an older woman & a younger woman (I took them to be grandmother/granddaughter, but am not sure). Must have been near the ‘16 election, because our convo touched on the upcoming election. The young woman mentioned that she didn’t vote….ha, that stopped both of us oldsters in our tracks…and we both proceeded to gently have a civics session why paying attention and being engaged is so important & that she should encourage her friends as well. Don’t know if that “lesson” landed or not, but hope it did. Also, once had a partner (mid-1970’s thru mid-1980’s), who was actually proud he never voted…used to chap my azzz & if he complained about policies, etc., I told him I didn’t think he had the right to complain if he chose not to participate!
Kari Lake is proof you should never allow a New Age Hoo-Hah outside without adult supervision.
Mike Lindell is proof that "once a crackhead, always a crackhead."