On Wednesday the nonprofit, nonpartisan Institute for the Study of War published a long essay explaining that Russia’s only strategy for success in Ukraine is to win the disinformation war in which it is engaged.
Thank you Dr. Richardson. Ukraine certainly can withstand the onslaught by Russia as long as the U.S. and NATO continue their support. This has been shown before, in other wars. Most amazingly, the GOP MAGA party wants Russia to win. Meanwhile the former president rolls along happily, threatening those connected to his prosecution. Why is this allowed to go on? ( Hello DOJ? Are you there?)
I can't tell you why outrageous things are allowed to go on, Jack. But I can suggest something you (and everyone else reading this) can do about it:
We need to raise our voices and be heard right now, to support the courageous Ukrainian resistance. As Heather pointed out, tonight Adrienne Watson, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, called again for Speaker Johnson to bring up the bipartisan national security supplemental bill providing aid to Ukraine that the Senate passed in February. She warned: “Ukraine’s need is urgent, and we cannot afford any further delays.”
A bipartisan majority of Our Representatives (both Dem & GOP) want to sustain aid to Ukraine. The National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act (HR 815) passed in the Senate by a 70 - 29 vote weeks ago.
Speaker Mike Johnson has not brought it to the floor of the House, so Democrats are circulating a discharge petition to force it out of committee and be voted on. The petition needs 218 signatures. It currently has 191-- only one Republican.
Everyone reading this can help by calling Republican Representatives and urging them to sign the discharge petition for HR 815 Ukraine Aid Package before it's too late. Call the U S Capitol switchboard (202) 224-3121 to leave a general statement of support, and call Speaker Johnson's office (202) 225-4000 to insist that he bring HR 815 to the floor.
For phone numbers of about about two dozen specific Republicans known to support Ukraine, please click on recent Ukraine-related posts at:
Jerry, each day I share Prof. Richardson’s Letter, I carefully include, up front, the most gripping sentence(s) or paragraph(s) to grab the attention of potential readers. Today, I’ll include your comment as well. Thanks for the encouragement to act.
Once again, Biden and the Dems follow the rules while the MAGA folks constantly flout the rules and laws and suffer no consequences. That’s how McConnell packed the Supreme Court. Biden needs to step up , declare that he is Commander in Chief and send arms to Ukraine. He obviously can’t be prosecuted. He should also attack the Russian influence in Congress and start calling their refusal to legislate treason.
The problem is that these are the views of roughly half of American voters (and a solid majority of white American voters). Kagan insightfully discusses the world view of such people in the article HCR cites. Republicans are all-in on White Christian nationalism, and they recognize that Russians, on the average, are even worse racists than Americsns, so they view Russia as an ally in their project. Kagan also points out that it would be relatively cheap to stop Russian aggression in the region by supplying Ukraine with the means to defend itself. If Ukraine falls, the US will either be entirely unable to contain Russian aggression or will be able to do so only at enormous cost. The problem is that Republicans openly oppose stopping Russian aggression because they think, correctly, that Russia will help them establish a White Christisn nationalist autocracy in the US.
I wonder if President Biden could call Congress back into session to get back to the necessary work of governing. If I had a deadline, or urgent work to complete during my career, I couldn't simply adjourn if I wanted to keep my job.
This Congress takes more time off especially when they really need to be in session. They are like a surgeon walking out of the operating room for vacation in the middle of a operation.
Waste of time trying to convert (or even shame) Trump voters. A more effective contribution to the project to save American democracy is to contribute time and/or money to a well-organized get-out-the-vote project. It is especially important to get voters signed up for vote-by-mail because the Trump people are organizing militias with assault rifles to intimidate voters in Democratic districts into going home without voting.
Thank you. Just emailed him. Right now all Ukraine wants is money for equipment and ammunition. If they lose, Putin will attack the allies who we are required by treaty to defend. Then, it won't just be money but our blood as we send soldiers to fight. So, instead of a little money, we'll be spending a lot more money as well as shedding our soldiers' blood -- far more costly.
Julie Giessler -- Thank you very much! I've done the deed, but letter is longer than what you suggested. (Hopefully not too long.)
Dear Speaker Johnson,
I request you to please bring HR 815 to the House floor as soon as possible, if not sooner. This non-partisan bill addresses a highly urgent matter that will deliver a strong message to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This is not an official government email address, so I'm highly suspicious that it's not his. But maybe it goes to his son who Johnson uses as a porn monitor (supposedly son gets an alert if something stimulating shows up on Johnson's phone. You know, like porn. Or a text from Putie.)
Lynell - this is a great suggestion! Since I live in Canada, as you may have read, I did an email to my Colorado Democratic Rep and asked him to pass along the message to Speaker Johnson. He will!
He does not make it easy to contact him. I am not in a position to organize a march so he can see how many of us are calling for this vote, but would support any efforts to do so.
Melinda Quivik -- Maybe a scam address. We've all been receiving the same message. I ended up writing to my own House Representative and asked him to pass it along to Speaker Johnson. My Rep is a democrat, so I'm sure he will!!
Yep, Roberta Price,. Mine did too. I spent a long time "perfecting" what I wanted to say! And to message him through the Gov doesn't work if you don't live in his district. How about writing to our own Representatives and ask THEM to get a message to Mike? I am going to try that -- my Rep in Colorado is a Democrat.
Sounds like a good idea. Who knows if the email account is legit. Phone calls also... If we pester John enough, maybe his "Christian conscience" will kick in! 🫶
Send him a postcard. If you don't have one but have a notecard, just turn that into a postcard by slicing it in half. This is much preferable, IMO, to sending a note using an envelope. Staff can't throw message away unseen. No need to put your return address on the card.
Hi Lynell -- I just contacted my House Representative in Colorado (a Democrat) and asked him to get the message to Speaker Johnson. I did not request a reply.
Hey, Judith. Good for you! I hadn't thought to before, but now will be postcarding reps who are NOT my rep to sign on. As far as I know, you don't have to be a constituent to contact them via USPS!
I jumped on Johnson's email address and sent it to many people without testing first. What an embarrassing disappointment. Johnson's web page wants the writer to be verified before accepting any messages.
Plainly blocking a deluge of protest. Well he knows it. Other ideas, direct via a friendly political member. There has been word this Easter weekend on msnbc that Johnson may return and initiate a vote on Ukraine et al with Dem support. Of course believe it when i see it.
Maybe we could all chip in and buy him a fancier gavel? Johnson has spoken in defense of Ukraine. Trump sad no, or I'll get you fired.
I watched The Midas Touch piece on Habba's 40th bash. I don't get what the appeal is in what all these people have sold their souls and their country for. Is a wooden gavel or a Christian Dior hat and all the trappings really worth it?
So many things in the trump era twist my brain trying to understand them. I probably never will, but I do appreciate the various suggestions many of you make and I do them from time to time. I will try to pressure some gop reps to push to get the Ukraine bill up for a vote. Thanks!
Public pressure took care of Ronna McDaniel (NBC). We have to keep trying until something "gets through." Let others know when this does. Phone calls also...even if an aide answers, the message is registered. ONWARD! JG
Jerry, you write: "We need to raise our voices and be heard right now, to support the courageous Ukrainian resistance. " True, what is also true is this, what Pres. G.W. Bush said at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on 3/31/2001: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." This wasn't the beginning of the Republicans' disinformation campaign against Americans, but it is a fact that we need to acknowledge. What is becoming/has become painfully obvious is that in our schools we have failed in teaching critical thinking skills, on the one hand, and the essence of the democratic process, on the other hand. Democracy is consent of the governed: one person, one vote, majority rule, resulting in the peaceful transfer of political power. This means nothing to the MAGA/KKK White Nationalist Fascists:. The Russians are clever at fooling many of us who are gullible and who want a white Protestant autocracy here in the U.S. We don't know enough history to know what a Russian victory in Ukraine means for the prospect of peace in the world and for us. So, the question is: what do we do, which campaigns do we support with money and other activities?
Another quote of Dubya's that constantly comes to me lately: "We've got to fight them over there, so we don't have to fight them over here." He was then talking about Islamist terrorists, but it's just as true now of Russian operatives.
Tragically, we ARE fighting ‘them’ over here! First salvo on Jan 6! Daily in the courts to challenge unconstitutional voting bills passed by state legislators. Daily social media and related tv/radio networks spew maga hate mongering and lies! AND most importantly daily fighting back ad nauseum appeals in federal and state courts by trumps ‘lyers’!
With massive if not majority media support. Fox, just for major example. It gets crazier beyond that. And Ronna McDaniel's knowingly known the different from the RCA these past years shows how intelligence and respect for actual facts falter in the face of group/tribal loyalty forces. Glad to see NBC retreated from taking her on. Plainly management was well attuned to journalists who are the public face of NBC. CNN? oh dear...
"Fight them there instead of here." So true. Many, perhaps most, Americans, I submit, are unable to imagine or realize the horror that the Ukrainians are going through right now, or the folks in Gaza. It's devastating. Somehow we've got to get that message across. I think that the Reagan ad by Votevets.org does an excellent job of this.
Jerry, you are correct, Jessica Craven's substack is a great contribution to the process. She's really, really good. I subscribe to Jessy's substack as well. I don't think that it's possible to be "over informed."
Schools are public state institutions, you want to the careful what you wish for , Richard. If you think the Parents' Rights movement has been bad, having everywhere full scale incendiary conflict isn't something you really want. That's just one of the problems with critical thinking skills, when things are core tribal, you can toss that out the window. Such is human nature, and surely not just American, by a long shot.
Thank you Jerry. You just gave us good advice. I have to emphasize my belief that the cult leader needs to be held accountable and not by paying fines. It is frustrating to see him get over all the time.
Indeed, Jack. I told a friend last night, it's crazy that we tell parents to raise their kids to be truthful, to trust the law, etc., and many of these same advisors think it's just ducky for Trump to skate EVERY TIME he's caught red-handed, fleecing people, or groping them (or worse), defaming them, etc. And then proudly comparing himself to Al Capone, for Pete's sake!! And now selling tacky BIBLES!!
Sandra his influence on young people is most worrying, they are at an impressionable age. Remember the Hitler Youth? No, I don’t think I am going overboard by comparing his MAGA theme to the NAZIS.
I arrived on the planet a few years after Hitler youth, but I've seen the news reels. One of my favorite movies is "Swing Kids", about a group of jazz-loving German teens in about 1939 or so, and how they get sucked into the war on different sides.
I just came across something Jamelle Bouie, NYTimes op-ed writer, wrote last week, to the seems like Trump-gets-away-with-everything topic:
"Although Trump is entitled to an appeal, which he is pursuing, it still feels outrageous that he would get this unexplained courtesy after years of willfully defrauding the public. At the same time, it feels typical of Trump’s relationship to the various institutions of American life. If there seems to be a different set of rules for Trump, under which there is always a reason to look the other way or give him a second chance, that’s because for all intents and purposes, there is."
I do not believe they will put him on trial in any of the cases until after the election , because it will fire up his base, increase the threats to many involved in those trials , and bring in more MAGA donations. With the exception of the Alvin Bragg case.
The attorney and financial officer already have gone to jail for the role they played in the Stormy Daniels election hush money case. It only follows that the boss who ordered the payoff should be prosecuted. He can’t claim selective prosecution, he will be the third person to go to trial.
Experts on the Medias Touch Network heard the people in his camp feel they can weather the storm and then appeal the conviction for years. But it will do MAGA some damage. Trump can’t afford to lose any votes. Lastly I do not see the justice system saving us. We have to vote blue all the way to get him out of the way. I have lost faith in our justice system , it is corrupt and intimidated by the MAGA folks.
Thank you for this valuable information.I will make many calls today as I am sure others will also.We stopped NBC from keeping Ronna Romney McDaniel as an analyst with our calls and correspondence.We can demand action to fund Ukraine.I also agree that Holy Mike Johnson has overstepped his duties to the American people.The time for action is now!
Victoria, I was just thinking how unholy Johnson actually is as right now he is serving the AntiChrist who is selling of all things, Bibles. And thank you, all of you, for suggesting ways to put pressure on various pols. One of the things that has bothered me this week is the constant appearance of conspiracy theories around every event: the bridge collapse, the busing of teams to play in March Madness from the airport in Detroit. I hope that Michigan pol feels totally embarrassed for suggesting they were busloads of immigrants.
Here is a list of Democratic Members who have yet to sign on. They are grouped by such categories as "Opposed but Persuadable," etc. Below that is a list of Republican Members by state with contact info.
In my haste to get the word out, I neglected to advise that for most reps (probably all), you need to be in that rep's district to contact them by email. However, we can still send them a postcard through USPS. Here is Rep Golden's address. No need to put your return address on the postcard:
Lynell, you can also call most Reps. If asked whether I'm a constituent I reply "No, but the issue I'm calling about affects everyone in every district." I've never had an aide refuse to talk to me. They are very polite and willing to take the message.
OK so let's do some math: There are now 212 Democrats in the House, and 190 have signed the petition. Ergo, TWENTY TWO Democrats have not signed. Can someone please reply with a list of their names so we can shine a big spotlight on them. It will be easier to get the handful of Republicans to sign if the Democrats are unanimous, but I see no way to find an extra 22 of them. Thanks!
PS - If your Democrat rep is among the 22, please send them a note asking for their immediate signature. Thanks!
Not sure if you've seen this link I sent, Stephen. It is a spreadsheet listing Democrats who have not signed yet, separating out those "top prospects to sign, those believed to be persuadable, those strongly opposed. Below that are the Republicans' contacts. Remember Republican Ken Buck of Colorado? He signed on right before he left the Republican Party last week!
To those of you who'd rather send a postcard, find your rep's usps address here⬇️Look for "Office Locations." Some of these take a bit of work to find. Sorry!
Thanks! It is really dismaying to see ostensible progressives like Tlaib and Khanna in opposition! I have sent money to both in the past, but no more, and I have just written letters to both informing them so.
It is so idiotic to be pro-two state solution and against Ukrainian independence, just as being cast as antisemetic for supporting the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians to have lands of their own in what was for a while called "Palestine".
Stephen, some Progressives oppose HR815 because it includes military aid for Israel. So far as I can determine, they are not opposed to aid for Ukraine. But splitting the two into separate bills would create more delays because they'd have to be sent back to the Senate.
Rather than abandoning our Progressive allies over this, I'd suggest they sign the discharge petition and then vote against the bill if they can't in conscience support it. That would mean we need to get more Republicans to vote for it, but there remains a strong pro-Ukrainian contingent among "traditional Republicans" who'll probably do so once the bill is on the floor.
(BTW, HR 815 also includes humanitarian assistance for civilians in the Gaza war zone. And in any case, Israel is unlikely to change course based on this single aid package.)
I agree with all you say. HR 815 is an almost ideal piece of legislation, with something for everyone and something that just about everyone opposes. One can demonstrate their position by voting yea or nay on the measure, but not allowing it to come up for a vote frustrates the democratic process. Yes, I know it happens all the time, but that does little to remove the bad taste from my mouth. And besides all that there is a mechanism for withholding military aid to Israel even though it has been appropriated.
Thank you Jerry. Please publicize that through the U S Capitol switchboard (202) 224-3121 , callers can be connected to any senator or representative. Some have done a workaround but often you get a person.
You're fighting MAGA Trump hegemony in the now almost total MAGAGOP, but i agree with a mail-in, phone campaign. This one is definitely Trump's baby. Lindsay Graham can say one thing one month, then turn it on a dime to the political power he's beholden to.
I called. Everyone should call. It takes 2 minutes. And, circulate the numbers to as many people as we can so they can call too. I think we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of Russian influence over GOP politicians. It's what we don't know that is scary and outrageous. Which Russians have seen those classified documents in Mara Lago? How much did they pay to see them? Thanks for your post Jerry.
Don't just call your Republican Representative. Call your Democratic ones as well. Jerry says only 191 Congresspersons have signed the discharge petition, only one a Republican. But NOTE, there are 213 Democrats in the House right now. Yet only 190 have signed. That means there are 23 signatures to get from Democrats alone.
Now I know there are a few who rarely sign military things, like Barbara Lee. But certainly we can get 15 or more Democrats to sign this petition. Call your Representative, no matter what their party, and ask if they have signed it, and if not tell them you want them to sign it now.
BTW, it doesn't help to call all the other Representatives. Only your own Representative can respond/react to your calls, emails, etc. The only time you can call and have an influence on other Senators or Congresspeople is if you are calling in regard to a Committee they sit on, or Chamber position they hold, such as Speaker or Majority leader, etc., as they are then acting in a national capacity, which includes you.
an addendum - so that means you can call or write letters, postcards and send texts to Speaker Mike Johnson, since he works for all of us when he is in that capacity. Or at least he is supposed to work for us.
You are right that it seems to be one person controlling the fate of Ukraine but the one person isn’t holy Mike, it is the Anti-Christ himself who isn’t even holding public office.
There are reports that Johnson actually wants to support Ukraine, but is said to be "walking a fine line", as between that and his getting got funding done, MT Greene has filed a petition to remove him as Speaker.
It has been reported that he plans to do this once the whole impeachment fiascoes are carried out ( the Senate now has DHS Secretary Mayorkas's to act on, and Comer Pyle is still working in Biden's.) You know, get the REALLY important stuff out of the way first.
Patricia, if McCarthy were a man, he would have remained true to his convictions that trompy was responsible for Jan 6, rather than go to Mar a Lago to kiss his ring a few months later.
In any institution there has to be a distribution of power so that it can function. The genius of our system is that there is also a set of checks and balances. While certainly not perfect, that system is what allows for the discharge petition, so that a majority of Membership can over-rule the Speaker (and the Rules Committee).
That's also where our role as citizens plays out. Just by raising our voices and participating we strengthen both the institution and our democracy -- striking another blow against MAGA authoritarianism.
What has happened to the Mitch and other senatorial voices which showed the GOP supports Ukraine? Of course, it shows just how fractiously split the Republicans are. It's hard to imagine how Ukrainians themselves must feel about the political schizophrenia which has gripped USA. I'm not sure we can just blame the Russians for GOP extremists having "taken the bait". I never know what to think when a political leader such as Johnson can stymie something even some members of his own House support. Getting those funds clear is a shoo-in if only House Rules allow a minority to thwart what a majority of Americans, and politicians want. Then.... there is the SC and Roe vs Wade etc.
Elections Matter-- Primaries and General--but each of us only gets 2 opportunities to vote while virtually every day we find a new reason to vote; which is why I'm frustrated while waiting for my mail-in ballot for May's Primary [in PA}.
That's one reason why getting involved with grass roots organizations is so valuable, Roger. There is always a way to channel those frustrations. Check out Jessica Craven's substack "Chop Wood, Carry Water":
From Timothy Snyder's Thinking about ... How to help Ukraine
Right now we can make donations that will help Ukrainians defend themselves, survive, and make sense their experience for the rest of us.
1. Safe Skies. This is passive drone-detection system that allows Ukrainians to detect drones and cruise missiles in time to shoot them down. President Zelens'kyi just posted some photos of that end of the operation. Thanks to thousands of people, including many of you here, I was able (with support from some great historian colleagues) to raise enough money to protect eight Ukrainian regions with five thousand sensors (map here). Ukraine needs 12,000 total sensors to protect the entire country, so 7,000 more. The technology is inexpensive and effective. I have seen it at work. It saves lives. This is a very direct way that you can help Ukrainians protect themselves. Just go to this page and hit the button "Protect Ukrainian Skies."
Donate to Safe Skies
2. Razom for Ukraine. This is an American 501(c)3 that carries out important policy advocacy work in Washington DC and around the country. Aside from their terrific advocate team, they have a large group of volunteers who work tirelessly with Ukrainian NGOs to deliver aid and supplies to Ukraine. I have worked together with their great team on events for years and am always filled with admiration of their energy, efficacy, and devotion. A donation to them is a very safe bet. Please visit their page and donate.
Donate to Razom
3. Come Back Alive Foundation. More and more I hear from people who wish to help the Ukrainian army directly. A Ukrainian NGO that supplies soldiers on the front with what they need is Come Back Alive. They have been doing this job since the first Russian invasion and are very well reputed and highly reliable. You can see their fundraisers here.
Donate to Come Back Alive
4. 1 Team 1 Fight Foundation. This is a group with some very active European volunteers who have shown their mettle and devotion in getting supplies to the front in Ukraine. They are also an American 501(c)3. You can find their campaigns here.
Donate to 1 Team 1 Fight
5. Liberty Ukraine Foundation. Here we have a small group of (mostly) Texans who have done a great job in delivering humanitarian and military aid to Ukrainians. You can find their current projects here. They are a US 501(c)3.
Donate to Liberty Ukraine
6. Documenting Ukraine. As many of you will know, I helped establish this project to support Ukrainian scholars, journalists, writers, artists, photographers, librarians, archivists, and others who are documenting the war, each according to their own talents and following their own projects. We have given grants to 360 Ukrainians at this point, and are aiming for 500 by the end of the year. (One of those 360 was Mstyslav Chernov, the director of 20 Days in Mariupol, which just won an Oscar). I am proud of this effort to give Ukrainians a voice and to create a record of the war in real time and across multiple media. You can donate here. This is also a US 501(c)3.
Donate to Documenting Ukraine
It has been six months since meaningful U.S. aid has reached Ukraine. You now have a list of six institutions that can help.
Think of this as the Challenge of Six.
I am now going to make donations myself. If you want to join in, please do! Maybe you have give $6, or $60, or even $600? Or another round number that begins with 6? Be creative. Be generous. It matters.
Thank you!
TS 29 March 2024
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When we look at how Putin has been operating in Russia for the past several decades, we are looking into our own future if trump wins the presidency again.
Putin is a sociopath, with not one bit of regard for his people. He has carried out numerous false flag operations against his own people, indeed that is how he came into power in 1999. (Read The Less You Know, the Better You'll Sleep by David Satter) trump will be exactly the same. It is terrifying.
The essential point of the Dems' fundraising is to make sure that the candidates in the down-ballot races win so that we again have a Congress that can work cooperatively with the president and create laws that will protect voting, health, the environment, and, basically, our democracy.
The Russians are attacking where we are most vulnerable. The United States spends more than 50 cents of every dollar on military and defense. When considering the economies of NATO countries versus Russia, NATO forces maintain a significant advantage.
I've often said that any meaningful democracy requires a well-educated, well-informed, and engaged society.
As education has eroded and media has consolidated in the United States, it makes us far more vulnerable to propaganda and disinformation.
Furthermore, when economies are retrenching -due to energy prices and inflationary pressure caused by Putin's ongoing attack of Ukraine, such conditions provide a foothold for the far-right to rise in political popularity. Such a foothold provides motivation for the GOP-controlled House to continue to withhold vital support for Ukraine. Every minute, every hour, every day of delay is most certainly aid and comfort to Putin and other anti-West, anti-democratic regimes.
You can imagine Putin gleefully telling others he is taking the United States down without firing a bullet our way. It is why all those who denied, and continue to deny the 2020 elections have no business in Congress, State government, or any public office today, and should be precluded from running for, or holding public office in the future.
Spot on, George. "I've often said that any meaningful democracy requires a well-educated, well-informed, and engaged society." Is this not the principal reason we have free public education in this country? And isn't our biggest threat actually the religious-oriented charter schools?
An interesting and provocative thought Richard. I do think anything that shifts resources away from teaching mathematics, science, humanities, and critical thinking is a threat. Someone wrote earlier that if someone wants their children to attend private school (or be home-schooled) in a theoretically free America should be able to do so, however, not by using vouchers, credits, or other means to defund a public education system that is and remains a critical pillar of democracy.
Further to the point, George, I had a very dear friend, Jim Buie, now departed, who felt that religious indoctrination of the very young was a form of child abuse.
I’ve met people from very different belief systems who are well-intentioned and good-hearted.
In conversation with a Rabbi who remains deeply involved in the interfaith movement when I was asked I said, the best core of most religions was to love one another. I said that seems like a very important concept and with that as a foundation I thought that from a theoretical perspective that was excellent. I then said religion, like many other things may have started out well, but then when humankind gets involved, it all goes awry.
George, it is an interesting paradox, isn't it, that belief in a religion could lead to the infliction of torture of others (as with the Inquisition and the Muslim tortures of infidels most recently? Read some American slaves' accounts during the 1800's and your skin will crawl. And, it was southern white Christians who lynched Black Americans. So, what's the takeaway? Would people tend to "do good" without religious beliefs? Is religion actually an impediment instead of a help in "doing good?" Could be. I am an absolute confirmed atheist who tries to practice the commands that Jesus is alleged to have given in Matthew 25: 34-46. [I am one of those who believes that Jesus never existed. Acharya S's book, "The Christ Conspiracy" is pretty convincing, along with rational thought: virgin births, ascending into heaven, etc.?]
To add insult to injury, they want vouchers AND to keep their tax exempt status! And they're getting it all.
I remember when much of America was against private religious schools because they were Catholic! They don't seem to mind now that the evangelicals are running things. Of course, they began as 'segregation academies', and so were very popular in certain parts of the country (and still are - There is one about five miles from me, in fact, that came into being in the early 70s, at the height of the busing wars here in NC.
Goldsboro Christian Academy is one such segregation academy. It took its fight to be tax exempt to the Supreme Court and lost. They wanted to be tax exempt while discriminating. Goldsboro is my hometown. The kids I grew up with who went there were very confused. The fathers who sent them to that "school" were dictatorial and emotionally abusive.
I saw my first Klan billboard in Goldsboro when I married and moved from NY to NC in 1970. Think it said something like This is Klan Country. Don't remember what the images were.
Ah, North Carolina incubator for many national programs to purge ‘liberals’ from college campuses! UNC governing board loaded with right wing zealots and magas. Previous President of the UNC system resigned because of the micro managing by the board! Interim President was appointed from one of their own members!
New gerrymandered US house map 11-3 in favor of magas. State supreme kangaroo court 5-2 in favor of magas, including one member who is the son of the ‘Masta’ of NC, Phil Berger!
Nothing locally bothers me more than the thought that my tax dollars are funding private religious schools or even charter schools. Right now our local school district which narrowly avoided a teachers' strike is about to cut millions from the budget. Another smaller local district probably does not have enough money to pay its employees for the rest of this year. They are thinking of borrowing against future tax monies. Eek. A friend of ours who is still teaching wrote an excellent essay on the problems created by standardized testing. The NYT had an article this week about absenteeism. The public school where I taught was right next door to a private Catholic school and I could write a book about all the nonsense that occurred because of that. I confess to an attack of cynicism when I read about the far right being so concerned about children that now in Alabama includes frozen embryos. Pffst. All the claims about caring about babies and children is just hypocritical noise.
I once had the honor to share a dinner with former Congressman Bob Edgar. At the time of our meeting he was President of the National Council of Churches. We spoke about the politicization of religion and evangelicals. At dinner he told me the difference between the split between the church and the christian right was that he believed in life after birth, not just life until birth. (I'm paraphrasing, in was close to 20 years ago).
We must find the political will to fund public education, and make some innovative changes so our educators can teach without idiot extremist Governors dictating what to teach, that we teach critical thinking, civility, and civics, and that we address gun violence (and societal violence) so no student or teacher has to endure the stupidity of active shooter drills and the reason that such drills exist.
The 9/11 plane hijacking terrorists were indoctrinated in the Saudi madrassah! Now all too many states are purging so called ‘liberal’ leaning education from their schools and state supported colleges!
Putin is repeating Khrushchev’s plan! Destroy the US without firing a shot using propaganda as the main weapon! Plus, developing a network of support with our country! The MAGA cult is fulfilling that role with the GOP in Congress leading the way! Oh boy, do we ever learn from history? Speaker Johnson and his fellow “ Russian Assets” should be removed and condemned for their actions!
Couldn't agree more Anthony. I often think Sally Yates would have been far more aggressive in pursuing Russian assets (and those acting as foreign agents) than Merrick Garland, and thus made a much better choice for AG. For all the talk of Dem leadership about being in a battle for the "Soul of America" I'd like to see them putting fierce lions in charge of agencies like the DOJ instead of "Mr. Rogers".
A very talented cousin is always trying to tell me to get accessible content out on Tik Tok -and would be delighted to partner with a creative media volunteer or volunteers to do so. (Unfortunately I'm as creative as a Cartesian coordinate system for two-dimensional space).
My creativity level is on par with yours, George. Maybe I'll mention this to my millenial daughter this weekend.........her phone is surgically attached to her hand, I think.
They are being elected by a populace that believes in denying the results of the last presidential election. They firmly believe. Until those voters are led to believe in facts, election deniers will continue to be elected.
Pulling on a willow branch produces a lot of visible movement leaving the trunk unmoved.
“Language is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.”
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
Does this mean shut up or you don’t make a difference? Absolutely not. Its intended outcome is to “turn” towards something deeper.
There is no “The answer”. Or perhaps the answer lives in the ineffable. The closest approach may be in the phrase “Each and every one of us.” As been said The problem (pick your issue) lives in all that is incomplete and unfulfilled in our own lives.
Unlikely, perhaps. However, as long as it is "definitely not" I will shout into the wind until I lose my voice. And besides, who doesn't like bears who dance?
Much of that $ is going to support "boots on the ground" as Jonathan Capehart pointed out on the weekly PBS politics night. District by district. Save the ads for the "independents" and persuadable. I never know what to make of David Brooks. He dissed the whole advertising thing, saying donors were just wasting their money. Jonathan gave better than David came close to....
Why does Russia proceed so blithely with what Heather here calls its "disinformation operation??
For one thing, impunity. As U.S. billionaires with impunity gerrymander, and gut safety, health, and environmental agencies, the Clarence court just as regularly allows those corruptions to proceed. Putin practices the same on a more openly murderous level, as he keeps his spineless fellow corrupt oligarchs on top, with the rest of Russia doomed to ill-health, autocracy, and cannon fodder for a suicidal military.
The U.S. billionaires as well as the Russian oligarchs have another common ally – hate-filled, far-right co-religionists, in the U.S. spittle-spewing book banners, racists, and misogynists who have the Clarence court also doing their bidding, in Russia the long-skirted, jewelry-clanking eastern Orthodox priests chanting for their nationalist version of The Rapture.
It’s madness. But in both countries the schools all long earlier caved, so citizens nowhere have virtually no one modeling any humanities to keep in touch with some human decency.
The schools have been under sustained attack for a long time. In the universities tenured professors are often avoided and are replaced with adjunct instructors with no job security, low pay and no benefits. A good way to stifle dissent. We are now in the era of book banning as well. This is no accident.
Thanks Jack, too many folks do not understand your point. Example: my beloved Florida State University ceded final decisions on top professors in the School of Business to the Koch organization to preach the virtues of the “free market”. Doesn’t sound that bad until you understand that means that big business does whatever it wants. Well regulated capitalism is the best economic system and the worst is unregulated capitalism. A careful review of history for the last 45 years proves this clearly. Less taxes as a percentage of income for higher incomes is an abomination.
Mike, it has transformed universities into vocational centers with critical thinking tossed aside. They now spend lavishly on sports and administration, not so much on professors and research. As George Carlin stated they want people just smart enough to keep the businesses running and no more than that. Running a university on the Wall Street business model is what they do. They are for profit , and pay no taxes. What could be better for the financial sector? What could be worse for learning and basic research?
They only hear from their alumni about Football. That was a joke but alumni loom large these days - Bill Ackmann at Harvard and some other alumnus from Wharton. I used to admire those glossy new buildings but I never realized that the donors felt that they inherited power and leverage with their donations. I remember that a multi multi million dollar gift was turned down by Yale years ago when an alumnus wanted to have classics and history reformed. Things are different today.
Yes but, I do not know how much. I was out of the country when it occurred. When I wrote the university president, his implication was that he agreed with me. He pointed out the prior president made the decision. He defended the decision by saying the university was in serious trouble with the budget cuts from the state and had to accept donations with strings attached. I have been heartbroken since. I am positive they know better so I cannot explain these actions unless private donations went to individuals as well the school.
It was the Powell memo that set in motion the Heritage Foundation, ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council), and enlargement of the Hoover Institution.
Throughout the 1970s they worked together to shame professors out of using any humanities outside of narrowest departmental specialization. They lobbied state legislatures to cut funding of America's great public colleges and universities, greatly reducing tenure and its freedoms, massively driving students into student loan debt.
When the dehumanization set in, the new billionaire classes were ready to start the mass offshoring of working-class jobs, the new predator rich confident that American elites no longer had any education to avail themselves of the novels, memoirs, films, and songs whose artists were still in touch with the massive predations.
Alley, yes as I learned from the infamous Powell memo, they decided to fight back against the protest movements of the 1960’s and the Unions as well. Put the university and college instructors in a precarious position so they won’t be able to promote movements for social change. Weaken the Unions as well. Launch a war on drugs, because anti war protestors, civil rights activists and environmentalists would be most likely to face prosecution. The corporate world became heavily involved in politics, spreading their vast wealth to all the right candidates. It has been a corporate takeover of our government and now hopefully the tide is turning. Defeating the MAGA former president is a must.
Mike Treworgy, also commenting here, speaks the simplest truth -- how corrupt it is.
But maybe humor can do what serious, sincere, affronted prose cannot approach. Maybe we need look to sarcasm, hyperbole, most biting of exaggeration -- and we still won't have gotten how supinely, servilely, spinelessly these suckers-up-to medieval witchery and most-up-to-date bribery sink, stink, foul the human and the natural to which their most elite dehumanization blinds them.
That's very good. Or, the Corrupt Catholic Clarence Court? My apologies to the Catholics; however, the Catholic Church continues to treat females as inferior humans, same as Islam. We need a new rallying cry: Females of the World Unite. Enough of this Middle Ages mind set. We are now engaged in a real struggle with the American Taliban, AKA MAGA.
I am sure you are right about too little focus on "humanities" in many school systems. But I wanted to share a story that might brighten your day...and be special for you.
Our grandson's First Grade class has been studying Japan. They have been learning how the Japanese live - how they view nature, in particular. They have been learning some Japanese words and traditions. This week we were invited to an "assembly" where they recapped their lessons about Japan and sang a couple of Japanese songs. The entire school attended along with family members.
After the Japanese presentation, four representatives of the Sixth Graders recapped the lessons they had learned while studying "Social Awareness". The focus was on listening to others and applying empathy. The message was one of being sensitive to other people and respecting their differences.
Bill, I’ll take that very real wonderful story with me into this Easter weekend as I plan to plant Hellebores and jewel like primroses. The disinformation negative campaigns from little p and the maggots that HCR brilliantly describes need to be countered with this kind of positive action across the USA planting what’s real, what’s fundamental to a growing vibrant society. Underline growing inclusive not shrinking that the nasty nazi propaganda so relishes.
I guess you well know Hayao Miyazaki, whose "Spirited Away" bespoke the love of nature you cite -- and which won an Oscar 22 years ago. His "The Boy and the Heron" won Oscar this year, this month.
I teach kids English here in a small, river valley town in the mountains of Kyushu, Japan. Most of them very much love various artists of manga, where they also learn great sensitivity to nature, as Japanese wood-cut artists, novelists, memoirists, fabric design, and poets of tanka and haiku have reveled in for centuries.
This week, too, the Oxford English Dictionary added 23 Japanese words, most for cooking or nature. My favorite, "isekai," or the art of cutting away the physical world in front of us to reveal the more powerful scenarios of fiction, fantasy, operating beneath.
A teacher in the Philadelphia public school system told me about her day. She said that the worst of the students were stoned, too stoned to create their usual ruckus, which causes her to be unable to teach the class, a problem to which there is no remedy that she is allowed to enforce. So it was one of the better days of the year.
Public school, yes. One of the highest rated systems in the country. People move here for that. Result is super high property values and wicked high property taxes.
We don't resent paying those taxes because it goes to our grandchildren and it is an investment in the future for us all.
But prices and taxes are so high, people are being forced out of their homes. It's pretty sad that those wonderful teachers can't afford to live here unless their mates make big bucks.
Madness on steroids! Yet, the unconditional support from those who want to blatantly end our democracy continues while many of us are sleepwalking! Just amazing!
Yes, Anthony. Not anything most of us ever imagined ever happening.
Though, too, Don Siegel imagined it in his 1956 film, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
Walker Percy saw it coming in his 1987 novel, "The Thanatos Syndrome."
There's "Blade Runner," and other things by the guy who wrote the work inspiring it, Philip K. Dick.
Wendell Berry's "The Unsettling of America," Diane Ravitch's "The Language Police," and Jane Mayer's "Dark Money."
Can't leave out our Heather's own "How the South Won the Civil War," on the original slave owners evolving into the billionaire classes who so largely rule, poison, corrode America today.
The picture of President Volodymyr Zelensky on the front page of the Washington Post tonight spoke as few photographic portraits do. The president looked directly at the viewer with serious and quiet sadness. It was as though no report or Opinion needed to be written; Zelensky's face told the story. The headline under the photo of David Ignatius' Opinion read,
'Zelensky: ‘We are trying to find some way not to retreat’'.
HCR's descriptions of Russia's information campaign against Ukraine and Western countries is important for us to keep remembering. Can Russia's campaign be diagramed for the American people? Performers such as Kimmel and Colbert may be excellent communicators of Russia's disinformation. Humor and repetition by these smart comedians may be a way to go.
TFFG uses repetition so much especially in his lies.
So many times, when the MSM reports on TFFG and the Repressive they leave it to the viewer to determine what is true and false. While this may be good journalism these lies are reinforced when repeated.
Even the use of modifiers like crime-family, dim-witted, chaotic attached to an otherwise true statement influence the reader/viewer as does not using these modifiers.
Now that the Democrats and the Biden campaign are fully engaged, we are seeing them attacking with modifiers to a greater degree.
One can be civil and put someone down at the same time. TFFG does it by adding, "Everyone says" or "Everyone is for ...".
How many times have we heard "Make America Great Again" which is so ambiguous, no one has ever explains what that would even look like or how it would be accomplished?
I don't think it is ambiguous at all. What MAGA wants is authoritarianism, racism, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-trans, Christian nationalism, my way or the highway, doing away with a national safety net, book banning, enabling of corruption, lower taxes for the wealthy, incompetence in the White House and cabinet, and much, much more. All of which gained ground while Trump was in office and most of which have ramped up since then. I'm sure you've heard of Project 2025, their blueprint for undoing the federal civil service and more; I'm sure you are aware of the abject silence and complicity of most of the GOP in the Senate and House; I'm sure you are seeing the coddling of Trump in the justice system so far; I'm sure you have read about Trump's takeover of the RNC--with potential hires being asked if the 2020 election was stolen.
Ann- I was referring to what the four words - Make America Great Again are actually referring to as far as when and what was so great about that time period. First of all, they imply that the US is not great right now and that there was a particular point in time when it was. But, at what period of time are they referring? Christianity in the US is like a wave where the tides advance and recede. Church attendance in the US has never been lower. This has happened several times in our history as you know.
There have been several Presidents that were more authoritarian than others, like Benjamin Harrison and Richard Nixon were both as authoritarian as they felt they could be and get reelected. But Trump is really trying to be an incarnation of Hitler.
That's what I meant about MAGA being ambiguous. There never was a point in time where all of the Project 2025 goals happened at the same time.
Trump et al do not know history; MAGA is just a fear-mongering catchphrase that fits on a cap, possibly dreamed up by a PR person. They don't just imply that the US is not great right now--they (he) say it loud and proud--in fact, he's ramped it up lately. He is utterly shameless, immoral, corrupt, criminally guilty...and he might get away with it all.
Personally, I think his dementia is progressing rapidly. Every rally or speech he has recently given, has had multiple glitches and they are BAD. Can you imagine him debating Biden at this point?
Fern, I can always count on a nugget of truth (however uncomfortable) from you. Yes, I think that humor can often wound those who lie while they’re still laughing.
But is the Russian disinformation much worse than ours? Sadly I really don’t think so. We were lied into Vietnam, we were lied into Iraq and now we have have been lied into opposing peace in Ukraine and continuing to fund genocide. It’s a very dark time and it is on both major parties. I am sorry there are so many people on this list that are all in on funding war.
I believe that for years now Russia has been busy creating or capitalizing on internal divisions within the Western Democracies. Brexit was one obvious incident. Racial tensions throughout Europe are exploited causing the rise of fascistic parties, and a lot of anger and turmoil in the citizens of these countries. Everyone it seems has some kind of angry bandwagon they are on. The same internal political turmoil was occurring in Israel before the Hamas attacks on October 7. Internal political turmoil causes weakness. Enemies easily perceive these things.
Divide and conquer is an age old strategy. Apparently it was Trump’s way of running his businesses.
Putin, with his useful fool Nigel, made it happen. All with the same thing chump brought to us, immigrant hatred. Chump's ancestors are the best example of immigrants who should have been stopped at the border.
I remember when Quisling was part of a Fifth Column in Norway that facilitated the Nazi occupation of Norway.
I consider Trump and his sycophants as Quislings integral to Putin’s disinformation efforts to dissolve America’s full-hearted support of Ukraine’s sovereignty against Putin’s brutal and sustained ‘Greater Russia’ invasion.
As a youth, I experienced World War II and how America, including isolationists, proudly joined the forces opposing the authoritarian Axis of Germany & Japan. Later I was involved in the Cold War where, as a Foreign Service Officer, I was a warrior.
I am astonished that any American, especially one who has been president, can be so supportive of Putin and so dismissive of NATO and the worldwide coalition that seeks to preserve Ukrainian sovereignty.
I am gobsmacked that Trump and his puppets can leave last October’s request for urgent military aid for Ukraine in limbo more than five months later. Even now puppet Johnson is mumbling that, once the House returns from another extended vacation, the House might consider the request for $61,000,000,000 of imperative aid for Ukraine.
Meanwhile, countless brave Ukrainians are dying, as they lack the ammunition and sophisticated weaponry to hold off the Russian onslaught.
I consider the Trump Quislings treacherous traitors.
Jennifer Rubin posted this today as a message to MSNBC and other outlets.
We can only hope that NBC and other news organizations take away something more than “don’t hire a MAGA mouthpiece” (as important as that is). A few ideas:
Create a mission statement that affirms your goals are telling the truth and defending democracy, which protects the First Amendment — not fake balance.
Stop pretending four-times-indicted former president Donald Trump and his movement are presenting alternative “policies” as a normal party would. They are fighting for an alternate system: authoritarianism.
Politicians’ outright lies must be identified, not just labeled as their “response” or “position.”
Instead of obsessing over polls, devote extensive coverage to analyzing the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” and Trump’s fascist agenda. Feature historians and political scientists during news segments (not only on panels) to put Trump’s views and statements in context.
Don’t excerpt a few words from a Trump rally or speech, dub it an “argument” and ignore his mental short-circuits and deteriorating intellect.
If respectable outlets can acknowledge the lunacy of putting McDaniel on staff, perhaps they can end practices that wind up enabling liars and authoritarian cultists. Then, the McDaniel debacle could be viewed as a much-needed wake-up call.
Rachel Maddow was on Joy Reid's show on Tuesday evening when their boss released the memo saying they would not be hiring Ronna. They were both hesitant to air the networks dirty laundry but they both did and with dignity.
Prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, there have been plenty of reported events that indicate the sort of person Putin is, and the quality of governance modern Russia displays, leven set apart from the events of the current war and the evidence of Russian attempts to disrupt our elections. It is astonishing that anyone here can bear to show their face after siding with Putin.
My rep, Kay Granger, went to Moscow on July 4, 2018. She is the esteemed rep who is retiring soon, having served and stolen enough to live well. She is proud, not a bit ashamed.
Nor, obviously, is Trump. That seems to be the superpower of sociopaths. Too many people mistake shamelessness for courage and strength. You see the same kind of rock-star crowd worship in old film of Hitler and Mussolini.
With this letter's focus on Russia's massive effort to create an "alternative reality" by influencing what is said by various Putin-aligned agents throughout Europe and in the USA, I feel it's time to offer my take on who I believe taught Russia the "language technology" that permits people to very effectively claim that "their reality" is the real reality. That American: Werner Erhard, the creator of the est Training (which later morphed into what today is called Landmark Education. Werner's programs are devoted to the use of language to insist that reality is what the speaker wants it to be. This can actually be therapeutic when seeking to recover from personal childhood trauma (although having taken Werner's programs I do not believe this is a permanent cure). But to the point of Russia's information warfare efforts, Werner went to Russia and taught his "transformational technology" (which I've also heard called "neurolinguistic programming") at a Russian academy.
Here is an essay by Werner himself from May of 1990 about his work in Russia...
I urge everyone to read the entire essay. Lots of detail.
In it he talks about having worked in the USSR for 10 years, meaning he was there as early as 1980. About his more recent work, he says...
"Our trip was made in response to invitations to lead courses from eight Soviet organizations, including the Academy of the National Economy, the Center for Management Consulting, the Academy of Social Sciences, the International Business School, and the Soviet Philosophical Society, as well as our ongoing exchange partners, the Znaniye Society and the All Union Council of Scientific and Technical Societies."
Thats a LOT of Russians learning his "create your own reality" techniques. I wonder if Putin was one of his students?
And here is a link to a much shorter reference to Werner's work in the USSR. It's dated 2012 but references the same work, claiming it began in 1979...
"In 1979 the est Foundation launched the US/USSR Project, designed as an educational exchange to explore the principles of communication, management, and creative thinking with the people of what was then the Soviet Union. Werner Erhard was invited to conduct the first of many courses and lectures in Moscow, under the auspices of the Znaniye (All Union Knowledge) Society—the prime vehicle for education in the (former) Soviet Union."
My commentary from having been in Werner's programs starting in 1979...
I know Werner was optimistic about how his programs would be used. I think his friendship with Buckminster Fuller demonstrates he wanted the world to "work for everyone" as Bucky did. (They sometimes did joint presentations.)
However, my experience is that Werner never wanted to tell people his work should only be used for moral and ethical objectives. He showed that it could be, but he had such a big issue with the subject of "free choice" (after all, his programs were supposed to free you from your past) that he didn't want to say "Only one political objective should be pursued. Others should be rejected." He left it up to the individual. And this meant some people used his "technology" to do bad things. Proof comes from how the George W. Bush administration lied about the need to attack Iraq. I distinctly remember Donald Rumsfeld talking about "known unknowns and unknown unknowns"... words taken directly from Werner's programs. And in other ways, the Iraq War was clearly "sold" to the American people using Werner's disinformation techniques.
For this reason, I feel pretty sure that Werner's programs in the USSR did not specifically say "You can only use this to create a democracy." He only taught them how to be "free from their past". Sadly, they had nothing to guide them to use their new skills to create a democracy since they had never had one before.
I'll stop for now but will be happy to answer questions if asked... and if I think I can answer them. Also... I'm really curious to know if anyone else here is familiar with est / Landmark Education.
I'd not known of this est / Landmark Education, Steve.
So thank you for all these details.
Much of what you say, too, dovetails with the basics we all know about advertising, the uses of subliminals, the uses of repetition, the vouchings of celebrities and apparent authorities.
The modern era, for sure, anyway, comes well-equipped with many services for billionaires, despots, and demagogues.
Anywhere you know where schools, rich in humanities, skilled in the apt uses of personal essay writing, well-tuned-in to the arts of widening context, citing "others," also compete?
You're welcome, Phil. I hope you'll find the time to read the complete report Werner wrote in 1990... after having already worked in the USSR for ten years.
Regarding your "services for billionaires, depots, and demagogues" comment, Werner marketed his programs to all people ... rich and poor. In the USSR he may have only dealt with the upper class of people, but her in the USA people from all walks of life did the est Training... including people in prison. It benefitted many people but - because the teachings never said "Do not use this to further the politics of domination and fear" - a Pandora's Box was opened that allowed some people with very evil intent to "create the reality" they wanted... one that has hurt many and will continue to hurt people until it is exposed as a giant con game.
Steve - this makes a lot of sense. I knew Werner and researched him for my book The Age of Heretics. Ultimately I decided not to feature him because of the sinister vibe I got from him. There was a wave of idealism about this - bob Fuller published an article called Our Enemies Ourselves based on the idea that “we’re not that different” - echoed later by Trump in his interview with Bill O’Reilly in which O’Reilly said “but Putin’s a killer” and Trump said “you think we’re any different?”
Ron Rosenbaum also interviewed Trump in his lunch series about his efforts to be a citizen diplomat with the USSR.
Humanists were doing this to help counter nuclear war. We were all people everywhere.
Looking back, Erhard’s methods were more exploitative than we realized. PTSD was common throughout the world - part of the human condition. est gave people a way of overcoming childhood trauma, a powerful way in a weekend - by breaking other forms of self-restraint.
And it “worked.” You were no longer frozen by trauma. Or by your former empathy and feelings for others.
I didn’t do the training in full but I was in the milieu.
When people say “Trump’s a cult leader” this is what they mean. I find him riveting in small doses like a revulsive snake. I had the same reaction to Erhard and to other abusers I’ve known.
The political is personal.
About 100 years ago thinkers like Freud and Dewey began to question the idea that life should be painful for children - that the human condition should be traumatic. A no- trauma childhood is the theme of bestselling writers like Bessel van der Kolk. “The body keeps the score.” But the country also keeps the score. Werner Erhard is a missing link in this story.
Russian culture honors the human survivor or trauma. It honors those who endure. Erhard, in going there, would have given the trauma-creators an immense psychological weapon. He spoke self-actualization to power.
Thank you for this insight into Russian culture. In brief, I dint think Werner had any idea of the potential for evil he was unleashing. Either because he enjoyed the status he achieved there or the money or was too hung up on Bucky Fuller’s belief “people are all good if free from fear”, he didn’t teach what kind of future his Russian students should create. He just taught them “anything is possible”. I really wish we could learn if Putin was one of his students!
Thanks for this longer, first comment. I’m going to look for “The Age of Heretics”! And I’m happy to learn you knew Werner. (Your name rings a bell.) I like what you say about PTSD. Freedom from that is the main benefit I got. But the sinister vibe you mention getting from Werner fits my experience as well. And I only saw him leading events and seminars. But I also got polite “Thanks but no thanks” letters from his office whenever I suggested that est create a seminar on politics. There were seminars on everything else, but not politics. And with Werner saying “You are now free to create the future of your dreams,” some people with very very dark dreams now had the power to pursue them. And Werner never took responsibility for anything negative that any of his programs’ students did, including those who couldn’t handle the intensity of the work and killed themseives.
I’d like to follow up with you on this topic if you’re willing to do so. I’ll send you a private message. Thanks again for commenting!
Age of Heretics is a history of the movement to change corporations for the better from the inside - basically Kurt Lewis and Eric Trist to Edie Seashore and Chris Argyris to Pierre Wack to Tom Peters and WE Deming. In retrospect I probably should have included Erhard. I did include Herman Kahn and Saul Alinsky, both of whom had glancing influences on management today.
Your note made me realize how much of this fits together and how the tendrils of thought weave even more subtly. I read this Substack and HCR more fervently than any other because of the connections it reveals.
I am very familiar with the Landmark Education (formerly EST) programs. I took a lot of training from them and found some of it very useful for dealing with communication problems. However I also found the training very aggressive and cultish. They basically spent a lot of time tearing down at people's walls and preying on their emotions. Once people buy into their ways they will manipulate it. I speak only for myself but there is plenty of info about them. Thank you Rick Ross for your Cult Awareness Network. https://www.culteducation.com
Yes… a cult with some very positive personal benefits IMHO but not very positive benefits for the world, despite Werner’s friendship with Buckminster Fuller. He didn’t get what Bucky was about at a deep enough level.
I was invited by an old friend to attend a basic weekend Landmark 'seminar'. At that time I had just transferred from the UK to the USA/California and thought it would be helpful to get settled in. The friend made it sound urgent and important, and it was only after that weekend that I understood that everybody was under pressure to enlist more friends to attend those seminars. I remember it as being dogmatic and authoritarian, with demands to each and every participant to 'share' innermost feelings and thoughts. Like others, the one thing I remember as a quote to keep was that out of a big circle of knowledge, we know very very little, and we know what we don't know, about 2 %, but we don't know what we don't know... after all those years (ca 30) that's the only thing I remember. I wiggled my way out of the follow up seminars and the pyramid scheme.
I'm happy you escaped the cult-like nature of the programs. Yes, it's useful to know you "don't know what you don't know". But it's just as important that the people teaching you have the right value system underlying their work.
I have not heard that est and neurolinguistic programming have any connection at all. I have some knowledge of the latter and feel it is useful , but no knowledge of est. I do remember it being the self-help fad of the day several decades ago.
That’s what time some of the days of “the training” ended. 🤮 They used sleep deprivation to break people down… which I actually understood at the time because there were some people who were incredible stuck in the need to “be right”. There could be monumental arguments between participants in the trainings are the training’s leader. The leaders were committed to people having personal breakthroughs… which I appreciated. Again, this was many years ago and being “self reflective” was not a common trait. Honestly, I have no idea what would happen if a MAGA person were to take est / Landmark today. The debates could be epic! 🤷🏼♂️😂😮
Been to a lot of workshops/training but guess I missed that. Sleep deprivation would have done me in. Several NLP workshops were very interesting and I wished that I could have done more. However, not at all like the est. glad to know that Landmark is the new moniker…. Seems that self-reflective is a rare state these days, in many quarters
Weaponizing self actualizatiion… yes! That’s what happens when you teach “transformational language technology” without any underlying value system! … saying “what you do with this will improve your life… and what happens to other people is none of our business”. 🤮
Thank you for telling me Werner and Jensen collaborated. Shareholder value must be the primary concern of businesses? Yikes! This would fit nicely with the narcissistic side of Werner’s work and personality… his greatest failing as a human being IMHO. Despite his friendship with Buckminster Fuller, his programs really had very little focus on “group”. It was mostly about “me”. Also missing was root cause analysis of societal problems … IMHO why his Hunger Project was a failed concept. A subject for another time perhaps
I need to bookmark this. My wife’s aunt and uncle were absolute devotees of EST, and worked for Erhard in the early 1980’s. I went to an EST training with my (not yet but very soon thereafter) mother-in-law (her sister was the one deeply involved with EST) in 1982. Erhard and his right-hand woman actually led the training* as they were revamping the curriculum. At the time I was 24. My M-i-L (survivor of severe childhood trauma) was unconvinced, and did not put any stock in what was being delivered.
Frankly, it really didn’t seem like a huge thing to me. Clear communication is good, as is keeping your word. Trying to wrangle an “except for me” exception to a “requirement” (in this case, a “fruititerian” claiming that by eating fruit and chewing it until it was liquid should be an exception to the “no eating” restriction) is ridiculous. I remember my
M-i-L looking at me midway through and asking “You’re not going to turn into an ESThole, are you?” My reply was “not likely”. Neither of us were “converts”, although we did benefit from having common language with the family converts.
Wow... close connections to the organization / Werner! Was the woman with Werner in 1982 named Laurel Schieff (sp?)??? I saw her around a lot in those days at the programs i NYC (where I was living). I was able to resist the authoritarian / cult-like aspects of the organization. I'm wired up to resist authoritarianism because my father was a malignant narcissistic monster... a lot like Trump. And as I tried to express in my original comment, I do not believe Werner understood / cared about the danger he was unleashing by teaching his work in Russia ... and by teaching it without directly address the subject of "politics" in any of the follow up seminars the organization offered!
Charlene Afermo (sp) was the co-leader, as I recall. Yeah, I got to have several interactions with ESTholes over the years.
One I recall was ehen I was managing a convenience store; a customer asked if I could get him a carton of “Herbert Tarryton” cigarettes. I told him “I’d try” since our tobacco orders were routinely screwed up. He replied “Will you or won’t you”. We exchanged this several times, and I finally said “I will make the order. Whether I get the items ordered is up to the distributor.” He was a confirmed ESThole.
The “there is no such thing as trying” is classic est speak. It was fun to hear Yoda say that to Luke Skywalker, because that was a movie. But to beat people over the head with that statement in real life was just est saying “It’s okay to abuse people because you’re the only one who counts.” There wasn’t a lot of compassion in est towards people who “didn’t get it”. 🤮
There it is: "Russia cannot defeat Ukraine or the West... if the West mobilizes its resources.
This means that the strategy that matters most for the Kremlin is not the military strategy, but rather the spread of disinformation that causes the West to back away and allow Russia to win."
It is now common knowledge that Putin manipulated and heavily funded the Brexit vote in the UK. Breaking up the EU was one uf his great successes.
With Trump he is employing the greatest fifth collumn opperation in the history of the world.
Germany is now wise to past manipulation, but the economy was decimated in the process. Poland slipped though his fingers, but only just.
This is global.
He has had absolute and total control of the interenet in the Russian language for decades, policed by block after block of buildings in St Petersburg packed with an army Trolls and hackers.
He then turned it global. He is doing very well in Africa..... and the USA
Evil, I'll buy... Genius, not so much. He is a thug whose favorite way to eliminate his rivals is by tossing them out of an upper story window. Once in a while he'll blow up a plane.
A genius wouldn't need to use a million of his people as cannon fodder to try to take control of a neighboring country, not to mention what has happened to the economy of Russia which, for the average Russian, sucks.
"Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo added that Russian operatives had paid European Union lawmakers to parrot Russian propaganda."
Since the 1990s KKK Grand Wizard and GOP gadfly David Duke has successfully touted Putin as The Great White Hope of Christian Nationalism. So those like Speaker Johnson were already primed to parrot Putin talking points. No need to pay them. (Except Jill Stein who got feted in Russia by Putin after her contribution to Trump's win. She brags on criticizing Putin to his face before launching into her boilerplate attacks on the USA. HaHa joke's on her. Of course, no one criticizes Putin in Russia unscathed - unless it serves his purpose.)
American racism, including 'scientific physical anthropology', contributed to Hitler's racist theorizing and policies. At the time many Americans supported Hitler and embraced Nazism. Even Joseph Kennedy and Charles Lindbergh were fanboys. After concerned reports came out of Germany about the Nuremberg Race Laws, Time or Newsweek, as an aside, characterized it as 'making too much about a little race problem.' After the defeat of Hitler, measures were put in place to suppress Nazism in Germany. But Neo-Nazism grew in the United States. With racist and Nazi literature banned in Germany, Americans mailed the texts to their German counterparts. Round and round. Now American racist right wing religious extremists, are claiming Putin is fighting Nazism in Ukraine.
And Putin and Netanyahu are making common cause to re-elect Trump.
That seems very true about David Duke promoting Putin back in the 1990s as a new harbinger for Christian Nationalism, or is it just one and the same white supremacy ideology. He seems to have been relegated into some obscurity here after many years of tax evasion, pocketing campaign funds and utter fraudulence that he plead guilty to tax evasion and mail fraud and was finally sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2002. But since then Duke has been cavorting with neo-Nazis and racist groups in Russia and Europe.
Southern Poverty Law Center spells it out like this, "Duke spends much of his time as an international racist dilettante traveling in Russia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere to participate in junkets such as the June 2006 Moscow conference on "The White World's Future," where he praised his host city for having "the largest number of White people of any city in the entire world." He has even been detained and deported from Germany, Czech Republic, & Italy because of his anti-Semitic promulgations and virulently promoting Holocaust denial.
But then, as Americans, we have to look deep into our sordid past, even the very founding of this Nation. The decimation of the indigenous tribes of the Americas and the expropriation of the Native Americans' lands was a blueprint for what the Nazis would use for their treatment of Jewish people during the Holocaust. 400 hundred years of enslavement, violent abuse and confinement of African tribespeople for forced labor and the benefit of white prosperity and belief in domination over another race was another part of our history that the Nazis took as their own diabolical Third Reich use of labor camps and concentration/death camps.
It's hard to say it but I think the Nazis have always been here too. I remember watching something about the KKK on PBS a few years ago. It showed this massive march that they had inundated Washington D.C. with. On August of 1925, 60,000 Ku Klux Klan members marched to the White House to display their ever-increasing numbers across America. It scared the hell out of me to see that because I'd never seen it before or even heard of it. The formations and symbolism, such a mass of hate and racist people that might even live right next door. But again I saw the demonic Nazi pageantry, the troop formations and parading and the hate filled Hitler speeches as getting some more ideas from the Nazis here and the KKK only about a decade earlier.
I understand but, please don’t let it be hard to say. It is possible for our founding fathers to have been genius at establishing a government of self rule and be wrong on that and other subjects. They left behind a system that allowed for the necessary corrections of the stupidity of slavery etc. Government needs constant attention and correction by its citizens, it is always a work in progress. Make no mistake, there has been a constant supply of Nazis and white suprematists in the country who want nothing more than to destroy America, almost since its inception. I say Trump supports those people much more than they support him.
I would say Trump relies on those people more that he supports them. But whatever it is, the fascist rhetoric and hateful invective that Trump blathers on about is what his supporters are drawn to and desire. Trump's attempt to demolish this 'work in progress' democracy, the republic if we can keep it, is completely antithetical to what the Founding Fathers envisioned. I'm quite sure they would have expelled him from this country or just hung him for his treasonous ways by now.
Federalist Society 'originalism' and 'textualism' turn the Constitution on its head to drain United States law of justice. At the Nuremberg trials Nazi jurists were put on trial for exactly that.
The Founders agreed legal framework institutes coming to consensus through reasoned debate of empirical evidence - in legislative debate of bills, judicial decisions, executive procedures, and to transfer power. Infinitely open to revision - through amendment of the Constitution, new legislation, setting new legal precedent, Cabinet consultations, and elections. Instead Leonard Leo and the Federalist Extremes pretend they can divine the Founders 'intent' to repurpose a democratic republic as a corporate clerical fascist state. By overturning equality before the law, equal representation , and the separation of church and state. Leo specifically intentionally misreads freedom of religion to mean 'religious conscience in all areas of society' (rather than freedom of worship.) The Constitution prohibits the state from establishing religion, Leo is using government to impose religious creed. Dobbs has lead to women being prosecuted for showing up at the hospital bleeding and not being able to prove they miscarried. The case against the abortion pill seeks to prohibit everyone access to medical abortion to protect extremist doctors from having to treat or save a woman's life in the Emergency Room if the problem results from using the pill (an exceedingly rare event, the doctors are already protected by laws which require hospitals to accommodate their religious objections). The argument includes that even if a dead fetus has been expelled from the uterus, some living fetal tissue might remain and removing it is akin to murder.
This is where we are thanks to McConnell, Leo - and everyone who did not vote for Clinton.
"Sitting members of Congress aiding and abetting a plot to overthrow the government. Insurrectionists criminally charged with plotting to end American democracy for good. Justice Department prosecutors under crushing political pressure. Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra is the all-but-forgotten true story of good, old-fashioned American extremism getting supercharged by proximity to power. When extremist elected officials get caught plotting against America with the violent ultra right, this is the story of the lengths they will go to… to cover their tracks."
"and yet I see the cretins gaining ground and suffering NO consequences"
It has always been like that. In all recorded history. And there have always been all those who push back. In the 60s with suppression of anti war protestors, there was a saying that 'we are all being treated like Black folks now' - but I think living under the current racist right wing religious extremist capture of government, many White folks are living first hand what it means to 'keep on keeping on.'
Sadly, I don’t think many of the whities I know see it that way, yet. Yet, I keep on keeping on. Because as Churchill said about being optimistic. Of what use is it to be anything else.
"August of 1925, 60,000 Ku Klux Klan members marched to the White House to display their ever-increasing numbers across America."
"On Memorial Day 1927, brawls erupted in New York ... In Queens, 1,000 white-robed Klansmen marched through the Jamaica neighborhood, eventually spurring an all-out brawl in which seven men were arrested. One of those arrested was Fred Trump of 175-24 Devonshire Rd. in Jamaica." Yes, that Fred Trump.
"In October 1973, the Justice Department filed this civil rights case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York (federal court in Brooklyn) against Fred Trump, Donald Trump, and their real estate company. The complaint alleged that the firm had committed systemic violations of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 in their many complexes ... After two years, the matter settled with a consent decree ... In addition to a general injunction against discrimination, the decree prohibits specific discriminatory practices, such as lying about the availability of apartments or interfering with individuals' enjoyment of their housing rights through threats or coercion. "
That family just gets more horrible the more you get to know about them. Steeped in racist hatred like that it makes sense that Donald would be so adamant about the death penalty for the Central Park 5. Even if they were wrongfully convicted, served sentences ranging from 7 to 13 years and finally exonerated for committing the crime. But instead of an apology Trump says he's done more for Black Americans than anyone with a "possible exception" of former President Abraham Lincoln.
In a 2016 Guardian article, the exonerated 5's defense counsel William Warren was reported saying that he thought Trump's ads in 1989 had played a role in securing conviction by the juries, saying that "he poisoned the minds of many people who lived in New York City and who, rightfully, had a natural affinity for the victim."
Sorry to be off topic, but Joyce Vance's post tonight is getting chatter on other Substacks. I'd encourage all to give it due consideration. Title is, "We need to talk about this." She's calling it "a five-alarm fire."
That is obviously a threat and way over the line. I won't watch the video because it might give even the slightest bit of ammunition to the right.
Just like I won't buy the TFFG Bible. I can just imagine the mega-churches with their tables covered with Bibles hawking this obvious attempt at raising money from his dim-witted sheeple.
WWJD? The same thing he did when the Pharisees tried to take advantage of the attendees in the temples.
From the book of Matthew-
Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers."
There is an article in today's NYT about it as well. Trump's behavior is consistent over time. He disregards socially acceptablity standards and goes a bit past the limits of law or rules in order to intimidate. This behavior will not stop until it is punished. A hefty fine and five days in "jail" (must be secure facility given his status as former president; I envision a place like the CIA "farm" just outside of Williamsburg, VA) with no access to internet or other forms of messaging the outside world just might get his attention. I wonder if Jack Smith could add this incident to his indictment as an insurrrectionist ploy that is definitely not covers by any form of executive immunity. But maybe I dream too much.
I've thought of this as well, but I wonder if even that wouldn't stop him or even slow him down. Soon as he's out:
"Did you see what Biden’s Radical Far Left Thugs did to your Favorite President of All Time, me? They tried, in vain, to SHUT ME UP!! But I will NEVER ..."
Or even worse, he'll take the stochastic terrorism up a notch or two.
And this chart to follow the Russian connections with Chubb Insurance which paid for Trump's $91 million bond in his defamation case agaisnt E.Jean Carroll.
This is the playing field and these are the players. Oligarchs in both camps move the pieces and crave the same outcome. The Super Rich move between countries and politics with the lubrication of power. This is not a struggle in the traditional, regional sense, but between the morbidly rich and the rest of us. The fact that Russian Intelligence has so much control over the MAGAVERSE illustrates the success of their destructive reach. We must see this clearly and act with purpose to defeat this morass of destruction. They will rule with an iron fist.
And Comer is still at it--providing misinformation propaganda for Putin. It is sick that ultra-rich Americans are secretly buying these rightwing politicians and Fox friends who are happily destroying our nation. How can we follow the cash?
That’s gross product, a weird concoction that is like revenue . . . it about equals personal income, somehow. ( $27T USA est 2024 )
So then the hucksters and liars start talking about our federal budget deficit. That’s almost criminal, maybe it is criminal. Malinformation - damaging and deliberate.
No new taxes, I say! What we need are the old taxes.
We are not in debt! We have more than $140 Trillion in net household wealth. That number has increased about $70 Trillion in the last 10 years, while our federal debt has increased about $17 Trillion. ( US Fed )
We have the wealth! We need to hear it from our leaders, up and down the line, and to get that funding to Ukraine, now!
That we are ‘broke’ or ‘insolvent’ is the biggest damned lie, and what the ‘big lie’ is all about. It is what all the other twisting and defiling of our principles and national purpose is about.
We need a wealth tax, plus the old income taxes, and especially the old estate taxes. $84 Trillion is to be given to heirs in the next 20 years . . . half would be $42 Trillion . . . ( NY Times, May 14 2023 )
best luck to US - b.rad
ps Death *is* the tax . . .
pps this is about Ukraine, and the power of lies. Lies are cheap - we can’t stop lies, we have to stop liars. And send Ukraine the support it needs, now!
Heather relates that "Billionaires Liz and Dick Uihlein have recently said they will back Trump, and Alexandra Ulmer of Reuters reported on Tuesday that other billionaires had pooled the money to back Trump’s then–$454 million appeal bond before an appeals court reduced it". You knew it would happen. Those who can and those who want a dictatorship that benefits them will continue to back Trump. But if you don't want to help, then don't buy Uline products, don't watch Fox, don't subscribe to X or buy Teslas.
Thank you Dr. Richardson. Ukraine certainly can withstand the onslaught by Russia as long as the U.S. and NATO continue their support. This has been shown before, in other wars. Most amazingly, the GOP MAGA party wants Russia to win. Meanwhile the former president rolls along happily, threatening those connected to his prosecution. Why is this allowed to go on? ( Hello DOJ? Are you there?)
I can't tell you why outrageous things are allowed to go on, Jack. But I can suggest something you (and everyone else reading this) can do about it:
We need to raise our voices and be heard right now, to support the courageous Ukrainian resistance. As Heather pointed out, tonight Adrienne Watson, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, called again for Speaker Johnson to bring up the bipartisan national security supplemental bill providing aid to Ukraine that the Senate passed in February. She warned: “Ukraine’s need is urgent, and we cannot afford any further delays.”
A bipartisan majority of Our Representatives (both Dem & GOP) want to sustain aid to Ukraine. The National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act (HR 815) passed in the Senate by a 70 - 29 vote weeks ago.
Speaker Mike Johnson has not brought it to the floor of the House, so Democrats are circulating a discharge petition to force it out of committee and be voted on. The petition needs 218 signatures. It currently has 191-- only one Republican.
Everyone reading this can help by calling Republican Representatives and urging them to sign the discharge petition for HR 815 Ukraine Aid Package before it's too late. Call the U S Capitol switchboard (202) 224-3121 to leave a general statement of support, and call Speaker Johnson's office (202) 225-4000 to insist that he bring HR 815 to the floor.
For phone numbers of about about two dozen specific Republicans known to support Ukraine, please click on recent Ukraine-related posts at:
https://www.FeathersOfHope.net
.
Jerry, each day I share Prof. Richardson’s Letter, I carefully include, up front, the most gripping sentence(s) or paragraph(s) to grab the attention of potential readers. Today, I’ll include your comment as well. Thanks for the encouragement to act.
Once again, Biden and the Dems follow the rules while the MAGA folks constantly flout the rules and laws and suffer no consequences. That’s how McConnell packed the Supreme Court. Biden needs to step up , declare that he is Commander in Chief and send arms to Ukraine. He obviously can’t be prosecuted. He should also attack the Russian influence in Congress and start calling their refusal to legislate treason.
**”Start calling it treason”***
The problem is that these are the views of roughly half of American voters (and a solid majority of white American voters). Kagan insightfully discusses the world view of such people in the article HCR cites. Republicans are all-in on White Christian nationalism, and they recognize that Russians, on the average, are even worse racists than Americsns, so they view Russia as an ally in their project. Kagan also points out that it would be relatively cheap to stop Russian aggression in the region by supplying Ukraine with the means to defend itself. If Ukraine falls, the US will either be entirely unable to contain Russian aggression or will be able to do so only at enormous cost. The problem is that Republicans openly oppose stopping Russian aggression because they think, correctly, that Russia will help them establish a White Christisn nationalist autocracy in the US.
Won't cost us a cent except for the gift wrapping if the republicans have their way. What they call patriotism is nationalism. Not the same thing.
I wonder if President Biden could call Congress back into session to get back to the necessary work of governing. If I had a deadline, or urgent work to complete during my career, I couldn't simply adjourn if I wanted to keep my job.
This Congress takes more time off especially when they really need to be in session. They are like a surgeon walking out of the operating room for vacation in the middle of a operation.
START CALLING THEIR REFUSAL TO LEGISLATE ***TREASON***
As I posted elsewhere, every small donor to Trump should Google Alina Habba's 40th birthday party/vacation. Check it out on the Midas Touch network.
You could add that to your daily shares.
I hear Cher singing 🎶 "And the grift goes onnnn..."🎶
Waste of time trying to convert (or even shame) Trump voters. A more effective contribution to the project to save American democracy is to contribute time and/or money to a well-organized get-out-the-vote project. It is especially important to get voters signed up for vote-by-mail because the Trump people are organizing militias with assault rifles to intimidate voters in Democratic districts into going home without voting.
Ouch; paid for by trump supporters...
That is David Pakman's point in his Midas Touch clip.
Thanks for helping spread the word, Jennie!
We each do what we can.
Same here!
Would flooding Johnson's email account help?
Jamesmichaeljohnson983@gmail.com
"Bring HR 815 to the House floor for a vote, now!"
As previously mentioned, I wrote an email, too, that also bounced back. How do we really get through? Do we have to contact him through Russia?
LOL, Christina!
Send a postcard (No need to put your return address on card)
568 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2777
My email bounced, too. I'm guessing he might have disabled his account after the first deluge of messages
I will and mine also says in big letters: VOTE
How apropos, Kathy!
Thank you Lynell! I did and now I will spread the word.
Thank you, Virginia!
That's good!
Thank you. Just emailed him. Right now all Ukraine wants is money for equipment and ammunition. If they lose, Putin will attack the allies who we are required by treaty to defend. Then, it won't just be money but our blood as we send soldiers to fight. So, instead of a little money, we'll be spending a lot more money as well as shedding our soldiers' blood -- far more costly.
Julie Giessler -- Thank you very much! I've done the deed, but letter is longer than what you suggested. (Hopefully not too long.)
Dear Speaker Johnson,
I request you to please bring HR 815 to the House floor as soon as possible, if not sooner. This non-partisan bill addresses a highly urgent matter that will deliver a strong message to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Thank you.
Respectfully,
Judith Smith
American Citizen living in and voting from Canada
Thanks, Judith! We need help from anyone everywhere!
This is not an official government email address, so I'm highly suspicious that it's not his. But maybe it goes to his son who Johnson uses as a porn monitor (supposedly son gets an alert if something stimulating shows up on Johnson's phone. You know, like porn. Or a text from Putie.)
Send him a postcard. (No need to put your return address on card.
568 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2777
Lynell - this is a great suggestion! Since I live in Canada, as you may have read, I did an email to my Colorado Democratic Rep and asked him to pass along the message to Speaker Johnson. He will!
Glad it helped you, Judith!
Thanks for this, Lynell.
You're welcome, Doug!
He does not make it easy to contact him. I am not in a position to organize a march so he can see how many of us are calling for this vote, but would support any efforts to do so.
Send a postcard, Joyce. (No need to put your return address on card)
568 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2777
Excellent - thank you, Lynell!
Yes. I wrote him a card earlier this week, figured he would get it by the time he returns from vacation.
Tried to write to Mike at this email address. It bounced back as undeliverable. Darnit.
I plan on sending a postcard. (No need to put your return address on card) I can't imagine it won't be delivered:
568 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2777
Melinda Quivik -- Maybe a scam address. We've all been receiving the same message. I ended up writing to my own House Representative and asked him to pass it along to Speaker Johnson. My Rep is a democrat, so I'm sure he will!!
Mine just bounced back also. I guess I'll have to buy some postcards.
Same here. Rats!
Send him a postcard, Bill. I plan on sending one. (No need to put your return address on card)
Mike Johnson
568 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2777
E-mail bounced back
Yep, Roberta Price,. Mine did too. I spent a long time "perfecting" what I wanted to say! And to message him through the Gov doesn't work if you don't live in his district. How about writing to our own Representatives and ask THEM to get a message to Mike? I am going to try that -- my Rep in Colorado is a Democrat.
Send him a postcard. I plan on sending one. (No need to put your return address on card)
Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House
568 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2777
Probably not. Johnson’s email is full of donations of crypto deposits slips from Russian Oligarchs.
Omg! I just found the cutest VOTE post cards on etsy!!
I'm going to buy a bulk batch of postcards and labels today and run them through my printer.
Sounds like a good idea. Who knows if the email account is legit. Phone calls also... If we pester John enough, maybe his "Christian conscience" will kick in! 🫶
Just did.....our message wasn't delivered to Jamesmichaeljohnson983@gmail.com because the address couldn't be found or is unable to receive email.
Send him a postcard. If you don't have one but have a notecard, just turn that into a postcard by slicing it in half. This is much preferable, IMO, to sending a note using an envelope. Staff can't throw message away unseen. No need to put your return address on the card.
568 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2777
Hi Lynell -- I just contacted my House Representative in Colorado (a Democrat) and asked him to get the message to Speaker Johnson. I did not request a reply.
Hey, Judith. Good for you! I hadn't thought to before, but now will be postcarding reps who are NOT my rep to sign on. As far as I know, you don't have to be a constituent to contact them via USPS!
I jumped on Johnson's email address and sent it to many people without testing first. What an embarrassing disappointment. Johnson's web page wants the writer to be verified before accepting any messages.
Plainly blocking a deluge of protest. Well he knows it. Other ideas, direct via a friendly political member. There has been word this Easter weekend on msnbc that Johnson may return and initiate a vote on Ukraine et al with Dem support. Of course believe it when i see it.
email sent. Thank you!
Maybe we could all chip in and buy him a fancier gavel? Johnson has spoken in defense of Ukraine. Trump sad no, or I'll get you fired.
I watched The Midas Touch piece on Habba's 40th bash. I don't get what the appeal is in what all these people have sold their souls and their country for. Is a wooden gavel or a Christian Dior hat and all the trappings really worth it?
So many things in the trump era twist my brain trying to understand them. I probably never will, but I do appreciate the various suggestions many of you make and I do them from time to time. I will try to pressure some gop reps to push to get the Ukraine bill up for a vote. Thanks!
I sent my email an hour ago and apparently it went through.
Thanks for this Julie,. I just sent him an email.
Julie, it might make us feel better but Mike Johnson is probably unreachable.
Public pressure took care of Ronna McDaniel (NBC). We have to keep trying until something "gets through." Let others know when this does. Phone calls also...even if an aide answers, the message is registered. ONWARD! JG
Jerry, you write: "We need to raise our voices and be heard right now, to support the courageous Ukrainian resistance. " True, what is also true is this, what Pres. G.W. Bush said at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on 3/31/2001: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." This wasn't the beginning of the Republicans' disinformation campaign against Americans, but it is a fact that we need to acknowledge. What is becoming/has become painfully obvious is that in our schools we have failed in teaching critical thinking skills, on the one hand, and the essence of the democratic process, on the other hand. Democracy is consent of the governed: one person, one vote, majority rule, resulting in the peaceful transfer of political power. This means nothing to the MAGA/KKK White Nationalist Fascists:. The Russians are clever at fooling many of us who are gullible and who want a white Protestant autocracy here in the U.S. We don't know enough history to know what a Russian victory in Ukraine means for the prospect of peace in the world and for us. So, the question is: what do we do, which campaigns do we support with money and other activities?
Another quote of Dubya's that constantly comes to me lately: "We've got to fight them over there, so we don't have to fight them over here." He was then talking about Islamist terrorists, but it's just as true now of Russian operatives.
Tragically, we ARE fighting ‘them’ over here! First salvo on Jan 6! Daily in the courts to challenge unconstitutional voting bills passed by state legislators. Daily social media and related tv/radio networks spew maga hate mongering and lies! AND most importantly daily fighting back ad nauseum appeals in federal and state courts by trumps ‘lyers’!
With massive if not majority media support. Fox, just for major example. It gets crazier beyond that. And Ronna McDaniel's knowingly known the different from the RCA these past years shows how intelligence and respect for actual facts falter in the face of group/tribal loyalty forces. Glad to see NBC retreated from taking her on. Plainly management was well attuned to journalists who are the public face of NBC. CNN? oh dear...
Good point, Louis! I guess I was thinking troops on the ground. Of course, their side HAD troops on the ground on Jan.6th. - you're right!
"Fight them there instead of here." So true. Many, perhaps most, Americans, I submit, are unable to imagine or realize the horror that the Ukrainians are going through right now, or the folks in Gaza. It's devastating. Somehow we've got to get that message across. I think that the Reagan ad by Votevets.org does an excellent job of this.
Check out Jessica Craven's substack "Chop Wood, Carry Water":
https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com
Everyday she lists a number of practical and easy ways you can help that don't involve just sending money somewhere.
.
Jerry, you are correct, Jessica Craven's substack is a great contribution to the process. She's really, really good. I subscribe to Jessy's substack as well. I don't think that it's possible to be "over informed."
Schools are public state institutions, you want to the careful what you wish for , Richard. If you think the Parents' Rights movement has been bad, having everywhere full scale incendiary conflict isn't something you really want. That's just one of the problems with critical thinking skills, when things are core tribal, you can toss that out the window. Such is human nature, and surely not just American, by a long shot.
Thank you Jerry. You just gave us good advice. I have to emphasize my belief that the cult leader needs to be held accountable and not by paying fines. It is frustrating to see him get over all the time.
Indeed, Jack. I told a friend last night, it's crazy that we tell parents to raise their kids to be truthful, to trust the law, etc., and many of these same advisors think it's just ducky for Trump to skate EVERY TIME he's caught red-handed, fleecing people, or groping them (or worse), defaming them, etc. And then proudly comparing himself to Al Capone, for Pete's sake!! And now selling tacky BIBLES!!
Sandra his influence on young people is most worrying, they are at an impressionable age. Remember the Hitler Youth? No, I don’t think I am going overboard by comparing his MAGA theme to the NAZIS.
I arrived on the planet a few years after Hitler youth, but I've seen the news reels. One of my favorite movies is "Swing Kids", about a group of jazz-loving German teens in about 1939 or so, and how they get sucked into the war on different sides.
I just came across something Jamelle Bouie, NYTimes op-ed writer, wrote last week, to the seems like Trump-gets-away-with-everything topic:
"Although Trump is entitled to an appeal, which he is pursuing, it still feels outrageous that he would get this unexplained courtesy after years of willfully defrauding the public. At the same time, it feels typical of Trump’s relationship to the various institutions of American life. If there seems to be a different set of rules for Trump, under which there is always a reason to look the other way or give him a second chance, that’s because for all intents and purposes, there is."
My sentiments, exactly!!
You must wonder! Grift and double standards is now GOP voter dna.
I feel the same way. Crime pays???
They don’t want to prosecute and convict, before the election, out of fear it may help him. I hope they made the right decision.
Whaaatttt???
I do not believe they will put him on trial in any of the cases until after the election , because it will fire up his base, increase the threats to many involved in those trials , and bring in more MAGA donations. With the exception of the Alvin Bragg case.
The attorney and financial officer already have gone to jail for the role they played in the Stormy Daniels election hush money case. It only follows that the boss who ordered the payoff should be prosecuted. He can’t claim selective prosecution, he will be the third person to go to trial.
Experts on the Medias Touch Network heard the people in his camp feel they can weather the storm and then appeal the conviction for years. But it will do MAGA some damage. Trump can’t afford to lose any votes. Lastly I do not see the justice system saving us. We have to vote blue all the way to get him out of the way. I have lost faith in our justice system , it is corrupt and intimidated by the MAGA folks.
Thank you for this valuable information.I will make many calls today as I am sure others will also.We stopped NBC from keeping Ronna Romney McDaniel as an analyst with our calls and correspondence.We can demand action to fund Ukraine.I also agree that Holy Mike Johnson has overstepped his duties to the American people.The time for action is now!
Victoria, I was just thinking how unholy Johnson actually is as right now he is serving the AntiChrist who is selling of all things, Bibles. And thank you, all of you, for suggesting ways to put pressure on various pols. One of the things that has bothered me this week is the constant appearance of conspiracy theories around every event: the bridge collapse, the busing of teams to play in March Madness from the airport in Detroit. I hope that Michigan pol feels totally embarrassed for suggesting they were busloads of immigrants.
I agree.The holy Speaker beholden to the Anti-Christ.This speaker is going to be the recipient of my first call today.
Excellent. Thank you for doing this.
Thank you Jerry. On it!
Here is a list of Democratic Members who have yet to sign on. They are grouped by such categories as "Opposed but Persuadable," etc. Below that is a list of Republican Members by state with contact info.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTaMB3k5Z37OAM8HEMhDtwbLGzwn1wDXSNcoTmXEJbpfbacfp-m0fJGyb36lcNOhgqGO5-bArbibS5a/pubhtml?gid=614612044&single=true
Our representative from district 2 in Maine, Jared Golden, has not voted in support. Let's all contact him
In my haste to get the word out, I neglected to advise that for most reps (probably all), you need to be in that rep's district to contact them by email. However, we can still send them a postcard through USPS. Here is Rep Golden's address. No need to put your return address on the postcard:
1710 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Lynell, you can also call most Reps. If asked whether I'm a constituent I reply "No, but the issue I'm calling about affects everyone in every district." I've never had an aide refuse to talk to me. They are very polite and willing to take the message.
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Good to know, Jerry. Thank you!
Lynell(VA by way of MD&DC) - "View Between the Ears of a Horse"
Soon?
Coming soon
Lynell(VA by way of MD&DC)
View Between the Ears of a Horse
APR 12, 2023
OK so let's do some math: There are now 212 Democrats in the House, and 190 have signed the petition. Ergo, TWENTY TWO Democrats have not signed. Can someone please reply with a list of their names so we can shine a big spotlight on them. It will be easier to get the handful of Republicans to sign if the Democrats are unanimous, but I see no way to find an extra 22 of them. Thanks!
PS - If your Democrat rep is among the 22, please send them a note asking for their immediate signature. Thanks!
Not sure if you've seen this link I sent, Stephen. It is a spreadsheet listing Democrats who have not signed yet, separating out those "top prospects to sign, those believed to be persuadable, those strongly opposed. Below that are the Republicans' contacts. Remember Republican Ken Buck of Colorado? He signed on right before he left the Republican Party last week!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTaMB3k5Z37OAM8HEMhDtwbLGzwn1wDXSNcoTmXEJbpfbacfp-m0fJGyb36lcNOhgqGO5-bArbibS5a/pubhtml?gid=614612044&single=true
To those of you who'd rather send a postcard, find your rep's usps address here⬇️Look for "Office Locations." Some of these take a bit of work to find. Sorry!
https://www.house.gov/representatives
Thanks! It is really dismaying to see ostensible progressives like Tlaib and Khanna in opposition! I have sent money to both in the past, but no more, and I have just written letters to both informing them so.
It is so idiotic to be pro-two state solution and against Ukrainian independence, just as being cast as antisemetic for supporting the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians to have lands of their own in what was for a while called "Palestine".
Stephen, some Progressives oppose HR815 because it includes military aid for Israel. So far as I can determine, they are not opposed to aid for Ukraine. But splitting the two into separate bills would create more delays because they'd have to be sent back to the Senate.
Rather than abandoning our Progressive allies over this, I'd suggest they sign the discharge petition and then vote against the bill if they can't in conscience support it. That would mean we need to get more Republicans to vote for it, but there remains a strong pro-Ukrainian contingent among "traditional Republicans" who'll probably do so once the bill is on the floor.
(BTW, HR 815 also includes humanitarian assistance for civilians in the Gaza war zone. And in any case, Israel is unlikely to change course based on this single aid package.)
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I agree with all you say. HR 815 is an almost ideal piece of legislation, with something for everyone and something that just about everyone opposes. One can demonstrate their position by voting yea or nay on the measure, but not allowing it to come up for a vote frustrates the democratic process. Yes, I know it happens all the time, but that does little to remove the bad taste from my mouth. And besides all that there is a mechanism for withholding military aid to Israel even though it has been appropriated.
Thank you for offering something concrete that I can follow up on. I will make these calls today.
Thanks for pitching in, Jean!
Thank you Jerry. Please publicize that through the U S Capitol switchboard (202) 224-3121 , callers can be connected to any senator or representative. Some have done a workaround but often you get a person.
You're fighting MAGA Trump hegemony in the now almost total MAGAGOP, but i agree with a mail-in, phone campaign. This one is definitely Trump's baby. Lindsay Graham can say one thing one month, then turn it on a dime to the political power he's beholden to.
I agree with you. All of us must get involved and help. Thank you for the valuable information in your comment.
I called. Everyone should call. It takes 2 minutes. And, circulate the numbers to as many people as we can so they can call too. I think we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of Russian influence over GOP politicians. It's what we don't know that is scary and outrageous. Which Russians have seen those classified documents in Mara Lago? How much did they pay to see them? Thanks for your post Jerry.
Don't just call your Republican Representative. Call your Democratic ones as well. Jerry says only 191 Congresspersons have signed the discharge petition, only one a Republican. But NOTE, there are 213 Democrats in the House right now. Yet only 190 have signed. That means there are 23 signatures to get from Democrats alone.
Now I know there are a few who rarely sign military things, like Barbara Lee. But certainly we can get 15 or more Democrats to sign this petition. Call your Representative, no matter what their party, and ask if they have signed it, and if not tell them you want them to sign it now.
BTW, it doesn't help to call all the other Representatives. Only your own Representative can respond/react to your calls, emails, etc. The only time you can call and have an influence on other Senators or Congresspeople is if you are calling in regard to a Committee they sit on, or Chamber position they hold, such as Speaker or Majority leader, etc., as they are then acting in a national capacity, which includes you.
an addendum - so that means you can call or write letters, postcards and send texts to Speaker Mike Johnson, since he works for all of us when he is in that capacity. Or at least he is supposed to work for us.
I called Speaker Johnsons office and left a polite message. I also followed you!
Thanks Ginny!
Just called left a voice message. Let’s keep at it. Flood the mailboxes!
Similarly, Jack A Roe, how is it possible that one person — Speaker Johnson — gets to decide whether Ukraine survives?
You are right that it seems to be one person controlling the fate of Ukraine but the one person isn’t holy Mike, it is the Anti-Christ himself who isn’t even holding public office.
🤬🤬🤬all too true
There are reports that Johnson actually wants to support Ukraine, but is said to be "walking a fine line", as between that and his getting got funding done, MT Greene has filed a petition to remove him as Speaker.
It has been reported that he plans to do this once the whole impeachment fiascoes are carried out ( the Senate now has DHS Secretary Mayorkas's to act on, and Comer Pyle is still working in Biden's.) You know, get the REALLY important stuff out of the way first.
If Johnson were a man, he would put his country first like McCarthy did.
Patricia, if McCarthy were a man, he would have remained true to his convictions that trompy was responsible for Jan 6, rather than go to Mar a Lago to kiss his ring a few months later.
That isn't exactly accurate, SL.
In any institution there has to be a distribution of power so that it can function. The genius of our system is that there is also a set of checks and balances. While certainly not perfect, that system is what allows for the discharge petition, so that a majority of Membership can over-rule the Speaker (and the Rules Committee).
That's also where our role as citizens plays out. Just by raising our voices and participating we strengthen both the institution and our democracy -- striking another blow against MAGA authoritarianism.
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Good to know, Jerry. I was hoping someone would have a solution to what otherwise looks like WAY too much power in the Speaker's hands.
Surely, the vast majority of Dems would stand up for Ukraine, plus a handful of GOPs, which ought to get the job done.
I'll have to hunt down these rules and see what the holy heckenwhat. ...
Good question. Too much corruption as Heathers reporting shows.
What has happened to the Mitch and other senatorial voices which showed the GOP supports Ukraine? Of course, it shows just how fractiously split the Republicans are. It's hard to imagine how Ukrainians themselves must feel about the political schizophrenia which has gripped USA. I'm not sure we can just blame the Russians for GOP extremists having "taken the bait". I never know what to think when a political leader such as Johnson can stymie something even some members of his own House support. Getting those funds clear is a shoo-in if only House Rules allow a minority to thwart what a majority of Americans, and politicians want. Then.... there is the SC and Roe vs Wade etc.
Elections Matter-- Primaries and General--but each of us only gets 2 opportunities to vote while virtually every day we find a new reason to vote; which is why I'm frustrated while waiting for my mail-in ballot for May's Primary [in PA}.
That's one reason why getting involved with grass roots organizations is so valuable, Roger. There is always a way to channel those frustrations. Check out Jessica Craven's substack "Chop Wood, Carry Water":
https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/
Everyday she lists a number of practical and easy ways you can help that don't involve just sending money somewhere.
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From Timothy Snyder's Thinking about ... How to help Ukraine
Right now we can make donations that will help Ukrainians defend themselves, survive, and make sense their experience for the rest of us.
1. Safe Skies. This is passive drone-detection system that allows Ukrainians to detect drones and cruise missiles in time to shoot them down. President Zelens'kyi just posted some photos of that end of the operation. Thanks to thousands of people, including many of you here, I was able (with support from some great historian colleagues) to raise enough money to protect eight Ukrainian regions with five thousand sensors (map here). Ukraine needs 12,000 total sensors to protect the entire country, so 7,000 more. The technology is inexpensive and effective. I have seen it at work. It saves lives. This is a very direct way that you can help Ukrainians protect themselves. Just go to this page and hit the button "Protect Ukrainian Skies."
Donate to Safe Skies
2. Razom for Ukraine. This is an American 501(c)3 that carries out important policy advocacy work in Washington DC and around the country. Aside from their terrific advocate team, they have a large group of volunteers who work tirelessly with Ukrainian NGOs to deliver aid and supplies to Ukraine. I have worked together with their great team on events for years and am always filled with admiration of their energy, efficacy, and devotion. A donation to them is a very safe bet. Please visit their page and donate.
Donate to Razom
3. Come Back Alive Foundation. More and more I hear from people who wish to help the Ukrainian army directly. A Ukrainian NGO that supplies soldiers on the front with what they need is Come Back Alive. They have been doing this job since the first Russian invasion and are very well reputed and highly reliable. You can see their fundraisers here.
Donate to Come Back Alive
4. 1 Team 1 Fight Foundation. This is a group with some very active European volunteers who have shown their mettle and devotion in getting supplies to the front in Ukraine. They are also an American 501(c)3. You can find their campaigns here.
Donate to 1 Team 1 Fight
5. Liberty Ukraine Foundation. Here we have a small group of (mostly) Texans who have done a great job in delivering humanitarian and military aid to Ukrainians. You can find their current projects here. They are a US 501(c)3.
Donate to Liberty Ukraine
6. Documenting Ukraine. As many of you will know, I helped establish this project to support Ukrainian scholars, journalists, writers, artists, photographers, librarians, archivists, and others who are documenting the war, each according to their own talents and following their own projects. We have given grants to 360 Ukrainians at this point, and are aiming for 500 by the end of the year. (One of those 360 was Mstyslav Chernov, the director of 20 Days in Mariupol, which just won an Oscar). I am proud of this effort to give Ukrainians a voice and to create a record of the war in real time and across multiple media. You can donate here. This is also a US 501(c)3.
Donate to Documenting Ukraine
It has been six months since meaningful U.S. aid has reached Ukraine. You now have a list of six institutions that can help.
Think of this as the Challenge of Six.
I am now going to make donations myself. If you want to join in, please do! Maybe you have give $6, or $60, or even $600? Or another round number that begins with 6? Be creative. Be generous. It matters.
Thank you!
TS 29 March 2024
Please share this post with anyone who might be interesting in supporting Ukraine.
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When we look at how Putin has been operating in Russia for the past several decades, we are looking into our own future if trump wins the presidency again.
Putin is a sociopath, with not one bit of regard for his people. He has carried out numerous false flag operations against his own people, indeed that is how he came into power in 1999. (Read The Less You Know, the Better You'll Sleep by David Satter) trump will be exactly the same. It is terrifying.
The essential point of the Dems' fundraising is to make sure that the candidates in the down-ballot races win so that we again have a Congress that can work cooperatively with the president and create laws that will protect voting, health, the environment, and, basically, our democracy.
Thank you Professor Richardson.
The Russians are attacking where we are most vulnerable. The United States spends more than 50 cents of every dollar on military and defense. When considering the economies of NATO countries versus Russia, NATO forces maintain a significant advantage.
I've often said that any meaningful democracy requires a well-educated, well-informed, and engaged society.
As education has eroded and media has consolidated in the United States, it makes us far more vulnerable to propaganda and disinformation.
Furthermore, when economies are retrenching -due to energy prices and inflationary pressure caused by Putin's ongoing attack of Ukraine, such conditions provide a foothold for the far-right to rise in political popularity. Such a foothold provides motivation for the GOP-controlled House to continue to withhold vital support for Ukraine. Every minute, every hour, every day of delay is most certainly aid and comfort to Putin and other anti-West, anti-democratic regimes.
You can imagine Putin gleefully telling others he is taking the United States down without firing a bullet our way. It is why all those who denied, and continue to deny the 2020 elections have no business in Congress, State government, or any public office today, and should be precluded from running for, or holding public office in the future.
…without firing a shot…. It’s what traitors on the inside allow to happen. We don’t have a Trojan Horse, we have herds of them…
Exactly!!!
They sometimes look harmless but are as toxic as any threat
Spot on, George. "I've often said that any meaningful democracy requires a well-educated, well-informed, and engaged society." Is this not the principal reason we have free public education in this country? And isn't our biggest threat actually the religious-oriented charter schools?
An interesting and provocative thought Richard. I do think anything that shifts resources away from teaching mathematics, science, humanities, and critical thinking is a threat. Someone wrote earlier that if someone wants their children to attend private school (or be home-schooled) in a theoretically free America should be able to do so, however, not by using vouchers, credits, or other means to defund a public education system that is and remains a critical pillar of democracy.
Further to the point, George, I had a very dear friend, Jim Buie, now departed, who felt that religious indoctrination of the very young was a form of child abuse.
I’ve met people from very different belief systems who are well-intentioned and good-hearted.
In conversation with a Rabbi who remains deeply involved in the interfaith movement when I was asked I said, the best core of most religions was to love one another. I said that seems like a very important concept and with that as a foundation I thought that from a theoretical perspective that was excellent. I then said religion, like many other things may have started out well, but then when humankind gets involved, it all goes awry.
George, it is an interesting paradox, isn't it, that belief in a religion could lead to the infliction of torture of others (as with the Inquisition and the Muslim tortures of infidels most recently? Read some American slaves' accounts during the 1800's and your skin will crawl. And, it was southern white Christians who lynched Black Americans. So, what's the takeaway? Would people tend to "do good" without religious beliefs? Is religion actually an impediment instead of a help in "doing good?" Could be. I am an absolute confirmed atheist who tries to practice the commands that Jesus is alleged to have given in Matthew 25: 34-46. [I am one of those who believes that Jesus never existed. Acharya S's book, "The Christ Conspiracy" is pretty convincing, along with rational thought: virgin births, ascending into heaven, etc.?]
To add insult to injury, they want vouchers AND to keep their tax exempt status! And they're getting it all.
I remember when much of America was against private religious schools because they were Catholic! They don't seem to mind now that the evangelicals are running things. Of course, they began as 'segregation academies', and so were very popular in certain parts of the country (and still are - There is one about five miles from me, in fact, that came into being in the early 70s, at the height of the busing wars here in NC.
Goldsboro Christian Academy is one such segregation academy. It took its fight to be tax exempt to the Supreme Court and lost. They wanted to be tax exempt while discriminating. Goldsboro is my hometown. The kids I grew up with who went there were very confused. The fathers who sent them to that "school" were dictatorial and emotionally abusive.
I saw my first Klan billboard in Goldsboro when I married and moved from NY to NC in 1970. Think it said something like This is Klan Country. Don't remember what the images were.
While SCOTUS laughably ruled we are a "post-race" society, the manifestation of racism remains throughout.
Ah, North Carolina incubator for many national programs to purge ‘liberals’ from college campuses! UNC governing board loaded with right wing zealots and magas. Previous President of the UNC system resigned because of the micro managing by the board! Interim President was appointed from one of their own members!
New gerrymandered US house map 11-3 in favor of magas. State supreme kangaroo court 5-2 in favor of magas, including one member who is the son of the ‘Masta’ of NC, Phil Berger!
Nothing locally bothers me more than the thought that my tax dollars are funding private religious schools or even charter schools. Right now our local school district which narrowly avoided a teachers' strike is about to cut millions from the budget. Another smaller local district probably does not have enough money to pay its employees for the rest of this year. They are thinking of borrowing against future tax monies. Eek. A friend of ours who is still teaching wrote an excellent essay on the problems created by standardized testing. The NYT had an article this week about absenteeism. The public school where I taught was right next door to a private Catholic school and I could write a book about all the nonsense that occurred because of that. I confess to an attack of cynicism when I read about the far right being so concerned about children that now in Alabama includes frozen embryos. Pffst. All the claims about caring about babies and children is just hypocritical noise.
I once had the honor to share a dinner with former Congressman Bob Edgar. At the time of our meeting he was President of the National Council of Churches. We spoke about the politicization of religion and evangelicals. At dinner he told me the difference between the split between the church and the christian right was that he believed in life after birth, not just life until birth. (I'm paraphrasing, in was close to 20 years ago).
We must find the political will to fund public education, and make some innovative changes so our educators can teach without idiot extremist Governors dictating what to teach, that we teach critical thinking, civility, and civics, and that we address gun violence (and societal violence) so no student or teacher has to endure the stupidity of active shooter drills and the reason that such drills exist.
We could start with civility which is sadly lacking. Now these rude prejudiced people have carte blanche from death star.
During covid, many students and parents saw education become irrelevant. That attitude persists.
The 9/11 plane hijacking terrorists were indoctrinated in the Saudi madrassah! Now all too many states are purging so called ‘liberal’ leaning education from their schools and state supported colleges!
Putin is repeating Khrushchev’s plan! Destroy the US without firing a shot using propaganda as the main weapon! Plus, developing a network of support with our country! The MAGA cult is fulfilling that role with the GOP in Congress leading the way! Oh boy, do we ever learn from history? Speaker Johnson and his fellow “ Russian Assets” should be removed and condemned for their actions!
Couldn't agree more Anthony. I often think Sally Yates would have been far more aggressive in pursuing Russian assets (and those acting as foreign agents) than Merrick Garland, and thus made a much better choice for AG. For all the talk of Dem leadership about being in a battle for the "Soul of America" I'd like to see them putting fierce lions in charge of agencies like the DOJ instead of "Mr. Rogers".
😂
"As education has eroded and media has consolidated in the United States, it makes us far more vulnerable to propaganda and disinformation."
George, you are so right. Maybe someone needs to find a way, in catchy phrasing, to get this across on Tic Tok, where the kids will see it.😊👌
A very talented cousin is always trying to tell me to get accessible content out on Tik Tok -and would be delighted to partner with a creative media volunteer or volunteers to do so. (Unfortunately I'm as creative as a Cartesian coordinate system for two-dimensional space).
My creativity level is on par with yours, George. Maybe I'll mention this to my millenial daughter this weekend.........her phone is surgically attached to her hand, I think.
Very very true George!!!Those who are election deniers should never-ever be elected !!!👍
Thanks Lynette -And those currently holding office should be expelled.
👍 x a gazillion ‼️
They are being elected by a populace that believes in denying the results of the last presidential election. They firmly believe. Until those voters are led to believe in facts, election deniers will continue to be elected.
Good points.
Will it make a difference? Unlikely.
Pulling on a willow branch produces a lot of visible movement leaving the trunk unmoved.
“Language is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.”
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
Does this mean shut up or you don’t make a difference? Absolutely not. Its intended outcome is to “turn” towards something deeper.
There is no “The answer”. Or perhaps the answer lives in the ineffable. The closest approach may be in the phrase “Each and every one of us.” As been said The problem (pick your issue) lives in all that is incomplete and unfulfilled in our own lives.
Unlikely, perhaps. However, as long as it is "definitely not" I will shout into the wind until I lose my voice. And besides, who doesn't like bears who dance?
Keep on fighting George!!I”ll be right there with you!!👍!!!!
Thanks Lynette -grateful and happy to be shoulder shoulder with all trying to make the world a better, safer place.
Much of that $ is going to support "boots on the ground" as Jonathan Capehart pointed out on the weekly PBS politics night. District by district. Save the ads for the "independents" and persuadable. I never know what to make of David Brooks. He dissed the whole advertising thing, saying donors were just wasting their money. Jonathan gave better than David came close to....
That was an interesting discussion.
Well, David Brooks did recently write an intriguing article about life after retirement.
He has put out some decent opinions on the show, but usually I get ready to cringe.
Why does Russia proceed so blithely with what Heather here calls its "disinformation operation??
For one thing, impunity. As U.S. billionaires with impunity gerrymander, and gut safety, health, and environmental agencies, the Clarence court just as regularly allows those corruptions to proceed. Putin practices the same on a more openly murderous level, as he keeps his spineless fellow corrupt oligarchs on top, with the rest of Russia doomed to ill-health, autocracy, and cannon fodder for a suicidal military.
The U.S. billionaires as well as the Russian oligarchs have another common ally – hate-filled, far-right co-religionists, in the U.S. spittle-spewing book banners, racists, and misogynists who have the Clarence court also doing their bidding, in Russia the long-skirted, jewelry-clanking eastern Orthodox priests chanting for their nationalist version of The Rapture.
It’s madness. But in both countries the schools all long earlier caved, so citizens nowhere have virtually no one modeling any humanities to keep in touch with some human decency.
The schools have been under sustained attack for a long time. In the universities tenured professors are often avoided and are replaced with adjunct instructors with no job security, low pay and no benefits. A good way to stifle dissent. We are now in the era of book banning as well. This is no accident.
Thanks Jack, too many folks do not understand your point. Example: my beloved Florida State University ceded final decisions on top professors in the School of Business to the Koch organization to preach the virtues of the “free market”. Doesn’t sound that bad until you understand that means that big business does whatever it wants. Well regulated capitalism is the best economic system and the worst is unregulated capitalism. A careful review of history for the last 45 years proves this clearly. Less taxes as a percentage of income for higher incomes is an abomination.
Mike, it has transformed universities into vocational centers with critical thinking tossed aside. They now spend lavishly on sports and administration, not so much on professors and research. As George Carlin stated they want people just smart enough to keep the businesses running and no more than that. Running a university on the Wall Street business model is what they do. They are for profit , and pay no taxes. What could be better for the financial sector? What could be worse for learning and basic research?
Does FSU hear from its alumni about such decisions?
They only hear from their alumni about Football. That was a joke but alumni loom large these days - Bill Ackmann at Harvard and some other alumnus from Wharton. I used to admire those glossy new buildings but I never realized that the donors felt that they inherited power and leverage with their donations. I remember that a multi multi million dollar gift was turned down by Yale years ago when an alumnus wanted to have classics and history reformed. Things are different today.
Yes but, I do not know how much. I was out of the country when it occurred. When I wrote the university president, his implication was that he agreed with me. He pointed out the prior president made the decision. He defended the decision by saying the university was in serious trouble with the budget cuts from the state and had to accept donations with strings attached. I have been heartbroken since. I am positive they know better so I cannot explain these actions unless private donations went to individuals as well the school.
They probably have had their state appropriations cut. Every state has. It’s part of a plan. Read “After the Ivory Tower Falls” by Will Bunch.
Yes, indeed, MLMinET. "It's part of a plan."
It was the Powell memo that set in motion the Heritage Foundation, ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council), and enlargement of the Hoover Institution.
Throughout the 1970s they worked together to shame professors out of using any humanities outside of narrowest departmental specialization. They lobbied state legislatures to cut funding of America's great public colleges and universities, greatly reducing tenure and its freedoms, massively driving students into student loan debt.
When the dehumanization set in, the new billionaire classes were ready to start the mass offshoring of working-class jobs, the new predator rich confident that American elites no longer had any education to avail themselves of the novels, memoirs, films, and songs whose artists were still in touch with the massive predations.
An uneducated populace is easier to rule.
Jack, it is part of their “long view” plan.
Alley, yes as I learned from the infamous Powell memo, they decided to fight back against the protest movements of the 1960’s and the Unions as well. Put the university and college instructors in a precarious position so they won’t be able to promote movements for social change. Weaken the Unions as well. Launch a war on drugs, because anti war protestors, civil rights activists and environmentalists would be most likely to face prosecution. The corporate world became heavily involved in politics, spreading their vast wealth to all the right candidates. It has been a corporate takeover of our government and now hopefully the tide is turning. Defeating the MAGA former president is a must.
The Clarence court! That’s a phrase I’ll adopt. 👍🏼
When it became the Clarence Court, we traveled back in time…
Run with it, Jennie.
Mike Treworgy, also commenting here, speaks the simplest truth -- how corrupt it is.
But maybe humor can do what serious, sincere, affronted prose cannot approach. Maybe we need look to sarcasm, hyperbole, most biting of exaggeration -- and we still won't have gotten how supinely, servilely, spinelessly these suckers-up-to medieval witchery and most-up-to-date bribery sink, stink, foul the human and the natural to which their most elite dehumanization blinds them.
How about the Pope's Court?
How about the Corrupt Clarence Court?
That's very good. Or, the Corrupt Catholic Clarence Court? My apologies to the Catholics; however, the Catholic Church continues to treat females as inferior humans, same as Islam. We need a new rallying cry: Females of the World Unite. Enough of this Middle Ages mind set. We are now engaged in a real struggle with the American Taliban, AKA MAGA.
Yeah but I’m kind of stuck on “The Corrupt Court”
OK, Mike, how about "The Corrupt Pope's Court?"
I’m down. Working together is always a plus. thanks
Or, "The Pope's Corrupt Court?"
Phil,
I am sure you are right about too little focus on "humanities" in many school systems. But I wanted to share a story that might brighten your day...and be special for you.
Our grandson's First Grade class has been studying Japan. They have been learning how the Japanese live - how they view nature, in particular. They have been learning some Japanese words and traditions. This week we were invited to an "assembly" where they recapped their lessons about Japan and sang a couple of Japanese songs. The entire school attended along with family members.
After the Japanese presentation, four representatives of the Sixth Graders recapped the lessons they had learned while studying "Social Awareness". The focus was on listening to others and applying empathy. The message was one of being sensitive to other people and respecting their differences.
Bless this brilliant teacher. Or rather- give her a raise!
Bill, I’ll take that very real wonderful story with me into this Easter weekend as I plan to plant Hellebores and jewel like primroses. The disinformation negative campaigns from little p and the maggots that HCR brilliantly describes need to be countered with this kind of positive action across the USA planting what’s real, what’s fundamental to a growing vibrant society. Underline growing inclusive not shrinking that the nasty nazi propaganda so relishes.
Thank you, Bill.
First-graders, sixth-graders -- love them.
I guess you well know Hayao Miyazaki, whose "Spirited Away" bespoke the love of nature you cite -- and which won an Oscar 22 years ago. His "The Boy and the Heron" won Oscar this year, this month.
I teach kids English here in a small, river valley town in the mountains of Kyushu, Japan. Most of them very much love various artists of manga, where they also learn great sensitivity to nature, as Japanese wood-cut artists, novelists, memoirists, fabric design, and poets of tanka and haiku have reveled in for centuries.
This week, too, the Oxford English Dictionary added 23 Japanese words, most for cooking or nature. My favorite, "isekai," or the art of cutting away the physical world in front of us to reveal the more powerful scenarios of fiction, fantasy, operating beneath.
Wow. Your contributions to youth and the world in general are exemplary, artful and for me...a wonder.
Kudos.
Bill,
A teacher in the Philadelphia public school system told me about her day. She said that the worst of the students were stoned, too stoned to create their usual ruckus, which causes her to be unable to teach the class, a problem to which there is no remedy that she is allowed to enforce. So it was one of the better days of the year.
public school? I hope.
Public school, yes. One of the highest rated systems in the country. People move here for that. Result is super high property values and wicked high property taxes.
We don't resent paying those taxes because it goes to our grandchildren and it is an investment in the future for us all.
But prices and taxes are so high, people are being forced out of their homes. It's pretty sad that those wonderful teachers can't afford to live here unless their mates make big bucks.
Madness on steroids! Yet, the unconditional support from those who want to blatantly end our democracy continues while many of us are sleepwalking! Just amazing!
Yes, Anthony. Not anything most of us ever imagined ever happening.
Though, too, Don Siegel imagined it in his 1956 film, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
Walker Percy saw it coming in his 1987 novel, "The Thanatos Syndrome."
There's "Blade Runner," and other things by the guy who wrote the work inspiring it, Philip K. Dick.
Wendell Berry's "The Unsettling of America," Diane Ravitch's "The Language Police," and Jane Mayer's "Dark Money."
Can't leave out our Heather's own "How the South Won the Civil War," on the original slave owners evolving into the billionaire classes who so largely rule, poison, corrode America today.
Also the Ionesco play Rhinoceros
Glad we have a strong Substack network where we can share our thoughts & concerns
The picture of President Volodymyr Zelensky on the front page of the Washington Post tonight spoke as few photographic portraits do. The president looked directly at the viewer with serious and quiet sadness. It was as though no report or Opinion needed to be written; Zelensky's face told the story. The headline under the photo of David Ignatius' Opinion read,
'Zelensky: ‘We are trying to find some way not to retreat’'.
HCR's descriptions of Russia's information campaign against Ukraine and Western countries is important for us to keep remembering. Can Russia's campaign be diagramed for the American people? Performers such as Kimmel and Colbert may be excellent communicators of Russia's disinformation. Humor and repetition by these smart comedians may be a way to go.
Excellent summation yet again, Fern!
Don't stop now, my friend!
Thank you, Fern. I read and shared the WAPO piece by David Ignatius.
Thank you for sharing Ignatius' Opinion, Emily. I am out of gifting until the beginning of April.
I shared on FB. Here is the link for this group: https://wapo.st/4arQDB2
🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻
TFFG uses repetition so much especially in his lies.
So many times, when the MSM reports on TFFG and the Repressive they leave it to the viewer to determine what is true and false. While this may be good journalism these lies are reinforced when repeated.
Even the use of modifiers like crime-family, dim-witted, chaotic attached to an otherwise true statement influence the reader/viewer as does not using these modifiers.
Now that the Democrats and the Biden campaign are fully engaged, we are seeing them attacking with modifiers to a greater degree.
One can be civil and put someone down at the same time. TFFG does it by adding, "Everyone says" or "Everyone is for ...".
How many times have we heard "Make America Great Again" which is so ambiguous, no one has ever explains what that would even look like or how it would be accomplished?
I don't think it is ambiguous at all. What MAGA wants is authoritarianism, racism, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-trans, Christian nationalism, my way or the highway, doing away with a national safety net, book banning, enabling of corruption, lower taxes for the wealthy, incompetence in the White House and cabinet, and much, much more. All of which gained ground while Trump was in office and most of which have ramped up since then. I'm sure you've heard of Project 2025, their blueprint for undoing the federal civil service and more; I'm sure you are aware of the abject silence and complicity of most of the GOP in the Senate and House; I'm sure you are seeing the coddling of Trump in the justice system so far; I'm sure you have read about Trump's takeover of the RNC--with potential hires being asked if the 2020 election was stolen.
Ann- I was referring to what the four words - Make America Great Again are actually referring to as far as when and what was so great about that time period. First of all, they imply that the US is not great right now and that there was a particular point in time when it was. But, at what period of time are they referring? Christianity in the US is like a wave where the tides advance and recede. Church attendance in the US has never been lower. This has happened several times in our history as you know.
There have been several Presidents that were more authoritarian than others, like Benjamin Harrison and Richard Nixon were both as authoritarian as they felt they could be and get reelected. But Trump is really trying to be an incarnation of Hitler.
That's what I meant about MAGA being ambiguous. There never was a point in time where all of the Project 2025 goals happened at the same time.
Thank goodness.
Trump et al do not know history; MAGA is just a fear-mongering catchphrase that fits on a cap, possibly dreamed up by a PR person. They don't just imply that the US is not great right now--they (he) say it loud and proud--in fact, he's ramped it up lately. He is utterly shameless, immoral, corrupt, criminally guilty...and he might get away with it all.
Personally, I think his dementia is progressing rapidly. Every rally or speech he has recently given, has had multiple glitches and they are BAD. Can you imagine him debating Biden at this point?
I agree with you. I usually don't like to watch debates (by anyone) but I would probably tune into that one--for a while.
I think because leaving it up to the reader/believer to interpret what that means is more powerful.
Fern, I can always count on a nugget of truth (however uncomfortable) from you. Yes, I think that humor can often wound those who lie while they’re still laughing.
But is the Russian disinformation much worse than ours? Sadly I really don’t think so. We were lied into Vietnam, we were lied into Iraq and now we have have been lied into opposing peace in Ukraine and continuing to fund genocide. It’s a very dark time and it is on both major parties. I am sorry there are so many people on this list that are all in on funding war.
I believe that for years now Russia has been busy creating or capitalizing on internal divisions within the Western Democracies. Brexit was one obvious incident. Racial tensions throughout Europe are exploited causing the rise of fascistic parties, and a lot of anger and turmoil in the citizens of these countries. Everyone it seems has some kind of angry bandwagon they are on. The same internal political turmoil was occurring in Israel before the Hamas attacks on October 7. Internal political turmoil causes weakness. Enemies easily perceive these things.
Divide and conquer is an age old strategy. Apparently it was Trump’s way of running his businesses.
Have a look at the "interview" I just posted, further up or down, whichever way you're looking.
Brexit was indeed, and Nigel Farage has been busy since that debacle. A BFF for chump and one who stirs the immigration pot wherever he goes.
Jeri, I always suspected that a hostile actor was behind the lies of Brexit.
Putin, with his useful fool Nigel, made it happen. All with the same thing chump brought to us, immigrant hatred. Chump's ancestors are the best example of immigrants who should have been stopped at the border.
I remember when Quisling was part of a Fifth Column in Norway that facilitated the Nazi occupation of Norway.
I consider Trump and his sycophants as Quislings integral to Putin’s disinformation efforts to dissolve America’s full-hearted support of Ukraine’s sovereignty against Putin’s brutal and sustained ‘Greater Russia’ invasion.
As a youth, I experienced World War II and how America, including isolationists, proudly joined the forces opposing the authoritarian Axis of Germany & Japan. Later I was involved in the Cold War where, as a Foreign Service Officer, I was a warrior.
I am astonished that any American, especially one who has been president, can be so supportive of Putin and so dismissive of NATO and the worldwide coalition that seeks to preserve Ukrainian sovereignty.
I am gobsmacked that Trump and his puppets can leave last October’s request for urgent military aid for Ukraine in limbo more than five months later. Even now puppet Johnson is mumbling that, once the House returns from another extended vacation, the House might consider the request for $61,000,000,000 of imperative aid for Ukraine.
Meanwhile, countless brave Ukrainians are dying, as they lack the ammunition and sophisticated weaponry to hold off the Russian onslaught.
I consider the Trump Quislings treacherous traitors.
Jennifer Rubin posted this today as a message to MSNBC and other outlets.
We can only hope that NBC and other news organizations take away something more than “don’t hire a MAGA mouthpiece” (as important as that is). A few ideas:
Create a mission statement that affirms your goals are telling the truth and defending democracy, which protects the First Amendment — not fake balance.
Stop pretending four-times-indicted former president Donald Trump and his movement are presenting alternative “policies” as a normal party would. They are fighting for an alternate system: authoritarianism.
Politicians’ outright lies must be identified, not just labeled as their “response” or “position.”
Instead of obsessing over polls, devote extensive coverage to analyzing the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” and Trump’s fascist agenda. Feature historians and political scientists during news segments (not only on panels) to put Trump’s views and statements in context.
Don’t excerpt a few words from a Trump rally or speech, dub it an “argument” and ignore his mental short-circuits and deteriorating intellect.
If respectable outlets can acknowledge the lunacy of putting McDaniel on staff, perhaps they can end practices that wind up enabling liars and authoritarian cultists. Then, the McDaniel debacle could be viewed as a much-needed wake-up call.
Rachel Maddow was on Joy Reid's show on Tuesday evening when their boss released the memo saying they would not be hiring Ronna. They were both hesitant to air the networks dirty laundry but they both did and with dignity.
Prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, there have been plenty of reported events that indicate the sort of person Putin is, and the quality of governance modern Russia displays, leven set apart from the events of the current war and the evidence of Russian attempts to disrupt our elections. It is astonishing that anyone here can bear to show their face after siding with Putin.
My rep, Kay Granger, went to Moscow on July 4, 2018. She is the esteemed rep who is retiring soon, having served and stolen enough to live well. She is proud, not a bit ashamed.
Nor, obviously, is Trump. That seems to be the superpower of sociopaths. Too many people mistake shamelessness for courage and strength. You see the same kind of rock-star crowd worship in old film of Hitler and Mussolini.
Indeed, it gives me the shivers
And have been from chump’s first week in the WH
Well said, Keith. Traitors, indeed.
With this letter's focus on Russia's massive effort to create an "alternative reality" by influencing what is said by various Putin-aligned agents throughout Europe and in the USA, I feel it's time to offer my take on who I believe taught Russia the "language technology" that permits people to very effectively claim that "their reality" is the real reality. That American: Werner Erhard, the creator of the est Training (which later morphed into what today is called Landmark Education. Werner's programs are devoted to the use of language to insist that reality is what the speaker wants it to be. This can actually be therapeutic when seeking to recover from personal childhood trauma (although having taken Werner's programs I do not believe this is a permanent cure). But to the point of Russia's information warfare efforts, Werner went to Russia and taught his "transformational technology" (which I've also heard called "neurolinguistic programming") at a Russian academy.
Here is an essay by Werner himself from May of 1990 about his work in Russia...
https://wernererhardbiography.com/werner-erhard-ussr-1990/
I urge everyone to read the entire essay. Lots of detail.
In it he talks about having worked in the USSR for 10 years, meaning he was there as early as 1980. About his more recent work, he says...
"Our trip was made in response to invitations to lead courses from eight Soviet organizations, including the Academy of the National Economy, the Center for Management Consulting, the Academy of Social Sciences, the International Business School, and the Soviet Philosophical Society, as well as our ongoing exchange partners, the Znaniye Society and the All Union Council of Scientific and Technical Societies."
Thats a LOT of Russians learning his "create your own reality" techniques. I wonder if Putin was one of his students?
And here is a link to a much shorter reference to Werner's work in the USSR. It's dated 2012 but references the same work, claiming it began in 1979...
https://wernererhardandest.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/491/
"In 1979 the est Foundation launched the US/USSR Project, designed as an educational exchange to explore the principles of communication, management, and creative thinking with the people of what was then the Soviet Union. Werner Erhard was invited to conduct the first of many courses and lectures in Moscow, under the auspices of the Znaniye (All Union Knowledge) Society—the prime vehicle for education in the (former) Soviet Union."
My commentary from having been in Werner's programs starting in 1979...
I know Werner was optimistic about how his programs would be used. I think his friendship with Buckminster Fuller demonstrates he wanted the world to "work for everyone" as Bucky did. (They sometimes did joint presentations.)
However, my experience is that Werner never wanted to tell people his work should only be used for moral and ethical objectives. He showed that it could be, but he had such a big issue with the subject of "free choice" (after all, his programs were supposed to free you from your past) that he didn't want to say "Only one political objective should be pursued. Others should be rejected." He left it up to the individual. And this meant some people used his "technology" to do bad things. Proof comes from how the George W. Bush administration lied about the need to attack Iraq. I distinctly remember Donald Rumsfeld talking about "known unknowns and unknown unknowns"... words taken directly from Werner's programs. And in other ways, the Iraq War was clearly "sold" to the American people using Werner's disinformation techniques.
For this reason, I feel pretty sure that Werner's programs in the USSR did not specifically say "You can only use this to create a democracy." He only taught them how to be "free from their past". Sadly, they had nothing to guide them to use their new skills to create a democracy since they had never had one before.
I'll stop for now but will be happy to answer questions if asked... and if I think I can answer them. Also... I'm really curious to know if anyone else here is familiar with est / Landmark Education.
I'd not known of this est / Landmark Education, Steve.
So thank you for all these details.
Much of what you say, too, dovetails with the basics we all know about advertising, the uses of subliminals, the uses of repetition, the vouchings of celebrities and apparent authorities.
The modern era, for sure, anyway, comes well-equipped with many services for billionaires, despots, and demagogues.
Anywhere you know where schools, rich in humanities, skilled in the apt uses of personal essay writing, well-tuned-in to the arts of widening context, citing "others," also compete?
You're welcome, Phil. I hope you'll find the time to read the complete report Werner wrote in 1990... after having already worked in the USSR for ten years.
Regarding your "services for billionaires, depots, and demagogues" comment, Werner marketed his programs to all people ... rich and poor. In the USSR he may have only dealt with the upper class of people, but her in the USA people from all walks of life did the est Training... including people in prison. It benefitted many people but - because the teachings never said "Do not use this to further the politics of domination and fear" - a Pandora's Box was opened that allowed some people with very evil intent to "create the reality" they wanted... one that has hurt many and will continue to hurt people until it is exposed as a giant con game.
Perhaps Hollywood.
Steve - this makes a lot of sense. I knew Werner and researched him for my book The Age of Heretics. Ultimately I decided not to feature him because of the sinister vibe I got from him. There was a wave of idealism about this - bob Fuller published an article called Our Enemies Ourselves based on the idea that “we’re not that different” - echoed later by Trump in his interview with Bill O’Reilly in which O’Reilly said “but Putin’s a killer” and Trump said “you think we’re any different?”
Ron Rosenbaum also interviewed Trump in his lunch series about his efforts to be a citizen diplomat with the USSR.
Humanists were doing this to help counter nuclear war. We were all people everywhere.
Looking back, Erhard’s methods were more exploitative than we realized. PTSD was common throughout the world - part of the human condition. est gave people a way of overcoming childhood trauma, a powerful way in a weekend - by breaking other forms of self-restraint.
And it “worked.” You were no longer frozen by trauma. Or by your former empathy and feelings for others.
I didn’t do the training in full but I was in the milieu.
When people say “Trump’s a cult leader” this is what they mean. I find him riveting in small doses like a revulsive snake. I had the same reaction to Erhard and to other abusers I’ve known.
The political is personal.
About 100 years ago thinkers like Freud and Dewey began to question the idea that life should be painful for children - that the human condition should be traumatic. A no- trauma childhood is the theme of bestselling writers like Bessel van der Kolk. “The body keeps the score.” But the country also keeps the score. Werner Erhard is a missing link in this story.
Russian culture honors the human survivor or trauma. It honors those who endure. Erhard, in going there, would have given the trauma-creators an immense psychological weapon. He spoke self-actualization to power.
Thank you for this insight into Russian culture. In brief, I dint think Werner had any idea of the potential for evil he was unleashing. Either because he enjoyed the status he achieved there or the money or was too hung up on Bucky Fuller’s belief “people are all good if free from fear”, he didn’t teach what kind of future his Russian students should create. He just taught them “anything is possible”. I really wish we could learn if Putin was one of his students!
Thanks for this longer, first comment. I’m going to look for “The Age of Heretics”! And I’m happy to learn you knew Werner. (Your name rings a bell.) I like what you say about PTSD. Freedom from that is the main benefit I got. But the sinister vibe you mention getting from Werner fits my experience as well. And I only saw him leading events and seminars. But I also got polite “Thanks but no thanks” letters from his office whenever I suggested that est create a seminar on politics. There were seminars on everything else, but not politics. And with Werner saying “You are now free to create the future of your dreams,” some people with very very dark dreams now had the power to pursue them. And Werner never took responsibility for anything negative that any of his programs’ students did, including those who couldn’t handle the intensity of the work and killed themseives.
I’d like to follow up with you on this topic if you’re willing to do so. I’ll send you a private message. Thanks again for commenting!
Steve - please do. Art@artkleiner.com.
Age of Heretics is a history of the movement to change corporations for the better from the inside - basically Kurt Lewis and Eric Trist to Edie Seashore and Chris Argyris to Pierre Wack to Tom Peters and WE Deming. In retrospect I probably should have included Erhard. I did include Herman Kahn and Saul Alinsky, both of whom had glancing influences on management today.
Your note made me realize how much of this fits together and how the tendrils of thought weave even more subtly. I read this Substack and HCR more fervently than any other because of the connections it reveals.
Thanks for the email and for mentioning who's in Age of Heretics. Great the Deming is in the book! Thanks also for you private message.
I'm stevebrantnyc@gmail.com ... Know you're busy .. will write more later. Great to think that this "letter" from HCR has made a difference to you!
I am very familiar with the Landmark Education (formerly EST) programs. I took a lot of training from them and found some of it very useful for dealing with communication problems. However I also found the training very aggressive and cultish. They basically spent a lot of time tearing down at people's walls and preying on their emotions. Once people buy into their ways they will manipulate it. I speak only for myself but there is plenty of info about them. Thank you Rick Ross for your Cult Awareness Network. https://www.culteducation.com
https://culteducation.com/group/1020-landmark-education.html
Yes… a cult with some very positive personal benefits IMHO but not very positive benefits for the world, despite Werner’s friendship with Buckminster Fuller. He didn’t get what Bucky was about at a deep enough level.
I do remember being invited to these seminars/events (which were not inexpensive).
I was invited by an old friend to attend a basic weekend Landmark 'seminar'. At that time I had just transferred from the UK to the USA/California and thought it would be helpful to get settled in. The friend made it sound urgent and important, and it was only after that weekend that I understood that everybody was under pressure to enlist more friends to attend those seminars. I remember it as being dogmatic and authoritarian, with demands to each and every participant to 'share' innermost feelings and thoughts. Like others, the one thing I remember as a quote to keep was that out of a big circle of knowledge, we know very very little, and we know what we don't know, about 2 %, but we don't know what we don't know... after all those years (ca 30) that's the only thing I remember. I wiggled my way out of the follow up seminars and the pyramid scheme.
I'm happy you escaped the cult-like nature of the programs. Yes, it's useful to know you "don't know what you don't know". But it's just as important that the people teaching you have the right value system underlying their work.
I have not heard that est and neurolinguistic programming have any connection at all. I have some knowledge of the latter and feel it is useful , but no knowledge of est. I do remember it being the self-help fad of the day several decades ago.
I encourage you to read more about what Werner did.
between 3 and 4 am
That’s what time some of the days of “the training” ended. 🤮 They used sleep deprivation to break people down… which I actually understood at the time because there were some people who were incredible stuck in the need to “be right”. There could be monumental arguments between participants in the trainings are the training’s leader. The leaders were committed to people having personal breakthroughs… which I appreciated. Again, this was many years ago and being “self reflective” was not a common trait. Honestly, I have no idea what would happen if a MAGA person were to take est / Landmark today. The debates could be epic! 🤷🏼♂️😂😮
Been to a lot of workshops/training but guess I missed that. Sleep deprivation would have done me in. Several NLP workshops were very interesting and I wished that I could have done more. However, not at all like the est. glad to know that Landmark is the new moniker…. Seems that self-reflective is a rare state these days, in many quarters
One other link- to Michael Jensen, a leading business acolyte of the idea that shareholder value overrides all other business concerns.
The Erhard article about the USSR is part of a magazine that also features an article by Erhard and Jensen. They collaborated.
Erhard weaponized self-actualization. Putin is doing the same. Trump is a living symbol of what happens as a result.
Jensen later recanted and said he regretted his old statements.
Jensen demonstrated he could learn... his thinking could "improve". Good for him!
Weaponizing self actualizatiion… yes! That’s what happens when you teach “transformational language technology” without any underlying value system! … saying “what you do with this will improve your life… and what happens to other people is none of our business”. 🤮
Thank you for telling me Werner and Jensen collaborated. Shareholder value must be the primary concern of businesses? Yikes! This would fit nicely with the narcissistic side of Werner’s work and personality… his greatest failing as a human being IMHO. Despite his friendship with Buckminster Fuller, his programs really had very little focus on “group”. It was mostly about “me”. Also missing was root cause analysis of societal problems … IMHO why his Hunger Project was a failed concept. A subject for another time perhaps
I need to bookmark this. My wife’s aunt and uncle were absolute devotees of EST, and worked for Erhard in the early 1980’s. I went to an EST training with my (not yet but very soon thereafter) mother-in-law (her sister was the one deeply involved with EST) in 1982. Erhard and his right-hand woman actually led the training* as they were revamping the curriculum. At the time I was 24. My M-i-L (survivor of severe childhood trauma) was unconvinced, and did not put any stock in what was being delivered.
Frankly, it really didn’t seem like a huge thing to me. Clear communication is good, as is keeping your word. Trying to wrangle an “except for me” exception to a “requirement” (in this case, a “fruititerian” claiming that by eating fruit and chewing it until it was liquid should be an exception to the “no eating” restriction) is ridiculous. I remember my
M-i-L looking at me midway through and asking “You’re not going to turn into an ESThole, are you?” My reply was “not likely”. Neither of us were “converts”, although we did benefit from having common language with the family converts.
Wow... close connections to the organization / Werner! Was the woman with Werner in 1982 named Laurel Schieff (sp?)??? I saw her around a lot in those days at the programs i NYC (where I was living). I was able to resist the authoritarian / cult-like aspects of the organization. I'm wired up to resist authoritarianism because my father was a malignant narcissistic monster... a lot like Trump. And as I tried to express in my original comment, I do not believe Werner understood / cared about the danger he was unleashing by teaching his work in Russia ... and by teaching it without directly address the subject of "politics" in any of the follow up seminars the organization offered!
I'm happy you did not turn into an "ESThole" too!
Charlene Afermo (sp) was the co-leader, as I recall. Yeah, I got to have several interactions with ESTholes over the years.
One I recall was ehen I was managing a convenience store; a customer asked if I could get him a carton of “Herbert Tarryton” cigarettes. I told him “I’d try” since our tobacco orders were routinely screwed up. He replied “Will you or won’t you”. We exchanged this several times, and I finally said “I will make the order. Whether I get the items ordered is up to the distributor.” He was a confirmed ESThole.
The “there is no such thing as trying” is classic est speak. It was fun to hear Yoda say that to Luke Skywalker, because that was a movie. But to beat people over the head with that statement in real life was just est saying “It’s okay to abuse people because you’re the only one who counts.” There wasn’t a lot of compassion in est towards people who “didn’t get it”. 🤮
So much this. That was an “in” group I didn’t mind leaving…or never getting there in the first place.
Why does this remind me of Frank Luntz and Mick Mulvaney?
Maybe something at https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/27/frank-luntz-trump-white-house-1238283
Thanks for this invaluable information! Everyone should read!
You’re welcome. Please help get this information out if you can!
Whew. Flashback.
Yup.
There it is: "Russia cannot defeat Ukraine or the West... if the West mobilizes its resources.
This means that the strategy that matters most for the Kremlin is not the military strategy, but rather the spread of disinformation that causes the West to back away and allow Russia to win."
He is an evil genius
It is now common knowledge that Putin manipulated and heavily funded the Brexit vote in the UK. Breaking up the EU was one uf his great successes.
With Trump he is employing the greatest fifth collumn opperation in the history of the world.
Germany is now wise to past manipulation, but the economy was decimated in the process. Poland slipped though his fingers, but only just.
This is global.
He has had absolute and total control of the interenet in the Russian language for decades, policed by block after block of buildings in St Petersburg packed with an army Trolls and hackers.
He then turned it global. He is doing very well in Africa..... and the USA
Evil, I'll buy... Genius, not so much. He is a thug whose favorite way to eliminate his rivals is by tossing them out of an upper story window. Once in a while he'll blow up a plane.
A genius wouldn't need to use a million of his people as cannon fodder to try to take control of a neighboring country, not to mention what has happened to the economy of Russia which, for the average Russian, sucks.
A psychopathic genius certainly would.
Exactly, just marking time til he can have his useful fool back here to make it official. And it’s not just Ukraine.
"Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo added that Russian operatives had paid European Union lawmakers to parrot Russian propaganda."
Since the 1990s KKK Grand Wizard and GOP gadfly David Duke has successfully touted Putin as The Great White Hope of Christian Nationalism. So those like Speaker Johnson were already primed to parrot Putin talking points. No need to pay them. (Except Jill Stein who got feted in Russia by Putin after her contribution to Trump's win. She brags on criticizing Putin to his face before launching into her boilerplate attacks on the USA. HaHa joke's on her. Of course, no one criticizes Putin in Russia unscathed - unless it serves his purpose.)
American racism, including 'scientific physical anthropology', contributed to Hitler's racist theorizing and policies. At the time many Americans supported Hitler and embraced Nazism. Even Joseph Kennedy and Charles Lindbergh were fanboys. After concerned reports came out of Germany about the Nuremberg Race Laws, Time or Newsweek, as an aside, characterized it as 'making too much about a little race problem.' After the defeat of Hitler, measures were put in place to suppress Nazism in Germany. But Neo-Nazism grew in the United States. With racist and Nazi literature banned in Germany, Americans mailed the texts to their German counterparts. Round and round. Now American racist right wing religious extremists, are claiming Putin is fighting Nazism in Ukraine.
And Putin and Netanyahu are making common cause to re-elect Trump.
That seems very true about David Duke promoting Putin back in the 1990s as a new harbinger for Christian Nationalism, or is it just one and the same white supremacy ideology. He seems to have been relegated into some obscurity here after many years of tax evasion, pocketing campaign funds and utter fraudulence that he plead guilty to tax evasion and mail fraud and was finally sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2002. But since then Duke has been cavorting with neo-Nazis and racist groups in Russia and Europe.
Southern Poverty Law Center spells it out like this, "Duke spends much of his time as an international racist dilettante traveling in Russia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere to participate in junkets such as the June 2006 Moscow conference on "The White World's Future," where he praised his host city for having "the largest number of White people of any city in the entire world." He has even been detained and deported from Germany, Czech Republic, & Italy because of his anti-Semitic promulgations and virulently promoting Holocaust denial.
But then, as Americans, we have to look deep into our sordid past, even the very founding of this Nation. The decimation of the indigenous tribes of the Americas and the expropriation of the Native Americans' lands was a blueprint for what the Nazis would use for their treatment of Jewish people during the Holocaust. 400 hundred years of enslavement, violent abuse and confinement of African tribespeople for forced labor and the benefit of white prosperity and belief in domination over another race was another part of our history that the Nazis took as their own diabolical Third Reich use of labor camps and concentration/death camps.
It's hard to say it but I think the Nazis have always been here too. I remember watching something about the KKK on PBS a few years ago. It showed this massive march that they had inundated Washington D.C. with. On August of 1925, 60,000 Ku Klux Klan members marched to the White House to display their ever-increasing numbers across America. It scared the hell out of me to see that because I'd never seen it before or even heard of it. The formations and symbolism, such a mass of hate and racist people that might even live right next door. But again I saw the demonic Nazi pageantry, the troop formations and parading and the hate filled Hitler speeches as getting some more ideas from the Nazis here and the KKK only about a decade earlier.
I understand but, please don’t let it be hard to say. It is possible for our founding fathers to have been genius at establishing a government of self rule and be wrong on that and other subjects. They left behind a system that allowed for the necessary corrections of the stupidity of slavery etc. Government needs constant attention and correction by its citizens, it is always a work in progress. Make no mistake, there has been a constant supply of Nazis and white suprematists in the country who want nothing more than to destroy America, almost since its inception. I say Trump supports those people much more than they support him.
I would say Trump relies on those people more that he supports them. But whatever it is, the fascist rhetoric and hateful invective that Trump blathers on about is what his supporters are drawn to and desire. Trump's attempt to demolish this 'work in progress' democracy, the republic if we can keep it, is completely antithetical to what the Founding Fathers envisioned. I'm quite sure they would have expelled him from this country or just hung him for his treasonous ways by now.
Federalist Society 'originalism' and 'textualism' turn the Constitution on its head to drain United States law of justice. At the Nuremberg trials Nazi jurists were put on trial for exactly that.
The Founders agreed legal framework institutes coming to consensus through reasoned debate of empirical evidence - in legislative debate of bills, judicial decisions, executive procedures, and to transfer power. Infinitely open to revision - through amendment of the Constitution, new legislation, setting new legal precedent, Cabinet consultations, and elections. Instead Leonard Leo and the Federalist Extremes pretend they can divine the Founders 'intent' to repurpose a democratic republic as a corporate clerical fascist state. By overturning equality before the law, equal representation , and the separation of church and state. Leo specifically intentionally misreads freedom of religion to mean 'religious conscience in all areas of society' (rather than freedom of worship.) The Constitution prohibits the state from establishing religion, Leo is using government to impose religious creed. Dobbs has lead to women being prosecuted for showing up at the hospital bleeding and not being able to prove they miscarried. The case against the abortion pill seeks to prohibit everyone access to medical abortion to protect extremist doctors from having to treat or save a woman's life in the Emergency Room if the problem results from using the pill (an exceedingly rare event, the doctors are already protected by laws which require hospitals to accommodate their religious objections). The argument includes that even if a dead fetus has been expelled from the uterus, some living fetal tissue might remain and removing it is akin to murder.
This is where we are thanks to McConnell, Leo - and everyone who did not vote for Clinton.
Scared me too when I saw pics of the 1939 Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden. Had never dreamed of such but tis true.
Rachel Maddow, Ultra podcast
"Sitting members of Congress aiding and abetting a plot to overthrow the government. Insurrectionists criminally charged with plotting to end American democracy for good. Justice Department prosecutors under crushing political pressure. Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra is the all-but-forgotten true story of good, old-fashioned American extremism getting supercharged by proximity to power. When extremist elected officials get caught plotting against America with the violent ultra right, this is the story of the lengths they will go to… to cover their tracks."
https://www.rachelmaddow.com/rachel-maddow-presents-ultra/
and yet I see the cretins gaining ground and suffering NO consequences
"and yet I see the cretins gaining ground and suffering NO consequences"
It has always been like that. In all recorded history. And there have always been all those who push back. In the 60s with suppression of anti war protestors, there was a saying that 'we are all being treated like Black folks now' - but I think living under the current racist right wing religious extremist capture of government, many White folks are living first hand what it means to 'keep on keeping on.'
Sadly, I don’t think many of the whities I know see it that way, yet. Yet, I keep on keeping on. Because as Churchill said about being optimistic. Of what use is it to be anything else.
"August of 1925, 60,000 Ku Klux Klan members marched to the White House to display their ever-increasing numbers across America."
"On Memorial Day 1927, brawls erupted in New York ... In Queens, 1,000 white-robed Klansmen marched through the Jamaica neighborhood, eventually spurring an all-out brawl in which seven men were arrested. One of those arrested was Fred Trump of 175-24 Devonshire Rd. in Jamaica." Yes, that Fred Trump.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/28/in-1927-donald-trumps-father-was-arrested-after-a-klan-riot-in-queens/
"In October 1973, the Justice Department filed this civil rights case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York (federal court in Brooklyn) against Fred Trump, Donald Trump, and their real estate company. The complaint alleged that the firm had committed systemic violations of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 in their many complexes ... After two years, the matter settled with a consent decree ... In addition to a general injunction against discrimination, the decree prohibits specific discriminatory practices, such as lying about the availability of apartments or interfering with individuals' enjoyment of their housing rights through threats or coercion. "
https://clearinghouse.net/case/15342/
‘No Vacancies’ for Blacks: How Donald Trump Got His Start, and Was First Accused of Bias
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/us/politics/donald-trump-housing-race.html?unlocked_article_code=1.gk0.4EIP.fhdseWd2Ghy5&smid=url-share
That family just gets more horrible the more you get to know about them. Steeped in racist hatred like that it makes sense that Donald would be so adamant about the death penalty for the Central Park 5. Even if they were wrongfully convicted, served sentences ranging from 7 to 13 years and finally exonerated for committing the crime. But instead of an apology Trump says he's done more for Black Americans than anyone with a "possible exception" of former President Abraham Lincoln.
In a 2016 Guardian article, the exonerated 5's defense counsel William Warren was reported saying that he thought Trump's ads in 1989 had played a role in securing conviction by the juries, saying that "he poisoned the minds of many people who lived in New York City and who, rightfully, had a natural affinity for the victim."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park_jogger_case#/media/File:Trump_Bring_Back_Death_Penalty_ad_1989.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park_jogger_case
You have been paying attention to the squeeze we are in and how it gets tighter every day.
You too!
Sorry to be off topic, but Joyce Vance's post tonight is getting chatter on other Substacks. I'd encourage all to give it due consideration. Title is, "We need to talk about this." She's calling it "a five-alarm fire."
I’ve read it and you are right. This needs to be talked about!
Here it is:
https://substack.com/@joycevance?r=6x8sj&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile
We all need to be shouting this from every hilltop.
That is obviously a threat and way over the line. I won't watch the video because it might give even the slightest bit of ammunition to the right.
Just like I won't buy the TFFG Bible. I can just imagine the mega-churches with their tables covered with Bibles hawking this obvious attempt at raising money from his dim-witted sheeple.
WWJD? The same thing he did when the Pharisees tried to take advantage of the attendees in the temples.
From the book of Matthew-
Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers."
But unfortunately to too many of his followers, he IS Jesus.
Have you watched "God and Country" on Apple TV? Pretty scary stuff.
I read it before I came here. I wondered why there was no mention of it here.
Joyce’s column appeared in my inbox at 8:30; the Professor’s at 10:30. I’m pretty sure this was mostly written before Professor Richardson saw it.
There is an article in today's NYT about it as well. Trump's behavior is consistent over time. He disregards socially acceptablity standards and goes a bit past the limits of law or rules in order to intimidate. This behavior will not stop until it is punished. A hefty fine and five days in "jail" (must be secure facility given his status as former president; I envision a place like the CIA "farm" just outside of Williamsburg, VA) with no access to internet or other forms of messaging the outside world just might get his attention. I wonder if Jack Smith could add this incident to his indictment as an insurrrectionist ploy that is definitely not covers by any form of executive immunity. But maybe I dream too much.
I've thought of this as well, but I wonder if even that wouldn't stop him or even slow him down. Soon as he's out:
"Did you see what Biden’s Radical Far Left Thugs did to your Favorite President of All Time, me? They tried, in vain, to SHUT ME UP!! But I will NEVER ..."
Or even worse, he'll take the stochastic terrorism up a notch or two.
Follow the money, Russian disinformation, operatives and 'useful idiots' spreading disinformation with this interactive chart.
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/03/16/maga-gop-impeachments-spreads-putin-disinfo/
And this chart to follow the Russian connections with Chubb Insurance which paid for Trump's $91 million bond in his defamation case agaisnt E.Jean Carroll.
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/03/11/chubb-posts-91-million-bond-for-trump-defamation-case-follow-russian-connections/
This is the playing field and these are the players. Oligarchs in both camps move the pieces and crave the same outcome. The Super Rich move between countries and politics with the lubrication of power. This is not a struggle in the traditional, regional sense, but between the morbidly rich and the rest of us. The fact that Russian Intelligence has so much control over the MAGAVERSE illustrates the success of their destructive reach. We must see this clearly and act with purpose to defeat this morass of destruction. They will rule with an iron fist.
Yes I am beginning to wonder if what we are watching is money making the decisions.
That was Reagan's solution to the the chaotic (but just) process of democracy, and we are seeing the expectable result.
“Beginning?” It has always been thus, never more so than when John Roberts handed us Citizens United. “You’re welcome,” he told the billionaires.
No doubt about it. HCR pointed mention in the last week the oligarchs. And others have talked here about the US being a Kleptocracy.
I fear that the Republican Party has devolved into being a Kakistocracy.
“Morbidly rich” is an apt phrase!
AS TFFG is "morbidly fat."
A misiinformation pandemic backed by global hydrocarbon and social media oligarchs whose objective is to kill the world's democracies.
And Comer is still at it--providing misinformation propaganda for Putin. It is sick that ultra-rich Americans are secretly buying these rightwing politicians and Fox friends who are happily destroying our nation. How can we follow the cash?
Comer is Elmer Fudd, just fleshy.
But Fudd was only anti-wabbit.
😆
Or Gomer Pyle.
Except that Gomer was fundamentally a good guy, just as bit dufus.
Yes, that’s true. Comer appears dumb as a box of rocks. How do these people manage to get elected? Rhetorical question.
Gomer was, at least, likeable!
Thanks for forwarding the analysis : $63 T v $2 T
That’s gross product, a weird concoction that is like revenue . . . it about equals personal income, somehow. ( $27T USA est 2024 )
So then the hucksters and liars start talking about our federal budget deficit. That’s almost criminal, maybe it is criminal. Malinformation - damaging and deliberate.
No new taxes, I say! What we need are the old taxes.
We are not in debt! We have more than $140 Trillion in net household wealth. That number has increased about $70 Trillion in the last 10 years, while our federal debt has increased about $17 Trillion. ( US Fed )
We have the wealth! We need to hear it from our leaders, up and down the line, and to get that funding to Ukraine, now!
That we are ‘broke’ or ‘insolvent’ is the biggest damned lie, and what the ‘big lie’ is all about. It is what all the other twisting and defiling of our principles and national purpose is about.
We need a wealth tax, plus the old income taxes, and especially the old estate taxes. $84 Trillion is to be given to heirs in the next 20 years . . . half would be $42 Trillion . . . ( NY Times, May 14 2023 )
best luck to US - b.rad
ps Death *is* the tax . . .
pps this is about Ukraine, and the power of lies. Lies are cheap - we can’t stop lies, we have to stop liars. And send Ukraine the support it needs, now!
Thank you.
Heather relates that "Billionaires Liz and Dick Uihlein have recently said they will back Trump, and Alexandra Ulmer of Reuters reported on Tuesday that other billionaires had pooled the money to back Trump’s then–$454 million appeal bond before an appeals court reduced it". You knew it would happen. Those who can and those who want a dictatorship that benefits them will continue to back Trump. But if you don't want to help, then don't buy Uline products, don't watch Fox, don't subscribe to X or buy Teslas.
Also --- vote Democrat, right down the ballot
Swbv, “Uline” products? Is that the big heavy industrial catalog that goes from my mailbox to the trash dumpster every few months?
Ask for two per month!
Sure is.