On Tuesday morning, on his social media outlet, former president Trump encouraged his supporters to buy a “God Bless The USA” Bible for $59.99. The Bible is my “favorite book,” he said in a promotional video, and said he owns “many.” This Bible includes the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance. It also includes the chorus of country music singer Lee Greenwood’s song “God Bless the USA,” likely because it is a retread of a 2021 Bible Greenwood pushed to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of 9-11.
May voters in the coming presidential election reject the grifter purveying bibles that flout the separation of church and state so central to the thinking of the Founders of the nation and the Framers of the constitution. It is sacrilegious and profane to elevate the charlatan that is TFG to a quasi savior status.
We who are not Trump cult members can criticize those who see Trump as their savior, but it is easier to call them out here than to change their opinion. When he promises them that he will be their retribution, what do we offer them in return? If we're going to prevail in the elections in November, we must find ways to make clear to those who are not yet true believers what the dangers are in electing a wannabe dictator. What are our best strategies to show the undecided what the differences are between democracy and autocracy?
Propaganda has won the day with them, and the “both sides” agenda of MSM makes it hard for those who need to be told what is normal and what is “alternative facts” to wade through the mire. Sad that so many lost their moral compass as the cretins have made Schitt smell like roses. Power has become the only goal. Repub power is to rule over us. Dem power is to let us decide. Repubs squash voting. Dems expand voting. Enough said for me. BTW, the party switch from the civil war era messes with my mind every time.
I doubt Lincoln ever imagined Republicans hoisting Confederate flags, though he understood that democracy is fragile without consistent care. The fact that excessive, unaccountable power, and the "love" of power, tends to corrupt, is part of every chapter of history.
John Kay's lyrics were among many of that era that used their "rock star" status to challenge authority. I was a sophomore in HS when this and their more-famous "Born To Be Wild" showcased them in Easy Rider. CSNY, the Doors and so many bands of that age became the anti-war movement.
Every generation has its movements and music is a part of that but, no generation since then has used it to the effect of the 60s & 70s. The current generation is missing that connection and would be the perfect time for their music to call out the GOP Haters, climate / science & facts liars with lyrics for this age like my generation did.
PS John Fogerty is still touring this summer and you can bet "Run Through The Jungle" is on the set list - https://johnfogerty.com
A different genre of music, but definitely poised to inspire a generation seeking to have freedoms restored — listen to the phenomenally talented Jon Batiste: Freedom, Be Who You Are, Drink Water, Don’t Stop, and much more!
Don't rap and hip hop do that? I have to admit I'm not very aware of current popular music or its messages, but I thought that rap at least calls out social injustice and has done for 30-something years. I'm pretty sure the female rappers and/or hip hoppers advocate women's rights. I'm also an old fogey and may well be talking out of my ass.
BK, i love that era, but don’t forget punk rock in the 80s and 90s, NOFX, Bad Religon, Henry Rollins from Black Flag is, so many more. there is a strong Gen X connection to political punk and hardcore.
We're the same age BK, I grew up with all of those songs as well. Was too young to be politically active or recognize so much what was going on in Vietnam, but agreed that it needed to end.
Gary, you raise an intriguing issue with the notion of someone's "hubris" if taken to mean "exaggerated pride or self-confidence." In the case of our former president we are most likely talking about someone with a fundamentally narcissistic character structure or disorder. Narcissism is an unconscious defense against the fear that one is quite the opposite, a failure, unworthy or incompetent as a human. To shore oneself up or protect one's self-image one resorts to exaggerated pride or self-confidence. Merriam-Webster added "English picked up both the concept of hubris and the term for that particular brand of cockiness from the ancient Greeks, who considered hubris a dangerous character flaw capable of provoking the wrath of the gods. In classical Greek tragedy, hubris was often a fatal shortcoming that brought about the fall of the tragic hero. Typically, overconfidence led the hero to attempt to overstep the boundaries of human limitations and assume a godlike status, and the gods inevitably humbled the offender with a sharp reminder of their mortality." One usually encounters hubris in those who have had previous success in whatever venue they have chosen, be it warfare, politics or business. Despite perhaps accumulating a bit more money from the millions he inherited, our former president went bankrupt 6 times and presided over the failure of the majority of his spin-off businesses. His exaggerated pride grew not from his previous successes but from a narcissistic character structure designed to defend himself against awareness of his failures as a human being.
Bless you on a spring day for “unpacking” (as a favorite philosophy professor used to say) hubris. As for TFG, he learned it from his KKK father. From the Greeks, other than the plays of Aristophanes, my favorite line remains “…the gods laughed.”
I thought hubris was supplanting (or trying to supplant) the gods' will with one's own. Oedipus' parents thinking they could outwit fate by having him raised by shepherds, that sort of thing. Trump, imho, is just a damaged egotist, not anyone with the stature to go against the gods he doesn't believe in. He's no Prometheus stealing fire from the gods, he's a pickpocket in the agora grubbing for spare change.
The lyrics remind me of a recent conversation that respect doesn't have to be earned, but can be successfully forced on people. The fear and anger candidate has his followers hornswoggled.
Gary, I don’t think that 45 thinks that he deserves to stay in power, he just wants to do so to stay out of prison. He knew that the cops were on his doorstep even without the insurrection—he’d broken the Emoluments clause of the Constitution from day one.
Trump broke the law so many times during his 4 years in office. No wonder he assumed he could get away with January 6th. He got away with everything else -- especially the emoluments clause.
Did you see that a judge ruled that Trump can be indicted criminally for Lafayette Square this past week? That's going to cost him and hopefully Bill Barr will be included in the indictment.
Hi Jeri! I too have trouble with the party switch. It gets me every time. Also this essay from the Professor is like reading today’s news, almost verbatim! Scary, scary 🫣
Does it ever, rich cretins have been chomping at the bit from the git go. I give credit for any success to our ancestors with a work ethic, except for Fredrich Drumpf
It confuses trumpers, too. One writer said how the democrats were racists, etc. I guess she didn't realize that the party names had switched. I didn't even comprehend it so it must be difficult for people with poor education.
I finally figured out how to keep the party platform switch straight -- focus on the slaveholders, the pro-slavery, the racists -- they have always been the ones that held up progress and had to be 'bribed' into agreeing with many of the founding documents and much of any legislation in not just this country. If one side made a deal with the slaveholders, that deal was only good as long as the slaveholders got their way in everything else that came along. Case in point, when LBJ signed the Civil Rights legislation, he knew that he was losing the Southern 'Democrats', aka racists. Ditto for Mitch McConnell and his treatment of Obama.
Fits Trump to a T. Any decent person should be motivated to reject him after reading this. His sociopathy was obvious in the way he got people to pay for it by maxing out their credit cards.
Betsy, In response to the crucial questions you raise, I believe we must take great effort to drive home what it would mean to lose our democracy and how our way of life would change. Trump already has stated he would enact the Insurrection Act on Day 1 of his presidency. He’s already spoken about rounding up his political enemies. Accordingly, we can’t relent in urging people, whatever their reasons for remaining complacent or uncommitted, to imagine what America would look like were the President to start moving the National Guard around to put down our voices, our right to dissent, perhaps indefinitely detaining us. This is not without precedent. Trump had wanted to criminalize protests around Black Lives Matter for the murder of George Floyd.
Expanding upon rights and freedoms that would be ripped away, as an example, I would advise we amplify that a court willing to overturn 50 years of settled precedent in Roe would do that with other fundamental protections, even those, like Roe, that over and over again had been reaffirmed.
Ultimately, we have 7 months to urge uncommitted or indifferent voters to listen to the things Trump says and the people he admires. No one should doubt that whatever freedoms we have in this country, whatever one likes about this country, dramatically would change were Trump to return to the White House.
Clearly, Trump is showing frequent signs of dementia. In 2016 and 2020 Psychiatrists and Neurologists hesitated to label TFFG's aberrant behaviors as mental disorders in 2016 and 2020. Not so much anymore.
But that doesn't seem to affect his cult, they lap it up. There's something very wrong with a political system that allows someone so vile, dangerous and mentally unfit to be the only choice of one of its 2 political parties. There's too much money pouring in from dark money sources, too much power in Federalist Society hand picked justices, and too much equal treatment of the parties by the media. People are not being truthfully informed so they can't make an intelligent decision especially those who never were taught critical thinking, history or civics in school.
What makes me sad about the cult is that the collapse of American public schools after WWII left so many with no history and no civics courses. So called “Departments of Education” replaced the basic humanities and sciences courses with multiple choice testing and only math and science seem to have survived. Liberal arts colleges are decreasing every year. Time to wake up and learn history, arts, and foreign languages. Why do Ukrainians learn complex weapons systems so quickly? Think two languages and two alphabets behind most of them.
It truly is a sad state of affairs, starting with the fact that anti-intellectualism has been around a long time in this country. This of course has been weaponized by the r's who love to yammer on about "the elites." That they may have degrees from ivy league schools seems to not matter.
Liberal arts: there was a recent New Yorker article with an unfortunately click-baity title, something like "Are the Liberal Arts Getting Conservative." It was actually about how some schools have attempted to return to a more classical education. This sounded really promising, especially in the schools serving kids who are usually underserved. But this has been co-opted by conservatives who want to use their version of it to get rid of supposed liberal indoctrination. One politician said something about wanting kids to be able to make their own decisions without the government getting in the way. Said with zero irony, of course.
And we can make that political system work for us again, as the founders intended.We can elect a person who will throw off the corporate capture from our government , who will tell us the truth, and respectfully listen to both Democrats and Republicans.We have this exciting opportunity to elect RFKJR.
I have been voting since 1970 and looking carefully at the actions of the people I have voted for. Politicians promise the world but rarely do even a very small bit of what they promised. Biden has achieved more progressive progress for all Americans than anyone since Johnson. RFKJR has none of Biden’s experience that gives him the ability to make real progress. Compare Sanders promises with Biden’s achievements. Look at who Biden has brought into his administration. Biden is the real deal!
John, I’m going to summarize some of Kennedy’s positions, and would love for you to tell us why you would support a candidate who espouses these positions.
Abortion: Kennedy’s views are unclear. He has voiced support for a 15 week ban, then backtracked that amid backlash. Calls every abortion a tragedy.
Antisemitism: has said that Covid is a bio weapon created by Ashkenazi Jews and the Chinese to target Caucasians and Black people.
Immigration: has backed Texas in its illegal quest to usurp federal power over the border.
Ukraine: has called the war in Ukraine unnecessary which should be settled by diplomacy and criticizes US support of Ukraine.
Vaccines: Kennedy has spouted the dangerous nonsense that vaccines cause autism. He doubts the efficacy of the measles vaccine. He spread misinformation about Covid vaccination.
Compulsive womanizing: Kennedy kept a diary rating the 37 women with whom he cheated on his wife in one year. His wife’s discovery of the diary contributed to her suicide.
For most of us here, any one of these stances is disqualifying. Together, they are damning. Kennedy is a liar, a cheat, a compulsive womanizer, an anti-vax nut job, a conspiracy theorist, and an anti-Semite. He is also the gravest threat to Biden’s candidacy, and a vote for him makes a second Trump term more possible. I do not think you will find many fellow travelers here, John, and I, for one, find your support of such a man as repulsive as if you were a Trump supporter.
John, surely you jest! RFKJR is a Kennedy in name only, and his entire family denounces him. His vaccine conspiracy theories, alone, disqualify him for office. Her has always been an entitled joke, and his father and JFK are spinning in their graves.
Then Trump has the gall to accuse President Biden of suffering from dementia. I think Trump is, and he’s out there encouraging dangerous political violence.
Heather’s statement that tfg can never stop being a victim is important to his cult status grabbed me. I’d never thought of it quite that clearly. I’d wondered why he, clearly no victim, wasn’t tired of whining 24/7 and why his followers weren’t worn out with it. Guess it’s obvious now that I know.
Many have eyes with which to see and yet they look not, many have ears with which to hear and yet they listen not. It is a choice which has its consequences if unheeded.
The article started out with professionals giving descriptions of Trump’s dementia. But then had a Trump spokesman saying Biden is demented and Trump is fine. Bollocks. Both-sides BS.
Susan, My call for concretizing what it would mean to lose our democracy is not meant for the MAGA cult. As stated in my comment, its intent is to impress upon complacent and uncommitted voters the rights and freedoms that would be ripped away were Trump to return to the White House. Additionally, I would note, in 2020, the largest bloc of voters were non-voters, whom I expect did not support Trump.
Barbara, in listening to MAGA supporters, they believe themselves to be safe from being rounded up; they rejoice in the idea of the “elites” who regularly disparage them being locked up (especially uppity minorities and Feminazis).
Mary, Because my reply would be identical to the one I just posted to Susan, who is part of this thread, if I may, I would ask you refer to that response.
Mary, Thank you for taking the time to read that reply. I believe all the exchanges and clarifications among us are key to helping each of us engage in ways that allow for increasingly meaningful results.
Where truth is now "created," as TFG does when he labels his posts on his social media platform "truths," changing MAGA minds will be difficult if not impossible. But working to get the vote out is not. Help register voters, help knock doors, help write postcards, letters to editor. In my state 9000 or more registered Democrats failed to vote.. We would have a very different government had they turned out. I believe those minds are reachable.
Studies show that postcards can bring to the polls 1-4% of otherwise unlikely voters. That may not sound like a huge amount, but it is often enough to change the result of an election.
If they have any humanities, Betsy, we could start there.
My guess is, however, that too many U.S. schools, in buckling under to the living dead of standardized testing, have left too many helplessly dehumanized, and thus prey to the demagogue. As they are prey to the billionaire social media predators, and their formulae for hate, divisiveness, group think.
Back in the 1950s I (a young student myself) recall reading a newspaper column by Sydney J Harris in which he described an approach to teaching that treated students a "inanimate sausage casings" to be stuffed with information. It was happening then and might (in some ways) be worse today. Children develop. They not all wired the same, nor share identical talents and interests; and that's a good thing since our diversity as a society vastly expands our horizons as a species, but the "easy way" is to try to stamp them out like machine parts. You don't force a tomato to grow (at least not the "organic" ones) you give them what they need to thrive, and that means knowing tomatoes.
I'm not dissing teachers here, I married one; but rather the politics of curricular design. We are doing something wrong when a large section of the populace thinks that they (and society) are healthier for getting sick than being vaccinated, just for example. We aren't just studying to pass tests, or even to just to survive on the job. We, especially in an increasingly complicated world, need a full complement of skills to navigate reality; like the tides and temperatures rising around us. Like how to disagree without killing each other. Like how to make government of the people, by the people, for the people run as a practical matter.
Advertising tries to control people, when what we need is to liberate and engage them. Where is there robust infrastructure for that? Democracy (like this site) is a conversation, or it's not really democracy.
Standardised testing is not the enemy. As a gifted child of a low-income home who had had irregular school attendance and indifferent grades, my good standardised test scores were the only thing that gave me the chance to escape poverty and participate in the world of higher education.
I remember taking the Iowa Basics tests in the 3rd - 6th grades and then the Stanford-Binet testing in high school. Although not required, we then took the PSAT, SAT and the ACT. None of my excellent.teachers taught to the tests, but I suspect the school district used these scores to separate each grade in our elementary school into what we called, "the smart class, the dumb class and the other class."
Our school district had one person of color the entire 13 years I was there unless you count the handful of Asians.
So was our school district racist? I imagine it was by design because people of color were likely prevented from purchasing homes or renting there.
The ugliest most hypocritical form of racism is segregation.
Betsy, you ask the question that is in all of our minds. I have decide to forget trying to change minds and and focus on being visable and vocal
in promoting Biden. Wear a Biden shirt or button. Speak up when the opportunity presents itself. We need to let the "undecided" know there are more of us than what the news says.
Also, write to all the forms of media, newspapers, TV, and social media. Emphasize that they need to have reporters and not entertainers. They have to get beyond poll numbers and false equivalencies and explain the different future each candidate will create. They have to report about how bizarre it is to have a criminal conman rapist selling Bibles as a part of his attempt to raise money for his legal fees. The cancer of greed and racism has already metastasize through several branches of our government. The treatment is the injection of truth and justice.
I’m taking HCR’s advice here and “taking up oxygen “ as you and she suggest.The only difference is that down deep, we know Biden can’t restore democracy, RFKJR will.
We know that neither Biden nor Trump (nor RFK, Jr., but this is not the place to explore how dangerous he and his theories are) nor any one individual can restore democracy. That is a task that we must all undertake together. At the same time, we know that Trump and the 2025 plan will destroy our democracy, so the path is clear. We need to vote Blue and encourage everyone we know to do the same.
Good question, Betsy. Here's my answer. We need to use the campaign weapons we have been handed by the enemy.
In every election or referendum since the Deadly Dobbs Decision, those campaigning for Reproductive Rights have won. It is THE issue that will motivate voters of all ages. Dobbs is archaic and a form of totalitarianism. A form of government intervention in the private lives of families everywhere. It's a step too far. Add to that the White Supremacist Nationalist movement and we have a formula for victory. "Maga is telling you how many kids to have and how to worship!"
But there is much more.
If in chatting with others who are undecided, women's reproductive and health rights are not enough to convince them, pull out short recap of what Project 2025 will do to our health, freedom and the future of the Planet.
These are two powerful weapons. Let's use them and win!
Watch Friday's episode of Deadline White House. The results of having this autocrat group win is spelled out in detail. Great information to formulate questions to get them thinking.
And yet....when an Arizona couple were interviewed by a TV reporter and asked if democracy is on the line in the November election....they demured and said that was an overblown description of what Trump would do. In other words, his words were not sinking in.
I fear that people who are so ignorant of politics and history cannot be informed sufficiently at this late date to change their thinking and their voting behavior. We had to have started in high school at the latest.
Betsy, while many here will have different opinions, I believe our power lies in helping get out the vote. Helping to register voters now and closer to the election, helping get out the vote. How? Postcards to voters, phone calls, door knocking, and providing rides to the polls are very effective in motivating people to vote. And there are many organizations nationally helping coordinate such efforts including Indivisible and postcardstovoters.org.
One iof the best source for ideas about actions you can take is Jessica Craven’s Chop Wood, Carry Water newsletter here on Substack. I also subscribe to Hopium Chronicles, from Simon Rosenberg here on Substack. Rosenberg’s analysis of current political trends is anchored in facts/ statistics and includes big doses of hope and good news. It is worth every nickle but if you can’t afford it, you can still subscribe.
Some here will note that the mainstream media continues to treat Trump and the Republicans as if their actions are normal and this is just a horse race election like any other. I can’t argue with that. But few of us here are powerful enough by ourselves to change that narrative (though I believe we did a great job of telling NBC to rethink Ronna McDaniel’s hiring!). The power we do have is being active and helping get out the vote. Democrats need our actions, $$$ and full-throated, nonstop support. Let’s do this!!
My local Indivisible group is very active in sending GOTV postcards, so that's another way to get involved. In the past, it's just been urging people to register and vote, but they've now started endorsing specific candidates.
Learn all you can about Project 2025 and what Trump/Heritage Foundation have in store on Day 1. MAGA is a cult and these people need to be de-programed somehow. Just Vote Blue.
Write lots of postcards informing seniors of the very real intention of the Trumpers to cancel Social Security, and encourage them to vote!Also call all your Senators and Representatives who matter and tell them what you think. Mike Johnson may be swayed by thousands of devout Christians begging him to walk in Jesus’s path and send aid to the victims of aggression, like Ukrainians, and non-combatant Palestinians. You know what I mean? You can find a complete list of phone numbers of every Senator and Congressman on Jessica Craven’s site,”Chop Wood, Carry Water”, or look up your elected public servants contact info directly. A balance of internal activity, prayer,and external activity, providing friendly helpful feedback about their performance in office to your elected representatives, is a good way to improve the energy in the world and lower your blood pressure. At least it works for me. Making the world a better place is always a good idea!
Oddly enough, those now in America who are best suited to get across the idea of what a second Trump administration might try/accomplish are those recent immigrants that Republicans are so eager to repel. For many of them come from countries mired deeply in just the kind of authoritarianism and corruption that Trump and his myrmidons exemplify.
Unfortunately, the ones least able to comprehend or accurately predict what another four years of Trump might be like are the rest of us natives (Democrats and Republicans alike) simply because the vast majority of us have never experienced anything like it. We may make all sort of dire predictions about the end of democracy or else endlessly prate about all the 'accomplishments' of Trump during his first act and assume the second will be a repeat, but neither group really knows what's likely to happen.
I think there are two things that might begin to move enough avid Trumpists away from him to make the crucial difference. These people think Trump has their back. In fact Trump doesn't give a damn about them except as hands to pull voting levers and a plethora of pockets, large and small, to pay his geometrically increasing legal bills. He hollers that he is their retribution, but in fact he is desperately depending on they being his.
I don't really think he wants to be president again (in all honesty I'm not sure why anyone would want the job these days); he just believes that being re-elected is the only chance he has to stay out of jail.
Trumpists will not be persuaded on the basis of what we think will happen politically. They either don't believe us, don't have any idea of the potential, or simply don't care. But if they can be made to see the reality of Trump's priorities, none of which would affect them in any positive way, perhaps some might begin to pull away. And like a small hole in a great dam, a small rivulet might well turn into a tsunami.
Retribution for what, though? The other side makes up these bogeymen and conspiracy theories, and convinces people that they are being attacked, marginalized, or having their rights or jobs taken away, when it's not really happening at all. Our job is difficult--trying to convince these scared people that the threats don't really exist.
Jenn, you're absolutely right. As to the "additions", I wonder if "2 Corinthians" -- which trompy said was his favorite chapter -- is in there. Also, I wonder: has anyone done a word-by-word comparison of his "bible" and the standard accepted text? I'd bet his is written to have changes which mitigate his many amoral acts which he can cite "chapter and verse" in his Truth Socialying. Are there now three testaments-- the old, the new, and the My Struggle testament?
John Stoehr also sees this as a bid for violating the First Amendment by establishing Christian Nationalism as an official American church. The idea of an established church was anathema to founders like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Hello Lynn. Yes, that is one of the true horrors now in the US: Trump & Enablers displaying and fostering hatred, cruelty, scapegoating, lies, corruption, fear, greed, unreality, violence, nightmares...infecting many of us.
You know, I think we now here must claim the separation of church and state, considering those now in charge of interpreting the Constitution are cherry picking it and subverting this fundamental right.
This is OUR right to accept or reject religious control of any sect, or none.
The Founders aren't here to defend themselves, so we must.
You can't talk about religion and government in the United States without talking about Leonard Leo. And the billions of plutocrat dark money he funnels through a myriad of shell companies to innumerable antidemocratic initiatives and racist right wing religious extremist populist causes - from the Federalist Society turning the Constitution on its head draining American law of justice and funding the Heritage Society Project 2025 for an imperial presidency, to diverting public school funds to Christian academies. Just as Trump is the bullhorn for GOP corporate clerical fascism, Leo is its human manure spreader.
I"m on the spectrum. These sorts of mistakes jump out at me and go Nyah!!! I've found mistakes in published books. And I've proofed a few friends' books for them.
It's right here under your original comment, at least in my display. I was only saying that very few congregations could afford to pay $60 each for bibles, or to buy them in sufficient quantities to use such purchases to conceal significant campaign donations.
It's not showing up for me. But to address the substance of your comment: I rather imagine that Trump is overestimating the amount of money this grift can bring in, from churches or anyone else. To the extent that he knows this, I suspect that this is less about money and more about virtue signaling for his base.
Sometimes Substack doesn't display comments in thread form. I've noticed that. I'm sorry if my comment didn't show up in the thread that developed under your original comments. It's weird because all these comments are showing up in thread form for me.
Good faith is the lifeblood of a free society. The Constitution is powerless without it. We can fend off some degree of exceptional mendacity; but if too many side with cheating, corruption can go septic.
I believe it was FDR that said :When a representative government is unable to deliver for its citizens, then an autocrat is able to come to power or something like that.
Our CONservative leaders are making sure to lock up the federal government from delivering for the people while they have gained and entrenched themselves in control of many states. Notice how many CONservative states are now refusing federal money to feed kids during the summers? how many are now refusing federal money to help their schools? How many misspent COVID money? The CONservative leaders have conspired to do this. I do not say that lightly either. Look at what they do, then listen to what they say. Their public statements and actions are almost Xerox copies due to groups like the ALEC.
That isn’t useful, as Substack doesn’t offer any way to find your comment. I’m sure it’s somewhere in these dozens of pages of comments, but good luck finding it. If it’s really that good, just copy-paste it. But beware that doing that more than once is quite irritating to readers. Better to summarize.
Excellent point--Truth Social and Trump's real estate deals are the same gambit, steering around laws about political contributions from foreign powers. All this has been put on steroids by Citizens v. United, dark money flowing through LLCs, on and on.
I've slowly come to the conclusion we must bar all candidates from using their own money or do any solicitation of money as they run for office. Taxpayers need to establish a fund from which candidates get a stock amount they can draw from to conduct their campaigns. Think of it as a UBI payment. Needs to apply to all State and Federal election seats. People who apply to run must qualify and must be actively campaigning to get more funds each month.
This will result in more equity (allowing less wealthy candidates to at least run), stopper up the worst of the campaign finance corruption we've been watching, and get around the right to free speech.
Nothing will stop groups like Heritage Foundation running ads on various issues or stating their preference for x or y or z candidate--but it could be required they show the money trail, how much they paid for the ads, how many were run in which markets, so we all know who is behind the ad and who and where it was targeted. They already flood our media with this junk anyhow, and always will do it, but at least the money won't be siphoned directly into the politician's pocket.
Politicians won't be constantly begging for more money to run, either, saving a lot of time and energy that could be spent on solving this country's problems instead.
I haven't done my homework on what other countries do, but that is interesting, will look up Canada's approach. Of course, Canada probably doesn't have quite the pressures (or the size of problems) that we do, so may not translate so well. But there has got to be a way to re-boot and re-design this to get most, if not all, of the influential money makers out of the game...or at the very least, if they insist on staying in the game, every move they make exposed....
Very few congregations have the financial wherewithal to purchase Bibles at $60 a crack. Most, when they buy Bibles, buy them at a quantity discount from legitimate publishers (none of whom, by the way, wanted to publish this Bible. We don't, in fact, know who's publishing it.)
And disguising campaign contributions in the form of Bible purchases probably would not work anyway, especially given that the price tag on this Bible would be a red flag to any tax official.
Let them do what they do. I don't care a whit what any of them do. They don't represent the vast majority of Christian congregations in the USA.
They are not going to be able to offer this Bible in large quantities for immediate delivery, from what I understand. They are expecting a four to six week delivery time for individual orders.
I just looked it up on Amazon. Amazon says it's "Independently published." Also: "This American Bible invites you to explore God's word anywhere, at any time with easy-to-read clear print and a slim design. This Bible will deliver an inspiring experience in the patriotic American Standard Version translation. This Bible is perfect to take with you to church, or to Bible study, and to your work and on your travels. Let the world know you by your acts. As a true American Bible it also features:
Lyrics to “God Bless The USA” by Lee Greenwood
The US Constitution
The Bill of Rights
The Declaration of Independence
The Pledge of Allegiance
This Bible has a high quality cover made of imitation leather graphics achieving our discounted price."
So on top of everything else, the "high quality" cover is made of imitation leather. ACK!!
Amazon is incorrect, at least as far as the translation used--it's not the American Standard translation, but the older Authorized (or "King James") Version. A brief publication history is found in the newspaper article I cited above. I'll link it here too.
The thing to know is that legitimate US Bible publishers didn't want to publish a Bible that would also include the nation's founding documents and more. And though the article doesn't say this specifically, the holders of the copyright to the modern translation they originally wanted to use (The New International Version or NIV--probably the most popular among evangelicals today) apparently took a pass on giving them permission as well. So they had to resort to printing a public domain translation. This reluctance of publishers to get involved in this project says something about its nature.
Hotels don't have to buy Bibles, the Gideons GIVE Bibles to hotels free of charge. The only hotel that would shell out $60 times a couple hundred rooms for Bibles is probably owned by trump or one of his flunkies. (and they would probably find someway to not actually pay for them)
Ages ago, a Texas woman, Madeleine Murray, spoke reasonably for taxing “churches”, including their shrimp fishing fleets, etc. She was cast as a crazy by media as a way to deflect the bond of church and state.
The Enlightenment supported a secularism that the US has denied over centuries.
Thanks for reminding we readers of this ongoing challenge that.
None of the proceeds from these Bible sales is going into Trump's campaign fund. It's all going to Trump himself. Alex Wagner explained this on her program last week.
In other words, this is just another Trump grift. Like Trump steaks or Trump University.
Thank you Professor Richardson. I suspect Johnson was born a few generations too early. He would have been a constant fixture as a guest on Fox 'News' -with their pundits asking the question "Can Johnson and Trump 'Save America' and return it's great Southern traditions of slavery, violence, and hatred?"
Ironic that 163 years later, Trump has Mike Johnson instead of Andrew doing his bidding.
George and Lynell, your reminding me of the old trope about the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy, and the eerie irony that they were both succeeded by their VPs named Johnson.
Although it is a pretty common name. I was going to include Wisconsin's idiot, Ron Johnson in the mix, but didn't. I suppose the irony would be more compelling if Andrew and Mike's last name were something like Santosingtonshireagut.
More ironic, George, that the fat orange guy has more than one "doing his bidding."
He's got, yes, Speaker of the House Howdy Doody. But also Lindsey Graham over in the Senate. Two southerners, both so vertically challenged as to need to cling to some tall, fat guy, even with face caked thick with minstrel show orange, diapers oleaginous, pungent.
And then the southern ladies, Marjorie Taylor Gazpacho with her fulsome twang, and Nancy Mace, with her South Carolina legislature going out of its way to gerrymander a seat even safer for her.
Yes, George. But so many R's in that do-nothing Congress.
But they do something. Consistently. Regularly. Guaranteed. And that's express hatred. Fume in the culture wars. Ban books. Go apoplectic at immigrants. Seek justices for the Clarence court who have no compunction about perjuring themselves, but total contempt for American women and their family choices. Gerrymander. Close down avenues for voting. Scurry after billionaires, fossil fuel giants, Big Pharma, Industrial Ag, defense contractors, AR-15 manufacturers, and AIPAC for loyalty to their money (not for America -- nothing for America).
I think they're also too busy unloading more seed pods from the trucks to replace the rest of us. (You know, the Don Siegel film from 1956, "Invasion of the . . ..").
I was six years old when the movie came out. I never saw it. But my mom, a local professional singer (she was pretty good!) bought all the musical albums of the day. Of course, South Pacific was among them. We played those albums over and over again. That song, to my young ears, gave me "sad" vibes.
I pray that swing and moderate voters recognize the danger MAGA poses and repudiates the extremism by voting g resoundingly Blue 💙 in November. MAGA extremism is not American. It’s hate and d division and chaos whipped up by Putin. JUST SAY NO!!
Also, write lots of postcards informing seniors of the very real intention of the Trumpers to cancel Social Security. Also call all your Senators and Representatives who matter and tell them what you think. Mike Johnson may be swayed by thousands of devout Christians begging him to walk in Jesus’s path and send aid to the victims of aggression, like Ukrainians, and non-combatant Palestinians. You know what I mean? You can find a complete list of phone numbers of every Senator and Congressman on Jessica Craven’s site,”Chop Wood, Carry Water”, or look up your elected public servants contact info directly. A balance of internal activity, prayer,and external activity, providing friendly helpful feedback about their performance in office to your elected representatives, is a good way to improve the energy in the world and lower your blood pressure. At least it works for me. Making the world a better place is always a good idea!
Presumably Trump knows the Pledge of Allegiance and the chorus to the song. I doubt he’s ever read any other parts of this bible he’s hawking, certainly not the constitution. I’d also like to reference an alternate form of the Pledge of Allegiance I first read from Matt Groening of The Simpson’s fame from his comic strip Life in Hell:
I plead alignment to the flakes of the entitled snakes of a merry cow. And to the republicans for which they scam: one nacho, underpants with licorice and jugs of wine for owls.
Somehow this seems surprisingly relevant now, (I know he did other forms of the pledge of allegiance but this is the one that stuck with me.)
About that "Bible" - Lincoln Project posted a comment:
"Let this sink in: Trump is selling a Bible for $60... during Holy Week... and the money may go towards covering his legal fees for paying off a porn star he slept with while married to his pregnant wife.
Christians, do you want this false prophet governing in your name?"
Thanks Kathy. Here they are - pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth, which are contrary to the seven heavenly virtues - prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, faith, hope, and charity.
"The opposite of justice is poverty." Bryan Stevenson. In the US you can buy justice until you run out of money and have to sell Bibles and tennis shoes.
True. Trump seems to be especially devoted to lust, envy, greed, wrath, gluttony, and sloth. It’s true what you say about justice being a monetary commodity. My belief is that Trump has taken over the RNC in order to milk their bank accounts for his own benefit, and that will prevent them from funding downballot candidates. He wants to pad his own bottom line and become dictator, which is the last thing we need.
It's very weird that so much genocide, torture, backstabbing politics, avarice, egomania, etc. is attributed to devotion to someone who preached forgiveness and kindness, so far as I can tell.
Isn't amazing that after 156 years the Supreme Court keeps trying to eviscerate the 14th Amendment? I don't think the conservative justices are coming at it from the point of law; I think it's only from the point of conservative politics.
Johnson and Trump share a lot in common. Racism and irreligious divinity of cause. But Trump is the ultimate grifter. He always was “on” the grift. A stolen dollars was worth more than one legally obtained. He is closer to the Godfather than Abraham Lincoln to whom he’s always claiming a bizarre kinship. If we are apathetic or worn down by his constant bad acts and fundamental illiberalism, we shall allow the death of our democracy. As Yeats said
“The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
We must match Trump’s malign intensity and not be discouraged or lack in our conviction.
I hope people see this disingenuous effort of Trump to represent himself as a Christian and Patriot. He is the exact opposite. Yes there will be a large minority of voters who both believe and surrender their ethics to vote this conman. If anything he should focus on the “Sermon on the Mount”. Thanks Heather.
Driven by an “outsized eagerness to enrich himself,” Barnum ran a lottery, published a newspaper, sold Bibles and opened the American Museum in downtown Manhattan, where he peddled spectacles like the “Fejee Mermaid,” a monkey-fish chimera bound together by the dark arts of taxidermy. From NYTIMES article on Aug 6, 2019.
Is a backlash in our future as in Dec 1865. I have thought many times that he had taken the ridiculous verbiage too far. So far, many lap it up, including our MSM. I hate to think that the fix is in, but the effort to rig the Nov election has been ongoing in swing states especially. I hope the momentum has time for a recalibration
Actually, Jeri, I got these from Jay Kuo who posts them on his Status Kuo substack. Of course, the link sends you into Xitter, but I just pop back out again after reading/watching whatever Jay posts on his Saturday "Just for Xeets and Giggles."
I got kicked off of twit for HATE SPEECH. I said the guy (whose name I don't know) should be hanged for carrying the Stars & Bars flag of an enemy combatant to the U.S thru Congress, (which they did in the 19th century). 'bots don't know hyperbole from hate speech "directed at an individual."
I just said that repubs were using Goebbels propaganda to elect chump. Which is rarely disputed these days. Violated community standards. Guess truth does that sometimes.
Yay for you, Beth! I figured many here know and subscribe to Jay's substack. I also figured there were more than some who don't but always enjoy a good giggle.
And just in case you still wonder if the Author of the Vietnam War, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was the complete piece of personal shit later witnesses testified that he was, his ghost-written Pulitzer Prize "winner" Profiles in Courage has as one of its heroes the Republican Senator whose single vote allowed Johnson to escape being found guilty when he was impeached. JFK - believer in civil rights. He was dragged to support civil rights and LBJ was 10 times the president he was.
Kennedy took us into Vietnam to assuage his ego after Krushchev made a joke of him at the Vienna Summit in 1961, exposing him for the shallow dilettante he was.
And I say the above as the high school kid who was proud to hang door-knockers for him in 1960. We all grow up and find out the truth. It took me writing two books about my war - his war - to see the truth.
I can relate. I wrote my first real history paper in ninth grade. Subject? The Bay of Pigs invasion. Did my research at the local college library where I learned that Kennedy sent his Secretary of State Adlai Stevenson in to lie to the UN that America had nothing to do with the disastrous invasion. Worked my little ninth grade ass off on that paper. Typed every page myself on an actual typewriter. My conservative Midwestern civics teacher gave that paper a B+. Gave his conservative class favorite an A. At age 70, you would think I would’ve gotten over this. I would’ve thought that too.
Wow! You know I'm an admirer of yours TC, but come on now!
That Republican Senator, Edmund Ross, was an anti-slavery politician who voted against Johnson's impeachment not in support of Johnson, but for institutional reasons and the fact that the "Tenure of Office Act", the law that Johnson had refused to support, was clearly unconstitutional. And to call JFK a piece of personal shit is somewhat defamatory, don't ya think?!?
JFK was a supporter of civil rights but definitely more timid than his brother in advocating same, yet he certainly wasn't "dragged into supporting" them. LBJ was a President of Shakespearean dimensions, but was certainly not 10 times the President JFK was. There is no way LBJ would have saved US and arguably the world the way JFK did in October of '62.
Finally, to call the Vietnam War "his war", a war wherein American involvement commenced under Eisenhower, is not quite right. JFK was a Cold Warrior for sure. And his green lighting the assassination of Diem, the corrupt and effete out of step Prez of the RVA was ghastly. Yet JFK soon saw that the Pentagon and the usual suspects were gunning for a a larger American presence in Vietnam and he gradually turned against that.
His final major speech at American University was a clear example of his view of an actual Pax Americana, and as far removed from the preposterous Gulf of Tonkin resolution, passed by LBJ, as could be
How many women did he have to fuck in the Oval Office for you to see him for what he was? JFK is undefamable, he was such a shit.
He was the guy who ordered the overthrow of Diem that led to Diem's assassination. Lib'ruls who still believe in Camelot need brain transplants.
Graham Greene described Kennedy to a "T" when he described Alden Pyle, the main character of his novel "The Quiet American": "I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused... impregnably armored by his good intentions and his ignorance."
The Kennedy Adoration Machine did everything it could to slime LBJ with Kennedy's responsibility. In my research for two books, I found that LBJ's problem with Vietnam was he was dragged to every escalation by the JFK New Frontiersmen he stupidly kept around - like the completely incompetent Strange McNamara who had no clue how to run a war - and delayed it till it became the wrong decision.
So far as Tonkin Gulf is concerned, you know dick shit about what you are talking about. I'm sorry to say that to someone I like (I really do like you, Daniel). I was there, the Admiral whose staff I was on was the opeational commander of the two destroyers. That was where my life was turned around 180 degrees 30 days later when I ran into my best friend from boot camp in an Olongapo bar; he had been the POIC of the Maddox's gun tower that night and got court martialed for refusing to open fire on grounds there were no targets. He told me the "Incident" was nothing like what it was portrayed (not by LBJ, by all the JFK appointees who wanted a war in Vietnam). In fact LBJ was the only guy on the planet who got Tonkin right - when he was first informed of the event, he said "those poor dumb sailors were probably shooting at flying fish." In 2006, a retired NSA analyst demonstrated that "the lights in the water" were the reflections of the moon and the lightning strikes of the storms in all quadrants, on the South Asian School of flying fish (about 4 million fish) that annually transit the Gulf of Tonkin during the first week of August.
Since we both live in LA, we ought to get together for coffee.
Wow, from the horses mouth. Rare to find someone who looked out the window to see if it was raining instead of reporting what opposing voices said. Yes, I was a dumbass who thought McNamara was the smartest man in the room. Sort of like Enron, but I wasn’t fooled that time. Sorry for that weird digression…
I believe that his image will not tarnish even with the new info, mainly because of his heinous murder. Sad because his was one in a long line of egos that have screwed us all. Some bloodier than others…
The body count of the Cuban Missile Crisis was 1. JFK didn’t pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution or send 500,000 troops to Vietnam starting in 1965. JFK was dead.
Yeah, except you fail to note that every one of those increases was proposed by a JFK GUY. All the stupid decisions were initiated by the New Frontiersmen. LBJ was dragged kicking and screaming into every one of them. The unfortunate thing for us as a country was that LBJ was intellectually cowed by all the Harvard/Yale/Ive League backgrounds of the Kennedy people. He used to joke about all those guys reporting to "the graduate of Southwestern Texas State Teacher's College," but it wasn't really a joke, it was him being intellectually scared of them - despite the fact he know 1,000 times more about politics than all the New Frontiersmen combined.
I suggest you read David Halberstam's book "The Best And The Brightest," a complete takedown of the "geniuses" that got us into Vietnam. You can get it at Amazon for $11.99
The real story was that Johnson got Edmund Ross of Kansas to vote for Johnson’s acquittal in the Senate in return for Johnson’s doing a political favor for Ross by appointing one of Ross’s friends as a postmaster. This happened before we established a professional civil service because of Garfield’s assassination.
Yes, TCinLA, JFK should have extricated the US intelligence and military forces from Vietnam. And, he should not have helped people who built their fortunes by collaborating with the brutal dictator, Batista, to oppress 90% of the Cuban population. JFK made serious mistakes in those matters. However, in the matter of Vietnam, it seems to me fairer and more accurate to put most of the blame for the American-imposed catastrophe there on Eisenhower. He should have known better. He did know better. But Eisenhower had an anticommunist fervor shut up in his bones (to apply the superbly descriptive phrase from the King James Bible that Charles Blow adopted in an entirely different political context) that prevented him from sympathizing with people who had, at great sacrifice, thrown the French colonialists out of Vietnam and removed the local collaborators and beneficiaries of French rule from Vietnamese government. Instead, Eisenhower decided to permit and encourage the evil Dulles brothers to spew their venom unopposed. Vietnam was Eisenhower’s fault. He should have known better. He did know better. He had the power to shut down all US operations in Vietnam and let those who had thrown off their European oppressors build a government according to their own lights. But he didn’t. Vietnam is on him.
Eisenhower did all that (if you get my book "Going Downtown" be sure to read Chapter Two, "A Long Time Coming"), however Eisenhower did not commit troops - that crucial item was Kennedy's decision after he read the Soviet theory of wars of national liberation while looking for some way to "get back" at Khrushchev for publicly humiliating him at the Vienna Summit.
Yes. That is a plausible explanation. But I think Eisenhower should have made sure that JFK could not do that by pulling out all US opposition to Ho and maybe even publicly congratulating Ho for ejecting the colonists from his country. JFK was young and in need of wise council. Eisenhower was an old warrior who should have taken advantage of his experience and his popularity to put the US on a better track in Southeast Asia.
There was no way any American politician was going to do such a thing in the 1950s. they had all been through McCarthyism, they'd all seen what happened in the far right's "who Lost China?" campaign. Those events left a deep impression on every politician who had been conscious 1949-57. It had to do with why JFK wouldn't have pulled out in the year before standing for re-election and why LBJ went along with the New Frontiersmen.
Yes, that’s true, but Eisenhower was on his way out of politics. All he had to deal with was his legacy. Maybe I ask too much of him, but I think he should have done the right thing. I certainly don’t absolve JFK of blame. Nor LBJ, who, I agree, was far more skilled in politics than JFK (or, for that matter, than anyone since Lincoln but FDR and maybe Pelosi).
Unfortunately there was no way any American politician in that period was going to "do the right thing." It was the height of what would be seen as the coldest part of the Cold War. The GOP right wing would have attacked the "establishment" wing if such a thing had happened.
Eisenhower, who I respect, allowed the 1953 covert overthrow of Iran's Mosaddegh, which Truman had opposed. My knowledge of history is patchy, but it seems to me that move helped to set the stage for the surge of political "religious" fanaticism in the Middle East. In general, I think that covert campaigns to force changes in other nations tends to have troublesome unintended consequences. It's slimy. I believe that Eisenhower as not a fan of Joe McCarthy, but tolerated him (up to a point) because of the size and fervor of his base. I have read that JFK was a defender of McCarthy. I can't quite wrap my mind around what it means to be a president in the modern age. How it is possible to cover all the bases; how not wade into what might be out of one's depth. How not to commit the "sin of pride" or simply, in some ways, play the fool.
My overall impression of JFK remains positive, but I get that he had a creepy side. I think he still looks good compared to Bush II or Trump, and that social justice was more or less expanding under his watch. Vietnam was another strategic and moral disaster, in ways that I think still haunt us, but Kennedy was not the war's sole promoter, though he probably could have stopped it. I am unaware of any president of salient consequence that did not have a creepy side; TR, FDR? I hold some strong criticism of Obama for his seeming over-coddling of banks, his proposed "chained CPI" and the "TPP". Lincoln seemed phobic of black people, though he courageously defended their political rights. I condemn Nixon, but not as much as Reagan. I both admire and criticize Biden. I desperately want him to win.
"Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried from time to time." - Churchill
The Mossadegh overthrow is The Major Plot Point for all Mideastern history. Had Mossadegh and his western-style "British Labour Party" government succeeded, taking back their natural resources and using them for a democratic , secular, moderniztion of Iran, it would have changed the following history by its success. None of what we deal with now would have ever developed and democratic secular governments might be the rule through the middle east. Eisenhower listened to the idiots at Can't Investigate Anything, who were all onboard with British MI6 to protect British Petroleum's "property" in Iran. The big problem was the "mid-Atlantic ruling class" types in the CIA saw themselves and the Pax Americana as the logical successor to the Pax Britannica.
JFK was a "light" defender of McCarthy, but RFK Sr actually worked for the committee.
As far as social justice expanding under JFK - he was dragged kicking and screaming to support civil rights, which he (correctly) saw as the thing that would destroy the Democrats "Solid South." The real social justice warrior was LBJ throughout his political career.
Yes, let’s all do our part in ensuring that democrats win not only at the top but down ballot as well. This can and will happen given the GOP crazed demonic figure who invoke violence with every utterance and is in fact a traitor (the evidence is long but clear).
Thank you so much for this history of Andrew Johnson. No wonder he is ranked so low on the list of Presidents - of course he still ranks above the trumpster.
I really do appreciate these insights into history you share with us.
So, this is a battle for craziest potus ever? I guess the biggest differences are: Johnson (probably) wasn’t supported by a Russian autocrat and, information didn’t travel quite as fast back then.
Well, I guess history doesn’t really repeat itself, but it’s sure starting to rhyme pretty well. We’ll find out if we have a nice poetic ending in November.
May voters in the coming presidential election reject the grifter purveying bibles that flout the separation of church and state so central to the thinking of the Founders of the nation and the Framers of the constitution. It is sacrilegious and profane to elevate the charlatan that is TFG to a quasi savior status.
We who are not Trump cult members can criticize those who see Trump as their savior, but it is easier to call them out here than to change their opinion. When he promises them that he will be their retribution, what do we offer them in return? If we're going to prevail in the elections in November, we must find ways to make clear to those who are not yet true believers what the dangers are in electing a wannabe dictator. What are our best strategies to show the undecided what the differences are between democracy and autocracy?
Propaganda has won the day with them, and the “both sides” agenda of MSM makes it hard for those who need to be told what is normal and what is “alternative facts” to wade through the mire. Sad that so many lost their moral compass as the cretins have made Schitt smell like roses. Power has become the only goal. Repub power is to rule over us. Dem power is to let us decide. Repubs squash voting. Dems expand voting. Enough said for me. BTW, the party switch from the civil war era messes with my mind every time.
I doubt Lincoln ever imagined Republicans hoisting Confederate flags, though he understood that democracy is fragile without consistent care. The fact that excessive, unaccountable power, and the "love" of power, tends to corrupt, is part of every chapter of history.
I have never understood the hubris required to think that one is so special they deserve to be in power and stay in power forever.
Power Play lyrics - From the Steppenwolf 1969 album Monster
What gives you the right hey you
To stand there and tell me what to do
Tell me who gave you the power
To stop me from livin' like I do
Remember if you plan to stay
Those who give can take away.
Don't bite the hand that feeds you
Just one time I'd like to be somewhere where
None of your clever lies fill the air
I'm tired of your frozen smile and voice of tin
Just might all gang up on you
Turn the knob and do you in
This never ending power play
'Tween Jealousy, greed and vicious hate
Is grinding us like giant millstones
But it can't be our only fate
It's time we got our heads together
And let 'em know that we're awake
Those in the dark, you know they're no longer blind
They're breakin' from your strangle hold on their minds
Those who can see don't need no one to cross the street
Be careful who you're pushin' round
They just might find you obsolete
Remember if you plan to stay
Those who give can take away.
Don't bite the hand that feeds you
John Kay's lyrics were among many of that era that used their "rock star" status to challenge authority. I was a sophomore in HS when this and their more-famous "Born To Be Wild" showcased them in Easy Rider. CSNY, the Doors and so many bands of that age became the anti-war movement.
Every generation has its movements and music is a part of that but, no generation since then has used it to the effect of the 60s & 70s. The current generation is missing that connection and would be the perfect time for their music to call out the GOP Haters, climate / science & facts liars with lyrics for this age like my generation did.
PS John Fogerty is still touring this summer and you can bet "Run Through The Jungle" is on the set list - https://johnfogerty.com
A different genre of music, but definitely poised to inspire a generation seeking to have freedoms restored — listen to the phenomenally talented Jon Batiste: Freedom, Be Who You Are, Drink Water, Don’t Stop, and much more!
Don't rap and hip hop do that? I have to admit I'm not very aware of current popular music or its messages, but I thought that rap at least calls out social injustice and has done for 30-something years. I'm pretty sure the female rappers and/or hip hoppers advocate women's rights. I'm also an old fogey and may well be talking out of my ass.
It may not be in her music, but Taylor Swift has wielded a ton of power in favor of Democracy with her encouragemnt to get all her fans to VOTE!!! 💙
BK, i love that era, but don’t forget punk rock in the 80s and 90s, NOFX, Bad Religon, Henry Rollins from Black Flag is, so many more. there is a strong Gen X connection to political punk and hardcore.
https://youtu.be/qI2luxT2Sic?si=3xt-VF_ed7JvVVIO
We're the same age BK, I grew up with all of those songs as well. Was too young to be politically active or recognize so much what was going on in Vietnam, but agreed that it needed to end.
My mother made it clear that I was no better than anyone else. Her greatest gift.
I love that Robbie.
One lesson I wish my parents had taught me was how to listen to others.
My high school composition teacher told us, "you never learn when you are talking." A subtle way of saying, "You need to listen."
In fact, that's what Obama told the hecklers the other night.
Kathy, otherwise it is the root of racism.
Gary, you raise an intriguing issue with the notion of someone's "hubris" if taken to mean "exaggerated pride or self-confidence." In the case of our former president we are most likely talking about someone with a fundamentally narcissistic character structure or disorder. Narcissism is an unconscious defense against the fear that one is quite the opposite, a failure, unworthy or incompetent as a human. To shore oneself up or protect one's self-image one resorts to exaggerated pride or self-confidence. Merriam-Webster added "English picked up both the concept of hubris and the term for that particular brand of cockiness from the ancient Greeks, who considered hubris a dangerous character flaw capable of provoking the wrath of the gods. In classical Greek tragedy, hubris was often a fatal shortcoming that brought about the fall of the tragic hero. Typically, overconfidence led the hero to attempt to overstep the boundaries of human limitations and assume a godlike status, and the gods inevitably humbled the offender with a sharp reminder of their mortality." One usually encounters hubris in those who have had previous success in whatever venue they have chosen, be it warfare, politics or business. Despite perhaps accumulating a bit more money from the millions he inherited, our former president went bankrupt 6 times and presided over the failure of the majority of his spin-off businesses. His exaggerated pride grew not from his previous successes but from a narcissistic character structure designed to defend himself against awareness of his failures as a human being.
Bless you on a spring day for “unpacking” (as a favorite philosophy professor used to say) hubris. As for TFG, he learned it from his KKK father. From the Greeks, other than the plays of Aristophanes, my favorite line remains “…the gods laughed.”
I thought hubris was supplanting (or trying to supplant) the gods' will with one's own. Oedipus' parents thinking they could outwit fate by having him raised by shepherds, that sort of thing. Trump, imho, is just a damaged egotist, not anyone with the stature to go against the gods he doesn't believe in. He's no Prometheus stealing fire from the gods, he's a pickpocket in the agora grubbing for spare change.
Well Said. Thanks for the deep dive into the subject that most do not understand, Critical Thinking verses Myopic / Binary thinking processes.
Thank you for the backstory on hubris. I'm not sure if I used it correctly after reading your comment, but I learned something.
So that's something.
The lyrics remind me of a recent conversation that respect doesn't have to be earned, but can be successfully forced on people. The fear and anger candidate has his followers hornswoggled.
Thank you, Patricia. Hornswoggled in my new word of the day!
Fear to me has NEVER meant respect. It does mean deference and obedience, but NOT respect.
Respect MUST be earned, so far as I think.
Gary, I don’t think that 45 thinks that he deserves to stay in power, he just wants to do so to stay out of prison. He knew that the cops were on his doorstep even without the insurrection—he’d broken the Emoluments clause of the Constitution from day one.
Trump broke the law so many times during his 4 years in office. No wonder he assumed he could get away with January 6th. He got away with everything else -- especially the emoluments clause.
Did you see that a judge ruled that Trump can be indicted criminally for Lafayette Square this past week? That's going to cost him and hopefully Bill Barr will be included in the indictment.
Listening now.
Every chapter, and I was complacent. No one should be after the whipping we have had.
Hi Jeri! I too have trouble with the party switch. It gets me every time. Also this essay from the Professor is like reading today’s news, almost verbatim! Scary, scary 🫣
Does it ever, rich cretins have been chomping at the bit from the git go. I give credit for any success to our ancestors with a work ethic, except for Fredrich Drumpf
Wow, yeah, I had that feeling, too. So much similarity over the ages.
False Equivalency Doctrine
It confuses trumpers, too. One writer said how the democrats were racists, etc. I guess she didn't realize that the party names had switched. I didn't even comprehend it so it must be difficult for people with poor education.
Fox watchers are deliberately confused, but don't feel conflicted. Just drink the kool-aid
I finally figured out how to keep the party platform switch straight -- focus on the slaveholders, the pro-slavery, the racists -- they have always been the ones that held up progress and had to be 'bribed' into agreeing with many of the founding documents and much of any legislation in not just this country. If one side made a deal with the slaveholders, that deal was only good as long as the slaveholders got their way in everything else that came along. Case in point, when LBJ signed the Civil Rights legislation, he knew that he was losing the Southern 'Democrats', aka racists. Ditto for Mitch McConnell and his treatment of Obama.
Same cretins always, just have to tweak our vocabulary
I agree. It is very difficult to keep straight. I envy Heather Cox Richardson that she has such a rich understanding.
She sorts the rat's nest for all of us, now and then
Fits Trump to a T. Any decent person should be motivated to reject him after reading this. His sociopathy was obvious in the way he got people to pay for it by maxing out their credit cards.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/5-types-people-who-can-ruin-your-life/201803/are-you-the-target-sociopath-part-i-2
Betsy, In response to the crucial questions you raise, I believe we must take great effort to drive home what it would mean to lose our democracy and how our way of life would change. Trump already has stated he would enact the Insurrection Act on Day 1 of his presidency. He’s already spoken about rounding up his political enemies. Accordingly, we can’t relent in urging people, whatever their reasons for remaining complacent or uncommitted, to imagine what America would look like were the President to start moving the National Guard around to put down our voices, our right to dissent, perhaps indefinitely detaining us. This is not without precedent. Trump had wanted to criminalize protests around Black Lives Matter for the murder of George Floyd.
Expanding upon rights and freedoms that would be ripped away, as an example, I would advise we amplify that a court willing to overturn 50 years of settled precedent in Roe would do that with other fundamental protections, even those, like Roe, that over and over again had been reaffirmed.
Ultimately, we have 7 months to urge uncommitted or indifferent voters to listen to the things Trump says and the people he admires. No one should doubt that whatever freedoms we have in this country, whatever one likes about this country, dramatically would change were Trump to return to the White House.
Clearly, Trump is showing frequent signs of dementia. In 2016 and 2020 Psychiatrists and Neurologists hesitated to label TFFG's aberrant behaviors as mental disorders in 2016 and 2020. Not so much anymore.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-dementia-evidence-overwhelming-top-psychiatrist-1881247
And that's just one of dozens of articles from the MSM about TFFG's mental decline.
But that doesn't seem to affect his cult, they lap it up. There's something very wrong with a political system that allows someone so vile, dangerous and mentally unfit to be the only choice of one of its 2 political parties. There's too much money pouring in from dark money sources, too much power in Federalist Society hand picked justices, and too much equal treatment of the parties by the media. People are not being truthfully informed so they can't make an intelligent decision especially those who never were taught critical thinking, history or civics in school.
Well said, Dotty.
What makes me sad about the cult is that the collapse of American public schools after WWII left so many with no history and no civics courses. So called “Departments of Education” replaced the basic humanities and sciences courses with multiple choice testing and only math and science seem to have survived. Liberal arts colleges are decreasing every year. Time to wake up and learn history, arts, and foreign languages. Why do Ukrainians learn complex weapons systems so quickly? Think two languages and two alphabets behind most of them.
It truly is a sad state of affairs, starting with the fact that anti-intellectualism has been around a long time in this country. This of course has been weaponized by the r's who love to yammer on about "the elites." That they may have degrees from ivy league schools seems to not matter.
Liberal arts: there was a recent New Yorker article with an unfortunately click-baity title, something like "Are the Liberal Arts Getting Conservative." It was actually about how some schools have attempted to return to a more classical education. This sounded really promising, especially in the schools serving kids who are usually underserved. But this has been co-opted by conservatives who want to use their version of it to get rid of supposed liberal indoctrination. One politician said something about wanting kids to be able to make their own decisions without the government getting in the way. Said with zero irony, of course.
What truly scares me, after I agree 💯 with what you wrote there Dotty, is that MAGA is basically saying the same thing.
Thank the Roberts court
Hear Here!!
And we can make that political system work for us again, as the founders intended.We can elect a person who will throw off the corporate capture from our government , who will tell us the truth, and respectfully listen to both Democrats and Republicans.We have this exciting opportunity to elect RFKJR.
Even JFK Jr’s siblings have warned us not to vote for him. He is not like our past Kennedy leaders. He would not be good for America!!
Oh good grief, John, you've got to be kidding.
John,
I have been voting since 1970 and looking carefully at the actions of the people I have voted for. Politicians promise the world but rarely do even a very small bit of what they promised. Biden has achieved more progressive progress for all Americans than anyone since Johnson. RFKJR has none of Biden’s experience that gives him the ability to make real progress. Compare Sanders promises with Biden’s achievements. Look at who Biden has brought into his administration. Biden is the real deal!
RFK, Jr. is the anti science candidate. Just what we need. /s
Maybe he has been exposed to too much Wi-Fi and cell phone "waves".
This man is not a serious person, John.
https://www.politifact.com/article/2023/jul/10/rfk-jrs-wi-fi-claim-about-human-blood-brain-barrie/
John, I’m going to summarize some of Kennedy’s positions, and would love for you to tell us why you would support a candidate who espouses these positions.
Abortion: Kennedy’s views are unclear. He has voiced support for a 15 week ban, then backtracked that amid backlash. Calls every abortion a tragedy.
Antisemitism: has said that Covid is a bio weapon created by Ashkenazi Jews and the Chinese to target Caucasians and Black people.
Immigration: has backed Texas in its illegal quest to usurp federal power over the border.
Ukraine: has called the war in Ukraine unnecessary which should be settled by diplomacy and criticizes US support of Ukraine.
Vaccines: Kennedy has spouted the dangerous nonsense that vaccines cause autism. He doubts the efficacy of the measles vaccine. He spread misinformation about Covid vaccination.
Source for the above: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/rfk-jr-abortion-vaccines-housing-foreign-policy-2024-03-20/
Compulsive womanizing: Kennedy kept a diary rating the 37 women with whom he cheated on his wife in one year. His wife’s discovery of the diary contributed to her suicide.
For most of us here, any one of these stances is disqualifying. Together, they are damning. Kennedy is a liar, a cheat, a compulsive womanizer, an anti-vax nut job, a conspiracy theorist, and an anti-Semite. He is also the gravest threat to Biden’s candidacy, and a vote for him makes a second Trump term more possible. I do not think you will find many fellow travelers here, John, and I, for one, find your support of such a man as repulsive as if you were a Trump supporter.
John, surely you jest! RFKJR is a Kennedy in name only, and his entire family denounces him. His vaccine conspiracy theories, alone, disqualify him for office. Her has always been an entitled joke, and his father and JFK are spinning in their graves.
John Daigle, I've been thinking about your endorsement of RFK, Jr., and I have several questions for you:
1)Do you think that RFK, Jr. is likely to win the presidency?
2)If not, from whom do you think he will siphon the most votes?
3)Do you think that if Biden or Trump (or RFK, Jr.) wins, that will strengthen our democracy and bring us closer to "a more perfect union"?
4)Whom did you vote for in 2016 and 2020?
Hope this is sarcasm
Not kidding Dotty, guess I’ve drunk the koolaid, I’ve never before been so hopeful for a candidate.He is just a man , not Jesus. Happy Easter.
Then Trump has the gall to accuse President Biden of suffering from dementia. I think Trump is, and he’s out there encouraging dangerous political violence.
Heather’s statement that tfg can never stop being a victim is important to his cult status grabbed me. I’d never thought of it quite that clearly. I’d wondered why he, clearly no victim, wasn’t tired of whining 24/7 and why his followers weren’t worn out with it. Guess it’s obvious now that I know.
Many have eyes with which to see and yet they look not, many have ears with which to hear and yet they listen not. It is a choice which has its consequences if unheeded.
The article started out with professionals giving descriptions of Trump’s dementia. But then had a Trump spokesman saying Biden is demented and Trump is fine. Bollocks. Both-sides BS.
And yet, Trump supporters don't believe he will do that.
Susan, My call for concretizing what it would mean to lose our democracy is not meant for the MAGA cult. As stated in my comment, its intent is to impress upon complacent and uncommitted voters the rights and freedoms that would be ripped away were Trump to return to the White House. Additionally, I would note, in 2020, the largest bloc of voters were non-voters, whom I expect did not support Trump.
Excellent comments. I have shared to my social network.
Thank you, Dan.
Barbara, in listening to MAGA supporters, they believe themselves to be safe from being rounded up; they rejoice in the idea of the “elites” who regularly disparage them being locked up (especially uppity minorities and Feminazis).
Mary, Because my reply would be identical to the one I just posted to Susan, who is part of this thread, if I may, I would ask you refer to that response.
Done—great statement. Thank you for writing it.
Mary, Thank you for taking the time to read that reply. I believe all the exchanges and clarifications among us are key to helping each of us engage in ways that allow for increasingly meaningful results.
Where truth is now "created," as TFG does when he labels his posts on his social media platform "truths," changing MAGA minds will be difficult if not impossible. But working to get the vote out is not. Help register voters, help knock doors, help write postcards, letters to editor. In my state 9000 or more registered Democrats failed to vote.. We would have a very different government had they turned out. I believe those minds are reachable.
As I am reduced from marching to postcard writing, imaging them on refrigerators as reminders. They have been shown to be useful
Studies show that postcards can bring to the polls 1-4% of otherwise unlikely voters. That may not sound like a huge amount, but it is often enough to change the result of an election.
Cards also go to voters who have missed a vote. Reminders.
Edited to add commas.
If they have any humanities, Betsy, we could start there.
My guess is, however, that too many U.S. schools, in buckling under to the living dead of standardized testing, have left too many helplessly dehumanized, and thus prey to the demagogue. As they are prey to the billionaire social media predators, and their formulae for hate, divisiveness, group think.
Back in the 1950s I (a young student myself) recall reading a newspaper column by Sydney J Harris in which he described an approach to teaching that treated students a "inanimate sausage casings" to be stuffed with information. It was happening then and might (in some ways) be worse today. Children develop. They not all wired the same, nor share identical talents and interests; and that's a good thing since our diversity as a society vastly expands our horizons as a species, but the "easy way" is to try to stamp them out like machine parts. You don't force a tomato to grow (at least not the "organic" ones) you give them what they need to thrive, and that means knowing tomatoes.
I'm not dissing teachers here, I married one; but rather the politics of curricular design. We are doing something wrong when a large section of the populace thinks that they (and society) are healthier for getting sick than being vaccinated, just for example. We aren't just studying to pass tests, or even to just to survive on the job. We, especially in an increasingly complicated world, need a full complement of skills to navigate reality; like the tides and temperatures rising around us. Like how to disagree without killing each other. Like how to make government of the people, by the people, for the people run as a practical matter.
Advertising tries to control people, when what we need is to liberate and engage them. Where is there robust infrastructure for that? Democracy (like this site) is a conversation, or it's not really democracy.
Very well done.
Good to hear from you JLG! It's always to nice listen and have a "good Conversation."
Standardised testing is not the enemy. As a gifted child of a low-income home who had had irregular school attendance and indifferent grades, my good standardised test scores were the only thing that gave me the chance to escape poverty and participate in the world of higher education.
I remember taking the Iowa Basics tests in the 3rd - 6th grades and then the Stanford-Binet testing in high school. Although not required, we then took the PSAT, SAT and the ACT. None of my excellent.teachers taught to the tests, but I suspect the school district used these scores to separate each grade in our elementary school into what we called, "the smart class, the dumb class and the other class."
Our school district had one person of color the entire 13 years I was there unless you count the handful of Asians.
So was our school district racist? I imagine it was by design because people of color were likely prevented from purchasing homes or renting there.
The ugliest most hypocritical form of racism is segregation.
but you are the exception, not the rule.
Maybe you were a talented test taker, something many are not.
the result of over regulate and under fund conservative public policy on schools
Betsy, you ask the question that is in all of our minds. I have decide to forget trying to change minds and and focus on being visable and vocal
in promoting Biden. Wear a Biden shirt or button. Speak up when the opportunity presents itself. We need to let the "undecided" know there are more of us than what the news says.
Also, write to all the forms of media, newspapers, TV, and social media. Emphasize that they need to have reporters and not entertainers. They have to get beyond poll numbers and false equivalencies and explain the different future each candidate will create. They have to report about how bizarre it is to have a criminal conman rapist selling Bibles as a part of his attempt to raise money for his legal fees. The cancer of greed and racism has already metastasize through several branches of our government. The treatment is the injection of truth and justice.
I’m taking HCR’s advice here and “taking up oxygen “ as you and she suggest.The only difference is that down deep, we know Biden can’t restore democracy, RFKJR will.
The point is to RETAIN it, not restore it.
We know that neither Biden nor Trump (nor RFK, Jr., but this is not the place to explore how dangerous he and his theories are) nor any one individual can restore democracy. That is a task that we must all undertake together. At the same time, we know that Trump and the 2025 plan will destroy our democracy, so the path is clear. We need to vote Blue and encourage everyone we know to do the same.
RFK, Jr. has serious mental problems. Even his family sees it.
Idiota
I've got a Bernie button. Not sure if I have a Biden button. But wherever I go, my Biden/Harris bumper stickers are there.
Certainly those who are not pledged to the cult will make the difference here. I think there are points to be made by pointing to contrasts.
Indeed!
Good question, Betsy. Here's my answer. We need to use the campaign weapons we have been handed by the enemy.
In every election or referendum since the Deadly Dobbs Decision, those campaigning for Reproductive Rights have won. It is THE issue that will motivate voters of all ages. Dobbs is archaic and a form of totalitarianism. A form of government intervention in the private lives of families everywhere. It's a step too far. Add to that the White Supremacist Nationalist movement and we have a formula for victory. "Maga is telling you how many kids to have and how to worship!"
But there is much more.
If in chatting with others who are undecided, women's reproductive and health rights are not enough to convince them, pull out short recap of what Project 2025 will do to our health, freedom and the future of the Planet.
These are two powerful weapons. Let's use them and win!
Watch Friday's episode of Deadline White House. The results of having this autocrat group win is spelled out in detail. Great information to formulate questions to get them thinking.
And yet....when an Arizona couple were interviewed by a TV reporter and asked if democracy is on the line in the November election....they demured and said that was an overblown description of what Trump would do. In other words, his words were not sinking in.
Repetition is necessary. The FOX audience gave had poison repeatedly pumped into them. It will take lots of Repetition of truth for it to penetrate.
I fear that people who are so ignorant of politics and history cannot be informed sufficiently at this late date to change their thinking and their voting behavior. We had to have started in high school at the latest.
Betsy, while many here will have different opinions, I believe our power lies in helping get out the vote. Helping to register voters now and closer to the election, helping get out the vote. How? Postcards to voters, phone calls, door knocking, and providing rides to the polls are very effective in motivating people to vote. And there are many organizations nationally helping coordinate such efforts including Indivisible and postcardstovoters.org.
One iof the best source for ideas about actions you can take is Jessica Craven’s Chop Wood, Carry Water newsletter here on Substack. I also subscribe to Hopium Chronicles, from Simon Rosenberg here on Substack. Rosenberg’s analysis of current political trends is anchored in facts/ statistics and includes big doses of hope and good news. It is worth every nickle but if you can’t afford it, you can still subscribe.
Some here will note that the mainstream media continues to treat Trump and the Republicans as if their actions are normal and this is just a horse race election like any other. I can’t argue with that. But few of us here are powerful enough by ourselves to change that narrative (though I believe we did a great job of telling NBC to rethink Ronna McDaniel’s hiring!). The power we do have is being active and helping get out the vote. Democrats need our actions, $$$ and full-throated, nonstop support. Let’s do this!!
My local Indivisible group is very active in sending GOTV postcards, so that's another way to get involved. In the past, it's just been urging people to register and vote, but they've now started endorsing specific candidates.
Indivisible is great! Thank you for your GOTV efforts.
Learn all you can about Project 2025 and what Trump/Heritage Foundation have in store on Day 1. MAGA is a cult and these people need to be de-programed somehow. Just Vote Blue.
Write lots of postcards informing seniors of the very real intention of the Trumpers to cancel Social Security, and encourage them to vote!Also call all your Senators and Representatives who matter and tell them what you think. Mike Johnson may be swayed by thousands of devout Christians begging him to walk in Jesus’s path and send aid to the victims of aggression, like Ukrainians, and non-combatant Palestinians. You know what I mean? You can find a complete list of phone numbers of every Senator and Congressman on Jessica Craven’s site,”Chop Wood, Carry Water”, or look up your elected public servants contact info directly. A balance of internal activity, prayer,and external activity, providing friendly helpful feedback about their performance in office to your elected representatives, is a good way to improve the energy in the world and lower your blood pressure. At least it works for me. Making the world a better place is always a good idea!
Oddly enough, those now in America who are best suited to get across the idea of what a second Trump administration might try/accomplish are those recent immigrants that Republicans are so eager to repel. For many of them come from countries mired deeply in just the kind of authoritarianism and corruption that Trump and his myrmidons exemplify.
Unfortunately, the ones least able to comprehend or accurately predict what another four years of Trump might be like are the rest of us natives (Democrats and Republicans alike) simply because the vast majority of us have never experienced anything like it. We may make all sort of dire predictions about the end of democracy or else endlessly prate about all the 'accomplishments' of Trump during his first act and assume the second will be a repeat, but neither group really knows what's likely to happen.
I think there are two things that might begin to move enough avid Trumpists away from him to make the crucial difference. These people think Trump has their back. In fact Trump doesn't give a damn about them except as hands to pull voting levers and a plethora of pockets, large and small, to pay his geometrically increasing legal bills. He hollers that he is their retribution, but in fact he is desperately depending on they being his.
I don't really think he wants to be president again (in all honesty I'm not sure why anyone would want the job these days); he just believes that being re-elected is the only chance he has to stay out of jail.
Trumpists will not be persuaded on the basis of what we think will happen politically. They either don't believe us, don't have any idea of the potential, or simply don't care. But if they can be made to see the reality of Trump's priorities, none of which would affect them in any positive way, perhaps some might begin to pull away. And like a small hole in a great dam, a small rivulet might well turn into a tsunami.
YES, good messaging from our people — ideas and information. Yes.
Retribution for what, though? The other side makes up these bogeymen and conspiracy theories, and convinces people that they are being attacked, marginalized, or having their rights or jobs taken away, when it's not really happening at all. Our job is difficult--trying to convince these scared people that the threats don't really exist.
It is blasphemous for tRump to be hawking Bibles, with those extra additions to boot. A bolt of lightning out of the blue ought to zap him.
Jenn, you're absolutely right. As to the "additions", I wonder if "2 Corinthians" -- which trompy said was his favorite chapter -- is in there. Also, I wonder: has anyone done a word-by-word comparison of his "bible" and the standard accepted text? I'd bet his is written to have changes which mitigate his many amoral acts which he can cite "chapter and verse" in his Truth Socialying. Are there now three testaments-- the old, the new, and the My Struggle testament?
Was it Andy Borowitz who suggested that in the trump bible, David paid hush money to Bathsheba?
Yep
John Stoehr also sees this as a bid for violating the First Amendment by establishing Christian Nationalism as an official American church. The idea of an established church was anathema to founders like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Your last sentence should make a Christian heart shudder. Sad that some hearts are bought or hard as granite.
'Profile in Ignorance: Eric Trump'
'A Borowitz Report Sunday Read' (Satire)
MAR 31
'Eric Trump’s default expression: bafflement.'
'When we think about Donald J. Trump’s adult male spawn, we tend to focus on the older, sweatier one. That’s fine with Don Jr., who’s spoken at countless Nuremberg-style rallies to prove himself worthy of his namesake. At CPAC in 2023, for example, he roasted Sen. John Fetterman, who was recovering from a series of health problems.' “Pennsylvania managed to elect a vegetable,” he said, a Mephistophelean gleam in his eyes. “I’d love for John Fetterman to have, like, good gainful employment. Maybe he could be, like, a bag guy at a grocery store.” (© 2024 Andy Borowitz 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104)
...
Cruelty. And they lap it up
Hello Lynn. Yes, that is one of the true horrors now in the US: Trump & Enablers displaying and fostering hatred, cruelty, scapegoating, lies, corruption, fear, greed, unreality, violence, nightmares...infecting many of us.
Peace: we work together to overcome this disease.
Fern-
Did you hear that Borowitz is ending his contract with the New Yorker? His site Borowitzreport already has 374,000 subscribers.
I got a kick out of his group rate. For a group of 2 it is $100/year and for 2 individuals it is also $100..
Confirmed. It has already happened. The comment re: Borowitz was from his substack. See link below.
https://www.borowitzreport.com/
Fern, as always, your sharp wit informs as well as entertains, Thanks again.
Rebekha, so good to see you today as always.
Salud!
You know, I think we now here must claim the separation of church and state, considering those now in charge of interpreting the Constitution are cherry picking it and subverting this fundamental right.
This is OUR right to accept or reject religious control of any sect, or none.
The Founders aren't here to defend themselves, so we must.
You can't talk about religion and government in the United States without talking about Leonard Leo. And the billions of plutocrat dark money he funnels through a myriad of shell companies to innumerable antidemocratic initiatives and racist right wing religious extremist populist causes - from the Federalist Society turning the Constitution on its head draining American law of justice and funding the Heritage Society Project 2025 for an imperial presidency, to diverting public school funds to Christian academies. Just as Trump is the bullhorn for GOP corporate clerical fascism, Leo is its human manure spreader.
Yet HCR never mentions Leo.
Definitely agree.
flout.
Thank you! I think auto correct did me wrong - again.
Sorry to be so pedantic. I got "flaunt/flout" corrected a few years back and never forgot.
Words matter. Happy you caught it. No apology needed.
I"m on the spectrum. These sorts of mistakes jump out at me and go Nyah!!! I've found mistakes in published books. And I've proofed a few friends' books for them.
I think you mean "flout" rather than "flaunt".
Amen
Also it’s unconstitutional!
One other point about those Bibles Trump's selling.
You know who buys a lot of Bibles? Churches.
You know who can't legally make a political contribution? Also churches.
You know who's getting a cut of every Trump Bible sold? Trump.
See what's going on now?
WWJD? He would overturn the tables filled with TFFG's Bibles.
Isn't it time to revoke the non-profit status of these faux-Christian institutions?
Yesterday would not have been soon enough. Please also revoke the non profit status of the ivies with the rich endowments.
Please read my comment to Lex here.
?? If there was supposed to be a link, it didn't come through.
It's right here under your original comment, at least in my display. I was only saying that very few congregations could afford to pay $60 each for bibles, or to buy them in sufficient quantities to use such purchases to conceal significant campaign donations.
It's not showing up for me. But to address the substance of your comment: I rather imagine that Trump is overestimating the amount of money this grift can bring in, from churches or anyone else. To the extent that he knows this, I suspect that this is less about money and more about virtue signaling for his base.
Sometimes Substack doesn't display comments in thread form. I've noticed that. I'm sorry if my comment didn't show up in the thread that developed under your original comments. It's weird because all these comments are showing up in thread form for me.
They know how to skirt every law, and zip right through every loophole
Good faith is the lifeblood of a free society. The Constitution is powerless without it. We can fend off some degree of exceptional mendacity; but if too many side with cheating, corruption can go septic.
I believe it was FDR that said :When a representative government is unable to deliver for its citizens, then an autocrat is able to come to power or something like that.
Our CONservative leaders are making sure to lock up the federal government from delivering for the people while they have gained and entrenched themselves in control of many states. Notice how many CONservative states are now refusing federal money to feed kids during the summers? how many are now refusing federal money to help their schools? How many misspent COVID money? The CONservative leaders have conspired to do this. I do not say that lightly either. Look at what they do, then listen to what they say. Their public statements and actions are almost Xerox copies due to groups like the ALEC.
Good point to spell out.
I am vaguely reminded of how a virus invades and reworks the genetic code of the cell to convert a living cell into a doomed virus factory.
What keeps me awake at night, Texas is teetering…
The part that slays me is they can steal enough $ to hire the lawyers to tie these court cases up for a very long time.
And that there are lawyers who have souls for sale. Really chapped me when I paid my $6,000 tax bill this year.
Crawl. Slither
Please read my comment to Lex here.
That isn’t useful, as Substack doesn’t offer any way to find your comment. I’m sure it’s somewhere in these dozens of pages of comments, but good luck finding it. If it’s really that good, just copy-paste it. But beware that doing that more than once is quite irritating to readers. Better to summarize.
The comment is right under Lex's comment. At least in my display.
Wonderful… and where is Lex’s comment?
Excellent point--Truth Social and Trump's real estate deals are the same gambit, steering around laws about political contributions from foreign powers. All this has been put on steroids by Citizens v. United, dark money flowing through LLCs, on and on.
I've slowly come to the conclusion we must bar all candidates from using their own money or do any solicitation of money as they run for office. Taxpayers need to establish a fund from which candidates get a stock amount they can draw from to conduct their campaigns. Think of it as a UBI payment. Needs to apply to all State and Federal election seats. People who apply to run must qualify and must be actively campaigning to get more funds each month.
This will result in more equity (allowing less wealthy candidates to at least run), stopper up the worst of the campaign finance corruption we've been watching, and get around the right to free speech.
Nothing will stop groups like Heritage Foundation running ads on various issues or stating their preference for x or y or z candidate--but it could be required they show the money trail, how much they paid for the ads, how many were run in which markets, so we all know who is behind the ad and who and where it was targeted. They already flood our media with this junk anyhow, and always will do it, but at least the money won't be siphoned directly into the politician's pocket.
Politicians won't be constantly begging for more money to run, either, saving a lot of time and energy that could be spent on solving this country's problems instead.
And limit campaign ads to the 90 days prior to election. I think this is similar to what happens in Canada?
I haven't done my homework on what other countries do, but that is interesting, will look up Canada's approach. Of course, Canada probably doesn't have quite the pressures (or the size of problems) that we do, so may not translate so well. But there has got to be a way to re-boot and re-design this to get most, if not all, of the influential money makers out of the game...or at the very least, if they insist on staying in the game, every move they make exposed....
Check out what the French do. They limed campaigning to a few weeks before the elections and no TV ads I think.
Indeed, the lineage is paramount.
Very few congregations have the financial wherewithal to purchase Bibles at $60 a crack. Most, when they buy Bibles, buy them at a quantity discount from legitimate publishers (none of whom, by the way, wanted to publish this Bible. We don't, in fact, know who's publishing it.)
And disguising campaign contributions in the form of Bible purchases probably would not work anyway, especially given that the price tag on this Bible would be a red flag to any tax official.
But what about the Mega churches. There are several in Jacksonville, FL that are flush with cash.
But with more churches going under each year than starting up now, most will not have the money to pay $59.95 + approx $20 for shipping and handling.
Will the Christian book stores carry the TFFG Bible I wonder?
It has become so easy to search the Bible on the Internet why open a hardcopy?
Let them do what they do. I don't care a whit what any of them do. They don't represent the vast majority of Christian congregations in the USA.
They are not going to be able to offer this Bible in large quantities for immediate delivery, from what I understand. They are expecting a four to six week delivery time for individual orders.
Why do we not know the publisher?
My guess is it's not being published or printed in the USA. Like his hats.
Good question. I got the information from this article.
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2024/03/27/trump-bible-behind-lee-greenwoods-god-bless-the-usa-bible/73108453007/?fbclid=IwAR16XoXOYaRFr7jvwq1J20TE_cHEjYn9pjkOL3Md4iWmYTtfiKNeSHtp-8c
Great reply with Link included. We should all take the small time it takes to read / listen to this. My narrator is my Savior now adays!
I thought I read that it was a Trump Inc, subsidiary but I may be wrong.
I just looked it up on Amazon. Amazon says it's "Independently published." Also: "This American Bible invites you to explore God's word anywhere, at any time with easy-to-read clear print and a slim design. This Bible will deliver an inspiring experience in the patriotic American Standard Version translation. This Bible is perfect to take with you to church, or to Bible study, and to your work and on your travels. Let the world know you by your acts. As a true American Bible it also features:
Lyrics to “God Bless The USA” by Lee Greenwood
The US Constitution
The Bill of Rights
The Declaration of Independence
The Pledge of Allegiance
This Bible has a high quality cover made of imitation leather graphics achieving our discounted price."
So on top of everything else, the "high quality" cover is made of imitation leather. ACK!!
Amazon is incorrect, at least as far as the translation used--it's not the American Standard translation, but the older Authorized (or "King James") Version. A brief publication history is found in the newspaper article I cited above. I'll link it here too.
The thing to know is that legitimate US Bible publishers didn't want to publish a Bible that would also include the nation's founding documents and more. And though the article doesn't say this specifically, the holders of the copyright to the modern translation they originally wanted to use (The New International Version or NIV--probably the most popular among evangelicals today) apparently took a pass on giving them permission as well. So they had to resort to printing a public domain translation. This reluctance of publishers to get involved in this project says something about its nature.
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2024/03/27/trump-bible-behind-lee-greenwoods-god-bless-the-usa-bible/73108453007/?fbclid=IwAR16XoXOYaRFr7jvwq1J20TE_cHEjYn9pjkOL3Md4iWmYTtfiKNeSHtp-8c
Yup.
Another prolific buyer of bibles : hotels. It's always weird and jolting to find a gideon bible in a bureau drawer in a hotel . Also, courthouses.
Hotels don't have to buy Bibles, the Gideons GIVE Bibles to hotels free of charge. The only hotel that would shell out $60 times a couple hundred rooms for Bibles is probably owned by trump or one of his flunkies. (and they would probably find someway to not actually pay for them)
Good point. Still creepy to have Gideons littering hotels with bibles.
Ages ago, a Texas woman, Madeleine Murray, spoke reasonably for taxing “churches”, including their shrimp fishing fleets, etc. She was cast as a crazy by media as a way to deflect the bond of church and state.
The Enlightenment supported a secularism that the US has denied over centuries.
Thanks for reminding we readers of this ongoing challenge that.
None of the proceeds from these Bible sales is going into Trump's campaign fund. It's all going to Trump himself. Alex Wagner explained this on her program last week.
In other words, this is just another Trump grift. Like Trump steaks or Trump University.
https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/fleecing-the-flock-fine-print-shows-how-trump-takes-his-cut-of-followers-money-207851077618
Exactly! It's a way around churches getting to support him. It's fraud.
... oh, preys the lord!!
Thank you Professor Richardson. I suspect Johnson was born a few generations too early. He would have been a constant fixture as a guest on Fox 'News' -with their pundits asking the question "Can Johnson and Trump 'Save America' and return it's great Southern traditions of slavery, violence, and hatred?"
Ironic that 163 years later, Trump has Mike Johnson instead of Andrew doing his bidding.
Hey, George. I just commented about the two men named Johnson. Ironic, indeed.
Ha!
George and Lynell, your reminding me of the old trope about the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy, and the eerie irony that they were both succeeded by their VPs named Johnson.
Hey, Daniel!
Hi Lynell!
Happy Easter!
Happy Easter to you, too!
Although it is a pretty common name. I was going to include Wisconsin's idiot, Ron Johnson in the mix, but didn't. I suppose the irony would be more compelling if Andrew and Mike's last name were something like Santosingtonshireagut.
He deserves to be included on the wall of infamy
The Grate Wall of Trump?
I was hoping he would need an infirmary.
Or a morgue
🤣
Santosingtonshiregut, such a wonderful descriptive name. I predict all MAGAs will use this moniker in the future.
Good one George!
And, note that it's a nickname for ...you know what.
Johnson & Johnson, not just band-aids anymore...
OMG, Steve...perfect!
Lynell, same here. And I suggest that Biden & Harris not share the same stage for fear of the progression to POTUS.
Agree, Rob!
More ironic, George, that the fat orange guy has more than one "doing his bidding."
He's got, yes, Speaker of the House Howdy Doody. But also Lindsey Graham over in the Senate. Two southerners, both so vertically challenged as to need to cling to some tall, fat guy, even with face caked thick with minstrel show orange, diapers oleaginous, pungent.
And then the southern ladies, Marjorie Taylor Gazpacho with her fulsome twang, and Nancy Mace, with her South Carolina legislature going out of its way to gerrymander a seat even safer for her.
And don't forget Elise Stefanik, seldom photographed with her MAGA mouth closed.
Yes, George. But so many R's in that do-nothing Congress.
But they do something. Consistently. Regularly. Guaranteed. And that's express hatred. Fume in the culture wars. Ban books. Go apoplectic at immigrants. Seek justices for the Clarence court who have no compunction about perjuring themselves, but total contempt for American women and their family choices. Gerrymander. Close down avenues for voting. Scurry after billionaires, fossil fuel giants, Big Pharma, Industrial Ag, defense contractors, AR-15 manufacturers, and AIPAC for loyalty to their money (not for America -- nothing for America).
Money is the private church they pray to when the cameras and microphones are off.
Not sure about that, George.
I think they're also too busy unloading more seed pods from the trucks to replace the rest of us. (You know, the Don Siegel film from 1956, "Invasion of the . . ..").
Yes, all is for power and control! No doubt!!
That’s a good one George!!!👍
She’s an example of someone who has changed her position to suck up to Trump & MAGA !
Yep, what goes around, comes back around. Hope the propaganda onslaught doesn’t give an edge to the cretins, when the whole of our country gets a say.
Jekyll/Hyde human nature has been with us "forever". Some of the same scripts keep reappearing, but with different players.
Proof of what you say here, J L, is evident in this song from Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific - 1958:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPf6ITsjsgk
Morning, Lynell! One of the best songs from a musical ever!
Morning, Happy Easter, Ally!
I was six years old when the movie came out. I never saw it. But my mom, a local professional singer (she was pretty good!) bought all the musical albums of the day. Of course, South Pacific was among them. We played those albums over and over again. That song, to my young ears, gave me "sad" vibes.
That means it is a well-crafted song. Happy Easter to you and yours.
Thanks to narcissistic personality disorders .
At least Ms. Richardson's column makes one wonder why Andrew Johnson is on the $20 bill.
He's not... it's Andrew JACKSON on the $20 bill.
True, but I still wonder.
I pray that swing and moderate voters recognize the danger MAGA poses and repudiates the extremism by voting g resoundingly Blue 💙 in November. MAGA extremism is not American. It’s hate and d division and chaos whipped up by Putin. JUST SAY NO!!
Hope that works better than it did with the lure of drugs
Also, write lots of postcards informing seniors of the very real intention of the Trumpers to cancel Social Security. Also call all your Senators and Representatives who matter and tell them what you think. Mike Johnson may be swayed by thousands of devout Christians begging him to walk in Jesus’s path and send aid to the victims of aggression, like Ukrainians, and non-combatant Palestinians. You know what I mean? You can find a complete list of phone numbers of every Senator and Congressman on Jessica Craven’s site,”Chop Wood, Carry Water”, or look up your elected public servants contact info directly. A balance of internal activity, prayer,and external activity, providing friendly helpful feedback about their performance in office to your elected representatives, is a good way to improve the energy in the world and lower your blood pressure. At least it works for me. Making the world a better place is always a good idea!
Presumably Trump knows the Pledge of Allegiance and the chorus to the song. I doubt he’s ever read any other parts of this bible he’s hawking, certainly not the constitution. I’d also like to reference an alternate form of the Pledge of Allegiance I first read from Matt Groening of The Simpson’s fame from his comic strip Life in Hell:
I plead alignment to the flakes of the entitled snakes of a merry cow. And to the republicans for which they scam: one nacho, underpants with licorice and jugs of wine for owls.
Somehow this seems surprisingly relevant now, (I know he did other forms of the pledge of allegiance but this is the one that stuck with me.)
🤣
I'm cracking up too, Barbara! Especially "jugs of wine for owls"!
It sort of struck me as Trump going deeper into dementia the further he gets into trying to complete an actual sentence. Perfecto.
That’s a good one-I like the entitled snakes 🐍 part!!🤣Sounds about right
Oh god, I loved "Life in Hell"
🤣🦉🍷🤣
That is priceless!!!
😂
About that "Bible" - Lincoln Project posted a comment:
"Let this sink in: Trump is selling a Bible for $60... during Holy Week... and the money may go towards covering his legal fees for paying off a porn star he slept with while married to his pregnant wife.
Christians, do you want this false prophet governing in your name?"
If he's against abortion, then almost every "christian" I know is for him.
He's an adulterer, no problem.
He's a liar, no problem.
In fact, he can break the 10 commandments and it wouldn't be a problem.
And the churches wonder why people are leaving religion behind.
In my opinion religion has done way more harm than good.
Beth, he HAS broken all Ten Commandments and violated several of the amendments to the US Constitution.
But you're right, Biden is the devil because he's not TFFG and Trump is Jesus incarnate.
Trump is devoted to every one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Thanks Kathy. Here they are - pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth, which are contrary to the seven heavenly virtues - prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, faith, hope, and charity.
"The opposite of justice is poverty." Bryan Stevenson. In the US you can buy justice until you run out of money and have to sell Bibles and tennis shoes.
True. Trump seems to be especially devoted to lust, envy, greed, wrath, gluttony, and sloth. It’s true what you say about justice being a monetary commodity. My belief is that Trump has taken over the RNC in order to milk their bank accounts for his own benefit, and that will prevent them from funding downballot candidates. He wants to pad his own bottom line and become dictator, which is the last thing we need.
I agree.
Check, check, check, check
check, check
and check.
It's very weird that so much genocide, torture, backstabbing politics, avarice, egomania, etc. is attributed to devotion to someone who preached forgiveness and kindness, so far as I can tell.
I know. Jesus would have wept.
Christians don’t, pseudo Christian’s love the power trip
I think you're being too generous.
He didn't "sleep with" her.
How she described it, seems more like a flyby or 10 second near miss.
He certainly helped to transform the "Party of Lincoln" into a true "den of thieves".
Isn't amazing that after 156 years the Supreme Court keeps trying to eviscerate the 14th Amendment? I don't think the conservative justices are coming at it from the point of law; I think it's only from the point of conservative politics.
This court is laser focused on just that
Exactly. The majority on the Robert’s Kangaroo court have proven to be unqualified partisan hacks that care nothing about the law.
Certainly nothing about justice.
Nevoustrumpezpas, vous avez raison!
Judges or saboteurs?
Johnson and Trump share a lot in common. Racism and irreligious divinity of cause. But Trump is the ultimate grifter. He always was “on” the grift. A stolen dollars was worth more than one legally obtained. He is closer to the Godfather than Abraham Lincoln to whom he’s always claiming a bizarre kinship. If we are apathetic or worn down by his constant bad acts and fundamental illiberalism, we shall allow the death of our democracy. As Yeats said
“The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
We must match Trump’s malign intensity and not be discouraged or lack in our conviction.
It is deliberate. Bannon told us, believe it
Johnson and Trump share a lot in common.
There's a lot of little Johnson's sharing commonality with Trump. Are you talking about Mike, Andrew or Ron?
I was thinking we have far too many Johnson's, as in Blazing Saddles.
Trump only has one Johnson. Too bad someone didn't remove it before he propagated.
Gee I was thinking he was the poster child for post partum abortion.
You beat me to the Johnson comment
Thank you for another important history lesson.
It works better on ballots.
I hope people see this disingenuous effort of Trump to represent himself as a Christian and Patriot. He is the exact opposite. Yes there will be a large minority of voters who both believe and surrender their ethics to vote this conman. If anything he should focus on the “Sermon on the Mount”. Thanks Heather.
Somewhere, P.T. Barnum is laughing his ass off, wondering why he didn't hawk ridiculous versions of the Good Book too
Driven by an “outsized eagerness to enrich himself,” Barnum ran a lottery, published a newspaper, sold Bibles and opened the American Museum in downtown Manhattan, where he peddled spectacles like the “Fejee Mermaid,” a monkey-fish chimera bound together by the dark arts of taxidermy. From NYTIMES article on Aug 6, 2019.
this was a quote from a review of a book on PT Barnum
Is a backlash in our future as in Dec 1865. I have thought many times that he had taken the ridiculous verbiage too far. So far, many lap it up, including our MSM. I hate to think that the fix is in, but the effort to rig the Nov election has been ongoing in swing states especially. I hope the momentum has time for a recalibration
He laughs at his Christian Nationalist followers behind their backs, but he’s eager for their support and will do what they want.
It’s not stopping with the Bible — just tonight on Truth Social, he shared a post titled “The Crucifixion of Donald Trump.”
Somebody over on Xitter had something to say about that...take a peek.
https://x.com/pfeg1369/status/1773147959066001803?s=20
Plus, remember Sarah Cooper during the pandemic? Someone over on Xitter did and posted her "interview" as DJT and his views about the Bible:
https://twitter.com/geoffbrown82/status/1772982017996546247?s=46&t=V7VfS2X8f7Tb8bB5srchIg
Lordy, love it. Sometimes I really miss twitter
Actually, Jeri, I got these from Jay Kuo who posts them on his Status Kuo substack. Of course, the link sends you into Xitter, but I just pop back out again after reading/watching whatever Jay posts on his Saturday "Just for Xeets and Giggles."
Thanks, I pray daily for Elon to self-immolate. I had a great Twitter community.
I got kicked off of twit for HATE SPEECH. I said the guy (whose name I don't know) should be hanged for carrying the Stars & Bars flag of an enemy combatant to the U.S thru Congress, (which they did in the 19th century). 'bots don't know hyperbole from hate speech "directed at an individual."
I just said that repubs were using Goebbels propaganda to elect chump. Which is rarely disputed these days. Violated community standards. Guess truth does that sometimes.
And that guy could end up out of jail early. 🤬https://www.newsweek.com/supreme-court-january-6-defendant-kevin-seefried-1884037
Indeed! I loooooove Kuo's Saturday morning giggles.
Yay for you, Beth! I figured many here know and subscribe to Jay's substack. I also figured there were more than some who don't but always enjoy a good giggle.
Scott Might the post more accurately read “The Crucification of the AntiChrist?”
Putrefaction
My thoughts exactly Keith!!!👍
Well gosh, it’s Easter weekend isn’t it?
And just in case you still wonder if the Author of the Vietnam War, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was the complete piece of personal shit later witnesses testified that he was, his ghost-written Pulitzer Prize "winner" Profiles in Courage has as one of its heroes the Republican Senator whose single vote allowed Johnson to escape being found guilty when he was impeached. JFK - believer in civil rights. He was dragged to support civil rights and LBJ was 10 times the president he was.
Kennedy took us into Vietnam to assuage his ego after Krushchev made a joke of him at the Vienna Summit in 1961, exposing him for the shallow dilettante he was.
And I say the above as the high school kid who was proud to hang door-knockers for him in 1960. We all grow up and find out the truth. It took me writing two books about my war - his war - to see the truth.
I can relate. I wrote my first real history paper in ninth grade. Subject? The Bay of Pigs invasion. Did my research at the local college library where I learned that Kennedy sent his Secretary of State Adlai Stevenson in to lie to the UN that America had nothing to do with the disastrous invasion. Worked my little ninth grade ass off on that paper. Typed every page myself on an actual typewriter. My conservative Midwestern civics teacher gave that paper a B+. Gave his conservative class favorite an A. At age 70, you would think I would’ve gotten over this. I would’ve thought that too.
I can more than totally relate to that story. Thanks for it.
You left part of your heart in that effort.
Wow! You know I'm an admirer of yours TC, but come on now!
That Republican Senator, Edmund Ross, was an anti-slavery politician who voted against Johnson's impeachment not in support of Johnson, but for institutional reasons and the fact that the "Tenure of Office Act", the law that Johnson had refused to support, was clearly unconstitutional. And to call JFK a piece of personal shit is somewhat defamatory, don't ya think?!?
JFK was a supporter of civil rights but definitely more timid than his brother in advocating same, yet he certainly wasn't "dragged into supporting" them. LBJ was a President of Shakespearean dimensions, but was certainly not 10 times the President JFK was. There is no way LBJ would have saved US and arguably the world the way JFK did in October of '62.
Finally, to call the Vietnam War "his war", a war wherein American involvement commenced under Eisenhower, is not quite right. JFK was a Cold Warrior for sure. And his green lighting the assassination of Diem, the corrupt and effete out of step Prez of the RVA was ghastly. Yet JFK soon saw that the Pentagon and the usual suspects were gunning for a a larger American presence in Vietnam and he gradually turned against that.
His final major speech at American University was a clear example of his view of an actual Pax Americana, and as far removed from the preposterous Gulf of Tonkin resolution, passed by LBJ, as could be
How many women did he have to fuck in the Oval Office for you to see him for what he was? JFK is undefamable, he was such a shit.
He was the guy who ordered the overthrow of Diem that led to Diem's assassination. Lib'ruls who still believe in Camelot need brain transplants.
Graham Greene described Kennedy to a "T" when he described Alden Pyle, the main character of his novel "The Quiet American": "I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused... impregnably armored by his good intentions and his ignorance."
The Kennedy Adoration Machine did everything it could to slime LBJ with Kennedy's responsibility. In my research for two books, I found that LBJ's problem with Vietnam was he was dragged to every escalation by the JFK New Frontiersmen he stupidly kept around - like the completely incompetent Strange McNamara who had no clue how to run a war - and delayed it till it became the wrong decision.
So far as Tonkin Gulf is concerned, you know dick shit about what you are talking about. I'm sorry to say that to someone I like (I really do like you, Daniel). I was there, the Admiral whose staff I was on was the opeational commander of the two destroyers. That was where my life was turned around 180 degrees 30 days later when I ran into my best friend from boot camp in an Olongapo bar; he had been the POIC of the Maddox's gun tower that night and got court martialed for refusing to open fire on grounds there were no targets. He told me the "Incident" was nothing like what it was portrayed (not by LBJ, by all the JFK appointees who wanted a war in Vietnam). In fact LBJ was the only guy on the planet who got Tonkin right - when he was first informed of the event, he said "those poor dumb sailors were probably shooting at flying fish." In 2006, a retired NSA analyst demonstrated that "the lights in the water" were the reflections of the moon and the lightning strikes of the storms in all quadrants, on the South Asian School of flying fish (about 4 million fish) that annually transit the Gulf of Tonkin during the first week of August.
Since we both live in LA, we ought to get together for coffee.
Wow, from the horses mouth. Rare to find someone who looked out the window to see if it was raining instead of reporting what opposing voices said. Yes, I was a dumbass who thought McNamara was the smartest man in the room. Sort of like Enron, but I wasn’t fooled that time. Sorry for that weird digression…
And this is why I hope TFFGs isn't assassinated. History will be kind to him if he is.
Better he dies, drooling down his shirt in his soiled Depends.
I fervently wish a natural death on him. Frankly, a martyr’s death is too good for the likes of him.
Daniel, I found this book to be a very informative look into the backstory of Joseph and his boys
JFK was the reluctant candidate pushed into service by his demanding father after his dream died when Joe Jr was killed in WWII
https://www.amazon.com/Kennedy-Men-1901-1963-Laurence-Leamer/dp/0688163157/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=273DN3GBLCE0I&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.S7ob0B_MaCIVYLdVUAW2uzeqiqdogkv8M2fqLPCt28XUQnY-tpkQ3oLApj467owR.qTAEu9n0CxM_T7hlSUILU_SH-saFgenIk3aSkohfHjY&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+kennedy+men+laurence+leamer&qid=1711883181&sprefix=the+kennedy+men%2Caps%2C104&sr=8-1
Thankyou
I believe that his image will not tarnish even with the new info, mainly because of his heinous murder. Sad because his was one in a long line of egos that have screwed us all. Some bloodier than others…
The body count of the Cuban Missile Crisis was 1. JFK didn’t pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution or send 500,000 troops to Vietnam starting in 1965. JFK was dead.
Yeah, except you fail to note that every one of those increases was proposed by a JFK GUY. All the stupid decisions were initiated by the New Frontiersmen. LBJ was dragged kicking and screaming into every one of them. The unfortunate thing for us as a country was that LBJ was intellectually cowed by all the Harvard/Yale/Ive League backgrounds of the Kennedy people. He used to joke about all those guys reporting to "the graduate of Southwestern Texas State Teacher's College," but it wasn't really a joke, it was him being intellectually scared of them - despite the fact he know 1,000 times more about politics than all the New Frontiersmen combined.
I suggest you read David Halberstam's book "The Best And The Brightest," a complete takedown of the "geniuses" that got us into Vietnam. You can get it at Amazon for $11.99
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Brightest-David-Halberstam/dp/0449908704/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3CGTNRBZ1E08X&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.hB4l3MLGpB_zFqNdKKZUW6P6PwJuUUd4QoLqFwuv37ZbdaumwHCSA-b5NNL-LbjmlUZKZ2UK7Jf-tUn2JpkL1Y96rxv6S7waA_6nEBswGTcOBZt7zL00dUPLQKKXhZXRQR7rCX_Imlvx90NueWCUQRqiZo8DA5lvIhCTaUcqtJgBZ8tLMB3tUxFsnCTeqH4t8vmxuudNJdz4FL0acZNwdvXyjoZ7oUyvDx1Benv6Ing.B_hEkDREiuocoAHmFNy5w-eSyTRngxNTwe2F3bCjsKQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+best+and+the+brightest+by+david+halberstam&qid=1711905210&sprefix=The+Best+and+the+Brightest%2Caps%2C3402&sr=8-1
Thank you TC. I suspect I’m about to learn something. I’ll get back to you in a week or so. I’m a slow reader. Sincerely, A.
The real story was that Johnson got Edmund Ross of Kansas to vote for Johnson’s acquittal in the Senate in return for Johnson’s doing a political favor for Ross by appointing one of Ross’s friends as a postmaster. This happened before we established a professional civil service because of Garfield’s assassination.
Yes, TCinLA, JFK should have extricated the US intelligence and military forces from Vietnam. And, he should not have helped people who built their fortunes by collaborating with the brutal dictator, Batista, to oppress 90% of the Cuban population. JFK made serious mistakes in those matters. However, in the matter of Vietnam, it seems to me fairer and more accurate to put most of the blame for the American-imposed catastrophe there on Eisenhower. He should have known better. He did know better. But Eisenhower had an anticommunist fervor shut up in his bones (to apply the superbly descriptive phrase from the King James Bible that Charles Blow adopted in an entirely different political context) that prevented him from sympathizing with people who had, at great sacrifice, thrown the French colonialists out of Vietnam and removed the local collaborators and beneficiaries of French rule from Vietnamese government. Instead, Eisenhower decided to permit and encourage the evil Dulles brothers to spew their venom unopposed. Vietnam was Eisenhower’s fault. He should have known better. He did know better. He had the power to shut down all US operations in Vietnam and let those who had thrown off their European oppressors build a government according to their own lights. But he didn’t. Vietnam is on him.
Eisenhower did all that (if you get my book "Going Downtown" be sure to read Chapter Two, "A Long Time Coming"), however Eisenhower did not commit troops - that crucial item was Kennedy's decision after he read the Soviet theory of wars of national liberation while looking for some way to "get back" at Khrushchev for publicly humiliating him at the Vienna Summit.
Yes. That is a plausible explanation. But I think Eisenhower should have made sure that JFK could not do that by pulling out all US opposition to Ho and maybe even publicly congratulating Ho for ejecting the colonists from his country. JFK was young and in need of wise council. Eisenhower was an old warrior who should have taken advantage of his experience and his popularity to put the US on a better track in Southeast Asia.
There was no way any American politician was going to do such a thing in the 1950s. they had all been through McCarthyism, they'd all seen what happened in the far right's "who Lost China?" campaign. Those events left a deep impression on every politician who had been conscious 1949-57. It had to do with why JFK wouldn't have pulled out in the year before standing for re-election and why LBJ went along with the New Frontiersmen.
Yes, that’s true, but Eisenhower was on his way out of politics. All he had to deal with was his legacy. Maybe I ask too much of him, but I think he should have done the right thing. I certainly don’t absolve JFK of blame. Nor LBJ, who, I agree, was far more skilled in politics than JFK (or, for that matter, than anyone since Lincoln but FDR and maybe Pelosi).
Unfortunately there was no way any American politician in that period was going to "do the right thing." It was the height of what would be seen as the coldest part of the Cold War. The GOP right wing would have attacked the "establishment" wing if such a thing had happened.
Eisenhower, who I respect, allowed the 1953 covert overthrow of Iran's Mosaddegh, which Truman had opposed. My knowledge of history is patchy, but it seems to me that move helped to set the stage for the surge of political "religious" fanaticism in the Middle East. In general, I think that covert campaigns to force changes in other nations tends to have troublesome unintended consequences. It's slimy. I believe that Eisenhower as not a fan of Joe McCarthy, but tolerated him (up to a point) because of the size and fervor of his base. I have read that JFK was a defender of McCarthy. I can't quite wrap my mind around what it means to be a president in the modern age. How it is possible to cover all the bases; how not wade into what might be out of one's depth. How not to commit the "sin of pride" or simply, in some ways, play the fool.
My overall impression of JFK remains positive, but I get that he had a creepy side. I think he still looks good compared to Bush II or Trump, and that social justice was more or less expanding under his watch. Vietnam was another strategic and moral disaster, in ways that I think still haunt us, but Kennedy was not the war's sole promoter, though he probably could have stopped it. I am unaware of any president of salient consequence that did not have a creepy side; TR, FDR? I hold some strong criticism of Obama for his seeming over-coddling of banks, his proposed "chained CPI" and the "TPP". Lincoln seemed phobic of black people, though he courageously defended their political rights. I condemn Nixon, but not as much as Reagan. I both admire and criticize Biden. I desperately want him to win.
"Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried from time to time." - Churchill
The Mossadegh overthrow is The Major Plot Point for all Mideastern history. Had Mossadegh and his western-style "British Labour Party" government succeeded, taking back their natural resources and using them for a democratic , secular, moderniztion of Iran, it would have changed the following history by its success. None of what we deal with now would have ever developed and democratic secular governments might be the rule through the middle east. Eisenhower listened to the idiots at Can't Investigate Anything, who were all onboard with British MI6 to protect British Petroleum's "property" in Iran. The big problem was the "mid-Atlantic ruling class" types in the CIA saw themselves and the Pax Americana as the logical successor to the Pax Britannica.
JFK was a "light" defender of McCarthy, but RFK Sr actually worked for the committee.
As far as social justice expanding under JFK - he was dragged kicking and screaming to support civil rights, which he (correctly) saw as the thing that would destroy the Democrats "Solid South." The real social justice warrior was LBJ throughout his political career.
LBJ, Senator from.... Texas. Some things don't change but a lot has.
LBJ - raised a "poor boy" in Texas. Elected to Congress in 1934 as a supporter of the New Deal.
Yes, let’s all do our part in ensuring that democrats win not only at the top but down ballot as well. This can and will happen given the GOP crazed demonic figure who invoke violence with every utterance and is in fact a traitor (the evidence is long but clear).
Thank you so much for this history of Andrew Johnson. No wonder he is ranked so low on the list of Presidents - of course he still ranks above the trumpster.
I really do appreciate these insights into history you share with us.
So, this is a battle for craziest potus ever? I guess the biggest differences are: Johnson (probably) wasn’t supported by a Russian autocrat and, information didn’t travel quite as fast back then.
Well, I guess history doesn’t really repeat itself, but it’s sure starting to rhyme pretty well. We’ll find out if we have a nice poetic ending in November.