In Heather’s video chat today (5/13/2021), she talked about Stephen Douglas. Stephen Douglas, of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, drafted the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 to allow the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether or not to allow slavery, rather than to be decided by Congress, and the Northerners in opposition to slavery and oligarchy formed the Republican Party. The Democratic Party split between north and south. As the Southern Democrats escalated to the point of seceding from the Union, Douglas took a stand that secession was in opposition to democracy and sided with Lincoln and the Union for a mainstream position. With the split in the Democrats, the Republicans prevailed. As it echoes to today, the party split looks like a good thing.
Heather’s point was that the spin-off element can become very dangerous.
As Heather describes the campaign of the Heritage Action for America, we see ever more clearly how the danger comes in the form of not “just” the Jan. 6 insurrection, but the sophisticated monied manipulation of state legislators, and even of public opinion, as through letters to the editor, to create the appearance of legitimacy and “the will of the people.”
How is Heritage connected to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)? Both are funded by the Koch Foundation. Note that ALEC wrote the 360 voter suppression bills pending/passed across the country.
What is the counterpart progressive PAC that is spoon-feeding legislation to elected officials and their staff?
Fellow HCR Reader Jeff Carpenter looked for a progressive PAC. The best he could find is the State Innovation Exchange (SiX):
New Republic article of 1/03/2020, “Have Democrats Found Their ALEC?”
The State Innovation Exchange (SiX) provides an online database of liberal and progressive model state-level legislation that has been passed in a state for politicians and activists to replicate and enact in state legislatures.
Jeff learned that progressive state groups are more like libraries than lobbies, and big donors prefer national legislation over state legislation. Jeff contacted a SiX spokesperson who said:
“We do not operate like ALEC (For example, we’re not a “bill mill” that churns out copycat legislation. We know that policy alone won’t fix our democracy and economy, so we take a policy plus approach--we share policy research from issue experts, as well as communications, strategy, connections with movement partners, and other types of support that legislators need.) We do provide tailored support for state legislators, and democracy is one of our primary issue areas.”
However daunting, our despair can only be a feeling that we redirect into action. Barriers to voting, voter suppression bills, are already being passed as a set up for the minority to overpower the majority in the 2022 elections and beyond. The time is now to make our voices heard as individuals by writing/texting/calling elected officials, corporations, local newspapers, and social media.
How to get started, if you haven’t already? Here are 5 of more than 40 grassroots organizations:
Question—why am I still surprised that Heritage was doing everything that Democrats were accused of? Bussing people in to act like locals was something we often heard idjt45 raging about during the New Hampshire primary. There is no bottom to their madness and it explains why many politicians never even knew what they were proposing. Hello Marjorie and her America First caucus looking like a fool talking about an outside organization and no one blasted her on it.
I attended a Zoom call last night about Florida redistricting which was very interesting. It was presented by Allontheline.org and the LWVFL (League of Women Voters). Turns out Florida voters voted to pass two Fair Maps amendments in 2010 or thereabouts but the legislatures just ignored them and the Governor at the time, Rick Scott, signed into law the gerrymandered districts that were drawn up. Lawsuits ensued and the Fl Supreme Court ruled that the maps had to be redrawn, but of course 5 years had passed and the damage done. The state is redistricting this year, and whatever maps are drawn up will last 10 years. If you are in Florida, please consider joining the LWVFL and Allontheline.org to see what they are doing and how you might help. They are requesting that each legislator sign a pledge of transparency and they are educating the public by talking to any group in a public venue that they can reach.
Hi, Pamsy, I was on the call last night too (thanks for the link!). Lots of good information. Yes, please join up with LWV in any state you are in and also All on the Line. They had one ppt slide that was eye-opening which showed how gerrymandered districts totally influence the outcome of representation.
I just this minute finished reading the Mother Jones article, and my morning brain fog is trying to connect all of the dots. Here your comment dawned at the top of the replies like the sunrise, containing clear action steps. How do you do that? Thank you, Ellie!
I shall copy this to my American family and friends and I hope all who read it will both follow the excellent practical advice provided AND share Ellie's words with their contacts.
Speaking of redistricting, there’s also the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NRDC) https://democraticredistricting.com. The chairman is Eric Holder, and I’m starting to get emails from them. They might be worth following.
Thank you, Ellie, for your comment today with all the excellent resources, some of which are new to me. Just a quick disambiguation: NDRC is the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. "NRDC" with the R and D reversed is Natural Resources Defense Council, which kicks butt on behalf of the environment but not voter rights.
Stellar post, Ellie. Heard HCR's chat yesterday; glad to have you summarize it so well here. Fair Fight and Common Cause are my major go-to organizations!
Thank you, Donna. Added Progressive Turnout to our list, which has now grown to 52 organizations for voting rights! People might be interested to know that Progressive Turnout supports phone calling and/or handwritten postcards to swing states.
Public Citizen is one of my long-time favorites: https://www.citizen.org/, and the remarkable Center for Constitutional Rights: https://ccrjustice.org/. And for sheer organizational knowhow and show-up: Our Revolution (or your Our Revolution state chapter, if you're more interested in local and state politics and offices, which is probably the better part of wisdom. Just think what we owe right now to the secretaries of state and county commissioners who manned the barricades last year! --and what we have to fear from gerrymandering in state houses).
Ellie, thanks very much for these links. For sure, you can't fight an adversary you don't know is there, so many of us need to be pointed in the right (or left?) direction.
When I was studying abroad in Germany at one of that country's most prestigious universities in the early 1980's, I was shocked at how students would call us "stupid Americans." Only after gaining a tiny grasp of a global perspective did I realize they were right. The evil of Nazism and what happens when a strong leader casts his spell over the masses was pounded into German consciousness daily. They knew what they were talking about.
In the context of The Big Lie, we are to a degree a nation of misinformed, xenophobic, racist people whose political leaders assume this when they offer a distorted reality as platform. It's sickening to witness.
Between the end of the Vietnam War and 2016 America has pretty much skated, economic challenges notwithstanding. With the election of Trump, basic freedoms were suddenly challenged. I only partly blame the McCarthys and McConnells for the current threat against our democracy. Millions of have swallowed Republican lies and conspiracy theories hook line and sinker. We the People are to blame. And now the world calls us, "REALLY stupid Americans."
There is only one solution to our constitutional crisis. Vote our asses off to stop the voter suppression and lies. That includes you, Joe Manchin. That includes you.
In 1831, two Frenchmen came to America to study our Democracy. Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont, both minor French court officials who originally came to study our prison system but ended up fascinated with our unique Democracy compared to Europe. After traveling deeply into America for nine months, and interviewing Americans at all levels of life, Tocqueville wrote "Democracy in America" which was published in 1840.
This is a fascinating book on his observations of our developing culture from an outsider. These two statements from his book are premonitions of how this kind of Democracy could fail.
"Tyranny of the Majority"
A number of things bothered de Tocqueville about democracy. One of them was that in a society made up of equal citizens, the majority is always right. To de Tocqueville, a majority of equals, just like a single all-powerful ruler, could abuse its power. In a democracy, de Tocqueville argued, this abuse becomes the "tyranny of the majority."
De Tocqueville did not claim that the tyranny of the majority as yet existed to any great degree in America. Still, he saw evidence of it developing. For example, de Tocqueville found that in the North, free black males who had the right to vote often were discouraged from voting by the white majority.
De Tocqueville maintained that even freedom of speech, guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, was affected by majority opinion.
"I know no country," he wrote, "in which, generally speaking, there is less independence of mind and true freedom of discussion than in America." He added that the lack of great writers in the United States was due to the absence of "freedom of spirit" brought on by a majority intolerant of minority views.
"If ever freedom is lost in America," de Tocqueville warned, "that will be due to the ... majority driving minorities to desperation...." De Tocqueville did identify certain elements at work in American democracy which checked the formation of a tyranny of the majority. Among these elements were the large number of independent associations, the press and the courts.
The Future of Democracy
In Europe, most critics of democracy believed that America would sooner or later descend into anarchy. De Tocqueville, however, saw another even more disturbing threat to American democracy. He feared that American citizens would become so satisfied with being equal to one another that they would abandon their deep interest and involvement in self-government. If this should happen, cautioned de Tocqueville, government would grow more powerful and in a kindly sort of way cover society with "a network of petty, complicated rules." Far from dissolving into anarchy, American government under these conditions could become as oppressive as any cruel European monarchy. Americans would end up having equality through slavery.
In the last sentence of Democracy in America, de Tocqueville wrote about the fate of Americans and all others who would choose the path of equality. "It depends on themselves whether equality is to lead to servitude or freedom, knowledge or barbarism, prosperity or wretchedness."
Sorry to be so dismal in my ponderings this morning, but this is where we appear to be: under the Tyranny of the Majority.
But our problem right now is tyranny of the MINORITY--that the electoral college, gerrymandering, the gutting of the voting rights act, and the distribution of senators without regard to population makes possible.
As for American stupidity, too many of our primary and secondary schools are lousy. They need to be federally funded, and teachers need to be recruited from the cream of the crop and paid like they're extremely important.
Public education has been under attack from right wing groups for decades! The concept of charter schools and school choice has been sabotaged by those striving to Reestablish segregated schools. Voucher payments to private schools has been approved by right wing controlled courts which used totally bogus arguments to justify the payments. Unfortunately, the Separation of Church and a state is second rate and trampled on by the very people who worship the second amendment!
I am not sure i fully understand you. What I wrote about is being "UNDER the Tyranny of the Majority." I think we are talking bout the same thing, right?
David wrote that right now we are under the tyranny of a minority, which is correct. It is worth noting that This was accomplished through flaws in the system of governance that was meant to ensure majority rule (at least of white men at the time). These flaws that were deliberately introduced, beginning with the insistence of white southerners that slaves be counted in the census, but denied the vote. The south wanted to count them as full persons in the census, but the north refused. The "compromise" resulted in the 3/5 count for slaves, to keep the south from pulling out of forming a union. Slave count gave more reps to the slave states, but since slaves couldn't vote, and ways were found to keep free blacks from voting, all those extra reps were voted on by white men. (Funny how that worked out.) Thomas Jefferson early figured out how to manipulate the 2 senators per state thing to his advantage. Then, of course, it was a natural next step to create gerrymandered districts whose votes would support the dominant party. So, at the national level and within many states we have always been under the tyranny of the minority- under the guise of "The Majority". De Toqueville missed that aspect of our history, and was talking about something else. I am not sure I agree with him. That failure of equality and lack of discourse is not so much related to political process as it is to distribution of wealth.
As for schools, that sounds like it belongs in another discussion. Or maybe it is really a symptom of the wealth issue.
We are under the tyranny of the powerful not the majority. Citizens United has enabled the powerful to control legislation in both the state and federal levels. The democrats must, MUST, break the log jam if it means censoring Joe Manchin and doing away with the filibuster in order to save our democracy. This IS war and we shouldn't be taking prisoners!
Pretty much my point, Robert. Except that last part, which strikes me as rather militant (excuse pun) in an abusive way. Shown again and again to be counterproductive - as the Republicans are learning. Are we to repeat their mistake?
Now, what do you actually mean with that? The questions of gerrymandering, voter suppression, electorate system, and all of that preventing the actual majority from getting in power; is it not efficient enough?
The constant issue with democracy I think is for majority leaders to find out what they can actually do in regard to the obligation to be leaders for all of the people. Sweden has a long history of minority governments; it makes for a dull, weak, and not very glamorous leadership, but sometimes I comfort myself that it might just be the necessary training of compromise and negotiation required for democracy; accompanied by freedom of the press and opinion of course.
Olof, you said, "The constant issue with democracy I think is for majority leaders to find out what they can actually do in regard to the obligation to be leaders for all of the people."
The issue, as I see it, is lack of clarity in our definitions and word choices. I am a high intelligence specialist, someone who studies how high intelligence affects the lives of those who possess it. We do not all have equal intelligence and we do not all have equal abilities to do all things. Aye, there's the equality rub! We do, however, all have similar needs that need to sometimes be met differently. Among those needs are food, shelter, and safety. Every one craves connection and being loved and appreciated. We all need to be heard. Etc. In my own speciality I am aware that free education sounds great (and it would be!) but it must not include rules that completely dictate what that education should look like as though we are all the same in those needs and abilities. So, de Toqueville's talk about the majority is correct in many of these areas, and when we talk about equality we must make it clear that we mean unnecessary barriers and necessary supports should be there for all ... but what those are and how we arrange for them is another thing. Okay, enough for now.
Deborah, that is a fascinating study and I think you are right on target about our complexities. I have been a therapist for many years frequently serving teens at a school for dyslexia, ADHD, processing challenges, people on the spectrum-- and I was a Montessori teacher for 15 years in my youth. We do not all learn the same way or are interested in learning the same things for a variety of reasons. Learning challenges and styles, impacted by poverty, empty bellies, entitlement or trauma make education and equality a complex issue-- without the squelching of it by politicals bent on mass control. I love what you present here. Thank you!
I suspect, that de Toqueville may have expected an "informed majority", yes? The issue is that the majority (of all persuasions) are horrendously ill informed (especially now), and it's getting worse. What concerns me is the tyranny of the majority, which has happened many times in history.
"Really stupid Americans" is an apt description of too many of us. If Americans looked in a mirror, they would not like what they would see. The ignorant and the gullible are always the ones whose power is harnessed by those who have undemocratic aims. They enabled the South to secede in 1861 bringing about the Civil War. They enabled bigotry to rule our society for a century afterward. They enabled a would be dictator to be elected in 2016. The fear of oppressive government and the independent spirit which caused people to cross the Atlantic and settle this country remains in their descendants, causing them to be used by those with selfish, undemocratic, motives. These include taking away the one solution to our constitutional crisis mentioned above, voting. America, look in a mirror.
Many of our American citizens are too lazy to think for themselves and would rather swallow lies than do the work to know when they are being accurately informed. The truth is supposed to be verified to be accepted!
This is so well put. And your solution, Randy, trite as it sounds, is correct at its core.
But so much of this current fighting revolves around the voting process and is conducted in the dark well out of our reach.
I found Heather’s letter utterly depressing this morning. It feels like America is a Titanic in its last days before the iceberg. Step by step the country is shambling towards disaster. Really it’s a logical endpoint. Prosperity is a malaise all of its own because it breeds lethargy. The theft of that prosperity by a few has been going on for forty years now. It was subtle for long enough that people didn’t recognize a problem. Now it’s an open, festering wound. And the “winners” don’t care that their thievery has been exposed. In the Sixties the United States, led by California, was building a great education system. Now, it seems perfectly practical to many of our behind the scenes actors to let that education system rot, to dumb it down, to fill it with lies. “Really stupid Americans” can be diverted with bread and circuses. This is a foundational activity in America today.
Being brutally honest, I think I’ve been very Pollyanna-ish about America’s prospects. What Heather revealed today about the size and scope of Heritage Foundation’s activity to drive down the vote sickened and shocked me.
I still think that the current Republican Party is as dumb as a sack of bricks. They are at their weakest point ever in my lifetime. Not only are they inept, they look almost radically, pathetically deranged. Their current position is, to put it modestly, not great.
A hyper-active Department of Justice will help greatly. A legal system that decisively stops Trump in his tracks will be another roadblock. Prosecution of the insurrectionists *and* a commission will further rip the Republicans apart.
But money talks and this latest revelation of the type of concerted action it can buy, is gloom-inducing. The Titanic sails on...
The Republican Party may be dumb now, Eric, but they are just the puppets; the puppet masters are ALEC, the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, State Policy Network, and the other 2500 organizations that the Koch brothers, et al. have poured 13 billion dollars into funding over the past three decades. They have a master plan, created by policy specialists, and psychological warfare agents, and they have been instrumental in the shift in politics in America. Their opponents, the progressive political types, are too tentative to mount an attack campaign of this sort, too open to debate and second-guessing... they have underestimated the threat and may succumb to it.
Yes, that is what I am aware of but only in a shadowy way. One goes where the media is.
Those in the background may even be advantaged by the disarray that is constantly on parade. They can work with swiftness and surety, as scrutiny on them diminishes.
I cannot help but feel that America’s bloat in years past, its self-satisfaction, the crazy predilection of the nation for conspiracies dating back to the “Stranger Danger” movement of the Eighties (and in truth before that), have brought these shadowy groups into being and allowed them to thrive. America is a nation of constant sensation and distraction.
The progressive Sixties failed to establish a progressive nation. Deeply alarmed, the business world and many in the law roused themselves to begin their organizing to stamp out the anti-Establishment. Soon there was a rousing redefinition of religion in the Evangelical south. And then came the scrapping of the Fairness in Media doctrine.
The culture wars of the 2000s have been a most satisfactory shiny object with which to distract and divide Americans. And then social media perfectly amplified, and again, distracted Americans.
Nobody can see the end of this long game. There are too many imponderables. But it is deeply unsettling.
Hello Eric thank you for this heartfelt post. I’m sorry you’re feeling discouraged about our prospects.
I have a different take than yours. Instead of the Ttitanic, I believe we are in an icebreaker and our ship is nearly in the clear. The news about the Heritage group (or whatever these slime buckets call themselves) sounds depressing and gloomy until you consider this: the news of their activity means there is now a spotlight on them. All of the USA has been informed of them and what they are doing. That makes them a target.
People on the right side of history, you can call them Democrats but not all of us have political inclinations or identify as members of a political party, are becoming as vicious and unrelenting as the Republicans have been. In fact we have managed to recruit some of those same merciless Republicans to our side, and even here today Rick Wilson and Stuart Stevens (and Steve Schmidt and others) are being mentioned as allies. A total of at least seven different Republican organizations were fighting for Biden and against Trump last year. Now we have the faction of Liz Cheney versus the faction of the Trumpublicans. They are having the first real split in my lifetime, and I don’t think it bodes well for them. Even with their razor-thin majority, the Democrats look far more united, Manchin notwithstanding. Remember too, somehow the Democrats miraculously won two seats against incumbents in a southern state. I still can’t wrap my head around that. They were both complete underdogs. If that’s not fate or destiny, I don’t know what else to call it. That’s not the Titanic. That’s Jules Verne.
Randy you are so very right--but unfortunately, Germany is also sliding back into an autocratic worldview, which Merckel and her party--despite being traditional Euro-conservatives--have been desperately trying to push back. This is especially true in the former East German states, where authoritarianism never really went away.
I would like to hear more of your thoughts on this. I’m watching too. It seems to me that long term at least the Palestinians, egged on by Hammas (backed Iran’s Hezbollah) harass the Israelis until they retaliate and snip off a chunk of Palestinian territory... and if it continues, the Israelis will one day reach the sea and absorb any Palestinians that may be left, which would be an advantage for all, and may even be a good thing for the other 46 muslim countries.
I’ve been saying for a while that when Trump has ‘talks’ with Republicans he tells them to lie, to say whatever they want because his base will believe anything. I imagine he gives examples and they sit and laugh about it!
What are the GOP hoping to achieve here? Power and control, yes. But over what? A nation reduced to rubble? An impoverished failed state? A sitting duck for alien nations ? A population of uneducated, sick, malnourished toothless citizens with a life expectancy of 35? What? They want to sit on gold thrones presiding over a waste dump?
"...When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money...". I am borrowing this one. It hits the nail on the head.
At least the intention is crystal clear. And this profoundly stupid project of an oligarchic state -- government of money, by money, for money -- is not compatible with the U.S. Constitution.
Ah, but they are gearing up for a constitutional convention to make new amendments. My state of South Carolina is on board approving a new convention, along with all the other usual suspects. This is truly frightening.
Sure it is. That's part of the problem with the Constitution--it was written by and for white, wealthy, slave-owning oligarchs and has encouraged and enabled oligarchs ever since.
Reid, may you not be in danger of committing the fundamental error of laymen (not just the woke) looking at history in our time, judging the past—another country, another culture—in terms of this year's fashionable memes?
It is precisely because the most influential contributors to the Convention were well aware of the proclivities of greedy, irresponsible, unprincipled turncoat characters in their midst—hence, the prominence accorded to impeachment—that they strove so to balance the Constitution as to guard against abuses of power, on the one hand, and mob rule, on the other. (Plenty of the latter is, and almost always has been deeply ingrained in US politics—as made painfully visible on January 6th.)
Hamilton had genius—and authoritarian, near monarchical tendencies—but where in the world would we find a politician of Madison’s stature today? That’s a standard to live up to.
Somehow, you seem to be neglecting the contribution of Tom Paine and those whom he influenced.
No, the problem is not so much with the drafters of the Constitution as with successive generations of mediocrities who have made a living twisting and circumventing everything in it that got in the way of their personal ambitions, their greed, their innate lawlessness. Madison saw the original text as representing principles that must be kept alive and nurtured by regular amendment, taking account of the changing needs of a growing, developing society. Too many successors wanted it drugged and locked in a cupboard…
Now, America has to cope with the Cargo Cultist mentality of those who have inscribed the Constitution on tables of stone and transformed it from the basis of the law into a mere fetish, an object of dumb worship—like failed politicians turned ministers of pseudo-religion, the better to bamboozle and milk their flock. On the one hand, you have the Originalists, the Federalist Society and their paymasters (all of whom would doubtless have had Messrs. Hamilton, Madison and Jay puking and/or reaching for pistols) ; on the other, the January 6th mob, direct descendants of those backwoodsmen who wanted no state, no government, no Constitution, no law but the Bible, no authority but God. A land in which every man (but no woman, no child, no servant, no chattel slave, no one with “the wrong kind of face”) is His Own Monarch by Divine Right and His Own Infallible Pope.
A veritable infestation of free radicals on the body politic—and heaven knows what the prognosis can be for the cancer they’ve caused, even with the fine team of healers now heading the country.
Forbear with this ignorant foreigner—either that, or kindly instruct me—I studied the period between 1763 and 1812 a long, long time ago; and I may have suffered from a lifetime addiction to information, but that makes for nothing but a ragbag. Therefore I am vehement about fundamental convictions, especially in regard to the intrinsic equality of all human beings (transcending all abstract principles) while tending to a volatile and not always well-dosed mix of skepticism and rashness. If I dare comment on affairs in your country, it is because members of this community are aware of their responsibilities as U.S. citizens and the global implications of American politics; and if they aren’t, they have wise guidance from Doctor Cox Richardson.
Well...it seems to me you are deifying a group of deeply flawed men who were, nonetheless, doing the best they could under the circumstances. It is beyond dispute, however, that they codified white supremacy, misogyny, and oligarchy. Slavery--the ownership, torture, rape, and extrajudicial killing of other human beings--is baked right into the document. Is it a better founding document than any other? In most ways, almost certainly. But it still leaves a great deal of room for precisely the shenanigans we are currently seeing to go on with impunity and legal cover.
1. Going by the above, you regard our time as intrinsically better and wiser and our contemporaries (or those whom you see as the best of them) as less flawed than their predecessors. Now. Now, even after the 45th...
Well, I can only ask you to probe received ideas mercilessly and try to refine them so that there's nothing left that is not truly your own—admittedly a task that can take a lifetime... I am deifying no one but neither am I demonizing anyone. I don't deify myself nor do I dare pass judgment on these men. And when it comes to their actions, they had their blind spots, the beam in their eye, we have skyscrapers in our collective eye...
Having said which, I’m usually at ease with your remarks, as with the general tenor or the conversation in this community which feels like a revival of the great American tradition of associative life that so impressed Alexis de Tocqueville. Much needed at a time of all-powerful lobbies and 120 decibel post-Citizens United “speech”…
2. Your statements imply a belief in linear “progress”—a view somewhat at variance with the dreadful realities of history during the intervening period, especially the 20th century. How does all this align with the fact that, thanks to human activity, the world as we know it is faced with a crisis of survival and we, the living, are handing the dirty job of dealing with that down to our children and to the unborn?
3. Are we not faced now with the accumulated gross errors of centuries, even millennia? Some of our western aberrations (duly visited on the whole world) date back at the very least to the political conformism imposed on Christianity when it became the official religion of the Roman empire; others, to the past five hundred years…
4. Our discussion here is in any case irrelevant to the urgent demands of the moment. I’m a foreigner whose country is also in a bad mess. Let's forget about passing judgment on the dead and take urgent steps on behalf of the living and the unborn by going to Ellie Kona’s detailed report 8 hours ago and taking the action she sets out therein—probably you’ll already have done so.
Pardon me for drawing attention to these yet again but they should be plastered on every wall!
“How to get started, if you haven’t already? Here are 5 of more than 40 grassroots organizations:
Besides the fact that this irrelevant nonsense will end up by destroying us all, blinkered oligarchy is not even in the medium-term interest of big money...
Absolutely this. Losing its status as the reserve currency would have profound ripple effects. The good news is that (unless you believe the crypto hype), the yuan/renminbi is the only viable alternative and there is enough distrust of the Chinese government that it's unlikely to become the new reserve currency. The euro is not even in the conversation at this point because they lack a true central banking authority. What else is there?
Love. Humanity. Mutual respect. Freedom. Democracy. All the things that provide the true basis of money, the true foundation. If you look at silver American coins pre-1964, the walking liberty and standing liberty images, and even the native American images on the copper coins preceding the Lincoln penny, you get a taste for what real money is. Real money is based on the values that we hold dear. That’s why the ruble and the Chinese whatever will never be global currencies, not in their current mafioso and Orwellian forms.
Americans have an overall life expectancy of 78.7 years (CDC)
Current-dollar GDP increased 10.7 percent, or $554.2 billion, in the first quarter to a level of $22.05 trillion. In the fourth quarter, GDP increased 6.3 percent, or $324.5 billion
in the United States, more children suffer from malnutrition due to dietary imbalances than due to nutritional deficiencies. ... About 1 percent of children in the United States suffer from chronic malnutrition. (Malnutrition | Johns Hopkins Medicinehttps://www.hopkinsmedicine.or)
(American Society of Civil Engineers): The 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure found the nation’s infrastructure earns a cumulative grade of a “C-.” This is an improvement over the 2017 grade of a “D+” and is an indication that modest improvements have been made to our infrastructure systems over the past four years. However, 11 categories are still in the “D” range, including the newest infrastructure sector to the report card, stormwater.
Today, Heather revealed a story, 'a blockbuster'. that I love for obviously reasons, and I've got the names of a couple of giant companies that continued to contribute to the GOP after the so-called pause; It was the corporate way of showing their very mild displeasure with the Party after the January 6th siege on the Capitol. That is for another day. This comment is reflection on President Joe Biden.
"If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic," Walensky said (Director of the CDC)
Who is the most important person behind this new sense of freedom? It is Joe Biden. Lawrence O'Donnell interviewed the President this Wednesday before the 'Vaccination America' Town Hall on MSNBC. At the very end, O'Donnell mentioned Beau, the president's son who died of brain cancer on May 30th, 2015. President Biden looked down and sweetly chided Lawrence for bringing Beau up. Then, with in face full of feeling, he said, 'Beau should be siting in this chair'. It was the most intimate moment possible on a TV screen.
Is Beau a major factor in Biden's strength, determination, good will and warmth? Beau is part of Joe Biden's journey to the President's chair. American voters made the right choice. Joe Biden has the qualities, which draw us to him and he grows hope. Joe Biden is a dear man. He loves us and we love him back. Thank you, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.
I literally just got chills reading your comment. I can picure Beau behind President Biden, smiling and proud. We are indeed fortunate that Joe Biden was elected, and no matter what happens in the next election cycles, this good fortune can never be erased.
Yes, Cathy. we share that image. Since he became President, particularly, in the past two months, my appreciation, unlike my thoughts about other presidents, is personal. He inspired the connection.
I saw that interview. I wept when he said that. After all the heartache this man has been through, he still has the strength to lead his country through this political quagmire. I admire him even more now.
I would like to also remember Dr. Jill Biden. She is a true partner to him in all of his work. And the fact that she has focused her teaching career at the community college level, which makes higher education available for so many just amazes me. FG and Spouse pale in comparison to the Bidens. It's good to have basic decency and intelligence in the WH again.
Fern, what a nice and appropriate tribute to Biden. He is a man with more empathy and understanding of grief than most men. It's nice and unusual to see that in a man.
Thank you so much Fern. imho, Joe is the preeminent figure of a true elder.
We of the caucasian minority in America now have SO few males who measure to this standard. I would certainly add Dr Fauci, Mitt Romney (?), Bernie Sanders, and the late Fred Rogers, Ted Kennedy, James Jeffords, and IKE. Who else comes immediately to mind? As a footnote, I believe Kennedy’s service and courage assuaged his tremendous grief from the tragic accident of his early adulthood. The murders of his two brothers and loss of another brother in WWll and illness of a sister, all provide testimony to his courage and wtiness for humanity)
(btw, I believe the military is the preeminent and most shinny example of patriarchy, that I would question ANY post-WWll military member as an elder, in the definition of serving the greater good of generosity, wisdom and unqualified love for humanity)
While temporarily keeping the genders apart, I would like to add a few from my list: John Lewis, Stevie Wonder, Gordon Parks, Alvin Aliley, Thurgood Marshall, James Baldwin, August Wilson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr.....
I agree with your list, certainly. And I see MANY other elder, males of color. But I specifically pointed to the lack of “elder" CAUCASIAN males, as we have adhered to the militaristic and aggressive posturing of the adolescent, privileged male teen
Yes, I understood that Frederick. Much later in the day, I decided to expand the pool in order to add a few of my favorites. I know we could also add some young people under 18 years of age, too, nevertheless, your point still stands.
Not to forget, Barbara Ledeen is the current wife of Michael Ledeen, identified by Charlie Pierece as a "professional ratfcker" going back to the Reagan Administration.
Charlie points out:
In 2015, Barbara Ledeen, a close ally of disgraced General Michael Flynn, tried to start her own investigation of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s emails. As an aide to then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, Ledeen was deeply involved as an administration mole during the early stages of the Russia investigation. She is the second wife of Michael Ledeen, and there scarcely has been a Republican presidential scandal in the past 40 years that Michael Ledeen hasn’t had a hand in. In 1980, he wrote some spurious articles for the New Republic, which was having a very bad decade, alleging that the brother of President Jimmy Carter was on the payroll of both Muammar Gaddaffi and the PLO. The Wall Street Journal later reported that the stories had been part of an anti-Carter disinformation campaign.
During the Reagan Administration, Michael Ledeen pushed the notion that the Bulgarian government had been behind the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, which subsequent reporting has proven to be more moonshine. Later, he was the guy who introduced Manuchar Ghorbanifar to Reagan aide Robert MacFarlane, which put Ledeen in the middle of the Iran-Contra scandal.
Moving on, during the second Bush administration, Ledeen pushed the fable about Iraq’s buying yellowcake uranium from Niger. Ledeen always has been a true believer in the redemptive power of American imperial violence. In criticizing Brent Scowcroft’s warning against the invasion of Iraq, Ledeen wrote:
"One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today. If we wage the war effectively, we will bring down the terror regimes in Iraq, Iran, and Syria, and either bring down the Saudi monarchy or force it to abandon its global assembly line to indoctrinate young terrorists."
This, it is safe to say, did not age well. Thank god Ledeen never got the war on Iran that would have set him ascending to glory.
I dredge all this up in the context of the NYT’s latest revelations because, once again, this is being cast as yet another aberrant episode on the part of the former president. The Ledeens have found work with every Republican administration since 1980, and Barbara Ledeen found a job with the chairman of Senate Judiciary. When Camp Runamuck went looking for Beltway ratfckers, they came up with some of the same people that Reagan and both Bushes called. The rot is old, chronic, and deep in the wood.
The whole campaign is Machiavelli's "The Prince" as staged by the Three Stooges.
This is why I’m so hopeful today—Biden—Harris—Garland are the exact opposite of the 3 stooges. They’re smart, serious and hardworking—even somewhat humble.
The other 2 being perhaps Roger Stone and Gordon Liddy. Nixon too had access to and use for such scum. They profit very well from the governmental system that they are hired to help destroy....until they get caught and locked up.
Talk about seeing the world through war-colored glasses. From Iran-Contra to yellow cake uranium, this rot has run through the dystopian arm of the Republiqan party for 40 plus years.
It is but somebody will make this film and it will be funny—training mati hari type women to infiltrate the FBI to check on who’s dis loyal to Cheeto— honestly truth is stranger than fiction most of the time.
This is why I am trying to write at least 10 letters a day for Vote Forward to voters in the New Mexico Special Election. I have until the 18th. So far 50 in the mail. I am shooting for 100 total
While I’m not surprised an active duty Marine has been charged in the January 6 insurrection, I’ll say that his participation and arrest are EXACTLY why I don’t simply show instant respect to anyone in a position of law, justice, fire, or the military. Don’t get me wrong, I respect anyone who chooses to enlist in the military. But it is a CHOICE - you are not awesome simply because you enlisted. My dad served, I have a BIL who is one of the most humble people I know and he is guided by his deep integrity of doing the right thing. I see the military in him all the time - but he isn’t a jackass and he doesn’t demand that anyone respect him just because he served. And one of my best co-workers was a guy who served in Kuwait. People are worthy of respect based on their actions - I hope Christopher Warnagiris is convicted, stripped of any military benefits and pension.
Agree, the knock-kneed “thank you for your service” is wrong in a few ways. I don’t know quite how to describe it, but it’s almost like an embarrassing bad habit — over applied and not showing genuine respect to people who deserve it. My father was a World War II POW and he often said to us, “it bothers me when I see these guys behaving like professional veterans. He told his stories occasionally, but was generally quiet about it while he was alive, but he was a patriotic American, and in his late ‘80s chose to be interred at a local military cemetery.
He may have been influenced by Ike. He was a party republican voter until 1960… after casting his vote for Nixon, on their way out of the polling place he told my mom that he thought he’d voted for the wrong man. He was a strong democrat for the next fifty-one years.
My son in law served in Afganistan as an officer in an IED detection company. I assumed that Ground Infantry troops provided cover for his unit. He just laughed and said the bomb detection/destruction company always went in first, getting shot at and mortared while finding the IEDs meant to kill the other soldiers. I think he deserves a 'thank you' for his service. He met my daughter, also Army, when as a therapist, she red-flagged one of his guys as being too unstable emotionally to continue in bomb finding. Their first conversation was a fiery argument over that. Married with 2 kids...go figure!
Thanks Ally. He has a script tattoo on his arm that requests he be carried out of battle, if wounded badly or killed, by 6 of his brothers in arms. I thought that to be particularly moving. They fight for their country and they fight for each other.
I have a dear friend (she, Army, her husband, a fellow deputy with me) whose son was the only survivor of an ambush attack. Sam had that same script on his left forearm, and the names of his squad on his right. He was never able to get help from the DA, and managed to kill himself in a single vehicle roll-over drunk out of his gourd. His mom was devastated.
There is a battle bond that is incredibly powerful.
I have a family member who takes advantage of his status as a WWII Veteran despite the fact that he never made it out of boot camp because he contracted rheumatic fever and was given a medical discharge. It's sickening - he whips out his VA card to get discounts, takes advantage of free meals on Veteran's Day, etc., and of course gets medical treatment and meds through the VA. He's the first person to rage about those who take advantage of government "handouts". This man never served an active day in his life but he is happy to wear the mantle of service. Obviously, I have no respect for this imposter. I cringe every time he mentions being a veteran. And, oh yes, he supports the Big Lie too.
…it must be frustrating and disappointing to have that. I have cousins on my father’s side w/similar contradictions: they worked little, saved nothing for retirement, complain about their disability and Social Security benefits being too small, and then tout the big lie and accuse me of being brainwashed.
My Dad was a WWII veteran who served overseas, but never in combat (he was a meteorologist who helped set up the air stations that aided the bombers flying "over the hump"0. He was 26 when he enlisted. The only veterans benefit he ever claimed was interment at the Veterans Cemetery in Eagle Point, OR. My Mom donated his flag to be flown at the cemetery, and is interred with him.
Your Dad made a significant contribution to a critical and dangerous mission. I think many people aren't aware of what the term "flying over the hump" means. My Grandfather never saw combat but served in the Army Signal Corp in Alaska. He, like your Dad, only claimed interment at Fort Lincoln, he was 33 when he enlisted. They were good men.
They were, indeed. When I wanted to go into the service, my Dad said "Anything but the Army." I was going to go Navy, but there was that little matter of what I always call "question 20" where they ask if you're gay. I couldn't lie. That broke 4 generations of military service on my Dad's side of the family. He was OK with that; I'm the one who had issues about it.
David--totally. My father was in the PTO and was one of the first US troops into Japan, where he was stationed for a year as part of the army of occupation. I have some snapshots (taken with his Brownie camera) of Hiroshima from the air. He never talked about his war experiences and would chuckle uncomfortably when others would regale the crowds with their "adventures" in the war.
CDC’s Dr. Rochelle Walensky represents the best of American science, Rachel Maddow represents the best of American journalism, two incredible women representing the best of women and our men, Americans of uncommon genius, good humor, deep decency, uncommon tolerance, intellectual curiosity, gut fairness, core generosity of spirit one a liberal tolerant Catholic, one a smiling warm loving Jewess, both just fantastic.
I never miss Maddow's show. I looked back at notes from her shows two years ago and she nailed the Russian connection with DJT. She's accurate and correct almost all the time.
I think it was much earlier than two years ago where she even even diagrammed all the dark, oligarchic and conspiratorial money behind T***p and his comrades. That is when I first learned about the wacky Mercers and their funding of Manafort, Bannon and K***yanne. Her investigative team really does a fantastic job-- frightening though the revelations can be.
Penelope-did you get a chance to hear her Bagman podcast? She brought to light all about Agnew, his corruption and why he was removed from office before Nixon was made to resign or face impeachement. I didn't know about him at the time. Too bad the Republicans have utterly failed to do their job regarding Trump
No, I did not hear it-- but I will check it out. My parents were quite liberal when I was in high school. But I remember my dad had a Spiro Agnew watch where the hands were his arms and they went all over the place. I had no idea what it meant. But Nixon followed closely behind with his V-hands. After I see the podcast maybe it will all align for me. Thanks, Barbara!
I read it word for word more than a year ago. Not an easy read because it is so detailed, but well worth the time and effort. It made me see the whole world differently as I realized how many countries have been used by oligarchs bought out by Oil Companies around the world, with ... from what I can tell, American Oil usually leading the way. One reason so many people of color around the world have been seen as hopeless and not smart is because they've been mercilessly kept down for centuries. Disgraceful. And what's the most disgraceful is how ill-informed so many of us have been to let it all happen. Lots of battles out there! Information is the best weapon. Let's use what we are learning. For me it is on conversation and writing plus doing what I can with Vote Forward to write letters to voters. D not remain silent and do not be confrontational. Conversation and open works. Take the Morning Joe recommendation to read DBT for Dummies. It'll teach us all how to better communicate. We can start our own groups to practice the methods.
Trump is 100% owned by Putin et al, Trump and Giuliani and 500 more will be charged and convicted.. with many pleading. January 6th and Oklahoma, McVeigh, white trash white supremacist GOP fascists - spooled by Putin, Moscow Mitch owned in China, his wife, a Loop of Infamy in international community.
I agree with you, Sandy, but I don't know much about McVeigh. I do think we are face to face with modern day Nazis posers who have infiltrated our systems. No matter how inept the "orange cone of treason" (did I get that correct TCinLa?) appears, and the bozos out front, there is a very scary, intelligent method beneath the Seditionists' madness.
Today’s white supremacist GOP neo-fascist plays any color, loathes Black, Jews, rants on big government, an insidious Ronald Reagan fool, a pathological liar, ramping on lying Rep. Elise Stefanik who never lived in Willsoro.
McVeigh and his partner blew up the federal building, got caught, charged, convicted, electrocuted. His partner doing life. The original white supremacists killing children.
I just re-read about McVeigh. You are absolutely right-- he was all about white power. And I thought he was just a homegrown wacky terrorist. Plot thickens with our own people.
I respectfully agree on Walensky and disagree on Maddow. If there were a path to reduce the mindshare devoted to pundits who have presented themselves as journalists, it would be an important step in the right direction for America. Right and left, we’ve allowed an information environment in which actual journalism has been overtaken by punditry. My personal political views aside, I see Maddow and Carlson as two sides of a counterfeit coin. Both have journalistic training, and both have largely abandoned that for something else. It’s fine that they’ve chosen to do that, but I believe it’s sad and damaging that we swallow and excuse it for news.
~David Hausam, BJ, University of Missouri School of Journalism, 1979.
I respectfully beg to differ. I have not seen any other investigative reporter, so early on, provide the information that Maddow provided and tie it into manageable information. She does go on a bit and I wish she could sometimes get to the point or not belabor one so much as my ADHD kicks in and I wander away a bit. However, I learned so much from her where the other news reporters were still giving way too much oxygen to he who shall not be named because it upped their ratings. And her reporting matched my guts in that T***p pushed us quickly into a seriously dangerous period of time not unlike 1930's Germany. I was petrified in the 2016 campaign of this baby Hitler using all the same tactics.
And I have been petrified for the past five+ years. I am not in your field and do not have expertise in journalism, I only know what I witnessed and learned via Maddow and how it matched up with what I was seeing in the political sphere. Fully, I appreciate her efforts in calling a spade a spade very early on in looking at all the domestic and foreign oligarchic money deals, exchanges, laundering and shenanigans way before others dared or knew to dare.
Maddow also covered and brought attention to the Flint water crises for months before it became mainstream news. The endangerment of an already vulnerable community, was a subject she returned to over and over again until it was exposed for what it was.
Davis, sorry to disagree, but I think Maddow presents her facts, and they are in depth and revealing, in an effective manner. She may simply things a bit too much, but sometimes that’s necessary for all her viewers to understand everything. She uncovers things that are very well hidden.
Agree, no question. That wasn’t my point though. I don’t see a path back to messy but effective political discourse if one camp subscibes to ‘news’ from Carlson and another from Maddow. Advocacy is important, but not as a substitute for balanced news. Journalism, simply, is not at its best when presented as an emotional experience.
Of course there were problems with mid 20th century journalism, but it was one of a handful of common experiences and institutions that bound us as Americans (compulsory k-12 education, highways and other public works, a common currency, social security, etc). Our information delivery today is much less so. And a common body of information may be a(the) critical requirement for making America better.
While most of this letter concerns “Heritage Action,” which appears totally evil & villainous, much like Ian Fleming’s SPECTRE or Marvel Comics HYDRA, (Which both have similar, many-armed symbols), I will take a moment to rag on the IDIOT (and evil) Governor of Floriduh, Ron DeathSantis who seems to resent that his Idol the villainous, POSer ex-president has managed to kill more ppl by COVID-19, than he has.
In the height of the pandemic, he refused to order mask mandates and countermanded those large municipalities in SoFlo that did. Then, when the cruise companies who had dealt with COVID “plague ships” early in the pandemic were stopped from operating for the duration of the aerially transmitted virus, he most recently sued the feds to start the cruise industry again. Seeing how the vaccines were decreasing transmissions, the feds complied with safety precautions which the cruise lines accepted with 90% of passengers & crew being vaccinated against this disease. But now the IDIOT Governor is suing again because he does not want the specter of a “COVID Passport” to be implemented, which prompted Norwegian Cruise Line from threatening to pull its ships out of Floriduh. Yesterday at a news conference the IDIOT cited other nations in the world with higher incidence of COVID, allowing cruise ships to operate without the vaccination requirement. He did not cite which IDIOT nations those were but he said NCL was a small cruise line (It is 3rd from the top and in 2019 was building a huge new terminal at Port Miami), so I suspect he is pulling all that other shit out of his ass as well.
Most of the ships are registered in Nassau and I suppose are subject to Federal law in each nation where they dock so IDK what a legal challenge a state IDIOT Governor has. Plus, before this pandemic, we had Norovirus which plagued ships due to its enclosed crowded conditions ripe for surface transmission. Every ship had hand sanitizers to every dining place and actually encouraged washing hands with soap and water. These were the mandated precautions on every ship I’ve been on this century. Oh, and having required certification of your vaccination against communicable diseases is not new in International Travel. In the 1970s we had the yellow cards showing our vaccination against smallpox, yellow fever, typhoid, cholera etc. to travel thru Asia & Centro America. It was the law and ppl seemed more willing to obey such precautions back then without question. But that was before WARBI (We Are Ruled By Idiots).
The inmates are running the asylum. And, that is our “cross to bear” which is an acceptable metafor for being forced to participate in our own destruction by a malevolent governance.
Many cruise ships sail under the flag of Panama and other favorable countries to avoid taxation, wage regulations and other regulations of the USA (particularly eco-regs), although they are often headquartered in the US. So, the tax base the cruise lines provide to the US is nada. At the most, cruise lines pay docking fees to the US. One of the drawbacks for passengers is that passengers are limited in legal situations to the constraints of the "flagged" country.
Yeah, I know that. Which, on a Nassau registered ship, I wondered why they had a sign at the bar saying ppl had to be 21 to buy alcohol when the legal drinking age in Bahamas is 18. Maybe they just accommodated most of the passengers who were U.S.
We are the rulers in this country. We guard our country. If we fall asleep, idiots will play with our lives. We got complacent, and idiots killed a lot of us with lies, greed, and neglect. I include both parties in the idiot category.
"On Both Sides" has become a catch phrase of apologists for white supremacy ever since the Asswipe Occupying the White House used it to defend "Unite the Right" in Charlottesville VA in 2017.
Democracy has never been a level playing field. Being rich, powerful and white has always been the thumb on the scale. Ordinary people have to work much harder to have a voice. And we are often left to live with the unfortunate choices the majority has made. Democracy always breaks someone’s heart
Oh my, Dr. Richardson, oh my. How naive so many of us have been and are. Thanks to this community, and Ellie Kona in particular today, for the suggestions and links to organizations. Dark money and the Koch family et al. may be the Goliaths but we, and others like us can be a collective David in our actions. So easy to be discouraged but we must not give up spreading the truth.
Excellent letter. Good to see more concrete evidence of Heritage’s state and federal efforts to promote voter suppression. Hopefully people note the fact that, as you report, it will use its ‘echo chamber of support’ to fulfill this mission. It is important to keep in mind how ubiquitous and well-funded this network is throughout think tanks, so-called non-profits, foundations, university departments and programs, judiciary & legislative training programs, Congress, media outlets and more. They operate collectively and highly effectively, funded in the billions, I believe, by Koch, billionaire allies and some corporations. Know what you are up against. Never have votes been more precious or critical in the fight to preserve democracy. Their goal of voter suppression and oligarchic rule by an elite few supporting a highly limited role for government is clearly laid out in Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains, Jane Mayer’s Dark Money, and Anne Nelson’s Shadow Network. I promised myself I wouldn’t write about the Koch et al. networks again. Back to the drawing board.
Dear Marilyn, thank you for deciding to contribute today. I know sometimes it might feel like you’re being repetitive, or you’re concentrating excessively on something, but with these thousands of readers, some of them new, there is never a wasted post.
Today is the first I’ve ever heard of Heritage. (Whore-itage? Germitage?) I’m glad you posted, because it deepens my understanding. We each have our areas of knowledge and (relative) expertise. Don’t hesitate to post when your knowledge is pertinent. I really appreciated you posting, and the other posts on Heritage here, highly valuable because the subject is new to me. 🙏🙏
Yesterday evening, Ari Shapiro, on NPR's All Things Considered, had a great conversation with Masha Gessen, author of Surviving Autocracy, about where the Ghastly Obstructionist Party is headed. It is definitely worth a read or listen--They (Gessen) was very clear about where this whole mishegoss is headed. And it was also wonderful to hear a non-binary person featured. Gessen is super eloquent. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/996617553/the-u-s-is-headed-away-from-the-ideals-of-democracy-says-author-masha-gessen
I like her description of democracy as a vector rather than a fixed state, always moving back and forth between democracy and autocracy. An endless tug of war.
Professor, thank you such a well-crafted letter. Just when I am anticipating a smorgasbord of news you throw this bomb about The Heritage Foundation! You write, "But the real blockbuster political story of the day came in the form of a video obtained by Mother Jones and written about in a detailed article there by Ari Berman and Nick Surgey. The leaked video shows Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action for America—the political arm of the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank—explaining to big-money donors that Heritage Action has worked closely with Republican state legislators to enact voter suppression laws."
The Heritage folks have been a premier user of the astroturf strategy of poisoning American politics since its founding in 1973! "The 'grassroots' protest against 'voter fraud' is, in fact, conceived, funded, and organized by one of the most powerful elite political organizations in the country." you write.
We have to pursue a strategy to get rid of the filibuster to pass the restoration of voting right.
It says a great deal about today's Republican Party that its members are far more outraged about Liz Cheney's comments about the Orange Asscactus than they are about Matt Gaetz' (alleged) sexual misconduct, Marjorie Taylor Greene's anti-Semitism and just outright lunacy, Madison Cawthorn's Hitler fetish, Lauren Boebert's gun fetish, etc., etc.................
Might as well start identifying them as the "Trumpublicans" -- not only because of their blind loyalty to the former "president" but also for their agenda to trump any efforts to safeguard democracy.
I think I would shorten it to "trumplican". That way it leaves the way open for people who are sincerely and honestly conservative supporters of democracy to reclaim the name republican.
"Almost immediately, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) shot Manchin’s plan down." Of course, he did. I think Churchill was right - never underestimate the American people's ability to do the wrong thing...............although he did add we usually get it right in the end. I wish I felt confident we'd get it right in the end here, too.
My hope is that because of Cornyn’s immediate opposition it puts some light into Manchin’s brain and moves him toward realization that there will be no bi-partisanship with the Republicans. Perhaps he was hoping his proposal would get traction and he would be a hero, but maybe, just maybe, he’ll realize how hopeless this is and get on board. Oh, and maybe learning that all the protesters in his state were bussed in, might also help.
My gut is telling me that Manchin is enjoying his new place in the sun entirely too much! Not to say he won't see the light, but it feels like first he's got to get past thinking he's all that and cup of tea.
See now this is a perfect example why people are so appreciative of this community. Sandra tunes in to Manchin and gets insight that we all now have. Thank you Sandra‼️And thank you everyone else who takes the time to share with us what you know.
He could, like Cheney, be brave enough to take one on the chin for democracy. Is holding his seat more important than holding onto our democracy? No. It is not.
You know, I was thinking about that. In SD, when Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson (both D) were in Congress, they did what they thought was right. They weren’t scared of the Republicans. The margins were razor thin in SD then with the Republicans moving to where they are today. Both were there for a long time. I wish I’d had the foresight to see what was coming when John Thune ousted Daschle.
"No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." H.L. Mencken
Good one, Reid. I just finished Michael Lewis's "The Pandemic" (must read, y'all). It caused me to go back to "The Fifth Risk" for a refresher, and in that he mentioned the reams of data the government has on various threats, scenarios, etc., but what they don't have is the data that would explain why the American people so often refuse to utilize the very services available, like tornado warnings, for instance. He was referencing the tornado in 2011 that killed over 500 people, even though the sirens had sounded in plenty of time, etc.
People don't always know what the government actually DOES. He cites a congress critter who says, basically, who need NOAA? He gets his weather info from The Weather Channel! So where the hell does he think the Weather Channel gets it?
Same thing with so many 'small government' righties, who believe they never get or take anything from Uncle Sam. But maybe went to school on the GI Bill, or have a Federally backed mortgage (and take the mortgage deduction off their taxes), etc.
Not to mention the fact that essentially EVERYTHING underpinning our ability to live our largely comfortable, safe lives is provided or ensured by government: roads, bridges, safe and plentiful food, police, fire departments, infrastructure (including electrical grids, gas lines, clean water), financial systems, parks, schools, waste disposal (including human waste), safety standards, social safety nets...one could go on and on.
In Heather’s video chat today (5/13/2021), she talked about Stephen Douglas. Stephen Douglas, of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, drafted the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 to allow the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether or not to allow slavery, rather than to be decided by Congress, and the Northerners in opposition to slavery and oligarchy formed the Republican Party. The Democratic Party split between north and south. As the Southern Democrats escalated to the point of seceding from the Union, Douglas took a stand that secession was in opposition to democracy and sided with Lincoln and the Union for a mainstream position. With the split in the Democrats, the Republicans prevailed. As it echoes to today, the party split looks like a good thing.
Heather’s point was that the spin-off element can become very dangerous.
As Heather describes the campaign of the Heritage Action for America, we see ever more clearly how the danger comes in the form of not “just” the Jan. 6 insurrection, but the sophisticated monied manipulation of state legislators, and even of public opinion, as through letters to the editor, to create the appearance of legitimacy and “the will of the people.”
How is Heritage connected to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)? Both are funded by the Koch Foundation. Note that ALEC wrote the 360 voter suppression bills pending/passed across the country.
What is the counterpart progressive PAC that is spoon-feeding legislation to elected officials and their staff?
Fellow HCR Reader Jeff Carpenter looked for a progressive PAC. The best he could find is the State Innovation Exchange (SiX):
New Republic article of 1/03/2020, “Have Democrats Found Their ALEC?”
https://newrepublic.com/article/156110/democrats-found-alec
The State Innovation Exchange (SiX) provides an online database of liberal and progressive model state-level legislation that has been passed in a state for politicians and activists to replicate and enact in state legislatures.
https://stateinnovation.org/
Jeff learned that progressive state groups are more like libraries than lobbies, and big donors prefer national legislation over state legislation. Jeff contacted a SiX spokesperson who said:
“We do not operate like ALEC (For example, we’re not a “bill mill” that churns out copycat legislation. We know that policy alone won’t fix our democracy and economy, so we take a policy plus approach--we share policy research from issue experts, as well as communications, strategy, connections with movement partners, and other types of support that legislators need.) We do provide tailored support for state legislators, and democracy is one of our primary issue areas.”
However daunting, our despair can only be a feeling that we redirect into action. Barriers to voting, voter suppression bills, are already being passed as a set up for the minority to overpower the majority in the 2022 elections and beyond. The time is now to make our voices heard as individuals by writing/texting/calling elected officials, corporations, local newspapers, and social media.
How to get started, if you haven’t already? Here are 5 of more than 40 grassroots organizations:
Vote Forward: https://votefwd.org/
Fair Fight: Home | Fair Fight
League of Women Voters (members do include men!): https://www.lwv.org/
Common Cause: commoncause.org
5 Calls: https://5calls.org/
What’s your favorite organization in support of democracy?
My favorite organization in support of democracy is Joe Biden’s administration.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Question—why am I still surprised that Heritage was doing everything that Democrats were accused of? Bussing people in to act like locals was something we often heard idjt45 raging about during the New Hampshire primary. There is no bottom to their madness and it explains why many politicians never even knew what they were proposing. Hello Marjorie and her America First caucus looking like a fool talking about an outside organization and no one blasted her on it.
Great list and background info Ellie. Thank you.
given the degree of projection, plus R claims that hacked voting machines changed votes...
Hi. A group of HCR Substackers has formed to support activism. You can email:
heathersherd@gmail.com
I attended a Zoom call last night about Florida redistricting which was very interesting. It was presented by Allontheline.org and the LWVFL (League of Women Voters). Turns out Florida voters voted to pass two Fair Maps amendments in 2010 or thereabouts but the legislatures just ignored them and the Governor at the time, Rick Scott, signed into law the gerrymandered districts that were drawn up. Lawsuits ensued and the Fl Supreme Court ruled that the maps had to be redrawn, but of course 5 years had passed and the damage done. The state is redistricting this year, and whatever maps are drawn up will last 10 years. If you are in Florida, please consider joining the LWVFL and Allontheline.org to see what they are doing and how you might help. They are requesting that each legislator sign a pledge of transparency and they are educating the public by talking to any group in a public venue that they can reach.
Hi, Pamsy, I was on the call last night too (thanks for the link!). Lots of good information. Yes, please join up with LWV in any state you are in and also All on the Line. They had one ppt slide that was eye-opening which showed how gerrymandered districts totally influence the outcome of representation.
I’m glad you were there too, Annette!
I just this minute finished reading the Mother Jones article, and my morning brain fog is trying to connect all of the dots. Here your comment dawned at the top of the replies like the sunrise, containing clear action steps. How do you do that? Thank you, Ellie!
Hi. A group of HCR Substackers has formed to support activism. You can email:
heathersherd@gmail.com
I shall copy this to my American family and friends and I hope all who read it will both follow the excellent practical advice provided AND share Ellie's words with their contacts.
MAKE THIS SNOWBALL!
FairFight. Thanks for this Ellie!
Speaking of redistricting, there’s also the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NRDC) https://democraticredistricting.com. The chairman is Eric Holder, and I’m starting to get emails from them. They might be worth following.
Thank you, Joan, for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee ...! They are kicking butt: https://www.penncapital-star.com/government-politics/the-first-of-many-democratic-redistricting-group-files-preemptive-lawsuit-in-pa-court/
Thank you, Joan and Jeff. Added NRDC to the list.
My favorite Eric Holder quote: "the arc...only bends toward justice because people pull it towards justice."
Thank you, Ellie, for your comment today with all the excellent resources, some of which are new to me. Just a quick disambiguation: NDRC is the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. "NRDC" with the R and D reversed is Natural Resources Defense Council, which kicks butt on behalf of the environment but not voter rights.
Thank you for the correction of NDRC, not NRDC!
Hi. A group of HCR Substackers has formed to support activism. You can email:
heathersherd@gmail.com
I'd also add Emily's List. https://www.emilyslist.org
Thank you, Linda. Added EMILY's List to our list. Inquiring minds might want to know:
EMILY's List is an acronym for "Early Money Is Like Yeast," and readers will have to check it out further for themselves!
Warning, Emily’s List is so focused on women that it once led me to support two women candidates who supported (and still do) the death penalty.
To be clear, I didn’t find out until I’d already donated to their campaigns. I wrote to Emily’s List in dismay but received no response.
Resistbot at 50409. Text them at that number for help in writing to your senators and reps, state and national.
Hi. A group of HCR Substackers has formed to support activism. You can email:
heathersherd@gmail.com
Stellar post, Ellie. Heard HCR's chat yesterday; glad to have you summarize it so well here. Fair Fight and Common Cause are my major go-to organizations!
Progressive Turnout Project’s Postcards to Swing States: www.turnoutpac.org
Thank you, Donna. Added Progressive Turnout to our list, which has now grown to 52 organizations for voting rights! People might be interested to know that Progressive Turnout supports phone calling and/or handwritten postcards to swing states.
Hi. A group of HCR Substackers has formed to support activism. You can email:
heathersherd@gmail.com
Public Citizen is one of my long-time favorites: https://www.citizen.org/, and the remarkable Center for Constitutional Rights: https://ccrjustice.org/. And for sheer organizational knowhow and show-up: Our Revolution (or your Our Revolution state chapter, if you're more interested in local and state politics and offices, which is probably the better part of wisdom. Just think what we owe right now to the secretaries of state and county commissioners who manned the barricades last year! --and what we have to fear from gerrymandering in state houses).
Thank you, Mary. Added all 3 to the list, and here's the link for Our Revolution:
https://ourrevolution.com/
Hi Ellie, thanks for making a list! (Late reply as I was sick last week.) Is the list web-accessible?
Thanks!
Thanks, sorry I forgot to add that myself.
Ellie, thanks very much for these links. For sure, you can't fight an adversary you don't know is there, so many of us need to be pointed in the right (or left?) direction.
When I was studying abroad in Germany at one of that country's most prestigious universities in the early 1980's, I was shocked at how students would call us "stupid Americans." Only after gaining a tiny grasp of a global perspective did I realize they were right. The evil of Nazism and what happens when a strong leader casts his spell over the masses was pounded into German consciousness daily. They knew what they were talking about.
In the context of The Big Lie, we are to a degree a nation of misinformed, xenophobic, racist people whose political leaders assume this when they offer a distorted reality as platform. It's sickening to witness.
Between the end of the Vietnam War and 2016 America has pretty much skated, economic challenges notwithstanding. With the election of Trump, basic freedoms were suddenly challenged. I only partly blame the McCarthys and McConnells for the current threat against our democracy. Millions of have swallowed Republican lies and conspiracy theories hook line and sinker. We the People are to blame. And now the world calls us, "REALLY stupid Americans."
There is only one solution to our constitutional crisis. Vote our asses off to stop the voter suppression and lies. That includes you, Joe Manchin. That includes you.
In 1831, two Frenchmen came to America to study our Democracy. Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont, both minor French court officials who originally came to study our prison system but ended up fascinated with our unique Democracy compared to Europe. After traveling deeply into America for nine months, and interviewing Americans at all levels of life, Tocqueville wrote "Democracy in America" which was published in 1840.
This is a fascinating book on his observations of our developing culture from an outsider. These two statements from his book are premonitions of how this kind of Democracy could fail.
"Tyranny of the Majority"
A number of things bothered de Tocqueville about democracy. One of them was that in a society made up of equal citizens, the majority is always right. To de Tocqueville, a majority of equals, just like a single all-powerful ruler, could abuse its power. In a democracy, de Tocqueville argued, this abuse becomes the "tyranny of the majority."
De Tocqueville did not claim that the tyranny of the majority as yet existed to any great degree in America. Still, he saw evidence of it developing. For example, de Tocqueville found that in the North, free black males who had the right to vote often were discouraged from voting by the white majority.
De Tocqueville maintained that even freedom of speech, guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, was affected by majority opinion.
"I know no country," he wrote, "in which, generally speaking, there is less independence of mind and true freedom of discussion than in America." He added that the lack of great writers in the United States was due to the absence of "freedom of spirit" brought on by a majority intolerant of minority views.
"If ever freedom is lost in America," de Tocqueville warned, "that will be due to the ... majority driving minorities to desperation...." De Tocqueville did identify certain elements at work in American democracy which checked the formation of a tyranny of the majority. Among these elements were the large number of independent associations, the press and the courts.
The Future of Democracy
In Europe, most critics of democracy believed that America would sooner or later descend into anarchy. De Tocqueville, however, saw another even more disturbing threat to American democracy. He feared that American citizens would become so satisfied with being equal to one another that they would abandon their deep interest and involvement in self-government. If this should happen, cautioned de Tocqueville, government would grow more powerful and in a kindly sort of way cover society with "a network of petty, complicated rules." Far from dissolving into anarchy, American government under these conditions could become as oppressive as any cruel European monarchy. Americans would end up having equality through slavery.
In the last sentence of Democracy in America, de Tocqueville wrote about the fate of Americans and all others who would choose the path of equality. "It depends on themselves whether equality is to lead to servitude or freedom, knowledge or barbarism, prosperity or wretchedness."
Sorry to be so dismal in my ponderings this morning, but this is where we appear to be: under the Tyranny of the Majority.
But our problem right now is tyranny of the MINORITY--that the electoral college, gerrymandering, the gutting of the voting rights act, and the distribution of senators without regard to population makes possible.
As for American stupidity, too many of our primary and secondary schools are lousy. They need to be federally funded, and teachers need to be recruited from the cream of the crop and paid like they're extremely important.
Public education has been under attack from right wing groups for decades! The concept of charter schools and school choice has been sabotaged by those striving to Reestablish segregated schools. Voucher payments to private schools has been approved by right wing controlled courts which used totally bogus arguments to justify the payments. Unfortunately, the Separation of Church and a state is second rate and trampled on by the very people who worship the second amendment!
I am not sure i fully understand you. What I wrote about is being "UNDER the Tyranny of the Majority." I think we are talking bout the same thing, right?
David wrote that right now we are under the tyranny of a minority, which is correct. It is worth noting that This was accomplished through flaws in the system of governance that was meant to ensure majority rule (at least of white men at the time). These flaws that were deliberately introduced, beginning with the insistence of white southerners that slaves be counted in the census, but denied the vote. The south wanted to count them as full persons in the census, but the north refused. The "compromise" resulted in the 3/5 count for slaves, to keep the south from pulling out of forming a union. Slave count gave more reps to the slave states, but since slaves couldn't vote, and ways were found to keep free blacks from voting, all those extra reps were voted on by white men. (Funny how that worked out.) Thomas Jefferson early figured out how to manipulate the 2 senators per state thing to his advantage. Then, of course, it was a natural next step to create gerrymandered districts whose votes would support the dominant party. So, at the national level and within many states we have always been under the tyranny of the minority- under the guise of "The Majority". De Toqueville missed that aspect of our history, and was talking about something else. I am not sure I agree with him. That failure of equality and lack of discourse is not so much related to political process as it is to distribution of wealth.
As for schools, that sounds like it belongs in another discussion. Or maybe it is really a symptom of the wealth issue.
Symptom of economic inequality (wealth issue).
We are under the tyranny of the powerful not the majority. Citizens United has enabled the powerful to control legislation in both the state and federal levels. The democrats must, MUST, break the log jam if it means censoring Joe Manchin and doing away with the filibuster in order to save our democracy. This IS war and we shouldn't be taking prisoners!
Pretty much my point, Robert. Except that last part, which strikes me as rather militant (excuse pun) in an abusive way. Shown again and again to be counterproductive - as the Republicans are learning. Are we to repeat their mistake?
I am replying to David H’s comment regarding ‘lousy…..schools’.
(Sweden)
Now, what do you actually mean with that? The questions of gerrymandering, voter suppression, electorate system, and all of that preventing the actual majority from getting in power; is it not efficient enough?
The constant issue with democracy I think is for majority leaders to find out what they can actually do in regard to the obligation to be leaders for all of the people. Sweden has a long history of minority governments; it makes for a dull, weak, and not very glamorous leadership, but sometimes I comfort myself that it might just be the necessary training of compromise and negotiation required for democracy; accompanied by freedom of the press and opinion of course.
Olof, you said, "The constant issue with democracy I think is for majority leaders to find out what they can actually do in regard to the obligation to be leaders for all of the people."
That is precisely it in a nutshell.
Hello Olof, thank you for joining the discussion!! 🙏
The issue, as I see it, is lack of clarity in our definitions and word choices. I am a high intelligence specialist, someone who studies how high intelligence affects the lives of those who possess it. We do not all have equal intelligence and we do not all have equal abilities to do all things. Aye, there's the equality rub! We do, however, all have similar needs that need to sometimes be met differently. Among those needs are food, shelter, and safety. Every one craves connection and being loved and appreciated. We all need to be heard. Etc. In my own speciality I am aware that free education sounds great (and it would be!) but it must not include rules that completely dictate what that education should look like as though we are all the same in those needs and abilities. So, de Toqueville's talk about the majority is correct in many of these areas, and when we talk about equality we must make it clear that we mean unnecessary barriers and necessary supports should be there for all ... but what those are and how we arrange for them is another thing. Okay, enough for now.
Deborah, that is a fascinating study and I think you are right on target about our complexities. I have been a therapist for many years frequently serving teens at a school for dyslexia, ADHD, processing challenges, people on the spectrum-- and I was a Montessori teacher for 15 years in my youth. We do not all learn the same way or are interested in learning the same things for a variety of reasons. Learning challenges and styles, impacted by poverty, empty bellies, entitlement or trauma make education and equality a complex issue-- without the squelching of it by politicals bent on mass control. I love what you present here. Thank you!
I suspect, that de Toqueville may have expected an "informed majority", yes? The issue is that the majority (of all persuasions) are horrendously ill informed (especially now), and it's getting worse. What concerns me is the tyranny of the majority, which has happened many times in history.
Makes me want to read it .
"Really stupid Americans" is an apt description of too many of us. If Americans looked in a mirror, they would not like what they would see. The ignorant and the gullible are always the ones whose power is harnessed by those who have undemocratic aims. They enabled the South to secede in 1861 bringing about the Civil War. They enabled bigotry to rule our society for a century afterward. They enabled a would be dictator to be elected in 2016. The fear of oppressive government and the independent spirit which caused people to cross the Atlantic and settle this country remains in their descendants, causing them to be used by those with selfish, undemocratic, motives. These include taking away the one solution to our constitutional crisis mentioned above, voting. America, look in a mirror.
Many of our American citizens are too lazy to think for themselves and would rather swallow lies than do the work to know when they are being accurately informed. The truth is supposed to be verified to be accepted!
Pogo said it years ago. "We have met the enemy and it is us." (He was referring to the environment, but it has broader implications.)
I always loved Pogo as a kid.
This is so well put. And your solution, Randy, trite as it sounds, is correct at its core.
But so much of this current fighting revolves around the voting process and is conducted in the dark well out of our reach.
I found Heather’s letter utterly depressing this morning. It feels like America is a Titanic in its last days before the iceberg. Step by step the country is shambling towards disaster. Really it’s a logical endpoint. Prosperity is a malaise all of its own because it breeds lethargy. The theft of that prosperity by a few has been going on for forty years now. It was subtle for long enough that people didn’t recognize a problem. Now it’s an open, festering wound. And the “winners” don’t care that their thievery has been exposed. In the Sixties the United States, led by California, was building a great education system. Now, it seems perfectly practical to many of our behind the scenes actors to let that education system rot, to dumb it down, to fill it with lies. “Really stupid Americans” can be diverted with bread and circuses. This is a foundational activity in America today.
Being brutally honest, I think I’ve been very Pollyanna-ish about America’s prospects. What Heather revealed today about the size and scope of Heritage Foundation’s activity to drive down the vote sickened and shocked me.
I still think that the current Republican Party is as dumb as a sack of bricks. They are at their weakest point ever in my lifetime. Not only are they inept, they look almost radically, pathetically deranged. Their current position is, to put it modestly, not great.
A hyper-active Department of Justice will help greatly. A legal system that decisively stops Trump in his tracks will be another roadblock. Prosecution of the insurrectionists *and* a commission will further rip the Republicans apart.
But money talks and this latest revelation of the type of concerted action it can buy, is gloom-inducing. The Titanic sails on...
The Republican Party may be dumb now, Eric, but they are just the puppets; the puppet masters are ALEC, the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, State Policy Network, and the other 2500 organizations that the Koch brothers, et al. have poured 13 billion dollars into funding over the past three decades. They have a master plan, created by policy specialists, and psychological warfare agents, and they have been instrumental in the shift in politics in America. Their opponents, the progressive political types, are too tentative to mount an attack campaign of this sort, too open to debate and second-guessing... they have underestimated the threat and may succumb to it.
Yes, that is what I am aware of but only in a shadowy way. One goes where the media is.
Those in the background may even be advantaged by the disarray that is constantly on parade. They can work with swiftness and surety, as scrutiny on them diminishes.
I cannot help but feel that America’s bloat in years past, its self-satisfaction, the crazy predilection of the nation for conspiracies dating back to the “Stranger Danger” movement of the Eighties (and in truth before that), have brought these shadowy groups into being and allowed them to thrive. America is a nation of constant sensation and distraction.
The progressive Sixties failed to establish a progressive nation. Deeply alarmed, the business world and many in the law roused themselves to begin their organizing to stamp out the anti-Establishment. Soon there was a rousing redefinition of religion in the Evangelical south. And then came the scrapping of the Fairness in Media doctrine.
The culture wars of the 2000s have been a most satisfactory shiny object with which to distract and divide Americans. And then social media perfectly amplified, and again, distracted Americans.
Nobody can see the end of this long game. There are too many imponderables. But it is deeply unsettling.
Thanks for your helpful thoughts.
Hello Eric thank you for this heartfelt post. I’m sorry you’re feeling discouraged about our prospects.
I have a different take than yours. Instead of the Ttitanic, I believe we are in an icebreaker and our ship is nearly in the clear. The news about the Heritage group (or whatever these slime buckets call themselves) sounds depressing and gloomy until you consider this: the news of their activity means there is now a spotlight on them. All of the USA has been informed of them and what they are doing. That makes them a target.
People on the right side of history, you can call them Democrats but not all of us have political inclinations or identify as members of a political party, are becoming as vicious and unrelenting as the Republicans have been. In fact we have managed to recruit some of those same merciless Republicans to our side, and even here today Rick Wilson and Stuart Stevens (and Steve Schmidt and others) are being mentioned as allies. A total of at least seven different Republican organizations were fighting for Biden and against Trump last year. Now we have the faction of Liz Cheney versus the faction of the Trumpublicans. They are having the first real split in my lifetime, and I don’t think it bodes well for them. Even with their razor-thin majority, the Democrats look far more united, Manchin notwithstanding. Remember too, somehow the Democrats miraculously won two seats against incumbents in a southern state. I still can’t wrap my head around that. They were both complete underdogs. If that’s not fate or destiny, I don’t know what else to call it. That’s not the Titanic. That’s Jules Verne.
But the legal system may well be impaired by the Turtle/idjt appointees with a federalist bent. Troubling to consider.
Randy you are so very right--but unfortunately, Germany is also sliding back into an autocratic worldview, which Merckel and her party--despite being traditional Euro-conservatives--have been desperately trying to push back. This is especially true in the former East German states, where authoritarianism never really went away.
Indeed, we are "stupid Americans". We (the global "we") accept "distorted reality" with nary a critical thought.
I am watching the situation on the Gaza Strip with the thoughts of 40 years of the war that the Republiqan party has lusted for on my mind.
I would like to hear more of your thoughts on this. I’m watching too. It seems to me that long term at least the Palestinians, egged on by Hammas (backed Iran’s Hezbollah) harass the Israelis until they retaliate and snip off a chunk of Palestinian territory... and if it continues, the Israelis will one day reach the sea and absorb any Palestinians that may be left, which would be an advantage for all, and may even be a good thing for the other 46 muslim countries.
I just learned from a Malcom Vance video that Putin backs Hezbolla
I’ve been saying for a while that when Trump has ‘talks’ with Republicans he tells them to lie, to say whatever they want because his base will believe anything. I imagine he gives examples and they sit and laugh about it!
You are probably not far off. Supercilious !
I’m with you!!$
What are the GOP hoping to achieve here? Power and control, yes. But over what? A nation reduced to rubble? An impoverished failed state? A sitting duck for alien nations ? A population of uneducated, sick, malnourished toothless citizens with a life expectancy of 35? What? They want to sit on gold thrones presiding over a waste dump?
Always remembering the possibly apochryphal, but very relevant quote attributed to many an Native American Chief......
"When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money".
There are limits to even their greed that nature will eventually impose.....but somewhat late for the rest of us if they are not stopped now.
"...When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money...". I am borrowing this one. It hits the nail on the head.
Who wrote that? (1990 or before )?
Certainment!
I’ve got that t-shirt
You could shorthand and call it the Confederate States of America.
Yes.
At least the intention is crystal clear. And this profoundly stupid project of an oligarchic state -- government of money, by money, for money -- is not compatible with the U.S. Constitution.
Ah, but they are gearing up for a constitutional convention to make new amendments. My state of South Carolina is on board approving a new convention, along with all the other usual suspects. This is truly frightening.
Sure it is. That's part of the problem with the Constitution--it was written by and for white, wealthy, slave-owning oligarchs and has encouraged and enabled oligarchs ever since.
Reid, may you not be in danger of committing the fundamental error of laymen (not just the woke) looking at history in our time, judging the past—another country, another culture—in terms of this year's fashionable memes?
It is precisely because the most influential contributors to the Convention were well aware of the proclivities of greedy, irresponsible, unprincipled turncoat characters in their midst—hence, the prominence accorded to impeachment—that they strove so to balance the Constitution as to guard against abuses of power, on the one hand, and mob rule, on the other. (Plenty of the latter is, and almost always has been deeply ingrained in US politics—as made painfully visible on January 6th.)
Hamilton had genius—and authoritarian, near monarchical tendencies—but where in the world would we find a politician of Madison’s stature today? That’s a standard to live up to.
Somehow, you seem to be neglecting the contribution of Tom Paine and those whom he influenced.
No, the problem is not so much with the drafters of the Constitution as with successive generations of mediocrities who have made a living twisting and circumventing everything in it that got in the way of their personal ambitions, their greed, their innate lawlessness. Madison saw the original text as representing principles that must be kept alive and nurtured by regular amendment, taking account of the changing needs of a growing, developing society. Too many successors wanted it drugged and locked in a cupboard…
Now, America has to cope with the Cargo Cultist mentality of those who have inscribed the Constitution on tables of stone and transformed it from the basis of the law into a mere fetish, an object of dumb worship—like failed politicians turned ministers of pseudo-religion, the better to bamboozle and milk their flock. On the one hand, you have the Originalists, the Federalist Society and their paymasters (all of whom would doubtless have had Messrs. Hamilton, Madison and Jay puking and/or reaching for pistols) ; on the other, the January 6th mob, direct descendants of those backwoodsmen who wanted no state, no government, no Constitution, no law but the Bible, no authority but God. A land in which every man (but no woman, no child, no servant, no chattel slave, no one with “the wrong kind of face”) is His Own Monarch by Divine Right and His Own Infallible Pope.
A veritable infestation of free radicals on the body politic—and heaven knows what the prognosis can be for the cancer they’ve caused, even with the fine team of healers now heading the country.
Forbear with this ignorant foreigner—either that, or kindly instruct me—I studied the period between 1763 and 1812 a long, long time ago; and I may have suffered from a lifetime addiction to information, but that makes for nothing but a ragbag. Therefore I am vehement about fundamental convictions, especially in regard to the intrinsic equality of all human beings (transcending all abstract principles) while tending to a volatile and not always well-dosed mix of skepticism and rashness. If I dare comment on affairs in your country, it is because members of this community are aware of their responsibilities as U.S. citizens and the global implications of American politics; and if they aren’t, they have wise guidance from Doctor Cox Richardson.
Well...it seems to me you are deifying a group of deeply flawed men who were, nonetheless, doing the best they could under the circumstances. It is beyond dispute, however, that they codified white supremacy, misogyny, and oligarchy. Slavery--the ownership, torture, rape, and extrajudicial killing of other human beings--is baked right into the document. Is it a better founding document than any other? In most ways, almost certainly. But it still leaves a great deal of room for precisely the shenanigans we are currently seeing to go on with impunity and legal cover.
1. Going by the above, you regard our time as intrinsically better and wiser and our contemporaries (or those whom you see as the best of them) as less flawed than their predecessors. Now. Now, even after the 45th...
Well, I can only ask you to probe received ideas mercilessly and try to refine them so that there's nothing left that is not truly your own—admittedly a task that can take a lifetime... I am deifying no one but neither am I demonizing anyone. I don't deify myself nor do I dare pass judgment on these men. And when it comes to their actions, they had their blind spots, the beam in their eye, we have skyscrapers in our collective eye...
Having said which, I’m usually at ease with your remarks, as with the general tenor or the conversation in this community which feels like a revival of the great American tradition of associative life that so impressed Alexis de Tocqueville. Much needed at a time of all-powerful lobbies and 120 decibel post-Citizens United “speech”…
2. Your statements imply a belief in linear “progress”—a view somewhat at variance with the dreadful realities of history during the intervening period, especially the 20th century. How does all this align with the fact that, thanks to human activity, the world as we know it is faced with a crisis of survival and we, the living, are handing the dirty job of dealing with that down to our children and to the unborn?
3. Are we not faced now with the accumulated gross errors of centuries, even millennia? Some of our western aberrations (duly visited on the whole world) date back at the very least to the political conformism imposed on Christianity when it became the official religion of the Roman empire; others, to the past five hundred years…
4. Our discussion here is in any case irrelevant to the urgent demands of the moment. I’m a foreigner whose country is also in a bad mess. Let's forget about passing judgment on the dead and take urgent steps on behalf of the living and the unborn by going to Ellie Kona’s detailed report 8 hours ago and taking the action she sets out therein—probably you’ll already have done so.
Pardon me for drawing attention to these yet again but they should be plastered on every wall!
“How to get started, if you haven’t already? Here are 5 of more than 40 grassroots organizations:
Vote Forward: https://votefwd.org/
Fair Fight: Home | Fair Fight
League of Women Voters (members do include men!): https://www.lwv.org/
Common Cause: commoncause.org
5 Calls: https://5calls.org/
What’s your favorite organization in support of democracy?”
Reid, you make me curious to know if you have seen one better?
Well hopefully we have advanced intellectually since then, due to science.
Nor, for that matter, is it compatible with the continued global hegemony of the US dollar.
Of course you're right.
Besides the fact that this irrelevant nonsense will end up by destroying us all, blinkered oligarchy is not even in the medium-term interest of big money...
Absolutely this. Losing its status as the reserve currency would have profound ripple effects. The good news is that (unless you believe the crypto hype), the yuan/renminbi is the only viable alternative and there is enough distrust of the Chinese government that it's unlikely to become the new reserve currency. The euro is not even in the conversation at this point because they lack a true central banking authority. What else is there?
Love. Humanity. Mutual respect. Freedom. Democracy. All the things that provide the true basis of money, the true foundation. If you look at silver American coins pre-1964, the walking liberty and standing liberty images, and even the native American images on the copper coins preceding the Lincoln penny, you get a taste for what real money is. Real money is based on the values that we hold dear. That’s why the ruble and the Chinese whatever will never be global currencies, not in their current mafioso and Orwellian forms.
tears...
Or counterfeit states of America.
Don’t give them the honor of capitalizing or recognizing them
Many of them truly do believe they are "returning us to greatness," whatever that means. The MAGA cult in strong in them.
Americans have an overall life expectancy of 78.7 years (CDC)
Current-dollar GDP increased 10.7 percent, or $554.2 billion, in the first quarter to a level of $22.05 trillion. In the fourth quarter, GDP increased 6.3 percent, or $324.5 billion
in the United States, more children suffer from malnutrition due to dietary imbalances than due to nutritional deficiencies. ... About 1 percent of children in the United States suffer from chronic malnutrition. (Malnutrition | Johns Hopkins Medicinehttps://www.hopkinsmedicine.or)
(American Society of Civil Engineers): The 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure found the nation’s infrastructure earns a cumulative grade of a “C-.” This is an improvement over the 2017 grade of a “D+” and is an indication that modest improvements have been made to our infrastructure systems over the past four years. However, 11 categories are still in the “D” range, including the newest infrastructure sector to the report card, stormwater.
Another example of short term thinking translating to longer term power.
What the GOP is hoping to achieve is a return to what they had before 1964: a government run entirely by white people for the benefit of white people.
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. So yes.
So backward !
Yes!
Today, Heather revealed a story, 'a blockbuster'. that I love for obviously reasons, and I've got the names of a couple of giant companies that continued to contribute to the GOP after the so-called pause; It was the corporate way of showing their very mild displeasure with the Party after the January 6th siege on the Capitol. That is for another day. This comment is reflection on President Joe Biden.
"If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic," Walensky said (Director of the CDC)
Who is the most important person behind this new sense of freedom? It is Joe Biden. Lawrence O'Donnell interviewed the President this Wednesday before the 'Vaccination America' Town Hall on MSNBC. At the very end, O'Donnell mentioned Beau, the president's son who died of brain cancer on May 30th, 2015. President Biden looked down and sweetly chided Lawrence for bringing Beau up. Then, with in face full of feeling, he said, 'Beau should be siting in this chair'. It was the most intimate moment possible on a TV screen.
Is Beau a major factor in Biden's strength, determination, good will and warmth? Beau is part of Joe Biden's journey to the President's chair. American voters made the right choice. Joe Biden has the qualities, which draw us to him and he grows hope. Joe Biden is a dear man. He loves us and we love him back. Thank you, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.
I literally just got chills reading your comment. I can picure Beau behind President Biden, smiling and proud. We are indeed fortunate that Joe Biden was elected, and no matter what happens in the next election cycles, this good fortune can never be erased.
Yes, Cathy. we share that image. Since he became President, particularly, in the past two months, my appreciation, unlike my thoughts about other presidents, is personal. He inspired the connection.
We are so fortunate to have him in the White House. I believe he will come to be known as our most beloved president.
“I believe he will come to be known as our most beloved president.” You may be proven right. Your belief touches me.
I saw that interview. I wept when he said that. After all the heartache this man has been through, he still has the strength to lead his country through this political quagmire. I admire him even more now.
I would like to also remember Dr. Jill Biden. She is a true partner to him in all of his work. And the fact that she has focused her teaching career at the community college level, which makes higher education available for so many just amazes me. FG and Spouse pale in comparison to the Bidens. It's good to have basic decency and intelligence in the WH again.
Fern, what a nice and appropriate tribute to Biden. He is a man with more empathy and understanding of grief than most men. It's nice and unusual to see that in a man.
Thank you, Pam.
Thank you so much Fern. imho, Joe is the preeminent figure of a true elder.
We of the caucasian minority in America now have SO few males who measure to this standard. I would certainly add Dr Fauci, Mitt Romney (?), Bernie Sanders, and the late Fred Rogers, Ted Kennedy, James Jeffords, and IKE. Who else comes immediately to mind? As a footnote, I believe Kennedy’s service and courage assuaged his tremendous grief from the tragic accident of his early adulthood. The murders of his two brothers and loss of another brother in WWll and illness of a sister, all provide testimony to his courage and wtiness for humanity)
(btw, I believe the military is the preeminent and most shinny example of patriarchy, that I would question ANY post-WWll military member as an elder, in the definition of serving the greater good of generosity, wisdom and unqualified love for humanity)
While temporarily keeping the genders apart, I would like to add a few from my list: John Lewis, Stevie Wonder, Gordon Parks, Alvin Aliley, Thurgood Marshall, James Baldwin, August Wilson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr.....
I agree with your list, certainly. And I see MANY other elder, males of color. But I specifically pointed to the lack of “elder" CAUCASIAN males, as we have adhered to the militaristic and aggressive posturing of the adolescent, privileged male teen
Yes, I understood that Frederick. Much later in the day, I decided to expand the pool in order to add a few of my favorites. I know we could also add some young people under 18 years of age, too, nevertheless, your point still stands.
We can only hope that with time to reflect they can rise above their experiences at war.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Not to forget, Barbara Ledeen is the current wife of Michael Ledeen, identified by Charlie Pierece as a "professional ratfcker" going back to the Reagan Administration.
Charlie points out:
In 2015, Barbara Ledeen, a close ally of disgraced General Michael Flynn, tried to start her own investigation of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s emails. As an aide to then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, Ledeen was deeply involved as an administration mole during the early stages of the Russia investigation. She is the second wife of Michael Ledeen, and there scarcely has been a Republican presidential scandal in the past 40 years that Michael Ledeen hasn’t had a hand in. In 1980, he wrote some spurious articles for the New Republic, which was having a very bad decade, alleging that the brother of President Jimmy Carter was on the payroll of both Muammar Gaddaffi and the PLO. The Wall Street Journal later reported that the stories had been part of an anti-Carter disinformation campaign.
During the Reagan Administration, Michael Ledeen pushed the notion that the Bulgarian government had been behind the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, which subsequent reporting has proven to be more moonshine. Later, he was the guy who introduced Manuchar Ghorbanifar to Reagan aide Robert MacFarlane, which put Ledeen in the middle of the Iran-Contra scandal.
Moving on, during the second Bush administration, Ledeen pushed the fable about Iraq’s buying yellowcake uranium from Niger. Ledeen always has been a true believer in the redemptive power of American imperial violence. In criticizing Brent Scowcroft’s warning against the invasion of Iraq, Ledeen wrote:
"One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today. If we wage the war effectively, we will bring down the terror regimes in Iraq, Iran, and Syria, and either bring down the Saudi monarchy or force it to abandon its global assembly line to indoctrinate young terrorists."
This, it is safe to say, did not age well. Thank god Ledeen never got the war on Iran that would have set him ascending to glory.
I dredge all this up in the context of the NYT’s latest revelations because, once again, this is being cast as yet another aberrant episode on the part of the former president. The Ledeens have found work with every Republican administration since 1980, and Barbara Ledeen found a job with the chairman of Senate Judiciary. When Camp Runamuck went looking for Beltway ratfckers, they came up with some of the same people that Reagan and both Bushes called. The rot is old, chronic, and deep in the wood.
The whole campaign is Machiavelli's "The Prince" as staged by the Three Stooges.
This is why I’m so hopeful today—Biden—Harris—Garland are the exact opposite of the 3 stooges. They’re smart, serious and hardworking—even somewhat humble.
I am with you in hope.
Hope is a nicer place than despair any day😊
We’ve had enough despair. Time to turn the page. Let’s have a decade of joy.
Hi Roland—let’s try our best for a decade of joy!
😘
The other 2 being perhaps Roger Stone and Gordon Liddy. Nixon too had access to and use for such scum. They profit very well from the governmental system that they are hired to help destroy....until they get caught and locked up.
Lock them up! Lock them up! Lock them up! Lock them up! Lock them up!
One of your best!
Agreed
Talk about seeing the world through war-colored glasses. From Iran-Contra to yellow cake uranium, this rot has run through the dystopian arm of the Republiqan party for 40 plus years.
“the redemptive power of American imperial violence“ wow! What a powerful phrase!
Wow! I wasn't aware of any of this.
Love Charlie Pierce!
Just read the article about this clandestine ring of spies—it’ll make a great farce film.
Too bad the Coen brothers have retired.
It is but somebody will make this film and it will be funny—training mati hari type women to infiltrate the FBI to check on who’s dis loyal to Cheeto— honestly truth is stranger than fiction most of the time.
Thank you again TC for this excellent piece of research. I really appreciate you taking the time to punch out all that info. 🙏
Another juicy bit on Barbara Ledeen: https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/05/11/mike-flynn-collaborator-barbara-ledeens-past-role-in-producing-new-evidence/
This is why I am trying to write at least 10 letters a day for Vote Forward to voters in the New Mexico Special Election. I have until the 18th. So far 50 in the mail. I am shooting for 100 total
Sharon, you and Vote Forward are heroic and inspiring!
Thanks Ellie and thank you for organizing Heather's Herd
What is Heather’s Herd, says the lone cow in the pasture?
https://groups.io/g/heathersherd
A group of HCR's fans who want to take change a step further. Ellie Kona organizing
While I’m not surprised an active duty Marine has been charged in the January 6 insurrection, I’ll say that his participation and arrest are EXACTLY why I don’t simply show instant respect to anyone in a position of law, justice, fire, or the military. Don’t get me wrong, I respect anyone who chooses to enlist in the military. But it is a CHOICE - you are not awesome simply because you enlisted. My dad served, I have a BIL who is one of the most humble people I know and he is guided by his deep integrity of doing the right thing. I see the military in him all the time - but he isn’t a jackass and he doesn’t demand that anyone respect him just because he served. And one of my best co-workers was a guy who served in Kuwait. People are worthy of respect based on their actions - I hope Christopher Warnagiris is convicted, stripped of any military benefits and pension.
Agree, the knock-kneed “thank you for your service” is wrong in a few ways. I don’t know quite how to describe it, but it’s almost like an embarrassing bad habit — over applied and not showing genuine respect to people who deserve it. My father was a World War II POW and he often said to us, “it bothers me when I see these guys behaving like professional veterans. He told his stories occasionally, but was generally quiet about it while he was alive, but he was a patriotic American, and in his late ‘80s chose to be interred at a local military cemetery.
Your Dad's quote about "professional veterans" is something that I see a lot of. Lots of hat, no cattle for many of them.
He may have been influenced by Ike. He was a party republican voter until 1960… after casting his vote for Nixon, on their way out of the polling place he told my mom that he thought he’d voted for the wrong man. He was a strong democrat for the next fifty-one years.
My son in law served in Afganistan as an officer in an IED detection company. I assumed that Ground Infantry troops provided cover for his unit. He just laughed and said the bomb detection/destruction company always went in first, getting shot at and mortared while finding the IEDs meant to kill the other soldiers. I think he deserves a 'thank you' for his service. He met my daughter, also Army, when as a therapist, she red-flagged one of his guys as being too unstable emotionally to continue in bomb finding. Their first conversation was a fiery argument over that. Married with 2 kids...go figure!
He does indeed deserve thanks. As does your daughter. As do many, who are often the quiet ones.
Thanks Ally. He has a script tattoo on his arm that requests he be carried out of battle, if wounded badly or killed, by 6 of his brothers in arms. I thought that to be particularly moving. They fight for their country and they fight for each other.
I have a dear friend (she, Army, her husband, a fellow deputy with me) whose son was the only survivor of an ambush attack. Sam had that same script on his left forearm, and the names of his squad on his right. He was never able to get help from the DA, and managed to kill himself in a single vehicle roll-over drunk out of his gourd. His mom was devastated.
There is a battle bond that is incredibly powerful.
I have a family member who takes advantage of his status as a WWII Veteran despite the fact that he never made it out of boot camp because he contracted rheumatic fever and was given a medical discharge. It's sickening - he whips out his VA card to get discounts, takes advantage of free meals on Veteran's Day, etc., and of course gets medical treatment and meds through the VA. He's the first person to rage about those who take advantage of government "handouts". This man never served an active day in his life but he is happy to wear the mantle of service. Obviously, I have no respect for this imposter. I cringe every time he mentions being a veteran. And, oh yes, he supports the Big Lie too.
…it must be frustrating and disappointing to have that. I have cousins on my father’s side w/similar contradictions: they worked little, saved nothing for retirement, complain about their disability and Social Security benefits being too small, and then tout the big lie and accuse me of being brainwashed.
Sigh.
My Dad was a WWII veteran who served overseas, but never in combat (he was a meteorologist who helped set up the air stations that aided the bombers flying "over the hump"0. He was 26 when he enlisted. The only veterans benefit he ever claimed was interment at the Veterans Cemetery in Eagle Point, OR. My Mom donated his flag to be flown at the cemetery, and is interred with him.
Your Dad made a significant contribution to a critical and dangerous mission. I think many people aren't aware of what the term "flying over the hump" means. My Grandfather never saw combat but served in the Army Signal Corp in Alaska. He, like your Dad, only claimed interment at Fort Lincoln, he was 33 when he enlisted. They were good men.
They were, indeed. When I wanted to go into the service, my Dad said "Anything but the Army." I was going to go Navy, but there was that little matter of what I always call "question 20" where they ask if you're gay. I couldn't lie. That broke 4 generations of military service on my Dad's side of the family. He was OK with that; I'm the one who had issues about it.
David--totally. My father was in the PTO and was one of the first US troops into Japan, where he was stationed for a year as part of the army of occupation. I have some snapshots (taken with his Brownie camera) of Hiroshima from the air. He never talked about his war experiences and would chuckle uncomfortably when others would regale the crowds with their "adventures" in the war.
Here's a look into this issue, a great insight by Will Bunch: https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/05/11/mike-flynn-collaborator-barbara-ledeens-past-role-in-producing-new-evidence/
CDC’s Dr. Rochelle Walensky represents the best of American science, Rachel Maddow represents the best of American journalism, two incredible women representing the best of women and our men, Americans of uncommon genius, good humor, deep decency, uncommon tolerance, intellectual curiosity, gut fairness, core generosity of spirit one a liberal tolerant Catholic, one a smiling warm loving Jewess, both just fantastic.
See these two last night on MSNBC Maddow. Just the best..
I never miss Maddow's show. I looked back at notes from her shows two years ago and she nailed the Russian connection with DJT. She's accurate and correct almost all the time.
I think it was much earlier than two years ago where she even even diagrammed all the dark, oligarchic and conspiratorial money behind T***p and his comrades. That is when I first learned about the wacky Mercers and their funding of Manafort, Bannon and K***yanne. Her investigative team really does a fantastic job-- frightening though the revelations can be.
Penelope-did you get a chance to hear her Bagman podcast? She brought to light all about Agnew, his corruption and why he was removed from office before Nixon was made to resign or face impeachement. I didn't know about him at the time. Too bad the Republicans have utterly failed to do their job regarding Trump
I loved the podcast. Have you read the book?
No, I did not hear it-- but I will check it out. My parents were quite liberal when I was in high school. But I remember my dad had a Spiro Agnew watch where the hands were his arms and they went all over the place. I had no idea what it meant. But Nixon followed closely behind with his V-hands. After I see the podcast maybe it will all align for me. Thanks, Barbara!
Oops-- spellcheck intervened-- I mean even VEN diagrammed... it just changed it to "men" multiple times until I finally capitalized! Not yelling.
Have you read her book “Blowout”? If not, grab it and read. It expertly details the Russian oligarchy and its connection to the petroleum industry.
I read it word for word more than a year ago. Not an easy read because it is so detailed, but well worth the time and effort. It made me see the whole world differently as I realized how many countries have been used by oligarchs bought out by Oil Companies around the world, with ... from what I can tell, American Oil usually leading the way. One reason so many people of color around the world have been seen as hopeless and not smart is because they've been mercilessly kept down for centuries. Disgraceful. And what's the most disgraceful is how ill-informed so many of us have been to let it all happen. Lots of battles out there! Information is the best weapon. Let's use what we are learning. For me it is on conversation and writing plus doing what I can with Vote Forward to write letters to voters. D not remain silent and do not be confrontational. Conversation and open works. Take the Morning Joe recommendation to read DBT for Dummies. It'll teach us all how to better communicate. We can start our own groups to practice the methods.
Trump is 100% owned by Putin et al, Trump and Giuliani and 500 more will be charged and convicted.. with many pleading. January 6th and Oklahoma, McVeigh, white trash white supremacist GOP fascists - spooled by Putin, Moscow Mitch owned in China, his wife, a Loop of Infamy in international community.
I agree with you, Sandy, but I don't know much about McVeigh. I do think we are face to face with modern day Nazis posers who have infiltrated our systems. No matter how inept the "orange cone of treason" (did I get that correct TCinLa?) appears, and the bozos out front, there is a very scary, intelligent method beneath the Seditionists' madness.
Today’s white supremacist GOP neo-fascist plays any color, loathes Black, Jews, rants on big government, an insidious Ronald Reagan fool, a pathological liar, ramping on lying Rep. Elise Stefanik who never lived in Willsoro.
McVeigh and his partner blew up the federal building, got caught, charged, convicted, electrocuted. His partner doing life. The original white supremacists killing children.
I just re-read about McVeigh. You are absolutely right-- he was all about white power. And I thought he was just a homegrown wacky terrorist. Plot thickens with our own people.
I watch Maddow at 9 and at midnight. She’s so well versed, kniws Common Sense, Thomas Paine, Edmund Burke, others, inside out.
Nicely stated, Sandy!
I respectfully agree on Walensky and disagree on Maddow. If there were a path to reduce the mindshare devoted to pundits who have presented themselves as journalists, it would be an important step in the right direction for America. Right and left, we’ve allowed an information environment in which actual journalism has been overtaken by punditry. My personal political views aside, I see Maddow and Carlson as two sides of a counterfeit coin. Both have journalistic training, and both have largely abandoned that for something else. It’s fine that they’ve chosen to do that, but I believe it’s sad and damaging that we swallow and excuse it for news.
~David Hausam, BJ, University of Missouri School of Journalism, 1979.
I respectfully beg to differ. I have not seen any other investigative reporter, so early on, provide the information that Maddow provided and tie it into manageable information. She does go on a bit and I wish she could sometimes get to the point or not belabor one so much as my ADHD kicks in and I wander away a bit. However, I learned so much from her where the other news reporters were still giving way too much oxygen to he who shall not be named because it upped their ratings. And her reporting matched my guts in that T***p pushed us quickly into a seriously dangerous period of time not unlike 1930's Germany. I was petrified in the 2016 campaign of this baby Hitler using all the same tactics.
And I have been petrified for the past five+ years. I am not in your field and do not have expertise in journalism, I only know what I witnessed and learned via Maddow and how it matched up with what I was seeing in the political sphere. Fully, I appreciate her efforts in calling a spade a spade very early on in looking at all the domestic and foreign oligarchic money deals, exchanges, laundering and shenanigans way before others dared or knew to dare.
Maddow also covered and brought attention to the Flint water crises for months before it became mainstream news. The endangerment of an already vulnerable community, was a subject she returned to over and over again until it was exposed for what it was.
76.8% of the children in areas of high water lead levels (≥ 15 ppb) were African American... Do you wonder why the slow response?
Davis, sorry to disagree, but I think Maddow presents her facts, and they are in depth and revealing, in an effective manner. She may simply things a bit too much, but sometimes that’s necessary for all her viewers to understand everything. She uncovers things that are very well hidden.
Dr. Rachel Maddow is a far cry from tucker, my friend.
Agree, no question. That wasn’t my point though. I don’t see a path back to messy but effective political discourse if one camp subscibes to ‘news’ from Carlson and another from Maddow. Advocacy is important, but not as a substitute for balanced news. Journalism, simply, is not at its best when presented as an emotional experience.
Of course there were problems with mid 20th century journalism, but it was one of a handful of common experiences and institutions that bound us as Americans (compulsory k-12 education, highways and other public works, a common currency, social security, etc). Our information delivery today is much less so. And a common body of information may be a(the) critical requirement for making America better.
While most of this letter concerns “Heritage Action,” which appears totally evil & villainous, much like Ian Fleming’s SPECTRE or Marvel Comics HYDRA, (Which both have similar, many-armed symbols), I will take a moment to rag on the IDIOT (and evil) Governor of Floriduh, Ron DeathSantis who seems to resent that his Idol the villainous, POSer ex-president has managed to kill more ppl by COVID-19, than he has.
In the height of the pandemic, he refused to order mask mandates and countermanded those large municipalities in SoFlo that did. Then, when the cruise companies who had dealt with COVID “plague ships” early in the pandemic were stopped from operating for the duration of the aerially transmitted virus, he most recently sued the feds to start the cruise industry again. Seeing how the vaccines were decreasing transmissions, the feds complied with safety precautions which the cruise lines accepted with 90% of passengers & crew being vaccinated against this disease. But now the IDIOT Governor is suing again because he does not want the specter of a “COVID Passport” to be implemented, which prompted Norwegian Cruise Line from threatening to pull its ships out of Floriduh. Yesterday at a news conference the IDIOT cited other nations in the world with higher incidence of COVID, allowing cruise ships to operate without the vaccination requirement. He did not cite which IDIOT nations those were but he said NCL was a small cruise line (It is 3rd from the top and in 2019 was building a huge new terminal at Port Miami), so I suspect he is pulling all that other shit out of his ass as well.
Most of the ships are registered in Nassau and I suppose are subject to Federal law in each nation where they dock so IDK what a legal challenge a state IDIOT Governor has. Plus, before this pandemic, we had Norovirus which plagued ships due to its enclosed crowded conditions ripe for surface transmission. Every ship had hand sanitizers to every dining place and actually encouraged washing hands with soap and water. These were the mandated precautions on every ship I’ve been on this century. Oh, and having required certification of your vaccination against communicable diseases is not new in International Travel. In the 1970s we had the yellow cards showing our vaccination against smallpox, yellow fever, typhoid, cholera etc. to travel thru Asia & Centro America. It was the law and ppl seemed more willing to obey such precautions back then without question. But that was before WARBI (We Are Ruled By Idiots).
Yes Rob, he is our cross to bear. He’s such a punk.
And Florida continues to add an average of 3500 COVID cases per day, and 50 average daily deaths. More than some of the “Democrat led” states.
Why do you compare us with Jesus on the cross? The metaphor does not apply. Perhaps you could say that the inmates are running the asylum.
The inmates are running the asylum. And, that is our “cross to bear” which is an acceptable metafor for being forced to participate in our own destruction by a malevolent governance.
Thank you Rob.
Also, an article in The Hill mentioned that the IDIOT can "intervene" in regard to extradition of tRump (their word). IMHO, it should be interfere, given his total sycophancy. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/palm-beach-planning-for-possibility-of-trump-indictment-report/ar-BB1gH2cE?li=BBnb7Kz&fbclid=IwAR2KfFSUXorm952s5GN8wwajsAwI5dFhmpTvBm6nf-kJstnXV9b3gNT6S0U
Many cruise ships sail under the flag of Panama and other favorable countries to avoid taxation, wage regulations and other regulations of the USA (particularly eco-regs), although they are often headquartered in the US. So, the tax base the cruise lines provide to the US is nada. At the most, cruise lines pay docking fees to the US. One of the drawbacks for passengers is that passengers are limited in legal situations to the constraints of the "flagged" country.
Yeah, I know that. Which, on a Nassau registered ship, I wondered why they had a sign at the bar saying ppl had to be 21 to buy alcohol when the legal drinking age in Bahamas is 18. Maybe they just accommodated most of the passengers who were U.S.
Morning, Rob!! Thanks for this post!
We are the rulers in this country. We guard our country. If we fall asleep, idiots will play with our lives. We got complacent, and idiots killed a lot of us with lies, greed, and neglect. I include both parties in the idiot category.
"On Both Sides" has become a catch phrase of apologists for white supremacy ever since the Asswipe Occupying the White House used it to defend "Unite the Right" in Charlottesville VA in 2017.
Democracy has never been a level playing field. Being rich, powerful and white has always been the thumb on the scale. Ordinary people have to work much harder to have a voice. And we are often left to live with the unfortunate choices the majority has made. Democracy always breaks someone’s heart
Oh my, Dr. Richardson, oh my. How naive so many of us have been and are. Thanks to this community, and Ellie Kona in particular today, for the suggestions and links to organizations. Dark money and the Koch family et al. may be the Goliaths but we, and others like us can be a collective David in our actions. So easy to be discouraged but we must not give up spreading the truth.
Excellent letter. Good to see more concrete evidence of Heritage’s state and federal efforts to promote voter suppression. Hopefully people note the fact that, as you report, it will use its ‘echo chamber of support’ to fulfill this mission. It is important to keep in mind how ubiquitous and well-funded this network is throughout think tanks, so-called non-profits, foundations, university departments and programs, judiciary & legislative training programs, Congress, media outlets and more. They operate collectively and highly effectively, funded in the billions, I believe, by Koch, billionaire allies and some corporations. Know what you are up against. Never have votes been more precious or critical in the fight to preserve democracy. Their goal of voter suppression and oligarchic rule by an elite few supporting a highly limited role for government is clearly laid out in Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains, Jane Mayer’s Dark Money, and Anne Nelson’s Shadow Network. I promised myself I wouldn’t write about the Koch et al. networks again. Back to the drawing board.
Dear Marilyn, thank you for deciding to contribute today. I know sometimes it might feel like you’re being repetitive, or you’re concentrating excessively on something, but with these thousands of readers, some of them new, there is never a wasted post.
Today is the first I’ve ever heard of Heritage. (Whore-itage? Germitage?) I’m glad you posted, because it deepens my understanding. We each have our areas of knowledge and (relative) expertise. Don’t hesitate to post when your knowledge is pertinent. I really appreciated you posting, and the other posts on Heritage here, highly valuable because the subject is new to me. 🙏🙏
Thanks, Roland.
Yesterday evening, Ari Shapiro, on NPR's All Things Considered, had a great conversation with Masha Gessen, author of Surviving Autocracy, about where the Ghastly Obstructionist Party is headed. It is definitely worth a read or listen--They (Gessen) was very clear about where this whole mishegoss is headed. And it was also wonderful to hear a non-binary person featured. Gessen is super eloquent. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/996617553/the-u-s-is-headed-away-from-the-ideals-of-democracy-says-author-masha-gessen
Masha Gessen is knock down brilliant.
I like her description of democracy as a vector rather than a fixed state, always moving back and forth between democracy and autocracy. An endless tug of war.
Professor, thank you such a well-crafted letter. Just when I am anticipating a smorgasbord of news you throw this bomb about The Heritage Foundation! You write, "But the real blockbuster political story of the day came in the form of a video obtained by Mother Jones and written about in a detailed article there by Ari Berman and Nick Surgey. The leaked video shows Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action for America—the political arm of the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank—explaining to big-money donors that Heritage Action has worked closely with Republican state legislators to enact voter suppression laws."
The Heritage folks have been a premier user of the astroturf strategy of poisoning American politics since its founding in 1973! "The 'grassroots' protest against 'voter fraud' is, in fact, conceived, funded, and organized by one of the most powerful elite political organizations in the country." you write.
We have to pursue a strategy to get rid of the filibuster to pass the restoration of voting right.
We have to pursue a strategy to get rid of Heritage Foundation
Something else like ALEC would pick up the "mission". We need to go on the offense and pass the voter legislation.
DEFINITELY
And of course I agree with your statement about getting rid of the filibuster, if it gets in the way of passing SB1
It says a great deal about today's Republican Party that its members are far more outraged about Liz Cheney's comments about the Orange Asscactus than they are about Matt Gaetz' (alleged) sexual misconduct, Marjorie Taylor Greene's anti-Semitism and just outright lunacy, Madison Cawthorn's Hitler fetish, Lauren Boebert's gun fetish, etc., etc.................
Might as well start identifying them as the "Trumpublicans" -- not only because of their blind loyalty to the former "president" but also for their agenda to trump any efforts to safeguard democracy.
The Mac-Munching Mango Machiavelli of Mar A Lardo.
I call it Maga Lardo
I am stealing this, unless you have made it open-source, in which case I am merely using it. :-)
Steal away! I am honored... Goes well with the rest of your alliteration
Mag A Loonio.
Don't flatter this paragon of the streetwise with names like Mephistopheles or Machiavelli.
Let THEM keep stirring their cauldron of shit, but let's not do likewise. Current air pollution is already dangerous.
For sure.
Like a silly marching band.
I think I would shorten it to "trumplican". That way it leaves the way open for people who are sincerely and honestly conservative supporters of democracy to reclaim the name republican.
"Almost immediately, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) shot Manchin’s plan down." Of course, he did. I think Churchill was right - never underestimate the American people's ability to do the wrong thing...............although he did add we usually get it right in the end. I wish I felt confident we'd get it right in the end here, too.
My hope is that because of Cornyn’s immediate opposition it puts some light into Manchin’s brain and moves him toward realization that there will be no bi-partisanship with the Republicans. Perhaps he was hoping his proposal would get traction and he would be a hero, but maybe, just maybe, he’ll realize how hopeless this is and get on board. Oh, and maybe learning that all the protesters in his state were bussed in, might also help.
My gut is telling me that Manchin is enjoying his new place in the sun entirely too much! Not to say he won't see the light, but it feels like first he's got to get past thinking he's all that and cup of tea.
See now this is a perfect example why people are so appreciative of this community. Sandra tunes in to Manchin and gets insight that we all now have. Thank you Sandra‼️And thank you everyone else who takes the time to share with us what you know.
Thank you. Like Liz, "I calls em like I seez em." </snark>
Don't forget- he has to deal w/the mindset of most of the voters in WV-Republican (racist?) thru and thru.
He could, like Cheney, be brave enough to take one on the chin for democracy. Is holding his seat more important than holding onto our democracy? No. It is not.
Hi Kathy, I think about you. Sending love and healing wishes.
Thank you, Roland! I’m doing pretty well. Doc this week saw “excellent response to treatment” which was music to my ears.
You know, I was thinking about that. In SD, when Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson (both D) were in Congress, they did what they thought was right. They weren’t scared of the Republicans. The margins were razor thin in SD then with the Republicans moving to where they are today. Both were there for a long time. I wish I’d had the foresight to see what was coming when John Thune ousted Daschle.
Barbara, that's true, and factors in. Still, it seems he's enjoying this too much.
YES!!!
"No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." H.L. Mencken
Good one, Reid. I just finished Michael Lewis's "The Pandemic" (must read, y'all). It caused me to go back to "The Fifth Risk" for a refresher, and in that he mentioned the reams of data the government has on various threats, scenarios, etc., but what they don't have is the data that would explain why the American people so often refuse to utilize the very services available, like tornado warnings, for instance. He was referencing the tornado in 2011 that killed over 500 people, even though the sirens had sounded in plenty of time, etc.
People don't always know what the government actually DOES. He cites a congress critter who says, basically, who need NOAA? He gets his weather info from The Weather Channel! So where the hell does he think the Weather Channel gets it?
Same thing with so many 'small government' righties, who believe they never get or take anything from Uncle Sam. But maybe went to school on the GI Bill, or have a Federally backed mortgage (and take the mortgage deduction off their taxes), etc.
remember the tea party era protest sign: "Government: hands off my medicare"
Precisely!
Yes. Didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The problem in a nutshell.
Not to mention the fact that essentially EVERYTHING underpinning our ability to live our largely comfortable, safe lives is provided or ensured by government: roads, bridges, safe and plentiful food, police, fire departments, infrastructure (including electrical grids, gas lines, clean water), financial systems, parks, schools, waste disposal (including human waste), safety standards, social safety nets...one could go on and on.
I really liked “The Fifth Risk” and I agree that many people don’t know what the federal government actually does and how it can help them.
aagh.John Cornyn --- that guy... https://www.texasobserver.org/750-afterword-cornyn-george-wallace-and-me/
Why does this not surprise me? I guess I'm a better judge of character than my choice of boyfriends in high school made my mother think I was.