Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) called out his Republican colleagues on the floor of the House today for offering “stunts instead of solutions, extremism over bipartisanship.” It’s a shame, he said, because the Republicans’ narrow majority “could have given us a chance to work together in a bipartisan way.” Instead, Republicans have caved to their most extreme members, who have been “skipping their real jobs to take day trips up to New York to try to undermine Donald Trump's criminal trial.”
Joseph Stiglitz makes a trenchant point in the introduction to his latest book, "The Road to Freedom" (https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324074373). The Right has been allowed to define "freedom" to suit their own ends. Private enterprise thus becomes "free enterprise" and unregulated markets become "free markets." Words matter. Definitions matter. It's past time to take some of these terms back. "Freedom" for the Right becomes unfreedom for the rest of us. It would be nice to hear someone in the media refer to the "House Unfreedom Caucus." (No, not the "Clown Caucus." That's unfair to clowns, whose ineptitude is deliberate. The congresscritters of the HFC are inept but not funny.)
@Michael. IMHO the pendulum swings and Democrats have the potential to flip Florida. Trump won Florida by 3.2% in 2020, and we only need 2% to flip plus we expect that the general disgust with strict abortion and marijuana laws will result in a high voter turnout, so we can do it. Perhaps a million unregistered folk trend Democratic.
I sure hope you are right, Daniel. I see some glimmers of hope in Florida. Ex. the board of Sarasota Memorial Hospital, one of the finest hospitals in the state that has been the repeated target of MAGA extremists the last several years (yes, a hospital!), just dismissed the anti-vax stance of our DeSantis appointee Surgeon General “Dr” Joseph Ladapo this week. The vote was 8-1 against adapting his wackadoo philosophies. Sensible people are here, and we need to take our state back from the crazies.
Yay! DeSantis was all for vaccines as he made sure his donor constituency was served, as in Ocean Reef. What a flip flop when it came to “the little people”.
Calmly, we've got to prevail. No Kyle Shittenhouse performances. Dr (?) Lappadoo will find plenty of flat-earth followers. Hopefully Big Media won't view him as a money-maker for advertisers and give him a pulpit to spew his crap from.
Taking the state back is likely not going to happen, no matter how hard Nikki Fried tries. Desantis' enablers can only be neutralized by reforming our electoral process.
84% of state races in 2022 were decided in a low-turnout closed partisan primary.
NPAs (currently 27% of the electorate) are the fastest growing voting block. We can't depend on them to reverse wins in safe districts if they are excluded from the nominating process. The party understanding this will have a distinct advantage moving forward.
Daniel, but a whole lot of people need to get registered if Florida is to become a sane state again. Electing DeSantis was a terrible idea, but people don't always do the right thing, but when they don't, they often pay for it. Maybe Florida will want better than Trump, DeSantis and the rest of their anti-American crowd.
Florida had the highest mortality rate from Covid-19 in the US. This resulted in over 93000 deaths. And DeSantis fired staff for trying to reveal the facts about Covid-19 deaths, so it is likely the Covid-19 mortality rate is worse than reported. I suspect a much larger percentage of the FL Covid-19 deaths were Republicans. A Biden victory in FL is not out of reach especially if DeSantis and Scott remain as unpopular as they are.
Taylor Swift could get enough people to register across the South to turn FL, plus the Lincoln Project with their limited resources is constantly bashing Trump.
Gary, there is a bunch of folks out her trying to play down the seriousness of the pandemic as though we didn't lose over a million of our fellow Americans. They are claiming those people mostly really died of other things and that the scientists and record-keepers got it all wrong. So, somehow DeSantis was right to whine against vaccines and not mandate masks; he wasn't. DeSantis will never be held accountable for what he did, good little pseudo-christian that he is. He thinks his big mouth is earning a way into Heaven or whatever he believes is the good thing that will happen to him for all his efforts. I honestly don't care what happens to him after death; it's right now as he screws with the lives of Floridians who deserve better than a racist, misogynistic homo/transphobic white guy with nothing positive to offer anyone that I am concerned about. Where is our Department of Justice in all this? Why have they not immediately challenged this anti-American piece of tripe. People should fly whatever flag and wear whatever colors they want unless it is a display designed to do harm to people as an upside down American flag is as well as that Heaven something or other flag Alito and the Christian Nationalists fly, specifically designed as a threat to everyone who is not a white male "christian." It would be great if every single Floridian were to fly the rainbow in their window or outside their home, just a rainbow. They can say it is just because rainbows are beautiful and God's gift to humanity. I bet they could come up with other explanations for flying the various other flags too. That would be amazing and would bring a whole lot of attention to Florida and the unamerican things DeSantis and his brown shirts are trying to do to American citizens.
In Montana in the 2016 the Billings newspaper printed a full-page menorah for people to color and put in their front windows to show solidarity with Jews in the state who were under attack. Could a Florida newspaper do the same with DeSantis's forbidden flags? attacks.https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/not-our-town
Well, the prohibition seems to be on flying flags on state bridges so I think people all over the state stepping up to fly the banned flags on their private property is a good start.
Love your idea about displaying the rainbow, which has its origin both in nature and in the Old Testament. Brilliant! I’m thinking of displaying a rainbow in my living room window, here in NJ, to show solidarity.
Good post Ruth. This 'medium' we have here helps each of us who feel as you do to know we aren't by ourselves. The fact that so many others we are acquainted with accept the distortions because they are presented over and over to them. Only natural for you and I (and a whole bunch of others) to actually question what we feel is the "correct" version. When the (false) writing is plastered on a big wall right smack in our face...I sometimes am at a loss to be able to refute it coherently. My gut feeling is that this blanket of nonsense is wearing thin. One can only hope. I hope.
Thank you for this post. Very well put. I suffered through several years of DeSantis and his awful wife too. I've told this story before, but in summary, she was too good to talk to anyone in the grocery store including other customers and the associates working in the store, even during checkout. I said "HI" to her a couple of times, with no response.
But, of course that is nothing compared to the things you comment on above.
Too bad the National Baseball League now has so many other possibilities for spring training. Who wants to go to FL now? Climate change will make parts of the state totally unlivable. What a shock (though not a surprise) to learn that (in spite of the climate) there were more Covid deaths there than in any other state.
Well Virginia, all I can say is: Don't pose that farcy-libtard-fact to any of those DeSandis-degenerates, dementioned-seniors suffering from erectile disfunction and sids existing tax--free on social security, or those anti-abortion my womb be your womb Christian-(sinner)women.. no no. That's a faux show if ever there was one. The 'sink-hole' is coming for them.
That’s not to say it isn’t serious. But you are hilarious, especially given that one of my favorite private jokes for years has been that little Marco had better take climate change seriously as with the fish swimming in the streets of Miami, he was on his way to having no state to run for Congress from. Until this moment I forgot he wouldn’t have any voters but with the situation Congress is in at the moment, maybe that’s not important.
I don't know about that...my optimism is cracking. Yesterday a poll came out showing this criminal (much) ahead in all swing states. Nikki Haley, along with a slew of others who bad-mouthed him, is voting for him! People are going about in a daze still believing that he's good for the economy! This country is swimming with non-critical thinkers. I want to go to bed and pull the covers over my head....
The polls do not pick up people we are registering. Plus the media only reports the bad news. You need a dose of Hopium. https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/
Also, I heard a political strategist from Michigan saying that though the polls iin the state show trump in the lead, many of the republicans he's talked to on the street and focus groups are clearly disillusioned by trump. There is always hope....
It is time for Women and Men to March in D. C. In Support of Reproductive Rights on Labor Day (appropriately named?)! Where are the appropriate organizations in advocating and arranging for such a national demonstration? Who’s in?
Correct James. They say the opposite of their actions. One of the keys of autocratic power grabs is to say what the people want, once elected, do some of the most popular to gain favor, use their new power to consolidate position, get re-elected with new found power, then do what they really intended. Hungary, Russia are great examples.
The current CONservatives are following that playbook very well. FL is a perfect example as the governor made a lot of popular moves while the legislators rewrote many laws to enhance their power, then reversed a lot of the popular things that the people approved. They have such a lock (like Texas) on the state government to prevent change. Wisconsin is another example where the CONservatives have prevented their opposing party from doing anything even though the majority of voters trend the opposite. We have to really start watching what they do, not what they say. We have to make them discuss the real impact of tax cuts and how those actually create more burden on working people locking them into a life of servitude while the wealthy exponentially benefit.
Rickey, you are right, but it seems so much of our media are not for the truth; they are for the bucks they say they need to stay in business, but do we really need media in business who sacrifice the truth for bucks? I don't understand why people have so quickly ditched the mainstream media except that there is so much more tantalizing garbage on social media to dip into and there, truth really doesn't matter much.
I was taught (admonished) as a young academic that the learned and intelligent person can hold, clarify and argue contradictory ideas or viewpoints for without that ability one could not decern and teach the truth. To wit, today right has the capacity to give the appearance of living by counterfactuals. As a child, I was led to believe this was two-faced, dishonest.
Fred..., just curious.., how 'long-ago' were you "a child"? Were Aesop's fables any part of it? I'll bet Capt Underpants wasn't on the 2nd grade classroom bookshelf. And just think, Aesop was on the ground in what we know as Greece before Christ arrived (620-564 BCE) fer crissakes. Huh? What??, no bible. At least whomever chiseled out The Bible had those fables for reference. Cudos to your mom and pop for your upbringing. For me it was my Mother mostly. Poorer kids of today are even poorer - Aesop..(?), like wtf??..Like..?..Like?? wheww.
Not to revert to numbers (too much revealed) but Dick Clark from American Bandstand taught us dance and Little Bo Peep's mother led our Sunday School class while Red Skeleton, Jack Benny, and Miss Brooks taught Civics, and Mr Peppers taught science. Mine was a long struggle without books or chalk and wearing hand-me-down from Uncle Henry.
I live in an area where there are a fair amount of big ole pickup trucks. Sometimes these trucks sport a bumper sticker with the yellow "Don't Tread on Me" snake flag on it. Usually a white guy is driving the truck. I often wonder if the guy has ever been trodden on. It seems these folks want to be able to treat others as nasty and disrespectful as they want, while expecting to be treated respectfully.
It makes me sad that the Kochs with Art Pope hit NC in their anti-public universities, I.e., kill the liberal arts degrees so we have no thinking voters, crusade. I lived in NC when it was a truly purple state that educated its children accordingly. The “red” part of purple has taken over.
As did I and am proud to say I graduated from an excellent public NC school. While we may not have learned everything at least we were allowed to keep open minds where we could then question the reality of the world we found ourselves in.
UNC-CH was the first public university in the country. Native Americans closed it for awhile, but it came back just after Harvard opened its doors. Long proud history before the fifth column Kochs went after it. See “Starving the Beast” if you can.
Proud Boys and Oath Takers in jail for their January 6th criminality are overwhelmingly white males. Perhaps what the US needs are larger jails, hopefully including Duplicitous Donald, the ‘Christian’ Antichrist.
Giggles Giuliani could be his in-jail attorney with Thomas and Alito the ethics counselors.
I just bought that book, but haven't read it yet! Truly the word freedom for Americans has been stretched and co-opted until it's as upside down as Alito's flag. And now with the pine tree flag flying over his beach house, he seems to enjoy flexing his impunity.
Yes...thanks Heather Cox Richardson...not only are we at a point where Alito flys these flags because he know he can get away with it (I hope I am wrong) and has embolden so many legislators.
I am trying to figure out Mike Johnson's game...appear cooperative enough to re direct us away from his end game?
Christian fundamentalism is Johnson’s game. It’s a perversion but also strong reality in the South. I consider this another attempted rise of the confederacy, which also considered itself a paragon of “Christian” virtue and wanted to dominate the nation.
What bothers me is the trickle down effect to the MAGA supporters to embolden them. I say this as a neighbor now has a black American flag flying at his home. This one representing “No Quartering”. You can google and see it’s adoption by “patriots” taking no prisoners supporting violence.
Republicans are following only the first half of the old saying that freedom allows me to swing my first anywhere, at long as it doesn't hit someone else's nose.
The radicals actively seek out noses to bloody. The "moderates" simply don't care whose noses get in the way, as long as they get to swing their fists as they see fit.
Yeah!!! James, Agree. Whewww... semantics. We are over-run with MT-G's.., that's EMPTY G(reene)s. DeSantis is an MT Head.., yup EMPTY. Welll maybe full of s--t is more like it. And The House floor.., loaded with EMPTY (MT) heads. Russia likes MT (empty) Greene, so she should go live there. In no time at all, she would let her rhinoceros-mouth overload her hummingbird-arse and she'd become a Lubyanka resident, tossed into an isolated cell, "free" to yell and kick in a private darkness.., out of sight out of mind (not her mind, mind you). Our country has survived worse, but this is indeed a test. The Trump-minions are a deluded lot of total arse-holes who don't know whether they've been bored or punched... or..
I applaud your thinking. It is the same with religion. When you hear devout Christians- life long church goers -be snarky because of the far right Christian nationalist movement by saying “those Christians” you realize that the far right has control over the narrative, words indeed matter. So does taking action.
Like cruelty, violence against people of color, the extreme Maga Christians, and shear stupidity will make this a better Nation?? Give me a Christian any day. MAGA Christians appointed by Trump will never get it right.
I see spoiled little children ready to carry on their tantrums and destroy anyone and anything. Just unruly sulking children who need to be put in “time out” until they grow old, very very old!
My former in laws espoused many/all of the Christian white supremacy ideas we hear today...I thought their rhetoric sounded so crazy no one with any common sense would get on board. That they were a part of a movement that was so small it could have no affect. I guess I was wrong .
Press! They are off their rockers supplying every minute they can to
to “that guy” . Not so much to Biden , his every minute working for this country. My hope is that you are not wrong. The news thrives on trash stories. They lap them up like mad dogs. We can’t live with them, we definitely can’t live without them. Press is a life saver. Press is a dump.
They will take the spotlight off the liar eventually but in prison or out, we will hear his gums flap until his last breath and THAT is twisted.
Catherine I agree to ‘time outs’, but mtg et al enjoy spewing tantrums & mud wrestling language into a dense black hole. They’ve stolen the stars & stripes into their prison of lies as well.
Frankly I often feel paralyzed with all the horror of upside downs in their megaphone like remarks…worse. Now sending pcs to voters as a balm. (Every time I contribute $$ I’m immediately begged for more from Act Blue….)
Michael, no doubt about it here in Florida, the racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, homophobic, Fascist Christian nationalists have taken control. Time for us all to wake up, admit that the problem is what it is, and then send as much money as we can to political races working to defeat these enemies of the democratic process and the idea of equality under the law. We are at a defining moment in history, not only here but around the world for if democracy falls here it will begin to crumble around the world. Trump would pull the U.S. out of NATO and then the expansion of authoritarianism would begin.
Money is good; postcards cost less and are effective too. Those of us who can give only small sums can write GOTV postcards. Go online to Blue Wave and TonyTheDemocrat. Postcards will stretch your contribution and if you have an Indivisible group (check online), you can write with them. In ‘18 I had postcard Mondays around my dining room table on September and October afternoons. We went from 4-12 writers as the election got closer.
I absolutely agree. It's critical that Biden wins this election and Democrats control both houses. People can volunteer by answering phones, register people to vote.
Free for whom? Just white Christian men, eh? Thank you Michael…you nailed it. And much of the populace sits in silence. When they finally wake up, it will be too late!
As a lifelong Floridian who remembers the days [up close and personal] of Collins, Askew, “walking Lawton”, Graham, Fascell, Pepper and several others - politically speaking, I feel as if I’m in a strange land!!!
Free from many Americans visiting the state and spending $$ there. Just one of many states I will not visit, spend time or money in. Vote at polls and vote with your dollars as well.
84% of Florida state elections were either unopposed or decided in a low-turnout closed partisan primary. Statewide elections can be competitive, but the enablers come out of the primary.
So good to see Heather reporting on "House speaker Mike Johnson."
Ah, yes, pious Mike. Our ur-"Christian." Who loves, is totally loyal to a "fellow Christian" of his who technically, yes, has been convicted of flagrant business fraud, has been found liable for rape, has palled around with the world's worst murderers, has mocked the crippled, insulted American veterans, jerked personal choice away from American women, and bragged of pussy grabbing.
He's a Fundamentalist. Fundamentalists masquerade as "christian," "jewish," "muslim," and "hindu," but they are all Fundamentalist believers in patriarchy, misogyny, violence against those who disagree with them, racism (Hindu supremacists following Modi are as scummy as white supremacists following Trump) and authoritarian dictatorship.
Fundamentalists are the enemy and there will be no peace so long as they continue to exist.
Fundamentalists have more in common with one another regardless of religion or sect, than with the general populations of their respective nations. It's the fundamental belief that they have THE Answer and everyone who doesn't agree with them is sad or wrong or evil.
Not surprisingly, "fundamentalist" is the wrong word, at least for sociopathic branch of religious movements, that actually (while a mix) have some wisdom and compassion at their core. I don't see anything "fundamental" about them. It's all about domination and supremacy, notions that have long left a very ugly wake though history. Seems to me that Jesus taught humbleness and kindness. This ain't that.
Yes! Anti-Muslim sentiments in India is increasing exponentially, thanks to Modi. But let's not forget Pence. Though there is an aura of "hero" hanging about him because he didn't participate in the attempted coup d'etat, he's one of those who see The Handmaid's Tale as an ops manual.
MisTBlu, you're right about the breadth of fundamentalist commonality, and for the most part they are wrong, but they do a whole lot of harm while they try to force everyone else to believe the way they do. Fundamentalists are in a sense, the enemy of every state where they appear. They have nothing positive to offer anyone. They do get orgasmic pleasure in feeling superior and hurting others, and their general ignorance. That must be enough to keep them going because they certainly are not fading out any time soon.
Oh, Phil, you are so right about needing the humanities in our schools. I tried to teach some of that with my students and they seemed to respond well to it, but it needs to start in Kindergarten and continue throughout school, no matter what the folks in STEM who have no clue say. We need a platform to get the humanities in every school with positive curricula that meet kids where they are and bring them forward into something better and more fulfilling.
Yes, please. The lack of humanities which teach students to THINK is sadly lacking these days. Taking music out of schools is major deprivation. We are starving children not only of food, but also of the joy and togetherness that music brings.
The "either or" approach to education is a real shame. While there are certainly exceptions, the erudite scientist/physician/engineer seems to be rare.
Mist & Ruth, I’ve thought for a long time that the virtual erasure of borders by Technology has exasperated the shrinkage of governments back to OUR BORDERS, our heritage, ‘our our our keep those others out’. Apparently, I may be correct. Instead of embracing this new reality, the fear of growing has created world wide anorexia.
Interesting observation. Even within "our borders" there is "our tribe." It's how some of us have come to see our political opponents as animals or vermin.
You are so correct; and it's a sad component of the sucking in and shrink as our world expands far beyond small imaginations. There are people here on Cape Cod who
'Don't cross the bridge'... that is to the mainland.. although we are in reality a peninsula.
On my street I'm a minority being a democrat. however, I talk with everyone. And, so far no one's called me a name 🤞
We are a Nation built not upon any fundamentalist religious beliefs, but upon the Enlightenment principles of liberty, human dignity and rationality perpetually in search of knowledge and betterment. Religious dogma is free to be acknowledged by those who choose to do so, but it has naught to do with our secular, political philosophy.
Or to put it another way, We are a Secular Nation and we thank God for that!!
I agree, yet I feel like your last sentence should be revised to "Fundamentalis[m is] the enemy and there will be no peace so long as [it] continue[s] to exist."
People are more than their ideology or group loyalty. It is the ideology that is poisoning the people who drink of it. Anytime anyone ends a sentence with suggesting that [group of people of any type] should stop existing, that is the clearest signal that the conversation has crossed into inexcusably dangerous territory, regardless of whether it was truly meant or not.
really well put — thanks for articulating that. i keep despairing that one of the most sinister components of certain religious rhetoric is practically weaponizing it as identity politics: confusing extreme religious beliefs with selfhood. (and then there's the manipulated outrage over civil-rights-based 'identity politics' that has undue and unfortunate influence over so many who simply have not thought through the un-spun, unvarnished significance of humanity's differences and commonalities.
of course, an even more ominous reflection of your observation that one is more than one's ideology/loyalty is when that cultivated self-righteousness — especially compounded by the support of fellow travelers — drives one to murder those who have been cast as the enemy. there's a tragic finality to such action that, from a fundamentalist perspective, is effectively *underrated* — through ill-justified dogma regarding immortal souls, divine will/justice/punishment/retribution/reward, etc. and i fear that the pro-Trump and pro-'Appeal to Heaven' gangs get more traction from framing Useful Idiot Ashli Babbitt [e.g.] as a 'martyr' than enlightenment principles can get from any — well, i'm already too nauseated to ruin my morning speculating on what organizations [who have already shown willingness to assault Congress] might do between this election season and next January 6...
and yet such visceral speculations are likely feeding the imaginations of those who feed monstrously misdirected, misidentified, misogynistic and misanthropic senses of grievance ...
A mind-boggling simpleton quality unites all these fundamentalists you cite, too. They all crave order, a systemic package always led by sour old men (whom you nicely cite as "believers in patriarchy, misogyny, violence against those who disagree with them, [and] racism."
Their thinking, being always without any humanities, gears toward the abstract, the mechanical, the categorically labeled. As such, all hew to the sequential, the chronological, the binary, the hierarchical. Humanities cannot humanize them, so totally rules their claustrophobia.
They so, so, so hate freedom. With venom, vitriol. They will impose themselves on all, lest schools admit, nurture any of the nuances or other personal differences among us, lest women even so much as imagine any personal, economic, or other choices in loving, raising families.
And they drape it all with a flag and call it “freedom.” Fundamentalism, regardless of the flavor, is a dangerous cult that preys on the human wish to be protected by an all powerful and forcefully enforced doctrine.
“The [A]lito flag story does not teach me anything new about his politics but it does reveal how confident he is that nobody can do anything about him.”
I hold the major media outlets largely responsible for the "normalization" of these "fuck you" moments by those like Alito, Speaker Moses, and the clowns who tried to stifle McGovern's comments. They gave Trump credence in 2016 and have failed to highlight the absolutely insane language and messaging coming from him and his supporters, instead calling it "out of the norm" or otherwise soft shoeing those moments. And they cover the GOP representatives who are going to NYC to parrot Trump's complaints but don't point out that they're way out of their professional lanes by acting as they do. Perhaps the media thinks we'll connect the dots. News flash! We have, why haven't they?
TC, yes, they call themselves "fundamentalists" or at least used to because they claim to be following the real fundamentals of their faith and everyone else has it wrong. Of course, it is they who are wrong, but pretending and making oneself believe that one is better than everyone else and has god's ear can set some people aflame with "the fire of godliness" or some other such nonsense. They no more have fundamentals than they can walk on water in their bare feet on a clean lake.
Well stated, TC. Same horses, different colors. They disguise their need to hold power over The Other with deluded ideas about bedrock principles, original truths, blah blah blah.
That may be true however, the majority of the people who believe in Democracy have the power to vote Trump and the mega extremists out of office. We must conquer this election.
And, M., a statement on the vast, seething, writhing vulgarity in a country over which another insurrectionist flag flies, by one of its most corrupt and medieval Clarence court justices.
M, but, don't you remember that he told everyone it was just a joke and that his victim just loved it, or something like that. Our Donnie has an excuse for all of his bad behavior, at least in his own mind.
Piety influencer Leonard Leo flies the Pine Tree flag at his estate here in Maine.
Leonard Leo made his GOP bones getting the carbon industry's pick (Charles Koch's pick) - Sam Alito - on the Supreme Court. Handpicking the court majority made Leo's fortune. Which is how he comes to have two multi-million estates on Mt. Desert Island.
Catholics signing on to the prosperity gospel crowd?? Or just old fashioned pious greed. And our “elder statesman” W Bush was the one who gave us this traitor. The rot is all the way to the core
I was once a catholic in grade school. The nuns taught us well. But they had no sense of humor except to dispatch me through expulsion for refusing to cut my hair and a few other matters.
I almost became a Catholic once, because I met a wonderful, committed woman. I was young and admiring, but something said no. Then I learned that some of those committed should be committed.
Along with him supposed to being non-partisan, he is supposed to honor the separation of church and state. His decisions echo the beliefs of the Catholic Church which is a patriarchal child abusing greedy organization.
Who else rakes in billions of dollars by spewing bull-shit about helping others only to give it to the likes of Leonard Leo and support the anti-abortionists until the day the baby enters they world. Then that child and its family are own their own until the child reaches the age where they can contribute to the church's coffers.
And there's an entire political party that LOVEs the Catholic Church.
Which should be disallowed based on separation of church and state in a government building. However it appears that there is a powerful segment of our representatives who want and expect to change that. And I say “representative” loosely because I am not sure who they really represent other than themselves. Just like the former slave owners of history. Having a civil war in order to keep their slaves.
Truth is, Pious Mike is really planning to announce his active, campaigning support for President Biden.
In the meantime, a very few are placing bets in Vegas, where odds-makers say the few who bet a single dollar can easily collect five million, come payday on such a cleverly hidden stratagem.
I believe Mikey is a stooge whose job is to carry out the instructions of the characters he works for. He's no leader. He isn't smart enough to be one. Other than to help him masquerade as a virtuous citizen his "piety" serves mostly to help him feel justified for doing the things he does.
Besides the wars and slaughter ("smite him," "smite them") most spend their time in the Song of Solomon, maybe some psalms, looking for the parts that maybe, just possibly might excuse the pussy grabbing for which their fat, diapered, flatulent, peroxided, drag queen orange make-up-caked cult leader begs justification.
Don the con cheated on all 3 of his wives plus at least 1 longtime mistress Karen McDougal. He has broken every one of the 10 Commandments, murdered over a MILLION people in the United States with his mismanagement and politicization of Covid plus he is a compulsive lying megalomaniac. If we don’t vote out every last one of his cult, the next 4 years will be a living hell. 🤡💩🎃🤬🤬🤬
I wish I thought the living hell would be limited to four years. The instability that Trump fosters could drag the world into a long, violent decline. War, famine, climate disaster, loss of yet more rights and on and on are likely to be our lot. What we decide here in the voting booth will ripple across the planet.
Oh, the living hell would go on far longer than 4 years. You don't really suppose diapered Donny would voluntarily and peacefully leave at the end of his four years, do you???
Without any clairvoyance or ability to see the future, I can almost guarantee that the "melon-colored baby" will find some reason not to hold an election or some way to rig it so that he will remain in power as long as he lives. Or, if he is by then in the obvious grip of dementia, his equally evil cohorts and minions will prop him up and rule the country themselves.
Phil, ah, yes, pious Mike the best example of white evangelical America. He has all the expected traits, may even have some difficulty with sexuality, but I guess many white evangelicals these days do. Oh yes, and there's the hatred of everyone who does not think and see the world just as he does. He and his Klan wallow in that hatred and do believe it is from god, a righteous gift. And, of course, there is the self-righteousness that pervades everything our Mikey does. He is supposed to be a lawyer, but stood in NYC and broke the law for his Donnie. Yes sir, one of the best.
Which is why you will almost NEVER hear any direct quotes of "what Jesus said" from any of them. They cherry-pick the Old Testament for their quotes and inspirations.
Yes, I am glad Heather is informing us about house Speaker Johnson. We're living in a dangerous time in the 21st century of this country. I wish people would realize how catastrophic this situation is.
Thanks to the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis the state government is bending backwards to create the most misinformed and backward state in the nation. Thank you Ron!!!!!!!
I’m reading The Diary of Ann Frank right now. Going to visit her home in Amsterdam. It’s a chilling narrative knowing how it’s going to end with the life of a beautiful young Jewish girl forced to wear a yellow star, stuffed into a closet, deprived of human dignity, extinguished by hateful fascists. That was less than 100 years ago. As I look around the world of 2024 that fascist evil is all around. Will the guardrails provided by the rule of law, the institution of democracy, and the potential for goodness in each person (or redemption in those led astray) keep the train of civilization on the tracks as we careen towards multiple catastrophic endings?
So many guardrails fell so quickly I have trouble wrapping my mind around it. But Biden and team have done miraculous work in practical terms. It's the propaganda war that seems lost.
The AfD is failing. Their only strong support is in Germany's "Flyover Loserville," the former communist states in East Germany. The party leaders are now under investigation with court sanction for "extremism" by the domestic security intelligence agency. Their prospects for a big showing in the coming European Union parliamentary elections have dropped recently. But Italy is still run by the Fratti di Italia, the outgrowth of Mussolini's Fascist Party that unfortunately wasn't outlawed in 1945. In France, Marie de la Pen may be the next president, as the old Frenc fascist party her father founded have "remade" themselves as "economic populists."
Not to be pedantic, but it’s Fratelli d’Italia (brothers of Italy) and Marine Le Pen. Just in case anyone wants to google to learn more. Because you’re right, TC.
A thought worth considering: when Angela Merkle was chancellor, she was once asked about her open door policy for migrants which were in great numbers and she responded that it was the guilt that Germany had toward WWII. As I read this I ruminated that she was seeding the next nationalist movement by her open door policy. And now it has come to pass. Sometimes we never learn.
Keep talking, writing, interrupting with a smile on your face to enlighten and encourage conversation .. engage in the challenge of opening minds, winning votes!
At Nuremberg, German jurists were put on trial for emptying German law of justice in order to serve the Nazi agenda.
Federalist Society jurists, most spectacularly the Leonard Leo Supremes, turn the Constitution on its head to drain it of justice. Most recently by delaying Jack Smith's case.
Yet HCR never addresses Leo's impact on American law and American history.
Lin Recently I rewatched JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG. It describes, in exquisite detail, how justices like Alito and Thomas and judges like Cannon can swiftly erode the integrity of a judicial system.
It starts with an authoritarian, like Hitler, or now Trump, trashing the Constitution. A gradual packing of the highest court (Stench Court) and politicizing the Justice Department are integral to this slippery process.
Once one has started down this integrity-less elevator (which was accelerated by Trump’s initial candidacy,) then ‘to get along, go along’ becomes the mantra of the judiciary.
Judicial ethics are the first to go. Ginni/Clarence Thomas and Alito have made a mockery of these ‘ethics.’
"It starts with an authoritarian, like Hitler, or now Trump, trashing the Constitution. "
A Trump presidency is the apotheosis of Republican repurposing the American democratic republic as a corporate clerical fascist state. It's genesis is in the GOP Southern Strategy, and the Nixon and Reagan administrations.
Yes! As a native Virginian (first vote Eisenhower, last vote EVER for a Republican) I watched this and voted accordingly. Do you remember when Reagan began taxing credit card interest? I remember dashing out to buy first color TV just in time to have tax deductible interest (credit card purchase).
Virginia Yes. Credit card interest was taxed in the 1986 legislation. Overall, I consider this perhaps the best tax legislation in my lifetime. A number of loop holes were closed, personal taxes were reduced over all and corporate taxes increased.
After Reagan’s major tax cuts (‘voodoo economics’ ) in 1981, he had significant subsequent increases, including 1986. A major Doofus Donnie change limited deductions on total real estate and other local-related taxes to $10,000, which hit many blue state residents.
1st opinion: Coinbase vs SUSKI. Unanimous by Justice Jackson.
Alexander vs SC Conference 6-3 by Alito. This is a case about racial Gerrymandering in South Carolina Congressional District 1.
Alito: "The party challenging a Map must disentangle race from politics".
South Carolina R's were trying to secure a "safe" District. First, Alito states: "We begin with the presumption that the [So Carolina] legislature acted in good faith" [NOT.] BOTH sides asked for a published Opinion by January 1, 2024 nearly 3 months ago. Therefore, the racist 2021 Map will be used in the upcoming Election.
Alito wrote a 2nd case: BROWN vs United States.Also 6-3.
SCOTUS reversed the Trial Court & sends the "Career Criminal Act case" back to the Trial court to determine a "serious" drug offense.
Important: SCOTUS did NOT rule on the Trump "I can do anything" immunity case where CERT should have NEVER been granted as the Circuit Court Panel had constructed a strong guardrail.
Please send me the link to one Letter which mentions Leonard Leo. I have not seen one. Over a year ago, I asked HCR (on the Maine Public Radio show Maine Calling) about Leo and protests here on MDI, she demurred saying she is an historian and doesn't speak to local politics.
Today Leonard Leo, the person who organized the 2008 fishing trip, also jumped in. In 2008, Leo was the head of the Federalist Society, which came together in 1982 to roll back the business regulations and the civil rights legislation of the post–World War II era by remaking the courts with judges who stood against what they called “judicial activism.” (Leo is now in charge of Marble Freedom Trust, a nonprofit organized in May 2020 with a $1.6 billion donation from donor Barre Seid to push right-wing politics at every level.)
Leo released a statement supporting Alito and warning: “We all should wonder whether this recent rash of ProPublica stories questioning the integrity of only conservative Supreme Court Justices is bait for reeling in more dark money from woke billionaires who want to damage this Supreme Court and remake it into one that will disregard the law by rubber stamping their disordered and highly unpopular cultural preferences.” (Justice Elena Kagan, one of the justices Leo suggests is being unfairly given a pass by ProPublica, reportedly declined to accept a basket of bagels and lox from her high-school classmates out of concern about the ethics of accepting gifts.
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo observed that Leo seems to have used his extensive network to set up relationships between judges and donors in a reinforcing ecosystem.
"... who want to damage this Supreme Court and remake it into one that will disregard the law by rubber stamping their... highly unpopular cultural preferences." Look in the mirror, Mr. Leo.
I like the way she takes a current incident and gives her historical perspective. Today’s story is chilling — that a comment of an opposition member of the House will not even be part of the record. And he was bemoaning the lack of bipartisanship!
That we are facing, in our own country, something potentially worse than NAZI Germany, and that there are signs that some of Europe's oldest Democracies face similar challenges is true. What is not true is that they are winning, not here, not in Europe. The ouster of a right wing government by voters in Poland is one example. Several special elections and ballot measures in this country nearly all breaking for Democrats (despite dire predictions to the contrary by most pollsters) is another.
Humans seem to have a natural predilection for negativity. It kept us alert to predators and from doing stupid things like eating brightly colored mushrooms. Lately, in the political arena at least, commentators use it to make their arguments seem smarter and more cogent. The key word here is "seem". Our bias toward negativity while ignoring our own agency and most of what is going right only serves to make us more anxious and encourages inaction, setting us up to "pre-obey" as Tim Snyder would put it. If you want to sound smart, break negative. If you want to be smart, look at the more than just one aspect of the picture.
Ryan, if you haven't already seen the 2023 National Geographic dramatic mini-series "A Small Light" (free on National Geographic YouTube Channel) before you go, make time for it. It's the story of Miep Gaas and how her resistance came about and unfolded as well as the Franks and the other families in the annex. It was inspiring to see the networks of resistance around the city depicted. Excellent cast, production.
We visited the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam in 2009. An unforgettable experience. Scary that so many young people know little about the Holocaust. Actually, there are many not-so-young who know only about certain aspects of it.
It amazes me . 50/50 … ‘margins of error’ ? So I wonder where will WE all hide if the pendulum swings to the radical right…our voiced, our own writ for display at any point. The affect is so vivid in history, so obvious in societies/countries taken over by them- the RRR ( radical right Repubs ) following well trod paths of KKK -even the current malaise Palestinian/Israel conflict , when Nitwit got ‘back in’ protest broke out ,the war was as inevitable as the self pardon was expected….sound familiar? 50/50 ? It’s getting late in this ‘ game ‘ folks..and the chaos is still…(not even ‘stilled’) lie upon lie/denial/endless delays/bold writing on the walls/in the halls/freedoms fall and point blank …2025…and still 50/50? 🤦♀️🤷♀️😵💫🥱🤑 WE’D BEST GET ON OUR HORSES Paul/Paula Revere..🗣️sound the alarm!
I was interested in finding the radical left’s distinctions…where would -if those ‘extremists’ won- take us? Just those dang comparative thoughts that bounce around ya know..🤔
Yes, I took my daughter there more than a decade ago, because she had read the book, and we both wanted to see it. It's a worthwhile visit because you get a visceral experience of what she and her family lived through. I also took her to the Museum of Dutch Resistance so that she could see that there were people who resisted the Nazis.
Will try to do both, right now we have an alarm set for 3 AM when we hope some additional Anne Frank House tickets will be released, currently all sold out and quickly!
Ahem, Christopher, I would suggest that DeSantis is actually *bending over forward* (if you get my drift) to accommodate “his Heinous”, the wannabe king.
Excuse me! As a proud LGBT man, I am greatly offended at the perpetuation of stereotypes surrounding those who participate in a range of personal activities that...
Just kidding. This is absolute gold. I hereby award you The Internet for the day, right after stealing the phrase "his Heinous" for future use. I'll pay you back later.
Hahahah….learned that term decades ago when I heard someone say “I’ll bend over backward, but I won’t bend over forward”…took me a nanosecond to get it. Oh, and I wish I could recall the commenters name & give her appropriate approbation for “your Heinous”….just thievery on my part! Just passing along the good bits & hope others pay it forward!!!
Sarcasm fail alert! California grew by tens of thousands of people last year. Washington has grown by over half a million people in the last decade, and Oregon has held steady recently.
Did it occur to you that maybe the people who are moving out are doing so because of expenses, and the reason it is so expensive in those states is that so many people want to live there? You know... free market, supply and demand, yadda yadda?
Will - in 2009 my husband was transferred out to the Bay area. We lived San Mateo until the pandemic and then returned to the midwest. I miss living there every day. It was the happiest time of our forty years of marriage! Once when visiting the South of France a couple asked us where we lived and we said “San Francisco” and the response was “why are you here?”. Why indeed? California is a beautiful state. I am happy I had those years to call it home.
Why don't you go back to East Buttfuck, there in Flyover Loserville, where lifelong losers like you belong, you fucking worthless white trash redneck nitwit?
I'm not the Substack police, but I'm pretty sure this is several thousand miles below the standards of conduct Heather would wish to have on her page, and I am beyond disappointed to see such unfiltered invective here.
TCinLA: I hope this comment won't draw your fire, but I just think it is wrong to dehumanize each other. As in -- that direction will not produce anything worthwhile. Mind you, I am angry and disgusted too, but... !
I pressed the "report" button. I would be a hypocrite if I didn't apply the same standards to commenters I typically like as to ones I typically do not.
No. No. Fight the cancer. Squeeze it. Crush it. In this era, vote for and support Democrats at every level. Joe Biden needs all of us. Elect Joe over the wannabe dictator. Hold the Senate. Win the House. These things can be done. Soldier on.
Joan, I know, it's unfathomable. Still, hang in with us to see what happens and just do your best. Get with good friends and express yourself. Reach out and don't be alone with your fear and despair.
I wonder how prevalent the term "Clarence Court" is outside this community. It has to rankle him; I recall at one point (I'm guessing 10 or so years ago) wondering what the "Roberts Court" would be remembered for. Well, I think he has his answer.
I wonder too, but I don't think so. Robert Hubble recommended a website, dumpalito.{com} or {org}. I followed the creator's advice and mailed letters today.
Yup, Michael, will go down resisting….as I have posed here a number of times my anthem when I need “some juice” to continue—I may be old, but I’m still engaged: Jackson Browne’s Til I Go Down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmzimxfqgfw (the whole album is great…circa mid ‘80’s—the Reagan admin era).
MisTBlu if you’re HERE with Letters from an American, you must really want talk, write, engage in the challenges of our democratic process! We’re all students and teachers of how democracy can work! Don’t jump!Come off the bridge and join the work of learning how to bring your message to everyone you work/live/eat/walk with! 😃
We’ve all had moments of despair, but a bit if good good, deep sleep and gentle exercise will nourish your body & your mind! Stick with the effort! We need you HERE! 😄
Joan, all I can say is "feelings aren't facts". Like most things, feelings are useful until they aren't. Focusing only on the negative, as most pundits do in order to make their comments sound smarter and more weighty, is really only looking at less than half the picture. In 2023 and 2024, there have been several special elections and ballot measures where actual voters cast ballots for actual candidates or actual issues, nearly all of which broke for the Democrats/Left (almost none of these outcomes were accurately predicted by polls, by the way). At any given time and situation, more is going right than wrong. The idea is to try and see both, and let that guide your feelings and actions. These days, it is also key to maintaining sanity and therefor effective action. Salud.
Joan - it’s the noise and repetitive lies, a part of the autocratic playbook. Gravitate toward those who support the truth and build on that. 🇺🇸🗽🗳️🥁🕯️💙
I'm am terrified that this might be the last year we celebrate the 4th of July if trump wins or steals the election. Jan 6th might become their new Independence Day.
We have to get out and march! Take up space and be seen and heard! We can't wait until November to take action. We have come out in the MILLIONS nationwide! As many times as we can until the election. I feel pure rage and heartache when I think about what these hateful people are doing to OUR country. Let's take up space! Let's take up OXYGEN!
Totally agree. Actions speak louder than words. We need to stand in front of the Supreme Court ,brooms in hand, symbolizing the need for it to clean itself up. Alito nd Thomas need to go! Let’s organize please,please,please!
It would be a better SC and a better world if they were to go. But barring that, they need to be consigned to a minority. We need four more SC justices (one for each District) and age limits (rather than term limits). The only way this can happen is to win a trifecta in November. Let's do our best to make this happen.
The Women’s March is the way, if they will. I agree, now is not only time to march in great numbers and peacefully, but to also register voters in the process, and hopefully educate people to vote in their own interests.
I'm also equally terrified that this year might be the last time we celebrate Juneteenth!
Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day, is celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863, declared freedom for enslaved people in Confederate states.
Whatever they meant by it, I look upon the Declaration of Independence as much more pure in interpretation that All humans (mankind) are created equal.
The flaws came in compromises to get enough states to ratify the Constitution, signed on September 17, 1789, that then had at least had 10 of the proposed 12 bills of rights, ratified and enacted December 15, 1791.
The effective silencing of so much freedom of speech, especially in the House of Representatives and some state legislatures is an unimaginable corruption when the elected representatives seem to have the least right to peaceably present any arguments or responses as in the Tennessee legislature. Florida is far beyond belief in trying to suppress so much free expression, and fire so many of the people they need in education and health fields.
As an American living abroad, I am routinely asked politely, "What (expletive deleted) is going on in American politics?" Lately, I have struggled to come up with a satisfactory answer, as the antics of the far right always seem to fly in the face of reality.
I am curious as to why a colleague's words can be "stricken from the record." HCR's explanation of how history seems to repeat itself is interesting, but why should it even be possible to negate the rhetoric of a duly elected lawmaker? Until the Democrats muster the votes to regain control of Congress, making speeches and registering our discontent on the official record is about all that can be done at this point.
Essentially, actually striking someone's comments over their objections happens only rarely. The body is charged with policing itself when it comes to acceptable rhetoric and conduct, so having the mechanism to strike a colleague's comments, remove debate privileges, censure them, etc. is not only necessary but usually provides enough of a dissuading factor to keep conversation within certain guardrails. Taking up floor time for a vote simply to decide whether you had the correct level of politeness is a surefire way to make one's colleagues even grumpier, so most people will just concede and move on.
There was an excellent “stricken from the record” moment this week in the House Oversight Committee. After Marjorie Taylor Greene insulted Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s eyelashes (of all things), and had those remarks stricken, Crockett clapped back by asking if commenting on someone’s “bleach blonde bad built butch body” was acceptable in Congress. It was so funny, and worth watching. Jasmine Crockett is wonderful, definitely one to follow on X if you’re so inclined.
Thanks for the clarification. While I can see how such a mechanism could be useful in rare instances, it seems that the specific incident identified by HCR in today's post is in fact not an appropriate situation in which to apply such censorship.
Easy-peasy to answer: the lurking fascism kept under wraps has flowered into its dubious splendour fertilized by a psychotic break among a third of the electorate.
Yes, I suspect that the roots of the recent madness have indeed been there all along. HCR's references to history certainly support this notion. As other comments indicate, it is such a waste of resources to have to put up with this nonsense. Just think how much better the country and the world would be without Trump and his cronies.
Thank you for sharing this information. From the snippet on the Amazon listing, it looks like a great book. As HCR's commentary shows, it seems that "illiberal democracy" may indeed be the norm. This is surprising and points to the importance of studying history.
I am beginning to wonder whether Stalin was a fascist. Putin seems to be his psycho-scion. Ukrainians I met made one idea clear in mind if not words: Putin goes to sleep dreaming of Peter the Great and wakes up thinking like Stalin.
As a matter of course, any thinking addressing something so subtle and layered as the life and slow metamorphoses of a culture over time, any one book show an aspect of that changing but influential back-drop. This is not to criticise Dr Hahn, but to commend him for taking on so consuming a topic, the complete mastery of which lies beyond the reach of any one discipline (let alone any one man or woman). 🙏💡✌️
Over the last few years, on occasion and a mere smattering, I have re-read books from my mis-spent 'ute' -- NO, not 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'🤭-- that shine a light on different aspects of American cultural history (e.g., 'Stride Toward Freedom', 'A Disquisition on Government', 'A Theory of Justice', and a few others). 📖😵💫⚖️
One more recent book is more prescriptive historically. 'The American Soul' by philosopher, Jacob Needleman, presents an up-beat ideal of integrating the darker sides of American history into what many of us cherish most about our democratic republic (with its 'Constitution') to renew the American promise. 😊🤞😇
It is a good point that fascism seems to be spreading around the world. So in some countries the madness that you mention has already arrived. Fortunately, from my vantage point in Japan, the rule of law and a generally liberal, rational, and common-sense form of government still seems to be the bedrock of governance. However, we are not without the occasional rule or regulation that seems to defy logic.
How lucky you are. Can’t help but think of my long-dead father-in-law who never got over his hatred for the Japanese, having suffered so with family losses in the war. How shocked he would be that Japan holds to sanity better than his beloved Texas.
Well, Japan certainly has its share of far-right extremists, but overall most of its citizens seem pretty down to earth. Most Japanese seem to have a fairly positive view of the US, but the significant support that Trump still enjoys and the lingering racism that he represents has challenged that view.
Chump is a threat to the whole world. Bannon spent much of the past three years travelling the world to agitate and stir dissention. The right nuts are always busy.
"Stricken from the record" is usually invoked when a witness in a court proceeding says something that is prohibited by rules of evidence; the jury is counselled to disregard what they heard because it is not part of the record. I do not know what the rules of Congress are/were. After rereading the description of the exchange, it sounds more like censorship to me.
That was rudely awakening to me & my high school friends in 1962 or so. And here we are living it in technicolor! Gives me a rush and a drive to continue talking, writing, praying.
“The gist of Sumner’s speech was that a small minority of men were trying to impose their will on the majority of the American people by forcing enslavement on the territory of Kansas, much as enslavers like Butler forced themselves on the women they enslaved.”
And this was well over a century ago…..168 years, to be precise.
We survived slavery THEN and the challenge now is to survive TREASON. No small task but democracy is worth it!
Alito will say his wife did it. He has absolutely no control over what flag flys over his beach house. Yes he is confident no one can touch him. He is mocking us, taunting us. Next will be the fox interview. Vote, don’t let them win.
Yet we are depending on more votes, which Joe had in 2020. The cretins are stacking the deck better this time. Who will stop them. It’s all in plain sight.
That Alito is a partisan liar, no surprise. What is astonishing is that he is so bad at the lying. He tells Fuchs News 'wife did it and it was because neighbor had a cursing anti-trump sign next to a school bus stop.' Besides the obvious lameness of 'wife did it, I did not know', SCHOOL WAS REMOTE FOR COVID, there were no buses! Next, he knew his beach house flew it for soooo many months it made the Google street pictures, did he really think no one would mention it, forget about it? It's not just that no one can touch him. He could just ignore all criticism and say 'yuck foo' and not respond at all. He feels compelled to respond and that response is sooooo pathetically short sighted, false and lame! What delusional world does this guy live in?
"See, this is what happens when you don't control every aspect of a woman's existence! They will hang your patriotic fabrics all cattywampus and cause you great public embarrassment! Such silly creatures!" -Multiple Supreme Court members, at breakfast today
VOTE BLUE UP AND DOWN BALLOT WHEREVER IN THE US YOU LIVE. We need a majority in the House and Senate to IMPEACH Alito and Thomas. Both refuse to recuse from hearings on Jan 6 and presidential immunity. Thomas and his wife are clearly involved in the Jan 6 insurrection. Alito and reportedly his spouse have openly supported and celebrated an insurrection because they and Leonard Leo didn’t like the outcome. These partisans are bent on destroying voting rights, women’s rights, unions,civil institutions and Americans’ 1st amendment right to freedom of conscience. Let Alito and Thomas (and Leo) worship who they want and vote for who they want. But they have proven incapable of ruling without bias from the bench about Presidential immunity and the Jan 6 insurrection.
Shame on John Roberts, who has just gone along for the ride to end our constitutional republic.
I'm not precious about much of anything, but I don't screw around with the American flag. It's THE symbol of our country. I was told growing up to never, ever let the flag touch the ground or be defaced or damaged. I don't even like when people try to make a flag that messes with the design.
That a certain high-falutin' member of the Christaliban thinks it's a-ok to misuse the flag is simply a direct visualization of how he, his wife, and those with their mindset think of this country as a whole: theirs to do with as they wish, by divine right.
They can kindly go to the hell he is so certain the witches among us are going to. I'm an American, this is MY country and MY symbols and MY flag, and you are not going to take it from me or ruin it for me, ever. Thanks.
I'm with you, Will. I fly the National Colors 24/7, properly illuminated during the hours of dark, and properly positioned higher than whatever companion flag I am flying with it (Ukraine except for May (COPS* flag; black with single blue stripe honoring fallen police officers; Pride flag in June without the field of stars; and Jolly Roger in September up until "talk like a pirate day".) Been thinking about getting an Earth Day flag for April.
My father was a veteran and treated his flag with the utmost respect. It would break his heart to see how it is treated today by people…using it as swag on the back of pickup trucks and left outside a house to disintegrate in the weather.
I literally have a degree in showbiz. (B.A. in Dramatic Arts. Yes, it is currently useless.)
I am aware that top-of-ticket candidates need lots of money and spend a bunch of time getting it. Duh. They need it. It takes an enormous crapton of cash to advertise repeatedly to hundreds of millions of people.
While we are in agreement that getting the obscene amount of money out of politics needs to be a point of priority, let us stop to ponder how all this money would be rendered useless in a flash if common folk suddenly developed the ability to not just remember to vote each time, but also make that vote based on critical thinking and researched policy positions.
Yeah, but that's a complete railroading, too. The UK passed a law to prevent snap elections at the discretion of the ruling party and the Tories have completely ignored it. Mitch McConnell, much? At least it's almost certainly going to be a Tory bloodbath.
Where were the other 212 House Democrats when Jim McGovern was silenced? Why do they let their members get attacked piecemeal instead of joining hands and in one unified voice speaking back? Why not all together hold a press conference and insist McGovern only spoke truth?
Same with Alito and Thomas. Why won't Democrat Congressman of the House and Senate speak in one unified voice and insist that both Justices by definition must recuse themselves from any Jan. 6 cases coming before the Supreme court? 260 unified voices of elected Congress would cause a public stir and put the pressure on these guys for once. What do you all think?
"DeSantis is intensifying his efforts to de-emphasize racism in his state’s public school curriculum by arguing that some Black people benefited from being enslaved..." Check the different ways Ron DeSantis and MAGA Republicans try to whitewash history with this infographic.
Sadly, this is all of a piece with a basic part of the fundamentalist Christian mindset, which is that people all have a "natural place." Once you accept such a thing, you must accept various forms of hierarchy as natural, and once you accept that then various forms of strict punishment to enforce that hierarchy become not just necessary but beneficial.
If you believe that no one can be happy if people exist outside of their "place," and another group's "place" tends to be subservient, than it stands to reason that oppression would produce benefits for the oppressed, and some of them would be bound to express gratitude at their oppression once they see the light, right?
This is the problem folks here run into. We wonder "what could these people possibly be thinking?" and conclude that they must not be thinking at all, because telling ourselves that they are simply stupid is less disquieting than the truth: they *are* thinking, is is simply that the foundations of their thoughts are more rotten than you wish to imagine.
Good to hear you weigh in Will….my mind and mouth are agape at the, um, “mental prion disease” affecting our humanity/community/political-governance landscape….a desolate one unless we gather together to support “we the people”—ALL of us.
Sixty-eight years ago I pledged to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America" upon receiving my U. S. Navy Commission. Eight years later, I relinquished that Commission. I never rescinded the oath, nor would I. It remains inconceivable to me that officers of our Nation, elected or appointed by due process, would violate their sacred honor as we observe almost daily. Being guilty of a crime properly requires a thorough legal process and findings.
Being guilty of dishonoring the very essence of our Great American Experiment requires no such process; it is self-evident in actions that manifest disrespect for that civic endeavor. Citizens have a Constitutional right to such behavior, as loathsome as it may be. But leaders have a special requirement that may not apply in similar degree to all of us: to exercise disciplined responsibility commensurate with their rights as officers of the State.
We may not, for many reasons, be able to render appropriate punishment for desecrating their oath of office, nor cause an end to their tenure in a position that properly demands exceptional conscience in their public and private expressions. What we can, and must do, is call them out relentlessly for violating the spirit of their responsibilities and end their charade as loyal Americans. That is a function outside of the courts' purview. This is in our laps; no other.
The examples included in Heather's exceptional message here are painful reminders that my flying buddies who died so many decades ago have been seriously dishonored by men and women of highest position for whom those young patriots gave their "last full measure." I do not have the words to express my disdain for those who would treat their heritage so lightly. We must succeed in placing men and women in these positions who understand this and operate accordingly.
What we can, and must do, is call them out relentlessly for violating the spirit of their responsibilities and do what we can to end their charade as loyal Americans. That is a function outside of the courts' purview. This is in our laps; no other.
Al, my oath was similar. Upon my retirement following 28 years of service to community, my "honorably retired law enforcement" status holds that my oath is binding until 2099. I gave up the badge, not my oath. As did you; relinquish the commision but not the oath.
It appears, Ally, that we often reflect similar perspectives. Nice to know. While I have no recollection of examples that may have come out in these threads, I suspect if we disagreed on something, we could both learn something from it--even if we still disagreed. What a notion!
Terrifying. That’s what it all adds up to. We better be prepared to vote like never before, even in the face of MAGAs creating chaos and even violence at polling places.
Florida, the freest state in the nation: Free from tolerance, free from respect, free from sanity.
Joseph Stiglitz makes a trenchant point in the introduction to his latest book, "The Road to Freedom" (https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324074373). The Right has been allowed to define "freedom" to suit their own ends. Private enterprise thus becomes "free enterprise" and unregulated markets become "free markets." Words matter. Definitions matter. It's past time to take some of these terms back. "Freedom" for the Right becomes unfreedom for the rest of us. It would be nice to hear someone in the media refer to the "House Unfreedom Caucus." (No, not the "Clown Caucus." That's unfair to clowns, whose ineptitude is deliberate. The congresscritters of the HFC are inept but not funny.)
@Michael. IMHO the pendulum swings and Democrats have the potential to flip Florida. Trump won Florida by 3.2% in 2020, and we only need 2% to flip plus we expect that the general disgust with strict abortion and marijuana laws will result in a high voter turnout, so we can do it. Perhaps a million unregistered folk trend Democratic.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
I sure hope you are right, Daniel. I see some glimmers of hope in Florida. Ex. the board of Sarasota Memorial Hospital, one of the finest hospitals in the state that has been the repeated target of MAGA extremists the last several years (yes, a hospital!), just dismissed the anti-vax stance of our DeSantis appointee Surgeon General “Dr” Joseph Ladapo this week. The vote was 8-1 against adapting his wackadoo philosophies. Sensible people are here, and we need to take our state back from the crazies.
Yay! DeSantis was all for vaccines as he made sure his donor constituency was served, as in Ocean Reef. What a flip flop when it came to “the little people”.
Calmly, we've got to prevail. No Kyle Shittenhouse performances. Dr (?) Lappadoo will find plenty of flat-earth followers. Hopefully Big Media won't view him as a money-maker for advertisers and give him a pulpit to spew his crap from.
Taking the state back is likely not going to happen, no matter how hard Nikki Fried tries. Desantis' enablers can only be neutralized by reforming our electoral process.
84% of state races in 2022 were decided in a low-turnout closed partisan primary.
NPAs (currently 27% of the electorate) are the fastest growing voting block. We can't depend on them to reverse wins in safe districts if they are excluded from the nominating process. The party understanding this will have a distinct advantage moving forward.
Daniel, but a whole lot of people need to get registered if Florida is to become a sane state again. Electing DeSantis was a terrible idea, but people don't always do the right thing, but when they don't, they often pay for it. Maybe Florida will want better than Trump, DeSantis and the rest of their anti-American crowd.
Florida had the highest mortality rate from Covid-19 in the US. This resulted in over 93000 deaths. And DeSantis fired staff for trying to reveal the facts about Covid-19 deaths, so it is likely the Covid-19 mortality rate is worse than reported. I suspect a much larger percentage of the FL Covid-19 deaths were Republicans. A Biden victory in FL is not out of reach especially if DeSantis and Scott remain as unpopular as they are.
Taylor Swift could get enough people to register across the South to turn FL, plus the Lincoln Project with their limited resources is constantly bashing Trump.
Gary, there is a bunch of folks out her trying to play down the seriousness of the pandemic as though we didn't lose over a million of our fellow Americans. They are claiming those people mostly really died of other things and that the scientists and record-keepers got it all wrong. So, somehow DeSantis was right to whine against vaccines and not mandate masks; he wasn't. DeSantis will never be held accountable for what he did, good little pseudo-christian that he is. He thinks his big mouth is earning a way into Heaven or whatever he believes is the good thing that will happen to him for all his efforts. I honestly don't care what happens to him after death; it's right now as he screws with the lives of Floridians who deserve better than a racist, misogynistic homo/transphobic white guy with nothing positive to offer anyone that I am concerned about. Where is our Department of Justice in all this? Why have they not immediately challenged this anti-American piece of tripe. People should fly whatever flag and wear whatever colors they want unless it is a display designed to do harm to people as an upside down American flag is as well as that Heaven something or other flag Alito and the Christian Nationalists fly, specifically designed as a threat to everyone who is not a white male "christian." It would be great if every single Floridian were to fly the rainbow in their window or outside their home, just a rainbow. They can say it is just because rainbows are beautiful and God's gift to humanity. I bet they could come up with other explanations for flying the various other flags too. That would be amazing and would bring a whole lot of attention to Florida and the unamerican things DeSantis and his brown shirts are trying to do to American citizens.
In Montana in the 2016 the Billings newspaper printed a full-page menorah for people to color and put in their front windows to show solidarity with Jews in the state who were under attack. Could a Florida newspaper do the same with DeSantis's forbidden flags? attacks.https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/not-our-town
@ Ruth. Over 3 mi are registered "no party" and most voted for Trump in 2020. Over half are women. Women trend 80% opposed to the abortion law.
Plus, spend a $mil with FT6 registering new Democrats and the odds are high.
All other issues are secondary. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Well, the prohibition seems to be on flying flags on state bridges so I think people all over the state stepping up to fly the banned flags on their private property is a good start.
Love your idea about displaying the rainbow, which has its origin both in nature and in the Old Testament. Brilliant! I’m thinking of displaying a rainbow in my living room window, here in NJ, to show solidarity.
Good post Ruth. This 'medium' we have here helps each of us who feel as you do to know we aren't by ourselves. The fact that so many others we are acquainted with accept the distortions because they are presented over and over to them. Only natural for you and I (and a whole bunch of others) to actually question what we feel is the "correct" version. When the (false) writing is plastered on a big wall right smack in our face...I sometimes am at a loss to be able to refute it coherently. My gut feeling is that this blanket of nonsense is wearing thin. One can only hope. I hope.
Thank you for this post. Very well put. I suffered through several years of DeSantis and his awful wife too. I've told this story before, but in summary, she was too good to talk to anyone in the grocery store including other customers and the associates working in the store, even during checkout. I said "HI" to her a couple of times, with no response.
But, of course that is nothing compared to the things you comment on above.
Field Team 6 focuses on registering the likely unregistered Democrat.
Too bad the National Baseball League now has so many other possibilities for spring training. Who wants to go to FL now? Climate change will make parts of the state totally unlivable. What a shock (though not a surprise) to learn that (in spite of the climate) there were more Covid deaths there than in any other state.
Well Virginia, all I can say is: Don't pose that farcy-libtard-fact to any of those DeSandis-degenerates, dementioned-seniors suffering from erectile disfunction and sids existing tax--free on social security, or those anti-abortion my womb be your womb Christian-(sinner)women.. no no. That's a faux show if ever there was one. The 'sink-hole' is coming for them.
That’s not to say it isn’t serious. But you are hilarious, especially given that one of my favorite private jokes for years has been that little Marco had better take climate change seriously as with the fish swimming in the streets of Miami, he was on his way to having no state to run for Congress from. Until this moment I forgot he wouldn’t have any voters but with the situation Congress is in at the moment, maybe that’s not important.
🤣🤣🤣
Don't forget about that effing criminal Senator Rick Scott tho. It's more important that he gets the boot.
We can only hope.
I’m with Daniel ! FieldTeam6 has multiple volunteer opportunities to registers voters.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/actions
You can also support/volunteer with People Power For Florida:
https://www.peoplepowerforflorida.com/
Postcards to Swing States offers FREE, beautifully designed Fl postcards:
https://www.turnoutpac.org/postcards/
Display the flag next to a Biden/Harris sign ! 🇺🇸🪧
YOU CAN'T WRING YOUR HANDS AND ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES AT THE SAME TIME.
Patricia Schroeder '64, Former United States Representative
Thank you for the info.
Support Debbie Mucarsel Powell, who’s running against Rick (Admitted Thief) Scott. I’ve met her. She has an inspiring story. She is terrific.
I don't know about that...my optimism is cracking. Yesterday a poll came out showing this criminal (much) ahead in all swing states. Nikki Haley, along with a slew of others who bad-mouthed him, is voting for him! People are going about in a daze still believing that he's good for the economy! This country is swimming with non-critical thinkers. I want to go to bed and pull the covers over my head....
The polls do not pick up people we are registering. Plus the media only reports the bad news. You need a dose of Hopium. https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/
Also, I heard a political strategist from Michigan saying that though the polls iin the state show trump in the lead, many of the republicans he's talked to on the street and focus groups are clearly disillusioned by trump. There is always hope....
I want to go to bed and not wake up until January of 2029....or better yet, not at all.
Statewide elections can be competitive, but 84% of 2022's Florida state races were decided in low-turnout closed partisan primaries.
It is time for Women and Men to March in D. C. In Support of Reproductive Rights on Labor Day (appropriately named?)! Where are the appropriate organizations in advocating and arranging for such a national demonstration? Who’s in?
This group is 100%
https://act.womensmarch.com/survey/feminist-night-school/?t=5&akid=21373%2E2931636%2EJh9yOF
This year we have candidates in every Congressional district.
I know. I like it, but will they be competitive?
Daniel Solomon: Your words are music in my ears.
Florida may be in play because abortion is on the ballot plus legalization of weed— certainly an attraction for youth voters in gigantic proportions!
Let's get them registered. Let's encourage voter turn out. We must not allow this election to go to the Electoral College.
Correct James. They say the opposite of their actions. One of the keys of autocratic power grabs is to say what the people want, once elected, do some of the most popular to gain favor, use their new power to consolidate position, get re-elected with new found power, then do what they really intended. Hungary, Russia are great examples.
The current CONservatives are following that playbook very well. FL is a perfect example as the governor made a lot of popular moves while the legislators rewrote many laws to enhance their power, then reversed a lot of the popular things that the people approved. They have such a lock (like Texas) on the state government to prevent change. Wisconsin is another example where the CONservatives have prevented their opposing party from doing anything even though the majority of voters trend the opposite. We have to really start watching what they do, not what they say. We have to make them discuss the real impact of tax cuts and how those actually create more burden on working people locking them into a life of servitude while the wealthy exponentially benefit.
Said before , say it louder…it’s the WALK not the talk. Lead by example, not hollow promises. President Biden leads by example and a fine one in fact.
Rickey, you are right, but it seems so much of our media are not for the truth; they are for the bucks they say they need to stay in business, but do we really need media in business who sacrifice the truth for bucks? I don't understand why people have so quickly ditched the mainstream media except that there is so much more tantalizing garbage on social media to dip into and there, truth really doesn't matter much.
I was taught (admonished) as a young academic that the learned and intelligent person can hold, clarify and argue contradictory ideas or viewpoints for without that ability one could not decern and teach the truth. To wit, today right has the capacity to give the appearance of living by counterfactuals. As a child, I was led to believe this was two-faced, dishonest.
Fred..., just curious.., how 'long-ago' were you "a child"? Were Aesop's fables any part of it? I'll bet Capt Underpants wasn't on the 2nd grade classroom bookshelf. And just think, Aesop was on the ground in what we know as Greece before Christ arrived (620-564 BCE) fer crissakes. Huh? What??, no bible. At least whomever chiseled out The Bible had those fables for reference. Cudos to your mom and pop for your upbringing. For me it was my Mother mostly. Poorer kids of today are even poorer - Aesop..(?), like wtf??..Like..?..Like?? wheww.
Not to revert to numbers (too much revealed) but Dick Clark from American Bandstand taught us dance and Little Bo Peep's mother led our Sunday School class while Red Skeleton, Jack Benny, and Miss Brooks taught Civics, and Mr Peppers taught science. Mine was a long struggle without books or chalk and wearing hand-me-down from Uncle Henry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics…..so I googled my random thought process …interesting history
Thanks Ally try this one folks:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left%E2%80%93right_political_spectrum#:~:text=Left%2Dwing%20values%20include%20the,of%20strong%20personal%20political%20leadership.
Can't follow your link. The ellipses get added to the search.
Thanks I tried another link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left%E2%80%93right_political_spectrum#:~:text=Left%2Dwing%20values%20include%20the,of%20strong%20personal%20political%20leadership.…..wasn’t the same one but also interesting
I live in an area where there are a fair amount of big ole pickup trucks. Sometimes these trucks sport a bumper sticker with the yellow "Don't Tread on Me" snake flag on it. Usually a white guy is driving the truck. I often wonder if the guy has ever been trodden on. It seems these folks want to be able to treat others as nasty and disrespectful as they want, while expecting to be treated respectfully.
It makes me sad that the Kochs with Art Pope hit NC in their anti-public universities, I.e., kill the liberal arts degrees so we have no thinking voters, crusade. I lived in NC when it was a truly purple state that educated its children accordingly. The “red” part of purple has taken over.
As did I and am proud to say I graduated from an excellent public NC school. While we may not have learned everything at least we were allowed to keep open minds where we could then question the reality of the world we found ourselves in.
Yes, I can remember when people in Georgia aspried to have schools as good as those in North Carolina, which were the best in the South.
UNC-CH was the first public university in the country. Native Americans closed it for awhile, but it came back just after Harvard opened its doors. Long proud history before the fifth column Kochs went after it. See “Starving the Beast” if you can.
You can have that damn flag as a license plate in Virginia. Disgusting.
Proud Boys and Oath Takers in jail for their January 6th criminality are overwhelmingly white males. Perhaps what the US needs are larger jails, hopefully including Duplicitous Donald, the ‘Christian’ Antichrist.
Giggles Giuliani could be his in-jail attorney with Thomas and Alito the ethics counselors.
I just bought that book, but haven't read it yet! Truly the word freedom for Americans has been stretched and co-opted until it's as upside down as Alito's flag. And now with the pine tree flag flying over his beach house, he seems to enjoy flexing his impunity.
Yes...thanks Heather Cox Richardson...not only are we at a point where Alito flys these flags because he know he can get away with it (I hope I am wrong) and has embolden so many legislators.
I am trying to figure out Mike Johnson's game...appear cooperative enough to re direct us away from his end game?
Christian fundamentalism is Johnson’s game. It’s a perversion but also strong reality in the South. I consider this another attempted rise of the confederacy, which also considered itself a paragon of “Christian” virtue and wanted to dominate the nation.
What bothers me is the trickle down effect to the MAGA supporters to embolden them. I say this as a neighbor now has a black American flag flying at his home. This one representing “No Quartering”. You can google and see it’s adoption by “patriots” taking no prisoners supporting violence.
Republicans are following only the first half of the old saying that freedom allows me to swing my first anywhere, at long as it doesn't hit someone else's nose.
The radicals actively seek out noses to bloody. The "moderates" simply don't care whose noses get in the way, as long as they get to swing their fists as they see fit.
As long as it ain’t their noses
All I can hear is Freedom Fries.
Yeah!!! James, Agree. Whewww... semantics. We are over-run with MT-G's.., that's EMPTY G(reene)s. DeSantis is an MT Head.., yup EMPTY. Welll maybe full of s--t is more like it. And The House floor.., loaded with EMPTY (MT) heads. Russia likes MT (empty) Greene, so she should go live there. In no time at all, she would let her rhinoceros-mouth overload her hummingbird-arse and she'd become a Lubyanka resident, tossed into an isolated cell, "free" to yell and kick in a private darkness.., out of sight out of mind (not her mind, mind you). Our country has survived worse, but this is indeed a test. The Trump-minions are a deluded lot of total arse-holes who don't know whether they've been bored or punched... or..
James M. Coyle: You identify a feature that in 1948 George Orwell had written about in his dystopian "1984".
Stiglitz does a great job with this.
And if ignorance is strength, we must have the strongest Congress in our history
James M. Coyle: "If ignorance is strength, we have the strongest Congress in our history."
Pithy, deadly, and TRUE!
Free, Christian, Patriot...all words the Right as taken and twisted.
I applaud your thinking. It is the same with religion. When you hear devout Christians- life long church goers -be snarky because of the far right Christian nationalist movement by saying “those Christians” you realize that the far right has control over the narrative, words indeed matter. So does taking action.
James, an excellent idea. Unfreedom because that's exactly what the party of death wants. And yes, unfair to clowns.
James, I refer to it as "The Klown Kar Kawkus" thereby not insulting true clowns (which are a really creepy idea, in my book.)
Beautifully stated. Thank you.
I asked Google for antonyms of freedom.
The response?
"dependence, subjugation, slavery, imprisonment, incarceration, confinement, captivity, bondage, repression."
One man's freedom is another's, well ... you get the idea.
Like cruelty, violence against people of color, the extreme Maga Christians, and shear stupidity will make this a better Nation?? Give me a Christian any day. MAGA Christians appointed by Trump will never get it right.
I see spoiled little children ready to carry on their tantrums and destroy anyone and anything. Just unruly sulking children who need to be put in “time out” until they grow old, very very old!
It doesn't help that the nation is awash in firearms.
Yes, and that makes our country a bee’s nest about to explode.
My former in laws espoused many/all of the Christian white supremacy ideas we hear today...I thought their rhetoric sounded so crazy no one with any common sense would get on board. That they were a part of a movement that was so small it could have no affect. I guess I was wrong .
Press! They are off their rockers supplying every minute they can to
to “that guy” . Not so much to Biden , his every minute working for this country. My hope is that you are not wrong. The news thrives on trash stories. They lap them up like mad dogs. We can’t live with them, we definitely can’t live without them. Press is a life saver. Press is a dump.
They will take the spotlight off the liar eventually but in prison or out, we will hear his gums flap until his last breath and THAT is twisted.
Catherine I agree to ‘time outs’, but mtg et al enjoy spewing tantrums & mud wrestling language into a dense black hole. They’ve stolen the stars & stripes into their prison of lies as well.
Frankly I often feel paralyzed with all the horror of upside downs in their megaphone like remarks…worse. Now sending pcs to voters as a balm. (Every time I contribute $$ I’m immediately begged for more from Act Blue….)
They'd be far more likely to get money from me if they waited a few days before asking for more...
Me 2. They really could wait 10 minutes or better 2 times a month.
“Time out” is part of the problem…they should have had their asses swatted
Michael, no doubt about it here in Florida, the racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, homophobic, Fascist Christian nationalists have taken control. Time for us all to wake up, admit that the problem is what it is, and then send as much money as we can to political races working to defeat these enemies of the democratic process and the idea of equality under the law. We are at a defining moment in history, not only here but around the world for if democracy falls here it will begin to crumble around the world. Trump would pull the U.S. out of NATO and then the expansion of authoritarianism would begin.
Money is good; postcards cost less and are effective too. Those of us who can give only small sums can write GOTV postcards. Go online to Blue Wave and TonyTheDemocrat. Postcards will stretch your contribution and if you have an Indivisible group (check online), you can write with them. In ‘18 I had postcard Mondays around my dining room table on September and October afternoons. We went from 4-12 writers as the election got closer.
I absolutely agree. It's critical that Biden wins this election and Democrats control both houses. People can volunteer by answering phones, register people to vote.
Freedom for me, but not for thee
Exactly so, Jon.
And banning books and history. How will FL children ever be brought into the US? Are there underground schools yet? It’s a fine US tradition.
Free from me.
Free for whom? Just white Christian men, eh? Thank you Michael…you nailed it. And much of the populace sits in silence. When they finally wake up, it will be too late!
As a lifelong Floridian who remembers the days [up close and personal] of Collins, Askew, “walking Lawton”, Graham, Fascell, Pepper and several others - politically speaking, I feel as if I’m in a strange land!!!
Free from many Americans visiting the state and spending $$ there. Just one of many states I will not visit, spend time or money in. Vote at polls and vote with your dollars as well.
Florida, the most *ridiculous* state in the Union. Of course, they have plenty of competition.
TEXAS
Texas is one of the states in active competition with Florida.
You should see the Texas Republican party’s platform introduced this week. It’s a doozy.
Yes, and that truly sucks.
Michael, beautifully written!
84% of Florida state elections were either unopposed or decided in a low-turnout closed partisan primary. Statewide elections can be competitive, but the enablers come out of the primary.
Well put! And free from Truth.
Michael Biales: EXACTLY!
So good to see Heather reporting on "House speaker Mike Johnson."
Ah, yes, pious Mike. Our ur-"Christian." Who loves, is totally loyal to a "fellow Christian" of his who technically, yes, has been convicted of flagrant business fraud, has been found liable for rape, has palled around with the world's worst murderers, has mocked the crippled, insulted American veterans, jerked personal choice away from American women, and bragged of pussy grabbing.
Ah, yes, pious Mike. Our ur-"Christian."
He's a Fundamentalist. Fundamentalists masquerade as "christian," "jewish," "muslim," and "hindu," but they are all Fundamentalist believers in patriarchy, misogyny, violence against those who disagree with them, racism (Hindu supremacists following Modi are as scummy as white supremacists following Trump) and authoritarian dictatorship.
Fundamentalists are the enemy and there will be no peace so long as they continue to exist.
Fundamentalists have more in common with one another regardless of religion or sect, than with the general populations of their respective nations. It's the fundamental belief that they have THE Answer and everyone who doesn't agree with them is sad or wrong or evil.
Not surprisingly, "fundamentalist" is the wrong word, at least for sociopathic branch of religious movements, that actually (while a mix) have some wisdom and compassion at their core. I don't see anything "fundamental" about them. It's all about domination and supremacy, notions that have long left a very ugly wake though history. Seems to me that Jesus taught humbleness and kindness. This ain't that.
The word zealot also fits.
Maybe we should just call them what they are: fascists.
Irony: Myanmar "Buddhists" attacking Muslims. The hate is everywhere.
All these Bible thumpers and believers in THEIR way are just as awful as the Taliban.
Johnson and Alito are American Taliban.
Yes! Anti-Muslim sentiments in India is increasing exponentially, thanks to Modi. But let's not forget Pence. Though there is an aura of "hero" hanging about him because he didn't participate in the attempted coup d'etat, he's one of those who see The Handmaid's Tale as an ops manual.
they are the American Taliban.
Inflicting their own brand of Sharia Law on the rest of us.
Exactly right!
MisTBlu, you're right about the breadth of fundamentalist commonality, and for the most part they are wrong, but they do a whole lot of harm while they try to force everyone else to believe the way they do. Fundamentalists are in a sense, the enemy of every state where they appear. They have nothing positive to offer anyone. They do get orgasmic pleasure in feeling superior and hurting others, and their general ignorance. That must be enough to keep them going because they certainly are not fading out any time soon.
Correct, Ruth: "not fading out any time soon."
If American schools taught some humanities, the fundamentalist bullies might have some alternative to their soulless hatreds.
No such luck. More than any other college major most "Christians" flock to biz ed. You can see it in their humanly empty, rabid, dehumanized eyes.
Oh, Phil, you are so right about needing the humanities in our schools. I tried to teach some of that with my students and they seemed to respond well to it, but it needs to start in Kindergarten and continue throughout school, no matter what the folks in STEM who have no clue say. We need a platform to get the humanities in every school with positive curricula that meet kids where they are and bring them forward into something better and more fulfilling.
Yes, please. The lack of humanities which teach students to THINK is sadly lacking these days. Taking music out of schools is major deprivation. We are starving children not only of food, but also of the joy and togetherness that music brings.
The "either or" approach to education is a real shame. While there are certainly exceptions, the erudite scientist/physician/engineer seems to be rare.
Mist & Ruth, I’ve thought for a long time that the virtual erasure of borders by Technology has exasperated the shrinkage of governments back to OUR BORDERS, our heritage, ‘our our our keep those others out’. Apparently, I may be correct. Instead of embracing this new reality, the fear of growing has created world wide anorexia.
Interesting observation. Even within "our borders" there is "our tribe." It's how some of us have come to see our political opponents as animals or vermin.
You are so correct; and it's a sad component of the sucking in and shrink as our world expands far beyond small imaginations. There are people here on Cape Cod who
'Don't cross the bridge'... that is to the mainland.. although we are in reality a peninsula.
On my street I'm a minority being a democrat. however, I talk with everyone. And, so far no one's called me a name 🤞
Say it loud and say it proud, TC!
We are a Nation built not upon any fundamentalist religious beliefs, but upon the Enlightenment principles of liberty, human dignity and rationality perpetually in search of knowledge and betterment. Religious dogma is free to be acknowledged by those who choose to do so, but it has naught to do with our secular, political philosophy.
Or to put it another way, We are a Secular Nation and we thank God for that!!
This an excellent explanation of our principles! Everyone copy please. And remember!
Thank you, Cynthia, for your kind words
I agree, yet I feel like your last sentence should be revised to "Fundamentalis[m is] the enemy and there will be no peace so long as [it] continue[s] to exist."
People are more than their ideology or group loyalty. It is the ideology that is poisoning the people who drink of it. Anytime anyone ends a sentence with suggesting that [group of people of any type] should stop existing, that is the clearest signal that the conversation has crossed into inexcusably dangerous territory, regardless of whether it was truly meant or not.
yeah.
TC, the articulate writer, ⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️ ☺️
really well put — thanks for articulating that. i keep despairing that one of the most sinister components of certain religious rhetoric is practically weaponizing it as identity politics: confusing extreme religious beliefs with selfhood. (and then there's the manipulated outrage over civil-rights-based 'identity politics' that has undue and unfortunate influence over so many who simply have not thought through the un-spun, unvarnished significance of humanity's differences and commonalities.
of course, an even more ominous reflection of your observation that one is more than one's ideology/loyalty is when that cultivated self-righteousness — especially compounded by the support of fellow travelers — drives one to murder those who have been cast as the enemy. there's a tragic finality to such action that, from a fundamentalist perspective, is effectively *underrated* — through ill-justified dogma regarding immortal souls, divine will/justice/punishment/retribution/reward, etc. and i fear that the pro-Trump and pro-'Appeal to Heaven' gangs get more traction from framing Useful Idiot Ashli Babbitt [e.g.] as a 'martyr' than enlightenment principles can get from any — well, i'm already too nauseated to ruin my morning speculating on what organizations [who have already shown willingness to assault Congress] might do between this election season and next January 6...
and yet such visceral speculations are likely feeding the imaginations of those who feed monstrously misdirected, misidentified, misogynistic and misanthropic senses of grievance ...
Will, I agree that fundamentalism is extremism, but Christian Nationalism is anti-democratic and anti-American.
You put that very well and I agree with you. Thanks.
Exactly, TCinLA.
A mind-boggling simpleton quality unites all these fundamentalists you cite, too. They all crave order, a systemic package always led by sour old men (whom you nicely cite as "believers in patriarchy, misogyny, violence against those who disagree with them, [and] racism."
Their thinking, being always without any humanities, gears toward the abstract, the mechanical, the categorically labeled. As such, all hew to the sequential, the chronological, the binary, the hierarchical. Humanities cannot humanize them, so totally rules their claustrophobia.
They so, so, so hate freedom. With venom, vitriol. They will impose themselves on all, lest schools admit, nurture any of the nuances or other personal differences among us, lest women even so much as imagine any personal, economic, or other choices in loving, raising families.
Exactly, TCinLA.
And they drape it all with a flag and call it “freedom.” Fundamentalism, regardless of the flavor, is a dangerous cult that preys on the human wish to be protected by an all powerful and forcefully enforced doctrine.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be draped in a flag and carrying a cross". Attributed to Sinclair Lewis.
one has already substituted a bible for the cross, upside down.
Don't forget, Maureen, the securities of sloganeering language and group stupidity.
It's gotta fit on a bumper sticker or it's too complex.
“The [A]lito flag story does not teach me anything new about his politics but it does reveal how confident he is that nobody can do anything about him.”
I hold the major media outlets largely responsible for the "normalization" of these "fuck you" moments by those like Alito, Speaker Moses, and the clowns who tried to stifle McGovern's comments. They gave Trump credence in 2016 and have failed to highlight the absolutely insane language and messaging coming from him and his supporters, instead calling it "out of the norm" or otherwise soft shoeing those moments. And they cover the GOP representatives who are going to NYC to parrot Trump's complaints but don't point out that they're way out of their professional lanes by acting as they do. Perhaps the media thinks we'll connect the dots. News flash! We have, why haven't they?
Indeed - why haven't they. Orwell knew why: "It is difficult to convince a man to recognize the truth when his paycheck depends on his not doing so."
TC, yes, they call themselves "fundamentalists" or at least used to because they claim to be following the real fundamentals of their faith and everyone else has it wrong. Of course, it is they who are wrong, but pretending and making oneself believe that one is better than everyone else and has god's ear can set some people aflame with "the fire of godliness" or some other such nonsense. They no more have fundamentals than they can walk on water in their bare feet on a clean lake.
Well stated, TC. Same horses, different colors. They disguise their need to hold power over The Other with deluded ideas about bedrock principles, original truths, blah blah blah.
That may be true however, the majority of the people who believe in Democracy have the power to vote Trump and the mega extremists out of office. We must conquer this election.
I heard an Indian (India) describe Modi as very scary. He said Modi was the same as Trump, but a lot smarter.
He's India's Hitler. His political forebears included Gandhi's assassin.
Exactly this, TCinLA 👏👏👏
Anyone who mentions tfg’s horrible mimicking of the disabled gets my vote. What a travesty that anyone who even thinks like that could be president!
And, M., a statement on the vast, seething, writhing vulgarity in a country over which another insurrectionist flag flies, by one of its most corrupt and medieval Clarence court justices.
Clarence — or Samuel — court? I’m all in for medieval.
M, but, don't you remember that he told everyone it was just a joke and that his victim just loved it, or something like that. Our Donnie has an excuse for all of his bad behavior, at least in his own mind.
Some “jokes” just aren’t funny.
It should be noted that Pious Mike also keeps a “Pine Tree flag" outside his office.
Piety influencer Leonard Leo flies the Pine Tree flag at his estate here in Maine.
Leonard Leo made his GOP bones getting the carbon industry's pick (Charles Koch's pick) - Sam Alito - on the Supreme Court. Handpicking the court majority made Leo's fortune. Which is how he comes to have two multi-million estates on Mt. Desert Island.
Catholics signing on to the prosperity gospel crowd?? Or just old fashioned pious greed. And our “elder statesman” W Bush was the one who gave us this traitor. The rot is all the way to the core
I was once a catholic in grade school. The nuns taught us well. But they had no sense of humor except to dispatch me through expulsion for refusing to cut my hair and a few other matters.
I almost became a Catholic once, because I met a wonderful, committed woman. I was young and admiring, but something said no. Then I learned that some of those committed should be committed.
Lol
The point is that Alito is a Supreme Court Justice who is supposed to be non partisan.
Along with him supposed to being non-partisan, he is supposed to honor the separation of church and state. His decisions echo the beliefs of the Catholic Church which is a patriarchal child abusing greedy organization.
Who else rakes in billions of dollars by spewing bull-shit about helping others only to give it to the likes of Leonard Leo and support the anti-abortionists until the day the baby enters they world. Then that child and its family are own their own until the child reaches the age where they can contribute to the church's coffers.
And there's an entire political party that LOVEs the Catholic Church.
So much for upholding the Constitution.
Leo the lout is a loathsome creature!
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
I just Googleimaged this.
Those are some frigging ugly pine trees. Even Charlie Brown would be like "nah, I'll pass."
Which should be disallowed based on separation of church and state in a government building. However it appears that there is a powerful segment of our representatives who want and expect to change that. And I say “representative” loosely because I am not sure who they really represent other than themselves. Just like the former slave owners of history. Having a civil war in order to keep their slaves.
Must be part of a plot, Gary.
Truth is, Pious Mike is really planning to announce his active, campaigning support for President Biden.
In the meantime, a very few are placing bets in Vegas, where odds-makers say the few who bet a single dollar can easily collect five million, come payday on such a cleverly hidden stratagem.
For President Biden?
Gary - 😢
His "piety" is what makes him so dangerous. He's a harbinger of truly awful things if Trump wins.
I believe Mikey is a stooge whose job is to carry out the instructions of the characters he works for. He's no leader. He isn't smart enough to be one. Other than to help him masquerade as a virtuous citizen his "piety" serves mostly to help him feel justified for doing the things he does.
True except that God called him to be the Moses of Congress and lead them out of the land of the Pharisees -- or some such crapola.
But THEY'RE the Pharisees! (you're not supposed to notice that)
...must be some more of that MAGA doublethink. The Base eats that stuff right up.
Time for some reporters to start using the Beatitudes in their questions. Nothing makes these faux christians more uncomfortable than quoting Jesus.
Yep, the Fundis much prefer the Old Testament, with all the passages about smiting your enemies! You never hear them quoting the Sermon on the Mount.
Yes, they're searching the Old Testament, KMD.
Besides the wars and slaughter ("smite him," "smite them") most spend their time in the Song of Solomon, maybe some psalms, looking for the parts that maybe, just possibly might excuse the pussy grabbing for which their fat, diapered, flatulent, peroxided, drag queen orange make-up-caked cult leader begs justification.
Don the con cheated on all 3 of his wives plus at least 1 longtime mistress Karen McDougal. He has broken every one of the 10 Commandments, murdered over a MILLION people in the United States with his mismanagement and politicization of Covid plus he is a compulsive lying megalomaniac. If we don’t vote out every last one of his cult, the next 4 years will be a living hell. 🤡💩🎃🤬🤬🤬
I wish I thought the living hell would be limited to four years. The instability that Trump fosters could drag the world into a long, violent decline. War, famine, climate disaster, loss of yet more rights and on and on are likely to be our lot. What we decide here in the voting booth will ripple across the planet.
Oh, the living hell would go on far longer than 4 years. You don't really suppose diapered Donny would voluntarily and peacefully leave at the end of his four years, do you???
Without any clairvoyance or ability to see the future, I can almost guarantee that the "melon-colored baby" will find some reason not to hold an election or some way to rig it so that he will remain in power as long as he lives. Or, if he is by then in the obvious grip of dementia, his equally evil cohorts and minions will prop him up and rule the country themselves.
Can’t give that a “like” but it deserves a few 😩😫😤😖🤬 and a 💩. Oh for the good old days when “Have you no sense of decency?” shut down the crazies.
The Heritage Society or Putin will deal with him long before 4 years are up
Or nature...
Lord, I dream
Phil, ah, yes, pious Mike the best example of white evangelical America. He has all the expected traits, may even have some difficulty with sexuality, but I guess many white evangelicals these days do. Oh yes, and there's the hatred of everyone who does not think and see the world just as he does. He and his Klan wallow in that hatred and do believe it is from god, a righteous gift. And, of course, there is the self-righteousness that pervades everything our Mikey does. He is supposed to be a lawyer, but stood in NYC and broke the law for his Donnie. Yes sir, one of the best.
And oddly Jesus was INclusive, beckoning to society’s fringe members.
Which is why you will almost NEVER hear any direct quotes of "what Jesus said" from any of them. They cherry-pick the Old Testament for their quotes and inspirations.
Lill Mikey is a pathetic creature!
Exactly.👍
Yes, I am glad Heather is informing us about house Speaker Johnson. We're living in a dangerous time in the 21st century of this country. I wish people would realize how catastrophic this situation is.
I saw him literally bow to the orange king on television as he walked by. That said it all.
Justin Jackass Johnson should have known better—-HEEL TO THE HEEL!
🤮
Exactly
Thanks to the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis the state government is bending backwards to create the most misinformed and backward state in the nation. Thank you Ron!!!!!!!
I’m reading The Diary of Ann Frank right now. Going to visit her home in Amsterdam. It’s a chilling narrative knowing how it’s going to end with the life of a beautiful young Jewish girl forced to wear a yellow star, stuffed into a closet, deprived of human dignity, extinguished by hateful fascists. That was less than 100 years ago. As I look around the world of 2024 that fascist evil is all around. Will the guardrails provided by the rule of law, the institution of democracy, and the potential for goodness in each person (or redemption in those led astray) keep the train of civilization on the tracks as we careen towards multiple catastrophic endings?
50/50 at best?
So many guardrails fell so quickly I have trouble wrapping my mind around it. But Biden and team have done miraculous work in practical terms. It's the propaganda war that seems lost.
Ask the 5 propagandists on the Supreme Court and Aileen Cannon about guardrails.
Thursday SCOTUS Opinions will be announced at 10 am Eastern. Hopefully nothing by Alito. LIVE at SCOTUS.blog.com.
Not lost, at least not yet. There is a lot fog to penetrate.
The fact that the far-right is now the second largest party in Germany, that it's leader recently claimed that not everyone in the SS was a criminal, is more heartbreaking than infuriating. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/22/germanys-afd-bans-top-candidate-from-eu-poll-events-over-nazi-comments
The AfD is failing. Their only strong support is in Germany's "Flyover Loserville," the former communist states in East Germany. The party leaders are now under investigation with court sanction for "extremism" by the domestic security intelligence agency. Their prospects for a big showing in the coming European Union parliamentary elections have dropped recently. But Italy is still run by the Fratti di Italia, the outgrowth of Mussolini's Fascist Party that unfortunately wasn't outlawed in 1945. In France, Marie de la Pen may be the next president, as the old Frenc fascist party her father founded have "remade" themselves as "economic populists."
Not to be pedantic, but it’s Fratelli d’Italia (brothers of Italy) and Marine Le Pen. Just in case anyone wants to google to learn more. Because you’re right, TC.
Grammar Nannies of the World Unite!
Thanks!
TOM READ ANNE APPLEBAUM IN THE JUNE ATLANTIC—-SHE LINKS ALL THE BADDIES WHO NOW SUPPORT TRUMPISTS INCLUDING THE GREAT BLOVIATOR.
BY CONTRAST, WHAT, LONG AGO, HAD BEEN A FOCUSED U S INFORMATION AGENCY , IS NOW DISSIPATED INTO A BEVY OF INEFFECTIVE GROUPS. Awwk1
It’s infuriating!!
Especially in a country that after 1945 worked hard to atone for their past.
A thought worth considering: when Angela Merkle was chancellor, she was once asked about her open door policy for migrants which were in great numbers and she responded that it was the guilt that Germany had toward WWII. As I read this I ruminated that she was seeding the next nationalist movement by her open door policy. And now it has come to pass. Sometimes we never learn.
Was she seeding or, like Donald Trump, did she allow what was there all along to flourish?
Keep talking, writing, interrupting with a smile on your face to enlighten and encourage conversation .. engage in the challenge of opening minds, winning votes!
At Nuremberg, German jurists were put on trial for emptying German law of justice in order to serve the Nazi agenda.
Federalist Society jurists, most spectacularly the Leonard Leo Supremes, turn the Constitution on its head to drain it of justice. Most recently by delaying Jack Smith's case.
Yet HCR never addresses Leo's impact on American law and American history.
Lin Recently I rewatched JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG. It describes, in exquisite detail, how justices like Alito and Thomas and judges like Cannon can swiftly erode the integrity of a judicial system.
It starts with an authoritarian, like Hitler, or now Trump, trashing the Constitution. A gradual packing of the highest court (Stench Court) and politicizing the Justice Department are integral to this slippery process.
Once one has started down this integrity-less elevator (which was accelerated by Trump’s initial candidacy,) then ‘to get along, go along’ becomes the mantra of the judiciary.
Judicial ethics are the first to go. Ginni/Clarence Thomas and Alito have made a mockery of these ‘ethics.’
"It starts with an authoritarian, like Hitler, or now Trump, trashing the Constitution. "
A Trump presidency is the apotheosis of Republican repurposing the American democratic republic as a corporate clerical fascist state. It's genesis is in the GOP Southern Strategy, and the Nixon and Reagan administrations.
Yes! As a native Virginian (first vote Eisenhower, last vote EVER for a Republican) I watched this and voted accordingly. Do you remember when Reagan began taxing credit card interest? I remember dashing out to buy first color TV just in time to have tax deductible interest (credit card purchase).
Virginia Yes. Credit card interest was taxed in the 1986 legislation. Overall, I consider this perhaps the best tax legislation in my lifetime. A number of loop holes were closed, personal taxes were reduced over all and corporate taxes increased.
After Reagan’s major tax cuts (‘voodoo economics’ ) in 1981, he had significant subsequent increases, including 1986. A major Doofus Donnie change limited deductions on total real estate and other local-related taxes to $10,000, which hit many blue state residents.
Thursday 5/23 SCOTUS Opinions about to drop:
1st opinion: Coinbase vs SUSKI. Unanimous by Justice Jackson.
Alexander vs SC Conference 6-3 by Alito. This is a case about racial Gerrymandering in South Carolina Congressional District 1.
Alito: "The party challenging a Map must disentangle race from politics".
South Carolina R's were trying to secure a "safe" District. First, Alito states: "We begin with the presumption that the [So Carolina] legislature acted in good faith" [NOT.] BOTH sides asked for a published Opinion by January 1, 2024 nearly 3 months ago. Therefore, the racist 2021 Map will be used in the upcoming Election.
Alito wrote a 2nd case: BROWN vs United States.Also 6-3.
SCOTUS reversed the Trial Court & sends the "Career Criminal Act case" back to the Trial court to determine a "serious" drug offense.
Important: SCOTUS did NOT rule on the Trump "I can do anything" immunity case where CERT should have NEVER been granted as the Circuit Court Panel had constructed a strong guardrail.
That's all for LIVE Blogging today.
You must not read here regularly.
Please send me the link to one Letter which mentions Leonard Leo. I have not seen one. Over a year ago, I asked HCR (on the Maine Public Radio show Maine Calling) about Leo and protests here on MDI, she demurred saying she is an historian and doesn't speak to local politics.
Today Leonard Leo, the person who organized the 2008 fishing trip, also jumped in. In 2008, Leo was the head of the Federalist Society, which came together in 1982 to roll back the business regulations and the civil rights legislation of the post–World War II era by remaking the courts with judges who stood against what they called “judicial activism.” (Leo is now in charge of Marble Freedom Trust, a nonprofit organized in May 2020 with a $1.6 billion donation from donor Barre Seid to push right-wing politics at every level.)
Leo released a statement supporting Alito and warning: “We all should wonder whether this recent rash of ProPublica stories questioning the integrity of only conservative Supreme Court Justices is bait for reeling in more dark money from woke billionaires who want to damage this Supreme Court and remake it into one that will disregard the law by rubber stamping their disordered and highly unpopular cultural preferences.” (Justice Elena Kagan, one of the justices Leo suggests is being unfairly given a pass by ProPublica, reportedly declined to accept a basket of bagels and lox from her high-school classmates out of concern about the ethics of accepting gifts.
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo observed that Leo seems to have used his extensive network to set up relationships between judges and donors in a reinforcing ecosystem.
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/june-21-2023?r=fqsxl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
"Woke billionaires"? Is there such a thing??
"... who want to damage this Supreme Court and remake it into one that will disregard the law by rubber stamping their... highly unpopular cultural preferences." Look in the mirror, Mr. Leo.
ThankYou!!! Takk Fyrir!!!
On that day I was in Iceland and missed the Letter. I am heartened to read it.
I am in awe of your 'searching' skills and really appreciate your taking the time.
I like the way she takes a current incident and gives her historical perspective. Today’s story is chilling — that a comment of an opposition member of the House will not even be part of the record. And he was bemoaning the lack of bipartisanship!
you must listen to the expose' by Propublica, "What about Leo".
That we are facing, in our own country, something potentially worse than NAZI Germany, and that there are signs that some of Europe's oldest Democracies face similar challenges is true. What is not true is that they are winning, not here, not in Europe. The ouster of a right wing government by voters in Poland is one example. Several special elections and ballot measures in this country nearly all breaking for Democrats (despite dire predictions to the contrary by most pollsters) is another.
Humans seem to have a natural predilection for negativity. It kept us alert to predators and from doing stupid things like eating brightly colored mushrooms. Lately, in the political arena at least, commentators use it to make their arguments seem smarter and more cogent. The key word here is "seem". Our bias toward negativity while ignoring our own agency and most of what is going right only serves to make us more anxious and encourages inaction, setting us up to "pre-obey" as Tim Snyder would put it. If you want to sound smart, break negative. If you want to be smart, look at the more than just one aspect of the picture.
Have been there …am glad you are going….we need that inspiration right about now!
It's too complicated for me to call, but yeah, thing could go very badly, even though I am cautiously optimistic. Democracy is what we make it.
Ryan, if you haven't already seen the 2023 National Geographic dramatic mini-series "A Small Light" (free on National Geographic YouTube Channel) before you go, make time for it. It's the story of Miep Gaas and how her resistance came about and unfolded as well as the Franks and the other families in the annex. It was inspiring to see the networks of resistance around the city depicted. Excellent cast, production.
Thank you! I have added it to my queue after the audiobook is done. Many thanks. Reading, and will watch this with my 13 yo daughter.
Doc, that is a must-see visit in Amsterdam. One of the important historical markers of our time.
We visited the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam in 2009. An unforgettable experience. Scary that so many young people know little about the Holocaust. Actually, there are many not-so-young who know only about certain aspects of it.
It amazes me . 50/50 … ‘margins of error’ ? So I wonder where will WE all hide if the pendulum swings to the radical right…our voiced, our own writ for display at any point. The affect is so vivid in history, so obvious in societies/countries taken over by them- the RRR ( radical right Repubs ) following well trod paths of KKK -even the current malaise Palestinian/Israel conflict , when Nitwit got ‘back in’ protest broke out ,the war was as inevitable as the self pardon was expected….sound familiar? 50/50 ? It’s getting late in this ‘ game ‘ folks..and the chaos is still…(not even ‘stilled’) lie upon lie/denial/endless delays/bold writing on the walls/in the halls/freedoms fall and point blank …2025…and still 50/50? 🤦♀️🤷♀️😵💫🥱🤑 WE’D BEST GET ON OUR HORSES Paul/Paula Revere..🗣️sound the alarm!
I was interested in finding the radical left’s distinctions…where would -if those ‘extremists’ won- take us? Just those dang comparative thoughts that bounce around ya know..🤔
💙VOTE ALL THE COMPLICIT OUT💙
Yes, I took my daughter there more than a decade ago, because she had read the book, and we both wanted to see it. It's a worthwhile visit because you get a visceral experience of what she and her family lived through. I also took her to the Museum of Dutch Resistance so that she could see that there were people who resisted the Nazis.
Will try to do both, right now we have an alarm set for 3 AM when we hope some additional Anne Frank House tickets will be released, currently all sold out and quickly!
You do the math
Ahem, Christopher, I would suggest that DeSantis is actually *bending over forward* (if you get my drift) to accommodate “his Heinous”, the wannabe king.
Excuse me! As a proud LGBT man, I am greatly offended at the perpetuation of stereotypes surrounding those who participate in a range of personal activities that...
Just kidding. This is absolute gold. I hereby award you The Internet for the day, right after stealing the phrase "his Heinous" for future use. I'll pay you back later.
Hahahah….learned that term decades ago when I heard someone say “I’ll bend over backward, but I won’t bend over forward”…took me a nanosecond to get it. Oh, and I wish I could recall the commenters name & give her appropriate approbation for “your Heinous”….just thievery on my part! Just passing along the good bits & hope others pay it forward!!!
Yes, that explains why so many people are fleeing Florida for California, Washington, and Oregon...
Sarcasm fail alert! California grew by tens of thousands of people last year. Washington has grown by over half a million people in the last decade, and Oregon has held steady recently.
Did it occur to you that maybe the people who are moving out are doing so because of expenses, and the reason it is so expensive in those states is that so many people want to live there? You know... free market, supply and demand, yadda yadda?
Will - in 2009 my husband was transferred out to the Bay area. We lived San Mateo until the pandemic and then returned to the midwest. I miss living there every day. It was the happiest time of our forty years of marriage! Once when visiting the South of France a couple asked us where we lived and we said “San Francisco” and the response was “why are you here?”. Why indeed? California is a beautiful state. I am happy I had those years to call it home.
Why don't you go back to East Buttfuck, there in Flyover Loserville, where lifelong losers like you belong, you fucking worthless white trash redneck nitwit?
I'm not the Substack police, but I'm pretty sure this is several thousand miles below the standards of conduct Heather would wish to have on her page, and I am beyond disappointed to see such unfiltered invective here.
TCinLA: I hope this comment won't draw your fire, but I just think it is wrong to dehumanize each other. As in -- that direction will not produce anything worthwhile. Mind you, I am angry and disgusted too, but... !
I pressed the "report" button. I would be a hypocrite if I didn't apply the same standards to commenters I typically like as to ones I typically do not.
Would someone please talk me off the ledge? Even and with historical references, it feels like an incurable cancer has gripped the nation.
No. No. Fight the cancer. Squeeze it. Crush it. In this era, vote for and support Democrats at every level. Joe Biden needs all of us. Elect Joe over the wannabe dictator. Hold the Senate. Win the House. These things can be done. Soldier on.
I'm not giving up but can't fathom the depth of ignorance, greed and lack of spine.
Joan, I know, it's unfathomable. Still, hang in with us to see what happens and just do your best. Get with good friends and express yourself. Reach out and don't be alone with your fear and despair.
Ignorance, greed and lack of spine have described the bottom half of America's DNA forever.
Especially in the Chief Justice! One would think legitimacy mattered to him, especially as it has his name on it.
I wonder how prevalent the term "Clarence Court" is outside this community. It has to rankle him; I recall at one point (I'm guessing 10 or so years ago) wondering what the "Roberts Court" would be remembered for. Well, I think he has his answer.
Now to see if he has the fortitude to correct it.
I wonder too, but I don't think so. Robert Hubble recommended a website, dumpalito.{com} or {org}. I followed the creator's advice and mailed letters today.
Yup, Michael, will go down resisting….as I have posed here a number of times my anthem when I need “some juice” to continue—I may be old, but I’m still engaged: Jackson Browne’s Til I Go Down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmzimxfqgfw (the whole album is great…circa mid ‘80’s—the Reagan admin era).
I always smile knowingly whenever Jackson’s ling term penchant for musical protest is referenced, also such regarding Steve Earle
“Come back Woody Guthrie, come back to us now”
Use their casual corruption against them. The wannabee dictator IS naked.
🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊
MisTBlu if you’re HERE with Letters from an American, you must really want talk, write, engage in the challenges of our democratic process! We’re all students and teachers of how democracy can work! Don’t jump!Come off the bridge and join the work of learning how to bring your message to everyone you work/live/eat/walk with! 😃
We’ve all had moments of despair, but a bit if good good, deep sleep and gentle exercise will nourish your body & your mind! Stick with the effort! We need you HERE! 😄
Joan, all I can say is "feelings aren't facts". Like most things, feelings are useful until they aren't. Focusing only on the negative, as most pundits do in order to make their comments sound smarter and more weighty, is really only looking at less than half the picture. In 2023 and 2024, there have been several special elections and ballot measures where actual voters cast ballots for actual candidates or actual issues, nearly all of which broke for the Democrats/Left (almost none of these outcomes were accurately predicted by polls, by the way). At any given time and situation, more is going right than wrong. The idea is to try and see both, and let that guide your feelings and actions. These days, it is also key to maintaining sanity and therefor effective action. Salud.
Joan - it’s the noise and repetitive lies, a part of the autocratic playbook. Gravitate toward those who support the truth and build on that. 🇺🇸🗽🗳️🥁🕯️💙
Repetitive truth might help. Repetition has a place in learning.
Hang on Joan; it's just a little turbulence. The kids are alright. They're awake, and ready for the fight. We'll be okay. You'll see.
I'm am terrified that this might be the last year we celebrate the 4th of July if trump wins or steals the election. Jan 6th might become their new Independence Day.
We have to get out and march! Take up space and be seen and heard! We can't wait until November to take action. We have come out in the MILLIONS nationwide! As many times as we can until the election. I feel pure rage and heartache when I think about what these hateful people are doing to OUR country. Let's take up space! Let's take up OXYGEN!
Totally agree. Actions speak louder than words. We need to stand in front of the Supreme Court ,brooms in hand, symbolizing the need for it to clean itself up. Alito nd Thomas need to go! Let’s organize please,please,please!
It would be a better SC and a better world if they were to go. But barring that, they need to be consigned to a minority. We need four more SC justices (one for each District) and age limits (rather than term limits). The only way this can happen is to win a trifecta in November. Let's do our best to make this happen.
The Women’s March is the way, if they will. I agree, now is not only time to march in great numbers and peacefully, but to also register voters in the process, and hopefully educate people to vote in their own interests.
Of course, right wing media wouldn’t cover it.
Go Joselyn GO!
We have to register more Democrats to defeat Fascism. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
And once they're registered, get them to vote.
Gnite💕🎶
July 4th is really only Independence Day for white people. Blacks were not considered to be “free” so we shouldn’t be celebrating it at all.
I'm also equally terrified that this year might be the last time we celebrate Juneteenth!
Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day, is celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863, declared freedom for enslaved people in Confederate states.
Whatever they meant by it, I look upon the Declaration of Independence as much more pure in interpretation that All humans (mankind) are created equal.
The flaws came in compromises to get enough states to ratify the Constitution, signed on September 17, 1789, that then had at least had 10 of the proposed 12 bills of rights, ratified and enacted December 15, 1791.
The effective silencing of so much freedom of speech, especially in the House of Representatives and some state legislatures is an unimaginable corruption when the elected representatives seem to have the least right to peaceably present any arguments or responses as in the Tennessee legislature. Florida is far beyond belief in trying to suppress so much free expression, and fire so many of the people they need in education and health fields.
As an American living abroad, I am routinely asked politely, "What (expletive deleted) is going on in American politics?" Lately, I have struggled to come up with a satisfactory answer, as the antics of the far right always seem to fly in the face of reality.
I am curious as to why a colleague's words can be "stricken from the record." HCR's explanation of how history seems to repeat itself is interesting, but why should it even be possible to negate the rhetoric of a duly elected lawmaker? Until the Democrats muster the votes to regain control of Congress, making speeches and registering our discontent on the official record is about all that can be done at this point.
Regarding "stricken from the record:" https://www.congressionalinstitute.org/2020/01/31/how-the-house-promotes-civility-on-the-floor-taking-a-look-at-taking-words-down/
Essentially, actually striking someone's comments over their objections happens only rarely. The body is charged with policing itself when it comes to acceptable rhetoric and conduct, so having the mechanism to strike a colleague's comments, remove debate privileges, censure them, etc. is not only necessary but usually provides enough of a dissuading factor to keep conversation within certain guardrails. Taking up floor time for a vote simply to decide whether you had the correct level of politeness is a surefire way to make one's colleagues even grumpier, so most people will just concede and move on.
There was an excellent “stricken from the record” moment this week in the House Oversight Committee. After Marjorie Taylor Greene insulted Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s eyelashes (of all things), and had those remarks stricken, Crockett clapped back by asking if commenting on someone’s “bleach blonde bad built butch body” was acceptable in Congress. It was so funny, and worth watching. Jasmine Crockett is wonderful, definitely one to follow on X if you’re so inclined.
You can see it here starting around 1:10
https://youtu.be/oxvnBJNV5b8?si=J-vF_4PigK-4bBpH
That was something else. Thanks for the link!
Thanks for the clarification. While I can see how such a mechanism could be useful in rare instances, it seems that the specific incident identified by HCR in today's post is in fact not an appropriate situation in which to apply such censorship.
Thanks, Will. I'm familiar with the courts, but not congress!
Easy-peasy to answer: the lurking fascism kept under wraps has flowered into its dubious splendour fertilized by a psychotic break among a third of the electorate.
Yes, I suspect that the roots of the recent madness have indeed been there all along. HCR's references to history certainly support this notion. As other comments indicate, it is such a waste of resources to have to put up with this nonsense. Just think how much better the country and the world would be without Trump and his cronies.
Interestingly a history of this has just come out called Illiberal Democracy:A History by Steven Hahn.
Thank you for sharing this information. From the snippet on the Amazon listing, it looks like a great book. As HCR's commentary shows, it seems that "illiberal democracy" may indeed be the norm. This is surprising and points to the importance of studying history.
I just listened to an interview with him — I think it was the Constitution Center and I think it may be on You Tube.
I am beginning to wonder whether Stalin was a fascist. Putin seems to be his psycho-scion. Ukrainians I met made one idea clear in mind if not words: Putin goes to sleep dreaming of Peter the Great and wakes up thinking like Stalin.
Tuning into interview at N.Y.C. Public Library.
As a matter of course, any thinking addressing something so subtle and layered as the life and slow metamorphoses of a culture over time, any one book show an aspect of that changing but influential back-drop. This is not to criticise Dr Hahn, but to commend him for taking on so consuming a topic, the complete mastery of which lies beyond the reach of any one discipline (let alone any one man or woman). 🙏💡✌️
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThEf_88FFs4 😉
Over the last few years, on occasion and a mere smattering, I have re-read books from my mis-spent 'ute' -- NO, not 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'🤭-- that shine a light on different aspects of American cultural history (e.g., 'Stride Toward Freedom', 'A Disquisition on Government', 'A Theory of Justice', and a few others). 📖😵💫⚖️
https://www.economist.com/culture/2024/04/12/two-books-shine-a-light-on-the-dark-parts-of-americas-history ✍️
One more recent book is more prescriptive historically. 'The American Soul' by philosopher, Jacob Needleman, presents an up-beat ideal of integrating the darker sides of American history into what many of us cherish most about our democratic republic (with its 'Constitution') to renew the American promise. 😊🤞😇
Reminds me of the writings -- of which I have read excerpts only -- of Richard Hofstader.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hofstadter
There would be another Trump. Trump is not even the biggest threat, simply the most apparent one. What happens when a likeable Trump comes along?
P.S., Thank you, Mark, for a thoughtful response.
This is a truly frightening possibility!
Tell them that the insanity is spreading and will soon be at their door. Sad to say
It is a good point that fascism seems to be spreading around the world. So in some countries the madness that you mention has already arrived. Fortunately, from my vantage point in Japan, the rule of law and a generally liberal, rational, and common-sense form of government still seems to be the bedrock of governance. However, we are not without the occasional rule or regulation that seems to defy logic.
How lucky you are. Can’t help but think of my long-dead father-in-law who never got over his hatred for the Japanese, having suffered so with family losses in the war. How shocked he would be that Japan holds to sanity better than his beloved Texas.
Well, Japan certainly has its share of far-right extremists, but overall most of its citizens seem pretty down to earth. Most Japanese seem to have a fairly positive view of the US, but the significant support that Trump still enjoys and the lingering racism that he represents has challenged that view.
Chump is a threat to the whole world. Bannon spent much of the past three years travelling the world to agitate and stir dissention. The right nuts are always busy.
Good point.
"Stricken from the record" is usually invoked when a witness in a court proceeding says something that is prohibited by rules of evidence; the jury is counselled to disregard what they heard because it is not part of the record. I do not know what the rules of Congress are/were. After rereading the description of the exchange, it sounds more like censorship to me.
Agree! Watching a video clip of the exchange was painful.
I would suggest re-reading George Orwell’s chilling novel 1984. “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength”.
Yes. Joyce went deep into it only last night.
That was rudely awakening to me & my high school friends in 1962 or so. And here we are living it in technicolor! Gives me a rush and a drive to continue talking, writing, praying.
I fell like I read it every night; in the news.
And yeah, I really do think of that book again and again. I think I was 12 when I read it.
Midnight, my first thought upon reading this Letter was “but it’s 2024, not 1984!”
Midnight in Paris - and ignorance is bliss.
“The gist of Sumner’s speech was that a small minority of men were trying to impose their will on the majority of the American people by forcing enslavement on the territory of Kansas, much as enslavers like Butler forced themselves on the women they enslaved.”
And this was well over a century ago…..168 years, to be precise.
We survived slavery THEN and the challenge now is to survive TREASON. No small task but democracy is worth it!
We’ve done it ‘before’ and we can do it again….
But it won’t be easy or pleasant or quick!
Alito will say his wife did it. He has absolutely no control over what flag flys over his beach house. Yes he is confident no one can touch him. He is mocking us, taunting us. Next will be the fox interview. Vote, don’t let them win.
It matters not who votes, it matters who counts the votes, so said Stalin, and Google
Yes, a scary reality Jeri.
Yet we are depending on more votes, which Joe had in 2020. The cretins are stacking the deck better this time. Who will stop them. It’s all in plain sight.
That Alito is a partisan liar, no surprise. What is astonishing is that he is so bad at the lying. He tells Fuchs News 'wife did it and it was because neighbor had a cursing anti-trump sign next to a school bus stop.' Besides the obvious lameness of 'wife did it, I did not know', SCHOOL WAS REMOTE FOR COVID, there were no buses! Next, he knew his beach house flew it for soooo many months it made the Google street pictures, did he really think no one would mention it, forget about it? It's not just that no one can touch him. He could just ignore all criticism and say 'yuck foo' and not respond at all. He feels compelled to respond and that response is sooooo pathetically short sighted, false and lame! What delusional world does this guy live in?
"See, this is what happens when you don't control every aspect of a woman's existence! They will hang your patriotic fabrics all cattywampus and cause you great public embarrassment! Such silly creatures!" -Multiple Supreme Court members, at breakfast today
🤣🤣🤣
Bravo, Will!!
😂👏
VOTE BLUE UP AND DOWN BALLOT WHEREVER IN THE US YOU LIVE. We need a majority in the House and Senate to IMPEACH Alito and Thomas. Both refuse to recuse from hearings on Jan 6 and presidential immunity. Thomas and his wife are clearly involved in the Jan 6 insurrection. Alito and reportedly his spouse have openly supported and celebrated an insurrection because they and Leonard Leo didn’t like the outcome. These partisans are bent on destroying voting rights, women’s rights, unions,civil institutions and Americans’ 1st amendment right to freedom of conscience. Let Alito and Thomas (and Leo) worship who they want and vote for who they want. But they have proven incapable of ruling without bias from the bench about Presidential immunity and the Jan 6 insurrection.
Shame on John Roberts, who has just gone along for the ride to end our constitutional republic.
I'm not precious about much of anything, but I don't screw around with the American flag. It's THE symbol of our country. I was told growing up to never, ever let the flag touch the ground or be defaced or damaged. I don't even like when people try to make a flag that messes with the design.
That a certain high-falutin' member of the Christaliban thinks it's a-ok to misuse the flag is simply a direct visualization of how he, his wife, and those with their mindset think of this country as a whole: theirs to do with as they wish, by divine right.
They can kindly go to the hell he is so certain the witches among us are going to. I'm an American, this is MY country and MY symbols and MY flag, and you are not going to take it from me or ruin it for me, ever. Thanks.
I'm with you, Will. I fly the National Colors 24/7, properly illuminated during the hours of dark, and properly positioned higher than whatever companion flag I am flying with it (Ukraine except for May (COPS* flag; black with single blue stripe honoring fallen police officers; Pride flag in June without the field of stars; and Jolly Roger in September up until "talk like a pirate day".) Been thinking about getting an Earth Day flag for April.
*COPS = Concerns of Police Survivers
My father was a veteran and treated his flag with the utmost respect. It would break his heart to see how it is treated today by people…using it as swag on the back of pickup trucks and left outside a house to disintegrate in the weather.
They just started an election process in the UK.
It'll be finished in about a month.
Just saying
In all fairness, the population of CA+TX is greater than the population of the whole UK.
The election process in Monaco probably just takes a few days. In Vatican City it hardly seems to exist at all most years!
There is this little thing called proportion.
Actually Will, I'd say that is nonsense,
the only reason it takes TWO YEARS in the US is because they want it that way.
It is circus, and it is big business. They need to give themselves plenty of time to collect all the money from the big party donors.
(thus the USA is generally listed on data maps as a dysfunctional democracy).
There is this little thing called showbiz
I literally have a degree in showbiz. (B.A. in Dramatic Arts. Yes, it is currently useless.)
I am aware that top-of-ticket candidates need lots of money and spend a bunch of time getting it. Duh. They need it. It takes an enormous crapton of cash to advertise repeatedly to hundreds of millions of people.
While we are in agreement that getting the obscene amount of money out of politics needs to be a point of priority, let us stop to ponder how all this money would be rendered useless in a flash if common folk suddenly developed the ability to not just remember to vote each time, but also make that vote based on critical thinking and researched policy positions.
Good points Will, yes indeed.
Education is the root problem.
(BTW I'm not saying that what they have in the UK is any fairer.... just older, more efficient and a bit less of a suffocating bore)
Yeah, but that's a complete railroading, too. The UK passed a law to prevent snap elections at the discretion of the ruling party and the Tories have completely ignored it. Mitch McConnell, much? At least it's almost certainly going to be a Tory bloodbath.
Where were the other 212 House Democrats when Jim McGovern was silenced? Why do they let their members get attacked piecemeal instead of joining hands and in one unified voice speaking back? Why not all together hold a press conference and insist McGovern only spoke truth?
Same with Alito and Thomas. Why won't Democrat Congressman of the House and Senate speak in one unified voice and insist that both Justices by definition must recuse themselves from any Jan. 6 cases coming before the Supreme court? 260 unified voices of elected Congress would cause a public stir and put the pressure on these guys for once. What do you all think?
Necessary!
There's a lot of "freedom for me but not for thee" stuff going on these days.
"DeSantis is intensifying his efforts to de-emphasize racism in his state’s public school curriculum by arguing that some Black people benefited from being enslaved..." Check the different ways Ron DeSantis and MAGA Republicans try to whitewash history with this infographic.
https://thedemlabs.org/2023/07/27/maga-republicans-whitewash-black-history/
Sadly, this is all of a piece with a basic part of the fundamentalist Christian mindset, which is that people all have a "natural place." Once you accept such a thing, you must accept various forms of hierarchy as natural, and once you accept that then various forms of strict punishment to enforce that hierarchy become not just necessary but beneficial.
If you believe that no one can be happy if people exist outside of their "place," and another group's "place" tends to be subservient, than it stands to reason that oppression would produce benefits for the oppressed, and some of them would be bound to express gratitude at their oppression once they see the light, right?
This is the problem folks here run into. We wonder "what could these people possibly be thinking?" and conclude that they must not be thinking at all, because telling ourselves that they are simply stupid is less disquieting than the truth: they *are* thinking, is is simply that the foundations of their thoughts are more rotten than you wish to imagine.
Good to hear you weigh in Will….my mind and mouth are agape at the, um, “mental prion disease” affecting our humanity/community/political-governance landscape….a desolate one unless we gather together to support “we the people”—ALL of us.
Well said, Will. I know exactly what they are thinking, and it disgusts the bejeebers out of me.
This is so horrifying to me I can't breathe, thinking about it.
Sixty-eight years ago I pledged to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America" upon receiving my U. S. Navy Commission. Eight years later, I relinquished that Commission. I never rescinded the oath, nor would I. It remains inconceivable to me that officers of our Nation, elected or appointed by due process, would violate their sacred honor as we observe almost daily. Being guilty of a crime properly requires a thorough legal process and findings.
Being guilty of dishonoring the very essence of our Great American Experiment requires no such process; it is self-evident in actions that manifest disrespect for that civic endeavor. Citizens have a Constitutional right to such behavior, as loathsome as it may be. But leaders have a special requirement that may not apply in similar degree to all of us: to exercise disciplined responsibility commensurate with their rights as officers of the State.
We may not, for many reasons, be able to render appropriate punishment for desecrating their oath of office, nor cause an end to their tenure in a position that properly demands exceptional conscience in their public and private expressions. What we can, and must do, is call them out relentlessly for violating the spirit of their responsibilities and end their charade as loyal Americans. That is a function outside of the courts' purview. This is in our laps; no other.
The examples included in Heather's exceptional message here are painful reminders that my flying buddies who died so many decades ago have been seriously dishonored by men and women of highest position for whom those young patriots gave their "last full measure." I do not have the words to express my disdain for those who would treat their heritage so lightly. We must succeed in placing men and women in these positions who understand this and operate accordingly.
What we can, and must do, is call them out relentlessly for violating the spirit of their responsibilities and do what we can to end their charade as loyal Americans. That is a function outside of the courts' purview. This is in our laps; no other.
Al, my oath was similar. Upon my retirement following 28 years of service to community, my "honorably retired law enforcement" status holds that my oath is binding until 2099. I gave up the badge, not my oath. As did you; relinquish the commision but not the oath.
It appears, Ally, that we often reflect similar perspectives. Nice to know. While I have no recollection of examples that may have come out in these threads, I suspect if we disagreed on something, we could both learn something from it--even if we still disagreed. What a notion!
Terrifying. That’s what it all adds up to. We better be prepared to vote like never before, even in the face of MAGAs creating chaos and even violence at polling places.