An incredibly somber and sobering letter today. One that scares me more than any recent one because of lack of media coverage of the Trump/Orban statements and the implications that there is a widening globalized movement of these far right extremists. Trump is moving to ever more extreme language and positions with the support of his minions like Gosar.
An incredibly somber and sobering letter today. One that scares me more than any recent one because of lack of media coverage of the Trump/Orban statements and the implications that there is a widening globalized movement of these far right extremists. Trump is moving to ever more extreme language and positions with the support of his minions like Gosar.
I woke up too early this morning and made the decision to read HCR's letter. That extra hour of sleep that I needed isn't happening! I agree this letter is truly frightening. I simply cannot get my head around how dangerous things really are and how evil has taken hold. We have been seeing this unfold over the years like a train wreck in slow motion but now it is clearly speeding up and I fear it doesn't end until there is a total collapse. :(
Someone who urges action and not gloom is Simon Rosenberg and he has, IMO, a knowledgeable background. If I don’t plant a seed of hope from time to time, I won’t make it. His Substack is called Hopium Chronicles.
MLM, It's so strange that you mention the Hopium Chronicles. Just an hour ago, a friend on FB posted a video, and the person in the video referenced it! Synchronicity -- "God's way of communicating with us", Carl Jung.
In the meantime, Rs have walked out of the Oregon senate for the fifth day because of "partisan" bills, one about abortion and the other, about gun control. They are using the excuse that they are not written simply enough.
My husband and I are were discussing the Texas shooter and the Texas driver and we have concluded, as no doubt many others have, that this will continue.
This week my ex-classmate in Elkhart posted a meme about the border and immigration. I deleted it and then changed my mind and reminded her and that most of us are on stolen land and that real border crisis occurred when Europeans stepped onto the continent. I also told her that until the 19th century most of the continent was controlled by Native Americans and all the awful things interactions with Europeans has brought them. I added that we had helped create many of the problems in the countries south of us. She is quite religious and I am about to tell her the next time that the blood from these types of mass shootings is on her hands and others like her.
Definitely. For those here not familiar with the state constitutional amendment that Michele refers to (and I had forgotten about), here's the gist. Approved by 68% of voters in November 2022, it would bar legislators from re-election if they accrue 10 unexcused absences..
Imagine a state of mind that rationalizes not doing your job because your party doesn't have a majority. I guess these Republicans only believe in democracy when they're in power.
Thanks to MSNBC, I have had a good look at Tucker Carlson. He looks like the fraternity boy that stupid girls dated, a moral vacuum considered “cute.” He is as dangerous as Hitler.
You may want to remind your classmate in Elkhart (Indiana sends guns to Chicago, BTW) that American enterprise has supported every Latin American dictator from Batista (Cuba) to names I cannot remember, and managed the overthrow of a reasonable Chilean government. (The CIA didn’t like him). Sorry I haven’t filled in the blanks, but there are those reading these posts who can
Spent a week in Costa Rica. Learned that Americans had planted non-native species in the strip of jungle that we Americans were enjoying.
I never let one of her nonsense posts go by. I am not surprised that Indiana sends guns to Chicago. Our foreign policy is in part responsible for a lot of the problems we see today. The list is long. This person, btw, is the one who is so thankful she is not as well educated as I am.
I think that what has been happening is that the conservatives have used certain tactics in meddling in the affairs of other countries (from South and Central America to the Middle East, Shock Doctrine is a very good account of this) and is now turning those tactics on their own country. They've been practicing for a long time.
Read Greg Olear's list today in his substack if you wish to add to your arsenal. He pulls no punches, but the list is IMHO, on mark. I find it still so difficult to talk with people who seem to have created their own fantasy world. Thank you to the fake and self serving MSM.
Sorry for the delay. Busy time, and connection issues..... I just assumed it was easy to get to, and discovered that it was not so self evident when I did the search myself. Will be careful to provide links in future.
She THINKS she is religious. So for her and the the other idiots like her, they are ok with lying, slaughter, racism, etc. Because they are certain that God is with them. So they are divinley pardoned.
Barry Goldwater warned us about the evangelicals. And he was spot on.
Native Americans came over the Bering Strait. We all came from Africa. It was inevitable that people moved, spread and took land for hunting a gathering, and then farming and technology. The human species grew and expanded. The issue now is tolerance acceptance and respect, a big order.
If we created problems, we have also solved many inevitable as we all expanded. We have not solved the looming climate crisis issues. But we are not now responsible for the problems that that "global South" or the countries south of us have today. There is just so much guilt that we need absorb. They have agency.
We interfered all over the world, sometimes because of worries about communism, at the behest of corporations like United Fruit, sometimes for raw materials (read Lawrence In Arabia). I know about our origins, both in Africa and for Native Americans, across the Bering Strait. In fact, I just finished a book about Native American genes....sometimes hard to come by because in the past they were treated with no respect. Until the 19th century Native Americans controlled most of the continent. After European came, they pillaged as they did in South America, brought diseases, spread discord among Native American nations, deliberately killed buffalo, destroyed crops, deliberately killed Native Americans, moved them all over the place, sent the children to schools where they tried to destroy language and culture, and defaced sacred places....Mt. Rushmore for example. I am not responsible for what happened, but I am not going to pretend it didn't happen and doesn't have ramifications for problems we see today. Also in terms of climate change, we, in about 500 years or so have managed to destroy quite a bit of the natural world. In the 19th century, a lot of industrialism was founded on cotton slavery. So yes, our history is responsible for a lot of the problems we see today. I also recently read a book on the British Empire and we can also thank them and other colonial powers for many of the problems now as well.
Reading or listening to a podcast series on Lewis & Clark is instructive too. It wasn't always unfriendly and lack of respect. We and they are not all good and all bad. Encounters that spread disease were inevitable. Native Americans were custodians of the land- they had a different "world view" entirely than Europeans. Maybe they thought it was theirs. It's not reasonable to think that they could've continued to control the land. But we did fight and conquer, made treaties too. Might made right back then. We are still working on that one. The good of us try to make it up to them now, and to the descendants of slaves. We try. But again people are not all bad nor all good. I still reject the broad statement that you make about our (meaning this country in particular) history being responsible for a lot of the problems we see today. We have also been remedial and progressive.
The British brought much good along with bad aspect of colonialism: exploitation, the attitude of the "white man's burden" (white supremacy). Pretending this did not happen is not what I am talking about, guilt is.
We have arrived to today. How do we behave, what do we do today? Asking what we owe collectively is valid.
But neither you nor I nor anyone needs to own guilt especially from a selective reading of long years, centuries of collective history ... "500 years or so we have managed to destroy ...." We collectively have produced some pretty good and glorious things as well.
I have said clearly that I do not feel guilty or responsible for what happened in the past. I do feel responsible for doing my best to garden organically for example and buy from local farmers, preferably organic. However, I have Mr. Chemical living across the street who mows his lawn every other day with a big honking riding lawn mower for his postage stamp lawn. I find your explanation of our interaction with Native Americans disgusting. History does matter and people have long memories. My husband has Lakota ancestry and we are in touch with many of his relatives and believe me, they are still suffering and quite aware of our awful history with them. As for the British Empire, ask their former colonies and read Legacy of Violence which is about said empire and it is quite clear that many problems today, the Middle East for example, are a direct result. Yes, there are good people, but not so many among the most powerful who are usually opportunists and often criminals...think Bush and death star families. If we have an economic crisis over the debt and ordinary people suffer, the greeds will be read to swoop in to get whatever they can at a bargain price. As for the climate crisis, it is here. And we will have more floods, droughts, horrific storms, raising sea level, extinction, etc. I am 80 and have no children, so no direct family to face the future. I have ex-students who are not going to have children and some who have only one. The wealthy think their money will save them and some of the religious think there will be a second coming, so why worry....after all, they are among the saved. I do know many good individuals who are doing their best, so I do not view everyone as bad. As for progress, we have made some in social issues which the Rs are going their best to destroy. And yes, I do appreciate music and art, so I see some good there. Btw, there is a new book out about artists and writers who produced great work, but were terrible human beings....a conundrum perhaps for their admirers.
The 60s started out as the 50s had ended - the United States was a suddenly extremely wealthy country and people were mesmerized by the baubles and trinkets of a materialistic society. But there was an implicit bargain - people were expected to marry young and have children early, thus proving the superiority of the West over the USSR which had suddenly become who knew how powerful and were guaranteed to use that power in menacing ways. Hence the Communist witch hunts, the birth of the domino theory, the gradual involvement in the tangle between the Vietnamese and their former colonial masters, the French. It was, for the vast majority of white, home owning climbers into the middle class a comfortable bargain. Unsurprisingly it was a decade dominated by Republicans. Dominated, but in a benign way by the Eisenhower administration which curbed the worst instincts of the richest with a 91% tax level on earnings over $400 000, American society was peaceful, business-oriented and largely unaware of geopolitical events unless they involved the USSR.
But not for Black people. They were becoming more and more distressed at being deliberately left out of the American dream. The Great Migration north had ameliorated some of the worst horrors of their lives, but they still encountered pervasive racism in the large cities of the North and brutality in the South.
Led from the pulpit a slow but fierce struggle engaged Blacks to begin to fight for their rights under a novel method of non-violence. When their struggles were brutally repressed, there were now television cameras to catch the horror of white on Black violence. This drew significant white support and for the first time the comfortable, cold rules of Jim Crow were under siege.
The young did *not* see the world as their parents did. They were intolerant of the excesses of their materialistic parents in their “ticky-tacky houses” and they took to the streets in a more generalized movement against society. Of course they had money to be able to afford to do this, and in many cases their parents supported them. Nonetheless they galvanized a broader movement, inspired partly by the most powerful outburst of popular music in our time. They grew their long, began to take drugs in defiance of the strongest societal mores, and gradually turned their attention towards protesting America’s increased involvement in a war 10 000 miles from, a war in which an uncomfortable number of Americans were dying, a war which eventually produced a military draft.
By the late 1960s America was in the throes of a social movement the force of which the 20th century Tea Party could only dream about. Blacks achieved stunningly sweeping legislation under LBJ who seriously supported their cause. But he was trampled underground by History because he could not end the Vietnam war.
Women looked at the subjugations, both petty and hugely significant which enclosed their lives and they too began to rebel. Pope Paul’s refusal in his 1968 encyclical to give Catholic support to the use of the Pill enraged them, for the Pill could swing open the door to their full emancipation.
By 1973 women had won the right to abortion at the Supreme Court, a breathtaking victory.
Universities were the site of fierce rebellion for their support of the status quo in Vietnam. (Nobody would have dreamed of petitioning for “safe spaces” in those days, except for Chancellors and Presidents.)
The police were under relentless attack and they fought back with studied brutality. Four students were shot to death at Kent State University by the National Guard. Ronald Reagan, Governor of California called for a confrontation against students.
Unsurprisingly the greater part of the 1960s came during Democratic rule, but the height of the struggle largely took place after Nixon became President.
It is an axiom that every action produces an equal and opposite reaction. Significant numbers of Americans felt that America was careening out of control. They longed for an end to turbulence. And slowly, with much groaning in the machinery, the hinge of history began to shift into counter reaction. Louis Powell wrote his famous memo in 1971, fearing that capitalism might be breathing its last. He abjured corporations to take up the challenge and fight to restore an American democracy dominated by capitalism. Once the significance of the 1973 abortion ruling sunk in, wave after wave of Americans organized to fight it. And this fight would be strategic, patient, long term - and successful.
Slowly the steam went out of the movement, although women continued to fight tenaciously for their rights. The oil embargo’s distracted and annoyed Americans. Inflation rose and pocketbook issues took pre-eminence in people’s minds. Hippies aged out. And along came Ronald Reagan promising sunnier times.
Today Heather vividly captured the desperate situation America is in 40 years later. The forces of reaction prevailed and in their time of success are becoming more and more extreme. Bit by bit we are being transported back to the Fifties - as today’s leaders envision them. We sometimes laugh and are sometimes appalled by today’s Republican culture wars. We do so at our own peril. Take them seriously or we may look around one day and find ourselves in an alien world.
Sorry to be so garrulous. I promise to practice shorter comments in future. :)
You blame boomers? I was born in 1961, at the tail end, but my perspective was that it was my generation and those slightly younger that embraced Reaganism to the greatest degree. The 1980s were fueled by young people looking to get rich quick. I think that what really turned the tide is that people became complacent about the power they had won with the labor wars up to the New Deal and bought into the idea that capitalism, especially free market capitalism, necessarily led to peace, prosperity, and democracy and the myth that unions were the biggest drag on the economy. Unions served so many purposes, not only for collective bargaining, but also political power and social integration and interaction. Once the war on unions gained traction, then it was easy to divide people who had previously been united. So much of the country voted for Democrats and progressive politicians in the 60s and 70s and many of those people now vote GOP because they have been divided. The labor economy has turned into a gig economy where it's every person for themselves (and there's more, which is too long to get into, concerning changes in corporate compensation, financial instruments, etc., which put company's decision making into the realm of finance rather than corporate health for the long run). Those voters were all boomers. They didn't decide to vote with their wallets, they fell for the propaganda. Suddenly, the connections that they had with fellow workers, which could happen across racial lines, etc., were destroyed. Companies have also lost the loyalty of employees. The GOP cries of freedom and liberty are nothing but divide and conquer. It's not the boomers I fear at this point, it's the young true believers who never lived under or in the shadow of the New Deal and are willing to throw everyone's lives away.
You put so much together so well in this comment. I’m so glad you raised the point about unions being a force for social engagement.
I am unletsuaded that the Boomers, writ large, are the authors of the mess America was in or even especially large contributors. Many pursued the best ideals of their generation all through their lives. A number of them live on an island off the coast of BC where I live today. Some grew dispirited and turned to life’s realities as the movement reached its end. And of course the vast majority of Boomers were never involved in any social Justice movements.
My point was to draw the connection between the audacious events of the Sixties and the counter-reaction they provoked. That movement has taken fully half a century to reach its ugly apotheosis. It will be very difficult for the arc of American history to start bending back decisively to a more generous, honest and equal society.
Orban’s Hungary aspires to be America’s 50s - on steroids.
So true. It is a huge aspect. I remember the Willie Horton ads in the 1988 election. Lee Atwater is the evil mind at the base of this strategy. Was Nixon publicly racist?
Your point that Boomers don’t get credit for what they did in the flame of youth is one I have been annoyed about for some time. People view us contemptuously, mockingly even. Yet, a group of us took on the power of the State to reach for a new society.
Thank you for joining my Substack. It is a compliment I appreciate, but am not sure I deserve. :)
Eric, Stephen Kinzer’s book “The Brothers: John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles and Their Secret World War” will add fuel to your tirade! Never having known how and why the pair were responsible for leading US astray, as I read am learning real eye-openers.
We are in a civil war of sorts and Texas had the latest casualties. We need to do more than vote this right extremist movement into the dustbin. A million mom March on Washington maybe? The DOJ doing its job perhaps? ( all investigation , no indictments of the high political figures) Everyday without indictments is a day of growing dangers. E. Jean Caroll is a warrior not just a plaintiff, others need to follow her example.
I share your feelings about this, it saddens me greatly as well. My head doesn't want to fully comprehend how bad it is and how much this evil has taken root. I still believe that we have hope and that we can win.
When someone who sought, but failed, to overthrow the U.S. government is still the choice of a great many of Americans, we all know that there is a huge cancer on the body politic. We can't ignore it. The question, can we mobilize quickly enough and in sufficient numbers to preserve our democracy? On the other note, demand side economics works, supply side doesn't, for the obvious reason - no one is going to produce more of anything if there isn't anyone with money to buy it.
And they are growing the Fear that is fertile ground for their brainwashing.
Biden is doing an amazing, almost superhuman, job at strengthening our democracy in ways that he has the power to, but what is the answer to the violent terrorists they have thrown at us? And most especially the blaring of lies by media sources?
I don't know the answer. Our school systems have failed in many instances by not teaching us how to think critically. We are overcome with confirmation bias in our thinking. We can't separate fact from fiction. Thomas Frank, in his book, "What's the Matter with Kansas" showed how the gullible are deceived with the propagation of wedge issues: abortion, immigration, homophobia and misogyny.
I will not put that burden on our public school system. The burden should fall on society and our lack of support and nurturing for parents of young children. We’re all in this together. Too many just want to raise their own kids to be rich with money stashed away and accumulating material possessions instead of making sure all children are given what they need when they are at their youngest and most vulnerable. Anyone can be a Big Brother or Sister and share our awe and curiosity.
One of the problems in schools is the standardized test which teaches only how to take the test and pass it. I did teach critical thinking in my classes. One of my ex-students and her mother took me out for hight tea for my 80th this week. One of the things that the student remembered was that she would ask me a question and I would answer that she was able to find the answer herself. I did my best to show students how to do research and assess bias, so they knew how to go about it. She happens to be a park ranger and does a wonderful job teaching kids about nature.
I had one class in high school that today I believe that included critical thinking. She told us about The American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU. I believe this was an Advance Speech and Debate class. That was so many years ago....62 in fact. That is all I remember about the class. She was way beyond her time and a great teacher!
I would say, that if there is one single thing that our schools need to do, it is to teach our children how to think logically, rationally, competently.
I watched Firing Line with Margaret Hoover this weekend. Her guest was Richard Dreyfuss, who has founded an organization whose mission is to get civics classes back in schools starting in the fourth grade and continuing through high school. The elimination of those courses has cost society greatly. It will take generations to rebuild that crucial base of knowledge.
See my post above and also we have seen many a discussion about the far right trying to impose doctrine instead of education. They don't want people to be able to think critically.
My MAGA brother sat pontificating about the homeless while not asking his psychiatrist sister or his public policy and economics son a single question.
Christy, we don't give up ideals that promote a better country....a better place for everyone to live and a place for everyone to be able to contribute, we don't give into violence, we don't promote lies. We protect the lives and care for everyone as much as is possible.
At the same time we must make our citizens aware of voices promoting hatred and violence.....ideas that separate us and the ways in which they may be used to destroy our freedoms, our nation, even their own desires to live out their faith. Our houses of worship are being wrongfully used for the spreading of propaganda. In the Christian faith, we are supposed to confront hatred and self-centeredness. Coming to faith is not a one time thing...it is an everyday confrontation with self in the face of Christ: Savior, Lord.....an example of love and healing towards everyone.....no forcible acceptance required. This expression of "living the faith" belongs to my being....I do not attend worship to be told what to believe or who to vote for. I also believe each one has the right to worship as one may choose or NOT.
The bottom line is that we live in a country that is free....but as the saying goes,
"Freedom is Not Free!" We must counter lies with truth and we cannot stop and we must work to do this peacefully and with the love, clarity, reason, steadiness and the respect we could receive. The truth will"out".....but it is not easy to confront old ideologies.....just as our amazing people of color or LGBTQ citizens can speak to.
In sharing the above, I want to praise and promote President Joe Biden, Jill Biden, our Vice President and the MANY amazing staff and those working everyday to confront danger towards our country, to build up fledgling democracies , to encourage and strengthen freedom throughout the world, even have found ways to work with those some call "our enemies", etc, etc. The work of freedom goes on....call Joe "old" if you like but no one can dispute the good that has come from his administration, in spite of struggles, storms, and innumerable challenges...he and his administration have met them....he does not center on himself but on his job as President of the USA....for all of us!!!! Thank you JOE!!!! May GOD continue to strengthen you.....and protect our troops!
Religion has been used thruout our history to foment hate and violence. I’m all about the golden rule and if not loving at least tolerating each other, but I believe we need a come to Jesus moment about figuring out what we can do about the use of religion to divide us.
Christianity has been filled with violence..... Christ Himself was beaten to the bone... and falsely.accused by the Pharasees....before the Roman leaders.....His disciples left Him except for John and His mother who remained at the foot of the cross. (in my faith, He took upon Himself what I deserved) and even at the cross, there were criminals being crucified...even there, one belirved and one had the freedom, not to believe..... In sharing this, I agree that the Christian faith has been used and misused.
Hitler's regeme had many Jews and Christians killed....Hitler wanted no competion regarding allegiance. This is what I see happening today. Those who are true believers, I pray will wake up but only they can make the choice. If they would only examine the character between Biden and Trump they could see the difference.....but they must be willng to stand alone....to be rejected by "friends".
I agree 100%. So way do most of the media focus on Joe's age rather than his accomplishments. With all that this administration has accomplished I can't understand the low poll numbers. I have to contribute this to, as you said, the lack of the ability for critical thinking.
Rex, they focus on his age because that is all they can focus on.....he is a great guy and his team is accomplishing so much good that there is not enough space to print all of it ...here in the US and throughout the world and President Biden would be the first to say, he and the Democratic leaders are not done yet!!! and isn't H. Jefferies a Great! addition!
I’ve been wondering if many big businesses now consider American consumers an unimportant profit source. With the rising middle class in some nations (eg China), businesses have greener pastures available. Ford paid his workers enough to buy Ford cars. These days?
The comments are positively nutty. Based on those comments, our massive deficit is unrelated to the constant tax cutting on rich white folks and Corporations that Republicans have sponsored for 43 years.
BUT? If we only had zero spending on poor folks all would be well.
Unbelievable.
We waste $20 trillion dollars on two pointless wars, cut taxes every time we get a chance, bail out banks run by white male criminal incompetents, make sure the military contractors can give 12% raises to their all white employee workforce, and??
let us not forget Reagan's $1 Trillion dollar toss into the trash can of STAR WARS, BUT.......????
The only thing driving our massive deficits is???
---> Poor folks on food stamps and if we JUST make them poorer by cutting off all that help, well, all will be well. Never mind that we forced their ancestors onto slave ships, whipped them into submission and kept them starving for 250 years, then, "freed" them into Angola Prison down in LA where they could do "work study".
Honestly, it is a mess here. Really. I have never read a more nutty set of comments in my life.
It is almost like some movie I watched 30 years ago about Zombies taking over during the day.
Mike S: My mind is in such a jumbled state, I gladly will read the NYT article...perhaps it will cushion my jump to reality or send me deeper into this country abyss. Have great respect for anyone who can use history to help understand current events. Thank you for your comments.
Probably some people the WSJ picked up from Foxxed News. The WSJ still pubishes some credible stories, but I guess we can't hold them responsible for the comments.
This is the basic question I ask: "How poor do we want our poor people to be?"
Every society has always had them, and Jesus said they will always be with us.
So how poor do we want them? Should they be Norway poor or India poor?
Conservatives, as you say, want to make our poor poorer, and then they complain about homeless encampments, drugs, street trash, crime and feeling unsafe.
I agree...I NEVER read the comments section of the WaPo or Times any more. Entirely too depressing. Hard to believe there the people who write such nonsense read (even digitally) newspapers. Actually it's hard to believe they can read, period; they spout such stupidity and are evidently unable to understand that what they are supporting will only end with them losing the very freedoms they claim to treasure.
Mike S - "I subscribe to the WSJ and the NY Times and today I made the mistake of reading the comments on one the Opinion columns:"
I do not subscribe to the WSJ and am "firewalled out." However, for some reason that I don't fully understand, if I do a Google search for "Federal Spending Soars, Revenue Falls," I am able to get full access to the article through the RealClearPolitics listing with the same Link:
"firewalled out" probably means they detected some writing of yours that made sense. Then, immediately blocked you from ever doing something so dastardly again!
Mike S - "firewalled out" probably means they detected some writing of yours that made sense. Then, immediately blocked you from ever doing something so dastardly again!
<Chuckle> Yes, I meant "Paywalled." Subscribing would have gotten me past it.
Besides how could anyone take offense at what I ever have written. LOL
It’s the Wall Street Journal - an editorial completely in line with what one would expect from that publication. Are their journalists welcome at CPAC in Budapest? I don’t know but wouldn’t be surprised at all. This publication, like Fox News, is one of the Murdoch controlled media outlets as part of News Corp.
Wouldn't it be nice to have the fruit of the Strategic Defense Initiative in place to defend the U.S. against nuclear missiles, considering Russian nuclear Sabre rattling? North Korea? China?
It waa scrapped by Clinton and converted to a theatre-level Defense system. We now have the Patriot Defense system helping Ukraine now, and defending Isrsel against missile barrages from Hamas and Hezbolla. We have various constellations of satellites providing us with early weather and wildfire warning, never mind monitoring the environment and providing intelligence on adversaries' activities.
Maybe it was too ambitious? I don't think so. But obviously you do. I worry about "all or nothing" policies on either side. We need a strong defense, and we need a strong social safety net.
First, our whole strategy was geared toward funding military contractors instead of peace and safety. It was not geared toward "protecting" us.
However, thank you for your observations and reminding me of the word definition utilized: Strategic Defense System.
I think that a better approach to world peace in 1945 forward would have been: Instead of inventing, then using nuclear weapons on a civilian population in Japan (twice), if the United States had, upon realizing that someday every rogue country on earth (like us for example) would have access to annihilation of all species except, perhaps, roaches well....
IF we had STOPPED at the end of WW II, and NOT dropped two of the nuke weapons on a civilian population since we KNEW we could blockade Japan for two weeks and have it all over....BUT we wanted to show how powerful we were....
IF we had then, in the aftermath of winning a conventional war, pushed for nuclear non-development (not nuclear non-proliferation but elimination).....and had STOPPED our own development instead of producing 73,000 nuclear weapons since the first one....
THEN, maybe the world would look a lot different today.
NOW? We don't need SDI because no defense system is perfect and once a few nukes get through them it does not matter that 80% were destroyed.
The whole strategy was geared toward funding military contractors instead of peace and safety.
Flawed from the very start. BUT, good news, military contractors made out like bandits on Gunsmoke.
I understand that you wish we'd not gone down the path of using nuclear bombs on Japan. That's quite rational. But we did, and we found ourselves in a crazy MAD arms race. That arms race is now a part of our foreign policy whether it's a good thing or not. (I personally know it's not, in case you're wondering).
Given that we are in an arms race, is it better to build more weapons or to make them ineffective?
I, for one, am grateful that our missile defense systems can disrupt the flight of hypersonic drones. I am grateful that NATO has the option of a measured response in the event of a hypothetical Russian nuclear attack.
And it does matter if 80% of missiles are destroyed before they hit their target One, humanity will have a chance to survive and two, the aggressor might think twice before trying to guess which missiles will get through.
So, it's not a pretty picture. I grant you that. But it's a realistic one.
If we were at a bar, I suspect that some of us would have to hand over our keys & get taken home by a designated driver or taxi as we tried to dull the impact of this news. I'd go to my local bar but it's 2 : 22 a.m.
Rachael Maddow, last night, talked about the white nationalist event trump is holding at one of his Florida properties this week. His son Eric and Eric’s wife have been spouting white nationalist hate at speaking events around the country. This is what the Republican Party is and will only get worse. Very frightening times for our democracy.
I gave the LFAA a ❤️ but I really mean 🤮😱. TFG madman is trying to stir up his magats against the state AGs who brought cases against him. Time for Federal Justice to get going —now. Loud and clear. The bizarro staged a coup against his own government and VP and he gets to go to Ireland and play golf?! And we let him back in!! ITS NOT POLITICAL to shut him up. It’s the law.
Such a contrast: yesterday it was a sweet and beautiful letter, and now it's such a hard-hitting, down-to-earth letter. I absolutely agree with you, it scares me just as much as the previous letters, but it sounds sad. Regardless, I hope we can get out of this sad story.
Robert Hubbell today speaks to our necessary response for those interested in not saving, but practicing and believing in democracy. It is, after all, what is here. Not what is being suggested to replace it. I go with the strength of democracy.
There was more on Rachel (MSNBC) last night that is happening in Florida with the extremists for tfg. You may be able to watch the clip. That was really scary last night! I guess we shouldn't be surprised.
An incredibly somber and sobering letter today. One that scares me more than any recent one because of lack of media coverage of the Trump/Orban statements and the implications that there is a widening globalized movement of these far right extremists. Trump is moving to ever more extreme language and positions with the support of his minions like Gosar.
I woke up too early this morning and made the decision to read HCR's letter. That extra hour of sleep that I needed isn't happening! I agree this letter is truly frightening. I simply cannot get my head around how dangerous things really are and how evil has taken hold. We have been seeing this unfold over the years like a train wreck in slow motion but now it is clearly speeding up and I fear it doesn't end until there is a total collapse. :(
Someone who urges action and not gloom is Simon Rosenberg and he has, IMO, a knowledgeable background. If I don’t plant a seed of hope from time to time, I won’t make it. His Substack is called Hopium Chronicles.
At 1 o'clock ET today we can all watch some good news.
"A New Version of"With Democrats Things Get Better" Hits This Tuesday" from Simon Rosenberg.
https://simonwdc.substack.com/p/a-new-version-ofwith-democrats-things?r=a4wu5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Thank you for this link to Hope-ium, Marrtyrita! I just subscribed, because I desperately need to hear words of hope.
MLM, It's so strange that you mention the Hopium Chronicles. Just an hour ago, a friend on FB posted a video, and the person in the video referenced it! Synchronicity -- "God's way of communicating with us", Carl Jung.
Oh I sure hope God’s involved!!
In the meantime, Rs have walked out of the Oregon senate for the fifth day because of "partisan" bills, one about abortion and the other, about gun control. They are using the excuse that they are not written simply enough.
My husband and I are were discussing the Texas shooter and the Texas driver and we have concluded, as no doubt many others have, that this will continue.
This week my ex-classmate in Elkhart posted a meme about the border and immigration. I deleted it and then changed my mind and reminded her and that most of us are on stolen land and that real border crisis occurred when Europeans stepped onto the continent. I also told her that until the 19th century most of the continent was controlled by Native Americans and all the awful things interactions with Europeans has brought them. I added that we had helped create many of the problems in the countries south of us. She is quite religious and I am about to tell her the next time that the blood from these types of mass shootings is on her hands and others like her.
Make that six days in a row. They should be expelled and lose pay for failing to do their jobs.
I am going to be interested in seeing what happens with the measure the voters passed.
Definitely. For those here not familiar with the state constitutional amendment that Michele refers to (and I had forgotten about), here's the gist. Approved by 68% of voters in November 2022, it would bar legislators from re-election if they accrue 10 unexcused absences..
Imagine a state of mind that rationalizes not doing your job because your party doesn't have a majority. I guess these Republicans only believe in democracy when they're in power.
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/05/08/oregon-republican-lawmakers-walkout-measure-113-2022-election/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=First%20Look%20May%209%202023&utm_content=First%20Look%20May%209%202023+CID_c6ebbe40240d4302be28d13479e60086&utm_source=firstlook&utm_term=Learn%20more
Michele, tell her now. She needs to hear it.
Thanks to MSNBC, I have had a good look at Tucker Carlson. He looks like the fraternity boy that stupid girls dated, a moral vacuum considered “cute.” He is as dangerous as Hitler.
You may want to remind your classmate in Elkhart (Indiana sends guns to Chicago, BTW) that American enterprise has supported every Latin American dictator from Batista (Cuba) to names I cannot remember, and managed the overthrow of a reasonable Chilean government. (The CIA didn’t like him). Sorry I haven’t filled in the blanks, but there are those reading these posts who can
Spent a week in Costa Rica. Learned that Americans had planted non-native species in the strip of jungle that we Americans were enjoying.
I never let one of her nonsense posts go by. I am not surprised that Indiana sends guns to Chicago. Our foreign policy is in part responsible for a lot of the problems we see today. The list is long. This person, btw, is the one who is so thankful she is not as well educated as I am.
I think that what has been happening is that the conservatives have used certain tactics in meddling in the affairs of other countries (from South and Central America to the Middle East, Shock Doctrine is a very good account of this) and is now turning those tactics on their own country. They've been practicing for a long time.
Read Greg Olear's list today in his substack if you wish to add to your arsenal. He pulls no punches, but the list is IMHO, on mark. I find it still so difficult to talk with people who seem to have created their own fantasy world. Thank you to the fake and self serving MSM.
link?
Just looked as his list. Yes, on the mark.
Thanks for the heads up.
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/the-gopyramid-a-hierarchy-of-republican
Sorry for the delay. Busy time, and connection issues..... I just assumed it was easy to get to, and discovered that it was not so self evident when I did the search myself. Will be careful to provide links in future.
She THINKS she is religious. So for her and the the other idiots like her, they are ok with lying, slaughter, racism, etc. Because they are certain that God is with them. So they are divinley pardoned.
Barry Goldwater warned us about the evangelicals. And he was spot on.
With god on your side your vision is blessed and, as the venerable tfg aide, steven miller, might put it, “not to be questioned!”
Or the "venerables" on the Supreme court. We don't need no stinkin' regulations....
Native Americans came over the Bering Strait. We all came from Africa. It was inevitable that people moved, spread and took land for hunting a gathering, and then farming and technology. The human species grew and expanded. The issue now is tolerance acceptance and respect, a big order.
If we created problems, we have also solved many inevitable as we all expanded. We have not solved the looming climate crisis issues. But we are not now responsible for the problems that that "global South" or the countries south of us have today. There is just so much guilt that we need absorb. They have agency.
We interfered all over the world, sometimes because of worries about communism, at the behest of corporations like United Fruit, sometimes for raw materials (read Lawrence In Arabia). I know about our origins, both in Africa and for Native Americans, across the Bering Strait. In fact, I just finished a book about Native American genes....sometimes hard to come by because in the past they were treated with no respect. Until the 19th century Native Americans controlled most of the continent. After European came, they pillaged as they did in South America, brought diseases, spread discord among Native American nations, deliberately killed buffalo, destroyed crops, deliberately killed Native Americans, moved them all over the place, sent the children to schools where they tried to destroy language and culture, and defaced sacred places....Mt. Rushmore for example. I am not responsible for what happened, but I am not going to pretend it didn't happen and doesn't have ramifications for problems we see today. Also in terms of climate change, we, in about 500 years or so have managed to destroy quite a bit of the natural world. In the 19th century, a lot of industrialism was founded on cotton slavery. So yes, our history is responsible for a lot of the problems we see today. I also recently read a book on the British Empire and we can also thank them and other colonial powers for many of the problems now as well.
Reading or listening to a podcast series on Lewis & Clark is instructive too. It wasn't always unfriendly and lack of respect. We and they are not all good and all bad. Encounters that spread disease were inevitable. Native Americans were custodians of the land- they had a different "world view" entirely than Europeans. Maybe they thought it was theirs. It's not reasonable to think that they could've continued to control the land. But we did fight and conquer, made treaties too. Might made right back then. We are still working on that one. The good of us try to make it up to them now, and to the descendants of slaves. We try. But again people are not all bad nor all good. I still reject the broad statement that you make about our (meaning this country in particular) history being responsible for a lot of the problems we see today. We have also been remedial and progressive.
The British brought much good along with bad aspect of colonialism: exploitation, the attitude of the "white man's burden" (white supremacy). Pretending this did not happen is not what I am talking about, guilt is.
We have arrived to today. How do we behave, what do we do today? Asking what we owe collectively is valid.
But neither you nor I nor anyone needs to own guilt especially from a selective reading of long years, centuries of collective history ... "500 years or so we have managed to destroy ...." We collectively have produced some pretty good and glorious things as well.
I have said clearly that I do not feel guilty or responsible for what happened in the past. I do feel responsible for doing my best to garden organically for example and buy from local farmers, preferably organic. However, I have Mr. Chemical living across the street who mows his lawn every other day with a big honking riding lawn mower for his postage stamp lawn. I find your explanation of our interaction with Native Americans disgusting. History does matter and people have long memories. My husband has Lakota ancestry and we are in touch with many of his relatives and believe me, they are still suffering and quite aware of our awful history with them. As for the British Empire, ask their former colonies and read Legacy of Violence which is about said empire and it is quite clear that many problems today, the Middle East for example, are a direct result. Yes, there are good people, but not so many among the most powerful who are usually opportunists and often criminals...think Bush and death star families. If we have an economic crisis over the debt and ordinary people suffer, the greeds will be read to swoop in to get whatever they can at a bargain price. As for the climate crisis, it is here. And we will have more floods, droughts, horrific storms, raising sea level, extinction, etc. I am 80 and have no children, so no direct family to face the future. I have ex-students who are not going to have children and some who have only one. The wealthy think their money will save them and some of the religious think there will be a second coming, so why worry....after all, they are among the saved. I do know many good individuals who are doing their best, so I do not view everyone as bad. As for progress, we have made some in social issues which the Rs are going their best to destroy. And yes, I do appreciate music and art, so I see some good there. Btw, there is a new book out about artists and writers who produced great work, but were terrible human beings....a conundrum perhaps for their admirers.
The Boomers did it.
The 60s started out as the 50s had ended - the United States was a suddenly extremely wealthy country and people were mesmerized by the baubles and trinkets of a materialistic society. But there was an implicit bargain - people were expected to marry young and have children early, thus proving the superiority of the West over the USSR which had suddenly become who knew how powerful and were guaranteed to use that power in menacing ways. Hence the Communist witch hunts, the birth of the domino theory, the gradual involvement in the tangle between the Vietnamese and their former colonial masters, the French. It was, for the vast majority of white, home owning climbers into the middle class a comfortable bargain. Unsurprisingly it was a decade dominated by Republicans. Dominated, but in a benign way by the Eisenhower administration which curbed the worst instincts of the richest with a 91% tax level on earnings over $400 000, American society was peaceful, business-oriented and largely unaware of geopolitical events unless they involved the USSR.
But not for Black people. They were becoming more and more distressed at being deliberately left out of the American dream. The Great Migration north had ameliorated some of the worst horrors of their lives, but they still encountered pervasive racism in the large cities of the North and brutality in the South.
Led from the pulpit a slow but fierce struggle engaged Blacks to begin to fight for their rights under a novel method of non-violence. When their struggles were brutally repressed, there were now television cameras to catch the horror of white on Black violence. This drew significant white support and for the first time the comfortable, cold rules of Jim Crow were under siege.
The young did *not* see the world as their parents did. They were intolerant of the excesses of their materialistic parents in their “ticky-tacky houses” and they took to the streets in a more generalized movement against society. Of course they had money to be able to afford to do this, and in many cases their parents supported them. Nonetheless they galvanized a broader movement, inspired partly by the most powerful outburst of popular music in our time. They grew their long, began to take drugs in defiance of the strongest societal mores, and gradually turned their attention towards protesting America’s increased involvement in a war 10 000 miles from, a war in which an uncomfortable number of Americans were dying, a war which eventually produced a military draft.
By the late 1960s America was in the throes of a social movement the force of which the 20th century Tea Party could only dream about. Blacks achieved stunningly sweeping legislation under LBJ who seriously supported their cause. But he was trampled underground by History because he could not end the Vietnam war.
Women looked at the subjugations, both petty and hugely significant which enclosed their lives and they too began to rebel. Pope Paul’s refusal in his 1968 encyclical to give Catholic support to the use of the Pill enraged them, for the Pill could swing open the door to their full emancipation.
By 1973 women had won the right to abortion at the Supreme Court, a breathtaking victory.
Universities were the site of fierce rebellion for their support of the status quo in Vietnam. (Nobody would have dreamed of petitioning for “safe spaces” in those days, except for Chancellors and Presidents.)
The police were under relentless attack and they fought back with studied brutality. Four students were shot to death at Kent State University by the National Guard. Ronald Reagan, Governor of California called for a confrontation against students.
Unsurprisingly the greater part of the 1960s came during Democratic rule, but the height of the struggle largely took place after Nixon became President.
It is an axiom that every action produces an equal and opposite reaction. Significant numbers of Americans felt that America was careening out of control. They longed for an end to turbulence. And slowly, with much groaning in the machinery, the hinge of history began to shift into counter reaction. Louis Powell wrote his famous memo in 1971, fearing that capitalism might be breathing its last. He abjured corporations to take up the challenge and fight to restore an American democracy dominated by capitalism. Once the significance of the 1973 abortion ruling sunk in, wave after wave of Americans organized to fight it. And this fight would be strategic, patient, long term - and successful.
Slowly the steam went out of the movement, although women continued to fight tenaciously for their rights. The oil embargo’s distracted and annoyed Americans. Inflation rose and pocketbook issues took pre-eminence in people’s minds. Hippies aged out. And along came Ronald Reagan promising sunnier times.
Today Heather vividly captured the desperate situation America is in 40 years later. The forces of reaction prevailed and in their time of success are becoming more and more extreme. Bit by bit we are being transported back to the Fifties - as today’s leaders envision them. We sometimes laugh and are sometimes appalled by today’s Republican culture wars. We do so at our own peril. Take them seriously or we may look around one day and find ourselves in an alien world.
Sorry to be so garrulous. I promise to practice shorter comments in future. :)
You blame boomers? I was born in 1961, at the tail end, but my perspective was that it was my generation and those slightly younger that embraced Reaganism to the greatest degree. The 1980s were fueled by young people looking to get rich quick. I think that what really turned the tide is that people became complacent about the power they had won with the labor wars up to the New Deal and bought into the idea that capitalism, especially free market capitalism, necessarily led to peace, prosperity, and democracy and the myth that unions were the biggest drag on the economy. Unions served so many purposes, not only for collective bargaining, but also political power and social integration and interaction. Once the war on unions gained traction, then it was easy to divide people who had previously been united. So much of the country voted for Democrats and progressive politicians in the 60s and 70s and many of those people now vote GOP because they have been divided. The labor economy has turned into a gig economy where it's every person for themselves (and there's more, which is too long to get into, concerning changes in corporate compensation, financial instruments, etc., which put company's decision making into the realm of finance rather than corporate health for the long run). Those voters were all boomers. They didn't decide to vote with their wallets, they fell for the propaganda. Suddenly, the connections that they had with fellow workers, which could happen across racial lines, etc., were destroyed. Companies have also lost the loyalty of employees. The GOP cries of freedom and liberty are nothing but divide and conquer. It's not the boomers I fear at this point, it's the young true believers who never lived under or in the shadow of the New Deal and are willing to throw everyone's lives away.
You put so much together so well in this comment. I’m so glad you raised the point about unions being a force for social engagement.
I am unletsuaded that the Boomers, writ large, are the authors of the mess America was in or even especially large contributors. Many pursued the best ideals of their generation all through their lives. A number of them live on an island off the coast of BC where I live today. Some grew dispirited and turned to life’s realities as the movement reached its end. And of course the vast majority of Boomers were never involved in any social Justice movements.
My point was to draw the connection between the audacious events of the Sixties and the counter-reaction they provoked. That movement has taken fully half a century to reach its ugly apotheosis. It will be very difficult for the arc of American history to start bending back decisively to a more generous, honest and equal society.
Orban’s Hungary aspires to be America’s 50s - on steroids.
One important aspect that you missed is the switch from Democrats to Republicans in the use of racism as a campaign strategy.
Racism and other forms of hate have become dominant in Republican strategy beginning with Nixon.
So true. It is a huge aspect. I remember the Willie Horton ads in the 1988 election. Lee Atwater is the evil mind at the base of this strategy. Was Nixon publicly racist?
Depends on how you read between the lines and/or interpret dog whistles.
Apparently he was really nasty on the tapes, but is that public?
Well the tape of he and Reagan enjoying a racist joke is clearly public.
Eric, you added another very important part of OUR history - the one Boomers don’t get credit nearly enough for MY THANKS To You!
Your point that Boomers don’t get credit for what they did in the flame of youth is one I have been annoyed about for some time. People view us contemptuously, mockingly even. Yet, a group of us took on the power of the State to reach for a new society.
Thank you for joining my Substack. It is a compliment I appreciate, but am not sure I deserve. :)
Eric, Stephen Kinzer’s book “The Brothers: John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles and Their Secret World War” will add fuel to your tirade! Never having known how and why the pair were responsible for leading US astray, as I read am learning real eye-openers.
Thank you Virginia. I know of the Dulles, but not nearly enough.
Eric, a minor point: abjure - solemnly renounce (a belief, cause, or claim)
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=abjure
Thanks J. :)
I meant ‘adjure’. Always get those two words crossways.
Garrulous is as garrulous does, Eric!
Let your fine words flow!
Fright is a flight or fight response. So, which will it be?
FIGHT.
We are in a civil war of sorts and Texas had the latest casualties. We need to do more than vote this right extremist movement into the dustbin. A million mom March on Washington maybe? The DOJ doing its job perhaps? ( all investigation , no indictments of the high political figures) Everyday without indictments is a day of growing dangers. E. Jean Caroll is a warrior not just a plaintiff, others need to follow her example.
I share your feelings about this, it saddens me greatly as well. My head doesn't want to fully comprehend how bad it is and how much this evil has taken root. I still believe that we have hope and that we can win.
When someone who sought, but failed, to overthrow the U.S. government is still the choice of a great many of Americans, we all know that there is a huge cancer on the body politic. We can't ignore it. The question, can we mobilize quickly enough and in sufficient numbers to preserve our democracy? On the other note, demand side economics works, supply side doesn't, for the obvious reason - no one is going to produce more of anything if there isn't anyone with money to buy it.
And they are growing the Fear that is fertile ground for their brainwashing.
Biden is doing an amazing, almost superhuman, job at strengthening our democracy in ways that he has the power to, but what is the answer to the violent terrorists they have thrown at us? And most especially the blaring of lies by media sources?
I don't know the answer. Our school systems have failed in many instances by not teaching us how to think critically. We are overcome with confirmation bias in our thinking. We can't separate fact from fiction. Thomas Frank, in his book, "What's the Matter with Kansas" showed how the gullible are deceived with the propagation of wedge issues: abortion, immigration, homophobia and misogyny.
I will not put that burden on our public school system. The burden should fall on society and our lack of support and nurturing for parents of young children. We’re all in this together. Too many just want to raise their own kids to be rich with money stashed away and accumulating material possessions instead of making sure all children are given what they need when they are at their youngest and most vulnerable. Anyone can be a Big Brother or Sister and share our awe and curiosity.
One of the problems in schools is the standardized test which teaches only how to take the test and pass it. I did teach critical thinking in my classes. One of my ex-students and her mother took me out for hight tea for my 80th this week. One of the things that the student remembered was that she would ask me a question and I would answer that she was able to find the answer herself. I did my best to show students how to do research and assess bias, so they knew how to go about it. She happens to be a park ranger and does a wonderful job teaching kids about nature.
I had one class in high school that today I believe that included critical thinking. She told us about The American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU. I believe this was an Advance Speech and Debate class. That was so many years ago....62 in fact. That is all I remember about the class. She was way beyond her time and a great teacher!
I would say, that if there is one single thing that our schools need to do, it is to teach our children how to think logically, rationally, competently.
I watched Firing Line with Margaret Hoover this weekend. Her guest was Richard Dreyfuss, who has founded an organization whose mission is to get civics classes back in schools starting in the fourth grade and continuing through high school. The elimination of those courses has cost society greatly. It will take generations to rebuild that crucial base of knowledge.
See my post above and also we have seen many a discussion about the far right trying to impose doctrine instead of education. They don't want people to be able to think critically.
Schools that I have had connections with in my 67 years have all done that and more
Republican controlled states....like Indiana... will not let that happen!
Rich with money, poor in curiosity.
My MAGA brother sat pontificating about the homeless while not asking his psychiatrist sister or his public policy and economics son a single question.
Questions, or even the acknowledgement of another person, are for the weak. /s
The truth will burst his bubble
A Nation in Peril (Reagan)was the study that gave rise to "standards based teaching". And the public bought in to it.
They spend more time on learning how to code than on civics in the schools, of that I am sure. Rethinking is needed badly.
Christy, we don't give up ideals that promote a better country....a better place for everyone to live and a place for everyone to be able to contribute, we don't give into violence, we don't promote lies. We protect the lives and care for everyone as much as is possible.
At the same time we must make our citizens aware of voices promoting hatred and violence.....ideas that separate us and the ways in which they may be used to destroy our freedoms, our nation, even their own desires to live out their faith. Our houses of worship are being wrongfully used for the spreading of propaganda. In the Christian faith, we are supposed to confront hatred and self-centeredness. Coming to faith is not a one time thing...it is an everyday confrontation with self in the face of Christ: Savior, Lord.....an example of love and healing towards everyone.....no forcible acceptance required. This expression of "living the faith" belongs to my being....I do not attend worship to be told what to believe or who to vote for. I also believe each one has the right to worship as one may choose or NOT.
The bottom line is that we live in a country that is free....but as the saying goes,
"Freedom is Not Free!" We must counter lies with truth and we cannot stop and we must work to do this peacefully and with the love, clarity, reason, steadiness and the respect we could receive. The truth will"out".....but it is not easy to confront old ideologies.....just as our amazing people of color or LGBTQ citizens can speak to.
In sharing the above, I want to praise and promote President Joe Biden, Jill Biden, our Vice President and the MANY amazing staff and those working everyday to confront danger towards our country, to build up fledgling democracies , to encourage and strengthen freedom throughout the world, even have found ways to work with those some call "our enemies", etc, etc. The work of freedom goes on....call Joe "old" if you like but no one can dispute the good that has come from his administration, in spite of struggles, storms, and innumerable challenges...he and his administration have met them....he does not center on himself but on his job as President of the USA....for all of us!!!! Thank you JOE!!!! May GOD continue to strengthen you.....and protect our troops!
Religion has been used thruout our history to foment hate and violence. I’m all about the golden rule and if not loving at least tolerating each other, but I believe we need a come to Jesus moment about figuring out what we can do about the use of religion to divide us.
Christianity has been filled with violence..... Christ Himself was beaten to the bone... and falsely.accused by the Pharasees....before the Roman leaders.....His disciples left Him except for John and His mother who remained at the foot of the cross. (in my faith, He took upon Himself what I deserved) and even at the cross, there were criminals being crucified...even there, one belirved and one had the freedom, not to believe..... In sharing this, I agree that the Christian faith has been used and misused.
Hitler's regeme had many Jews and Christians killed....Hitler wanted no competion regarding allegiance. This is what I see happening today. Those who are true believers, I pray will wake up but only they can make the choice. If they would only examine the character between Biden and Trump they could see the difference.....but they must be willng to stand alone....to be rejected by "friends".
I agree 100%. So way do most of the media focus on Joe's age rather than his accomplishments. With all that this administration has accomplished I can't understand the low poll numbers. I have to contribute this to, as you said, the lack of the ability for critical thinking.
Rex, they focus on his age because that is all they can focus on.....he is a great guy and his team is accomplishing so much good that there is not enough space to print all of it ...here in the US and throughout the world and President Biden would be the first to say, he and the Democratic leaders are not done yet!!! and isn't H. Jefferies a Great! addition!
Biden gives us hope in this confrontation. How good it is that he is with us.
I’ve been wondering if many big businesses now consider American consumers an unimportant profit source. With the rising middle class in some nations (eg China), businesses have greener pastures available. Ford paid his workers enough to buy Ford cars. These days?
Georgia,
I subscribe to the WSJ and the NY Times and today I made the mistake of reading the comments on one the Opinion columns:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/congressional-budget-office-federal-spending-tax-revenues-mitch-mcconnell-kevin-mccarthy-f8652e40?mod=opinion_lead_pos2
The comments are positively nutty. Based on those comments, our massive deficit is unrelated to the constant tax cutting on rich white folks and Corporations that Republicans have sponsored for 43 years.
BUT? If we only had zero spending on poor folks all would be well.
Unbelievable.
We waste $20 trillion dollars on two pointless wars, cut taxes every time we get a chance, bail out banks run by white male criminal incompetents, make sure the military contractors can give 12% raises to their all white employee workforce, and??
let us not forget Reagan's $1 Trillion dollar toss into the trash can of STAR WARS, BUT.......????
The only thing driving our massive deficits is???
---> Poor folks on food stamps and if we JUST make them poorer by cutting off all that help, well, all will be well. Never mind that we forced their ancestors onto slave ships, whipped them into submission and kept them starving for 250 years, then, "freed" them into Angola Prison down in LA where they could do "work study".
Honestly, it is a mess here. Really. I have never read a more nutty set of comments in my life.
It is almost like some movie I watched 30 years ago about Zombies taking over during the day.
That's what the comments section read like.
I am beginning to suspect they ARE zombies. Are their brains are addled by mercury (air), lead (water) or PFAs (everywhere in everything)?
Yes, zombies led by a witch.
Mike S: My mind is in such a jumbled state, I gladly will read the NYT article...perhaps it will cushion my jump to reality or send me deeper into this country abyss. Have great respect for anyone who can use history to help understand current events. Thank you for your comments.
Sue,
It was WSJ article. The comments on the NY Times are not like what I saw at the Wall Street Journal, just to clarify.
Probably some people the WSJ picked up from Foxxed News. The WSJ still pubishes some credible stories, but I guess we can't hold them responsible for the comments.
This is the basic question I ask: "How poor do we want our poor people to be?"
Every society has always had them, and Jesus said they will always be with us.
So how poor do we want them? Should they be Norway poor or India poor?
Conservatives, as you say, want to make our poor poorer, and then they complain about homeless encampments, drugs, street trash, crime and feeling unsafe.
You get what you (don't) pay for.
I agree...I NEVER read the comments section of the WaPo or Times any more. Entirely too depressing. Hard to believe there the people who write such nonsense read (even digitally) newspapers. Actually it's hard to believe they can read, period; they spout such stupidity and are evidently unable to understand that what they are supporting will only end with them losing the very freedoms they claim to treasure.
I'm sure there are people that go onto the WaPo or Times websites JUST to submit their comments, not to read with the purpose of learning something.
It’s difficult to believe they are actual people and not some bot programmed to spew 💩💩💩
Mike S - "I subscribe to the WSJ and the NY Times and today I made the mistake of reading the comments on one the Opinion columns:"
I do not subscribe to the WSJ and am "firewalled out." However, for some reason that I don't fully understand, if I do a Google search for "Federal Spending Soars, Revenue Falls," I am able to get full access to the article through the RealClearPolitics listing with the same Link:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/congressional-budget-office-federal-spending-tax-revenues-mitch-mcconnell-kevin-mccarthy-f8652e40?mod=opinion_lead_pos2
Thanks for the tip. I refuse to pay Murdoch a dime.
Ron,
"firewalled out" probably means they detected some writing of yours that made sense. Then, immediately blocked you from ever doing something so dastardly again!
Mike S - "firewalled out" probably means they detected some writing of yours that made sense. Then, immediately blocked you from ever doing something so dastardly again!
<Chuckle> Yes, I meant "Paywalled." Subscribing would have gotten me past it.
Besides how could anyone take offense at what I ever have written. LOL
It’s the Wall Street Journal - an editorial completely in line with what one would expect from that publication. Are their journalists welcome at CPAC in Budapest? I don’t know but wouldn’t be surprised at all. This publication, like Fox News, is one of the Murdoch controlled media outlets as part of News Corp.
Wouldn't it be nice to have the fruit of the Strategic Defense Initiative in place to defend the U.S. against nuclear missiles, considering Russian nuclear Sabre rattling? North Korea? China?
It waa scrapped by Clinton and converted to a theatre-level Defense system. We now have the Patriot Defense system helping Ukraine now, and defending Isrsel against missile barrages from Hamas and Hezbolla. We have various constellations of satellites providing us with early weather and wildfire warning, never mind monitoring the environment and providing intelligence on adversaries' activities.
Maybe it was too ambitious? I don't think so. But obviously you do. I worry about "all or nothing" policies on either side. We need a strong defense, and we need a strong social safety net.
Jerry,
First, our whole strategy was geared toward funding military contractors instead of peace and safety. It was not geared toward "protecting" us.
However, thank you for your observations and reminding me of the word definition utilized: Strategic Defense System.
I think that a better approach to world peace in 1945 forward would have been: Instead of inventing, then using nuclear weapons on a civilian population in Japan (twice), if the United States had, upon realizing that someday every rogue country on earth (like us for example) would have access to annihilation of all species except, perhaps, roaches well....
IF we had STOPPED at the end of WW II, and NOT dropped two of the nuke weapons on a civilian population since we KNEW we could blockade Japan for two weeks and have it all over....BUT we wanted to show how powerful we were....
IF we had then, in the aftermath of winning a conventional war, pushed for nuclear non-development (not nuclear non-proliferation but elimination).....and had STOPPED our own development instead of producing 73,000 nuclear weapons since the first one....
THEN, maybe the world would look a lot different today.
NOW? We don't need SDI because no defense system is perfect and once a few nukes get through them it does not matter that 80% were destroyed.
The whole strategy was geared toward funding military contractors instead of peace and safety.
Flawed from the very start. BUT, good news, military contractors made out like bandits on Gunsmoke.
Mike,
I understand that you wish we'd not gone down the path of using nuclear bombs on Japan. That's quite rational. But we did, and we found ourselves in a crazy MAD arms race. That arms race is now a part of our foreign policy whether it's a good thing or not. (I personally know it's not, in case you're wondering).
Given that we are in an arms race, is it better to build more weapons or to make them ineffective?
I, for one, am grateful that our missile defense systems can disrupt the flight of hypersonic drones. I am grateful that NATO has the option of a measured response in the event of a hypothetical Russian nuclear attack.
And it does matter if 80% of missiles are destroyed before they hit their target One, humanity will have a chance to survive and two, the aggressor might think twice before trying to guess which missiles will get through.
So, it's not a pretty picture. I grant you that. But it's a realistic one.
“Not a pretty picture” we both definitely agree on!
Those WSJ comments shouldn't be a surprise. WSJ, brought to you by Rupert Murdoch and Newscorp.
Georgia these murderers couldn't possibly be more clear in their messaging and Trump has their ear.
If we were at a bar, I suspect that some of us would have to hand over our keys & get taken home by a designated driver or taxi as we tried to dull the impact of this news. I'd go to my local bar but it's 2 : 22 a.m.
Rachael Maddow, last night, talked about the white nationalist event trump is holding at one of his Florida properties this week. His son Eric and Eric’s wife have been spouting white nationalist hate at speaking events around the country. This is what the Republican Party is and will only get worse. Very frightening times for our democracy.
I gave the LFAA a ❤️ but I really mean 🤮😱. TFG madman is trying to stir up his magats against the state AGs who brought cases against him. Time for Federal Justice to get going —now. Loud and clear. The bizarro staged a coup against his own government and VP and he gets to go to Ireland and play golf?! And we let him back in!! ITS NOT POLITICAL to shut him up. It’s the law.
Such a contrast: yesterday it was a sweet and beautiful letter, and now it's such a hard-hitting, down-to-earth letter. I absolutely agree with you, it scares me just as much as the previous letters, but it sounds sad. Regardless, I hope we can get out of this sad story.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/what-countries-have-authoritarian-government. This link contains a list of all the countries and their populations living under authoritarian governments. The numbers are sobering. Will the real MSM, PLEASE STAND UP??
Robert Hubbell today speaks to our necessary response for those interested in not saving, but practicing and believing in democracy. It is, after all, what is here. Not what is being suggested to replace it. I go with the strength of democracy.
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/why-joe-biden-will-win-in-2024?
Salud, Georgia!
🗽
There was more on Rachel (MSNBC) last night that is happening in Florida with the extremists for tfg. You may be able to watch the clip. That was really scary last night! I guess we shouldn't be surprised.