The day after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Afghanistan’s Taliban offered its congratulations to the American people for “not handing leadership of their great country to a woman.”
"If men had raised their voices we might also be in a different situation now."
So many men in the US did raise their voices, but we were unable to drown out the voices of Trump, social media and the corporate media.
Thank you Heather for continuing the fight. Trump had 4 years to build his coalition and he is a master at marketing--hate, anger, revenge, resentment and misinformation. The uneducated fall for it every time.
It looks to me like Ukraine will have no choice without US aid but to surrender to Russia. Once Trump takes us out of NATO, I don't imagine Russia will stop there. Perhaps the Trump wing of the Republican party could be more accurately called the MRGA party.
O would hope that some members of Congress even Republicans could see taking the USA out of NATO would be wrong for so many reasons. And my biggest hope is that poor health Trump does not survive past the midterms. We must arm ourselves with hope and fight strategically for better outcomes then. And surely some of the more fiscally responsible on both sides will send him many resounding NOs.
Carol - well said! Heather reported that 12% of Trump voters in Missouri also voted for abortion rights. I believe that a large number of last minute Trump voters had no understanding of the issues and will be dismayed to see the consequences of what they voted for. That raises hopes for the midterm elections.
My hope is that the current Congress awards Ukraine enough aid in money and weaponry to end the war on their terms before Dumpster takes office, David. It will be a heavy lift with MAGA Mike still in charge of the House, but worth the attempt. Maybe an Exec Order is preferable to a battle in the House, which Johnson is likely to dismiss until Jan 3. Ditto with judges, which only relies on the Senate. Get as much of a holding wall up as possible before the flood comes.
I have to say - too bad Pres.Biden wont reach out and take advantage of the "Presidential immunity" which does NOT specify which president - thanks SC! I know - pretty far fetched, huh?
The Ukrainian people will never surrender to the enemy -- they've already experienced what that means: certain horrible death and destruction. Shche ne vmerla Ukraina!
I do mind if Ukraine has no choice and we leave NATO. The EUROS have leverage with Trump..transactionally they can buy weapons and then provide Ukraine with them. They might not limit their usage as Biden fearfully did. I don't think Trump will leave NATO so easily either.
I don't think Biden was being 'fearful'. We really don't want a hot war with Russia. I don't want Putin the sociopath to decide to start lobbing nukes everywhere if he feels cornered. This was supposed to be about getting the Russians out of Ukraine, not going into Russia for 'regime change'. In this nuclear-armed world, that just sounds like a bad idea to me.
My throat is sore from raising my voice while MAGA plugged their ears chanting “Nanny, nanny foo foo, I don’t want to hear you.”
Previous channels are ineffective against Teflon Don. Fox will counter all truths with louder lies.
As an Advertising exec, one strategy I recommend is this: we must ask how can Dems make headlines?
Repeating yesterday’s news won’t work. To adjust Michelle Obama’s advice (while maintaining Democratic values) “When they go low, we go hire better PR firms.”
Another strategy, Dems (and Heather Cox Richardson) should follow Pete Buttigieg’s example and flood Fox News with appearances. We have to beat them on their home turf.
I do not see enough people understanding this idea. It took a combination of two things for Trump to win this election, a group of misogynistic, bigoted, self involved people and also a group of under and misinformed people. We can't change the first group much in one election cycle but we can change the second
You're being kind about who voted for Trump. They were overwhelmingly high school graduates and below. Most were either lazy or stupid. Many think that Trump will magically fix the economy too dumb to remember 2020.
Moat of the MAGAs are not smart people and a large percentage would welcome a theocracy.
I would prefer if we referred to them as poorly educated and easily manipulated. This process has been going on since the atrocious days of newt Gingrich, his dumbing down of America and the slow transformation of the Republican Party. With the planned destruction or elimination of the department of education the battle will be harder than ever to win. But that does not mean we don’t fight at every level we can.
We also have strong economic power. We can choose where to spend our money and where not to spend it. Who is more likely to want an EV, a democrat or a magashite? If Dem EV buyers start boycotting Tesla it will send a message. The same tactic applies to other goods where we have a choice. Watch how fast those fat cat CEO’s step back from trump.
I am trying to start a financial boycott of businesses and business owners who financially supported Trump by: 1) Emailing my friends and relatives, 2) Posting on NextDoor, and 3) Posting on Reddit. My friends and relatives are very supportive, NextDoor deletes my posts without telling me why, and there is definite interest on Reddit where I got this idea. Here is the guts of my email and posts.
I just read on Reddit that someone in Grand Rapids, Michigan is starting a list of businesses that financially supported Trump and is asking people to boycott the businesses. My first thought was this would be easy to do. I already boycott Amazon due to their poor treatment of employees that I read about in the WSJ. (I have stopped my subscriptions to WSJ and Washington Post.) Some may think this is hard, but I have found better deals on Walmart.com and Target.com, although if I continue this I or someone will have to find out which businesses or owners of a business financially supported Trump. (probably Walmart) This information is in the public record (FEC) and needs to be disclosed by law
The advantages of a financial boycott are:
1) Money speaks to those people who donated to Trump. This hits them where they are sensitive.
2) About half the country would probably support this boycott.
3) There would be many who would like to find out who supported Trump and use the public records to identify businesses and business owners who have financially support Trump.
4) All that is needed is one website that could be called "DoNotSupportTrump.com." There is likely a better name.
There are other advantages, but to keep this short let's list possible disadvantages.
1) Does this divide the country more?
2) Will there be retribution?
3) Will there be an opposite website for those that support Trump businesses and business owners? Probably, but so what.
4) How would we control false information getting on the website and the likelihood that the website would be hacked.
5) The need for money to run and maintain the website. I think the bang for the buck would be great.
I would be interested in your thoughts on this matter.
You know which company CEO would support your idea financially? Penny's Spices. Their CEO has repeatedly said he hates Trump with a passion. We ONLY buy Penny's Spices. They are also the best.
And boycott Walmart too. They have put thousands of small businesses out of business by undercutting their prices and when the businesses fail, they raise their prices.
The county that Walmart is headquartered in in AR has one of the highest child poverty rates in the country, which the Waltons could solve with a few million a year. But they just don't care. They are the richest family in America and take in 1 out of every 3 dollars spent on groceries in the US.
I’m sure it was autocorrect that gave you Pennys. So people can find this merchant the correct name is Penzey’s. Sign up for their newsletter and get weekly specials that are awesome and they do mail orders. https://www.penzeys.com/
Perhaps a BOYCOTT site similar to or maybe even using Change.org or that model. The force of the boycott is being able to Accurately Demonstrate that the Action Being Boycotted is what is causing a hit to the bottomline.
Piss of the shareholders, not just the Billionaires in Teflon suits.
Pick an Easy target first, one that people don't like anyway lol.
(not WaPo. Don't shoot the messenger, in spite of Bezos's recent interference, it's one of the last organizations in the US that can actually DO extensive investigative journalism. Let's see how it performs under the new Corporatocracy.)
Then if we get the boycott site up and running, and make sure it's for Democratic Ideals by blocking all others,
(who decides?)
THEN GO FOR A PRIME BOYCOTT.
And can everyone Please drop X right now, Loudly? #freefromX? #dropMusk #eXit ??
(I could use a tip on How to quit X. I have a personal and a biz account and had trouble figuring out how to get off the platform!)
FYI Walmart (the Walton Family of Multi Billionaires) was Evil Long before Amazon started selling books. Waltons are theocratic "god made us successful so we can rule over the least among us" Oligarchs, who built there biz Gutting small businesses and the towns that still had any.
Now Walmart is losing billions to Bezo's ever growing empire, since he's just as ruthless and more tech savvy, he leveraged his $$ to wipe out competition with the "Prime shipping," adding dopamine to our "consumer economy" and has branched into Everything in from "handmade artisan goods" to Groceries, pharmacy, and of course, Chinese crap unlimited. He is also destroying Ebay, ironically. Etsy, too.
Still, Americans Love Amazon. Not wanting to think about consequences is our national trait.
Re: your point #4. Just thinking out loud here but perhaps a starting point might be this site and good old fashioned talking to like minded friends and family. A small start could balloon out once someone in the free press takes notice. Dr King didn’t have social media but look back at the 10’s of thousands of people who responded to him.
Marge, I think Obama started a policy to ignore and reject Fox (And with good reason.) Denying them legitimacy seems like a sound strategy. But Dems have to re-engage with Right Wing Media or we are just agreeing with ourselves in the comments of HCR. I don't know how Fox invites work. Maybe they would box out democratic leaders. Or maybe Gretchen Whitmer, Mayor Pete, Elizabeth Warren, Heather Cox Richardson and Robert Hubbell can elbow their way on air and spar with hostile media. We need a strategy to reach beyond our bubbles.
Agreed. I just wonder if their bubble will let our bubble get a word in edgewise! Hasn’t happened so far. That’s how they keep their people unaware of the less attractive doings on the right.
It in't hust the Fox, Newsmax and social media lies....and you are right it is constant. It is also what they choose not to report that would make them and the annointed one look bad.
Dems need to BUY WHOLE MEDIA at this point. We've been screaming at them to buy better PR/Marketing/Ad teams since Clinton! Some of us since Nixon! We need the Soros's and Pritzgers and Khosla and Reid Hoffmans (especially) and young experts like YOU to create the New Media that will bolding represent Democracy Vs Fascism and Corporatocracy. But ah, there's the rub. Dem leaders are Always too hesitant to talk about the Corporate Takeover of America. Saying "I will stop price gouging" means NOTHING. Touting Lina Kahn and the Real Nitty Gritty of breaking up the monopolies of the new Guilded Age (what is it now, the Bitcoined Age?)
We need to find Every Upcoming Maddow, Hayes, Coates, Robinson etc and give them an MSNBC on steroids, fanning out on all existing platforms (esp Youtube) and creating new twitters and TicToks etc.
if we will ever have a hope of creating the polity we need to save life on earth.
AND THAT is the GOAL. We Must Stop The Climate COllapse,
and we must Manufacture Consensus on the that face ASAP.
Everything else, even abortion rights and positive immigration and anti-racism freedom to be and love, is Meaningless if we don't take action to keep our children from Hell On Earth.
The "PR" we need is Media Itself. The Medium Is the Message, and it needs to be GLOBAL.
Go Shawn! Start networking! I'm writing to ALL the good guys, but I'm no longer in the game.
thank you for seeing through to the MESSAGING as key, but we also need ACCESS to reach Above the Silos.
Us men need to do more. I'm trying to figure that out right now.
The Republicans have built a strong coalition in many of the red states. We need to reverse. this trend. And that is going to take a monumental effort.
Young men are notoriously rebellious, at least when I worked at high school. Their brains are beyond susceptible to opposition in some form. Can older men verify or argue that point?
A majority of males, esp white, have been voting Republican / Trump all along. The vote for both males and females shifted in Trump's direction in 2024. Dems suffered big losses from 2020.
Although I don't want to cast doubt on the Democrats, I think we missed the clarion call of social media and online gaming to young men. We know there was Russian influence, to say nothing of Musk's manipulations. One of the tenets of Authoritarianism is dominant masculinity and, for some, cruelty toward women. (Have you ever seen how women are portrayed in video games!)
Patricia, many of them like the idea that women are property and love the idea of your body, my choice. I did read the Nick has run to his momma and is hiding out in her house, this after he was doxxed.
Good Emily! We are a distracted lot of people, we Americans. The sense of urgency needed now in America is just not there enough to bend the arc sufficiently, I fear. I use my own word, "WOMENTORS" to sing my praises for the wall of women who got us this far in the election. In our world of perpetual impermanence we must comprehend fully, this is not going to be like anything we've known. Stronger, wiser, more empathic toward the needs of others. Breathe deeply, and repeat as needed.
Agree, but I’m done! As soon as a MAGA complains and we know they will, I’m going to speak their language and say “Well You Voted for Him” “I hope you are happy… you got what you wanted”. And when they say “I didn’t know” my response is going to be “being a basement dweller is not excuse”. Trump said on Fox News he was going to be a dictator day one what part of that don’t you understand.
Like it or not, the Gop/Right have a much more disciplined set of voices, hate to use that word, but the Dems are far short of that, and... they are too honest!
Harris' campaign was the first Dem campaign I've seen to enter the "social media" phase of campaigning....I especially liked the very quick response to outrageous Trump/Vance statements on social media. They didn't miss a beat. Her campaign had some really sharp people working for it. Now we need to build on that effort and find some Dem personalities with big enough personalities/megaphones to equal people like Joe Rogan.
We’re a big tent; anyone can come in and voice their opinions. Republicans have gatekeepers scrutinizing folks’ loyalty before they can come in and speak.
Mark Cuban said he would like to buy Fox. I don't know why some liberal billionaires don't get together and do this. Elon bought Twitter. Bezos bought WP.
But wapo was the paper which covered the insurrection the best. Maybe get Cuban to buy it and make it a truly power paper for our Democratic message. I live in Maryland and it is our local paper not the Baltimore paper. Stupid people canceled their subscription to the Wapo and it hurts the people who live from the production of the paper, certainly not Bezos as I in IT know his biggest revenue source is AWS.
With all the money spent on ads that people just assumed were fake ... it seems Dems could buy up some Media. The Inside game is to keep the rage, but start to channel it towards the real causes.
In rural Iowa where there are some large/enormous egg producers, I can guarantee you the owners are both Rs and dependent on immigrant labor. So DonOld needs to jawbone them to get prices down while he wants to deport their labor force. I will watch to see how this works out!
I think the issue of who's labor force is going to be gored is very overlooked. A large number (possibly a majority) of undocumented workers are employed "under the table" by large agri businesses and farm co-ops which need them to pick crops and process food for the stores at low wages. I am really interested what they are going to say if/ when Trump actually attempts to deliver on his "deport then all!" promise. This will very likely wreak havoc in the food supply chain for domestic groceries and other foods processing. It will of course create price issues but it may even cause serious food shortage s the likes of which this country hasn't seen since the depression. This will be grist for the mill in Russia which was subjected to that kind of indignity by the actions of the US during the cold War. I expect Putin to be joyfully applauding.
William, my feeling is that the large R employers of the undocumented will fight mass deportation. Otherwise, where will they get their workers to exploit.
I see this whole expulsion threat as a another Trump Show that's not going to happen as advertised. However, that is not in any way meant to say that the trauma, distress, and terrible uncertainty it is creating right now is anything but real. I see many being technically expelled, but allowed to be granted re-entry visas' without leaving the country. Could a 'fee' be involved. Oh yeah. Money to be made. Privately run 'containment facilities' from which farmers can obtain labor (for a price). The egg-producers will keep their egg prices and the Biden administration will foot the blame. Don't worry. You're a citizen.. right? Don't worry there will be new roads. We're not Europe. We are far from a bunch of ethnically, culturally, religious aligned countries. We're the United States of America, and we're under Cash.
Anne-Louise, who cuda thunk it….that this whole election came down to betting on Humpty-Dumpty’s great fall? Let’s see, finally, if the “king” & his horses (Musk?) can put him together again.
Humpty Dumpty is scrambled, fried, poached, and runny. Muskrat is a destroyer, not a builder. Unless he can steal others ideas. He even allowed Tesla’s name on what he stole.
Take photos of egg and other grocery prices to post on FB. No words... just photos of prices beside photos of prices you take now as a baseline. My campaign will include eggs and 2 or 3 other items.
I've suffered the same situation, Gigi. Our once award winning and locally owned, operated, and published newspaper that routinely ran four sections a day now runs maybe two, with a smattering of local stories (maybe 2 a day). It disgusts me.
Citing: "As a whole, Kamala Harris won voters between the ages of 18 and 29 by six points. But preliminary exit polling indicates that Donald Trump opened up a 16-point gender gap between young men and young women: 56% of men between the ages of 18 and 29 voted for Trump while just 40% of their female peers did so.
Even more surprisingly, Trump managed to improve on his 2020 performance among young women, despite that gap. In 2020, 33% of young women voted for him.
Polls and exit polls are incomplete unless they give some important statistics about how many were polled, how polling was done and what were the questions. Is the country moving in the right direction is the stupidest question ever. I say NO yet it has been interpreted as anti- Democratic in the media. Donnie and his devils can’t ever be trusted.
Gary, I posted a few days ago that I wish there was a liberal billionaire who could create a new social media site to take on Musk. Trump tried with his, when he was banned, but it didn't grow to what he wanted. There needs to be a social media website that follows the guidelines that Twitter used to. I've never had any social media accounts, but I'd sign up for one.
Also, we have LFAA, but the left needs someone along the lines of Rogan to get viewers. I'm unsure who that would be. Brian Tyler Cohen comes to mind, but I think he'd be viewed as an elitist (not that I think he is, but that is what has been going around about Democratic voters.) I think either David Pakman or Ben Meisales might be good, but I think, even better would be "Tennessee Brando" as he I think he'd attract more attention from the right. (Beau or Belle of the Fifth Channel do attract many right-wing, as they get comments from the left. Not sure they'd want to do a radio/streaming show. They should!)
They took their frustrations out by voting for a monster. They will soon live to regret it. As I have said repeatedly, many do not use reason but emotion when voting.
Bill, they are carefully conditioned to fear and anger - which override their thinking prefrontal cortex. And the dopamine rush of anger makes it addictive.
Back in the seventies there was a movement to “express your anger” as a means of countering depression, particularly among women. More recently, now that more is known about the brain, we know that anger just begets anger.
I prefer the Bonobo method: Females rule and when males act up, females deny them sex and food and it calms the males down. I’m a perfect specimen for inclusion in the Bonobo clan. Please help me escape the human variety.
The left uses emotion when voting too! While our fears are a bit more reality-based than those that on the right, emotions are why we voted for Kamala.
Frankly, the women are in the majority and THEY did NOT get out and vote in droves as they needed to. Yes, I "blame" the young, mostly uneducated, men who were caught up in Trump's message. But it is clearly on the shoulders of the women. The real men I know, voted for Harris. The young men, my grandsons, voted for Harris.
Penny, I’d love to know if the majority of trump-voting women happen to live in southern states and happen to go to churches where the pastor thunders trump’s lies and happen to have husbands who demand they vote Red. Brainwashing works on both genders.
Probably do. Not every Southern church has a Trump preacher, but some do. Also while driving in NC, I turned the radio to a station labeled "Religion." It was not religion, it was politics -- reading Bible verses and talking about how they apply to voting for Trump.
While listening to one evangelical station, my stomach turned as I heard the “pastor” quite seriously advise his listeners—“yes, we understand that Trump is really not a Christian nor does he live by Christian values, but he has promised to be “a friend” to Christians and put our agenda into place so it is OK with God to vote for him.” Blech. So much for valuing character.
We see you drawing parallels between the Taliban and the incoming administration. Raise your voices, everyone who can, before you too are silenced!
"If men had raised their voices we might also be in a different situation now."
So many men in the US did raise their voices, but we were unable to drown out the voices of Trump, social media and the corporate media.
Thank you Heather for continuing the fight. Trump had 4 years to build his coalition and he is a master at marketing--hate, anger, revenge, resentment and misinformation. The uneducated fall for it every time.
"If men had raised their voices...." - rhymes with Germany circa 1935
My fear…for many years to come, we too will be saying, “If only...”
It looks to me like Ukraine will have no choice without US aid but to surrender to Russia. Once Trump takes us out of NATO, I don't imagine Russia will stop there. Perhaps the Trump wing of the Republican party could be more accurately called the MRGA party.
O would hope that some members of Congress even Republicans could see taking the USA out of NATO would be wrong for so many reasons. And my biggest hope is that poor health Trump does not survive past the midterms. We must arm ourselves with hope and fight strategically for better outcomes then. And surely some of the more fiscally responsible on both sides will send him many resounding NOs.
Carol - well said! Heather reported that 12% of Trump voters in Missouri also voted for abortion rights. I believe that a large number of last minute Trump voters had no understanding of the issues and will be dismayed to see the consequences of what they voted for. That raises hopes for the midterm elections.
Carol, mostly I agree, however if tffg goes away, in whatever manner, we’re stuck with JD, who is young, healthy, and horrible.
If DJT does not survive past the midterms, Vance would replace him. Going from the frying pan into the fire here.
Let's feed him up! Chocolate cake! lots of it!
My hope is that the current Congress awards Ukraine enough aid in money and weaponry to end the war on their terms before Dumpster takes office, David. It will be a heavy lift with MAGA Mike still in charge of the House, but worth the attempt. Maybe an Exec Order is preferable to a battle in the House, which Johnson is likely to dismiss until Jan 3. Ditto with judges, which only relies on the Senate. Get as much of a holding wall up as possible before the flood comes.
I have to say - too bad Pres.Biden wont reach out and take advantage of the "Presidential immunity" which does NOT specify which president - thanks SC! I know - pretty far fetched, huh?
The Ukrainian people will never surrender to the enemy -- they've already experienced what that means: certain horrible death and destruction. Shche ne vmerla Ukraina!
Slava Ukraini!
David Ukraine will not "surrender". Full Stop.
I do mind if Ukraine has no choice and we leave NATO. The EUROS have leverage with Trump..transactionally they can buy weapons and then provide Ukraine with them. They might not limit their usage as Biden fearfully did. I don't think Trump will leave NATO so easily either.
I don't think Biden was being 'fearful'. We really don't want a hot war with Russia. I don't want Putin the sociopath to decide to start lobbing nukes everywhere if he feels cornered. This was supposed to be about getting the Russians out of Ukraine, not going into Russia for 'regime change'. In this nuclear-armed world, that just sounds like a bad idea to me.
I hope that the other NATO will step up to the plate and come to the aid of Ukraine.
And what if…..?
Has rhymed for many years, just not so perfectly.
1935 would have been already too late. You'd have been quickly silenced by that point.
Spring 1930 was "too late".
Right? Good thing Heidegger is dead??
My throat is sore from raising my voice while MAGA plugged their ears chanting “Nanny, nanny foo foo, I don’t want to hear you.”
Previous channels are ineffective against Teflon Don. Fox will counter all truths with louder lies.
As an Advertising exec, one strategy I recommend is this: we must ask how can Dems make headlines?
Repeating yesterday’s news won’t work. To adjust Michelle Obama’s advice (while maintaining Democratic values) “When they go low, we go hire better PR firms.”
Another strategy, Dems (and Heather Cox Richardson) should follow Pete Buttigieg’s example and flood Fox News with appearances. We have to beat them on their home turf.
I do not see enough people understanding this idea. It took a combination of two things for Trump to win this election, a group of misogynistic, bigoted, self involved people and also a group of under and misinformed people. We can't change the first group much in one election cycle but we can change the second
You're being kind about who voted for Trump. They were overwhelmingly high school graduates and below. Most were either lazy or stupid. Many think that Trump will magically fix the economy too dumb to remember 2020.
Moat of the MAGAs are not smart people and a large percentage would welcome a theocracy.
I would prefer if we referred to them as poorly educated and easily manipulated. This process has been going on since the atrocious days of newt Gingrich, his dumbing down of America and the slow transformation of the Republican Party. With the planned destruction or elimination of the department of education the battle will be harder than ever to win. But that does not mean we don’t fight at every level we can.
We also have strong economic power. We can choose where to spend our money and where not to spend it. Who is more likely to want an EV, a democrat or a magashite? If Dem EV buyers start boycotting Tesla it will send a message. The same tactic applies to other goods where we have a choice. Watch how fast those fat cat CEO’s step back from trump.
I am trying to start a financial boycott of businesses and business owners who financially supported Trump by: 1) Emailing my friends and relatives, 2) Posting on NextDoor, and 3) Posting on Reddit. My friends and relatives are very supportive, NextDoor deletes my posts without telling me why, and there is definite interest on Reddit where I got this idea. Here is the guts of my email and posts.
I just read on Reddit that someone in Grand Rapids, Michigan is starting a list of businesses that financially supported Trump and is asking people to boycott the businesses. My first thought was this would be easy to do. I already boycott Amazon due to their poor treatment of employees that I read about in the WSJ. (I have stopped my subscriptions to WSJ and Washington Post.) Some may think this is hard, but I have found better deals on Walmart.com and Target.com, although if I continue this I or someone will have to find out which businesses or owners of a business financially supported Trump. (probably Walmart) This information is in the public record (FEC) and needs to be disclosed by law
The advantages of a financial boycott are:
1) Money speaks to those people who donated to Trump. This hits them where they are sensitive.
2) About half the country would probably support this boycott.
3) There would be many who would like to find out who supported Trump and use the public records to identify businesses and business owners who have financially support Trump.
4) All that is needed is one website that could be called "DoNotSupportTrump.com." There is likely a better name.
There are other advantages, but to keep this short let's list possible disadvantages.
1) Does this divide the country more?
2) Will there be retribution?
3) Will there be an opposite website for those that support Trump businesses and business owners? Probably, but so what.
4) How would we control false information getting on the website and the likelihood that the website would be hacked.
5) The need for money to run and maintain the website. I think the bang for the buck would be great.
I would be interested in your thoughts on this matter.
You know which company CEO would support your idea financially? Penny's Spices. Their CEO has repeatedly said he hates Trump with a passion. We ONLY buy Penny's Spices. They are also the best.
And boycott Walmart too. They have put thousands of small businesses out of business by undercutting their prices and when the businesses fail, they raise their prices.
The county that Walmart is headquartered in in AR has one of the highest child poverty rates in the country, which the Waltons could solve with a few million a year. But they just don't care. They are the richest family in America and take in 1 out of every 3 dollars spent on groceries in the US.
I’m sure it was autocorrect that gave you Pennys. So people can find this merchant the correct name is Penzey’s. Sign up for their newsletter and get weekly specials that are awesome and they do mail orders. https://www.penzeys.com/
Perhaps a BOYCOTT site similar to or maybe even using Change.org or that model. The force of the boycott is being able to Accurately Demonstrate that the Action Being Boycotted is what is causing a hit to the bottomline.
Piss of the shareholders, not just the Billionaires in Teflon suits.
Pick an Easy target first, one that people don't like anyway lol.
(not WaPo. Don't shoot the messenger, in spite of Bezos's recent interference, it's one of the last organizations in the US that can actually DO extensive investigative journalism. Let's see how it performs under the new Corporatocracy.)
Then if we get the boycott site up and running, and make sure it's for Democratic Ideals by blocking all others,
(who decides?)
THEN GO FOR A PRIME BOYCOTT.
And can everyone Please drop X right now, Loudly? #freefromX? #dropMusk #eXit ??
(I could use a tip on How to quit X. I have a personal and a biz account and had trouble figuring out how to get off the platform!)
FYI Walmart (the Walton Family of Multi Billionaires) was Evil Long before Amazon started selling books. Waltons are theocratic "god made us successful so we can rule over the least among us" Oligarchs, who built there biz Gutting small businesses and the towns that still had any.
Now Walmart is losing billions to Bezo's ever growing empire, since he's just as ruthless and more tech savvy, he leveraged his $$ to wipe out competition with the "Prime shipping," adding dopamine to our "consumer economy" and has branched into Everything in from "handmade artisan goods" to Groceries, pharmacy, and of course, Chinese crap unlimited. He is also destroying Ebay, ironically. Etsy, too.
Still, Americans Love Amazon. Not wanting to think about consequences is our national trait.
Raise your hand if you use a Keurig
Re: your point #4. Just thinking out loud here but perhaps a starting point might be this site and good old fashioned talking to like minded friends and family. A small start could balloon out once someone in the free press takes notice. Dr King didn’t have social media but look back at the 10’s of thousands of people who responded to him.
I like this site, but it doesn't have as many view, I think, as Reddit. I will be on the site more in the future.
Shawn, how many Dems does FOX invite to their State TV? Few in the past and likely fewer in the T47 years.
Marge, I think Obama started a policy to ignore and reject Fox (And with good reason.) Denying them legitimacy seems like a sound strategy. But Dems have to re-engage with Right Wing Media or we are just agreeing with ourselves in the comments of HCR. I don't know how Fox invites work. Maybe they would box out democratic leaders. Or maybe Gretchen Whitmer, Mayor Pete, Elizabeth Warren, Heather Cox Richardson and Robert Hubbell can elbow their way on air and spar with hostile media. We need a strategy to reach beyond our bubbles.
Agreed. I just wonder if their bubble will let our bubble get a word in edgewise! Hasn’t happened so far. That’s how they keep their people unaware of the less attractive doings on the right.
It in't hust the Fox, Newsmax and social media lies....and you are right it is constant. It is also what they choose not to report that would make them and the annointed one look bad.
Dems need to BUY WHOLE MEDIA at this point. We've been screaming at them to buy better PR/Marketing/Ad teams since Clinton! Some of us since Nixon! We need the Soros's and Pritzgers and Khosla and Reid Hoffmans (especially) and young experts like YOU to create the New Media that will bolding represent Democracy Vs Fascism and Corporatocracy. But ah, there's the rub. Dem leaders are Always too hesitant to talk about the Corporate Takeover of America. Saying "I will stop price gouging" means NOTHING. Touting Lina Kahn and the Real Nitty Gritty of breaking up the monopolies of the new Guilded Age (what is it now, the Bitcoined Age?)
We need to find Every Upcoming Maddow, Hayes, Coates, Robinson etc and give them an MSNBC on steroids, fanning out on all existing platforms (esp Youtube) and creating new twitters and TicToks etc.
if we will ever have a hope of creating the polity we need to save life on earth.
AND THAT is the GOAL. We Must Stop The Climate COllapse,
and we must Manufacture Consensus on the that face ASAP.
Everything else, even abortion rights and positive immigration and anti-racism freedom to be and love, is Meaningless if we don't take action to keep our children from Hell On Earth.
The "PR" we need is Media Itself. The Medium Is the Message, and it needs to be GLOBAL.
Go Shawn! Start networking! I'm writing to ALL the good guys, but I'm no longer in the game.
thank you for seeing through to the MESSAGING as key, but we also need ACCESS to reach Above the Silos.
Looks like Buttigieg needs a job, no?
I've honestly considered jumping parties and vote from within at the primary level.
Susan Collins encouraged us voters in ME to do just that in the primary and vote for Niikki Haley.
Much depends on state rules regarding party ID and/or "declined to state" voting rights during primaries. No need to "jump" but strategize yes.
Three hours of Rogan?
Thank you and men like you who raised your voices.
Us men need to do more. I'm trying to figure that out right now.
The Republicans have built a strong coalition in many of the red states. We need to reverse. this trend. And that is going to take a monumental effort.
Mentor younger men — even in small ways. Doing the next right thing builds up.
Absolutely...I'm shocked at the support Trump had from young male voters. How could they find him appealing?
Young men are notoriously rebellious, at least when I worked at high school. Their brains are beyond susceptible to opposition in some form. Can older men verify or argue that point?
A majority of males, esp white, have been voting Republican / Trump all along. The vote for both males and females shifted in Trump's direction in 2024. Dems suffered big losses from 2020.
Although I don't want to cast doubt on the Democrats, I think we missed the clarion call of social media and online gaming to young men. We know there was Russian influence, to say nothing of Musk's manipulations. One of the tenets of Authoritarianism is dominant masculinity and, for some, cruelty toward women. (Have you ever seen how women are portrayed in video games!)
Patricia, many of them like the idea that women are property and love the idea of your body, my choice. I did read the Nick has run to his momma and is hiding out in her house, this after he was doxxed.
Good Emily! We are a distracted lot of people, we Americans. The sense of urgency needed now in America is just not there enough to bend the arc sufficiently, I fear. I use my own word, "WOMENTORS" to sing my praises for the wall of women who got us this far in the election. In our world of perpetual impermanence we must comprehend fully, this is not going to be like anything we've known. Stronger, wiser, more empathic toward the needs of others. Breathe deeply, and repeat as needed.
Agree, but I’m done! As soon as a MAGA complains and we know they will, I’m going to speak their language and say “Well You Voted for Him” “I hope you are happy… you got what you wanted”. And when they say “I didn’t know” my response is going to be “being a basement dweller is not excuse”. Trump said on Fox News he was going to be a dictator day one what part of that don’t you understand.
Gary, the only way to reverse the trend is by purchasing a tv and radio network system to rival the propaganda machine already in place
There is no “appealing to the masses unless they can hear you. Those masses are already in “obey” mode
I'm concerned for the future of NPR and PBS, as well as Pro Publica. Will the Scrambled Egg try to create his own government news source?
Since I refuse to say his name as much as possible both scrambled egg and rotten egg are his real names now
Like it or not, the Gop/Right have a much more disciplined set of voices, hate to use that word, but the Dems are far short of that, and... they are too honest!
Harris' campaign was the first Dem campaign I've seen to enter the "social media" phase of campaigning....I especially liked the very quick response to outrageous Trump/Vance statements on social media. They didn't miss a beat. Her campaign had some really sharp people working for it. Now we need to build on that effort and find some Dem personalities with big enough personalities/megaphones to equal people like Joe Rogan.
We’re a big tent; anyone can come in and voice their opinions. Republicans have gatekeepers scrutinizing folks’ loyalty before they can come in and speak.
Mark Cuban said he would like to buy Fox. I don't know why some liberal billionaires don't get together and do this. Elon bought Twitter. Bezos bought WP.
But wapo was the paper which covered the insurrection the best. Maybe get Cuban to buy it and make it a truly power paper for our Democratic message. I live in Maryland and it is our local paper not the Baltimore paper. Stupid people canceled their subscription to the Wapo and it hurts the people who live from the production of the paper, certainly not Bezos as I in IT know his biggest revenue source is AWS.
With all the money spent on ads that people just assumed were fake ... it seems Dems could buy up some Media. The Inside game is to keep the rage, but start to channel it towards the real causes.
First wait and see if the price of eggs has gone down as promised.
In rural Iowa where there are some large/enormous egg producers, I can guarantee you the owners are both Rs and dependent on immigrant labor. So DonOld needs to jawbone them to get prices down while he wants to deport their labor force. I will watch to see how this works out!
I think the issue of who's labor force is going to be gored is very overlooked. A large number (possibly a majority) of undocumented workers are employed "under the table" by large agri businesses and farm co-ops which need them to pick crops and process food for the stores at low wages. I am really interested what they are going to say if/ when Trump actually attempts to deliver on his "deport then all!" promise. This will very likely wreak havoc in the food supply chain for domestic groceries and other foods processing. It will of course create price issues but it may even cause serious food shortage s the likes of which this country hasn't seen since the depression. This will be grist for the mill in Russia which was subjected to that kind of indignity by the actions of the US during the cold War. I expect Putin to be joyfully applauding.
William, my feeling is that the large R employers of the undocumented will fight mass deportation. Otherwise, where will they get their workers to exploit.
I see this whole expulsion threat as a another Trump Show that's not going to happen as advertised. However, that is not in any way meant to say that the trauma, distress, and terrible uncertainty it is creating right now is anything but real. I see many being technically expelled, but allowed to be granted re-entry visas' without leaving the country. Could a 'fee' be involved. Oh yeah. Money to be made. Privately run 'containment facilities' from which farmers can obtain labor (for a price). The egg-producers will keep their egg prices and the Biden administration will foot the blame. Don't worry. You're a citizen.. right? Don't worry there will be new roads. We're not Europe. We are far from a bunch of ethnically, culturally, religious aligned countries. We're the United States of America, and we're under Cash.
No doubt they voted for Trump anyway.
Anne-Louise, who cuda thunk it….that this whole election came down to betting on Humpty-Dumpty’s great fall? Let’s see, finally, if the “king” & his horses (Musk?) can put him together again.
Humpty Dumpty is scrambled, fried, poached, and runny. Muskrat is a destroyer, not a builder. Unless he can steal others ideas. He even allowed Tesla’s name on what he stole.
I am keeping my grocery receipts.
Take photos of egg and other grocery prices to post on FB. No words... just photos of prices beside photos of prices you take now as a baseline. My campaign will include eggs and 2 or 3 other items.
Ha, wish that were funny.
First check your passport...
lol-never gonna happen…
I thought that’s what we had been doing. I sure donated my arse off in The attempt. The propaganda machine is still going full blast.
Let’s hope Substack remains free. Our local paper was bought by USA Today and it’s sad.
I've suffered the same situation, Gigi. Our once award winning and locally owned, operated, and published newspaper that routinely ran four sections a day now runs maybe two, with a smattering of local stories (maybe 2 a day). It disgusts me.
Citing: "As a whole, Kamala Harris won voters between the ages of 18 and 29 by six points. But preliminary exit polling indicates that Donald Trump opened up a 16-point gender gap between young men and young women: 56% of men between the ages of 18 and 29 voted for Trump while just 40% of their female peers did so.
Even more surprisingly, Trump managed to improve on his 2020 performance among young women, despite that gap. In 2020, 33% of young women voted for him.
Polls and exit polls are incomplete unless they give some important statistics about how many were polled, how polling was done and what were the questions. Is the country moving in the right direction is the stupidest question ever. I say NO yet it has been interpreted as anti- Democratic in the media. Donnie and his devils can’t ever be trusted.
If they don’t the magas will whine ‘it’s not his fault’!
Gary, I posted a few days ago that I wish there was a liberal billionaire who could create a new social media site to take on Musk. Trump tried with his, when he was banned, but it didn't grow to what he wanted. There needs to be a social media website that follows the guidelines that Twitter used to. I've never had any social media accounts, but I'd sign up for one.
Also, we have LFAA, but the left needs someone along the lines of Rogan to get viewers. I'm unsure who that would be. Brian Tyler Cohen comes to mind, but I think he'd be viewed as an elitist (not that I think he is, but that is what has been going around about Democratic voters.) I think either David Pakman or Ben Meisales might be good, but I think, even better would be "Tennessee Brando" as he I think he'd attract more attention from the right. (Beau or Belle of the Fifth Channel do attract many right-wing, as they get comments from the left. Not sure they'd want to do a radio/streaming show. They should!)
Have you not used Blue Sky?
Musk and Rogan are both liberals. Rogan was a Bernie Bro.
Fortuitously, NPR reported on young men later this morning! Young men helped Trump retake the White House -- a trend years in the making
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/12/nx-s1-5181804/young-men-helped-trump-retake-the-white-house-a-trend-years-in-the-making
They took their frustrations out by voting for a monster. They will soon live to regret it. As I have said repeatedly, many do not use reason but emotion when voting.
Bill, they are carefully conditioned to fear and anger - which override their thinking prefrontal cortex. And the dopamine rush of anger makes it addictive.
Back in the seventies there was a movement to “express your anger” as a means of countering depression, particularly among women. More recently, now that more is known about the brain, we know that anger just begets anger.
I prefer the Bonobo method: Females rule and when males act up, females deny them sex and food and it calms the males down. I’m a perfect specimen for inclusion in the Bonobo clan. Please help me escape the human variety.
The left uses emotion when voting too! While our fears are a bit more reality-based than those that on the right, emotions are why we voted for Kamala.
Frankly, the women are in the majority and THEY did NOT get out and vote in droves as they needed to. Yes, I "blame" the young, mostly uneducated, men who were caught up in Trump's message. But it is clearly on the shoulders of the women. The real men I know, voted for Harris. The young men, my grandsons, voted for Harris.
Penny, I’d love to know if the majority of trump-voting women happen to live in southern states and happen to go to churches where the pastor thunders trump’s lies and happen to have husbands who demand they vote Red. Brainwashing works on both genders.
Scapegoating women is easy but patriarchal, too.
Probably do. Not every Southern church has a Trump preacher, but some do. Also while driving in NC, I turned the radio to a station labeled "Religion." It was not religion, it was politics -- reading Bible verses and talking about how they apply to voting for Trump.
While listening to one evangelical station, my stomach turned as I heard the “pastor” quite seriously advise his listeners—“yes, we understand that Trump is really not a Christian nor does he live by Christian values, but he has promised to be “a friend” to Christians and put our agenda into place so it is OK with God to vote for him.” Blech. So much for valuing character.
!!!!!
What is that!!! That is a special kind of "close your eyes and hold your nose".
What agenda! Christian agendas don't belong in the government! That isn't the government's job!
I'm just incoherently screaming over here and...just...WHAT!!!
OMG (just kidding; I’m agnostic)