Yesterday, David Roberts of the energy and politics newsletter Volts noted that a Washington Post article illustrated how right-wing extremism is accomplishing its goal of destroying faith in democracy. Examining how “in a swing Wisconsin county, everyone is tired of politics,” the article revealed how right-wing extremism has sucked up so much media oxygen that people have tuned out, making them unaware that Biden and the Democrats are doing their best to deliver precisely what those in the article claim to want: compromise, access to abortion, affordable health care, and gun safety.
Compare Rosalynn Carter's continuing compassion & intelligence throughout her life with the former FirstLady who promoted “I Really Don’t Care, Do You?” statement on her jacket while en route to the border in 2018. It is even more cringe-worthy five years later.
Your comparison encapsulates the horrible decline of America, though the fight to save it isn't over. We need, desperately, more Rosalynn and Jimmy Carters.
Side note: As a young reporter in 1976 during the presidential campaign, I interviewed the soon-to-be First Lady on a street corner in Thomasville, Georgia. She was gracious, warm, and without pretense. What a good life she lived.
"We need, desperately, more Rosalynn and Jimmy Carters."
Jimmy Carter was indeed, prior to Biden, the last good President of my lifetime.
However, he was also a one term President beaten out by a guy who proposed to turn the economy into a "trickle" down to the common man (while turning on a gusher upward).
Americans flocked to Reagan like flies flock to fresh, warm, cow dung. They did get their "trickle" and now they are all poor and unhappy about that and blame, yep, Biden. That is how dumb Americans are.
So, although we "need" people like Jimmy Carter in leadership, Americans prefer crooks, BS artists, and whomever Fox News likes.
Plus, now that the United States Courts have instituted Jim Crow 2.0, Republicans will win all elections.
And former First Lady Michelle Obama would probably have been a better President than her husband. I have since urged her to run.
The ONE disadvantage that the Obamas' had is that their race opened the door for the racist slime like Trump to give voice to the worst Americans there are. Hillary's "deplorables" are still deplorable and are still lined up behind that traitor.
Posts like this with unsubstantiated claims from “progressives “ are as damaging to Biden and the Democratic Party as is the MAGA far right. Most readers of HCR prefer evidence-based comments. The previous comment did not advance anything but the writer’s own ego.
Agenda 47 would consist of an end to birthright citizenship, further criminalizing transgender people and the LGBTQI community more broadly, expanding the thought crime and other censorship laws to end the teaching of "critical race theory" and to defeat "Woke" and "Black Lives Matter", attacking academic freedom and replacing it with "patriot education", implementing a national stop and frisk law, pardoning the Jan. 6 terrorists, putting homeless people in camps or some other designated area under threat of arrest, building high tech "freedom cities", ending the professional civil service and replacing it with right-wing political appointees and other such partisan agents, gutting the Department of Justice and other parts of the government that opposed Trump's attacks on democracy and the rule of law, executing drug dealers, starting a trade war with China, and making "peace" with Vladimir Putin by withdrawing support for the Ukrainian people and their freedom struggle. In many ways, Agenda 47 is a continuation of the fascist and other authoritarian policies Trump put in place during his first regime but now made even more extreme and cruel.
I believe professors in general are more concerned with fostering conversation, exchange knowledge and challenge one another respectfully if needed and desired. We are invited to join this pace to benefit from everything, including those comments we may consider not so "enlightened". Ultimately, the choice is ours as to which thread to follow, and respectfully comment on.
Heather doesn't cite a single example of "extremism or authoritarianism" to a point that is embarrassing. She just parades out a bunch "left wing extremists" as authorities and then doesn't bother to offer an of their evidence.
As Christopher Hitchens said "that which be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence"
The raison de etre every single day is simply "Republicans are evil and we are virtuous" End of story. No need for evidence, own up to our short comings, or to make a case. And how dare you question our sanctimony.
The polling for Biden is bad, no matter how much lipstick you put on a pig. Worst of all the drum beat for him to drop out is hard to ignore and its coming from his own party - look at articles in the NY TImes / Wash PO.
Michael I think on this often. When Obama was elected a huge swath of the American public construed that to mean racism is dead in America, or at least on its death bed. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nope - that election result instead was like shaking a beehive. It brought out for all the world to see the nasty racist nativist vein in the American psyche. A character trait much more common than so many of us thought possible this late after the civil war. Obama's two terms are like a highlight reel - lots of great accomplishment in the face of tough opposition. But it spawned Trump and MAGA.
"Jimmy Carter was indeed, prior to Biden, the last good President of my lifetime." I've said this so many times. Before Biden showed his wisdom and courage I wondered if I'd ever see another President I could see with the same pleasure and admiration that I felt realizing I lived in the country that elected such a good man as its President.
Now, I console myself when I realize that the worst Presidents of the last 30 years were Electoral College Presidents, not popular vote ones. Yes, I know GW won the popular vote for a second term in 2004 when he had us next deep in an unnecessary war, a war that Al Gore, who won the popular vote in 2000, would never have started. The Electoral College is one of the albatrosses around the neck of the US democracy. The sooner it is no longer used to select the President, the better.
I believe the only thing that enabled GW's 1st popular Vote win (his 2nd Electoral College win), was Deputy Attorney General James Comey, FBI DIrector Robert Mueller III, and the 25 other DOJ and FBI top officials changing their minds about resigning following the Alberto Gonzales/Andrew Card Jr attempt to get the hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft to reauthorize the domestic surveillance program (or at least some part of the secret Stellar Wind program).
Comey replying to GW Bush mentioning he would see him later after a morning briefing, said that he would not because he and others were going to resign. Comey was startled to realize that Bush had no clue about what Cheney (and Scooter Libby) seemed to be doing behind his back that involved Gonzales and Card.
Though the article claims Comey and other's threats to resign worked, I believe the more complete story was Bush was either unaware (or an incredible actor), of the treats to resign because Bush's Chief of Staff, Card, and White House Council, Gonzales in particular, and probably Cheney and Libby didn't bother to pass that on to him. It was just seemingly luck that Comey realized Bush had no clue, and if not for that chance realization, they would probably have resigned.
If they had resigned and Bush lost 381,000 votes in Florida alone, Bush would only have 264 Electoral College votes to Kerry's 259, so neither would have had the necessary 270 and the House (with 1 vote per state) would have to vote for one of the top 3 candidates by electoral votes, and need an absolute majority, currently 26 votes . The Senate (all 100) would vote for the Vice President from the top 2 electoral vote recipients and need 51 Senate votes to be elected Vice President.
If the mass resignations had cost Bush 380,979 votes in Florida and 262,218 votes in Virginia, Bush would still have won the popular vote by 1,725,774 (if all the other states stayed the same), but lost the Electoral vote since Kerry would have had 291 Electoral votes (20 more than he needed to win), to Bush's 246.
I found it interesting that if Gore had gotten 538 more popular votes in a fuller recount in Florida in 2000 (same number of Electoral Voters), he would have won with 291 Electoral Votes to Bush's 246.
Notice there was only 537 Electoral votes cast in 2000, D.C. elector Barbara Lett-Simmons abstained though she was pledged to vote for Gore, she chose it as a form of protest of the lack of voting status for DC in the House. It would only have brought Gore's total to 267.
The electoral college is way too much of a wild card in determining a winner and can make it even wilder by throwing it to the House where each state only gets one vote for President, with only 26 required to win, no matter how badly a candidate may have lost the popular vote..
I would also add that the Reagan campaign pulled a major fast one with Iran, basically scuttling the progress Carter had made with freeing our hostages. And thereby dooming his chances for re-election.
No but understanding how dirty politics is, I might hazard that George Washington had arranged to cross the Delaware with the British in order to give him a boost in popularity. lol.
I was thinking about the irony of Mrs. Carter's involvement in helping the mentally ill vs Reagan's overturning her progress and putting mentally ill people on the streets.
Again you revive my hope and belief that WOMEN’s Intelligence and Innate desire to support Humanity through Education and Good Will (nurturance of life on our Earth) will overcome ignorance and hateful actions which in this Moment, even here, are fogging our thoughts, hopes, wishes & dreams of EQUALITY for ALL in our battered United States of America.
I sure agree. Americans are quite a dumb bunch. I’ll harken back to Plato’s remarks that Tyranny follows Democracy. It just may be the ending of an interesting experiment. Freedom requires much responsibility and we don’t have it. The struggle ultimately is over money. No morals no ethics. It’s about money through power.
WHat delusional planet do you live on? Jimmy Carter?
However the Biden to Jimmy Carter comparison is a good one. Both had
high inflation, poor foreign policy, and brought on by higher energy costs. The big difference is that Biden energy prices were self inflicted. Between egging Russia into war with Ukraine, and crippling US oil production it was self inducted. Add 6-7 Trillion in deficit spending delivering higher inflation.
The good news was Carter was wiped out in a landslide. The same is coming for Biden.
I fell a thrill reading that you had met First Lady Carter, and, as a young person, you recognized her personal qualities. Thank you for sharing that moment.
I agree about the average American engaging, but respectfully disagree about the Carter’s…the world needs as many people like the former President and First Lady as it can get.
I concur. The humility of the Carters has been unmistakable. People I know who visited the White House when they lived there reported how approachable they were. One told a funny story about the President working the line while they were waiting to use the rest room. Another, the wife of a prominent Black official, told of being treated to lunch in the Carters' personal quarters. She got a peek at Amy's bedroom, where there was a hula hoop like the one her own daughter had. When the Carters stayed at the presidential library in Atlanta, they sleot on a pull-out couch, and when they moved back to Plains, the house they lived in was typical of the small brick "ranch houses" popular in rural Georgia. You'd have to go back to the Trumans to find a presidential couple that modest.
As a volunteer at The Carter Center for 15 years, I had the pleasure of seeing Jimmy and Rosalynn often. When he ate lunch in the Copenhill Cafe along with volunteers and staff, he always carried his own tray of food. Both of them were unpretentious and down to earth. The exact opposite of DJT and Melania.
Please do not conflate the former guy with a body part that evolved so that our ancestors could run, and that later evolved into a secondary sex characteristic that is often attractive on both genders. It's like using the c-word for female genitals as an epithet. Words for sex-related body parts should not be used as epithets.
I think that you misunderstand who Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter were both before, during, and after their time in the White House. I think that they were the "average American people with...integrity, endurance, and care..." that you're looking for.
If they do tune in to broadcast media, all they will hear is that Biden is old, really really old, and his poll numbers are terrible. I cut the cord a couple of years ago but still hear enough on public radio to make me furious. I'll listen until I hear the word "polls," which I do more and more lately. No one is going to be the first to stop so now not even PBS News Hour is "safe." I really wish all reporters and hosts and guests would say aloud and frequently: the only polls that count are the ones where we cast our ballots.
"If they do tune in to broadcast media, all they will hear is that Biden is old, really really old, and his poll numbers are terrible."
Mainstream media, having watched Fox grow its profits and its audience, are playing to the American audience. If the media start listing all of the good things that Biden is doing, then, the audience will switch to Fox News.
With all due respect (and I have a lot for you and our fellow substackers) - here is my optimistic weekly spiel about polls and media.
If the polls meant anything, Hillary would be completing her second term. I think their methodology is questionable at best. Who answers a land line?
MSM is a factor for this group - but not for two whole generations who have cut the cord or never used one. The only people I know who watch TV news are close to retirement or deep into it.
I suspect (and hope) as Trump and MAGA fascist plans and doublespeak are more widely understood, a majority of Americans would vote for Jaba the Hut over a wanna be dictator who will trash democracy.
Apology for delay in response. Thank you for your always good and well reasoned perspective. I completely agree polls are almost always wrong now mostly because they rely entirely on a "home phone number" which nobody under 40 has.
I hope you are correct that "a majority of Americans would vote for Jaba the Hut over a wanna be dictator who will trash democracy"
I will keep your statement in my pocket for those days where I think Americans, umm, cannot find their way out of wet paper bag on a warm sunny day.
Bill, I must be the lone person on earth still using a landline (cable-based, as the old time “real” AT&T landline got ridiculously expensive), albeit with cordless handsets (better sound quality, etc). I would answer if the caller ID clearly identified the caller as a poll taker. Alas I get so many telemarketing calls, I wait to see if the caller begins to leave a msg (a “real” caller) before I pick up—98% click off once they connect to my voice mail. I DO have a cell phone, a horrible flip phone (the shift to 5G made my preferred prior cell phone obsolete & this was the bottom-of-the-drawer choice provided despite heroic efforts to upsell me something I did not need & would pay much more for by requiring a new plan)….as it is I only pay $5 month for my prepaid plan cuz I rarely use it & mostly just carry it for emergencies whilst out & about. Being retired & of very modest means I am not chasing the current iterations of phones, micro computers really. That’s what I have my iPad for! Guess I’m a Luddite after all….heh, just ask me about my vehicle!
You nailed it again. I view all the media today as strictly "click-bait". There is good media out there but it too must compete for the average American's attention. Good luck with that.
The deficits rise under GOP presidents, because they reduce taxes on the wealthy and the incredibly wealthy.
Inflation, and the deficit are down under Biden.
As much as I like Biden--he's definitely the best president of my lifetime, which began the first summer of the Eisenhower Administration--we've had a lot of open borders under his administration. (I just testified before a Massachusetts joint committee on labor affairs in favor of E-Verify.)
And according to two experts in the field, both female European doctors, there is far too much "gender affirming" surgery, too early in peoples' lives (it shouldn't happen until early adulthood, they say).
Do you tell the leaders of your local public broadcasting station, or your local newspaper (if your town still has one) to mend their ways? I regularly post comments on NYT decrying editorial choices. They don’t always make it into print, but someone at the paper reads them.
Totally agree I wish the media would stop news on tofg. he loves to see his face everywhere. I remember when Oprah stopped showing a base of one of the criminals in the past because she said it’s like giving him free press.
No YOU ARE DELUSIONAL. You offer no proof other than your opinion.
Polls are based on SCIENCE. As usual leftist only believe "science" when it
mirrors their opinion.
The truth must be harsh for leftists to fathom. Maybe Americans don't love
DEFICIT spending. Or love open borders? Endless wars and stupid foreign policy? Or energy dependence? Or the assault on free speech and censorship? Or sexualizing
children with TRANS grooming? Or endless illegal immigration?
Maybe a Waaaaambulance should be called to take him to get help. Sorry, just being snarky now, so I’ll just skip his posts (I do like to read differing opinion/ideas, but screeds/misinfo/rants not so much).
That's the right idea. Live in a bubble of self delusion.
If Biden were ahead you couldn't get enough. It must be hard when you can't get the confirmation bias you so badly want.
Even worse, after all the sanctimony and lecturing, it must be brutal to come to terms with the idea that everything that comes from the Democrats is NOT virtuous and beautiful.
Polls are the delusion. What I want from our *free press* is issues, full stop. The media has long since turned the presidency into a four year race that starts the day after an election and continues with increasing relentlessness focusing on polls and personalities until the next one. As for Democrats being virtuous or beautiful, who said we are? We're flawed but striving human beings. What differentiates Democrats from Republicans at this hour is that the former is interested in improving the lives of all human beings and the latter is only interested in power. Newt Gingrich broke American politics in 1995. The GOP has become ever more ravenous for power and ever more hateful toward the government they run ever since. The Republicans who wrote the GOP platform in 1956 wouldn't recognize what's become of their party. Sad that. Our two-party system cannot long survive if one side is as off the charts extreme as House Republicans.
A quick check of human history should answer the question, what happens
when a party aggressively pursue "improving the lives of its citizens" UTOPIA?
A lot of death. That was the lie that was sold to Soviet and Chinese citizens.
120 Million murders later?
The perfect example American example.
The COVID pandemic was a POLICE STATE imposed on Americans under the name of compassion and "making our lives better"
How did that end? The government lied about vaccine efficacy. They lied about mask efficacy. They lied about booster efficacy. They about the origins of the vaccine. They enriched the political class, and fired and censored anyone who disputed their claims.
HELL NO. I don't want or trust a leftists desire "to make anyone's life better"
Guilty. I am one who has tuned out the politics. Fatigue? Yes. However, I do notice more courtesy. Drivers pausing to let others in. Today, two lanes of drivers pausing to allow a U-turn!! So my sense is that people are becoming kinder... and I reinforce that kindness with "thanks, you are very kind" it always draws a smile. All that and I never miss an election. I believe that Americans are much more homogenous than reported.
Kindness is my religion, under severe trial right now. UU sermon was on radical kindness yesterday. “…I have learned kindness from the unkind…” from Khalil Gibran
That wonderful Golden Rule, my favorite. Most religions seem to have some semblance of it. Wonder why it’s not a main tenet “The Golden Rule is the Doctrine of this church”.
Heard it from sermon in UU church. May have been from The Prophet, husbands’s “Bible.” Looked it up in A-Z quotes. “I learned silence from the talkative, tolerance from the intolerant, kindness from the unkind. Yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.”
"Last week the Texas legislature passed a bill to seize immigration authority from the federal government in what is a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution, and yesterday, Texas governor Greg Abbott announced that he was “proud to endorse” Trump for president because of his proposed border policies (which include the deportation of 10 million people)."
This may seem like changing the subject, but the key phrase here is "a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution." That's something that the Carters and so many other caring American citizens would never do. Who do they think they are to violate the one thing that protects all of us? How can they violate the Constitution while still being supported by more blue state tax federal dollars than all the red states combined? How can "thanks you are very kind" be said to all the Greg Abbots among us?
I lived in Paris for a year when I was 12. I didn't understand why the French seemed not to like Americans. Prior to that year, I'd go up to foreigners in Harvard Square, and ask them questions about themselves. No-one in Paris was doing that with me.
I sure as hell got to understanding why in the '90s. The Parisians didn't like Americans because there were so many of us. Our country absorbed 40 million immigrants between 1990-2020--the population equivalent of two NY States. The Census Bureau projects another 68 million--nearly 3 1/2 NY State equivalents over the next 40 years.
Here in Massachusetts, our shelter system, which was set up for American citizens, is now overrun with migrants, with many Americans being left out on the street. (We have a "right to shelter law.)
Democrats are in denial about immigration in the same way GOPers are in denial about global warming. Here's Ruy Teixeira on the Dems' immigration problem
I'm thinking perhaps we have to try to stay positive in this American crisis. I believe Joe Biden is trying to stay focused and benevolently positive in spite of all the slings and arrows heading his way from Fox, tfg, maggots, cultists, and the misinformed who believe authoritarians will somehow make life better for them. Here. Destroying democracy. Ignoring the Constitution.
What should be normal has been turned into survival. But if the ones tuning out are the ones who could help save democracy, then it’s not survival they will get. How soon we forget.
I rise to disagree; the more fundamentally good, modest, earnest and tireless leaders we can find, the better. We also need that for which you are advocating as well.
They were extraordinary in so many ways. Two things from their long life stand out: 3-year-old Jimmy met Rosalynn just after she was born because his mother had delivered her. Then there's Jimmy risking his life from exposure to extreme levels of radioactivity to prevent a reactor from exploding. I think people mistook their mild manners for dullness when that placid affect hide steely resolve.
His mother's a nurse and a midwife and his father is a big deal in Plains but I don't think he was that successful that anyone knew him at the state level. Jimmy and Rosalyn made the farm a success after he left the Navy.
They did extraordinary things but they didn't come from wealth or privilege.
So when someone says they want more regular people in politics, the Carters were regular people.
And the American people chose a B List actor instead.
Carter had the nerve to ask us to make some small sacrifices for the common good. He may have been using FDR's fireside chats as a model.
But we were already on the way to being a "me" country as opposed to a "we" country. The qualities that Carter exemplified were at one time the core of "Christian" belief. They still are for some. But too many have embraced the dark side - rejecting the idea of putting on a sweater instead of turning up the thermostat seems to me to be emblematic and the launch of the extreme selfishness that would follow.
Imagine. Yes! Imagine if we had been inspired by other nations in terms of social responsibilities. Healthcare, childcare, education, retirement planning. Excellent how to do it examples all over the world. But, Nooooo. We are exceptional!
And yet. Here we are. Millions of jobs unfilled. Millions of projects not completed for lack of workers. And millions of people applying for work. This is a big Duh. I guess hating is more fun than solving problems - for some.
My thoughts so often. Jimmy Carter was so far ahead of the curve he left the average American standing alongside that B class actor, smiling and saying he was going to "make America great again". BTW, you did know that Trump stole that line also. Well, he did and what is really hilarious is that neither Trump nor Reagan even know what "greatness" is.
And slowly but surely they have been dumbing their followers down. The wilfully ignorant aren't able to understand that they will soon loose all their rights because they are "too dumb" to vote or "too dumb to know what they want". It's already happening and only when it's too late will many of these "loyalists" realize what they have done by blindly supporting faciast cult leaders.
Yes, it roars even more, me, me, me, mine, mine, mine. Crap on you and yours. The haughtiness of the selfish disregard has always shocked me. That it can be admired is an indictment of republicans everywhere.
And will Heather & Buddy have to load up his boat & head for Canada?" Probably before the inauguration. I need to look into transferring my accounts with a U.S.-based firm to a foreign one. I already have permanent residency rights in a foreign country.
that is a stark reminder of the thoughts of the last regime and that of jimmy carter and family. i hope we end this madness and put trump in prison for trying to over through the government.
Right-wing extremism can only accomplish its goal of destroying faith in democracy if the MSM - press and television news - report the stories the extremists are vocalizing. They can only "suck up so much media oxygen" if the media gives it to them.
“Journalism 101: If someone says it’s raining and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the &$@!!$&@ window and find out which is true.” — Media Matters, Journalism Tutor via Sally Claire
'Trump’s Dire Words Raise New Fears About His Authoritarian Bent'
'The former president is focusing his most vicious attacks on domestic political opponents, setting off fresh worries among autocracy experts.'
By Michael C. Bender and Michael Gold
'Donald J. Trump rose to power with political campaigns that largely attacked external targets, including immigration from predominantly Muslim countries and from south of the United States-Mexico border.'
'But now, in his third presidential bid, some of his most vicious and debasing attacks have been leveled at domestic opponents.'
'During a Veterans Day speech, Mr. Trump used language that echoed authoritarian leaders who rose to power in Germany and Italy in the 1930s, degrading his political adversaries as “vermin” who needed to be “rooted out.”
“The threat from outside forces,” Mr. Trump said, “is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within.”
'This turn inward has sounded new alarms among experts on autocracy who have long worried about Mr. Trump’s praise for foreign dictators and disdain for democratic ideals. They said the former president’s increasingly intensive focus on perceived internal enemies was a hallmark of dangerous totalitarian leaders.'
'Scholars, Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans are asking anew how much Mr. Trump resembles current strongmen abroad and how he compares to authoritarian leaders of the past. Perhaps most urgently, they are wondering whether his rhetorical turn into more fascist-sounding territory is just his latest public provocation of the left, an evolution in his beliefs or the dropping of a veil.'
“There are echoes of fascist rhetoric, and they’re very precise,” said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor at New York University who studies fascism. “The overall strategy is an obvious one of dehumanizing people so that the public will not have as much of an outcry at the things that you want to do.”
'Mr. Trump’s shift comes as he and his allies devise plans for a second term that would upend some of the long-held norms of American democracy and the rule of law.'
'These ambitions include using the Justice Department to take vengeance on his political rivals, plotting a vast expansion of presidential power and installing ideologically aligned lawyers in key positions to bless his contentious actions.' (NYTimes) See link below - sorry that I cannot provide one that is gifted.
You only have to observe what has happened to Texas - with an openly corrupt and partisan AG who survived a corrupt process to remove him and has managed to keep the indictments at bay for years, alongside gerrymandering on industrial scales - to see what might happen to the whole US if you let it.
That's why I do not understand third parties and schismatics within parties. Have they no knowledge of history? Don't they know that the authoritarians of Europe - from Julius Caesar through the two Henri Tudors, to Napoleon, Hitler and Mussolini, all the way to Orban - have weaponised division among their rivals as their way to gain and retain power? (and EVERYONE else is their rival, remember that. As Caesar's friends-turned-murderers found out). There is no better illustration than the inability of the Reichstag parties to come together against the Nazis to see what happens when the danger is not clearly defined and fought against AS A COALITION. Don't like your bedfellows? Too bad. You'll like living in a dictatorship even less.
In the US, Trump and the MAGAs are the danger. It behooves all Americans who don't want to live in an actual dictatorship (as opposed to the rule of law that might come for them if they misbehave) to work together against that danger and all its agents, including fascistic businessmen like Thiel, Musk and Mercer.
Remember it is not so much “divide and conquer “ but rather “divide and lead”. It does sound a little bit like “confusion is the devils tool”. I hope I can find a way to help push in the direction of clarity.
In the US, corporate control via inverted totalitarianism is the danger, and we are already there. Where in the hell do you think Trump came from?
This is where the third party and ‘schismatics’ (love that word, btw) come from. Neoliberal governmental failure for the past fifty years has boiled over in rage/frustration in a large bloc of the voting public; you might think they are short-sighted, they look at look at you and think you haven’t a clue what they are going through.
It’s why I laugh at the first item that HCR listed that Americans want to see: compromise. The schismatic people you address have seen the compromise over last five decades and reject it, as the two biggest challenges we face, income/wealth inequality and climate change, have… gotten…. worse. They’ve seen the failures of the Clintons and Obama, and want FDR. Biden is not as bad as the former; not even in the same ballpark as the latter.
It’s not the job of the schismatics to interpret history, bow to tribal loyalty, etc. It’s the job of the Democratic Party, and Biden, to earn their vote. It’s seems that neither fully grasps that ‘Democratic’ concept; thinking that using the fear of dictatorship strategery will be sufficient to close the deal. Biden is hemorrhaging young voters with his hands off Gaza policy, and it might bite him in the butt.
Tom, you puncture what is reasonable in your comments with cruel, unwarranted attacks on HCR, subscribers, President Biden and any person, party and organization within the range of your brain. Are these planned battles to block exchanges with others, automated personality traits or as you might answer, 'nothing but the truth'?
Aw, Fern, you should know by now that trying to channel Michelle Obama’s ‘we go high’ as critique is a cruel, and unwarranted attack on my automated personality traits; albeit humorous in a bless your heart modality.
Just stop puncturing your comment with cruel, unwarranted hyperbole, and keep your focus on ‘nothing but the truth’. I don’t do tribal. I have little patience with those who do, and that includes specific instances in which anyone, including ‘HCR, subscribers, Biden, etc.’ fall into that category. Reasonable enough?
Fern, the Palestinian Americans support Tom’s claim. Biden can very easily lose Michigan if he doesn’t do something that brings the Israelis & Palestinians together against Hamas.
People here understand the Jews. We have a holocaust museum here in Oakland County that sends survivors into classrooms to talk. Still, we also empathize with the Palestinian reality. Many feel Israel has gone too far killing too many w/o a clear plan to regain their hostages, replace Hamas, & improve the lives of the Palestinians.
It's the job of every single citizen in a democracy to seek compromise with their fellow citizens. The opposite of that is imposing your will, or have someone else's will imposed on you. And it's the job of progressive, Socialist leaders to see when compromise is necessary, and when to hold out.
Does that mean you roll over? Of course not. There's a whole long tradition of vigorous debate before reaching consensus, or at least an understanding.
When faced with an existential danger, it's important to recognise it and prioritise it. Saying "saving our democracy is important now, and once that's done we can fight and win for economic justice" is not giving up - it's reasonable, and it's up to the leaders who care about both economic justice and democracy to recognise existential priorities.
Do you know why the Labour Party worked with Winston Churchill in 1940 and set up a government of national unity with him, despite the fact they hated his guts - the trade unions especially - because of how he behaved during the 1926 General Strike? It's because the Labour Party defined the Nazi danger as existential, and Churchill was the most prominent Conservative politician to have warned the world about Hitler and the Nazis in the 1930s. So the Labour leaders - Attlee, Bevin and their fellow Socialists - set aside their understandable dislike of the aristocrat Churchill, and worked with him to defeat the Nazis. Then, when that was done, in 1945 Labour went on to win a landslide election against Churchill and his Conservatives and transformed post-war Britain.
Who are these progressive, Socialist leaders you speak of?
Do you know why the story of the little boy who cried ‘wolf’ has resonance when speaking of ‘existential threats’?
Why is it that those who continually speak of the importance of compromise, seemingly are the ones most reluctant to engage in it when they assume they hold a winning hand?
I’m reminded of the Henry Rollins line when speaking about how when repeatedly oppressed people are approached by oppressors and asked to compromise yet again, what is the proper response? ….. You first, mf’er.
You’re the one preaching. I’m just stating an undeniable historical reality: the economic rights of workers and their families and the free expression of citizens have only thrived in democracies, and only those democracies where workers and citizens have campaigned on their rights to organise and negotiate collectively. Dictatorships, left and right, don’t like alternative centres of power, so close all that down. In order to prevent dictatorships, we have to work in coalition with people we might not agree with. You obviously don’t like that historical reality. Too bad - that puts you squarely on the wrong side of history, along with the German Communist Party circa November 1932, who preferred the Nazis in power to a coalition with the Social Democrats to defeat the Nazis.
As for your question of who those Socialist leaders are in the US - have you missed the Autoworkers’ union rising to win better pay and conditions? The writers’ union holding out for the same thing? Amazon workers insisting on unionisation? Those leaders, at national, state and local level are all around you. You might even become one yourself.
Fern, I believe that a large swath of MAGA Americans have no actual concept of what Authoritarian/Fascist Rule looks like in practice, as they have little concept of how American Democracy actually functions. They get their values from propaganda because its entertainment for them
As Democrats and folks like General Kelly are befuddled by the seeming loyalty to Trumpism, perhaps the way to address it is not by comparing Trump to Fascists, rather to initiate a long term campaign to teach Americans what a Fascist Rule actually is via film from the 30’s and today. Leave Trump out of all instructional ads so as not to turn the MAGAs away immediately, but rather let them see the result of Fascism and then let them decide if that looks good to them. The ultimate comparison of Trumpism to Fascism will naturally follow
When I was a freshman at UofM I took PoliSci 102, Comparative Governments. It was very dry to me and I paid half attention (my fault, not the Profs and TA’s). I did however retain a lasting concept of Weimar Germany and the foundational seedlings of Hitler's Rise to power as a “Savior” from the Repressive Treaty of Versailles and its crushing effect on the German people via hyperinflation and starvation. Hitler gave the people some relief and they then bought into it enough to allow his ruthlessness to become unmasked
We now face almost the exact same scenario, except this time American citizens are facing economic despair from not a Treaty but rather Oligarch Trickle Down. Trumpism capitalizes on the despair, not the root cause. MAGAs only care about the “hope” of having their own “Savior” save them; they don’t understand the snake wielding the sword. They, like the German people will only learn after its too late
Teach them now. “Massive Campaign Democracy” paid for by a democratic Coalition that MUST be brokered by all Americans interested in maintaining our Republic; Democrats, Independents, Liz Cheney Republicans via the news media in tremendous ad dollars that overcome the clickbait incentive in terms of the dollar value of a misleading headline
Right now the media is complicit in the problem. Feed those (expletive delated) money grubbers what they want, cash. Its the hand we’ve been dealt. We must play a short term game for ling term security from the ravages of Trumpian Traitors
Dave, I suggest that putting all of the press in one basket is grossly misleading. The Washington Post, Boston Globe and many journalistic companies/outlets/universities/journals/magazines etc., are not disseminators of propaganda that dominates social media and companies, as the one behind Fox News.
I’m sorry Fern, I didn’t mean to generalize too much re the media propaganda, so rather than get too specific, I suggest that the ad dollars dominate editorial decisions, so make OUR ad dollars competitive with click bait. Perhaps thats not possible, but I think a concerted focused ad campaign re Fascism is a path to sanity
Dave, I have been an avid reader about the Holocaust, and the years leading up to WWII, ever since I read The Diary of Young Girl by Anne Frank while in junior high (many years ago, ha). This book grabbed my attention as an 8th grader and it still chills me to think about how easily people fell in step with Hitler. We do face almost the same scenario today, and it is downright scary.
Important People recognizing that current strategies like the Lincoln Project are falling short
One or two visionaries that shed political affiliations and congeal into a “patriotic plea” to all Americans, bringing with them leaders from all walks of life, celebs, Generals, Teachers, Musicians, Politicians; people with recognizable faces all doing 10 second video clip voice overs delivering pointed messages showing Fascist Rule, at the people who recognize them
Exactly. How is it that treason is so appealing? The oligarch trickle down has left half the country's hard-working three-job-holding families unable to make ends meet.
We already live under fascist rule, it’s corporate inverted totalitarianism, as opposed to the strongman paradigm, and too many on the liberal left seem to entirely focus on the latter; rarely a peep about the former.
Democratic politicians can’t make a full-throated attack on the corporate state because they are complicit in its creation, and their continued fealty to corporate donors allows the ‘both parties are same’ trope to have resonance for so many, voters and non-voters alike.
Until this dynamic changes, the ratchet effect will lead us ever further toward the strongman authoritarian rule so many here fear.
There’s always the possibility that a sizeable proportion of them actually want and would welcome fascist rule. There’s a lot of Franco nostalgia in Spain, Mussolini nostalgia in Italy, etc. No surprise that a percentage of Americans are among them. Back in the 1920s & 1930s, American money and lobbying was a vital lifeline to authoritarian and fascist movements in Europe. It’s arguable that without Texaco support, General Franco would have lost his war against democracy, and Spain would not have been a dictatorship for 40 years.
I read somewhere long ago (sorry, I can't site a source) that when Nikita Khrushchev was asked by a US journalist why America didn't have a large propaganda organization such as the one the USSR seemed to have, he replied "The US does not need one - you have the press to do that for you".
DT is an opportunistic ideological chameleon who will say anything he needs to get/keep power. His mental illness allows him to, over time, actually believe what he is saying. He is now a fascist, through and through. With DT, at least, there is no veil. As for his advisors, etc., they are all about secrecy. That they are tipping their hand now shows how secure they feel about their prospects. I believe this is a miscalculation on their part, mostly as a product of the echo chamber they live in. The adage 'a drug dealer should never use their own product' holds true here. We on the left need to be aware of this at all times as well.
"We found that the Times and the Post shared significant overlap in their domestic politics coverage, offering little insight into policy. Both emphasized the horse race and campaign palace intrigue, stories that functioned more to entertain readers than to educate them on essential differences between political parties. The main point of contrast we found between the two papers was that, while the Post delved more into topics Democrats generally want to discuss—affirmative action, police reform, LGBTQ rights—the Times tended to focus on subjects important to Republicans—China, immigration, and crime."
'Many former Trump aides say he shouldn’t be president. Will it matter?'
'Critics are grappling with how they can puncture Trump’s candidacy in 2024 and whether their voices will have any'
'John F. Kelly, the longest-serving chief of staff in President Donald Trump’s White House, watches Trump dominate the GOP primary with increasing despair.'
“What’s going on in the country that a single person thinks this guy would still be a good president when he’s said the things he’s said and done the things he’s done?” Kelly said in a recent interview. “It’s beyond my comprehension he has the support he has.”
'Kelly, a retired four-star general, said he didn’t know what to do — or what he could do — to help people see it his way.'
“I came out and told people the awful things he said about wounded soldiers, and it didn’t have half a day’s bounce. You had his attorney general Bill Barr come out, and not a half a day’s bounce. If anything, his numbers go up. It might even move the needle in the wrong direction. I think we’re in a dangerous zone in our country,” he said.'
'No president has ever attracted more public detractors who were formerly in his inner circle. They are closely watching his rise — cruising in the GOP nomination contest and, in most polls, tying or even leading President Biden in a general election matchup — with alarm. Among them are his former vice president, top military advisers, lawyers, some members of his Cabinet, economic advisers, press officials and campaign aides, some of whom are working for other candidates.'
'Among their reasons for opposing a second Trump term, they cite the 91 criminal charges against him, his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, his false claims of election fraud, his incendiary rhetoric in office, his desire to weaponize the Justice Department, his chaotic management style, his likely personnel choices in a second term, and his affinity for dictators.'
'Interviews with 16 former Trump advisers — some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss their former boss — show they are grappling with how they can puncture Trump’s candidacy in 2024, whether they can or should coordinate with one another and whether their voices will even matter.'
'Additionally, more than a dozen people once in his employ could end up taking the stand and providing testimony as part of multiple criminal trials, according to people with knowledge of the cases and court documents.'
'At the same time, even some who have publicly declared Trump unfit for office have said they would still support him over Biden in 2024.'
'So far, Trump has surged toward the GOP nomination even as former aides critical of him have blanketed the airwaves, giving scathing speeches, testifying on camera in front of congressional committees and penning books — shaking off the kinds of condemnations that could mortally wound another politician.'
“These media whores are always looking for their next grift — whether it’s book deals or cable news contracts — because they know their entire worth as human beings revolve around talking about President Trump,” said Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman. “They clearly don’t own any mirrors because if they did, they would not be able to look at themselves every day knowing what they’re doing is hurting the country. These charlatans are disgusting and should be wholly ignored.”
'Trump advisers note he has a coterie of loyal aides and advisers such as Stephen Miller, Kellyanne Conway and Dan Scavino, who have been allied with him for years. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), a former press secretary, endorsed Trump onstage at a rally in Florida last week. Other former top aides are putting together a 2025 plan and want to rejoin the administration.'
“The time has come to return to the normal policies of the Trump era which created a safer, stronger, and more prosperous America,” Sanders said.'
'In recent fundraisers, Trump has been questioned by donors on multiple occasions about his personnel choices and has attacked former officials who have spoken out against him, according to people familiar with the questioning. Trump has argued that while in the White House, he listened to people he should not have — and made bad hires, particularly at the Pentagon and Justice. Donors have expressed concern that Trump hired so many people who have attacked him, people familiar with the conversations said.'
'This time, Trump said, he would look out for people who are loyal and “smart.” A second term in office, people close to him say, would have people who “actually support President Trump,” in the words of one adviser.'
“I learned how deep the deep state is,” he recently told donors at an event.'
'Every president has the occasional critic from within his administration. Scott McClellan, former press secretary in the George W. Bush White House, rattled his former colleagues with a scathing look behind the scenes. Former defense secretary Robert Gates offered a harsh critique of President Barack Obama’s judgments that was used as a cudgel by Obama’s critics.'
'What makes Trump different is how many former aides have come out against him, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian, and how vituperative their criticisms have been. Their motives are varied, and while some are fueled by genuine concerns, others, he said, are driven by a new incentive structure. Some of the attacks could also be undercut because voters see the former aides as enablers who are now simply looking to reclaim their reputations.'
“You can get paid for a Washington insider book that dishes dirt; there’s been a corrosion of loyalty towards presidents. It wasn’t always that way,” Brinkley said. “And you have a lot of people who want to be decontaminated from Trump because he’s become a symbol of authoritarianism.” (WAPO) Link below -- gifted, thanks to Lynell.
And after all that being said in all these articles by his enablers, knowing the consequences of a Trump win, they still said they would vote Republican. WTF?? Cowards.
So happy for substack and thankful for all the very intelligent people who read Heather and the others. When going to Washington Post and New York times and many other sites you have to pay to read and I cannot afford to pay all these people just like millions of others out there. Could be the problem?? I know it is costly for the news outlets but everything is wrapped around the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and our lamestreet media is a very real and dangerous problem.
Thank you, Lynell. You brought the light on the words. Cheers! I copied the link you provided and edited it into my comment, with a thanks to you. I hope that you do not mind, Lynell.
Ally, you are a blessing. The article has been rewarded with a gift link by dear Lynell. Wish you safe and enjoyable travels. So good to hear from you. Salud!
There is a clear source for the current political burn out. A major battle against democracy was won by the right when the activist conservative majority of the Supreme Court STEPPED BEYOND the initial argument in Citizens United and overturned precedent. Their chain of logic, in the opinion penned by Anthony Kennedy, was that the Constitution protects freedom of SPEECH, not speakers, that the Constitution cannot suppress speech based on the identity of speakers, therefore it cannot suppress the speech of any association of speakers, so that corporations of any kind, including nonprofits like PACs are entitled to speech, and that in the "marketplace of ideas" it costs money to express speech, so there can be no limits on the money used to express speech because that in itself would be suppressing speech.
The majority also spoke about how the interjection of vast sums of money into the "marketplace of ideas" would NOT introduce corruption.
If Clarence Thomas had his way in his concurring opinion, all donors to associations of speakers should be able to remain anonymous.
Justice John Stevens wrote the 90 page dissent joined by Justices Breyer, Ginsburg and Sotomayor. It's going to be my reading for the week. Justice Stevens was adamant that the majority was legislating from the bench.
This is the seminal issue that has created the current crisis in our country. It takes on a whole new flavor with the news about Thomas' and Alito's hobnobbing with their conservative billionaire friends.
'Outrage against Univision grows after Trump interview'
'Univision has found itself at the center of a growing controversy after a recent interview with former President Trump that critics have blasted as too friendly.'
'The interview that aired Nov. 9 was noticeably warm, and Trump received little pushback as he gave false or misleading statements on border security and immigration policies he instituted as president.'
'Backlash from certain corners of the Latino community was swift, including calls for more balanced reporting and an outright boycott of the television network ahead of the 2024 election.'
'Latinos are considered a crucial voting bloc — and largely up for grabs — in next year’s election, likely to be a rematch between Trump and President Biden. Although Latino voters have historically favored Democrats, the Republican Party in recent years has made significant progress in courting their votes.'
'The exclusive interview with Trump therefore raised significant alarms within the Democratic Party and its allies that the leading Republican candidate was making unchecked claims to important swing voters.'
'Actor John Leguizamo posted a video to his 1 million Instagram followers Thursday criticizing the Spanish-language media company for' “softballing Trump” and reportedly canceling ads for Biden. He said the television network has become “MAGA-vision.”
'He implored fellow entertainers, athletes, activists and politicians to join him in boycotting the network until it reinstated “parity, and equality and equity” between the presidential candidates. The television network has also requested an interview with Biden, according to the Washington Post.'
'The more-than-hourlong interview with Trump was conducted by Enrique Acevedo, an anchor from Mexican network Televisa who is not a Univision journalist. The two media groups merged last year. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner reportedly helped organize the interview.'
“All you have to do is look at the owners of Univision,” 'Trump said in the first few minutes of the interview when asked about Latino voters and recent polls showing him defeating Biden in 2024.' “They’re unbelievable entrepreneurial people, and they like me.”
“They want to see security,” Trump added. “They want to have a border.”
'During the interview, Trump made questionable claims that the partial wall built along the southern border was made possible by Mexico providing thousands of soldiers “free of charge,” and that former President Obama laid the groundwork for the controversial policy at the border to deter illegal crossings that became known as the family-separation crisis. Acevedo did not push back on either claim.'
“It wasn’t just a friendly interview. It was an embarrassing 1-hour puff-piece with lots of smiles and no pushback with a guy who relished in attacking, belittling and otherizing Latinos and Latin American immigrants,” Ana Navarro-Cárdenas, a prominent Nicaraguan American political strategist and commentator, said on the platform X, the company formerly known as Twitter.'
'León Krauze, a veteran news anchor for Univision, has since resigned from the network. He did not provide a reason for his departure.'
'State Sen. Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), a member of the California Latino Legislative Caucus who is running for Congress, said she knew many other Latino leaders who were “personally upset” about the interview.'
'Rubio said she was “appalled” at how the former president “was allowed to just continue to spew lies and go unchecked” during the conversation. She called the interview “an insult to our entire Latino community.” (LosAngelesTimes) See link below.
Fern, if you will notice, with these articles, one is the New York Times, another the Washington Post, another is the L. A. Times. And all these articles are concerning different things, but about the same person. All of these articles are pointing out one thing. Trump’s takeover of the media. Good, bad, ugly, doesn’t matter the news, he’s slowly taking over consuming the media where it’s all about him.
The really scary thing here is Univision. This was all set up by his son-in-law, Jared. Jared weaseled his way into Mexico, receiving the highest honor that a civilian could receive from the Mexican president, which by the way really pissed off the people of Mexico, and then he took over one if the networks in Mexico which later merged with Univision. Thus led to the hour long sit down, waste of time, with his father-in-law by a “journalist” they flew in special fur that Mar-a-Lago interview. All he did was ask questions and allow Frimoy to yak away. No kick back, nothing, to any of his answers. And the questions, they said, were well scripted prior to the interview.
Jared was also present when this interview was taking place. They are also using Univision to flood it with “good news”, full coverage if Frumpy’s gatherings, such as the 3 hour crap he had the same night as the last debate. They showed it, with an hour pre-show featuring Trump with other travels and things. It, again, pissed off a lot of the Latino community.
Trump is dangerous. We all know this. We all have to keep in the pressure to the news media to do something to bring out the news about him that hopefully will bring light to his authoritarian views, his dictatorship he’s plotting, and especially the type of life we all will be forced to live if this fool is elected.
If we don’t, we are the ones that will end up paying in the long run. Most of us either our lives. You can bet your ass this fool is making a list for his military cops he will replace the law enforcement with to eliminate those on his list.
Good morning, Daniel. I have another take on the selections that I made. These are all major newspapers that uphold the standards of journalism, and they are not following Trump's ways but providing readers a true picture of what a lying, dislikable, undemocratic and dangerous man Trump is. The articles didn't suggest on this hand and on the other hand. I also copied and linked information from the excellent, Pew Research Center, which indicated that many Americans were getting the 'news', aka propaganda from social media -- that is not the 'free press', which is much too often blamed for equating Trump and Biden in the same basket. Too many complainers are not aware of where the misinformation and disinformation is coming from, in addition to Fox News. We need to support our journalists; they aim for accuracy as truthtellers.
Is it possible that Trump and his people set up the whole interview and the journalist was told what to ask and how to direct the interview? Was the journalist “bought”, threatened, bullied? It is mentioned that his son-in-law organized the interview. Has anyone spoken to the journalist about this?
He was “flown in” special for this interview. Jared not only set it up, he was there during the entire thing. And yes, the questions were ‘scripted’ and his instructions were to just ask the questions and allow DJT to talk. No kick-back questions on any answer.
What Trump is doing is going after the Latino vote. That’s quite apparent. And, he’s taking over the media by buying it. This is where Jared came in. He now is the proud owner of the biggest tv network in Mexico, which then merged with Univision. This brought about this stupid interview, among other things that’s being fine to promote DJT.
Don’t feel bad, Kerry. I didn’t learn it until I saw it all on MSNBC yesterday evening. It was quite the eye-opener. They had looked into Jared Kushner and saw where he had received that award in Mexico, and investigated everything. It was quite the report. Pictures, video, and all!
Rhonda, I learned all of this from a rather lengthy reporting on MSNBC last evening. They had a full workout on all of it, photos, videos, all included. Quite the report!
"Latinos are considered an important voting block." DUH! If the Democrats had countered the lies the MAGANAZIs put in newspapers, radio and TV in Spanish, the House would likely be under Democrat control.
In Victor Frankl’s 1946 publication’Mans Search For Meaning , he said people who fail to know themselves are in perpetual search for entertainment. Neil Postman later addresses the subject in ‘We Are Entertaining Ourselves To Death. Enter Taylor and Travis, along with the army of celebrities of all stripes, and there you have it. No eyes on the prize have we as we are already thinking about Super Bowl Sunday! Politics, phttt, who needs it? Not me. I’m good. Whatever. Facist Fatigue is wearing Americans down to a nub. With trump in Hell’s Kitchen, and his millions of lackey stooges at his side , we’re about to be boiled alive in his $hit soup if we don’t find the courage of the convictions we profess here, and elsewhere, to push back this tide of deadly terror.
A trump fan in Wisconsin stated "because he's fun", when asked why she supported him. Fun is mocking people, us Veterans, handicapped, all the other expendable humans at his disposal. People who know fact from fantasy would never "like" this sort of behavior. Whatever he is, he certainly is not human!!
This entire country is still in denial about who we are. We will never know ourselves or come to terms with our past until we aknowledge and own our mistakes and misjudgements as a country. How can we cleanly celebrate our virtues unless and until we own our faults?
'FACT SHEETNOVEMBER 15, 2023' (Pew Research Center)
'Social Media and News Fact Sheet'
'Digital news has become an important part of Americans’ news media diets, with social media playing a crucial role in news consumption. Today, half of U.S. adults get news at least sometimes from social media.' - See link below.
'How old are the 2024 presidential candidates? Biden, Trump, Christie and others' ages'
'Age has played a key role in the 2024 presidential election, with President Joe Biden turning 81 of Monday and former President Donald Trump, 77, remaining the dominant frontrunner in the Republican primary race. '
'Biden himself has often joked about his age as he tries to turn one of his weaknesses among voters into a punchline. At an event in late June, he called himself “198 years old,” and on Monday, he told reporters that it's "difficult" to turn 60.'
'Trump on the other hand, has received criticism from his GOP rivals over his age. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took a shot at Trump in an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” saying “The presidency is not a job for somebody that is pushing 80 years old.”
'Ahead of the GOP presidential primary elections and next year's general election, here’s a look at the ages of the 2024 presidential candidates.'
Personally, the candidates age is about the last thing I am worried about. It’s what their plan is for us, the American people, that concerns me the most.
Out of this entire list of candidates running now, and even those that are still thinking about running, like Joe Machin. What have any of them had to say about their outlook for the future of the American people? There’s only one candidate that’s even came close to discussing his plan for continuing the improvement of the economy, the infrastructure, the wars currently being dealt with, and everything gave going on that none of the other candidates even care about.
The only one talking about us is President Biden. That’s it. The only reason that he’s starting to yak about Trump is because if these stupid polls. If these polls were to shut down, then Trump would be a non-news article if we could get the media to stop talking about every fart he blows.
Biden's age goes along with the fact that he has had much more experience over his years than any of the other candidates. At this point in history, I think we need someone with his experience, coupled with his desire to get things done that benefit our country.
Yes, Barbara, Biden's long and varied experience as well as his moral character, strong family and administration members, deep care for the people and the value of his faith enable him to
Exactly. Who cares if the President can perform some athletic feat? What matters is the thinking process. Communication isn't the strength of CEOs, they have marketing people to do that. Where is anyone even asking GOPers what consequences would come from their proposals? What would like be like? How would the economy react? The international sphere? Russia, et al. Is the possible outcome what they want?
Biden's breadth and depth of knowledge outdo anyone yet mentioned as a possible alternative. His accomplishments need at least as much space and airtime as the TikTok depression scenarios. We have people who have money to do these thing. We can make our voices heard.
I wish that every damn time someone mentions a poll number, that there would be a banner scroll across the screen that says: "IT'S NOT ABOUT THE HORSERACE, STUPID; IT'S ABOUT THE STAKES!!! But I suppose that is too obscure, huh?
That or: "Your Vote is a Chess Move; Not a Valentine". I said the horserace thing to someone the other day and they looked puzzled for a few beats and then said...."well, that is pretty obscure, isn't it?" The thing is, this person is well-read and quite smart...but clearly not used to thinking about strategy or politics.
exactly...they are nice, well-meaning folks, but naive and apolitical. I gently suggested some substacks to read (this one, of course and Robert Hubbell's and Joyce Vance) and if they get their interest aroused, I'll suggest a few more. Maybe I'll get a convert or two!
"We found that the Times and the Post shared significant overlap in their domestic politics coverage, offering little insight into policy. Both emphasized the horse race and campaign palace intrigue, stories that functioned more to entertain readers than to educate them on essential differences between political parties. The main point of contrast we found between the two papers was that, while the Post delved more into topics Democrats generally want to discuss—affirmative action, police reform, LGBTQ rights—the Times tended to focus on subjects important to Republicans—China, immigration, and crime."
I just sent the following email to Josh Boak and Zeke Miller of the Associated Press, in response to their article in the LA Times, "Biden Threads Optimism with Dire Warnings About Trump." It addresses exactly what Professor Richardson is talking about.
My name is Gary Stewart. I am a climate activist living in Laguna Beach, CA, and have had 130 letters to the editor published since 2018.
I am writing to suggest that the calm-to-the-point-of-timid both-sides-ism that your article "Biden threads optimism with dire warnings about Trump", exemplifies, in the face of the obvious, in-your-face fascistic authoritarianism of Donald Trump and those lining up to institute his vision, will do as much or more to allow Trump to be elected again as any other factor.
You coddle Trump's demonstrably false narrative and reserve your questioning for Biden. You endorse the Trump talking point that Biden's message of optimism (without Trump) and disaster (with Trump) is somehow muddled, which it is not. It is a contrast called for by the extremity of what Trump is openly promising, compared with continued economic and social success that Biden has already accomplished.
This is not an election to be reported as a horse-race between a somewhat right Republican and a somewhat left Democrat.
This is a race between an unhinged autocratic and a somewhat left of center, traditional Democrat.
Donald Trump should not even be considered a member of the Republican Party - he owns the Republican Party, and is using it as a weapon to advance his personal agenda, defined by vendettas, narcissism and fantasy, all aligned to serve his personal needs, financially and emotionally.
You both know this.
I am certain that you are aware of the nature of the threat to American traditions, values and constitutional order - just consider for two minutes the parallels with Nazi Germany, Hungary under Orban, Russia under Putin, India under Modi, and what is happening in Argentina.
Unless the traditional media of which you are both members begins to alert the citizenry of the U.S. to the threat to the United States that Donald Trump represents, rather than a rational alternative to President Biden, Donald Trump will institute Project 2025 and Agenda 47 (which you really need to read in full, if you have not already), and the rule of law will give way to moralistic authoritarianism and business libertarianism, while all the levers of government will be dismantled and turned into nothing but an army of Trump lackeys willing to do whatever he directs, as guided by industry lobbyists and Christian nationalists. Ukraine will become part of Russia, for starters.
Project 2025 says it in crystal clear terms.
As a climate change activist, I am petrified by the regressive steps Donald Trump will carry out to unleash carbon emissions to enrich the fossil fuel industry, and shut down any and all programs designed to protect against the worst ravages that the climate crisis guarantees.
Please, I implore you, figure out a way to make journalism rise to the challenge of Donald Trump.
P.S. - I challenge you to read the wording and messaging in this recent post from Trump and challenge the accuracy of what I have said above. Relying upon Timothy Snyder's book, How Fascism Works, and Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism, this post is mainline fascism.
I then included a visual of the unhinged post from Donald Trump that Professor Richardson quoted, as was included in the Talking Points Memo article she referred to. ***********************************************************************************************
Addendum: I encourage everyone reading this blog to communicate the threat of Donald Trump to as many people with potential influence as you can. (Most journalists can be emailed directly.) Strong messaging can still be respectful, primarily by avoiding name-calling and personal attacks. Stick to what an article says, not the authors personally, as best you can.
That is a strong point absolutely. One would think that any journalist with the AP would be well aware of what Donald Trump would do to journalists (whom he called "the enemy of the people") if he could, and that if he's president he will do everything he can, like he hs promised, but maybe they are just telling themselves it will be okay. I'll keep that in mind.
Well done, and I hope more readers will follow your advice and contact journalists—and their corporate bosses—to let them know how critical it is for the public to know the dangerous threat Trump and his cult pose to our democracy.
I hear that loud and clear. Perhaps if you just revisit that vicious post of Trump's once a day, it will motivate you. Or take a break for a few days. Whatever works. It's going to be a long year, and we can expect Trump to only get worse, not better. You and I and hopefully others will have to be constantly shouting from the rooftops about what a threat Trump is. It cannot be exaggerated. I am an internal medicine physician, and the combinnation of pathology this man exhibits is almost beyond imagining. A person liike him only comes around on very rare occasions, and that is why he has been so uniquely successful despite his obvious lies, cruelty, arrogance, fragility, lack of impulse control, ethics and empathy, and feral ability to manipulate people and constantly push right to the edge of what he can get away with.
Thanks for the encouragement. I too am an internal medicine physician, with a subspecialty in infectious diseases and clinical microbiology. Trump’s response to the pandemic had me screaming at the tv news casts most nights.
I have done a lot of medical-legal evaluations in situations where people have high motivation to control the narrative, exaggerate, misdirect and flat out fabricate. I guess I just soaked up their way of communicating, because I literally cannot listen to Donald Trump for 10 seconds before it is obvious that he is being insincere at some level, including fabricating whatever he wants to believe. that is why it is so challenging for me to understand how anyone cannot immediately tell he is blatantly manipulating them.
Much of the Fox News programming is structured similarly. Glenn Beck, too. Seems blatant manipulation techniques akin to sicko family/workplace dynamics.
Gary, maybe because they don't care. Trump is the "Forlorn Hope", and the folks behind him don't necessarily want him to survive, and become an officer.
I guess there is a segment of Trump supporters who would love to get his base's support but without him. I don't think that's possible, though, because his followers have cult-like devotion, and it is very difficult for that level of dedication to be quickly transferred to another person who is not going to have Trump's unique hold on people. Most cults evaporate when the leader is no longer there.
I agree, but it may have been his unhinged, poor response to the pandemic that sunk him in 2020. His additional time on true mainstream media talking about the pandemic and the obvious poor results as the US racked up dead in numbers beyond many other developed countries was impossible for him to spin to his advantage.
any day of his “presidency” was a shocking anomaly and provided on-going evidence of his gross unfitness. Even with the slobbering coverage from Rupert and the MSM doing a pissy job.
I think some of us are just gobsmacked that a criminal, laying out his plan to burn the Constitution to the ground is leading the Republicans. Americans saying, yes, we want an Autocratic. Another WTF moment.
I was reading a story to my granddaughter this weekend and the main character's name was Tramper. I keep calling him Trumper. They're making me crazy.
I think we are actually making headway, Sky. I have been doing the same, and since it was a main discussion point here a couple weeks ago, it seems I am reading more and more informative articles in NYT, WAPO etc
Kudos to you--you got MAD, as in the Media and Democracy Project. Write to journalists and editors, both to call out the bad and to validate the good. Build relationships with them.
Sharin' the love. If you would like to get more of whatever strikes me as needing attention, send me an email to bertrandbartok@gmail.com and I can add you to my email blast - not every day, and usually very brief. If you try it and don't find it useful, just let me know and they stop immediately. Gary
FYI - email regarding wealth inequality, tracking with political polarzation since the 1970s and 1980s (lead up to Reagan and from then on):
Source: Article "Political Polarization and Income Inequality" From Princeton University.
ABSTRACT:
Since the early 1970s, American society has undergone two important parallel transformations, one political and one economic. Following a period with mild partisan divisions, post-1970s politics is increasingly characterized by an ideologically polarized party system. Similarly, the 1970s mark an end to several decades of increasing economic equality and the beginning of a trend towards greater inequality of wealth and income. While the literature on comparative political economy has focused on the links between economic inequality and political conflict, the relationship between these trends in the United States remains essentially unexplored. We explore the relationship between voter partisanship and income from 1956 to 1996. We find that over this period of time partisanship has become more stratified by income. We argue that this trend is the consequence both of polarization of the parties on economic issues and increased economic inequality.
CONCLUSION:
We attempted to explain the increasingly strong relationship between income and voting. Given our interest in both inequality and polarization, we were somewhat surprised to find that polarization, but not inequality, seemed to the primary factor behind the increased party-income stratification. This leaves us with an important puzzle: why did the parties polarize given the lack of a large direct effect of increased inequality on the composition of the parties?
A wealth transfer since the 1970's from people with less wealth and income to those with greater wealth and income is reflected in this Time Magazine article title from 9/14/2020: "The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion from the Bottom 90%." (Click here for full article.) Assuming an average population of 250 million over 1970-2020, that means an average of $200,000 per person.
The stress of being a member of the economic precariat (employment and income are insecure) makes people prone to behaviors of desperation, despair and lack of opportunity, since there is no equality of opportunity without equality of condition. These include crime, substance abuse and dependence, and suicide, and these are all associated with adverse demographic health outcomes.
As the percentage of a population that falls into this category increases, that society overall must be considered objectively less healthy. This applies to the U.S. since the 1970s.
********************
Addendum: The Appeals Court decision reported today claiming that private citizens can no longer sue under the Voting Rights Act (although 90% of all cases up to now have been by private citizens) is certainly not going to help with wealth inequality - voter disenfranchisement is one tool for hardening wealth inequality into place. Democracy is anathema to most in the very wealthy class. Plutocracy is far preferred.
Perfectly understandable in light of the phenomenal degree of global wealth inequality: The richest 1% own almost half of the world's wealth, as do 81 billionaires. You can operate a lot of global south homes for a year while creating less carbon emissions than one international airplane flight or one super-yacht excursion.
Julie: Most prominent journalists and Op-Ed authors can be contacted directly. This may be through the newspaper where they reside, or through the AP website, or through organizations where they also participate (e.g., non-profits, other outlets, think tanks, book publishers, if they have written a book, university, if they are a professor, etc.). So, for example, I just now Googled "How do I contact Wolf Blitzer?" and there was a match that provided his email: <wolf@cnn.com> It is rare that I cannot manage to get an email to a journalist directly, and if I can't find a direct email, I will write to their publisher or university department, or wherever, and request that whoever is reading my email forward it to their author/writer/analyst, inviting them to review it first to determine if they feel this is respectful and appropriate. That protects the journalist/author from disclosing their own email unless they choose to write back, which oftentimes they do. The greater challenge is to write something that is measured and not allow passion to make the communication less effective. Always best to start with an introduction of who you are (e.g., name, city, member of an advocacy group, whatever), why you are writing, and a compliment; also end with a big appreciation of their time and expertise. Hopefully those are a few ideas that may prove helpful.
Perhaps this article will be a harbinger of the traditional media waking up to the threat we all face, including them. I sure hope so. Good tip, thanks.
I wish that the Biden campaign and actually, all Democratic campaigns could find ONE well known person of each group that Trump is threatening to expel, to have them reach out to and represent their group. I'd like to see Beyonce get all black Americans, but especially the young black people to REGISTER and to VOTE. I can't think of who might be the equal of Taylor Swift in every ethnic group, but there MUST be leaders who speak out. I welcome any suggestions.
This is a well read forum. Perhaps it would get the right attention/
I have a sonic weapon. Shostakovich's 5th symphony. If they last out the first movements, they'll be racing for cover by the end of the 4th, hands over ears, crumpled and cowering.
No. If you click on your name, the pop up screen shows "followers" and you can see who is following you. I assume that you would have gotten a notification each time someone has done this, as I see about a dozen people listed for you.
As HCR reported today, "Liberals believe in six things,” he wrote: “freedom, human rights, pluralism, security, the rule of law and democracy,” including fact-based debate and accountability of elected officials to the people."
When I was in Boy Scouts we started each meeting by reciting the Boy Scout Oath, Law and Motto.
The Law is:
Trustworthy
Loyal
Helpful
Friendly
Courteous
Kind
Obedient
Cheerful
Thrifty
Brave
Clean
Reverent
Think of any MAGANAZI politician- They strive for NONE of these things.
The newspapers are now almost totally owned by Wall Street hedge funds. No wonder people are not being told any of the positive achievements Biden has accomplished. Hence the despair and disgust
There is the additional problem even for those who voted for Trump that every day all day, newspapers, magazines. TV, and the internet are wall to wall, ceiling to floor filled with images and quotes from Trump. I don't know the facts, but from my perspective I see 10 images of Trump for every one of Biden - and frankly Biden is better to look at.
Exactly! The billionaires are paying good sums of money to make sure the media erodes faith in democracy day by day. With democracy gone, they can do as they please, no longer fettered by rules made by the people, because _they_ will be making the rules…
Rosalynn Carter, always compassionate, always a class act. Jimmy Carter, the same. We would have been a better country, we would have been better human beings if they had won a second term. He was the last good man that was president of our country. Everyone single president since has been a much lesser man.
Rachel Maddow’s show tonight clearly explained what occurs when a country buckles under authoritarian rule. And muzzling the media is one result. I’m sorry for the people of Argentina. The new President also wants to “sweep under the rug” the huge numbers of people that were murdered under the last military dictatorship.
Jimmy Carter, as Heather Cox Richardson concludes here, got it correct in citing the personal.
Dems today could follow his lead -- but to cite the personal widely would also expose Dems to the skills they have (or don't) in also citing our artists of the personal. Novelists, film makers, musicians, memoirists -- all who've excelled in looking at individuals in their communities.
Trump and his acolytes have the advantage now in broadcasting personal vulgarities. Of course they need discuss no public policies. Their public clamors but for most easily digestible vulgarities.
Dems could surpass this, and cite humanities for higher standards of public appreciation?
Could be. Or we could just sit back and let the billionaires and their authoritarian enablers keep on destroying everything decent in our public life.
The political fatigue the WaPo reporters found is a specific goal of fascist movements. Get people to the point where they give up trying to separate truth from lies. Or as Bannon put it, "flooding the zone with shit." And that article demonstrates that the fascists are winning.
TC, I'm feeling inarticulate today, but an old song bubbled up from my memory from the late '60s, by Steppenwolf: The Pusher. I think it expresses rage, born of frustration. I want to be sane, and rational, and reasonable. But ... damn.
In relation to the state of the media and political advertising in the US, it may be useful to ponder the view of the ultimate court of appeal in the UK in Regina (Animal Defenders International) v Secretary of State For Culture, Media and Sport [2008] AC 1312. In this case, which concerned political advertising, Lord Bingham, at 1346, speaking for a unanimous House of Lords, said:
“The fundamental rationale of the democratic process is that if competing views, opinions and policies are publicly debated and exposed to public scrutiny the good will over time drive out the bad and the true prevail over the false. It must be assumed that, given time, the public will make a sound choice when, in the course of the democratic process, it has the right to choose. But it is highly desirable that the playing field of debate should be so far as practicable level. This is achieved where, in public discussion, differing views are expressed, contradicted, answered and debated. It is the duty of broadcasters to achieve this object in an impartial way by presenting balanced programmes in which all lawful views may be ventilated. It is not achieved if political parties can, in proportion to their resources, buy unlimited opportunities to advertise in the most effective media, so that elections become little more than an auction. Nor is it achieved if well-endowed interests which are not political parties are able to use the power of the purse to give enhanced prominence to views which may be true or false, attractive to progressive minds or unattractive, beneficial or injurious. The risk is that objects which are essentially political may come to be accepted by the public not because they are shown in public debate to be right but because, by dint of constant repetition, the public has been conditioned to accept them.”
In her concurring speech, Baroness Hale, at 1513, sardonically noted that, during the hearing of this case, “there was an elephant in the committee room, always there but never mentioned,” namely, the “dominance of advertising, not only in elections but also in the formation of political opinion, in the United States of America” where there was “no limit to the amount that pressure groups can spend on getting their message across in the most powerful and pervasive media available.” Her Ladyship went on the state that “in the United Kingdom ... we do not want our government or its policies to be decided by the highest spenders.”
Unfortunately, much of what gets put out as news IS influenced by the highest spenders.
Most journalists probably agree that the trumpists are dangerous. After all, they get to see them performing first-hand! But those journalists have editors, and those editors have publishers & owners who happen to be billionnaires.
The bidding starts... Thanks to Citizens United, Billionaires are buying it all. They are so pleased with their investments in our Supreme Court. Look how that's paying off for them. Next, their media takeover. Lastly, for the Constitution to say, we own you now.
How much of TFG's 'leading' is the media propelled? The CNN townhall seems to have jump started the insanity. I have a high school classmate evolved to Jewish journalist, shouting that Israel isn't being heard. Well, sadly no one is being heard. Don't take it personally....
Welcome to the club. 4 years ago today, here's snip from the Letter:
November 21, 2019
Shared with Your friends
As Trump fixer Michael Cohen (now in prison) pointed out, Trump has always applied pressure with suggestions that allow him plausible deniability, first of all, and second, Sondland repeated again and again that Trump told him to “Talk to Rudy,” and that Giuliani was quite clear that Ukraine must make the announcement of an investigation into Burisma before it got either a White House visit or the money Congress had appropriated for it.
We just celebrated Halloween, a night dedicated to scary things".
We've lived through actual scary things, hurricanes, floods, mass shootings, 'regular' shootings, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes & a pandemic! But the Absolute scariest thing of all is thinking about trump 2.0!!! That thought terrifies me. I just think how quickly things can get out of hand, especially when trump & his sycophants tell us what they are planning. I mean really, mass deportations, death penalties for enemies, camps to house millions of people but more likely they will be referred to as vermin, easier to convince the people that those vermin in the camps don't deserve the same justice as "real" Americans!
And we best not forget that the press is the enemy of the people. They want to prosecute tv & news executives.
It must be awful to be that thin skinned. I can't imagine going through life getting insulted by the slightest thing & then turn right around & bully & threaten everybody within hearing! Absolutely pathetic! He needs to have a therapist's couch installed in every room!!!
I posted this letter with the admonition not to tune out because as Heather wrote tonight, the Rs are telling us in no uncertain terms what they have planned. I have spent my day answering memes that are using ancient history to support Israel or are just against anyone of faith. I used the Carters as an example of what people of faith can be and accomplish.
The 2021 election was an alarm bell for my wife and I. The fact that Trump carried any state other than Mississippi is a sign of our descent into Nazism. And you ask if I can imagine Reagan talking as Trump did. Honestly, I do not hear much difference between them, and Reagan set the ball rolling on all the problems that culminated in Trump holding public sentiment: the abolition of the equal time rule and fairness doctrine, the acceptance of single media companies controlling multiple outlets in singular markets, the "welfare queen" meme and the notion that "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help" are scariest words in the English Language. He presided over the same sets of morality scares and immigrant scares that the right relies on today, and he paved the way for a great windbag to spend forty years pumping unsubstantiated vitriol out on to the people's airwaves. It is no accident that Trump awarded that windbag the Iron Cross before his death from a brain tumor that came too late. Reagan's career should have been ended by his meeting with David Duke, but it wasn't.
We have to face the reality that half of America would be Nazis given half a chance, that that is not a new phenomenon, and that Trump's popularity is coming from the fact that he is offering those people that half a chance.
Those of us who drew Hitler Mustaches on Reagan posters weren't prophets, we didn't have second sight, we were merely astute.
I’m the leader for the Houston region and a chapter leader for Montgomery County for both Mother’s Against Greg Abbott & Mother’s for Democracy, and we are partnered with Blue Horizon. I’m also on the Texas Team for The Union & The Lincoln Project. I’m an At Large Board Member of the Women’s Outreach for the Montgomery County Democratic Party Women’s Outreach, and a Precinct Chair, as well as a member of the Texas League of Women Voters and Moms Demand Action.
I’m not understanding why my comment made you think I’m somehow not connected in the correct way here in Texas.
As for Linda’s comment.. We are all exhausted in Texas.
That’s great and I was only offering suggestions without knowing you already have these amazing connections. I was not saying anything about “correct” and meant nothing critical. We are linked, and I tip my hat to you. I certainly didn’t mean to distress you. We need clones of you. Robert Hubbell is hosting a forum on Nov. 30 for grassroots leaders to address burnout, if that seems helpful.
Compare Rosalynn Carter's continuing compassion & intelligence throughout her life with the former FirstLady who promoted “I Really Don’t Care, Do You?” statement on her jacket while en route to the border in 2018. It is even more cringe-worthy five years later.
Your comparison encapsulates the horrible decline of America, though the fight to save it isn't over. We need, desperately, more Rosalynn and Jimmy Carters.
Side note: As a young reporter in 1976 during the presidential campaign, I interviewed the soon-to-be First Lady on a street corner in Thomasville, Georgia. She was gracious, warm, and without pretense. What a good life she lived.
"We need, desperately, more Rosalynn and Jimmy Carters."
Jimmy Carter was indeed, prior to Biden, the last good President of my lifetime.
However, he was also a one term President beaten out by a guy who proposed to turn the economy into a "trickle" down to the common man (while turning on a gusher upward).
Americans flocked to Reagan like flies flock to fresh, warm, cow dung. They did get their "trickle" and now they are all poor and unhappy about that and blame, yep, Biden. That is how dumb Americans are.
So, although we "need" people like Jimmy Carter in leadership, Americans prefer crooks, BS artists, and whomever Fox News likes.
Plus, now that the United States Courts have instituted Jim Crow 2.0, Republicans will win all elections.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/20/us/politics/voting-rights-act.html?unlocked_article_code=1.AE0.-2rr.GMfl46UomObP&smid=url-share
Mike S I agree. But Obama was a very good President as well.
And former First Lady Michelle Obama would probably have been a better President than her husband. I have since urged her to run.
The ONE disadvantage that the Obamas' had is that their race opened the door for the racist slime like Trump to give voice to the worst Americans there are. Hillary's "deplorables" are still deplorable and are still lined up behind that traitor.
Posts like this with unsubstantiated claims from “progressives “ are as damaging to Biden and the Democratic Party as is the MAGA far right. Most readers of HCR prefer evidence-based comments. The previous comment did not advance anything but the writer’s own ego.
https://www.tbsnews.net/world/agenda-47-what-trump-has-promised-if-he-wins-2024-658382
Agenda 47 would consist of an end to birthright citizenship, further criminalizing transgender people and the LGBTQI community more broadly, expanding the thought crime and other censorship laws to end the teaching of "critical race theory" and to defeat "Woke" and "Black Lives Matter", attacking academic freedom and replacing it with "patriot education", implementing a national stop and frisk law, pardoning the Jan. 6 terrorists, putting homeless people in camps or some other designated area under threat of arrest, building high tech "freedom cities", ending the professional civil service and replacing it with right-wing political appointees and other such partisan agents, gutting the Department of Justice and other parts of the government that opposed Trump's attacks on democracy and the rule of law, executing drug dealers, starting a trade war with China, and making "peace" with Vladimir Putin by withdrawing support for the Ukrainian people and their freedom struggle. In many ways, Agenda 47 is a continuation of the fascist and other authoritarian policies Trump put in place during his first regime but now made even more extreme and cruel.
I wish I could like your post 100 times. Thank you!
I believe professors in general are more concerned with fostering conversation, exchange knowledge and challenge one another respectfully if needed and desired. We are invited to join this pace to benefit from everything, including those comments we may consider not so "enlightened". Ultimately, the choice is ours as to which thread to follow, and respectfully comment on.
Heather doesn't cite a single example of "extremism or authoritarianism" to a point that is embarrassing. She just parades out a bunch "left wing extremists" as authorities and then doesn't bother to offer an of their evidence.
As Christopher Hitchens said "that which be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence"
The raison de etre every single day is simply "Republicans are evil and we are virtuous" End of story. No need for evidence, own up to our short comings, or to make a case. And how dare you question our sanctimony.
The polling for Biden is bad, no matter how much lipstick you put on a pig. Worst of all the drum beat for him to drop out is hard to ignore and its coming from his own party - look at articles in the NY TImes / Wash PO.
It was opinion.
Michael I think on this often. When Obama was elected a huge swath of the American public construed that to mean racism is dead in America, or at least on its death bed. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nope - that election result instead was like shaking a beehive. It brought out for all the world to see the nasty racist nativist vein in the American psyche. A character trait much more common than so many of us thought possible this late after the civil war. Obama's two terms are like a highlight reel - lots of great accomplishment in the face of tough opposition. But it spawned Trump and MAGA.
A lot of accomplishments? Name one?
He was a terrible president by every metric.
BTW America is the least racist nation in the history of the world. And
today in America nothing is stopping any AMERICAN regardless of gender or race from achieving their dreams.
ITS A LIE to call America racist.
So was Clinton despite human fault!
Agree!!
Agree. Obama was very good UP to the point where he gave away the Treasury to big banks.
Mike S, The crash happened in September 2008 when George W Bush was President, and Henry Paulson was the Treasury Secretary.
"Jimmy Carter was indeed, prior to Biden, the last good President of my lifetime." I've said this so many times. Before Biden showed his wisdom and courage I wondered if I'd ever see another President I could see with the same pleasure and admiration that I felt realizing I lived in the country that elected such a good man as its President.
Now, I console myself when I realize that the worst Presidents of the last 30 years were Electoral College Presidents, not popular vote ones. Yes, I know GW won the popular vote for a second term in 2004 when he had us next deep in an unnecessary war, a war that Al Gore, who won the popular vote in 2000, would never have started. The Electoral College is one of the albatrosses around the neck of the US democracy. The sooner it is no longer used to select the President, the better.
I believe the only thing that enabled GW's 1st popular Vote win (his 2nd Electoral College win), was Deputy Attorney General James Comey, FBI DIrector Robert Mueller III, and the 25 other DOJ and FBI top officials changing their minds about resigning following the Alberto Gonzales/Andrew Card Jr attempt to get the hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft to reauthorize the domestic surveillance program (or at least some part of the secret Stellar Wind program).
Comey replying to GW Bush mentioning he would see him later after a morning briefing, said that he would not because he and others were going to resign. Comey was startled to realize that Bush had no clue about what Cheney (and Scooter Libby) seemed to be doing behind his back that involved Gonzales and Card.
See https://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/lets-check-james-comeys-bush-years-record-he-becomes-fbi-director
Though the article claims Comey and other's threats to resign worked, I believe the more complete story was Bush was either unaware (or an incredible actor), of the treats to resign because Bush's Chief of Staff, Card, and White House Council, Gonzales in particular, and probably Cheney and Libby didn't bother to pass that on to him. It was just seemingly luck that Comey realized Bush had no clue, and if not for that chance realization, they would probably have resigned.
If they had resigned and Bush lost 381,000 votes in Florida alone, Bush would only have 264 Electoral College votes to Kerry's 259, so neither would have had the necessary 270 and the House (with 1 vote per state) would have to vote for one of the top 3 candidates by electoral votes, and need an absolute majority, currently 26 votes . The Senate (all 100) would vote for the Vice President from the top 2 electoral vote recipients and need 51 Senate votes to be elected Vice President.
If the mass resignations had cost Bush 380,979 votes in Florida and 262,218 votes in Virginia, Bush would still have won the popular vote by 1,725,774 (if all the other states stayed the same), but lost the Electoral vote since Kerry would have had 291 Electoral votes (20 more than he needed to win), to Bush's 246.
I found it interesting that if Gore had gotten 538 more popular votes in a fuller recount in Florida in 2000 (same number of Electoral Voters), he would have won with 291 Electoral Votes to Bush's 246.
Notice there was only 537 Electoral votes cast in 2000, D.C. elector Barbara Lett-Simmons abstained though she was pledged to vote for Gore, she chose it as a form of protest of the lack of voting status for DC in the House. It would only have brought Gore's total to 267.
The electoral college is way too much of a wild card in determining a winner and can make it even wilder by throwing it to the House where each state only gets one vote for President, with only 26 required to win, no matter how badly a candidate may have lost the popular vote..
Very sad what's happening but I'm still hopeful there will be enough of us to stand up and do the right thing! Vote for sanity!
I would also add that the Reagan campaign pulled a major fast one with Iran, basically scuttling the progress Carter had made with freeing our hostages. And thereby dooming his chances for re-election.
Same as Nixon with the Paris Peace Talks. It’s done more often then anyone thinks.
Those two come to mind. Any others you can think of?
No but understanding how dirty politics is, I might hazard that George Washington had arranged to cross the Delaware with the British in order to give him a boost in popularity. lol.
I was thinking about the irony of Mrs. Carter's involvement in helping the mentally ill vs Reagan's overturning her progress and putting mentally ill people on the streets.
The GOP has been disgusting ever since.
Thank you Heather, Professor Richardson!
Again you revive my hope and belief that WOMEN’s Intelligence and Innate desire to support Humanity through Education and Good Will (nurturance of life on our Earth) will overcome ignorance and hateful actions which in this Moment, even here, are fogging our thoughts, hopes, wishes & dreams of EQUALITY for ALL in our battered United States of America.
I sure agree. Americans are quite a dumb bunch. I’ll harken back to Plato’s remarks that Tyranny follows Democracy. It just may be the ending of an interesting experiment. Freedom requires much responsibility and we don’t have it. The struggle ultimately is over money. No morals no ethics. It’s about money through power.
God, I hope you are wrong!!’
WHat delusional planet do you live on? Jimmy Carter?
However the Biden to Jimmy Carter comparison is a good one. Both had
high inflation, poor foreign policy, and brought on by higher energy costs. The big difference is that Biden energy prices were self inflicted. Between egging Russia into war with Ukraine, and crippling US oil production it was self inducted. Add 6-7 Trillion in deficit spending delivering higher inflation.
The good news was Carter was wiped out in a landslide. The same is coming for Biden.
James A.
I get it, you are unemployed and have a LOT of free time to troll websites that matter. Nice!
You are totally wrong, I pray!!!
I fell a thrill reading that you had met First Lady Carter, and, as a young person, you recognized her personal qualities. Thank you for sharing that moment.
I agree about the average American engaging, but respectfully disagree about the Carter’s…the world needs as many people like the former President and First Lady as it can get.
I concur. The humility of the Carters has been unmistakable. People I know who visited the White House when they lived there reported how approachable they were. One told a funny story about the President working the line while they were waiting to use the rest room. Another, the wife of a prominent Black official, told of being treated to lunch in the Carters' personal quarters. She got a peek at Amy's bedroom, where there was a hula hoop like the one her own daughter had. When the Carters stayed at the presidential library in Atlanta, they sleot on a pull-out couch, and when they moved back to Plains, the house they lived in was typical of the small brick "ranch houses" popular in rural Georgia. You'd have to go back to the Trumans to find a presidential couple that modest.
They are the epitome of good Christians and the opposite of deluded Donald’s self-righteous mobs
The opposite of the “Christian” Jackson’s and their ilk.
As a volunteer at The Carter Center for 15 years, I had the pleasure of seeing Jimmy and Rosalynn often. When he ate lunch in the Copenhill Cafe along with volunteers and staff, he always carried his own tray of food. Both of them were unpretentious and down to earth. The exact opposite of DJT and Melania.
MissingInArizona - "respectfully disagree about the Carter’s…the world needs as many people like the former President and First Lady as it can get."
Which former President and First Lady are you referring to?
I responded to a comment regarding the Carters. Didn’t think it was necessary to clarify which “former” I was referring to.
He was referring to the Carters.
If you’re talking about tRump, hell NO
For pity’s sake, there are 45 “former” presidents.
And the one your mind goes to first, is the Least qualified for the title??
I was responding to a comment that was speaking of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, which former I was referring too, should have been obvious.
Please do not conflate the former guy with a body part that evolved so that our ancestors could run, and that later evolved into a secondary sex characteristic that is often attractive on both genders. It's like using the c-word for female genitals as an epithet. Words for sex-related body parts should not be used as epithets.
I think that you misunderstand who Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter were both before, during, and after their time in the White House. I think that they were the "average American people with...integrity, endurance, and care..." that you're looking for.
If they do tune in to broadcast media, all they will hear is that Biden is old, really really old, and his poll numbers are terrible. I cut the cord a couple of years ago but still hear enough on public radio to make me furious. I'll listen until I hear the word "polls," which I do more and more lately. No one is going to be the first to stop so now not even PBS News Hour is "safe." I really wish all reporters and hosts and guests would say aloud and frequently: the only polls that count are the ones where we cast our ballots.
If we are allowed, it will not only take a village, it will take a swarm.
"If they do tune in to broadcast media, all they will hear is that Biden is old, really really old, and his poll numbers are terrible."
Mainstream media, having watched Fox grow its profits and its audience, are playing to the American audience. If the media start listing all of the good things that Biden is doing, then, the audience will switch to Fox News.
Hi Mike,
With all due respect (and I have a lot for you and our fellow substackers) - here is my optimistic weekly spiel about polls and media.
If the polls meant anything, Hillary would be completing her second term. I think their methodology is questionable at best. Who answers a land line?
MSM is a factor for this group - but not for two whole generations who have cut the cord or never used one. The only people I know who watch TV news are close to retirement or deep into it.
I suspect (and hope) as Trump and MAGA fascist plans and doublespeak are more widely understood, a majority of Americans would vote for Jaba the Hut over a wanna be dictator who will trash democracy.
Bill,
Apology for delay in response. Thank you for your always good and well reasoned perspective. I completely agree polls are almost always wrong now mostly because they rely entirely on a "home phone number" which nobody under 40 has.
I hope you are correct that "a majority of Americans would vote for Jaba the Hut over a wanna be dictator who will trash democracy"
I will keep your statement in my pocket for those days where I think Americans, umm, cannot find their way out of wet paper bag on a warm sunny day.
Bill, did I recently correctly read that Faux News, cable leader, only has 2 million viewers?
Bill, I must be the lone person on earth still using a landline (cable-based, as the old time “real” AT&T landline got ridiculously expensive), albeit with cordless handsets (better sound quality, etc). I would answer if the caller ID clearly identified the caller as a poll taker. Alas I get so many telemarketing calls, I wait to see if the caller begins to leave a msg (a “real” caller) before I pick up—98% click off once they connect to my voice mail. I DO have a cell phone, a horrible flip phone (the shift to 5G made my preferred prior cell phone obsolete & this was the bottom-of-the-drawer choice provided despite heroic efforts to upsell me something I did not need & would pay much more for by requiring a new plan)….as it is I only pay $5 month for my prepaid plan cuz I rarely use it & mostly just carry it for emergencies whilst out & about. Being retired & of very modest means I am not chasing the current iterations of phones, micro computers really. That’s what I have my iPad for! Guess I’m a Luddite after all….heh, just ask me about my vehicle!
Great comment Bill Alstrom! I wish I could like it ten times!
You nailed it again. I view all the media today as strictly "click-bait". There is good media out there but it too must compete for the average American's attention. Good luck with that.
What god things? Name one?
Higher Deficits? Inflation? Open borders? Endless migration? Crime? Censorship?
Trans Grooming?
BTW What is a women?
Get a job James. goodness. wayyy to much free time you have
The deficits rise under GOP presidents, because they reduce taxes on the wealthy and the incredibly wealthy.
Inflation, and the deficit are down under Biden.
As much as I like Biden--he's definitely the best president of my lifetime, which began the first summer of the Eisenhower Administration--we've had a lot of open borders under his administration. (I just testified before a Massachusetts joint committee on labor affairs in favor of E-Verify.)
And according to two experts in the field, both female European doctors, there is far too much "gender affirming" surgery, too early in peoples' lives (it shouldn't happen until early adulthood, they say).
Do you tell the leaders of your local public broadcasting station, or your local newspaper (if your town still has one) to mend their ways? I regularly post comments on NYT decrying editorial choices. They don’t always make it into print, but someone at the paper reads them.
Corporate money controls the media; and that includes NPR/PBS.
Only one way to throw off that yoke: MoveToAmend.org
Totally agree I wish the media would stop news on tofg. he loves to see his face everywhere. I remember when Oprah stopped showing a base of one of the criminals in the past because she said it’s like giving him free press.
No YOU ARE DELUSIONAL. You offer no proof other than your opinion.
Polls are based on SCIENCE. As usual leftist only believe "science" when it
mirrors their opinion.
The truth must be harsh for leftists to fathom. Maybe Americans don't love
DEFICIT spending. Or love open borders? Endless wars and stupid foreign policy? Or energy dependence? Or the assault on free speech and censorship? Or sexualizing
children with TRANS grooming? Or endless illegal immigration?
You just hate polls that don't confirm your bias.
Are you an adult or Alice in Wonderland?
James,
waaahaaahaaa. cryin like a baby we are today are we not?
Maybe a Waaaaambulance should be called to take him to get help. Sorry, just being snarky now, so I’ll just skip his posts (I do like to read differing opinion/ideas, but screeds/misinfo/rants not so much).
That's the right idea. Live in a bubble of self delusion.
If Biden were ahead you couldn't get enough. It must be hard when you can't get the confirmation bias you so badly want.
Even worse, after all the sanctimony and lecturing, it must be brutal to come to terms with the idea that everything that comes from the Democrats is NOT virtuous and beautiful.
Its most hateful and Anti American.
Polls are the delusion. What I want from our *free press* is issues, full stop. The media has long since turned the presidency into a four year race that starts the day after an election and continues with increasing relentlessness focusing on polls and personalities until the next one. As for Democrats being virtuous or beautiful, who said we are? We're flawed but striving human beings. What differentiates Democrats from Republicans at this hour is that the former is interested in improving the lives of all human beings and the latter is only interested in power. Newt Gingrich broke American politics in 1995. The GOP has become ever more ravenous for power and ever more hateful toward the government they run ever since. The Republicans who wrote the GOP platform in 1956 wouldn't recognize what's become of their party. Sad that. Our two-party system cannot long survive if one side is as off the charts extreme as House Republicans.
Your opinion about polls isn't an argument. ITS DELUSIONAL.
Improving the lives of human beings? Really with censorship? Open borders?
Inflation? Deficit spending? Endless wars? Trans grooming children? Endless illegal migration?
A quick check of human history should answer the question, what happens
when a party aggressively pursue "improving the lives of its citizens" UTOPIA?
A lot of death. That was the lie that was sold to Soviet and Chinese citizens.
120 Million murders later?
The perfect example American example.
The COVID pandemic was a POLICE STATE imposed on Americans under the name of compassion and "making our lives better"
How did that end? The government lied about vaccine efficacy. They lied about mask efficacy. They lied about booster efficacy. They about the origins of the vaccine. They enriched the political class, and fired and censored anyone who disputed their claims.
HELL NO. I don't want or trust a leftists desire "to make anyone's life better"
They are corrupt and worst incompetent.
There should be a screen for the unemployed on substack to take out these nutty posts.
Guilty. I am one who has tuned out the politics. Fatigue? Yes. However, I do notice more courtesy. Drivers pausing to let others in. Today, two lanes of drivers pausing to allow a U-turn!! So my sense is that people are becoming kinder... and I reinforce that kindness with "thanks, you are very kind" it always draws a smile. All that and I never miss an election. I believe that Americans are much more homogenous than reported.
Kindness is my religion, under severe trial right now. UU sermon was on radical kindness yesterday. “…I have learned kindness from the unkind…” from Khalil Gibran
I can relate Jeri, my religion is to treat others the way I want to be treated.
That wonderful Golden Rule, my favorite. Most religions seem to have some semblance of it. Wonder why it’s not a main tenet “The Golden Rule is the Doctrine of this church”.
Where did the Gibran quote come from?
Heard it from sermon in UU church. May have been from The Prophet, husbands’s “Bible.” Looked it up in A-Z quotes. “I learned silence from the talkative, tolerance from the intolerant, kindness from the unkind. Yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.”
"Last week the Texas legislature passed a bill to seize immigration authority from the federal government in what is a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution, and yesterday, Texas governor Greg Abbott announced that he was “proud to endorse” Trump for president because of his proposed border policies (which include the deportation of 10 million people)."
This may seem like changing the subject, but the key phrase here is "a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution." That's something that the Carters and so many other caring American citizens would never do. Who do they think they are to violate the one thing that protects all of us? How can they violate the Constitution while still being supported by more blue state tax federal dollars than all the red states combined? How can "thanks you are very kind" be said to all the Greg Abbots among us?
Why is the rule of law not being I forced?? Maybe I'm just naive
I lived in Paris for a year when I was 12. I didn't understand why the French seemed not to like Americans. Prior to that year, I'd go up to foreigners in Harvard Square, and ask them questions about themselves. No-one in Paris was doing that with me.
I sure as hell got to understanding why in the '90s. The Parisians didn't like Americans because there were so many of us. Our country absorbed 40 million immigrants between 1990-2020--the population equivalent of two NY States. The Census Bureau projects another 68 million--nearly 3 1/2 NY State equivalents over the next 40 years.
Here in Massachusetts, our shelter system, which was set up for American citizens, is now overrun with migrants, with many Americans being left out on the street. (We have a "right to shelter law.)
Democrats are in denial about immigration in the same way GOPers are in denial about global warming. Here's Ruy Teixeira on the Dems' immigration problem
https://substack.com/inbox/post/137887616
Maybe because this will bring the masses out to the polls to vote for Biden? Then we can thank the Abbots for their egregious act.
I'm thinking perhaps we have to try to stay positive in this American crisis. I believe Joe Biden is trying to stay focused and benevolently positive in spite of all the slings and arrows heading his way from Fox, tfg, maggots, cultists, and the misinformed who believe authoritarians will somehow make life better for them. Here. Destroying democracy. Ignoring the Constitution.
Yes, but people like Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter provide role models for others to emulate or at least aspire to.
What should be normal has been turned into survival. But if the ones tuning out are the ones who could help save democracy, then it’s not survival they will get. How soon we forget.
I rise to disagree; the more fundamentally good, modest, earnest and tireless leaders we can find, the better. We also need that for which you are advocating as well.
The Carters weren't extraordinary when they started.
They only look that way in hindsight.
They were extraordinary in so many ways. Two things from their long life stand out: 3-year-old Jimmy met Rosalynn just after she was born because his mother had delivered her. Then there's Jimmy risking his life from exposure to extreme levels of radioactivity to prevent a reactor from exploding. I think people mistook their mild manners for dullness when that placid affect hide steely resolve.
Yes, but that's who they became.
His mother's a nurse and a midwife and his father is a big deal in Plains but I don't think he was that successful that anyone knew him at the state level. Jimmy and Rosalyn made the farm a success after he left the Navy.
They did extraordinary things but they didn't come from wealth or privilege.
So when someone says they want more regular people in politics, the Carters were regular people.
And the American people chose a B List actor instead.
So true!
Carter had the nerve to ask us to make some small sacrifices for the common good. He may have been using FDR's fireside chats as a model.
But we were already on the way to being a "me" country as opposed to a "we" country. The qualities that Carter exemplified were at one time the core of "Christian" belief. They still are for some. But too many have embraced the dark side - rejecting the idea of putting on a sweater instead of turning up the thermostat seems to me to be emblematic and the launch of the extreme selfishness that would follow.
Can you imagine where we would be on energy if we had switched to solar and wind in the 80s?
Or what immigration would look like if we had continued to fund family planning and good government in Central & South America?
Imagine. Yes! Imagine if we had been inspired by other nations in terms of social responsibilities. Healthcare, childcare, education, retirement planning. Excellent how to do it examples all over the world. But, Nooooo. We are exceptional!
And yet. Here we are. Millions of jobs unfilled. Millions of projects not completed for lack of workers. And millions of people applying for work. This is a big Duh. I guess hating is more fun than solving problems - for some.
My thoughts so often. Jimmy Carter was so far ahead of the curve he left the average American standing alongside that B class actor, smiling and saying he was going to "make America great again". BTW, you did know that Trump stole that line also. Well, he did and what is really hilarious is that neither Trump nor Reagan even know what "greatness" is.
I thought they were most unusual in The political arena, hadn’t been long since Dickie left…
And slowly but surely they have been dumbing their followers down. The wilfully ignorant aren't able to understand that they will soon loose all their rights because they are "too dumb" to vote or "too dumb to know what they want". It's already happening and only when it's too late will many of these "loyalists" realize what they have done by blindly supporting faciast cult leaders.
Rosalyn said she thinks we’ll be OKAY. I think she’s right.
Yes, it roars even more, me, me, me, mine, mine, mine. Crap on you and yours. The haughtiness of the selfish disregard has always shocked me. That it can be admired is an indictment of republicans everywhere.
The comparison goes without saying....
Dewey, I wonder, if TFG regains the presidency, how many of us will come back onto a forum such as this one and speak our minds openly.
And will Heather & Buddy have to load up his boat & head for Canada
Carole, you wonder: "
And will Heather & Buddy have to load up his boat & head for Canada?" Probably before the inauguration. I need to look into transferring my accounts with a U.S.-based firm to a foreign one. I already have permanent residency rights in a foreign country.
I am pursuing my juris sanguinis via Italy
The red Christmas trees should have been a warning about her hubby's political inclination.
She only cared about being blonde and married to the bank.
that is a stark reminder of the thoughts of the last regime and that of jimmy carter and family. i hope we end this madness and put trump in prison for trying to over through the government.
Right-wing extremism can only accomplish its goal of destroying faith in democracy if the MSM - press and television news - report the stories the extremists are vocalizing. They can only "suck up so much media oxygen" if the media gives it to them.
What our current media does most improperly is to treat extremist statements as if they merely balance out prior facts with equal weight.
When In fact, they are putting weight on the side of bull schitt
Exactly
“Journalism 101: If someone says it’s raining and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the &$@!!$&@ window and find out which is true.” — Media Matters, Journalism Tutor via Sally Claire
On the front page of today's New York Times:
'Trump’s Dire Words Raise New Fears About His Authoritarian Bent'
'The former president is focusing his most vicious attacks on domestic political opponents, setting off fresh worries among autocracy experts.'
By Michael C. Bender and Michael Gold
'Donald J. Trump rose to power with political campaigns that largely attacked external targets, including immigration from predominantly Muslim countries and from south of the United States-Mexico border.'
'But now, in his third presidential bid, some of his most vicious and debasing attacks have been leveled at domestic opponents.'
'During a Veterans Day speech, Mr. Trump used language that echoed authoritarian leaders who rose to power in Germany and Italy in the 1930s, degrading his political adversaries as “vermin” who needed to be “rooted out.”
“The threat from outside forces,” Mr. Trump said, “is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within.”
'This turn inward has sounded new alarms among experts on autocracy who have long worried about Mr. Trump’s praise for foreign dictators and disdain for democratic ideals. They said the former president’s increasingly intensive focus on perceived internal enemies was a hallmark of dangerous totalitarian leaders.'
'Scholars, Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans are asking anew how much Mr. Trump resembles current strongmen abroad and how he compares to authoritarian leaders of the past. Perhaps most urgently, they are wondering whether his rhetorical turn into more fascist-sounding territory is just his latest public provocation of the left, an evolution in his beliefs or the dropping of a veil.'
“There are echoes of fascist rhetoric, and they’re very precise,” said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor at New York University who studies fascism. “The overall strategy is an obvious one of dehumanizing people so that the public will not have as much of an outcry at the things that you want to do.”
'Mr. Trump’s shift comes as he and his allies devise plans for a second term that would upend some of the long-held norms of American democracy and the rule of law.'
'These ambitions include using the Justice Department to take vengeance on his political rivals, plotting a vast expansion of presidential power and installing ideologically aligned lawyers in key positions to bless his contentious actions.' (NYTimes) See link below - sorry that I cannot provide one that is gifted.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/20/us/politics/trump-rhetoric-fascism.html
You only have to observe what has happened to Texas - with an openly corrupt and partisan AG who survived a corrupt process to remove him and has managed to keep the indictments at bay for years, alongside gerrymandering on industrial scales - to see what might happen to the whole US if you let it.
That's why I do not understand third parties and schismatics within parties. Have they no knowledge of history? Don't they know that the authoritarians of Europe - from Julius Caesar through the two Henri Tudors, to Napoleon, Hitler and Mussolini, all the way to Orban - have weaponised division among their rivals as their way to gain and retain power? (and EVERYONE else is their rival, remember that. As Caesar's friends-turned-murderers found out). There is no better illustration than the inability of the Reichstag parties to come together against the Nazis to see what happens when the danger is not clearly defined and fought against AS A COALITION. Don't like your bedfellows? Too bad. You'll like living in a dictatorship even less.
In the US, Trump and the MAGAs are the danger. It behooves all Americans who don't want to live in an actual dictatorship (as opposed to the rule of law that might come for them if they misbehave) to work together against that danger and all its agents, including fascistic businessmen like Thiel, Musk and Mercer.
Annis, I think they know exactly what they are doing. They are intentionally deluting the vote . I have always believed it was for a financial gain.
Nah...it's for power. Repubbies lust for control & power the way many women lust for chocolate during certain lunar phases.
Of course they know.
Remember it is not so much “divide and conquer “ but rather “divide and lead”. It does sound a little bit like “confusion is the devils tool”. I hope I can find a way to help push in the direction of clarity.
"Trump and the magas" are, but so are Fox and the liar blogs that pollute the airwaves.
In the US, corporate control via inverted totalitarianism is the danger, and we are already there. Where in the hell do you think Trump came from?
This is where the third party and ‘schismatics’ (love that word, btw) come from. Neoliberal governmental failure for the past fifty years has boiled over in rage/frustration in a large bloc of the voting public; you might think they are short-sighted, they look at look at you and think you haven’t a clue what they are going through.
It’s why I laugh at the first item that HCR listed that Americans want to see: compromise. The schismatic people you address have seen the compromise over last five decades and reject it, as the two biggest challenges we face, income/wealth inequality and climate change, have… gotten…. worse. They’ve seen the failures of the Clintons and Obama, and want FDR. Biden is not as bad as the former; not even in the same ballpark as the latter.
It’s not the job of the schismatics to interpret history, bow to tribal loyalty, etc. It’s the job of the Democratic Party, and Biden, to earn their vote. It’s seems that neither fully grasps that ‘Democratic’ concept; thinking that using the fear of dictatorship strategery will be sufficient to close the deal. Biden is hemorrhaging young voters with his hands off Gaza policy, and it might bite him in the butt.
Tom, you puncture what is reasonable in your comments with cruel, unwarranted attacks on HCR, subscribers, President Biden and any person, party and organization within the range of your brain. Are these planned battles to block exchanges with others, automated personality traits or as you might answer, 'nothing but the truth'?
Aw, Fern, you should know by now that trying to channel Michelle Obama’s ‘we go high’ as critique is a cruel, and unwarranted attack on my automated personality traits; albeit humorous in a bless your heart modality.
Just stop puncturing your comment with cruel, unwarranted hyperbole, and keep your focus on ‘nothing but the truth’. I don’t do tribal. I have little patience with those who do, and that includes specific instances in which anyone, including ‘HCR, subscribers, Biden, etc.’ fall into that category. Reasonable enough?
We are an odd combination, Tom. I like you as I wouldn't, otherwise, stop by.
Fern, the Palestinian Americans support Tom’s claim. Biden can very easily lose Michigan if he doesn’t do something that brings the Israelis & Palestinians together against Hamas.
People here understand the Jews. We have a holocaust museum here in Oakland County that sends survivors into classrooms to talk. Still, we also empathize with the Palestinian reality. Many feel Israel has gone too far killing too many w/o a clear plan to regain their hostages, replace Hamas, & improve the lives of the Palestinians.
Hello, Horan. Tom and I were not addressing issues. Our conversation was about communicating with one another.
It's the job of every single citizen in a democracy to seek compromise with their fellow citizens. The opposite of that is imposing your will, or have someone else's will imposed on you. And it's the job of progressive, Socialist leaders to see when compromise is necessary, and when to hold out.
Does that mean you roll over? Of course not. There's a whole long tradition of vigorous debate before reaching consensus, or at least an understanding.
When faced with an existential danger, it's important to recognise it and prioritise it. Saying "saving our democracy is important now, and once that's done we can fight and win for economic justice" is not giving up - it's reasonable, and it's up to the leaders who care about both economic justice and democracy to recognise existential priorities.
Do you know why the Labour Party worked with Winston Churchill in 1940 and set up a government of national unity with him, despite the fact they hated his guts - the trade unions especially - because of how he behaved during the 1926 General Strike? It's because the Labour Party defined the Nazi danger as existential, and Churchill was the most prominent Conservative politician to have warned the world about Hitler and the Nazis in the 1930s. So the Labour leaders - Attlee, Bevin and their fellow Socialists - set aside their understandable dislike of the aristocrat Churchill, and worked with him to defeat the Nazis. Then, when that was done, in 1945 Labour went on to win a landslide election against Churchill and his Conservatives and transformed post-war Britain.
Please. Preachy much?
Who are these progressive, Socialist leaders you speak of?
Do you know why the story of the little boy who cried ‘wolf’ has resonance when speaking of ‘existential threats’?
Why is it that those who continually speak of the importance of compromise, seemingly are the ones most reluctant to engage in it when they assume they hold a winning hand?
I’m reminded of the Henry Rollins line when speaking about how when repeatedly oppressed people are approached by oppressors and asked to compromise yet again, what is the proper response? ….. You first, mf’er.
You’re the one preaching. I’m just stating an undeniable historical reality: the economic rights of workers and their families and the free expression of citizens have only thrived in democracies, and only those democracies where workers and citizens have campaigned on their rights to organise and negotiate collectively. Dictatorships, left and right, don’t like alternative centres of power, so close all that down. In order to prevent dictatorships, we have to work in coalition with people we might not agree with. You obviously don’t like that historical reality. Too bad - that puts you squarely on the wrong side of history, along with the German Communist Party circa November 1932, who preferred the Nazis in power to a coalition with the Social Democrats to defeat the Nazis.
As for your question of who those Socialist leaders are in the US - have you missed the Autoworkers’ union rising to win better pay and conditions? The writers’ union holding out for the same thing? Amazon workers insisting on unionisation? Those leaders, at national, state and local level are all around you. You might even become one yourself.
Fern, I believe that a large swath of MAGA Americans have no actual concept of what Authoritarian/Fascist Rule looks like in practice, as they have little concept of how American Democracy actually functions. They get their values from propaganda because its entertainment for them
As Democrats and folks like General Kelly are befuddled by the seeming loyalty to Trumpism, perhaps the way to address it is not by comparing Trump to Fascists, rather to initiate a long term campaign to teach Americans what a Fascist Rule actually is via film from the 30’s and today. Leave Trump out of all instructional ads so as not to turn the MAGAs away immediately, but rather let them see the result of Fascism and then let them decide if that looks good to them. The ultimate comparison of Trumpism to Fascism will naturally follow
Excellent deprogramming, Dave. I would call what you are suggesting is known as teaching.
When I was a freshman at UofM I took PoliSci 102, Comparative Governments. It was very dry to me and I paid half attention (my fault, not the Profs and TA’s). I did however retain a lasting concept of Weimar Germany and the foundational seedlings of Hitler's Rise to power as a “Savior” from the Repressive Treaty of Versailles and its crushing effect on the German people via hyperinflation and starvation. Hitler gave the people some relief and they then bought into it enough to allow his ruthlessness to become unmasked
We now face almost the exact same scenario, except this time American citizens are facing economic despair from not a Treaty but rather Oligarch Trickle Down. Trumpism capitalizes on the despair, not the root cause. MAGAs only care about the “hope” of having their own “Savior” save them; they don’t understand the snake wielding the sword. They, like the German people will only learn after its too late
Teach them now. “Massive Campaign Democracy” paid for by a democratic Coalition that MUST be brokered by all Americans interested in maintaining our Republic; Democrats, Independents, Liz Cheney Republicans via the news media in tremendous ad dollars that overcome the clickbait incentive in terms of the dollar value of a misleading headline
Right now the media is complicit in the problem. Feed those (expletive delated) money grubbers what they want, cash. Its the hand we’ve been dealt. We must play a short term game for ling term security from the ravages of Trumpian Traitors
Dave, I suggest that putting all of the press in one basket is grossly misleading. The Washington Post, Boston Globe and many journalistic companies/outlets/universities/journals/magazines etc., are not disseminators of propaganda that dominates social media and companies, as the one behind Fox News.
I’m sorry Fern, I didn’t mean to generalize too much re the media propaganda, so rather than get too specific, I suggest that the ad dollars dominate editorial decisions, so make OUR ad dollars competitive with click bait. Perhaps thats not possible, but I think a concerted focused ad campaign re Fascism is a path to sanity
Dave, I have been an avid reader about the Holocaust, and the years leading up to WWII, ever since I read The Diary of Young Girl by Anne Frank while in junior high (many years ago, ha). This book grabbed my attention as an 8th grader and it still chills me to think about how easily people fell in step with Hitler. We do face almost the same scenario today, and it is downright scary.
History informs us of our future mistakes if we take heed
How does one start organizing such a things?
Important People recognizing that current strategies like the Lincoln Project are falling short
One or two visionaries that shed political affiliations and congeal into a “patriotic plea” to all Americans, bringing with them leaders from all walks of life, celebs, Generals, Teachers, Musicians, Politicians; people with recognizable faces all doing 10 second video clip voice overs delivering pointed messages showing Fascist Rule, at the people who recognize them
I nominate Liz Cheney with Hakim Jefferies
Taylor Swift
Mark Milley and John Kelly
Jon Stewart
Ron Howard
Jackson Browne and Steve (Fk’g) Earle
Feel free to nominate your own influencers
Exactly. How is it that treason is so appealing? The oligarch trickle down has left half the country's hard-working three-job-holding families unable to make ends meet.
How is it that Bullies have become Heroes to some Americans?
Bring back comic books
We already live under fascist rule, it’s corporate inverted totalitarianism, as opposed to the strongman paradigm, and too many on the liberal left seem to entirely focus on the latter; rarely a peep about the former.
Democratic politicians can’t make a full-throated attack on the corporate state because they are complicit in its creation, and their continued fealty to corporate donors allows the ‘both parties are same’ trope to have resonance for so many, voters and non-voters alike.
Until this dynamic changes, the ratchet effect will lead us ever further toward the strongman authoritarian rule so many here fear.
End Citizens Untied
MoveToAmend.org
There’s always the possibility that a sizeable proportion of them actually want and would welcome fascist rule. There’s a lot of Franco nostalgia in Spain, Mussolini nostalgia in Italy, etc. No surprise that a percentage of Americans are among them. Back in the 1920s & 1930s, American money and lobbying was a vital lifeline to authoritarian and fascist movements in Europe. It’s arguable that without Texaco support, General Franco would have lost his war against democracy, and Spain would not have been a dictatorship for 40 years.
Thank you. I am not up to speed on American corporate funding for anti democracy rule in Europe except for Henry Ford and Charles Limberg creepyness
I read somewhere long ago (sorry, I can't site a source) that when Nikita Khrushchev was asked by a US journalist why America didn't have a large propaganda organization such as the one the USSR seemed to have, he replied "The US does not need one - you have the press to do that for you".
DT is an opportunistic ideological chameleon who will say anything he needs to get/keep power. His mental illness allows him to, over time, actually believe what he is saying. He is now a fascist, through and through. With DT, at least, there is no veil. As for his advisors, etc., they are all about secrecy. That they are tipping their hand now shows how secure they feel about their prospects. I believe this is a miscalculation on their part, mostly as a product of the echo chamber they live in. The adage 'a drug dealer should never use their own product' holds true here. We on the left need to be aware of this at all times as well.
"We found that the Times and the Post shared significant overlap in their domestic politics coverage, offering little insight into policy. Both emphasized the horse race and campaign palace intrigue, stories that functioned more to entertain readers than to educate them on essential differences between political parties. The main point of contrast we found between the two papers was that, while the Post delved more into topics Democrats generally want to discuss—affirmative action, police reform, LGBTQ rights—the Times tended to focus on subjects important to Republicans—China, immigration, and crime."
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/election-politics-front-pages.php
In today's Washington Post (excerpt):
'Many former Trump aides say he shouldn’t be president. Will it matter?'
'Critics are grappling with how they can puncture Trump’s candidacy in 2024 and whether their voices will have any'
'John F. Kelly, the longest-serving chief of staff in President Donald Trump’s White House, watches Trump dominate the GOP primary with increasing despair.'
“What’s going on in the country that a single person thinks this guy would still be a good president when he’s said the things he’s said and done the things he’s done?” Kelly said in a recent interview. “It’s beyond my comprehension he has the support he has.”
'Kelly, a retired four-star general, said he didn’t know what to do — or what he could do — to help people see it his way.'
“I came out and told people the awful things he said about wounded soldiers, and it didn’t have half a day’s bounce. You had his attorney general Bill Barr come out, and not a half a day’s bounce. If anything, his numbers go up. It might even move the needle in the wrong direction. I think we’re in a dangerous zone in our country,” he said.'
'No president has ever attracted more public detractors who were formerly in his inner circle. They are closely watching his rise — cruising in the GOP nomination contest and, in most polls, tying or even leading President Biden in a general election matchup — with alarm. Among them are his former vice president, top military advisers, lawyers, some members of his Cabinet, economic advisers, press officials and campaign aides, some of whom are working for other candidates.'
'Among their reasons for opposing a second Trump term, they cite the 91 criminal charges against him, his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, his false claims of election fraud, his incendiary rhetoric in office, his desire to weaponize the Justice Department, his chaotic management style, his likely personnel choices in a second term, and his affinity for dictators.'
'Interviews with 16 former Trump advisers — some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss their former boss — show they are grappling with how they can puncture Trump’s candidacy in 2024, whether they can or should coordinate with one another and whether their voices will even matter.'
'Additionally, more than a dozen people once in his employ could end up taking the stand and providing testimony as part of multiple criminal trials, according to people with knowledge of the cases and court documents.'
'At the same time, even some who have publicly declared Trump unfit for office have said they would still support him over Biden in 2024.'
'So far, Trump has surged toward the GOP nomination even as former aides critical of him have blanketed the airwaves, giving scathing speeches, testifying on camera in front of congressional committees and penning books — shaking off the kinds of condemnations that could mortally wound another politician.'
“These media whores are always looking for their next grift — whether it’s book deals or cable news contracts — because they know their entire worth as human beings revolve around talking about President Trump,” said Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman. “They clearly don’t own any mirrors because if they did, they would not be able to look at themselves every day knowing what they’re doing is hurting the country. These charlatans are disgusting and should be wholly ignored.”
'Trump advisers note he has a coterie of loyal aides and advisers such as Stephen Miller, Kellyanne Conway and Dan Scavino, who have been allied with him for years. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), a former press secretary, endorsed Trump onstage at a rally in Florida last week. Other former top aides are putting together a 2025 plan and want to rejoin the administration.'
“The time has come to return to the normal policies of the Trump era which created a safer, stronger, and more prosperous America,” Sanders said.'
'In recent fundraisers, Trump has been questioned by donors on multiple occasions about his personnel choices and has attacked former officials who have spoken out against him, according to people familiar with the questioning. Trump has argued that while in the White House, he listened to people he should not have — and made bad hires, particularly at the Pentagon and Justice. Donors have expressed concern that Trump hired so many people who have attacked him, people familiar with the conversations said.'
'This time, Trump said, he would look out for people who are loyal and “smart.” A second term in office, people close to him say, would have people who “actually support President Trump,” in the words of one adviser.'
“I learned how deep the deep state is,” he recently told donors at an event.'
'Every president has the occasional critic from within his administration. Scott McClellan, former press secretary in the George W. Bush White House, rattled his former colleagues with a scathing look behind the scenes. Former defense secretary Robert Gates offered a harsh critique of President Barack Obama’s judgments that was used as a cudgel by Obama’s critics.'
'What makes Trump different is how many former aides have come out against him, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian, and how vituperative their criticisms have been. Their motives are varied, and while some are fueled by genuine concerns, others, he said, are driven by a new incentive structure. Some of the attacks could also be undercut because voters see the former aides as enablers who are now simply looking to reclaim their reputations.'
“You can get paid for a Washington insider book that dishes dirt; there’s been a corrosion of loyalty towards presidents. It wasn’t always that way,” Brinkley said. “And you have a lot of people who want to be decontaminated from Trump because he’s become a symbol of authoritarianism.” (WAPO) Link below -- gifted, thanks to Lynell.
https://wapo.st/3uhrngL
ungifted link is below.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/11/20/trump-aides-cabinet-critics-election/
And after all that being said in all these articles by his enablers, knowing the consequences of a Trump win, they still said they would vote Republican. WTF?? Cowards.
Here is the WaPo article (that Fern linked) gifted:
https://wapo.st/3uhrngL
So happy for substack and thankful for all the very intelligent people who read Heather and the others. When going to Washington Post and New York times and many other sites you have to pay to read and I cannot afford to pay all these people just like millions of others out there. Could be the problem?? I know it is costly for the news outlets but everything is wrapped around the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and our lamestreet media is a very real and dangerous problem.
Thank you, Lynell. You brought the light on the words. Cheers! I copied the link you provided and edited it into my comment, with a thanks to you. I hope that you do not mind, Lynell.
Fern, I’m traveling, else I’d be doling out my free links!
Ally, you are a blessing. The article has been rewarded with a gift link by dear Lynell. Wish you safe and enjoyable travels. So good to hear from you. Salud!
There is a clear source for the current political burn out. A major battle against democracy was won by the right when the activist conservative majority of the Supreme Court STEPPED BEYOND the initial argument in Citizens United and overturned precedent. Their chain of logic, in the opinion penned by Anthony Kennedy, was that the Constitution protects freedom of SPEECH, not speakers, that the Constitution cannot suppress speech based on the identity of speakers, therefore it cannot suppress the speech of any association of speakers, so that corporations of any kind, including nonprofits like PACs are entitled to speech, and that in the "marketplace of ideas" it costs money to express speech, so there can be no limits on the money used to express speech because that in itself would be suppressing speech.
The majority also spoke about how the interjection of vast sums of money into the "marketplace of ideas" would NOT introduce corruption.
If Clarence Thomas had his way in his concurring opinion, all donors to associations of speakers should be able to remain anonymous.
Justice John Stevens wrote the 90 page dissent joined by Justices Breyer, Ginsburg and Sotomayor. It's going to be my reading for the week. Justice Stevens was adamant that the majority was legislating from the bench.
This is the seminal issue that has created the current crisis in our country. It takes on a whole new flavor with the news about Thomas' and Alito's hobnobbing with their conservative billionaire friends.
https://www.fec.gov/legal-resources/court-cases/citizens-united-v-fec/
I've assembled some more references and thoughts here:
https://georgiafisanick.substack.com/p/1-shedding-light-on-dark-money
Front page of the LA Times:
'Outrage against Univision grows after Trump interview'
'Univision has found itself at the center of a growing controversy after a recent interview with former President Trump that critics have blasted as too friendly.'
'The interview that aired Nov. 9 was noticeably warm, and Trump received little pushback as he gave false or misleading statements on border security and immigration policies he instituted as president.'
'Backlash from certain corners of the Latino community was swift, including calls for more balanced reporting and an outright boycott of the television network ahead of the 2024 election.'
'Latinos are considered a crucial voting bloc — and largely up for grabs — in next year’s election, likely to be a rematch between Trump and President Biden. Although Latino voters have historically favored Democrats, the Republican Party in recent years has made significant progress in courting their votes.'
'The exclusive interview with Trump therefore raised significant alarms within the Democratic Party and its allies that the leading Republican candidate was making unchecked claims to important swing voters.'
'Actor John Leguizamo posted a video to his 1 million Instagram followers Thursday criticizing the Spanish-language media company for' “softballing Trump” and reportedly canceling ads for Biden. He said the television network has become “MAGA-vision.”
'He implored fellow entertainers, athletes, activists and politicians to join him in boycotting the network until it reinstated “parity, and equality and equity” between the presidential candidates. The television network has also requested an interview with Biden, according to the Washington Post.'
'The more-than-hourlong interview with Trump was conducted by Enrique Acevedo, an anchor from Mexican network Televisa who is not a Univision journalist. The two media groups merged last year. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner reportedly helped organize the interview.'
“All you have to do is look at the owners of Univision,” 'Trump said in the first few minutes of the interview when asked about Latino voters and recent polls showing him defeating Biden in 2024.' “They’re unbelievable entrepreneurial people, and they like me.”
“They want to see security,” Trump added. “They want to have a border.”
'During the interview, Trump made questionable claims that the partial wall built along the southern border was made possible by Mexico providing thousands of soldiers “free of charge,” and that former President Obama laid the groundwork for the controversial policy at the border to deter illegal crossings that became known as the family-separation crisis. Acevedo did not push back on either claim.'
“It wasn’t just a friendly interview. It was an embarrassing 1-hour puff-piece with lots of smiles and no pushback with a guy who relished in attacking, belittling and otherizing Latinos and Latin American immigrants,” Ana Navarro-Cárdenas, a prominent Nicaraguan American political strategist and commentator, said on the platform X, the company formerly known as Twitter.'
'León Krauze, a veteran news anchor for Univision, has since resigned from the network. He did not provide a reason for his departure.'
'State Sen. Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), a member of the California Latino Legislative Caucus who is running for Congress, said she knew many other Latino leaders who were “personally upset” about the interview.'
'Rubio said she was “appalled” at how the former president “was allowed to just continue to spew lies and go unchecked” during the conversation. She called the interview “an insult to our entire Latino community.” (LosAngelesTimes) See link below.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-11-19/univision-latino-voters-outrage-donald-trump-interview-democrats-backlash-controversy-boycott
Fern, if you will notice, with these articles, one is the New York Times, another the Washington Post, another is the L. A. Times. And all these articles are concerning different things, but about the same person. All of these articles are pointing out one thing. Trump’s takeover of the media. Good, bad, ugly, doesn’t matter the news, he’s slowly taking over consuming the media where it’s all about him.
The really scary thing here is Univision. This was all set up by his son-in-law, Jared. Jared weaseled his way into Mexico, receiving the highest honor that a civilian could receive from the Mexican president, which by the way really pissed off the people of Mexico, and then he took over one if the networks in Mexico which later merged with Univision. Thus led to the hour long sit down, waste of time, with his father-in-law by a “journalist” they flew in special fur that Mar-a-Lago interview. All he did was ask questions and allow Frimoy to yak away. No kick back, nothing, to any of his answers. And the questions, they said, were well scripted prior to the interview.
Jared was also present when this interview was taking place. They are also using Univision to flood it with “good news”, full coverage if Frumpy’s gatherings, such as the 3 hour crap he had the same night as the last debate. They showed it, with an hour pre-show featuring Trump with other travels and things. It, again, pissed off a lot of the Latino community.
Trump is dangerous. We all know this. We all have to keep in the pressure to the news media to do something to bring out the news about him that hopefully will bring light to his authoritarian views, his dictatorship he’s plotting, and especially the type of life we all will be forced to live if this fool is elected.
If we don’t, we are the ones that will end up paying in the long run. Most of us either our lives. You can bet your ass this fool is making a list for his military cops he will replace the law enforcement with to eliminate those on his list.
Hitler’s regime all over again, modern style!
Good morning, Daniel. I have another take on the selections that I made. These are all major newspapers that uphold the standards of journalism, and they are not following Trump's ways but providing readers a true picture of what a lying, dislikable, undemocratic and dangerous man Trump is. The articles didn't suggest on this hand and on the other hand. I also copied and linked information from the excellent, Pew Research Center, which indicated that many Americans were getting the 'news', aka propaganda from social media -- that is not the 'free press', which is much too often blamed for equating Trump and Biden in the same basket. Too many complainers are not aware of where the misinformation and disinformation is coming from, in addition to Fox News. We need to support our journalists; they aim for accuracy as truthtellers.
I fully agree, Fern! We actually have some that are trying their best to get the actual truth out to us, beyond the likes of FOX News Network!
thanks for the background on Univision. I wondered what on earth happened.
The nuts are in charge now.
Is it possible that Trump and his people set up the whole interview and the journalist was told what to ask and how to direct the interview? Was the journalist “bought”, threatened, bullied? It is mentioned that his son-in-law organized the interview. Has anyone spoken to the journalist about this?
He was “flown in” special for this interview. Jared not only set it up, he was there during the entire thing. And yes, the questions were ‘scripted’ and his instructions were to just ask the questions and allow DJT to talk. No kick-back questions on any answer.
What Trump is doing is going after the Latino vote. That’s quite apparent. And, he’s taking over the media by buying it. This is where Jared came in. He now is the proud owner of the biggest tv network in Mexico, which then merged with Univision. This brought about this stupid interview, among other things that’s being fine to promote DJT.
This information needs to be shared everywhere! I didn't know any of this until reading your comment Daniel. Yikes!
Don’t feel bad, Kerry. I didn’t learn it until I saw it all on MSNBC yesterday evening. It was quite the eye-opener. They had looked into Jared Kushner and saw where he had received that award in Mexico, and investigated everything. It was quite the report. Pictures, video, and all!
Does the larger viewing public know this?
Rhonda, I learned all of this from a rather lengthy reporting on MSNBC last evening. They had a full workout on all of it, photos, videos, all included. Quite the report!
I believe that he recently resigned.
So many are afraid of him...
"Latinos are considered an important voting block." DUH! If the Democrats had countered the lies the MAGANAZIs put in newspapers, radio and TV in Spanish, the House would likely be under Democrat control.
I fear they will make the same mistake again.
In Victor Frankl’s 1946 publication’Mans Search For Meaning , he said people who fail to know themselves are in perpetual search for entertainment. Neil Postman later addresses the subject in ‘We Are Entertaining Ourselves To Death. Enter Taylor and Travis, along with the army of celebrities of all stripes, and there you have it. No eyes on the prize have we as we are already thinking about Super Bowl Sunday! Politics, phttt, who needs it? Not me. I’m good. Whatever. Facist Fatigue is wearing Americans down to a nub. With trump in Hell’s Kitchen, and his millions of lackey stooges at his side , we’re about to be boiled alive in his $hit soup if we don’t find the courage of the convictions we profess here, and elsewhere, to push back this tide of deadly terror.
A trump fan in Wisconsin stated "because he's fun", when asked why she supported him. Fun is mocking people, us Veterans, handicapped, all the other expendable humans at his disposal. People who know fact from fantasy would never "like" this sort of behavior. Whatever he is, he certainly is not human!!
This entire country is still in denial about who we are. We will never know ourselves or come to terms with our past until we aknowledge and own our mistakes and misjudgements as a country. How can we cleanly celebrate our virtues unless and until we own our faults?
'FACT SHEETNOVEMBER 15, 2023' (Pew Research Center)
'Social Media and News Fact Sheet'
'Digital news has become an important part of Americans’ news media diets, with social media playing a crucial role in news consumption. Today, half of U.S. adults get news at least sometimes from social media.' - See link below.
https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet/
Front page of USA Today:
'How old are the 2024 presidential candidates? Biden, Trump, Christie and others' ages'
'Age has played a key role in the 2024 presidential election, with President Joe Biden turning 81 of Monday and former President Donald Trump, 77, remaining the dominant frontrunner in the Republican primary race. '
'Biden himself has often joked about his age as he tries to turn one of his weaknesses among voters into a punchline. At an event in late June, he called himself “198 years old,” and on Monday, he told reporters that it's "difficult" to turn 60.'
'Trump on the other hand, has received criticism from his GOP rivals over his age. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took a shot at Trump in an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” saying “The presidency is not a job for somebody that is pushing 80 years old.”
'Ahead of the GOP presidential primary elections and next year's general election, here’s a look at the ages of the 2024 presidential candidates.'
'How old are the 2024 presidential candidates?'
Joe Biden: 81 years old
Donald Trump: 77 years old
Nikki Haley: 51 years old
Ron DeSantis: 45 years old
Vivek Ramaswamy: 38 years old
Chris Christie: 61 years old
Asa Hutchinson: 72 years old
Doug Burgum: 67 years old
Ryan Binkley: 56 years old
Marianne Williamson: 71 years old
Dean Phillips: 54 years old
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: 69 years old
Cornel West: 70 years old
Jill Stein: 73 years old
***
That was it, the whole story - short and sweet!
Personally, the candidates age is about the last thing I am worried about. It’s what their plan is for us, the American people, that concerns me the most.
Out of this entire list of candidates running now, and even those that are still thinking about running, like Joe Machin. What have any of them had to say about their outlook for the future of the American people? There’s only one candidate that’s even came close to discussing his plan for continuing the improvement of the economy, the infrastructure, the wars currently being dealt with, and everything gave going on that none of the other candidates even care about.
The only one talking about us is President Biden. That’s it. The only reason that he’s starting to yak about Trump is because if these stupid polls. If these polls were to shut down, then Trump would be a non-news article if we could get the media to stop talking about every fart he blows.
Biden's age goes along with the fact that he has had much more experience over his years than any of the other candidates. At this point in history, I think we need someone with his experience, coupled with his desire to get things done that benefit our country.
Yes, Barbara, Biden's long and varied experience as well as his moral character, strong family and administration members, deep care for the people and the value of his faith enable him to
govern under very challenging circumstances.
Exactly. Who cares if the President can perform some athletic feat? What matters is the thinking process. Communication isn't the strength of CEOs, they have marketing people to do that. Where is anyone even asking GOPers what consequences would come from their proposals? What would like be like? How would the economy react? The international sphere? Russia, et al. Is the possible outcome what they want?
Biden's breadth and depth of knowledge outdo anyone yet mentioned as a possible alternative. His accomplishments need at least as much space and airtime as the TikTok depression scenarios. We have people who have money to do these thing. We can make our voices heard.
As far as MSM goes, I advocate a complete halt to polling reporting. No more horse race stories. I don’t watch or listen because they are meaningless.
I wish that every damn time someone mentions a poll number, that there would be a banner scroll across the screen that says: "IT'S NOT ABOUT THE HORSERACE, STUPID; IT'S ABOUT THE STAKES!!! But I suppose that is too obscure, huh?
I think it’s perfect
That or: "Your Vote is a Chess Move; Not a Valentine". I said the horserace thing to someone the other day and they looked puzzled for a few beats and then said...."well, that is pretty obscure, isn't it?" The thing is, this person is well-read and quite smart...but clearly not used to thinking about strategy or politics.
Wow. That’s not a hard analogy. I like it but it’s a little scary your friend doesn’t get it. They don’t think about their vote.
exactly...they are nice, well-meaning folks, but naive and apolitical. I gently suggested some substacks to read (this one, of course and Robert Hubbell's and Joyce Vance) and if they get their interest aroused, I'll suggest a few more. Maybe I'll get a convert or two!
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/election-politics-front-pages.php
"We found that the Times and the Post shared significant overlap in their domestic politics coverage, offering little insight into policy. Both emphasized the horse race and campaign palace intrigue, stories that functioned more to entertain readers than to educate them on essential differences between political parties. The main point of contrast we found between the two papers was that, while the Post delved more into topics Democrats generally want to discuss—affirmative action, police reform, LGBTQ rights—the Times tended to focus on subjects important to Republicans—China, immigration, and crime."
That's been my impression upon subscribing to both, Rhea.
I just sent the following email to Josh Boak and Zeke Miller of the Associated Press, in response to their article in the LA Times, "Biden Threads Optimism with Dire Warnings About Trump." It addresses exactly what Professor Richardson is talking about.
*********************************************************************************************
Mr Boak and Mr. Miller:
My name is Gary Stewart. I am a climate activist living in Laguna Beach, CA, and have had 130 letters to the editor published since 2018.
I am writing to suggest that the calm-to-the-point-of-timid both-sides-ism that your article "Biden threads optimism with dire warnings about Trump", exemplifies, in the face of the obvious, in-your-face fascistic authoritarianism of Donald Trump and those lining up to institute his vision, will do as much or more to allow Trump to be elected again as any other factor.
You coddle Trump's demonstrably false narrative and reserve your questioning for Biden. You endorse the Trump talking point that Biden's message of optimism (without Trump) and disaster (with Trump) is somehow muddled, which it is not. It is a contrast called for by the extremity of what Trump is openly promising, compared with continued economic and social success that Biden has already accomplished.
This is not an election to be reported as a horse-race between a somewhat right Republican and a somewhat left Democrat.
This is a race between an unhinged autocratic and a somewhat left of center, traditional Democrat.
Donald Trump should not even be considered a member of the Republican Party - he owns the Republican Party, and is using it as a weapon to advance his personal agenda, defined by vendettas, narcissism and fantasy, all aligned to serve his personal needs, financially and emotionally.
You both know this.
I am certain that you are aware of the nature of the threat to American traditions, values and constitutional order - just consider for two minutes the parallels with Nazi Germany, Hungary under Orban, Russia under Putin, India under Modi, and what is happening in Argentina.
Unless the traditional media of which you are both members begins to alert the citizenry of the U.S. to the threat to the United States that Donald Trump represents, rather than a rational alternative to President Biden, Donald Trump will institute Project 2025 and Agenda 47 (which you really need to read in full, if you have not already), and the rule of law will give way to moralistic authoritarianism and business libertarianism, while all the levers of government will be dismantled and turned into nothing but an army of Trump lackeys willing to do whatever he directs, as guided by industry lobbyists and Christian nationalists. Ukraine will become part of Russia, for starters.
Project 2025 says it in crystal clear terms.
As a climate change activist, I am petrified by the regressive steps Donald Trump will carry out to unleash carbon emissions to enrich the fossil fuel industry, and shut down any and all programs designed to protect against the worst ravages that the climate crisis guarantees.
Please, I implore you, figure out a way to make journalism rise to the challenge of Donald Trump.
Regards,
Gary Stewart, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Laguna Beach, CA
(714) 504-9582
bertrandbartok@gail.com
P.S. - I challenge you to read the wording and messaging in this recent post from Trump and challenge the accuracy of what I have said above. Relying upon Timothy Snyder's book, How Fascism Works, and Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism, this post is mainline fascism.
I then included a visual of the unhinged post from Donald Trump that Professor Richardson quoted, as was included in the Talking Points Memo article she referred to. ***********************************************************************************************
Addendum: I encourage everyone reading this blog to communicate the threat of Donald Trump to as many people with potential influence as you can. (Most journalists can be emailed directly.) Strong messaging can still be respectful, primarily by avoiding name-calling and personal attacks. Stick to what an article says, not the authors personally, as best you can.
You might have added to your letters that it is a near certainty that freedom of the press will no longer exist should Trump be elected president.
That is a strong point absolutely. One would think that any journalist with the AP would be well aware of what Donald Trump would do to journalists (whom he called "the enemy of the people") if he could, and that if he's president he will do everything he can, like he hs promised, but maybe they are just telling themselves it will be okay. I'll keep that in mind.
Well done, and I hope more readers will follow your advice and contact journalists—and their corporate bosses—to let them know how critical it is for the public to know the dangerous threat Trump and his cult pose to our democracy.
I sincerely hope so, too. Thanks.
Thank you Gary. I have been doing something similar for the last several months, though I do not have your gravitas.
I admit I have grown a bit weary of the effort as it seems like a Sisyphean task.
Your post has inspired me to redouble my efforts. I hope that others will do the same.
Onward through the fog.
I hear that loud and clear. Perhaps if you just revisit that vicious post of Trump's once a day, it will motivate you. Or take a break for a few days. Whatever works. It's going to be a long year, and we can expect Trump to only get worse, not better. You and I and hopefully others will have to be constantly shouting from the rooftops about what a threat Trump is. It cannot be exaggerated. I am an internal medicine physician, and the combinnation of pathology this man exhibits is almost beyond imagining. A person liike him only comes around on very rare occasions, and that is why he has been so uniquely successful despite his obvious lies, cruelty, arrogance, fragility, lack of impulse control, ethics and empathy, and feral ability to manipulate people and constantly push right to the edge of what he can get away with.
Thanks for the encouragement. I too am an internal medicine physician, with a subspecialty in infectious diseases and clinical microbiology. Trump’s response to the pandemic had me screaming at the tv news casts most nights.
I have done a lot of medical-legal evaluations in situations where people have high motivation to control the narrative, exaggerate, misdirect and flat out fabricate. I guess I just soaked up their way of communicating, because I literally cannot listen to Donald Trump for 10 seconds before it is obvious that he is being insincere at some level, including fabricating whatever he wants to believe. that is why it is so challenging for me to understand how anyone cannot immediately tell he is blatantly manipulating them.
Much of the Fox News programming is structured similarly. Glenn Beck, too. Seems blatant manipulation techniques akin to sicko family/workplace dynamics.
Gary, maybe because they don't care. Trump is the "Forlorn Hope", and the folks behind him don't necessarily want him to survive, and become an officer.
I guess there is a segment of Trump supporters who would love to get his base's support but without him. I don't think that's possible, though, because his followers have cult-like devotion, and it is very difficult for that level of dedication to be quickly transferred to another person who is not going to have Trump's unique hold on people. Most cults evaporate when the leader is no longer there.
I agree, but it may have been his unhinged, poor response to the pandemic that sunk him in 2020. His additional time on true mainstream media talking about the pandemic and the obvious poor results as the US racked up dead in numbers beyond many other developed countries was impossible for him to spin to his advantage.
any day of his “presidency” was a shocking anomaly and provided on-going evidence of his gross unfitness. Even with the slobbering coverage from Rupert and the MSM doing a pissy job.
I think some of us are just gobsmacked that a criminal, laying out his plan to burn the Constitution to the ground is leading the Republicans. Americans saying, yes, we want an Autocratic. Another WTF moment.
I was reading a story to my granddaughter this weekend and the main character's name was Tramper. I keep calling him Trumper. They're making me crazy.
I think we are actually making headway, Sky. I have been doing the same, and since it was a main discussion point here a couple weeks ago, it seems I am reading more and more informative articles in NYT, WAPO etc
Glad to hear it. Thanks for the encouragement.
Here article from Bloomberg: yes even them. So, writing the editors does work! https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-11-21/trump-and-maga-vs-democracy-and-america-crash-course?srnd=premium&sref=FiWb1nGE
Here an article in the Guardian US edition. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/09/trump-president-democracy-threat-media-journalism
Excellent. Thank you.
I will use this list when I write to MSM. The list of what they can and should do. What the MUST do.
Fabulous article -- thanks, Bruce!
Oh yeah, stick with it, we're in this together
Thanks, Gary.
Wonderfully written. Well done.
Kudos to you--you got MAD, as in the Media and Democracy Project. Write to journalists and editors, both to call out the bad and to validate the good. Build relationships with them.
https://www.mediaanddemocracyproject.org/
Bravo!
Love you man! Well done and written. Can you tell us if you get a reply/response? Shakalaka. From a fellow beach boy in San Clemente and Laguna Beach.
Sharin' the love. If you would like to get more of whatever strikes me as needing attention, send me an email to bertrandbartok@gmail.com and I can add you to my email blast - not every day, and usually very brief. If you try it and don't find it useful, just let me know and they stop immediately. Gary
FYI - email regarding wealth inequality, tracking with political polarzation since the 1970s and 1980s (lead up to Reagan and from then on):
Source: Article "Political Polarization and Income Inequality" From Princeton University.
ABSTRACT:
Since the early 1970s, American society has undergone two important parallel transformations, one political and one economic. Following a period with mild partisan divisions, post-1970s politics is increasingly characterized by an ideologically polarized party system. Similarly, the 1970s mark an end to several decades of increasing economic equality and the beginning of a trend towards greater inequality of wealth and income. While the literature on comparative political economy has focused on the links between economic inequality and political conflict, the relationship between these trends in the United States remains essentially unexplored. We explore the relationship between voter partisanship and income from 1956 to 1996. We find that over this period of time partisanship has become more stratified by income. We argue that this trend is the consequence both of polarization of the parties on economic issues and increased economic inequality.
CONCLUSION:
We attempted to explain the increasingly strong relationship between income and voting. Given our interest in both inequality and polarization, we were somewhat surprised to find that polarization, but not inequality, seemed to the primary factor behind the increased party-income stratification. This leaves us with an important puzzle: why did the parties polarize given the lack of a large direct effect of increased inequality on the composition of the parties?
A wealth transfer since the 1970's from people with less wealth and income to those with greater wealth and income is reflected in this Time Magazine article title from 9/14/2020: "The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion from the Bottom 90%." (Click here for full article.) Assuming an average population of 250 million over 1970-2020, that means an average of $200,000 per person.
The stress of being a member of the economic precariat (employment and income are insecure) makes people prone to behaviors of desperation, despair and lack of opportunity, since there is no equality of opportunity without equality of condition. These include crime, substance abuse and dependence, and suicide, and these are all associated with adverse demographic health outcomes.
As the percentage of a population that falls into this category increases, that society overall must be considered objectively less healthy. This applies to the U.S. since the 1970s.
********************
Addendum: The Appeals Court decision reported today claiming that private citizens can no longer sue under the Voting Rights Act (although 90% of all cases up to now have been by private citizens) is certainly not going to help with wealth inequality - voter disenfranchisement is one tool for hardening wealth inequality into place. Democracy is anathema to most in the very wealthy class. Plutocracy is far preferred.
Twelve billionaires’ climate emissions outpollute 2.1m homes, analysis finds
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/20/twelve-billionaires-climate-emissions-jeff-bezos-bill-gates-elon-musk-carbon-divide
Perfectly understandable in light of the phenomenal degree of global wealth inequality: The richest 1% own almost half of the world's wealth, as do 81 billionaires. You can operate a lot of global south homes for a year while creating less carbon emissions than one international airplane flight or one super-yacht excursion.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/wealth-inequality-oxfam-billionaires-elon-musk/
How do we contact the media? NPR, CBS, MSNBC, etc., etc. to stop sending the "unhinged autocratic" messages and stop distorting the polls?
Julie: Most prominent journalists and Op-Ed authors can be contacted directly. This may be through the newspaper where they reside, or through the AP website, or through organizations where they also participate (e.g., non-profits, other outlets, think tanks, book publishers, if they have written a book, university, if they are a professor, etc.). So, for example, I just now Googled "How do I contact Wolf Blitzer?" and there was a match that provided his email: <wolf@cnn.com> It is rare that I cannot manage to get an email to a journalist directly, and if I can't find a direct email, I will write to their publisher or university department, or wherever, and request that whoever is reading my email forward it to their author/writer/analyst, inviting them to review it first to determine if they feel this is respectful and appropriate. That protects the journalist/author from disclosing their own email unless they choose to write back, which oftentimes they do. The greater challenge is to write something that is measured and not allow passion to make the communication less effective. Always best to start with an introduction of who you are (e.g., name, city, member of an advocacy group, whatever), why you are writing, and a compliment; also end with a big appreciation of their time and expertise. Hopefully those are a few ideas that may prove helpful.
Gary
Perhaps this article will be a harbinger of the traditional media waking up to the threat we all face, including them. I sure hope so. Good tip, thanks.
I wish that the Biden campaign and actually, all Democratic campaigns could find ONE well known person of each group that Trump is threatening to expel, to have them reach out to and represent their group. I'd like to see Beyonce get all black Americans, but especially the young black people to REGISTER and to VOTE. I can't think of who might be the equal of Taylor Swift in every ethnic group, but there MUST be leaders who speak out. I welcome any suggestions.
This is a well read forum. Perhaps it would get the right attention/
It's also a thoughtfully-written forum, with members who respect each other. I wouldn't like it to get the wrong attention.
I'll bet my last $ that it already has Anne-Louise. All of our names are in a file...
That thought crossed my mind a long time ago. Shouldn't have used my real time. Well, too bad, it's done now, and it's probably too late to matter.
I have my stick! Let em come and try
I have a sonic weapon. Shostakovich's 5th symphony. If they last out the first movements, they'll be racing for cover by the end of the 4th, hands over ears, crumpled and cowering.
Me too
No doubt whatsoever
Are you aware that Elin Musk is listed on tjis forum as a "follower" of Jeri Chillcutt?
Apparently, others have him .listed as a follower also!
I thought one had to be accepted as a follower?
No. If you click on your name, the pop up screen shows "followers" and you can see who is following you. I assume that you would have gotten a notification each time someone has done this, as I see about a dozen people listed for you.
Yes, as I recall, each time I got a query, saying that the person wanted to "follow" me.
Someone needs to break through the logjam. That would get attention from some of the ostriches.
I agree with you although I can't think of any suggestions at this time.
The humanity and decency of Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter represent the matter of our current political situation. The other is the anti-matter.
As HCR reported today, "Liberals believe in six things,” he wrote: “freedom, human rights, pluralism, security, the rule of law and democracy,” including fact-based debate and accountability of elected officials to the people."
When I was in Boy Scouts we started each meeting by reciting the Boy Scout Oath, Law and Motto.
The Law is:
Trustworthy
Loyal
Helpful
Friendly
Courteous
Kind
Obedient
Cheerful
Thrifty
Brave
Clean
Reverent
Think of any MAGANAZI politician- They strive for NONE of these things.
The newspapers are now almost totally owned by Wall Street hedge funds. No wonder people are not being told any of the positive achievements Biden has accomplished. Hence the despair and disgust
There is the additional problem even for those who voted for Trump that every day all day, newspapers, magazines. TV, and the internet are wall to wall, ceiling to floor filled with images and quotes from Trump. I don't know the facts, but from my perspective I see 10 images of Trump for every one of Biden - and frankly Biden is better to look at.
Exactly! The billionaires are paying good sums of money to make sure the media erodes faith in democracy day by day. With democracy gone, they can do as they please, no longer fettered by rules made by the people, because _they_ will be making the rules…
Rosalynn Carter, always compassionate, always a class act. Jimmy Carter, the same. We would have been a better country, we would have been better human beings if they had won a second term. He was the last good man that was president of our country. Everyone single president since has been a much lesser man.
So agree and it hurts.
Rachel Maddow’s show tonight clearly explained what occurs when a country buckles under authoritarian rule. And muzzling the media is one result. I’m sorry for the people of Argentina. The new President also wants to “sweep under the rug” the huge numbers of people that were murdered under the last military dictatorship.
Jimmy Carter, as Heather Cox Richardson concludes here, got it correct in citing the personal.
Dems today could follow his lead -- but to cite the personal widely would also expose Dems to the skills they have (or don't) in also citing our artists of the personal. Novelists, film makers, musicians, memoirists -- all who've excelled in looking at individuals in their communities.
Trump and his acolytes have the advantage now in broadcasting personal vulgarities. Of course they need discuss no public policies. Their public clamors but for most easily digestible vulgarities.
Dems could surpass this, and cite humanities for higher standards of public appreciation?
Could be. Or we could just sit back and let the billionaires and their authoritarian enablers keep on destroying everything decent in our public life.
The political fatigue the WaPo reporters found is a specific goal of fascist movements. Get people to the point where they give up trying to separate truth from lies. Or as Bannon put it, "flooding the zone with shit." And that article demonstrates that the fascists are winning.
TC, I'm feeling inarticulate today, but an old song bubbled up from my memory from the late '60s, by Steppenwolf: The Pusher. I think it expresses rage, born of frustration. I want to be sane, and rational, and reasonable. But ... damn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XqyGoE2Q4Y
The song is perfect for the conman Trump.
I'm unclear how to score the present, but the fascists are certainly a clear and present danger.
In relation to the state of the media and political advertising in the US, it may be useful to ponder the view of the ultimate court of appeal in the UK in Regina (Animal Defenders International) v Secretary of State For Culture, Media and Sport [2008] AC 1312. In this case, which concerned political advertising, Lord Bingham, at 1346, speaking for a unanimous House of Lords, said:
“The fundamental rationale of the democratic process is that if competing views, opinions and policies are publicly debated and exposed to public scrutiny the good will over time drive out the bad and the true prevail over the false. It must be assumed that, given time, the public will make a sound choice when, in the course of the democratic process, it has the right to choose. But it is highly desirable that the playing field of debate should be so far as practicable level. This is achieved where, in public discussion, differing views are expressed, contradicted, answered and debated. It is the duty of broadcasters to achieve this object in an impartial way by presenting balanced programmes in which all lawful views may be ventilated. It is not achieved if political parties can, in proportion to their resources, buy unlimited opportunities to advertise in the most effective media, so that elections become little more than an auction. Nor is it achieved if well-endowed interests which are not political parties are able to use the power of the purse to give enhanced prominence to views which may be true or false, attractive to progressive minds or unattractive, beneficial or injurious. The risk is that objects which are essentially political may come to be accepted by the public not because they are shown in public debate to be right but because, by dint of constant repetition, the public has been conditioned to accept them.”
In her concurring speech, Baroness Hale, at 1513, sardonically noted that, during the hearing of this case, “there was an elephant in the committee room, always there but never mentioned,” namely, the “dominance of advertising, not only in elections but also in the formation of political opinion, in the United States of America” where there was “no limit to the amount that pressure groups can spend on getting their message across in the most powerful and pervasive media available.” Her Ladyship went on the state that “in the United Kingdom ... we do not want our government or its policies to be decided by the highest spenders.”
Unfortunately, much of what gets put out as news IS influenced by the highest spenders.
Most journalists probably agree that the trumpists are dangerous. After all, they get to see them performing first-hand! But those journalists have editors, and those editors have publishers & owners who happen to be billionnaires.
And billionnaires tend to have certain views...
When there is nothing left to buy, buy the government. Or maybe Greenland.
The bidding starts... Thanks to Citizens United, Billionaires are buying it all. They are so pleased with their investments in our Supreme Court. Look how that's paying off for them. Next, their media takeover. Lastly, for the Constitution to say, we own you now.
!!!
How much of TFG's 'leading' is the media propelled? The CNN townhall seems to have jump started the insanity. I have a high school classmate evolved to Jewish journalist, shouting that Israel isn't being heard. Well, sadly no one is being heard. Don't take it personally....
I think you're on to something, and I worry that it's getting worse. That's why I'm here.
Welcome to the club. 4 years ago today, here's snip from the Letter:
November 21, 2019
Shared with Your friends
As Trump fixer Michael Cohen (now in prison) pointed out, Trump has always applied pressure with suggestions that allow him plausible deniability, first of all, and second, Sondland repeated again and again that Trump told him to “Talk to Rudy,” and that Giuliani was quite clear that Ukraine must make the announcement of an investigation into Burisma before it got either a White House visit or the money Congress had appropriated for it.
We just celebrated Halloween, a night dedicated to scary things".
We've lived through actual scary things, hurricanes, floods, mass shootings, 'regular' shootings, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes & a pandemic! But the Absolute scariest thing of all is thinking about trump 2.0!!! That thought terrifies me. I just think how quickly things can get out of hand, especially when trump & his sycophants tell us what they are planning. I mean really, mass deportations, death penalties for enemies, camps to house millions of people but more likely they will be referred to as vermin, easier to convince the people that those vermin in the camps don't deserve the same justice as "real" Americans!
And we best not forget that the press is the enemy of the people. They want to prosecute tv & news executives.
return to normalcy; Not quite, only those news persons who 'said mean things about poor little innocent donnie baby'
You're right! Must not bruise that giant ego!
It must be awful to be that thin skinned. I can't imagine going through life getting insulted by the slightest thing & then turn right around & bully & threaten everybody within hearing! Absolutely pathetic! He needs to have a therapist's couch installed in every room!!!
I posted this letter with the admonition not to tune out because as Heather wrote tonight, the Rs are telling us in no uncertain terms what they have planned. I have spent my day answering memes that are using ancient history to support Israel or are just against anyone of faith. I used the Carters as an example of what people of faith can be and accomplish.
The 2021 election was an alarm bell for my wife and I. The fact that Trump carried any state other than Mississippi is a sign of our descent into Nazism. And you ask if I can imagine Reagan talking as Trump did. Honestly, I do not hear much difference between them, and Reagan set the ball rolling on all the problems that culminated in Trump holding public sentiment: the abolition of the equal time rule and fairness doctrine, the acceptance of single media companies controlling multiple outlets in singular markets, the "welfare queen" meme and the notion that "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help" are scariest words in the English Language. He presided over the same sets of morality scares and immigrant scares that the right relies on today, and he paved the way for a great windbag to spend forty years pumping unsubstantiated vitriol out on to the people's airwaves. It is no accident that Trump awarded that windbag the Iron Cross before his death from a brain tumor that came too late. Reagan's career should have been ended by his meeting with David Duke, but it wasn't.
We have to face the reality that half of America would be Nazis given half a chance, that that is not a new phenomenon, and that Trump's popularity is coming from the fact that he is offering those people that half a chance.
Those of us who drew Hitler Mustaches on Reagan posters weren't prophets, we didn't have second sight, we were merely astute.
Yea ma’am. I see a ton of apathy on the blue side of the line in Texas.
They are probably exhausted. As planned
Connect with progressives in Texas. “Many hands make light work,” said my grandmother.
Blue Horizon Texas
https://www.bluehorizontexas.org/
League of Women Voters
https://www.lwvtexas.org/#gsc.tab=0
I’m the leader for the Houston region and a chapter leader for Montgomery County for both Mother’s Against Greg Abbott & Mother’s for Democracy, and we are partnered with Blue Horizon. I’m also on the Texas Team for The Union & The Lincoln Project. I’m an At Large Board Member of the Women’s Outreach for the Montgomery County Democratic Party Women’s Outreach, and a Precinct Chair, as well as a member of the Texas League of Women Voters and Moms Demand Action.
I’m not understanding why my comment made you think I’m somehow not connected in the correct way here in Texas.
As for Linda’s comment.. We are all exhausted in Texas.
That’s great and I was only offering suggestions without knowing you already have these amazing connections. I was not saying anything about “correct” and meant nothing critical. We are linked, and I tip my hat to you. I certainly didn’t mean to distress you. We need clones of you. Robert Hubbell is hosting a forum on Nov. 30 for grassroots leaders to address burnout, if that seems helpful.
That is very sad.