Since the night of the November 5, election, Trump and his allies have insisted that he won what Trump called “an unprecedented and powerful mandate.” But as the numbers have continued to come in, it’s clear that such a declaration is both an attempt to encourage donations— fundraising emails refer to Trump’s “LANDSLIDE VICTORY”—and an attempt to create the illusion of power to push his agenda.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”—that speaks forcefully to how I am feeling as we enter this holiday week: “Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” From Joyce Vance Substack
"They want us to give up. We will simply give instead. Of our compassion. Of our energy. Of our patriotism. Of our creativity. Of our generosity. Of our hope. Of our courage. Of our friendship." ~Jessica Craven, ChopWoodCarryWater
Republicans in congress who will be up for re-election in 2026 need to take heed of what Heather is saying. Trump's goals are broadly unpopular, but many last minute Trump voters were not able to connect their stands on issues with the right candidate. There could well be a backlash in 2026 when they see what they voted for.
As my Jewish sister in law likes to say, 2026 could be the "come to Jesus" moment for a LOT of people. (she was formerly Baptist). I'll be surprised if the GOP holds on to the majorities in the Mid Term elections.
I think we have to consider the possibility that the incoming regime will find a way to not have midterm elections if it appears they will lose power. Trump is already going to declare a national emergency on his first day in office so he can begin his mass deportation scheme. I don't think it takes much imagination to see him (or JD Vance) finding another "emergency" that will allow them to declare martial law and postpone the midterms until they can be conducted safely.
Joel, I agree. But I think that Trump has made clear his intentions to go this way for a long time. The senate has a constitutionally mandated obligation to provide a check on the president's authority in situations like this. Republican senators have repeatedly failed to meet that obligation. But the explicit reality of a Hitlar style dictatorship seems to have finally brought enough of them around to stop the Gaetz appointment. Perhaps they will stand their ground and get more to follow.
David - Trump has no concern for constitutional mandates and will work to find wiggle room around them. His crew put Gaetz up as a trial balloon knowing he would fail on his own without much scrutiny. I do not think we have much insight to many Republicans unless they've made the news on their own in the past 3 years.
We are also not powerless. We can and will call, write, march, donate and if we do, we'll get it back in 2026. Don't delay. It feels great and only takes a few minutes a day. One day at a time. Cure ballots for Adam Gray tonight! It's actually kinda fun.
In which case I would hope for a military coup led by General Milley, who could then call for elections. Thank you for the totally appropriate observation (?earning). I have already heard Trump say he wasn’t really sure he’d leave in ‘28.
Doubtful. General Milley is now retired and out of the chain of command. If Trump goes ahead with his announced plan to purge the officer corps, then we will know we are in big trouble for real.
Forget about the midterm if they play the cards right they will be in office the next 12 years. So if his administration is more successful than the disaster of the Biden administration, 12 years
Some disaster. Alliances intact and strengthened, Crime is down; inflation is down; unemployment is down; over thirteen million jobs created; stock market at an all-time high.
As opposed to Trump, whose incompetent response to Covid killed 400,000 or so Americans needlessly, who embarrassed and disgraced our country publicly more than once, who became the first president since Herbert Hoover to lose jobs in a term, and who managed to be convicted of 34 felonies and also adjudicated to be both a rapist and a fraudulent businessman.
What flavor of kool-aid have you been consuming, Rick?
There will be possibly great upheaval among young people if this happens I fear. Best to start calling reps ahead of this to vote against Trump on specific bills so they know how we stand and to resist it when it comes up. Someone I respect referred to it as activist political wellness and positivity. It's hard to be positive, but the alternative may be too self-destructive. Look what happens when people simply don't vote.
Mark Twain made a remark that I find applies to trying to have a sane discussion with Mr. Sender: "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig."
In Rick's world, Trump is wonderful, January 6th was "a day of love" and should be a national holiday, illegal immigrants cause crime waves and are a drain on the economy, and the next twelve (yes, twelve!!!) years will be "beautiful".
Thus Trump’s not so subtle hint that we we will not need (he means have) future elections.
The authoritarians currently have power, so there’s no appetite for anything that could change that, like, say, free and fair elections.
Hey, it worked for the author of what Melania said was Trump’s bed time reading’s author, Hitler.
Hitler is not the only dictator to get into office by being elected, and then instituting an authoritarian regime without elections or having sham elections.
I was not aware that Melania had revealed that he actually reads anything....the image of DJT in bed reading Mein Kampf...all I can do is shake my head...
Unfortunately, with the acceleration of all aspects of modern life--communication, travel, change, innovation, etc.--pinning hopes for a curb on the damage a t administration will cause on the mid-terms ignores the fact that 2 years is an eternity in which it can wreak pain and suffering in enormous measure.
The Southern Baptist Church served as a crucial institutional social refuge during the Civil War and on through Reconstruction for the slave owning Planter Class, according to Kevin Phillips in his masterful book American Theocracy.
“Kevin Phillips, 82, Dies; Political Analyst Predicted G.O.P. Resurgence
A conservative mastermind of the race-based “Southern strategy,” he later, as an author, had second thoughts after assessing income inequality under three Republican presidents.
“Mr. Phillips was in his late 20s when he published his first book, “The Emerging Republican Majority” (1969), which, refining earlier studies he had done, predicted a rightward realignment in national politics driven by ethnic and racial divisions and white discontent.
With that book, he emerged as an influential, if controversial, conservative theoretician. (He called himself a “political analyst,” not a strategist.) He would be credited with predicting and even masterminding the Southern strategy, which in large part enabled Richard M. Nixon to narrowly win the presidency in 1968 by appealing to the grievances of white voters in the South who had historically voted for Democrats. (Nixon said he did not read the book until after the election.)
“All the talk about Republicans making inroads into the Negro vote is persiflage,” Mr. Phillips wrote.
In what many considered a cynical calculation, he recommended that Republicans not dilute the Voting Rights Act because “the more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans.”
The young Mr Phillips research was right on the button. The murder of MLK and the ensuing riots convinced many whites...not just in the south to sell their homes in the cities and move to the 'burbs...or to buy their first gun. My parents who were pretty middle of the road people, expressed fears I had never heard before.
Historically the "mob" has been pretty fickle. They love you, until they don't and then you can be exiled, loose your head, go to the Tower or be hung for all to witness....and the modern media love to build you up, only to then tear you down. It's all been pretty predictable. The arc of history and karma will catch up with Trump...he's only snowed 49% of the voters.
“So, if you care - I have been a leader in hacking and counterhacking for 25 years. I'm well paid for it. The 2024 Election was hacked at the tabulation level.
Long thread on it: I continue to work professionally finding hackers, and fairly often DEVELOP AND INSTALL hacks designed to ferret out the misuse of systems. My customers have included numerous governments and F100 firms. I wrote risk assessments of smartgrid technologies for Obama, and IP e-protection for GE.
Here is what you are seeing. The Tabulation Systems at the County level were hacked far in advance of the election. The hack was probably written into the code even before the code was installed. It will have a WHEN function and IF/THEN functions to have the machine force balance to a given outcome within a specific window of time. You could test the machines 1000 times before election night, and the result will be correct. If you run it during the time window, the force balancing will be turned on and regardless of inputs you will get a programmed output.
It is very simple to prove this. Take the two most outlandish precinct results from any county and just hand-count the ballots. They won't match the tabulation outputs. From what I am seeing, you will find 8-11% avg. shifts from Dem to Rep. Be sure to check heavy Red areas, easier to cover up a run up of the score. That was how it was done in Ohio vs. Kerry - GOP flips in already highly red areas. Now, why the Bomb-Threats? They were NOT to allow for hacker access. The programming was already in place, they were to break Chain of Custody and produce legal grounds to not trust a recount. Every place that GOT a bomb-threat is a place the courts will now have to consider the factual argument of whether the ballots COULD have been tampered with while the evacuations were going on. They weren't. But that is the argument the GOP will make to prevent recounts.
I used to appear on Lou Dobbs TV Show, back when he was at CNN and discuss hacking, including of voting machines. I helped get machines into researchers hands - every single one of them were shocked/horrified how simple hacking the machines was. But somehow, the public has refused to engage.
Now that a full blown #fascist takeover is underway, and they did it by hacking the tabulation machines as described, please engage. I will lend any expertise if asked, but be aware these people are sociopaths who will kill you, they have done so to others, so act accordingly.
And it was relatively easy. Perhaps 300-500 tabulators of 3 types with 24+ months of prep. You just saw 3000+ comms devices of 4+ types hacked with software and installed explosives. These were set off in waves and specific times to destroy Hamas. Same thing here.
My personal record. A team of 4, 11 months total operation time, we hacked 500 Point of Sale CreditCard machines to install added tracking software allowing the units to work correctly while also creating traces to catch CC money laundering which the retailer was in on. Same thing as election 2024.
And finally, let me say again, this is a simple, stupid, easy to prove hack. Hand Count most suspected 2 Precincts in each county. They won't match. And FWIW, I am currently working on a much harder hack larger in scale and much better executed. This election hack is just about political will.”
Letter to Governor Shapiro:
Gov. of Pennsylvania J. Shapiro, et. al. Nov. 7th 2024
“This is a formal Duty to Warn Letter. Per DNI Dir. Clapper's 2015 directive to all agencies and contractors associated with intelligence and financial agency technologies. I have a Duty to Warn of suspicions of hacking, and have done so for my customers including Govt. Agencies, Dept. of Defense, F100 firms and numerous banks. I do so here as a directly affected voter.
Nearly all my investigations begin for one of two reasons. The hackers make a mistake triggering a system issue and/or the aggregate effects of the hacking creates results outside nominal expectations. There is a third and less common flag; an unrelated distraction to draw attention away from the hacking.
All three of these indicators are present in the election of Nov. 5th 2024. Element three, distraction via bomb-threats, is confirmed coming from Russian agencies. Element one is the inexplicable mismatch of reported votes vs. voter turnout. Here in Centre County initial tabulation was an absurdly low 67K votes when over 80K voters participated. Element two is also present. Our local scanner systems worked in testing, but were unable to communicate properly with tabulation systems after the bomb-scare. I note from experience - the failure of a scanning systems to properly load a database is an extremely common development when a system is changed without notice to the users. I have personally worked on similar issues where sudden scanner configuration failures were the first symptoms of system hacking.
With these three elements present, I suggest immediately doing a relatively simple set of preliminary checks. First, randomly selected precincts require manual comparisons of the number of voters who took ballots vs the scanned output of vote totals. Those did not match here in Centre County by apx 13K votes. Once added, those votes substantially changed outcomes and led to the outright reversals in multiple Centre County races. Centre County BOE now shows vote totals over 80K votes. Apx. 6% above 2020 turnout. In my professional opinion every county in PA as well as many in WI, MI and GA currently reporting lower vote totals vs. 2020 and/or also experienced a distraction bomb threat should undertake the same process. My professional opinion is: many thousands of voters are being disenfranchised, likely by a malicious actor via errors in tabulation software. My concern has been proven correct and warranted here in Centre County PA.
ESignature = Stephen R. Spoonamore
Stephen Spoonamore (Resident Centre County PA)”
End of letter.
Please let Vice President Harris know about this revelation. It is crucial a hand recount is accomplished in the swing states.
Remember, Trump said he had enough votes BEFORE the election.
Marlo, I have been scanning coverage of the post-election day coiunting and recounting looking for SOME evidence that anyone is taking Spoonamore’s concerns seriously and/or adding his concerns together with the spate of voter suppression legislation in many red states allowing/encouraging the purge of voter roles of 100s of thousands of voters, all in predominantly black voting districts in swing states by individual citizen “voter vigilantes” often with just a few weeks or days before election day added to firebombing a few ballot boxes in swing states and calling in bomb threats at a number of polling stations in black districts in swing states. While I HAVE seen comments about how some segments of the voting population “didn’t show up” I HAVE NOT seen any coverage of these events being part of that “not showing up” or of the likely contribution to the apparent outcome of teh election. Have the major news media already begun to, in Timothy Snyder’s phrase, “obey in advance?"
John. We had a firebombing here in Oregon and one in Washington, probably by the same individual. Neither is a swing state. The voting officials in both those cases were able either to rescue the ballots or announce which ballot boxes they were, so concerned voters could make sure their vote counted. Interestingly enough ballot boxes have fire suppression aspects which worked in Oregon, but not in Washington. After the vandalism of the boxes, they were watched and emptied more frequently. I would say that voter suppression and intimidation in many states was a big issue. Here in Oregon where it is so easy to vote, it was down for whatever reason.
Please stop with this conspiracy theory. When confronted to show any evidence, Spoonamore has nothing, responds to nothing, and for all we know is a just a ranting lunatic or worse. By propounding this we are taking away from the actions we really need to be doing now--opposing anything and everything that smacks of Project 2025 as well as finding ways to win the messaging wars and putting in front of the low-information voters the reality of what they voted for or what they get because they didn't vote! Please see this Snopes analysis that draws into serious question Spoonamore's claims: https://substack.com/redirect/69ba1b72-7c6d-46fa-9811-013f982bb52e?j=eyJ1IjoiMThxZXFmIn0.fy6Ra28-VjC_FihlJ6b-eP2U5Pwk4vPrEAjrpijHFFY
Plus, a thorough look at the voting shows this was a NATIONAL trend, not one targeted at just the battleground states.
This article mainly goes off what the "official" results tell us. How can they be so sure unless you count the actual ballots? Who is to say what constitutes "the latest publicly available election results" if everyone is using vote totals tabulated from a hacked system? A hand recount is the only way to be sure imo. Unfortunately this will go nowhere bc the dems are weak and would rather acquiesce before a dictator than question authority, imo
I pray you are right but my opinions is people suffer from memory loss. Voters forgot how bad Trump handled the pandemic yet they voted for him again in 2024.
Monroe..., please stop, with the"black" female. She's no more Black than I'm Russian. That, along with ridiculous "celebrity" endorsements and $4.55 will get you a coffee at the airport. This was a modern-day card game and we were dealt a poor hand... and then misplayed it. Now, "they" are giving "US" a drubbing 24/7. The effect of this "drubbing" is going to further disenchant a lot of Democrats even more than those who didn't vote. Like what the heck was the sense of finding Trump guilty on so many counts only to let him walk. Huh? Where's our muscle? And Gaetz, another millionaires son, So what if he screwed a 17 yr old with a phoney ID and gave her some money. Is he actually guilty of a "crime". Or is it a bunch of "alluded to", "hearsay", etc buloney which in the end will deserve to be throw out? And "us" have our nose rubbed in it. Yeah? He's rich - We will. Where's our muscle? Unless we can find some Geritol to help build a fire under our muddled-ass the red-blanket will get bigger. Better look real hard at what it IS those red-blanket folks want. It's not much different from what you and I want. And, like it or notr, some of the 'things' empty-Greene is pulling out of the dumpster do exemplify what's occurring under our noses. This is a pretty-good wake-up call. Time to build up some muscle. Turn this loss into a gain.
Mad, her father was Haitian and her mother, Indian. i think that counts as not white. And she is female, a further problem for the many men who are misogynists and the women who go along with this kind of nonsense. I would agree that Ds need to up their game plan and yes, build some muscle. I want a more equitable society where we recognize the value of all groups of people, not just white straight people, where we support the vulnerable instead of making them more vulnerable and in many cases beating them up or killing them, where we recognize the value of immigrants rather than exploiting them and calling for them to be deported. I doubt many MAGAs give a rat's behind for many progressive ideals. I have very little in common with them.
I would say it was in addition to voter suppression, racism, misogyny, and the economy, which are not esoteric reasons despite someone trying to tell me that they were, were a good part of the vote for death star. Already some are regretting their vote and that number will only grow. Of course, there are plenty of in your face cult members gloating.
The people who buy Colgate toothpaste, or Budweiser beer don't go looking for the commercials. The commercials are out there for passive viewing. Same with politics. We did not do enough to present the truth to the voters we needed, almost all of whom had been Democratic voters in the past--Kamala got 7 million fewer votes than Trump did in 2020.
People might vote for a candidate because of one issue, like abortion or the economy. However, the entire package of a candidate wins election, not just the “parts” one likes. No, 45 did not win a resounding mandate, but he was, unfortunately, elected to be president with all the powers of that office, and he will use it for his own benefit. The morbidly wealthy will also benefit.
This is the hope to foster now by pointing the 2026 potential to the GOP members of the Congress. If social media is to be believable people are already very unhappy with the turn about results especially with Musk in the mix who is barely a citizen and not elected to anything or by anyone. People are especially angry that tfg will not get his much deserved legal comeuppance and that his bigoted so-called picks are as already threatening citizens of our country on his behalf.
Many more Republican Senators are up for re-election than Democrats in 2026, but most are in very safe seats. The Democrats must find candidates that speak to the concerns and needs of middle-class and working-class Americans. I look at what’s happening in Argentina as a guide to what’s to come. There is widespread poverty there, but the president remains popular because his radical policies have halted runaway inflation. The majority of voters say, “Give his policies time to work.” By ‘26, many of Biden’s initiatives will be helping the economy recover. The question is, will Americans give him credit or will they point to the bright spots as evidence that Trump’s plans are taking hold?
Dave, it's inevitable.., too many will shelter with your last sentence! Too many.., but not all. Media will focus on the "too many" because it's 'front page' material. Gotta look beyond that. "Be best"??? No! Be BOLD!
That is “if” there are “elections” in 2026. And if there are, considering Republicans majority control of Congress, there’s no reason to believe they won’t pursue gerrymandering future elections to the point there is no way for them to lose. Orban did this in Hungary. They have “elections” but he and his cronies win every time.
Considering Orban was a keynote speaker at CPAC and has been sought out by the GOP for instructions of how to do this (in order make the US an “illiberal” democracy as Orban has done in Hungary), what’s to stop it from happening here? If the GOP continue to capitulate to Trump and the MAGA agenda there may very well never be another election where they don’t win. Scary stuff. Don’t get blindsided if (when?) things start heading in this direction.
I’m not at all confident that the midterms won’t be even more saturated with disinformation and propaganda than 2024 and the suppression even more widespread. And protest will be quashed by compliant police/forces. It’s surprising how vulnerable the institutions that have kept checks in place are.
Class II terms run from the beginning of the 117th Congress on January 3, 2021, to the end of the 119th Congress on January 3, 2027. Senators in Class II were elected to office in the November 2020 general election, unless they took their seat through appointment or special election.
Democrats
Booker, Cory A. (D-NJ)
Coons, Christopher A. (D-DE)
Durbin, Richard J. (D-IL)
Hickenlooper, John W. (D-CO)
Luján, Ben Ray (D-NM)
Markey, Edward J. (D-MA)
Merkley, Jeff (D-OR)
Ossoff, Jon (D-GA)
Peters, Gary C. (D-MI)
Reed, Jack (D-RI)
Shaheen, Jeanne (D-NH)
Smith, Tina (D-MN)
Warner, Mark R. (D-VA)
Republicans
Capito, Shelley Moore (R-WV)
Cassidy, Bill (R-LA)
Collins, Susan M. (R-ME)
Cornyn, John (R-TX)
Cotton, Tom (R-AR)
Daines, Steve (R-MT)
Ernst, Joni (R-IA)
Graham, Lindsey (R-SC)
Hagerty, Bill (R-TN)
Hyde-Smith, Cindy (R-MS)
Lummis, Cynthia M. (R-WY)
Marshall, Roger (R-KS)
McConnell, Mitch (R-KY)
Mullin, Markwayne (R-OK)
Ricketts, Pete (R-NE)
Risch, James E. (R-ID)
Rounds, Mike (R-SD)
Sullivan, Dan (R-AK)
Tillis, Thom (R-NC)
Tuberville, Tommy (R-AL)
We need to work NOW to identify and support strong candidates to oppose Republicans up for re-election. Also, start NOW to message and connect with voters to support Dems who will be running. We need a smart, tech savvy DNC that knows how to message and connect with ALL voters using ALL media.
The numbers will be on our side and we cannot blow it!
But, I don't see R-Okla, Senator James Lankford 'sname. Sen Lankford said yesterday on Sunday that the "Senate Intelligence Committee" will have "lots of questions" for Tulsi Gabbard & her 2017 propaganda Trip to Syria.
All House members plus Class II senators: 20 Republicans and 13 Democrats. Quite a shift from 2024 when it was 19 Democrats, 10 Republicans and four Independents.
This is one of the reasons I abhor talk about potential 2028 candidates for president. Eyes on the prize, people, eyes on the prize.
Given their current diet of disinformation, how will Trump voters know what he’s doing is bad for them? Things have to actually get really really bad for them physically to even have an inkling. I don’t think they will know, nor understand until it is too late. Job loss, inflation, War, their kids being drafted, loss of health care, loss of public education, another pandemic ( h1n1 bird flu is currently spreading across the nations farms and farm workers).
Morning, Lynell! Wonderful quote. I think she's channeling Samwise:
“It's like the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it'll shine out the clearer. I know now folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something. That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.”
Think I'll give Johan deMeij's "Hobbits Symphony" a listen today. Here is the clip ESB was slated to play during Covid, and finally played in 2022: (Hint: we're not as good as the President's Own, but did a good job at the end)
Morning, Ally! Well, now, if you believe as I do that action speaks louder than words, and that music is an action, we should all sit down and have a listen. Thanks for the part you play (pun intended!) to foster the action that we need to keep going!
Thanks for this link...Listening now in amazement.
When we played it, it was just Jake and I in the tuba section. The end is about 60 measures of either a sustained C below the bass clef staff or of a repeated rhythm. We split breathing into "even or odd" measures so that the sustained notes kept going. Playing that piece was simply amazing.
Lynell - fish don't see the water they swim in. Well these American fishes are about to see that their water is disappearing! And when they do, the Dems need to be out there proudly displaying our "brand" as we provide relief as well as information. This is what America has traditionally done internationally to gain alliances.
If you fight something you give it power. The real power could be short blast of the positive Biden accomplished. The media loves Trump. I wish the media loved Biden
Biden's popularity dropped substantially with the exit from Afghanistan. If Trump hadn't sabotaged the exit of thousands of Americans and our Afghan allies by excluding the Afghan government from negotiations and had he not closed all but one of the air bases in Afghanistan, it could have been a much smoother withdrawal.
But the media glommed onto the word "chaotic" which is true of what happens at the end of almost every conflict. And just like with Biden's age, they wouldn't let it go. Almost ALL of the media.
The corporate media doesn't give a damn about the myriad accomplishments of the Biden administration, only about denigrating him and glossing over the progress the US and the world has made during his Presidency.
What corporate media cares about is money. The horse race and the constant idiotic Trump behaviors brought in viewership which equals money. Well, they have lost us!
Well, talk about a coming to Jesus moment…now the pharmaceutical industry (aka vaccine manufacturers) is facing an administration who is anti-vaccine. I wonder how that is going over on investor calls?
Perhaps instead of making the majority of Anericans life long customers of big pharma. They can instead produce vaccines with better ingredients, and longer shelf lives, produce medicines that have less evasive side effects that often cause people to go on additional medications for life. And focus instead on healthy diets, exercise, clean water and fewer pesticides. These companies could pay all the millions who suffered horrific side effects and deaths from the various Covid vaccines. And likely still turn a profit. Even perhaps reverse the effects as we still see so many young males collapsing on the fields in sports dying or having life long heart problems. We may one day be able to actually say safe and effective instead of announcing another death as sad unexpected.
RFK Jr. knows statistically the sis pays more into healthcare than any other country yet we have one of the fattest and sickest populations ranking even worse than Cuba.
I have left the legacy media that I think has contributed to the Trump presidency. While the power is with the people if they take it, the people can be making alliances with liberal governments in the rest of the world, just as Trump send Richard Grenell to illiberal governments while Biden was president.
On Friday, expect Amazon workers in 10 countries to strike.
Good countries to build democratic alliances include England which overthrew the Tories and installed the Labor party back. Brexit was unpopular and we can learn from that. Racism pushed it through and reality got rid of those who were in charge of doing that, because it messed up the British economy so much.
I see the current power at the local level too. Support your Democratic politicians wherever they are. Aim to replace Republicans in 2026.
And the Independent ones as well. Angus King and Bernie Sanders have both exhibited progressive behavior as well as kindness and integrity. Can that be said about ANY Republican in the Senate or House today?
Yes Labour finally kicked out the Tories for pushing wealth into fewer hands. But then they do the wrong thing by agreeing with lax immigration standards not unlike our own liberal democrats. We didn’t do a damn thing about the broken border for three early years and democrats paid the price. Of course it’s more complicated than one issue. Democrats lost the white working class vote and the Clintons had much to do with that although one could argue that the incorrigible white racist working class component initiated this move during LBJ’s progressive legislation.
But installing the monster of the ages is a big no no in my book — literally.
The media, Sunni, comprises elites mostly all with zero humanities.
They gravitate to the sensational, and the convicted criminal just feeds them their adrenalin all the more, he with his "bing-bing-boing-bong," his epithets, melodrama, and paranoid scripts all tailored to lowest common denominators easy especially for dehumanized elites also to milk, exploit, raise profit share.
Yep. One dimensional beings who see people as mere things to be controlled through a binary lens of Winner v Loser. Metaphorically the less things go their way the louder they shout. Like spoiled four year olds who can not play well with others and equally emotionally exhausting.
Sunni-I agree with you about the influence of the media. We need to create new platforms to promote truth and to expose the people who work against a better future. We also need more art, music and history lessons!
Trump makes money for them. Biden is competent and that is boring, viewer and readership drops. Trump is a sh*t show of drama and controversy and anger. That is what they love. That brings in the big bucks.
And that is why I am abandoning the media controlled by billionaires. I do not read WaPo anymore, and have let my subscription lapse. NYT I left a while ago. I stopped watching MSNBC quite a while ago. Angertainment. Let them die, they have failed us.
I read Heather, I look at AP, and subscribe to The Tennessee Lookout, a small, independent news watching state news. I pick up articles from Threads and have started a subscription on BlueSky. I am just starting to look at Propublica routinely.
I don’t understand that MSNBC is on your list. I didn’t watch Morning Joe, but I do watch most of the evening shows after PBS, and they all have been telling the truth.
I don’t have a TV so no cable, but I was a long time NYT subscriber and a contributing member to my local NPR station for years. I was also following liberal bloggers like dhstokyo, The MeidasTouch, The Lincoln Project, I Am Politics Girl, and The Tennessee Holler. They were the ones reporting what was going on in real time. The Meidas Touch was sending investigative reporters to Trump rallies, recording videos of his rambling, incoherent speeches; dhstokyo was reading parts of Project 2025 months before it saw the light of day of day on MSM. Meanwhile NPR and the NYT were droning on about Biden’s age. The contrast was startling, and obviously biased. MSM seemed to be beating the drum on “this race will be won by a razor thin margin” message but there’s no way that would have happened if they had done their jobs and reported what the independent journalists were uncovering. After the NYT published the op ed by the Christian Nationalist encouraging people to sit out this election I was done.
the media only loves those whose antics give them "clicks" and views. Biden isn't flamboyant enough for them to sell their tired, tattered opinions and incomplete coverage of events.
The media thinks the Trump and Musk show will shore up their crumbling media businesses enough to sell them off...but they've basically put all their eggs in the old, weak Trump basket and while both Skippy the Dipshit (Musk) and Trump are certainly flamboyant, Musk was not elected and has only the power of his money (which isn't inconsiderable, by any means--but it only goes so far). Trump isn't truly interesting in governing so much as he is in keeping his butt out of jail, exacting revenge for imagined insults and grievances, grifting more money and playing golf--not necessarily in that order. I hope that perhaps the Senate takes back some of it's power and the more ambitious arseholes in his Cabinet get foiled in their power grabs. We'll see. Unfortunately.
Yep...two massive, needy egos in the same orbit will not last long. Skippy would do well to take to heart what happened to Bannon when Trump decided that Bannon had taken up oxygen that belonged only to Trump himself. Musk may think he's safe because of his money, but as you say...Trump loves the spotlight and applause more than anything.
Yes. It takes a lot of wasted energy to fight, to be angry. Put that same energy into positive action. And yes, the Media has done the American people a real, serious disservice. Shame.
Sandra Simpson -- The media has never "loved Biden". For the most part they totally ignored him and the great things he was doing in office. As for me, I will never forgive President Biden for what he did -- waiting until after the Democratic Convention to step down. I do not need to write an essay on how destructive that was.
The "media" feeds on boldness. Battles! Because of the fear-factor.., the disaster potential..., "Stay tuned" Melissa, will be on at eleven with more breaking news (and cleavage on Faux).
So true. Thanks for the wisdom. Still we need to resist the Trump assault of our government. We need major medias to write what is written about Trump landslide illusion. And more.
I'll take "hope" wherever I can get it! And I'll add my favorite Dr. King, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hatred cannot drive out hatred; only love can do that." We may have to stand for our values in ways we never had to before. I'm heartened by the fact that we're in the majority...and we've got some really good leaders. And we will not take this challenge lying down. I'm 79, so I won't be here to see the long-term consequences of giving in to the tyranny. But my great-grandkids and their kids and theirs will be. So I'm in this fight till the day I die. And meanwhile, I'm bringing a requested Costco apple pie to the family dinner I used to make, but now my beautiful, talented granddaughter creates!
“Just like your mother, you’re unfailingly kind, a trait people never fail to undervalue.”
Dumbledore to Harry Potter, in The Half-Blood Prince, as they are engaged in the deadly fight against Voldermort and his Death Eaters.
We’ve witnessed the gradual growth of unkindness over the past few years, and MAGA and their counterparts around the world have even made a virtue out of cruelty. Kindness is undervalued, laughed at as a weakness, even by opponents of fascism. But it’s a strong force all the same: a moral ju-jitsu.
And that everyday test of everyday people failed us. My sense from the election is that it was not won by those who voted but LOST by those who did not. 😳
We also have to face the startling possibility that M.A.G.A.s have NOT given up on the republican experiment but believe that the republican experiment has given up on them. 😱
That was the reason they put Gandalf on middle earth, to start the pebble that started the landslide…yes we, and facts, are the pebbles. The vision and truth, the sign of the burglar on the door that lead to Aragon, that brought together the nine walkers…and even Boromir played a role he didn’t intend…and in truth the King is a healer not a warrior. So many lessons…Gollum destroyed the ring, after all, based on his oath to Frodo…
So yes…simple things, warm beer, good food and truth! And Samwise…the least of these…a gardener raising potatoes, cared so much in the end he carried Frodo…love rules it all.
I love the ‘sloshing’ metaphor. The stakes seem so high but it is a relief to know there are possible outcomes that do not require the country …and the world on its tail…to slam into a ‘29 level crash and/or a 30’s type recession.
EVERY single Republican President back to US Grant have taken the country into a recession. This is what happens when the oligarchs rule. And now we have Elon as our co-President.
Patricia, I hope you and others are correct. My instinct tells me that magats are so hypnotized that they’ll continue to drink lemon aid. As for the legislative branch? I don’t even want to think about what they’ll do except bow and katow to dear leader.
Or a World War lll?! If you look at trump's inability to look beyond the flattery from "our arch enemies" or his so-called friends, what do we see? Russia on the March to take Ukraine, retake the Baltic states, Poland, Moldova & that's just to name a few. Then Chi will take Taiwan & Kim could act against South Korea. Where will our fearless stable genius take us then? We already know he abandons allies, so our allies will fight on their own. Then what, mr. I'm going to end the Ukraine war in 24 hours? How will you make that Biden's fault?
This is a most serious consequence that MAGA isolationists are ushering in. Even if we can put brakes on this admin, trust between the US and NATO nations and other pacific treaties will be irrevocably shaken.
"Gaetz went from United States representative to Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney general to making videos for Cameo in a little over a week. "
Apart from rightwing sugar daddies and lies, all these people have is celebrity as there claim to fame, as one reporter said of Paris Hilton, famous for being famous (or in this case, infamous). Media and our passivity have been transforming qualification for leadership into TV ratings. It does not bode well, unless we get serious about changing it.
Just one example, across the board our culture has become, violent, brutal, hateful, self-righteous. Not against an enemy, but each other. It has been the Repub plan. Stay tuned…
Absolutely, I just catch bits of "wrestling" as I try to fast forward through the commercial & it is absolutely disgusting. And how many of our little kids know these characters & watch that trash. Years & years ago my grandfather came to visit for several weeks. He was in his mid 80's, when he was young he came to the US to escape from the harshness of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was an intelligent man but since TV was a new medium for entertainment I remember him sitting close to our black & white TV watching wrestling in the afternoon, even as a kid I could see it was fake & that was long before the choreographed "smackdown" & "takedowns". And while I am a firm believer in equality of the sexes it absolutely disgusts me to see women debase themselves in that arena. It's bad enough that women have always been in the oldest business in the world, prostitution, but phoney wrestling too. C'mon ladies, show a little class, I didn't give up my bra 55 years ago to see you stoop to that!
Watch any live show and what do you hear? The audience screaming through the performance. Nobody applauds anymore, they make every noise imaginable. We have become the romans who needed gladiators , who watched people being fed to lions for entertainment. We accept corruption, sex scandals, financial misdeeds and even criminal acts as part of everyday life. We are getting the government we deserve. ( or at least slightly over 50% of us ) Time to emigrate?
I’m not sure which of Postman’s books introduced the idea of the “crap detector,” an essential skill for participating in a democracy. A great many of our fellow citizen’s crap detectors are either lost or broken.
COMMENTER'S NOTE: The B-word is sanitized here out of respect for the audience.
***
Haven't been able to pinpoint Postman's first use of the term. What is certain is that he used it in a Nov. 28, 1969, speech to the National Convention for the Teachers of English in Washington, D.C. Postman's address was called "B------t and the Art of Crap-Detection," and he began it this way:
"With a title like this, I think I ought to dispense with the rhetorical amenities and come straight to the point. For those of you who do not know, it may be worth saying that the phrase 'crap-detecting' originated with Ernest Hemingway, who, when asked if there were one quality needed, above all others, to be a good writer, replied, 'Yes, a built-in, shock-proof, crap detector.'
"As I see it, the best things schools can do for kids is to help them learn how to distinguish useful talk from b------t. I will ask only that you agree that every day in almost every way people are exposed to more b------t than it is healthy for them to endure, and that if we can help them to recognize this fact, they might turn away from it and toward language that might do them some earthly good. ..."
***
(Yep, way back in 1969 – "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." To no avail.)
Figure out how to educate and test for that -- beginning in the lower grades of the public schools. There once was a tv show I loved called "Lie to Me", about a deception researcher that used scientific analyses to detect truth -- I wondered why it wasn't renewed. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235099/
This is the time we want to hide the wizard behind the curtain.
The Biden administration is working to spend EVERY penny they can from the CHIPs act, the Build, Back, Better act, the Inflation reduction Act knowing that if they don't the Trump administration and Project 2025 will hijack the funds for nefarious purposes.
The Party of Lincoln had one. It's been selling it's soul in installments since Nixon, and at this point there is nothing much left. It's going to need an overhaul and new parts.
Well, there's Liz Cheney &Adam Kinzinger but they were rousted out of the party as soon as they spoke out. So, your assessment of zero actively serving republicans is spot on.
In a talk she gave at a university, HCR referred to herself as a "Lincoln Republican". Sorry I can't cite which talk but I hope we hear more about that. I've researched the term a bit but what that means is still fuzzy for me. If I could, I'd italicize "Lincoln Republican ...." and put it in a 'thought bubble'.
Joan, I imagine “Lincoln Republican” refers to the origins of the Republican party back in the 1850s when Lincoln switched from the Whigs (and Democrats as the party of slave-owning power brokers) to help build the new Republican party as an alternative which took on those who would abolish or limit slavery, at least in new western territories being added to the country.
The parties did a major flip flop with each other philosophically at different points in time however, influenced by elite wealth and industry and racism. Heather’s book ‘How the South Win The Civil War’ is a good read on that. It didn’t take long for the Confederate wire, who faced no post-war real consequences, to usurp the powers of Congress.
I found this Thomas Friedman interview and he made a good point about two other critical disruptions that was ignored by the press and the politicians (along with hiding Project 2025)…
A.I. and Climate. Friedman describes what a different world 2024 is compared to when Henry Kissinger was in office. And why it’s dangerous and reckless for Trump to assign inexperienced actors to government positions for upcoming term..
Thomas Friedman on the Future of America and the World: The Post-Election Dissection (Part 1)
JaKsaa, thanks for this Tom Friedman interview. I highly recommend it to all of you. Tom's metaphors for where we are in history at this moment are very helpful. We are in the Polycene... no longer the Anthropocene.
I think the democrats have lost their way. If Dems put 1/2 as much time in making people aware of thx Biden accomplishments as we do Trump antics we would have won the election
I think that perhaps as much as we should be deeply concerned about how that sloshing around of power works out (or doesn't), we need to be concerned about the fate of NewsCorp and the Murdoch empire. The information bubble that has engulfed the red states is hugely damaging.
In other comments here I've noted what I think we can do to transform the corporate form of business into something that is more compatible with a republican (small R) democracy. But we also need to do something about the information bubble. The key to it is something IT people call metadata.
Today, metadata is roughly equal to the state that pharmaceuticals were in the 1890s - totally unregulated and horrifically damaging to the health of the country. The construction of the information bubbles is critically dependent on the ability to target both advertising and information pushes. What you see and hear is what you know, which is even more the case with non-readers, which alas, is an ever growing percentage of the population.
How many and what types of attributes associated with human digital identifiers should be allowed to be aggregated and for how long? That is the burning question of the hour. The conservative justices on SCOTUS have opined more than once that the way to combat bad information or speech is with more information or speech. Well, that only works if the distribution or probabilities of the distribution of competing ideas are spread around uniformly. Massive metadata aggregations used for the purpose of guiding information flows guarantee that cannot happen.
Lucas Kunce in his travels around Missouri during his recent senate campaign encountered a great many people who said they would have voted for him except that his party affiliation was problematic. Their understanding of what the two parties are about is deeply flawed because of the information bubbles in which they exist.
Massive metadata aggregations are a far more dangerous poison and public hazard than such things of fentanyl, heroine, cocaine, or any other controlled substance.
Graig is correct - the massive information bubble is our biggest problem. If we want to preserve a democratic society we, as a country, must get a handle on this problem. The media is not even remotely understanding the magnitude of the problem and much of the media is part of the problem.
The conservative justices on SCOTUS have opined more than once that the way to combat bad information or speech is with more information or speech. Well, that only works if the distribution or probabilities of competing ideas are spread around uniformly.
Exactly. The courts, when acting as intended, use procedures to transfer information most relevant to the case, but that much trickier is a less controlled environment of a free society. Which is not to say that there should be no guardrails such as the Fairness Doctrine, antitrust enforcement against monopolistic media ownership, and campaign finance limitations. The bought and paid for Supreme Court says let good information overcome bad, so long as you can pay for it, and hands the microphones to guys like Murdoch, Musk and Leo. Democracy doesn't enter into it.
I think you got this one right. Citizens United gives the power of information management to the oligarchs. Musk threatening Republican Senators who don’t fall in line with Project 2025 is a prime example of the power of money in a Free Speech framework that is fantasy based vs realpolitik based. 18th Century concepts of Free markets was stillborn and market regulation was born. SCOTUS (Roberts) tipped their hand with Citizens United and the bad joke is on us. Money wins until Citizens United is overturned and reformed.
Point taken. I do think Roberts could be one if only he was surrounded by a few others. It doesn't take much to pull someone over to the dark side. The German experience in the first half of the last century proved that. I had a climbing partner who grew up as a little girl in Hitler's Germany. The work that Goebbels did in creating an information bubble was incredibly effective. Once it was destroyed, they recovered from it quite quickly, and were terribly embarrassed by what they thought they had known before 1945. Of course there remained the hateful fringe, but without that bubble they no longer had any power.
Conservatives in Government don’t exist for the most part. There are silenced, deposed and primaried ones of course, and moderate democrats (like the ones that passed the recent bill in the house—43 of them—that gives POTUS the power to defund ‘terrorist’ (loosely defined’ Nonprofits. It’s going to the Senate, so call/write your Senators THIS WEEK!!! Unless you want any free speech against Dear Leader suppressed.
And MSNBC, and vehicles such as this particular column and others which we are all greatly dependent upon at this point. They will do their best to eliminate any source of information, isn't that what autocrats do?
Thank you, Heather! That last paragraph gives me hope.
I (stupidly) watched a clip with Steven Miller touting mass deportations (fantasyland "remedy" for who-knows-what). This 1948 Woody Guthrie song (recorded here by Arlo Guthrie) keeping playing in my head... some things never seem to change...
I'm afraid for the hope imagined in the last paragraph to become reality, the current Republican senators and congressmen would have to grow spines. I don;t see that happening,
Isn’t there a bridge for sale somewhere. If any Repub had one, it’s not just the MAGAts that would seek revenge. It’s the real power, the Heritage cretins, and all they represent. Chump is just the front man, or carnival barker…
Thank you for the link - I had never heard about that before. It says on Wiki "Cesar Chavez, later to become founder of the United Farm Workers union, learned of the tragic crash while serving in the US Navy, helping convince him that farm workers should be treated "as important human beings and not as agricultural implements".
Seems to me that that's a message America needs to hear today.
The things you learn from HCR - and her followers! This is like a little bit of Liberal/Democrat secret code. I;m very glad that President Obama picked up on it - no wonder the Republicans hated him!
There is a film out there somewhere about Cesar Chavez, just waiting to be made.
Today’s letter is a “good read”. 45 and cronies will saunter around acting BIG but just maybe there might be some egos left in the Republican Party who want to be heard, just like CFDT. It’s rather “cute” that shadow prez musk is threatening them to toe the line or else he will use his fortune to silence them. He’s another beauty who has been thrust upon the American people. He could do so much good with his money. Instead, he’s a bully who now has been given some kind of power by an old broken man. Lucky America to have such crud leading ( and I say this loosely) us!!!
They all are bullies, liars, and self-righteous greedy bastards. All dressed up as flame-throwing clowns. No sheets to hide behind, blathering jingoistic bull Schitt that the stupid, ignorant and fearful lap up. Are “we the people” just the vulnerable…
". . . while corrupt members of his administration grabbed all they could."
The convicted criminal's objective, we all know, is to follow his guy Putin, and Orban, and a number of the world's similar criminals in power.
Trouble is, these wannabee further criminals have scads of U.S. billionaires who all want to be only richer. They want government to disappear -- especially democratic, open government ruling for what Abe Lincoln naively referred to as "the people."
They've been insistent with their far-right foundations over the years since their Powell memo united them. They are as corrupt as their Clarence court, as corrupt as their orange felon, as corrupt as all their lobbyists, spreaders of social media hate, and as corrupt as necessary to have crippled schools to be void of humanities so the rest of us wouldn't see over the years as our great artists saw what these hideously corrupt were doing to hurt so many.
Putin put them in office. Russians, their agents and willing idiots committed election crimes, national security offenses, which should be the top priority.
Recall the Department of Treasuries busted ofive (5) U.S. far-right citizens- Putin paid - to power an influence operation. They were paid out of corporate front located in Tennessee. One agent was paid $5,000 / monthly for his Agit-Prop.
Names:
TATLOR HANSEN
MATT CHRISTIAN
DAVE RUBIN
The "I was deceived" TIM POOL actually an admission. against interest.
BENNY JOHNSON "We were disturbed ... "were (sic) victims." Another admission.
Well, we can only hope that the Senate's first shot across the bow was exactly that with much more to follow. Because if they act like Mitch McConnell has for the past eight years, we are in deep sh*t. While numerous pundits have mused over "which of Trump's appointees is the worst" (admittedly, in terms of character, it's debatable), the answer--and where the Senate MUST draw the line--clearly is Hegseth, because of the position itself. Look, I know we're mostly internal-and-"economy"-myopic, but there is simply no other position that has both the real AND notional power of the SECDEF. As at least one political scientist commented recently, it's probably one of the ten most important jobs on the planet. In charge of the still, by-far-most-powerful MILITARY on the planet. And we already gave Job #1 to possibly the most-irresponsible man on the planet. Trump + JD Vance + Hegseth. Do that NSC math.
Both Jonathan Chait and Timothy Snyder have already written measured-but-cutting analyses of Hegseth and what he would bring into this position. It is chilling and sobering--and both let Hegseth do most of the talking.
And, just in time, I'm teaching The Handmaid's Tale to my literature students this month, while telling them (any literary critic of the book knows this) that Atwood only included actual examples from history in creating the world of Gilead. While Donald Trump has nominated a man to be SECDEF who SOUNDS like he's The Commander in Gilead (actually, The Commander sounds saner, and WAY less angry. Anyone scared sh*tless yet? You need to be).
Here are links to Snyder and Chait. Read them, please. I consider Hegseth a redline. If he is confirmed we've lost the line and we are in big, BIG trouble.
Robert,thank you for the links,teaching the Handmaid’s Tale to your students and pointing out that Atwood only used actual examples. Unfortunatley it is banned in my local Fl school district.
Heather describes a vacuum in power and compares it to politics early in the Great Depression. Both parties have big cracks at present. Trump is losing his cognitive ability, and it seems like a situation in history where a child emperor or monarch suddenly comes to power. Sometimes, unlikely characters assume power. We may be surprised at who is pulling the strings. Possibly the head of housekeeping? Lol.
I'm going to your links now. The Atlantic may have a paywall, and I believe I have already read Snyder's piece on Hegseth.
I hope there’s enough responsible Senators who can restore our democracy to what is should be! The first step is to not approve his ludicrous appointments!
Yes. And the senators will have noticed that when they rejected Gaetz, their decision was immediately accepted with no fuss at all. Just ‘how about this other person.’ That might encourage them to take more power by rejecting other terrible nominees.
Bondi is both corrupt and a registered foreign agent. However, she has executive experience and is not a child molester, so comparison to Gaetz lifts her up.
It’s odd to be cheering for right wing senators to exercise more power, but here we are.
I do NOT like this Alice In Wonderland projection that Republican legislators will grow balls in the foreseeable future and stand up to Trump. Yes, he has no mandate. But to combine metaphors, this whistling in the dark to make the choir feel better doesn't get it for me. Yes, things WILL go badly, but I just don't see the bums getting thrown out -- voters are not paying attention, they're fired up by hate of the other, and human nature seems pretty constant to me. More likely, they'll give Trump credit for all the work Biden has accomplished to build local economies, because much of it is going to really kick in during his term. They've already been taking credit for it, after they voted against it, and campaigned against the legislation that generated it! Anyone who thinks that's going to change, is regularly smoking some really great weed!
To put my comments into perspective, I'm an 83-year old veteran of the Civil Rights movement, volunteered for a combined five months in NV on three Obama/Hillary elections, and have spent a year's income supporting Senate and House candidates in the last four elections when I was no longer capable of walking the precincts.
I don’t think my generation of Baby Boomers will be called a great generation. We have allowed the greedy, the hateful and the likes of Trump and his cronies to divide us and take over our government through the failure of the Supreme Court, Congress and the POTUS. Surely there are people of character and bravery remaining in the GOP who can and will stand up to them and if they do, they will be recognized for their bravery and they will save us from having a true oligarchy in our country.
Maybe we baby boomers should snail mail printed copies of good articles like LFAA to some of our Republican friends who otherwise would never read them. Old people still love to check the mailbox(:
“Congress had become adept at opposing presidents but had split into factions that made it unable to transition to using power, rather than opposing its use.”
Sounds like the modern Republican Party; the party of NO! Very good at opposing Democratic initiatives when in the minority, but bickering and indecisive when in the majority. (Except, of course, Mitch McConnell ramming political hacks on to SCOTUS.)
Professor Richardson makes a hopeful point that the recent crop of Trump appointees make up the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, and that the more adept political operatives in the Senate, seeing cracks developing in MAGA perhaps enabling enough Republican senators to grow a spine and take back the power they recently ceded so readily to a moral degenerate.
It might just happen. Watch out for Elon Musk, though. At this point he’s more dangerous than Trump.
Very astute commentary about the “sloshing” of power. A real live trumpian presence has all but disappeared and presumably he is entertained all day by Fox and reality reruns. Musk senses the absence of power and is trying mightily to mop it up. Senate Rs would take it, but only anonymously. Importantly, America’s enemies, Putin and the North Korean, now a major alliance bailing out the failure of Putin’s army, see it as well, and have, almost unnoticed shed trump, a major realignment that will have important implications as yet indiscernible.
Well, look at it from this angle: finally they have a chance to star as humane and considerate? I see this as a moment for the traditional republicans to return to some fundamental principles; why not? Of course the dirty lucre might get in the way.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”—that speaks forcefully to how I am feeling as we enter this holiday week: “Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” From Joyce Vance Substack
In pursuit of the everyday:
"They want us to give up. We will simply give instead. Of our compassion. Of our energy. Of our patriotism. Of our creativity. Of our generosity. Of our hope. Of our courage. Of our friendship." ~Jessica Craven, ChopWoodCarryWater
Republicans in congress who will be up for re-election in 2026 need to take heed of what Heather is saying. Trump's goals are broadly unpopular, but many last minute Trump voters were not able to connect their stands on issues with the right candidate. There could well be a backlash in 2026 when they see what they voted for.
As my Jewish sister in law likes to say, 2026 could be the "come to Jesus" moment for a LOT of people. (she was formerly Baptist). I'll be surprised if the GOP holds on to the majorities in the Mid Term elections.
Mike Wicklein
I think we have to consider the possibility that the incoming regime will find a way to not have midterm elections if it appears they will lose power. Trump is already going to declare a national emergency on his first day in office so he can begin his mass deportation scheme. I don't think it takes much imagination to see him (or JD Vance) finding another "emergency" that will allow them to declare martial law and postpone the midterms until they can be conducted safely.
Joel, I agree. But I think that Trump has made clear his intentions to go this way for a long time. The senate has a constitutionally mandated obligation to provide a check on the president's authority in situations like this. Republican senators have repeatedly failed to meet that obligation. But the explicit reality of a Hitlar style dictatorship seems to have finally brought enough of them around to stop the Gaetz appointment. Perhaps they will stand their ground and get more to follow.
From your keyboard to God's eyes!
David - Trump has no concern for constitutional mandates and will work to find wiggle room around them. His crew put Gaetz up as a trial balloon knowing he would fail on his own without much scrutiny. I do not think we have much insight to many Republicans unless they've made the news on their own in the past 3 years.
We are also not powerless. We can and will call, write, march, donate and if we do, we'll get it back in 2026. Don't delay. It feels great and only takes a few minutes a day. One day at a time. Cure ballots for Adam Gray tonight! It's actually kinda fun.
In which case I would hope for a military coup led by General Milley, who could then call for elections. Thank you for the totally appropriate observation (?earning). I have already heard Trump say he wasn’t really sure he’d leave in ‘28.
Doubtful. General Milley is now retired and out of the chain of command. If Trump goes ahead with his announced plan to purge the officer corps, then we will know we are in big trouble for real.
He'll be even more demented before '28
From your keyboard to General Milley's eyes!!!
It's certainly possible. Lincoln juggled a lot to make sure Maryland did not secede in 1861.
Sadly I have to agree with your comment 😔
Forget about the midterm if they play the cards right they will be in office the next 12 years. So if his administration is more successful than the disaster of the Biden administration, 12 years
Some disaster. Alliances intact and strengthened, Crime is down; inflation is down; unemployment is down; over thirteen million jobs created; stock market at an all-time high.
As opposed to Trump, whose incompetent response to Covid killed 400,000 or so Americans needlessly, who embarrassed and disgraced our country publicly more than once, who became the first president since Herbert Hoover to lose jobs in a term, and who managed to be convicted of 34 felonies and also adjudicated to be both a rapist and a fraudulent businessman.
What flavor of kool-aid have you been consuming, Rick?
Agreed. See the reply I just posted
There will be possibly great upheaval among young people if this happens I fear. Best to start calling reps ahead of this to vote against Trump on specific bills so they know how we stand and to resist it when it comes up. Someone I respect referred to it as activist political wellness and positivity. It's hard to be positive, but the alternative may be too self-destructive. Look what happens when people simply don't vote.
Hi, Grant -
I believe my post about Mr. Sender was misdirected. If you have experience of Mr. Sender, however, you understand what I meant.
Hi, Grant -
Mark Twain made a remark that I find applies to trying to have a sane discussion with Mr. Sender: "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig."
In Rick's world, Trump is wonderful, January 6th was "a day of love" and should be a national holiday, illegal immigrants cause crime waves and are a drain on the economy, and the next twelve (yes, twelve!!!) years will be "beautiful".
I think you're right.
The House definitely turns over I think
If we have elections.
Agreed. See the reply I just posted
A definite maybe!
I give it 80/20 odds of turning over. They barely have a majority now, and they’re about to do some stupid ISH.
Thus Trump’s not so subtle hint that we we will not need (he means have) future elections.
The authoritarians currently have power, so there’s no appetite for anything that could change that, like, say, free and fair elections.
Hey, it worked for the author of what Melania said was Trump’s bed time reading’s author, Hitler.
Hitler is not the only dictator to get into office by being elected, and then instituting an authoritarian regime without elections or having sham elections.
I was not aware that Melania had revealed that he actually reads anything....the image of DJT in bed reading Mein Kampf...all I can do is shake my head...
“Donald Trump's ex-wife once said Trump kept a book of Hitler's speeches by his bed
Business InsiderSep 1, 2015, 5:25 AM PDT”
https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trumps-ex-wife-once-said-he-kept-a-book-of-hitlers-speeches-by-his-bed-2015-8
Thank you for underlining what I wrote above. We need to get to work NOW supporting our congresspersons where we can as they vote.
Trump knows how to read???
Ricardo- touché!!
Unfortunately, with the acceleration of all aspects of modern life--communication, travel, change, innovation, etc.--pinning hopes for a curb on the damage a t administration will cause on the mid-terms ignores the fact that 2 years is an eternity in which it can wreak pain and suffering in enormous measure.
If we live that long!
Are we going to have Mid Term elections?🤔
The Southern Baptist Church served as a crucial institutional social refuge during the Civil War and on through Reconstruction for the slave owning Planter Class, according to Kevin Phillips in his masterful book American Theocracy.
“Kevin Phillips, 82, Dies; Political Analyst Predicted G.O.P. Resurgence
A conservative mastermind of the race-based “Southern strategy,” he later, as an author, had second thoughts after assessing income inequality under three Republican presidents.
Published Oct. 10, 2023Updated Oct. 11, 2023”
https://www.powells.com/book/american-theocracy-the-peril-politics-of-radical-religion-oil-borrowed-money-in-the-21st-century-9780143038283
“Mr. Phillips was in his late 20s when he published his first book, “The Emerging Republican Majority” (1969), which, refining earlier studies he had done, predicted a rightward realignment in national politics driven by ethnic and racial divisions and white discontent.
With that book, he emerged as an influential, if controversial, conservative theoretician. (He called himself a “political analyst,” not a strategist.) He would be credited with predicting and even masterminding the Southern strategy, which in large part enabled Richard M. Nixon to narrowly win the presidency in 1968 by appealing to the grievances of white voters in the South who had historically voted for Democrats. (Nixon said he did not read the book until after the election.)
“All the talk about Republicans making inroads into the Negro vote is persiflage,” Mr. Phillips wrote.
In what many considered a cynical calculation, he recommended that Republicans not dilute the Voting Rights Act because “the more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/10/us/politics/kevin-phillips-dead.html
The young Mr Phillips research was right on the button. The murder of MLK and the ensuing riots convinced many whites...not just in the south to sell their homes in the cities and move to the 'burbs...or to buy their first gun. My parents who were pretty middle of the road people, expressed fears I had never heard before.
I sure hope you are right, Mike. That is my belief too. By then they will realize what they voted for. They may not be too happy by then.
Historically the "mob" has been pretty fickle. They love you, until they don't and then you can be exiled, loose your head, go to the Tower or be hung for all to witness....and the modern media love to build you up, only to then tear you down. It's all been pretty predictable. The arc of history and karma will catch up with Trump...he's only snowed 49% of the voters.
sure hope Come to Jesus !
Stephen Spoonamore:
“So, if you care - I have been a leader in hacking and counterhacking for 25 years. I'm well paid for it. The 2024 Election was hacked at the tabulation level.
Long thread on it: I continue to work professionally finding hackers, and fairly often DEVELOP AND INSTALL hacks designed to ferret out the misuse of systems. My customers have included numerous governments and F100 firms. I wrote risk assessments of smartgrid technologies for Obama, and IP e-protection for GE.
Here is what you are seeing. The Tabulation Systems at the County level were hacked far in advance of the election. The hack was probably written into the code even before the code was installed. It will have a WHEN function and IF/THEN functions to have the machine force balance to a given outcome within a specific window of time. You could test the machines 1000 times before election night, and the result will be correct. If you run it during the time window, the force balancing will be turned on and regardless of inputs you will get a programmed output.
It is very simple to prove this. Take the two most outlandish precinct results from any county and just hand-count the ballots. They won't match the tabulation outputs. From what I am seeing, you will find 8-11% avg. shifts from Dem to Rep. Be sure to check heavy Red areas, easier to cover up a run up of the score. That was how it was done in Ohio vs. Kerry - GOP flips in already highly red areas. Now, why the Bomb-Threats? They were NOT to allow for hacker access. The programming was already in place, they were to break Chain of Custody and produce legal grounds to not trust a recount. Every place that GOT a bomb-threat is a place the courts will now have to consider the factual argument of whether the ballots COULD have been tampered with while the evacuations were going on. They weren't. But that is the argument the GOP will make to prevent recounts.
I used to appear on Lou Dobbs TV Show, back when he was at CNN and discuss hacking, including of voting machines. I helped get machines into researchers hands - every single one of them were shocked/horrified how simple hacking the machines was. But somehow, the public has refused to engage.
Now that a full blown #fascist takeover is underway, and they did it by hacking the tabulation machines as described, please engage. I will lend any expertise if asked, but be aware these people are sociopaths who will kill you, they have done so to others, so act accordingly.
And it was relatively easy. Perhaps 300-500 tabulators of 3 types with 24+ months of prep. You just saw 3000+ comms devices of 4+ types hacked with software and installed explosives. These were set off in waves and specific times to destroy Hamas. Same thing here.
My personal record. A team of 4, 11 months total operation time, we hacked 500 Point of Sale CreditCard machines to install added tracking software allowing the units to work correctly while also creating traces to catch CC money laundering which the retailer was in on. Same thing as election 2024.
And finally, let me say again, this is a simple, stupid, easy to prove hack. Hand Count most suspected 2 Precincts in each county. They won't match. And FWIW, I am currently working on a much harder hack larger in scale and much better executed. This election hack is just about political will.”
Letter to Governor Shapiro:
Gov. of Pennsylvania J. Shapiro, et. al. Nov. 7th 2024
“This is a formal Duty to Warn Letter. Per DNI Dir. Clapper's 2015 directive to all agencies and contractors associated with intelligence and financial agency technologies. I have a Duty to Warn of suspicions of hacking, and have done so for my customers including Govt. Agencies, Dept. of Defense, F100 firms and numerous banks. I do so here as a directly affected voter.
Nearly all my investigations begin for one of two reasons. The hackers make a mistake triggering a system issue and/or the aggregate effects of the hacking creates results outside nominal expectations. There is a third and less common flag; an unrelated distraction to draw attention away from the hacking.
All three of these indicators are present in the election of Nov. 5th 2024. Element three, distraction via bomb-threats, is confirmed coming from Russian agencies. Element one is the inexplicable mismatch of reported votes vs. voter turnout. Here in Centre County initial tabulation was an absurdly low 67K votes when over 80K voters participated. Element two is also present. Our local scanner systems worked in testing, but were unable to communicate properly with tabulation systems after the bomb-scare. I note from experience - the failure of a scanning systems to properly load a database is an extremely common development when a system is changed without notice to the users. I have personally worked on similar issues where sudden scanner configuration failures were the first symptoms of system hacking.
With these three elements present, I suggest immediately doing a relatively simple set of preliminary checks. First, randomly selected precincts require manual comparisons of the number of voters who took ballots vs the scanned output of vote totals. Those did not match here in Centre County by apx 13K votes. Once added, those votes substantially changed outcomes and led to the outright reversals in multiple Centre County races. Centre County BOE now shows vote totals over 80K votes. Apx. 6% above 2020 turnout. In my professional opinion every county in PA as well as many in WI, MI and GA currently reporting lower vote totals vs. 2020 and/or also experienced a distraction bomb threat should undertake the same process. My professional opinion is: many thousands of voters are being disenfranchised, likely by a malicious actor via errors in tabulation software. My concern has been proven correct and warranted here in Centre County PA.
ESignature = Stephen R. Spoonamore
Stephen Spoonamore (Resident Centre County PA)”
End of letter.
Please let Vice President Harris know about this revelation. It is crucial a hand recount is accomplished in the swing states.
Remember, Trump said he had enough votes BEFORE the election.
Trump also said he had a “secret”.
The letter he wrote VP Harris:
https://open.substack.com/pub/spoonamore/p/duty-to-warn-letter-to-vp-harris
Stephen Spoonamore Twitter/Threads/BlueSky: @spoonamore
Marlo, I have been scanning coverage of the post-election day coiunting and recounting looking for SOME evidence that anyone is taking Spoonamore’s concerns seriously and/or adding his concerns together with the spate of voter suppression legislation in many red states allowing/encouraging the purge of voter roles of 100s of thousands of voters, all in predominantly black voting districts in swing states by individual citizen “voter vigilantes” often with just a few weeks or days before election day added to firebombing a few ballot boxes in swing states and calling in bomb threats at a number of polling stations in black districts in swing states. While I HAVE seen comments about how some segments of the voting population “didn’t show up” I HAVE NOT seen any coverage of these events being part of that “not showing up” or of the likely contribution to the apparent outcome of teh election. Have the major news media already begun to, in Timothy Snyder’s phrase, “obey in advance?"
JohM uostate: Circumstantial evidence.
Correct Daniel. All court evidence state or federal MUST be admissible. See, any lawsuit by Democracy Docket & Marc Elias' Team.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfs2kC0xOmU
Good one.
John. We had a firebombing here in Oregon and one in Washington, probably by the same individual. Neither is a swing state. The voting officials in both those cases were able either to rescue the ballots or announce which ballot boxes they were, so concerned voters could make sure their vote counted. Interestingly enough ballot boxes have fire suppression aspects which worked in Oregon, but not in Washington. After the vandalism of the boxes, they were watched and emptied more frequently. I would say that voter suppression and intimidation in many states was a big issue. Here in Oregon where it is so easy to vote, it was down for whatever reason.
Conspiracy theories are no better from the left than the right.
Please stop with this conspiracy theory. When confronted to show any evidence, Spoonamore has nothing, responds to nothing, and for all we know is a just a ranting lunatic or worse. By propounding this we are taking away from the actions we really need to be doing now--opposing anything and everything that smacks of Project 2025 as well as finding ways to win the messaging wars and putting in front of the low-information voters the reality of what they voted for or what they get because they didn't vote! Please see this Snopes analysis that draws into serious question Spoonamore's claims: https://substack.com/redirect/69ba1b72-7c6d-46fa-9811-013f982bb52e?j=eyJ1IjoiMThxZXFmIn0.fy6Ra28-VjC_FihlJ6b-eP2U5Pwk4vPrEAjrpijHFFY
Plus, a thorough look at the voting shows this was a NATIONAL trend, not one targeted at just the battleground states.
This article mainly goes off what the "official" results tell us. How can they be so sure unless you count the actual ballots? Who is to say what constitutes "the latest publicly available election results" if everyone is using vote totals tabulated from a hacked system? A hand recount is the only way to be sure imo. Unfortunately this will go nowhere bc the dems are weak and would rather acquiesce before a dictator than question authority, imo
RECOUNT!!!
Sadly dems are weak and will not pursue this...
No doubt why the trumpista’s want to defang intelligence and DOJ
I pray you are right but my opinions is people suffer from memory loss. Voters forgot how bad Trump handled the pandemic yet they voted for him again in 2024.
"yet they voted for him again in 2024"
Many of them voted against a black female.
Monroe..., please stop, with the"black" female. She's no more Black than I'm Russian. That, along with ridiculous "celebrity" endorsements and $4.55 will get you a coffee at the airport. This was a modern-day card game and we were dealt a poor hand... and then misplayed it. Now, "they" are giving "US" a drubbing 24/7. The effect of this "drubbing" is going to further disenchant a lot of Democrats even more than those who didn't vote. Like what the heck was the sense of finding Trump guilty on so many counts only to let him walk. Huh? Where's our muscle? And Gaetz, another millionaires son, So what if he screwed a 17 yr old with a phoney ID and gave her some money. Is he actually guilty of a "crime". Or is it a bunch of "alluded to", "hearsay", etc buloney which in the end will deserve to be throw out? And "us" have our nose rubbed in it. Yeah? He's rich - We will. Where's our muscle? Unless we can find some Geritol to help build a fire under our muddled-ass the red-blanket will get bigger. Better look real hard at what it IS those red-blanket folks want. It's not much different from what you and I want. And, like it or notr, some of the 'things' empty-Greene is pulling out of the dumpster do exemplify what's occurring under our noses. This is a pretty-good wake-up call. Time to build up some muscle. Turn this loss into a gain.
Mad, her father was Haitian and her mother, Indian. i think that counts as not white. And she is female, a further problem for the many men who are misogynists and the women who go along with this kind of nonsense. I would agree that Ds need to up their game plan and yes, build some muscle. I want a more equitable society where we recognize the value of all groups of people, not just white straight people, where we support the vulnerable instead of making them more vulnerable and in many cases beating them up or killing them, where we recognize the value of immigrants rather than exploiting them and calling for them to be deported. I doubt many MAGAs give a rat's behind for many progressive ideals. I have very little in common with them.
Because, eggs.
And well.......
They are kinda not sure but the media....
And then again the birds flew overhead...
The voters need to get informed. Desperately. They hurt themselves.
we need to do more to communicate better and directly address misinformation.
I would say it was in addition to voter suppression, racism, misogyny, and the economy, which are not esoteric reasons despite someone trying to tell me that they were, were a good part of the vote for death star. Already some are regretting their vote and that number will only grow. Of course, there are plenty of in your face cult members gloating.
We did not do enough to remind them. That is not the only reason for our losses, but it’s one of them.
They are willfully ignorant Jon ; there is plenty of information out there and ways to compare the candidates…..most do not want to do the work
They were on vacations on the moon and come back on election day....
The people who buy Colgate toothpaste, or Budweiser beer don't go looking for the commercials. The commercials are out there for passive viewing. Same with politics. We did not do enough to present the truth to the voters we needed, almost all of whom had been Democratic voters in the past--Kamala got 7 million fewer votes than Trump did in 2020.
The vacuum left by memory loss is being filled by stupidity and when they are full of it, they voted....
People might vote for a candidate because of one issue, like abortion or the economy. However, the entire package of a candidate wins election, not just the “parts” one likes. No, 45 did not win a resounding mandate, but he was, unfortunately, elected to be president with all the powers of that office, and he will use it for his own benefit. The morbidly wealthy will also benefit.
He will try. They will try. We are many and we are strong and getting stronger as more people discover what we have to lose.
This is the hope to foster now by pointing the 2026 potential to the GOP members of the Congress. If social media is to be believable people are already very unhappy with the turn about results especially with Musk in the mix who is barely a citizen and not elected to anything or by anyone. People are especially angry that tfg will not get his much deserved legal comeuppance and that his bigoted so-called picks are as already threatening citizens of our country on his behalf.
Many more Republican Senators are up for re-election than Democrats in 2026, but most are in very safe seats. The Democrats must find candidates that speak to the concerns and needs of middle-class and working-class Americans. I look at what’s happening in Argentina as a guide to what’s to come. There is widespread poverty there, but the president remains popular because his radical policies have halted runaway inflation. The majority of voters say, “Give his policies time to work.” By ‘26, many of Biden’s initiatives will be helping the economy recover. The question is, will Americans give him credit or will they point to the bright spots as evidence that Trump’s plans are taking hold?
Dave, it's inevitable.., too many will shelter with your last sentence! Too many.., but not all. Media will focus on the "too many" because it's 'front page' material. Gotta look beyond that. "Be best"??? No! Be BOLD!
We can only pray for that back lash.
Make sure to let them know that we know this. People are already unhappy and he's not yet inaugurated if the posts I see on social media are evidence.
That is “if” there are “elections” in 2026. And if there are, considering Republicans majority control of Congress, there’s no reason to believe they won’t pursue gerrymandering future elections to the point there is no way for them to lose. Orban did this in Hungary. They have “elections” but he and his cronies win every time.
Considering Orban was a keynote speaker at CPAC and has been sought out by the GOP for instructions of how to do this (in order make the US an “illiberal” democracy as Orban has done in Hungary), what’s to stop it from happening here? If the GOP continue to capitulate to Trump and the MAGA agenda there may very well never be another election where they don’t win. Scary stuff. Don’t get blindsided if (when?) things start heading in this direction.
Thank you for reminding us of Orban at this juncture.
long as it hits pocket books ....
I’m not at all confident that the midterms won’t be even more saturated with disinformation and propaganda than 2024 and the suppression even more widespread. And protest will be quashed by compliant police/forces. It’s surprising how vulnerable the institutions that have kept checks in place are.
Class II terms run from the beginning of the 117th Congress on January 3, 2021, to the end of the 119th Congress on January 3, 2027. Senators in Class II were elected to office in the November 2020 general election, unless they took their seat through appointment or special election.
Democrats
Booker, Cory A. (D-NJ)
Coons, Christopher A. (D-DE)
Durbin, Richard J. (D-IL)
Hickenlooper, John W. (D-CO)
Luján, Ben Ray (D-NM)
Markey, Edward J. (D-MA)
Merkley, Jeff (D-OR)
Ossoff, Jon (D-GA)
Peters, Gary C. (D-MI)
Reed, Jack (D-RI)
Shaheen, Jeanne (D-NH)
Smith, Tina (D-MN)
Warner, Mark R. (D-VA)
Republicans
Capito, Shelley Moore (R-WV)
Cassidy, Bill (R-LA)
Collins, Susan M. (R-ME)
Cornyn, John (R-TX)
Cotton, Tom (R-AR)
Daines, Steve (R-MT)
Ernst, Joni (R-IA)
Graham, Lindsey (R-SC)
Hagerty, Bill (R-TN)
Hyde-Smith, Cindy (R-MS)
Lummis, Cynthia M. (R-WY)
Marshall, Roger (R-KS)
McConnell, Mitch (R-KY)
Mullin, Markwayne (R-OK)
Ricketts, Pete (R-NE)
Risch, James E. (R-ID)
Rounds, Mike (R-SD)
Sullivan, Dan (R-AK)
Tillis, Thom (R-NC)
Tuberville, Tommy (R-AL)
We need to work NOW to identify and support strong candidates to oppose Republicans up for re-election. Also, start NOW to message and connect with voters to support Dems who will be running. We need a smart, tech savvy DNC that knows how to message and connect with ALL voters using ALL media.
The numbers will be on our side and we cannot blow it!
Excellent post Gina!
But, I don't see R-Okla, Senator James Lankford 'sname. Sen Lankford said yesterday on Sunday that the "Senate Intelligence Committee" will have "lots of questions" for Tulsi Gabbard & her 2017 propaganda Trip to Syria.
All House members plus Class II senators: 20 Republicans and 13 Democrats. Quite a shift from 2024 when it was 19 Democrats, 10 Republicans and four Independents.
This is one of the reasons I abhor talk about potential 2028 candidates for president. Eyes on the prize, people, eyes on the prize.
Given their current diet of disinformation, how will Trump voters know what he’s doing is bad for them? Things have to actually get really really bad for them physically to even have an inkling. I don’t think they will know, nor understand until it is too late. Job loss, inflation, War, their kids being drafted, loss of health care, loss of public education, another pandemic ( h1n1 bird flu is currently spreading across the nations farms and farm workers).
I sincerely hope you’re correct David.
Morning, Lynell! Wonderful quote. I think she's channeling Samwise:
“It's like the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it'll shine out the clearer. I know now folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something. That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.”
Think I'll give Johan deMeij's "Hobbits Symphony" a listen today. Here is the clip ESB was slated to play during Covid, and finally played in 2022: (Hint: we're not as good as the President's Own, but did a good job at the end)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0KLTU5vrxw
Morning, Ally! Well, now, if you believe as I do that action speaks louder than words, and that music is an action, we should all sit down and have a listen. Thanks for the part you play (pun intended!) to foster the action that we need to keep going!
Thanks for this link...Listening now in amazement.
When we played it, it was just Jake and I in the tuba section. The end is about 60 measures of either a sustained C below the bass clef staff or of a repeated rhythm. We split breathing into "even or odd" measures so that the sustained notes kept going. Playing that piece was simply amazing.
One of my favorite passages in the whole series, and a very hopeful one for today. Thank you for the link to the symphony.
Thank you for the quote and the links!
Lynell - fish don't see the water they swim in. Well these American fishes are about to see that their water is disappearing! And when they do, the Dems need to be out there proudly displaying our "brand" as we provide relief as well as information. This is what America has traditionally done internationally to gain alliances.
Like the warming, polluted oceans, American water is acidifying.
Except the ‘fish’ will be weakened and turning on each other as the cat toys with them over the bowl.
♥️
That's were the real power is, if we focus and make use of it.
If you fight something you give it power. The real power could be short blast of the positive Biden accomplished. The media loves Trump. I wish the media loved Biden
If the media had loved Biden, and highlighted his accomplishments instead of his age, we might not be facing a horrifying trump presidency.
Biden's popularity dropped substantially with the exit from Afghanistan. If Trump hadn't sabotaged the exit of thousands of Americans and our Afghan allies by excluding the Afghan government from negotiations and had he not closed all but one of the air bases in Afghanistan, it could have been a much smoother withdrawal.
But the media glommed onto the word "chaotic" which is true of what happens at the end of almost every conflict. And just like with Biden's age, they wouldn't let it go. Almost ALL of the media.
The corporate media doesn't give a damn about the myriad accomplishments of the Biden administration, only about denigrating him and glossing over the progress the US and the world has made during his Presidency.
What corporate media cares about is money. The horse race and the constant idiotic Trump behaviors brought in viewership which equals money. Well, they have lost us!
Well, talk about a coming to Jesus moment…now the pharmaceutical industry (aka vaccine manufacturers) is facing an administration who is anti-vaccine. I wonder how that is going over on investor calls?
Hah! Good point!
Perhaps instead of making the majority of Anericans life long customers of big pharma. They can instead produce vaccines with better ingredients, and longer shelf lives, produce medicines that have less evasive side effects that often cause people to go on additional medications for life. And focus instead on healthy diets, exercise, clean water and fewer pesticides. These companies could pay all the millions who suffered horrific side effects and deaths from the various Covid vaccines. And likely still turn a profit. Even perhaps reverse the effects as we still see so many young males collapsing on the fields in sports dying or having life long heart problems. We may one day be able to actually say safe and effective instead of announcing another death as sad unexpected.
RFK Jr. knows statistically the sis pays more into healthcare than any other country yet we have one of the fattest and sickest populations ranking even worse than Cuba.
It’s time to get healthy.
Gary Loft. I am still in shock that such an incompetent, corrupt, misogynist, and self- declared dictator won.
George Baum, you are not the only one.
I have left the legacy media that I think has contributed to the Trump presidency. While the power is with the people if they take it, the people can be making alliances with liberal governments in the rest of the world, just as Trump send Richard Grenell to illiberal governments while Biden was president.
On Friday, expect Amazon workers in 10 countries to strike.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/nov/25/amazon-protest-strike-black-friday?utm_term=674407d4f03ca03aa0083cc1b3892985&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUK_email
Good countries to build democratic alliances include England which overthrew the Tories and installed the Labor party back. Brexit was unpopular and we can learn from that. Racism pushed it through and reality got rid of those who were in charge of doing that, because it messed up the British economy so much.
I see the current power at the local level too. Support your Democratic politicians wherever they are. Aim to replace Republicans in 2026.
And the Independent ones as well. Angus King and Bernie Sanders have both exhibited progressive behavior as well as kindness and integrity. Can that be said about ANY Republican in the Senate or House today?
Nigel Farage pushed Brexit through. Now they hate him in England, Trump's ignoring him, and he's like a flea without a dog.
Hahaha! “A flea without a dog.” Never heard that before
Yes Labour finally kicked out the Tories for pushing wealth into fewer hands. But then they do the wrong thing by agreeing with lax immigration standards not unlike our own liberal democrats. We didn’t do a damn thing about the broken border for three early years and democrats paid the price. Of course it’s more complicated than one issue. Democrats lost the white working class vote and the Clintons had much to do with that although one could argue that the incorrigible white racist working class component initiated this move during LBJ’s progressive legislation.
But installing the monster of the ages is a big no no in my book — literally.
The media, Sunni, comprises elites mostly all with zero humanities.
They gravitate to the sensational, and the convicted criminal just feeds them their adrenalin all the more, he with his "bing-bing-boing-bong," his epithets, melodrama, and paranoid scripts all tailored to lowest common denominators easy especially for dehumanized elites also to milk, exploit, raise profit share.
Yep. One dimensional beings who see people as mere things to be controlled through a binary lens of Winner v Loser. Metaphorically the less things go their way the louder they shout. Like spoiled four year olds who can not play well with others and equally emotionally exhausting.
Bottom line, follow the money.
And thus it has been since Disney appeared.
Sunni-I agree with you about the influence of the media. We need to create new platforms to promote truth and to expose the people who work against a better future. We also need more art, music and history lessons!
The music therapy teacher who worked with the illegals made $600,000 a year. Certainly that was money well spent by our taxes!
What music therapy teacher where?
Would not, not might not.
Agreed.
Trump makes money for them. Biden is competent and that is boring, viewer and readership drops. Trump is a sh*t show of drama and controversy and anger. That is what they love. That brings in the big bucks.
And that is why I am abandoning the media controlled by billionaires. I do not read WaPo anymore, and have let my subscription lapse. NYT I left a while ago. I stopped watching MSNBC quite a while ago. Angertainment. Let them die, they have failed us.
I read Heather, I look at AP, and subscribe to The Tennessee Lookout, a small, independent news watching state news. I pick up articles from Threads and have started a subscription on BlueSky. I am just starting to look at Propublica routinely.
Angertainment, indeed.
I don’t understand that MSNBC is on your list. I didn’t watch Morning Joe, but I do watch most of the evening shows after PBS, and they all have been telling the truth.
I don’t have a TV so no cable, but I was a long time NYT subscriber and a contributing member to my local NPR station for years. I was also following liberal bloggers like dhstokyo, The MeidasTouch, The Lincoln Project, I Am Politics Girl, and The Tennessee Holler. They were the ones reporting what was going on in real time. The Meidas Touch was sending investigative reporters to Trump rallies, recording videos of his rambling, incoherent speeches; dhstokyo was reading parts of Project 2025 months before it saw the light of day of day on MSM. Meanwhile NPR and the NYT were droning on about Biden’s age. The contrast was startling, and obviously biased. MSM seemed to be beating the drum on “this race will be won by a razor thin margin” message but there’s no way that would have happened if they had done their jobs and reported what the independent journalists were uncovering. After the NYT published the op ed by the Christian Nationalist encouraging people to sit out this election I was done.
Angertainment!
the media only loves those whose antics give them "clicks" and views. Biden isn't flamboyant enough for them to sell their tired, tattered opinions and incomplete coverage of events.
The media thinks the Trump and Musk show will shore up their crumbling media businesses enough to sell them off...but they've basically put all their eggs in the old, weak Trump basket and while both Skippy the Dipshit (Musk) and Trump are certainly flamboyant, Musk was not elected and has only the power of his money (which isn't inconsiderable, by any means--but it only goes so far). Trump isn't truly interesting in governing so much as he is in keeping his butt out of jail, exacting revenge for imagined insults and grievances, grifting more money and playing golf--not necessarily in that order. I hope that perhaps the Senate takes back some of it's power and the more ambitious arseholes in his Cabinet get foiled in their power grabs. We'll see. Unfortunately.
The more attention musk gets, the more likely he is to end up sidelined, although tfg does love his money. Still, he loves attention more.
Yep...two massive, needy egos in the same orbit will not last long. Skippy would do well to take to heart what happened to Bannon when Trump decided that Bannon had taken up oxygen that belonged only to Trump himself. Musk may think he's safe because of his money, but as you say...Trump loves the spotlight and applause more than anything.
Yes. It takes a lot of wasted energy to fight, to be angry. Put that same energy into positive action. And yes, the Media has done the American people a real, serious disservice. Shame.
Sandra Simpson -- The media has never "loved Biden". For the most part they totally ignored him and the great things he was doing in office. As for me, I will never forgive President Biden for what he did -- waiting until after the Democratic Convention to step down. I do not need to write an essay on how destructive that was.
The "media" feeds on boldness. Battles! Because of the fear-factor.., the disaster potential..., "Stay tuned" Melissa, will be on at eleven with more breaking news (and cleavage on Faux).
So true. Thanks for the wisdom. Still we need to resist the Trump assault of our government. We need major medias to write what is written about Trump landslide illusion. And more.
Ike did a damn good job…
“I Like Ike” signs were all over towns
Sadly, he’s not coming back to kick our Nazis arses.
I'll take "hope" wherever I can get it! And I'll add my favorite Dr. King, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hatred cannot drive out hatred; only love can do that." We may have to stand for our values in ways we never had to before. I'm heartened by the fact that we're in the majority...and we've got some really good leaders. And we will not take this challenge lying down. I'm 79, so I won't be here to see the long-term consequences of giving in to the tyranny. But my great-grandkids and their kids and theirs will be. So I'm in this fight till the day I die. And meanwhile, I'm bringing a requested Costco apple pie to the family dinner I used to make, but now my beautiful, talented granddaughter creates!
I loved seeing that quote in Joyce’s substack today!
Me too! Perfect for Heather’s letter as well. Kindness and love ❤️
https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/the-week-ahead-e8e?r=9vmv5&utm_medium=ios
Yes. Thank you.
Thank you for this, Kari and Joyce.
“Just like your mother, you’re unfailingly kind, a trait people never fail to undervalue.”
Dumbledore to Harry Potter, in The Half-Blood Prince, as they are engaged in the deadly fight against Voldermort and his Death Eaters.
We’ve witnessed the gradual growth of unkindness over the past few years, and MAGA and their counterparts around the world have even made a virtue out of cruelty. Kindness is undervalued, laughed at as a weakness, even by opponents of fascism. But it’s a strong force all the same: a moral ju-jitsu.
Thank you , Joyce.
♥️
And that everyday test of everyday people failed us. My sense from the election is that it was not won by those who voted but LOST by those who did not. 😳
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7259852498906025984/
We also have to face the startling possibility that M.A.G.A.s have NOT given up on the republican experiment but believe that the republican experiment has given up on them. 😱
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7264891420279296001/
Cognitive dissonance is painful; cognitive corruption is crippling, if we are even to start to restore the America we thought we knew. 🙏
Let’s begin with major headlines that Trump did not win the majority, somebody else did.
That was the reason they put Gandalf on middle earth, to start the pebble that started the landslide…yes we, and facts, are the pebbles. The vision and truth, the sign of the burglar on the door that lead to Aragon, that brought together the nine walkers…and even Boromir played a role he didn’t intend…and in truth the King is a healer not a warrior. So many lessons…Gollum destroyed the ring, after all, based on his oath to Frodo…
So yes…simple things, warm beer, good food and truth! And Samwise…the least of these…a gardener raising potatoes, cared so much in the end he carried Frodo…love rules it all.
We cannot be moved if we stay true to each other and our values.
Which of Six Power Types Will You Embody and Support? | Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-pacific-heart/202209/which-of-six-power-types-will-you-embody-and-support
And
MOSF 19.20: Post-2024 Election: Preventing Psychopathy and Cruelty From Going Viral (Hate speech breaks brains, and can break society) https://eastwindezine.com/mosf-19-20-post-2024-election-preventing-psychopathy-and-cruelty-from-going-viral/
It's also a good time to reread Yertle the Turtle. We are all Mack.
I love the ‘sloshing’ metaphor. The stakes seem so high but it is a relief to know there are possible outcomes that do not require the country …and the world on its tail…to slam into a ‘29 level crash and/or a 30’s type recession.
Are there those possible outcomes KSC?
EVERY single Republican President back to US Grant have taken the country into a recession. This is what happens when the oligarchs rule. And now we have Elon as our co-President.
Can this possibly end well?
Yes. The US will likely go into a recession because of Trump's ineptitude and the Democrats will win back Congress in 2026.
Patricia, I hope you and others are correct. My instinct tells me that magats are so hypnotized that they’ll continue to drink lemon aid. As for the legislative branch? I don’t even want to think about what they’ll do except bow and katow to dear leader.
Exactly. It’s going to be ugly, but the Dems can retake the helm in 2026
This letter of HCRs is the first time I've ever seen "sloshing" as a description of the status of power...but it feels pretty accurate.
Not to mention a Fourth Reich.
Or, to borrow a MAGAworld euphemism, the Unified Reich. Just as frightening, however.
Gene 🥺😩😫🥺😩😫
Or a World War lll?! If you look at trump's inability to look beyond the flattery from "our arch enemies" or his so-called friends, what do we see? Russia on the March to take Ukraine, retake the Baltic states, Poland, Moldova & that's just to name a few. Then Chi will take Taiwan & Kim could act against South Korea. Where will our fearless stable genius take us then? We already know he abandons allies, so our allies will fight on their own. Then what, mr. I'm going to end the Ukraine war in 24 hours? How will you make that Biden's fault?
This is a most serious consequence that MAGA isolationists are ushering in. Even if we can put brakes on this admin, trust between the US and NATO nations and other pacific treaties will be irrevocably shaken.
Oh he will find a way. He has already begun
The Republicans have a chance to reclaim their party from Mordor and Sauron. I for one plan to be Frodo and continue to fight.
I'll be Samwise at your side.
"Gaetz went from United States representative to Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney general to making videos for Cameo in a little over a week. "
Apart from rightwing sugar daddies and lies, all these people have is celebrity as there claim to fame, as one reporter said of Paris Hilton, famous for being famous (or in this case, infamous). Media and our passivity have been transforming qualification for leadership into TV ratings. It does not bode well, unless we get serious about changing it.
We live in the Jerry Springer version of America and it isn't funny.
And the wrestling culture, brutish and cruel, and phony
Above all, phony.
Just one example, across the board our culture has become, violent, brutal, hateful, self-righteous. Not against an enemy, but each other. It has been the Repub plan. Stay tuned…
Thank goodness everyone's bible-bashing christians. (And I didn't forget the caps)
No caps for me…
Absolutely, I just catch bits of "wrestling" as I try to fast forward through the commercial & it is absolutely disgusting. And how many of our little kids know these characters & watch that trash. Years & years ago my grandfather came to visit for several weeks. He was in his mid 80's, when he was young he came to the US to escape from the harshness of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was an intelligent man but since TV was a new medium for entertainment I remember him sitting close to our black & white TV watching wrestling in the afternoon, even as a kid I could see it was fake & that was long before the choreographed "smackdown" & "takedowns". And while I am a firm believer in equality of the sexes it absolutely disgusts me to see women debase themselves in that arena. It's bad enough that women have always been in the oldest business in the world, prostitution, but phoney wrestling too. C'mon ladies, show a little class, I didn't give up my bra 55 years ago to see you stoop to that!
Just another way to prostitute oneself for the entertainment of the “privileged.” Women and the poor have that duty.
To be fair, there's an equal number of males likewise engaged.
In prostitution?
True
Watch any live show and what do you hear? The audience screaming through the performance. Nobody applauds anymore, they make every noise imaginable. We have become the romans who needed gladiators , who watched people being fed to lions for entertainment. We accept corruption, sex scandals, financial misdeeds and even criminal acts as part of everyday life. We are getting the government we deserve. ( or at least slightly over 50% of us ) Time to emigrate?
Slightly UNDER 50% at last count. Time to emigrate? become an immigrant?
Millions continue to discover that there's no refuge there either.
Wish I could. West coast would be nice, but no place will be safe.
Neil Postman's 1985 book, "Amusing Ourselves to Death," was a clear warning, but unheeded.
I’m not sure which of Postman’s books introduced the idea of the “crap detector,” an essential skill for participating in a democracy. A great many of our fellow citizen’s crap detectors are either lost or broken.
COMMENTER'S NOTE: The B-word is sanitized here out of respect for the audience.
***
Haven't been able to pinpoint Postman's first use of the term. What is certain is that he used it in a Nov. 28, 1969, speech to the National Convention for the Teachers of English in Washington, D.C. Postman's address was called "B------t and the Art of Crap-Detection," and he began it this way:
"With a title like this, I think I ought to dispense with the rhetorical amenities and come straight to the point. For those of you who do not know, it may be worth saying that the phrase 'crap-detecting' originated with Ernest Hemingway, who, when asked if there were one quality needed, above all others, to be a good writer, replied, 'Yes, a built-in, shock-proof, crap detector.'
"As I see it, the best things schools can do for kids is to help them learn how to distinguish useful talk from b------t. I will ask only that you agree that every day in almost every way people are exposed to more b------t than it is healthy for them to endure, and that if we can help them to recognize this fact, they might turn away from it and toward language that might do them some earthly good. ..."
***
(Yep, way back in 1969 – "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." To no avail.)
Thanks for the more extended description and for reminding me of the reference to Hemingway.
Figure out how to educate and test for that -- beginning in the lower grades of the public schools. There once was a tv show I loved called "Lie to Me", about a deception researcher that used scientific analyses to detect truth -- I wondered why it wasn't renewed. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235099/
We made Trump famous. Even the post here are mostly trump.
This is the time we want to hide the wizard behind the curtain.
The Biden administration is working to spend EVERY penny they can from the CHIPs act, the Build, Back, Better act, the Inflation reduction Act knowing that if they don't the Trump administration and Project 2025 will hijack the funds for nefarious purposes.
Any press is good press?
To a narcissist - always
Should we hire Gaetz on that to make clips admitting he is a sex predator pedophile?
Thanks Heather, I hope the GOP finds it’s lost soul, if it ever had one.
The Party of Lincoln had one. It's been selling it's soul in installments since Nixon, and at this point there is nothing much left. It's going to need an overhaul and new parts.
Sold to the oligarchs. We have a kleptocracy and a kakistocracy as a result.
Name 5 Republcian politicians with any integrity -- hell, name me ONE.
Well, there's Liz Cheney &Adam Kinzinger but they were rousted out of the party as soon as they spoke out. So, your assessment of zero actively serving republicans is spot on.
20 years ago there were 3-4 just here in Maryland, but that's gone...I know one GOP County Commissioner who is a genuine good guy...but he's about it.
You jest
Murkowski????
Sen Collin’s is a chameleon, not a moderate.
In a talk she gave at a university, HCR referred to herself as a "Lincoln Republican". Sorry I can't cite which talk but I hope we hear more about that. I've researched the term a bit but what that means is still fuzzy for me. If I could, I'd italicize "Lincoln Republican ...." and put it in a 'thought bubble'.
Joan, I imagine “Lincoln Republican” refers to the origins of the Republican party back in the 1850s when Lincoln switched from the Whigs (and Democrats as the party of slave-owning power brokers) to help build the new Republican party as an alternative which took on those who would abolish or limit slavery, at least in new western territories being added to the country.
The parties did a major flip flop with each other philosophically at different points in time however, influenced by elite wealth and industry and racism. Heather’s book ‘How the South Win The Civil War’ is a good read on that. It didn’t take long for the Confederate wire, who faced no post-war real consequences, to usurp the powers of Congress.
Spinal regeneration can't come fast enough!
Since Harding, actually. A century.
Alive?
I found this Thomas Friedman interview and he made a good point about two other critical disruptions that was ignored by the press and the politicians (along with hiding Project 2025)…
A.I. and Climate. Friedman describes what a different world 2024 is compared to when Henry Kissinger was in office. And why it’s dangerous and reckless for Trump to assign inexperienced actors to government positions for upcoming term..
Thomas Friedman on the Future of America and the World: The Post-Election Dissection (Part 1)
https://youtu.be/ZPEbAGm6DcA?si=y0lfUhyVbHJcegcC
JaKsaa, thanks for this Tom Friedman interview. I highly recommend it to all of you. Tom's metaphors for where we are in history at this moment are very helpful. We are in the Polycene... no longer the Anthropocene.
JaKsaa -- Thanks for posting this reference.
I think the democrats have lost their way. If Dems put 1/2 as much time in making people aware of thx Biden accomplishments as we do Trump antics we would have won the election
Blaming the Democrats. Smh. How about you call out racism and sexism with your fellow white folks. Waiting.
They haven’t ‘lost their way’, they have a poor communications team.
It will be a long time.
I think that perhaps as much as we should be deeply concerned about how that sloshing around of power works out (or doesn't), we need to be concerned about the fate of NewsCorp and the Murdoch empire. The information bubble that has engulfed the red states is hugely damaging.
In other comments here I've noted what I think we can do to transform the corporate form of business into something that is more compatible with a republican (small R) democracy. But we also need to do something about the information bubble. The key to it is something IT people call metadata.
Today, metadata is roughly equal to the state that pharmaceuticals were in the 1890s - totally unregulated and horrifically damaging to the health of the country. The construction of the information bubbles is critically dependent on the ability to target both advertising and information pushes. What you see and hear is what you know, which is even more the case with non-readers, which alas, is an ever growing percentage of the population.
How many and what types of attributes associated with human digital identifiers should be allowed to be aggregated and for how long? That is the burning question of the hour. The conservative justices on SCOTUS have opined more than once that the way to combat bad information or speech is with more information or speech. Well, that only works if the distribution or probabilities of the distribution of competing ideas are spread around uniformly. Massive metadata aggregations used for the purpose of guiding information flows guarantee that cannot happen.
Lucas Kunce in his travels around Missouri during his recent senate campaign encountered a great many people who said they would have voted for him except that his party affiliation was problematic. Their understanding of what the two parties are about is deeply flawed because of the information bubbles in which they exist.
Massive metadata aggregations are a far more dangerous poison and public hazard than such things of fentanyl, heroine, cocaine, or any other controlled substance.
Graig is correct - the massive information bubble is our biggest problem. If we want to preserve a democratic society we, as a country, must get a handle on this problem. The media is not even remotely understanding the magnitude of the problem and much of the media is part of the problem.
The conservative justices on SCOTUS have opined more than once that the way to combat bad information or speech is with more information or speech. Well, that only works if the distribution or probabilities of competing ideas are spread around uniformly.
Exactly. The courts, when acting as intended, use procedures to transfer information most relevant to the case, but that much trickier is a less controlled environment of a free society. Which is not to say that there should be no guardrails such as the Fairness Doctrine, antitrust enforcement against monopolistic media ownership, and campaign finance limitations. The bought and paid for Supreme Court says let good information overcome bad, so long as you can pay for it, and hands the microphones to guys like Murdoch, Musk and Leo. Democracy doesn't enter into it.
" We can have democracy in this country, OR we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few but we cannot have both." Louis D. Brandeis
I think you got this one right. Citizens United gives the power of information management to the oligarchs. Musk threatening Republican Senators who don’t fall in line with Project 2025 is a prime example of the power of money in a Free Speech framework that is fantasy based vs realpolitik based. 18th Century concepts of Free markets was stillborn and market regulation was born. SCOTUS (Roberts) tipped their hand with Citizens United and the bad joke is on us. Money wins until Citizens United is overturned and reformed.
There are fascist justices on that court, J L. There are perjured justices.
There are grossly corrupt justices there. And flagrant ideologues.
Conservatives?
Point taken. I do think Roberts could be one if only he was surrounded by a few others. It doesn't take much to pull someone over to the dark side. The German experience in the first half of the last century proved that. I had a climbing partner who grew up as a little girl in Hitler's Germany. The work that Goebbels did in creating an information bubble was incredibly effective. Once it was destroyed, they recovered from it quite quickly, and were terribly embarrassed by what they thought they had known before 1945. Of course there remained the hateful fringe, but without that bubble they no longer had any power.
Conservatives in Government don’t exist for the most part. There are silenced, deposed and primaried ones of course, and moderate democrats (like the ones that passed the recent bill in the house—43 of them—that gives POTUS the power to defund ‘terrorist’ (loosely defined’ Nonprofits. It’s going to the Senate, so call/write your Senators THIS WEEK!!! Unless you want any free speech against Dear Leader suppressed.
Rupert has made free speech the most odious oxymoron
And MSNBC, and vehicles such as this particular column and others which we are all greatly dependent upon at this point. They will do their best to eliminate any source of information, isn't that what autocrats do?
Thank you, Heather! That last paragraph gives me hope.
I (stupidly) watched a clip with Steven Miller touting mass deportations (fantasyland "remedy" for who-knows-what). This 1948 Woody Guthrie song (recorded here by Arlo Guthrie) keeping playing in my head... some things never seem to change...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu-duTWccyI
I'm afraid for the hope imagined in the last paragraph to become reality, the current Republican senators and congressmen would have to grow spines. I don;t see that happening,
Isn’t there a bridge for sale somewhere. If any Repub had one, it’s not just the MAGAts that would seek revenge. It’s the real power, the Heritage cretins, and all they represent. Chump is just the front man, or carnival barker…
I don't see it either, James.
Thank you for the link - I had never heard about that before. It says on Wiki "Cesar Chavez, later to become founder of the United Farm Workers union, learned of the tragic crash while serving in the US Navy, helping convince him that farm workers should be treated "as important human beings and not as agricultural implements".
Seems to me that that's a message America needs to hear today.
If you had the experience of thinning out a row of sugar beets back in the day, you will well and truly understand that statement.
I looked this up:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%AD_se_puede
The things you learn from HCR - and her followers! This is like a little bit of Liberal/Democrat secret code. I;m very glad that President Obama picked up on it - no wonder the Republicans hated him!
There is a film out there somewhere about Cesar Chavez, just waiting to be made.
No secret code intended here, really. I'm just a labor guy.
Si! se pueda!
Wonderful song, where is our Woody/Arlo” today? Ignored…
Or John Prine. Or Pete Seeger.
Lord, how I miss the singing patriots of yesteryear. The young these days don’t even know that there is a crisis - except in Gaza
Come back to us now Steve Earle
The artists are still around. Here’s one example: https://youtu.be/LZkAoosVLkA?si=a3xgtA7iA-a4-tV1
Best lyrics yet. Sad that many young Latino men voted for trash…
Thank you, I loved hearing this again.
Thanks for this link.
Today’s letter is a “good read”. 45 and cronies will saunter around acting BIG but just maybe there might be some egos left in the Republican Party who want to be heard, just like CFDT. It’s rather “cute” that shadow prez musk is threatening them to toe the line or else he will use his fortune to silence them. He’s another beauty who has been thrust upon the American people. He could do so much good with his money. Instead, he’s a bully who now has been given some kind of power by an old broken man. Lucky America to have such crud leading ( and I say this loosely) us!!!
They all are bullies, liars, and self-righteous greedy bastards. All dressed up as flame-throwing clowns. No sheets to hide behind, blathering jingoistic bull Schitt that the stupid, ignorant and fearful lap up. Are “we the people” just the vulnerable…
Spot on, Heather:
". . . while corrupt members of his administration grabbed all they could."
The convicted criminal's objective, we all know, is to follow his guy Putin, and Orban, and a number of the world's similar criminals in power.
Trouble is, these wannabee further criminals have scads of U.S. billionaires who all want to be only richer. They want government to disappear -- especially democratic, open government ruling for what Abe Lincoln naively referred to as "the people."
They've been insistent with their far-right foundations over the years since their Powell memo united them. They are as corrupt as their Clarence court, as corrupt as their orange felon, as corrupt as all their lobbyists, spreaders of social media hate, and as corrupt as necessary to have crippled schools to be void of humanities so the rest of us wouldn't see over the years as our great artists saw what these hideously corrupt were doing to hurt so many.
Putin put them in office. Russians, their agents and willing idiots committed election crimes, national security offenses, which should be the top priority.
WE need to be speaking more about this.
Recall the Department of Treasuries busted ofive (5) U.S. far-right citizens- Putin paid - to power an influence operation. They were paid out of corporate front located in Tennessee. One agent was paid $5,000 / monthly for his Agit-Prop.
Names:
TATLOR HANSEN
MATT CHRISTIAN
DAVE RUBIN
The "I was deceived" TIM POOL actually an admission. against interest.
BENNY JOHNSON "We were disturbed ... "were (sic) victims." Another admission.
Well, we can only hope that the Senate's first shot across the bow was exactly that with much more to follow. Because if they act like Mitch McConnell has for the past eight years, we are in deep sh*t. While numerous pundits have mused over "which of Trump's appointees is the worst" (admittedly, in terms of character, it's debatable), the answer--and where the Senate MUST draw the line--clearly is Hegseth, because of the position itself. Look, I know we're mostly internal-and-"economy"-myopic, but there is simply no other position that has both the real AND notional power of the SECDEF. As at least one political scientist commented recently, it's probably one of the ten most important jobs on the planet. In charge of the still, by-far-most-powerful MILITARY on the planet. And we already gave Job #1 to possibly the most-irresponsible man on the planet. Trump + JD Vance + Hegseth. Do that NSC math.
Both Jonathan Chait and Timothy Snyder have already written measured-but-cutting analyses of Hegseth and what he would bring into this position. It is chilling and sobering--and both let Hegseth do most of the talking.
And, just in time, I'm teaching The Handmaid's Tale to my literature students this month, while telling them (any literary critic of the book knows this) that Atwood only included actual examples from history in creating the world of Gilead. While Donald Trump has nominated a man to be SECDEF who SOUNDS like he's The Commander in Gilead (actually, The Commander sounds saner, and WAY less angry. Anyone scared sh*tless yet? You need to be).
Here are links to Snyder and Chait. Read them, please. I consider Hegseth a redline. If he is confirmed we've lost the line and we are in big, BIG trouble.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/pete-hegseth-books-trump/680744/?lctg=6050e3f8702cdd0520c2c822
https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/pete-hegseth-the-short-course?r=qo6n&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Robert,thank you for the links,teaching the Handmaid’s Tale to your students and pointing out that Atwood only used actual examples. Unfortunatley it is banned in my local Fl school district.
Buy Handmaids Tale online. Or sign onto your public library membership & order a copy free from the public library system.library
Heather describes a vacuum in power and compares it to politics early in the Great Depression. Both parties have big cracks at present. Trump is losing his cognitive ability, and it seems like a situation in history where a child emperor or monarch suddenly comes to power. Sometimes, unlikely characters assume power. We may be surprised at who is pulling the strings. Possibly the head of housekeeping? Lol.
I'm going to your links now. The Atlantic may have a paywall, and I believe I have already read Snyder's piece on Hegseth.
How do you unconfirm one of Trump's horrible nominees? Impeachment, shame them into quitting, Trump could withdraw.
In other words, it ain't gonna happen.
Just in case:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/pete-hegseth-books-trump/680744/?gift=CJMGq1KFe_HS0ldGbJkiXnwEKLr1iRZ3cL8gRsX1IrA&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
I hope there’s enough responsible Senators who can restore our democracy to what is should be! The first step is to not approve his ludicrous appointments!
Didn't Murkowski say she won't support any nominee who has not passed an FBI background check? Maybe that's one small portion of hope.
Yes. And the senators will have noticed that when they rejected Gaetz, their decision was immediately accepted with no fuss at all. Just ‘how about this other person.’ That might encourage them to take more power by rejecting other terrible nominees.
Bondi is both corrupt and a registered foreign agent. However, she has executive experience and is not a child molester, so comparison to Gaetz lifts her up.
It’s odd to be cheering for right wing senators to exercise more power, but here we are.
We'll see how she feels when she wakes up on the voting day- I lived in Alaska...
And in the process hammer home that these appointments are because Trump is an incompetent cray-cray fool as Heather points out much more eloquently.
It's not enough just to urge our Senators to do the right thing. We need to make them look like traitors and imbeciles if they don't.
Also, urge your Congresscritters and Senators to read or listen to HCR's daily letter.
Wouldn't it be nice to have Trump call HCR stupid so more people will check out her daily input?
I do NOT like this Alice In Wonderland projection that Republican legislators will grow balls in the foreseeable future and stand up to Trump. Yes, he has no mandate. But to combine metaphors, this whistling in the dark to make the choir feel better doesn't get it for me. Yes, things WILL go badly, but I just don't see the bums getting thrown out -- voters are not paying attention, they're fired up by hate of the other, and human nature seems pretty constant to me. More likely, they'll give Trump credit for all the work Biden has accomplished to build local economies, because much of it is going to really kick in during his term. They've already been taking credit for it, after they voted against it, and campaigned against the legislation that generated it! Anyone who thinks that's going to change, is regularly smoking some really great weed!
To put my comments into perspective, I'm an 83-year old veteran of the Civil Rights movement, volunteered for a combined five months in NV on three Obama/Hillary elections, and have spent a year's income supporting Senate and House candidates in the last four elections when I was no longer capable of walking the precincts.
Nothing speaks like having lived history walking on the ground.
I don’t think my generation of Baby Boomers will be called a great generation. We have allowed the greedy, the hateful and the likes of Trump and his cronies to divide us and take over our government through the failure of the Supreme Court, Congress and the POTUS. Surely there are people of character and bravery remaining in the GOP who can and will stand up to them and if they do, they will be recognized for their bravery and they will save us from having a true oligarchy in our country.
Mary Harrison,
Maybe we baby boomers should snail mail printed copies of good articles like LFAA to some of our Republican friends who otherwise would never read them. Old people still love to check the mailbox(:
“Congress had become adept at opposing presidents but had split into factions that made it unable to transition to using power, rather than opposing its use.”
Sounds like the modern Republican Party; the party of NO! Very good at opposing Democratic initiatives when in the minority, but bickering and indecisive when in the majority. (Except, of course, Mitch McConnell ramming political hacks on to SCOTUS.)
Professor Richardson makes a hopeful point that the recent crop of Trump appointees make up the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, and that the more adept political operatives in the Senate, seeing cracks developing in MAGA perhaps enabling enough Republican senators to grow a spine and take back the power they recently ceded so readily to a moral degenerate.
It might just happen. Watch out for Elon Musk, though. At this point he’s more dangerous than Trump.
Very astute commentary about the “sloshing” of power. A real live trumpian presence has all but disappeared and presumably he is entertained all day by Fox and reality reruns. Musk senses the absence of power and is trying mightily to mop it up. Senate Rs would take it, but only anonymously. Importantly, America’s enemies, Putin and the North Korean, now a major alliance bailing out the failure of Putin’s army, see it as well, and have, almost unnoticed shed trump, a major realignment that will have important implications as yet indiscernible.
As long as George Orwell lives, we are still doing double battle. Every single lie must receive a swift, immediate rebuttal with evidence
“It is also possible that Republican senators will themselves take back for Congress the power…….”
That would be a welcome move; do I believe the traditional republicans have the brains and spine for this? Let’s just hope.
Thanks for continuing to bring factual based information to us in these uncertain times.
There’s that hope word again. Dems hope that Repubs will do the right thing. Really???? How many chances have they had? Let me count the ways…..
Well, look at it from this angle: finally they have a chance to star as humane and considerate? I see this as a moment for the traditional republicans to return to some fundamental principles; why not? Of course the dirty lucre might get in the way.
See above
🤔