In the final exchange of hostages taken by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel under the current truce, Hamas released 16 people—10 Israelis and four Thai nationals, along with two Russian-Israeli women in a separate release—while Israel released 30 people from its jails.
Carol, yes, defending Democracy is or should be our priority at the moment. However, we should all understand that America's support for dictatorship is "deep and wide". We are just not aware of that fact for the most part.
Everyone. Please read Robert Reich's SubStack writing today entitled
"Henry Kissinger, 1923-2023. War criminal"
It is absolutely one of the most well written (and chilling) chronicles of American History I have ever read. A real and true "Portrait in Evil".
Reason to Read: Gain a better understanding the origins of the Republican Party's move toward dictatorship. His writing is a real warning because, in America's past, American Presidents (Republican ones) have actively and ably sought to ensure the violent death of Democracy.
Of course, 99.9% of Americans, including me until today, have no idea how horrible our history is where creating death and destruction, chaos and dictatorship is relevant. I did know about our role in turning Iran from an elected Democracy into a bloody dictatorship in a 1953 coup though. For the same dumb reason: The guy they assassinated was "thought' to be a "communist".
Folks, the American Government thought it was totally OK to kill anyone they labeled "communist" for 80 years of history. Then? Establish a brutal dictatorship based on murder that put a murderer in charge of an entire country.
Why stop with Iran, or Chile? Why not do the same thing right here!! That's what the Pubs want.
That's US, the USA!
Last observation: Some Americans DO know about America's murderous past. Isabelle Wilkerson "The Warmth of Other Suns" is one, and, Nicole Hannah Jones "The 1619 Book Project" are two of them. George Floyd?? Yep, him too.
Mike, what an excellent and on-point comment! Thank you.
A quick note: I renewed and expanded my membership in Human Rights Watch yesterday, in consideration of all they have done and are doing to discover and publicize human rights abuses worldwide. Highly recommended.
I concur, Mike -- I coincidentally just finished reading it before reading your comment here. It was just one example of what HK wrought -- I wish Reich also included his work in destroying Cambodia, leading to Pol Pot, as well as his activities in Africa. I don't believe in the concept of Hell, but if it exists, it would be too easy a punishment for him to spend eternity. Maybe there's a special room reserved for him and his ilk.
About the size of it in Iran and elsewhere. Social conscience based movements have often been subverted by USA, tarred as "communists". Or supported so called democratic governments which in fact could no stand on their own military feet: Vietnam, USA abandoned after 58k American's death after maybe 1.5m native deaths; Afghanistan, after nearly 20 years propping up warlord based regime to, let's face, a Pashtan based religious moment, the Taliban, sprawled across southern Afgh and northern Pakistan. ; and what to make of Iraq and its non existent weapons of mass destruction, not that Saddam was any kind of "angel"
Come to think of it. America is no angel, either. When we're not waging war on smaller, weaker countries and thereby feeding our military industrial complex, we're financing proxy wars.
The problem is that when the military hammer is consulted, everything is a nail. That's Israel and the Palestinians in a nutshell. You cannot oppress, slaughter and steal from a people for decades and then express dismay when those people decide they've had enough. But trillions in profits trump the bloodshed and heartbreak. It wasn't 24 hours after Israel was attacked by the occupied people that Anthony Blinken flew to Tel Aviv. Then Biden went himself, and asked for $14 billion to buy weapons for Israel. $14 billion to blow up a million unarmed people, thousands of whom are children.
Mike our history is horrible, beyond horrible and more and more Dems are all in. This is why Chris Hedges has named the Democrats the party of war. I don’t know how HCR can continue to support Biden the way she does.
The USA has sponsored, through money and weapons, the displacement and genocide of Palestinians on Palestinian land since 1917 after the ill fated “Balfour Declaration” exported most Jewish folks from Great Britain.
So, Biden is just one more US leader who has enabled Israeli death and destruction.
But. We are on the sixth or so day of a ceasefire and THAT is due to Biden.
Netanyahu would keep bombing Gaza until every Palestinian was dead.
Then? Yahoo would take the remaining land for Israeli “settlers”.
Well I can’t say go Biden after his hugging of Bibi, I find him to be a horrible warmonger. I am unconvinced he does anything for the right reason, I assume he is watching his poll numbers. If he was a better person he would not be running again at his age and with his poll numbers. If we get Trump it’s on him.
Could it be that this system is mostly run by men in most countries, who more often than not think that aggression is the only answer to political problems. Male violence is the cause of most of the suffering in the world and the lack of empathy that so many of these guys seem to have. Biden has the capacity for empathy but he is dealing with people, mostly men, who think it's just fine to kill people to solve problems. The same can be said for the leadership of both Palestine and Israel. We look like the primitive species we are whenever violence is what we resort to.
I totally disagree with you about Hedges, I think he is a brilliant man, who has seen many wars and knows the cost better than most of us. I read HCR with a huge grain of salt.
Nora - how effective do you think Biden and Blinken would have been negotiating the 'pause' and release of hostages by Hamas if Biden had come out full-throated against Netanyahu and the Israeli government's decision to go to war against Gaza? Netanyahu is *not* going to back off and call a ceasefire no matter what President Biden and others may call for. Taking a hard line, demanding a ceasefire (or else what?), would simply ensure a door closed against future diplomatic efforts.
The West Bank incursions by Israeli "settlers" who murder Palestinians who object to being thrown out of their homes is something that also must be addressed, is being at least mentioned even now. The U.S. needs to be there once Netanyahu has been removed and, hopefully, more democratic governance is in place. We must keep that foot in the door. The U.S. must preserve the opportunity to push (delicately at this point) for changes in Israel's decades of mistreatment of Palestinians.
I think they would be quite effective if they said no more aid to Israel. We should not be pushing delicately we should be pushing hard as we have helped fund this genocide and it’s long past time to not fund an occupation.
Its only evil when you learn about it. It continues to be evil, regardless of your politics At that point, not calling it out is also evil. Pick your poison
An aside on Robert Reich's subscription. Initially, it offers a "free option", but when you get into it to actually read posts, it announces this is only a temporary free trial. What????
Worth every penny if you want to be told what to think. If you read only what you agree with, what does that accomplish? I have nothing against Reich, but sending people to read things that don't challenge them doesn't really do much.
Reich never at any time tells anyone "what to think". Like most of the contributors to Substack, he only offers his opinions. You can either take them or leave them. He very often asks at the end of his essay, "What do you think?" Does that sound like somebody making readers agree with him? That's the whole purpose of Substack: to share ideas. If a writer on here offers opinions that align with my own, or reinforces what I think, I will share that. Again, there is no imperative to believe as I believe. If you don't agree, say so, or scroll on by. Important point: it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with a writer like Reich 100% of the time on other issues, just this particular one. Besides, I'm regularly challenged on Substack by other writers and other commenters on HCR's page. I appreciate the fact that other commenters on here sometimes share content from other sources that I might find interesting or germane to what is being discussed. Again, NOBODY is twisting your arm telling you what to believe on here. That is something each reader has the right to decide for themselves.
Can't agree. I learned a lot from Dr. Reich's essay today and to me, it was worth every penny. As for searching out discordant views, Trump Social and Fox might give you plenty, if we can assume that's what you're after.
If you bring up RR's column on HK there should be an option to "continue reading" which allows access without subscribing. I'm not sure if they will want an email address. Chilling read.
Substack contributors all offer a "free trial", usually a week in length, that gives you access to ALL their contributions for a full week, and to the "Comments" section to add comments. Having the "free option" means one either gets access to only some of the weekly content, or, in some cases, free access to "read only" all of the content. The "free option" usually doesn't mean access to comment in the "Comment" sections. I simply can't afford to subscribe to all the writers I'd like to subscribe to and support! Plus, there's also not enough time in the day to wade through it ALL, interesting and compelling as the essays are! For example, I find that with Reich, some of the things he offers each week are only available to paying subscribers, while some of his pieces are free to "read only". Writers like Robert Hubbell give free "read only" access to all his content, but only subscribers can add comments. Sometimes he opens up his comments section to everyone for a couple days. It depends on what the Substack writers wish to offer free and which to offer for subscribers only. For the "free option" one still has to register one's email address and it is ongoing for free, but "free trial" is temporary and includes everything. Does this make sense?
“ “There is no explicit charge or comprehensive plan of action in this bill to move quickly to eliminate fossil fuel as the energy foundation of America’s economy. There is nothing in this bill that questions or challenges the U.S. as the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas. Nowhere does this climate bill mandate (set enforceable targets for) fossil-fuel emissions cuts: whether in the extraction of fossil fuels, the industrial use of fossil fuels, the utility-scale generation of electricity, or from transport and agriculture…But the bill contains several key provisions that allow for and facilitate expanded fossil-fuel production, exactly the opposite of what is needed… this legislation falls massively and obscenely short of what is needed. Worse, t…[it] prolongs the dependency of the U.S. economy on fossil fuels…this bill is part of the problem of global warming, not the solution.”
The bill “revive[d] offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska” and “weaken[ed] bedrock environmental laws to give faster fossil fuel project approvals and expedite the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline in Appalachia,” as the Center for Biological Diversity warned.”
“I had the same experience reading about the five premature babies who were left to die after the IDF raided al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza earlier this month, their decomposing bodies only discovered when the temporary ceasefire allowed access to the hospital. It's just too insane to believe — they attacked a pediatric hospital? And then they left the babies there to die? What??
The only reason we’re learning about this now is because the pause in fighting allowed journalists to get cameras into the building and show the dead infants to the world. This calls to mind the Politico report immediately prior to the ceasefire which said that the White House was worried “an unintended consequence of the pause” would be “that it would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel.””
If your critique is intended as justification for dismissing American democracy and disparaging President Biden - which in context is a fair assessment - then you are overlooking the elephant in the room. The Republican Party. If you will not vote for Biden, then you will help elect Trump. Again.
American democracy has always been conflicted. Much improvement has been achieved by those working within our political system to achieve the Founders' more progressive aspirations. In the last hundred years, that has been accomplished primarily by Democrats. While Republicans have worked to overturn progress most dramatically, in the past decades, through the capture of the Supreme Court by plutocrat funded racist right wing religious extremists working to overturn equality before the law, equal representation, and equitable taxation. With the help of those who by refusing to vote for Clinton, predictably, helped elect Trump. And who are complicit in Trump emptying American law of justice in general, and in specific, emptying American policy towards Palestinians of fairness.
Whether for national or international justice as fairness, voting in Biden and a Democratic Congressional majority is the only electoral path to progress.
You can take your lesser evil anti-democratic vote shaming duopoly worship and shove it.
People say not voting for Biden is a vote for Trump. So, not voting for Trump is a vote for Biden. You’re welcome.
And please, do not ever use the word ‘complicit’ again in reference to aiding and abetting the GOP. The Democratic Party, ever since it responded to Reagan’s landslides by abandoning the working class in lieu of corporate donor fealty, owns that word.
You have always made some good points. I am on the same page when it comes to fossil fuels and the manipulation of our politics and governance. The Oiligarchs like Koch are the puppeteers. But the puppets are those who support anyone other than the Democratic Party. By using "all politicians are bad" thinking and culture wars - the morbidly rich stir chaos and anarchy.
You are right about many of our problems. But instead of facing the freight train of destruction (Republicans) you attack what modest progress Democrats achieve.
Should we be going faster to address the Climate Crisis? Of course. Should we acknowledge our horrific foreign policy blunders of the past? Yes!
If you really would prefer a Trump presidency over a Biden second term, it's clear you are not looking for the preservation of what little democracy we still have. You seem to be living in some vague "middle ground" that is just a pool of criticism. You are not offering a solution to the problems you so clearly describe. Earth to Tom. The middle ground of non participation is in fact another form of supporting MAGA madness. Is that really OK with you?
If you have read Project 2025 and still would not vote for the only solution to another Trump or Republican presidency, then we know all we need to know about your political persuasion. Trump is a sociopath - a psychotic monster who must be crushed at the polls and in the court room. Simply put, be part of defending us from the most dangerous human on the planet. Or be an enabler of Putin's buddy.
Protect us from a hollowing out of our government experts and hard working public servants - to be replaced by MAGA loyalists. Remember Trump's cabinet of unqualified fools? Perry for energy? DeVos for education? It will be worse next time. And do you have any interest in the Supreme Court that Republicans created? Talk about puppets of the Oligarchs! The dismissal of precedent? The removal of women's reproductive rights? That issue alone should send you willingly to the voting booth and voting a straight Democratic ticket.
I suggest you hold your nose and vote for less than perfect to prevent the complete disintegration of our democratic experiment. Or...with Project 2025 you can look forward to an American version of an Orwell or Huxley novel. Or even a Krystallnacht in Kansas.
Bill, sometimes I get the impression that criticism of any position “not perfect” is voluminous, yet empathy for those attempting to provide acceptable solutions (in a democracy of widely varied views) is glaringly absent
For the critics, putting themselves in the hot seat forced to accommodate a fractured Congress, a biased court, and a lying media, the “obvious solutions” disappear as the critic finds his hands tied by the dictates of a democratic process and arcane Congressional Roadblocks like filibusters and Tubervilles
Its as if the notion that God can wave a wand and give you what you want. In politics, that’s called a Dictator
Decades decades - The corporatist Democratic Establishment has “given” us our hold your nose vote for the lesser evil option. At some point that arrogant covert demand must be thwarted. Maybe pure chaos is the only force sufficient to occasion the citizenry’s awareness of just how undemocratic the entire existing system is and emphatically demands structural changes to more accurately transmit the Will of the people into legislative action. Gun control, free college, universal health care, decisive effective climate action, clean up the Supreme Court, antitrust actions for corporations and big banks, ditching Citizens United etc - how many decades have we wanted these things?
"Maybe pure chaos is the only force sufficient to occasion the citizenry’s awareness of just how undemocratic the entire existing system is"
This is why we need to vote blue. Who is calling for chaos louder than Donald Trump? Do you really think destroying the government will bring out our better angels?
Oh, so many deprived souls crying here. Look around you. Your bank accounts, investments, your Substack subscriptions, your nice car, your home. Imagine living without those things. Democracy is an experiment and an ongoing project, but you want chaos. Do you know what would happen? You'd lose those things that define your reality. Let that sink in.
I continue to vote blue no matter who but it gets tiring. It seems dems do not learn from their history of the last 40 years and continue making the same mistakes. 4 steps forward and 4 backwards. Climate and Israel could be Biden's downfall? But, I still say vote blue no matter who. UGH!!
There is nothing pragmatic about incremental solutions to catastrophic problems.
So I’m the puppet? Earth to Bill. There is no ‘little democracy we still have’. You think the Democratic Party will save us, when all the while they have been complicit in our descent into corporate totalitarianism, and continue to prop it up.
You are the middle ground here, somehow thinking elections will save us. You want solutions? Vote third party. Perform acts of nonviolent civil disobedience. Support general strikes.
Accusing me of supporting MAGA because I refuse to support corporate-owned democrats is yet more vile, absurd proof that those who wail about saving democracy are hypocritical cheerleaders for a capitalist duopoly that has eviscerated the middle class, working class, and the poor. I know about your political persuasion. It is lesser evil fantasy, a ratchet effect which is what brought us Trump.
If the Democratic Party cared about my vote, it would advocate aggressively for, regardless of what the voting/electoral consequences were, or what the current political landscape is, policies which would help working people most, like universal health care, a federal jobs guarantee, free college, an end to endless war and arms sales, etc. Those policies would also bring about democracy, because they would potentially energize the bloc of citizens the Democratic Party seems to care about less than it does those of us on the actual left, that being the huge contingent of people who don’t vote.
We’re already living in the Orwell novel, and have been for a while. Those who think the Democrats will fix this mess still don’t realize it. And down the rabbit hole we go.
Hey Tom, take it easy man. Bill's response was imminently reasonable and mature. No need to bludgeon him with words.
You are right in that, under Reagan, Bush I and Clinton, the Democratic Party did, in significant degree, line up behind "trickle down" (bi-partisan votes in 1981), "end welfare as we know it" (Clinton's support for Republican cuts) and selling the common man out.
But, by the time Bush II rolled around, I do think the Democratic party was starting to ask questions about things. Although, all of Bush II's policies including the near unanimous vote to invade Iraq (thank you Barbara Lee for not voting for that war). Yes, the Dems were still crawling around at the feet of Pubs even then to some degree.
I feel angry about both parties selling out the middle class (which I became during this long period).
Even under Obama, the Bush II led bailouts of bad actor banks were amped WAY, WAY up. Nobody helped out a single homeowner who lost their home. Nobody. Dem or Pub.
So, Tom, you are right not wrong about Democrats selling us out for business interests.
But, NOW? Biden has actually begun a (small) attempt at turning the boat so that investment in infrastructure leads to working class jobs.
Biden is (probably) also willing to give up power if he (actually) loses the election (although I personally would support him staying in office if he does). Two can tango.
Don't whip on Bill. Bill is a good guy in all of this mess we have.
Bill, "regardless of what the voting/electoral consequences were"? You don't understand the passion of the electorate that has ZERO interest in letting anyone else spend their money, especially on "those people". Even people ON government funded health care vote against government funded health care.
Please explain how the Democratic Party has been complicit in our descent into corporate totalitarianism. I simply want to understand your viewpoint. I would have pointed to the other party. Thanks!
After the accomplishments of civil rights movements through legislation, government policy, and judicial decisions, racist right wing religious extremists learned the importance of voting. After disastrously flirting with Ross Perot, they learned the importance of unity.
In 2016, many extremists and so called movement conservatives held their nose to elect Trump - and won the Supreme Court. They did not swallow the elephant whole, they ate it bite by bite before spitting it out in their own image. MAGA. There is a lesson here which progressives such as Bernie Sanders, AOC, Cori Bush and the Progressive Caucus et al have learned. It seems you have not.
Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse and Elizabeth Warren have done more in the struggle against the abuses of unmitigated capitalism than all the specious rhetoricians on the presumptive left.
So yes, your comments are a form of right wing voter suppression and are complicit in Republican irreparable harm to our most vulnerable neighbors fragile planet, and endangered democracy.
Elizabeth Warren? Please. Were she at all interested in the ‘struggle against the abuses of unmitigated capitalism’, she would never have undercut the Sanders campaign at every turn. Want to see a ‘specious rhetorician’? Mirror.
Yes. Of course. Voting for Bill Clinton makes me complicit in the abuses of Neo-Liberalism. Being an American, I am responsible for policy I did not vote for and do not approve of. Which is why, although I am Left of Bernie, I struggle to reform the Democratic party and through that, government policy.
The fallacious rhetoric of 'the duopoly' purposefully elides the empirical evidence that the differences between the Democratic and Republican parties are more significant than their similarities. I do not think in terms of 'good and evil' politics, but how to most effectively achieve my progressive goals and avoid reactionary disaster. Even by small steps and incrementally.
You disparage 'the lesser of two evils.' Making the better choice is nothing to sneer at. Some say, 'let things get bad enough and come the revolution.' The revolution has come, but rather than a socialist workers paradise, a significant number of Americans prefer repurposing the American democratic republic as a clerical fascist state. Democratic elected officials are the bulwark against that.
I do not click on unidentified links. But I commend to you CSpan.
It’s obvious that you don’t understand politics or the democratic process. It’s about people, some bright and kind, some stupid and greedy and every shade between. Democracy is messy because humans are. Even the best of US make mistakes. If you don’t know the last line of “Some Like It Hot,” suggesting you see the whole movie. Enjoy!
Tom-Working class people still support the Democrats-it’s the White working class that you say was abandoned and they jumped on the GOP train to feed racism and assuage their fears about having to compete fairly if white supremacy no longer reigns.
American capitalism and “democracy” depend on racism and the GOP is all in. The Dems are not perfect but at least they’re attempting to embrace everyone.
No politics but class politics. Please don’t start with the ‘perfect is the enemy of the good’ rationalization.
We will never crush the GOP, only allow it to gain strength, by thinking it is the enemy instead of the corporate state, and capitalism, and fully attacking that. As long as the Democrats shirk that role, we’ll continue to circle the drain.
No, no and no. A vote for one of the outliers in the presidential race is a vote for Trump. Full stop.
Trump is so deranged that we're in a fight to save this country from a future that would embody the policies and ideologies of the strongmen Trump admires. Has no one heard Trump? In one Truth Social post recently he channeled Joseph McCarthy, but the media rolled over and went back to sleep.
Biden is no prize, but I'll vote for him because this is a watershed in our history, a defining moment where we have to step up. Trump is more than a shit sandwich - he's a madman with a cult following as well as a political party so afraid of displeasing him that they were willing to engage in sedition. Wake up !
Actually, Mary Cat, Biden IS a prize. There is probably no one else in America who could have put NATO back together. I have checked the possible names, and his years of service and understated understanding of the players on the world stage are what may save US. He has a vision of world peace in this era of climate change threat that is essential if humans are going to continue to exist on this planet.
I think Biden's weakness is that he is oblivious to public opinion and is possibly underestimating the impact of his decisions on his reelection bid. Sometimes it looks like Biden is trying to lose. Maybe the problem is that voters just don't care about environmental issues and foreign policy.
Oh, those talking points. They're not working, Tom. You're a well-worded troll indeed. I don't think we all should be agreeing with each other, but you sound like you've memorized all the leftist crap I've heard for decades. It's really nothing to me except a whining diatribe of people who do not understand democracy and its essential element - compromise. We are a rich country with many flaws, but as someone who has spent many years living and working in the Third World I can tell you that you are simply whining. You need to see what it's like to live in a poorer place and under dictatorship before you start whingeing about "corporate" this, "working class" that. You have no idea of how to fix the problems, but you have, under this democracy, the right to blame anyone you wish. Do you know how lucky you are?
Oh, those talking points. If only I knew what you knew, Mary. Then I’d be a propagandized corporate stooge indeed. You sound like you’ve memorized all the neoliberal centrist crap I’ve heard for decades. You know how it’s easy to spot a propagandized sycophant of American Empire these days? They use words like ‘compromise’, or ‘bipartisan’ or ‘grand bargain’, and the next thing you know, they’ve lined the pockets of monied interests with even more wealth while stupidly thinking they are making things better for working people.
Whining? That describes you perfectly. I’ve traveled around the world, and I travel around this country, and I know what solutions would fix our problems, but you, and people like you, don’t have the courage to force the politicians to implement them, because you’re the one who values comfort more than anything else. You probably think those dictators you speak of came out of a vacuum instead of through American foreign policy. Do you know how clueless you are?
I am fed up with male privilege and the inherent whining of people such as yourself. I hope that this doesn't upset you, but I don't see yoiu doing anything else. Instead of wasting your time insulting women with different views than yours, why don't you get out there and run for office, since you've done the Donald Trump thing and feel that you alone can fix it!
How do you propose to implement the solutions you "know" would "fix our problems"?
Do I value comfort more than anything else? You don't know a damn thing about me, so shut your aggressive mansplaining gob. I have had more than enough of you pompous idiots who presume to know how to fix anything.
boring. no reasoning here. no actual discussion or disciplined thinking. regurgitation of emotionally-derived opinion is not at all useful because it does not further the exploration we are trying to engage in here. might as well talk to a mirror...
I take it as not just looking @ how wonderful we are but to look @ a naked America. When we present ourselves to the rest of world without acknowledging we are a work in progress, it is the story of the "emperor wears no clothes" .
We are not a work in progress. That’s what so many here have yet to fully grasp. We are an Empire, and an evil one at that. We have been fed American Exceptionalism propaganda since the end of WWII, and meanwhile the MIC, the CIA, and the capitalists have owned us. Electoral politics is theater of the absurd.
Everything policy-wise is about oil and trade routes, in order to keep our citizens happy with being able to get a fresh raspberry in the grocery store in winter, or having the latest digital device, and be distracted from the pain and destruction we inflict on the rest of the world.
And all our war criminals, from LBJ to Nixon to Reagan to Clinton to Bush to Obama to Trump, become ‘elder statesman’ instead of doing hard time.
You are right but maybe it is a cold gray miserable day where you are and things are looking dire. On this site we are all history buffs and we spend a good portion of our time looking at how and why we got here. Today, on the Connecticut coast, it is truly a new day in America. We have done many awful things in the past, things we regret and wish we could change but of course we cannot. It is our history but not our future. We have and can change things for the better for others and within ourselves with knowledge and new perspectives.
It’s a sunny, chilly morning here in NC. Things have been looking dire for me since I grasped the concept of inverted totalitarianism after reading Sheldon Wolin’s book in 2010, and watched the red wave sweep the country in 2012.
Doesn’t mean I don’t laugh and enjoy life; I just also recognize reality, and propaganda, and narrative, and empire. I developed compartmentalization skills at an early age. Peace, t
It is always so much easier to tear down than to build up. Anyone can criticize, anyone can trash, anyone can fulminate, anyone can indulge in tirades and rants against something, anything. But in a democracy, those who truly matter are those who try to find reason for hope, who try to understand that the real cause of trouble in the world is simply our all too human determination to amplify whatever we imagine differentiates us into all our little groups and sects and political parties and nations and all the rest at the expense of the humanity we share. There are times I think that the emergence of the human brain was the worst thing that ever happened to the Earth that we and all the other life we often so casually ignore or use to our own ends and to their destruction share, and then I remember all the beauty that some of us have created, all the dreams of men and women through all our history that we might one day come to see that we are all, indeed, one people. What are we but the animal, the poet, the builder, and the would-be god. It was the babel sound of our fears, our dreams, our plans, and our hubris that the Poet heard upon his stage. Where is the beauty that Keats believed he saw in the urn:
"Beauty is truth, and truth beauty; that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." That truth continues to elude us in all the perverted forms in which we've managed to clothe it, but it must be out there because there can be no other reason for us.
Fascism, or socialism. We’re in the beginning of end-stage capitalism at present. The longer people resist the conversion to socialism, the more likely we get fascism.
You seem to think we either support all that’s going on or be against all that’s going in. This is not the way to use your vote. Each time you have to choose you must choose the best choice on the ballot. I would never choose trump because he’s against democracy, he wants to be a dictator, and destroy everything that gets in his way. On the other hand I will vote for Biden because he’s a law abiding person who always chooses a way that avoids the most urgent catastrophe of the moment. This is being realistic, not ideological.
Sometime during GW Bush era, perhaps the first campain against Gore, the media or a pollster started looking at "who would you like to have a beer with?" as a question related to who they would vote for, and I remember thinking,"what does that have to do with running/managing the government or a company? Well, by golly, that became the criteria until it morphed into someone who played a successful executive on TV, and then as President hired as if from central casting. We are a shallow people.
It would be easier for folks to understand and appreciate if more of the media were reporting it accurately and drawing the appropriate contrast to Republican behavior and 'policy'. Laurence O'Donnell has a great presentation on this topic.
Thank you for reporting the Colorado visit.....those types of visits and confrontation of the facts about who supports and who blocks progress FOR PEOPLE, can, and need to be, held in every state in the nation.
Per my "Colorado Newsline" digital feed, Biden was introduced to CS Wind workers to on the facility floor exactly where Biden continues rebuild the working middle class now with new & renewable Energy.
Because it doesn't "bleed" so it doesn't "lead," and it violates the MSM rule that the only "news" about Biden they will print is that he is old old old, and gasoline is $5/gal (it isn't, even in California).
Gasoline here in NW Georgia is currently $2.79 a gallon. I was glad Heather reported that Pres. Biden called out that ignorant and stupid Larean Boebert while he was in Colorado. These dumb idiots in the Fascist GQP House of Representatives keep on being a huge embarrassment to the United States. Boebert and Maggot Traitor Goon seem to be competing to see which one is the most ignorant Congress critters ever.
"Boebert and Maggot Traitor Goon seem to be competing to see which one is the most ignorant Congress critters ever." Shame on both! Their behavior is disgusting. Who promised what to them for their relentless display of lack of education and civility?
Their lack of education and civility are their very worst traits. Their blatantly disrespectful behavior at President Biden's State of the Union speech was despicable. They screamed and called him a liar and their numerous interruptions proved that they have the minds of spoiled brat 5 year old children. MTG is so dumb she can't even spell simple words like the time she spelled, ''Gestapo'' the '' Gachpago'' MTG and Boebert should have been removed from Congress immediately after the JAN 6 riots and insurrection. Before TUMP, their despicable behavior would not have been tolerated for one minute in our Congress.
I wonder why their despicable behavior IS tolerated and why none of the GOP members has the guts to have them taken out. But seeing what it takes to get George Santos removed (and he finally was expelled today) I wonder (again) what it will take for those uneducated dumbbells to get removed.
In Indiana gas is any where from 3.15 to 2.89. However the gas tax on this about 52 cents a gallon. Republicans continue to increase our gas tax...however claim to lower our taxes. And they are upset over having electric vehicles that no longer use gasoline. Just wait....another tax is in the works.
Go to the UK, Marlene, where petrol is around $3.00US a LITRE. And why? Because it is heavily taxed in order to pay for road improvements and construction. Which is why the roads and motorways in the UK are in excellent condition despite the level of use they experience daily. You get what you pay for.
Marlene, I go to a "Safeway Fuel Station" in Concord, CA on Contra Costa Blvd,. The pumps are OPEN now at the price of $4.459. I get up to $1.00 off that pump price with my "Safeway 'Rewards" 10 cents per 'Reward' credit .
So Today in my world after my trip to the UCSF hospital, in the City I am expecting $3.459 per gallon NET bottom line. I have been doing this since the 2020 CV19 Pandemic. Other folks have other strategies as well. : )
Bryan, you are not far from me. I go to Costco mostly and charge it on my card. That way, I get cash back every year not just from Costco but also from their credit card company.
Yes. I get three 3 tiered discounts ... 3 per cent on gas at Safeway Fuel Station recently increased to 3.25 % with automatic deposit feature as BofA "preferred"… Low mileage driver anyway. Hybrid or EV suggestions?
I hate to play the coupon rewards game and in fact I don't. I want to buy a fair product for a fair price. I get almost no junk mail because I refuse to give away my data for 10 cents off. I am sure I too can be bought, the price needs to be much higher though!
Understand all your points. In CA consumers have the legal right to control marketing data & delete data as well as an express right of Privacy in our California state Constitution Article 1, , Section 7.
In LA, it’s over $5.00. I can’t believe people complain about paying < $3.00. We travel around to visit family in KY & OH and the gas is so much less expensive there, but people complain because they want to drive their SUV’s and pick up trucks. We also have much cheaper gas here than Europe.
As long as Netanyahu is in office, there will be no peace discussions--only war. If the fighting stops, he and his right-wing extremists lose power AND he faces legal repercussions.
Hot damn TC, you're right! I just popped out a Jackson (thankfully, soon to be a Tubman) on my way from L.A. to Valencia, and my needle barely moved the entire way!
Where's that inflation that the former Party of Lincoln is still squawking about?!?
It is still here in the Northwest, however, our gas has gone down in price over the last 8 months paying $3.89 in Portland Oregon but see much higher prices here also. I paid $45 for a turkey and the east says they paid $20 for a 18 pound turkey along with all the other groceries still being high.
Partly because Democrats are not as loud as the Greenes. Broeberts, Jordans etc. They have to get louder and a bit nastier. Otherwise the message is not clear to MAGAs.
And as said by Kamala Harris and implied in other comments, there seems to be a challenge in getting Americans to realize how much Bidenomics and a raft of other Biden policies are benefiting all Americans, regardless of party affiliation.
Biden bluntly shining a light on the “massive failure of thinking” by GOP House of Reps for unanimously voting against Biden Administration policies that benefit red districts, is a message that as you say, needs to be blasted out with a bullhorn over and over again.
As Biden hasn’t shown himself to be a strong campaigner, he needs massive amounts of help from surrogates.
If Kamala Harris isn’t suited for that responsibility, those who are equipped, must be identified and dispatched, to saturate districts with the Biden record of accomplishment.
Thanks for thinking of me as someone who could effectively respond to your “call to action.”
I agree with you, that surrogates are needed at grassroots, local, & community levels.
Maybe I’m being lazy, but IMO, we/Biden need surrogates of stature with strong, positive, & persuasive communication skills.
I’m pretty good at identifying or recognizing what needs to be said, but face to face “messenger” isn’t one of my gifts.
Yet, I will heed your suggestion, and give it some thought.
As I reflect on the fly, so to speak, if given a template, I might be up to the task of what you wisely described as “amplification.”
It occurs to me, the content of Biden’s visit to Boebert’s district could be the template for grassroots amplification.
Not to pass the buck, but Democratic US Senators, Governors, Congressman, and state legislative reps might be the most effective surrogates to wade into red districts that are benefitting from Biden & Democratic Party legislation.
Interesting. My narrow scope of skills drives me toward making a video or a song. What needs to be said is crystallizing and perhaps I need to push on that.
Even as former president Trump threatened to use the government to silence press outlets he doesn't like, Harris noted the billions of dollars invested in infrastructure and clean energy, allowing the U.S. to be a global leader in new technologies; the cap of insulin at $35; rural broadband and the clean-up of lead pipes; and pointed out that all of the things the Democrats have accomplished are “incredibly popular with the American people.” The challenge, she noted, is getting people to understand these transformations, and which party is responsible for them.
Can someone explain how Eli Lilly and others could monopolize the insulin market for so long, essentially forcing diabetics to choose between survival and eating? I know several type one diabetics who struggled to afford their insulin.
And now that Biden is forcing Big Pharma to lower the price of several common medications they are suing to reverse that. Just like TFFG, they are murderers.
Our GA Senator, Warnock, proposed the bi-partisan $35 cap on insulin. He promotes that in GA as he has lots of people lining up to run against him. I just do not know if any other Congresspersons who voted FOR it are out there campaigning they supported it.
Eli Lilly got by with it just like other pharms...big lobby and no one challenging.
I am for research on RXs, but no one is really watching the balance of research and production.
This is the insulin patent discussion from Wikipedia-
Patent
Toward the end of January 1922, tensions mounted between the four "co-discoverers" of insulin and Collip briefly threatened to separately patent his purification process. John G. FitzGerald, director of the non-commercial public health institution Connaught Laboratories, therefore stepped in as peacemaker. The resulting agreement of 25 January 1922 established two key conditions: 1) that the collaborators would sign a contract agreeing not to take out a patent with a commercial pharmaceutical firm during an initial working period with Connaught; and 2) that no changes in research policy would be allowed unless first discussed among FitzGerald and the four collaborators.[133] It helped contain disagreement and tied the research to Connaught's public mandate.
Initially, Macleod and Banting were particularly reluctant to patent their process for insulin on grounds of medical ethics. However, concerns remained that a private third-party would hijack and monopolize the research (as Eli Lilly and Company had hinted[134]), and that safe distribution would be difficult to guarantee without capacity for quality control. To this end, Edward Calvin Kendall gave valuable advice. He had isolated thyroxin at the Mayo Clinic in 1914 and patented the process through an arrangement between himself, the brothers Mayo, and the University of Minnesota, transferring the patent to the public university.[135] On April 12, Banting, Best, Collip, Macleod, and FitzGerald wrote jointly to the president of the University of Toronto to propose a similar arrangement with the aim of assigning a patent to the Board of Governors of the university.[136] The letter emphasized that:[137]
The patent would not be used for any other purpose than to prevent the taking out of a patent by other persons. When the details of the method of preparation are published anyone would be free to prepare the extract, but no one could secure a profitable monopoly.
The assignment to the University of Toronto Board of Governors was completed on 15 January 1923, for the token payment of $1.00.[138] The arrangement was congratulated in The World's Work in 1923 as "a step forward in medical ethics".[139] It has also received much media attention in the 2010s regarding the issue of healthcare and drug affordability.
Following further concern regarding Eli Lilly's attempts to separately patent parts of the manufacturing process, Connaught's Assistant Director and Head of the Insulin Division Robert Defries established a patent pooling policy which would require producers to freely share any improvements to the manufacturing process without compromising affordability.[140]
My question is "why hasn't the patent expired for Insulin after 100 years?
Yes. I vote for bluntly worded billboards in every and all regions where Biden's infrastructure programs have been competed or started with a list of which Republicans in that state voted against them (and are likely shamelessly taking credit for them).
How to get Biden’s brilliant record out nationwide is a huge problem….if folks really understood what he has done for the country his ‘stats’ would be double their current numbers. Perhaps Heathers last point where Biden identifies in a speech in Colorado exactly what he has done, what the reps have done to fight it and then asked how folks specifically felt about the specific program…with detail..perhaps Biden and all his surrogates should be doing exactly that?
We can help too. I just forwarded this to ten friends. I’m sick of hearing news about MAGA loudmouths. America is doing a lot of good things right now and we need to hear that story and be proud. President Biden and his Administration
It's not just getting the word out. It's also being the vote out. There are media outlets like FOX and the Wall Street Journal truly believe that Biden is at best ineffective. They hate any regulation and government-led program. It's another type of religion named on the mantra, "no taxes, no taxes..."
Boebert, Margorie Taylor Green, George Santos, Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz -- all national jokes.
The biggest laugh of all comes in how these Republicans yet slaver over what another Republican admitted as their "orange Jesus." This particular orange guy now goes on record calling as "vermin" all who don't follow him. Also on record as vowing to kill from the national air waves all media who don't but slavishly follow him.
Good for Heather Cox Richardson pointing out the positive, practical steps the other political party has accomplished, Biden's and Kamala Harris's Dems -- even in Colorado, even for new jobs in Boebert's district, much as she would cut off her own nose to spite anyone benefitting from any federal programs.
And in Florida, the new House speaker and some Florida Rs take credit for the economic help that this administration has provided which they all voted against.
I am smiling somewhat because this is an understatement. They are the party of death and totally without a shred of human decency. The Speaker is a total far right "Christian" whack job. Rs in Florida seems especially slimy for some reason.
As does Desantis, who does NOTHING to help the people of our state to protect us from the gougers-our inflation is much higher than the national average-but they pay his coffers so he looks the other way.
And yet, and yet, the majority of the folks around here blame Bidenomics-the brainwashing in this area of Sarasota County is deeply embedded. We can’t confuse them with truth or facts-they know what they know because Desantis and trump told them so. 🤷🏻♀️
Phil, that was a great comment. Accurate, and exactly my thoughts about the current situation. The cretins you named in your first sentence are indeed national jokes and could possibly be called worldwide jokes. Add Donald TUMP to the list too.
Here in Colorado the Republicans are seeking an alternative to Boebert. Her Beetlejuice debauchery was the last straw. Meanwhile Democrat Adam Friach is raking in cash in anticipation of finally defeating Lauren.
Boebert won by 546 votes (0.3%) in a very red district. Same candidates in 2024: Boebert v Frisch. Frisch can win but must have an effective ground game. This is a race where get-out-the-vote volunteers and donations to GOTV efforts can make a difference.
Frish has his shit together and has not stopped since the tight one. Beto has a great GOTV PAC in texas. No Dem Left Behind was started my an ex marine in W.VA. Vote Vets is effective. Progressive Change Campaign Commitee (PCCC). quite a few others. GOTV is as or more important than individual contributions because they are targeted to the ones that need it the most.
Yes. GOTV is the only really important factor. Donations to well-organized GOTV efforts, whether in effort or cash, are the most effective contributions that individuals can make to the preservation of US democracy. The efforts must be smartly chosen, though. Work on winnable races only. No hail Marys.
TN is also a heavily red, gerrymandered state and often races have only one person running—the repub. Blue Tennessee is raising money to launch a PAC that will help support Dems in state races. See https://Linktr.ee/BlueTennessee.
I practically went broke donating to Beto last time. Didn't know that he has GOTV PAC in TX. Will check it out, although my resources are way less than before
That is great news, Bob. I wish someone here in Georgia would seek an alternative to the equally ignorant, loud mouthed Maggot Traitor Goon. Her and Boebert aren't fit to be in our Congress. Those two aren't fit to do anything useful.
"Frisch said that he hopes to "restore dignity" to the district" - I vote for dignity! Bet that boebert 'lady' doesn't know how to spell that word, much less know its meaning. Remember that groping event in Denver a few weeks ago? "Boebert cites her ongoing divorce as a factor, saying she's tried to handle it with "strength and grace" .... Yeah, playing hanky-panky in a public theatre shows a lot of grace, right? Not so this member of Congress. Of CONGRESS!
Please, President Biden, travel to as many places in the U.S. as possible and deliver the same loud-and-clear message you delivered in Colorado — and single out the Republicans who are hell-bent on seeing the country decline in every conceivable way.
Oh, it was good to hear even a mention of Ukraine in the Letter, and it was just a whisper.
'Battleground states Pennsylvania and Arizona are reaping billions of dollars from Washington’s efforts to arm Ukraine, according to a graphic the Biden administration has circulated on Capitol Hill.'
'The circulation of the graphic is part of the administration’s push to sell the American public — and their congressional representatives — on President Joe Biden’s proposal to spend billions of additional taxpayer dollars on the wars in Ukraine and Israel.'
'During an Oval Office address last month, Biden highlighted the benefit to U.S. manufacturing centers when making the case that Republicans should support the $60 billion for Ukraine contained in the $106 billion emergency supplemental. A faction of GOP members has fought further funding, arguing that the U.S. is spending money to help Ukraine rather than focusing on problems at home.'
“Let me be clear about something,” Biden said. “We send Ukraine equipment sitting in our stockpiles. And when we use the money allocated by Congress, we use it to replenish our own stores, our own stockpiles with new equipment.”
“Equipment that defends America and is made in America. Patriot missiles for air defense batteries, made in Arizona. Artillery shells manufactured in 12 states across the country, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas. And so much more,” he said. “You know, just as in World War II, today patriotic American workers are building the arsenal of democracy and serving the cause of freedom.”
Biden is selling democracy, jobs, American manufacturing and Ukraine all at once!
'POLITICO reported last month that the White House was switching up its messaging after running into continued resistance on Capitol Hill, after determining that selling the war funding effort based on national security wasn’t changing minds.'
'According to the map, obtained by POLITICO, Pennsylvania has received $2.364 billion in investments to build munitions and tactical vehicles for Ukraine, the most of any state. Meanwhile, Arizona is a close second with $2.259 billion. Texas and Arkansas received $1.449 billion and $1.478 billion, respectively, while Florida got $1.011 billion.'
'In total, the states have enjoyed more than $27 billion in investments from arming Ukraine, according to the graphic, the existence of which was first reported by Reuters.'
'After this story was published, the Defense Department posted an updated version of the map, and other briefing slides showing breakdowns of specific weapons totals.'
“As Department of Defense leaders have said previously, support for Ukraine has mobilized the U.S. defense industrial base, in ways that haven’t been seen in decades,” DOD spokesperson Jeff Jurgensen said in a statement when asked for comment. “Our industry partners all across the nation have stepped up to meet the kind of production, manufacturing and infrastructure investment capabilities to directly support U.S. commitments to Ukraine — and that will build the kind of industrial base capacity we need for the future.” (Politico) See link below.
Biden will never not stop selling democracy around the world and made in America!
Thank you, Karen. Americans need to know how we are in this together. We all benefit from Ukraine's ultimate success for democracy as well as stuff this down the throats of the Republicans who are doing everything they can to turn Americans against their own best interests.
I wonder who is hearing Biden and the information provided about the new programs. The Dems are doing astounding work in this divisive time. Who knows it?
Ask the MSM why it’s more important to see a news story about,say, a man painting the likeness of Taylor Swift on a monstrous pumpkin, than latest job numbers and lowering inflation. It’s the Limbaugh/Kardashian syndrome, where a large percentage of American’s reptile brains are titillated by hatred of “the other” and vapid celebrity worship.
I’ve read that young voters are getting their info via TikTok. Would be great if celebs that are popular with the TikTok generation would put together a list of Biden’s accomplishments that would capture their attention and why they need to get out and vote. These “youngsters” are concerned about not being able to purchase a $40,000 car, or a home. We need to educate them as to why and how sitting it out will not give them what they’re looking for.
Agreed. Yesterday, whilst randomly perusing Yahoo I came across a bit about Beyonce. Apparently she posted some photo where she had platinum hair and wearing a silver dress. I guess that on TikTok, there was rumors/speculation that she was "whitening" her skin. Her mother was outraged at the allegations and took to social media to complain.
Beyonce, according to the news, did not respond to the criticisms.
I've posted this on this forum before: I truly wish that she would use her influence to recruit young black women to register and vote! I've been retired a few years now, but I can affirm that the majority of the young women of color who were on our staff were not interested in politics and did not vote.
And regarding TikTok---yesterday. I picked up my cellphone and saw it had sent an announcement that I had installed TikTok. WHAT?!? Sure enough, there was the app. I uninstalled it. I have absolutely no explanation how that happened.
That’s the problem. With voters in information silos they have no idea what the White House is saying or the true facts about the positive financial effects of Biden’s policies and leadership on their lives.
While Biden is accomplishing things for all Americans, Trump and the Republicans are promising to repeal Obamacare for a better plan. It’s a lie. Republicans have said they have a better plan for 15 years and never shown it to anyone. They had 100 votes to repeal it; still without proposing an alternative. What kind of salesman takes 15 years to show you her product? I make no distinction between Republicans and MAGA Trumpers. The GOP has died, sold out to a fascist cabal of oligarchs who want to run the country exclusively for their own benefit. Vote them all out and send Trump And Co. to jail for life.
Remember the poison pill in all the 2017 Republican replacements for Obamacare: instead of guaranteed issue with no penalty for preexisting conditions, their plans that provided guaranteed issue would have allowed insurers to charge whatever the market would bear. Their plans would also reinstate coverage caps such as $100,000 per illness and $1 million lifetime. We’d be back to having more than 90% of bankruptcies due to medical bills.
MAGA's are still waiting for the Reaganomics ship to come in. Just a few more massive gifts to the one percent, and a few more years of austerity should bring it home. Look! It's there on the horizon!
Biden astounds in his foreign policy skill with his eyes in the future...may the little boebert et al go back to living their small lives in peace and leave the rest of us to continue to think for ourselves and see what can truly be
It’s incredibly important we talk to our neighbors and family members to make sure they know that things are looking up in so many communities thanks to what Missouri State Rep Peter Meredith calls “Biden Bucks”. That is a great #. All I can say is we have to have the conversations and they aren’t easy but educate your people so we get Biden/Harris 2024. I’m tired of MSM and the Harris coverage. She has done a great job and 4 more years seems cool with me.
"far-right Israeli leaders are pressuring Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restart the assault on Hamas. Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir warned today that unless he does, Ben-Gvir’s faction will leave the government coalition Netanyahu leads. “Stopping the war = breaking apart the government,” Ben-Gvir said."
The last war wasn't won and the upcoming war, if any, won't be won. Only, in this truce, the hostages won, when the Israeli and Hamas stopped the war.
It seems Ben-Gvir has another war with Netanyahu, to dim his popularity through the Gaza war. The Gaza war is a domestic war for him to win. When Netanyahu called for a truce with Hamas, Ben-Gvir knew he was likely to lose it.
Thank you, Heather Richarson... please keep informing us of the good happening in our nation. Biden: one of the rare presidents who has accomplished something quite extraordinary -- and all while being fought by the MAGApublicans. We the People applaud you! Republicans -- shame on you!
" the White House said. 'The Biden-Harris Administration will continue to deliver for workers and families in Colorado’s third congressional district and across the country—even if self-described MAGA Republicans like Representative Boebert put politics ahead of jobs and opportunities created by Bidenomics.' "
Two things there I like: "The Biden-Harris Administration", Biden shares the credit, and "Bidenomics.". OK, after decades of shared opportunity and security getting basically worse, we're trying something different.
Biden still continues to amaze me with all that he’s accomplished—including surrounding himself with cabinet members who also outperform expectations like Blinken and Buttigieg (maybe it’s a last name beginning with the letter B thing :-) ). I love seeing reports of Buttigieg overpowering Fox News hosts with his knowledge and quick wit.
I just wish that main stream media would advertise that, among western nations, the US has the lowest inflation since the pandemic.
'Walter Isaacson’s biography showed in detail how Kissinger had the FBI put wiretaps on journalists and government officials, including some of his own top staffers. A couple of years ago, it was revealed that back in 1975, while discussing how the Khmer Rouge had killed tens of thousands, he told Thailand’s foreign minister, “You should also tell the Cambodians”—the Khmer Rouge—“that we will be friends with them. They are murderous thugs, but we won’t let that stand in our way.” More recently, an Oval Office tape was released that captured Kissinger in 1973 saying, “if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern.”
'And yet Kissinger continues to be publicly lionized in some circles. After his remarkably successful decades-long marketing campaign, he can still call upon an impressive array of friends and cronies to promote him, give him fancy awards or explicitly exonerate him in the press. Last June, at his gala black-tie 90th birthday party at the St. Regis Hotel in New York, the guests included Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Barbara Walters, Tina Brown and hundreds more. Secretary of State John Kerry hailed him as an “indispensable statesman,” while Senator John McCain told a reporter, “I know of no individual who is more respected in the world than Henry Kissinger.”
'Just this week, Kissinger will be speaking at the Center for the National Interest (CNI), a Washington think tank dedicated to realism and therefore regular encomiums to its most famous practitioner. Once again, he is more likely to be acclaimed than to face serious questions about, for instance, the 1972 “Christmas bombing” of Hanoi and Haiphong or the civilian death toll from the massive bombing of Cambodia.'
'Of all the incidents in Kissinger’s dark past, one of the least defensible must be his and President Richard Nixon’s staunch support of Pakistan’s military dictatorship while it carried out a bloody crackdown on its restive Bengali population in 1971. As Nixon's national security adviser, Kissinger stood behind Pakistan—a Cold War ally that prized its close military and diplomatic relationship with the United States—even as it swept away the results of a democratic election, killed horrific numbers of Bengalis and targeted the Hindu minority among Bengalis. He reserved his vitriol for India. And he trashed the career of Archer Blood, the brave U.S. consul general in Dhaka who, while witnessing and documenting the onslaught against the Bengalis, dissented from the White House’s pro-Pakistan policy. Here is a case where you’d think that even Kissinger’s most ardent defenders might settle for an embarrassed silence.' (Politico) See link below.
___Gary J. Bass, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University and author of The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide.
Really good article, Fern. Explains everything about the evil and the devious ways of Kissinger. Bangladesh was in such disarray that I remember. The poor people had no way to fight back. Gawwwwd…I despised him and Nixon so much!
Robert Reich wrote today about Kissenger's role in the overthrow of Allende's democratically elected government in Chile. Seems there are many outrages to review when it comes to Kissenger.
The remark I made about Kissinger to my wife, and too many very positive people died too young, but Jimmy Carter still lives, though grieving, and Biden's still kicking.
You know Marlene, the classic phrase "de mortuis nil nisi bonum" (of the dead, speak only good) might apply here. Then again, it might not.
I wonder how the many thousands of souls taken violently and sans rationale due directly to his policies, whether in Indonesia, Chile, Vietnam, Laos, etc., would say about his departure.
I can tell you about how the remaining Vietnam Vets feel because I am married to one. Daniel, I cannot and will not speak of the good regarding Kissinger. He was an embarrassment to us Jews and to the US. I am not saying he was not brilliant, but he lacked any compassion, something we are going through with the R party right now.
Yes, those are examples of people whose political success has been far beyond any reasonable assessment of their talents. They have fooled lots of rubes and boobies. Kissinger fooled a lot of people who should have known better.
I was just wondering about Kissinger too. i read a very long article in the NYT about him. Huff Post's headline about his death was not kind and called him a war criminal. I was never a fan of what he advocated.
Given her failure to see anything wrong with Biden's $14.3 billion ask to further arm a genocide in Gaza, I no longer trust her ability to see simple right and wrong when it comes to Biden. Not that anything to do with Israel and Gaza, or Israel and Palestine, is emotionally simple. But the legal and political difference between warfare and crimes against humanity is quite clear, and those organizations tasked with marking the boundaries have been equally clear.
I'm actually not very ignorant on this topic though admittedly Jill Stein is. I think you may be seeing ignorance where there is difference of opinion. Have you read the legal briefs?
"... the Convention describes genocide as a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part."
There is no declaration by Israel, and no intention, to 'destroy' Palestinians - as there Is one to destroy Jews and Israelis by both Hamas and the PLO. Could it be that an 'emotionally simple' view of Israelis defending themselves
in the complexity of ways they have to against the constant barrage of suicide bombings, rockets frequently misfiring, and
that MSM simplicity 'reporting' has satisfied a need for ongoing simplification in a complex-as-hell world?
BTW being a lawyer does not in any way ensure fairness - witness the Georgia parade of confessions under oath by tfg's
toadie lawyer group.
Wising up will get more truth than satisfying an emotional craving for black-and-white.
You obviously do not know the definition of genocide. Because this is not one of those. F. Y. I. The Gaza population doubled in 20 years. That is not indicative of a genocide at all. If anyone has treated the Gazans consistently badly it is Hamas.
Agree fully that Hamas has been terrible for Gaza. But I do know the UN’s definition of genocide and more to the point, so do the international lawyers whose job it is to make these calls and see the law enforced. Biden’s advisors have been warning him.
I believe Israelis has said they want to eliminate Hamas, not the entire Palestinian population. I do agree that Israel has treated Palestinians very badly, but many countries have contributed to creating having all these people crowded into Gaza. It's been a mess for a very long time. I do wish we weren't supporting Israel as much as we do. Biden does seem to be bothered by what is happening to Gazans by the Israeli bombing. And when exactly have we seen international law enforced in most situations. Countries do what they want.
"the Convention describes genocide as a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part."
There is no intention and never has been on israel's part to destroy the palestinians on either bank.
That is incorrect. Most recently (last month), but the history goes back many decades, one of Israel's top generals expressed himself quite colorfully on his intentions. He was not fired. I'm talking about politicians and national leaders, but one of my dearest students, an Israeli who wrote her senior thesis with me on the novels of Anzia Yezierska, once told me solemnly that "nothing will work but the Final Solution."
Because you do not supply any source material for your comments here It is possible to assume that you are extracting from a quote you don't have for the person whose name we don't have, a generalization that cannot be made . This is called opinion not discussion. Opinion is not fact and in this case, most certainly cannot apply to an entire history of the last many years.
Oops, just read the news of Kissinger’s death (about time!)—now I understand your comment. I live on the East Coast, it just showed up in the Guardian in my email.
What a whirlpool of darkness he was, making the dark side look cool to so many impressionable ambitious men…
Was this in answer to my comment? Do you think I'm unaware of the atrocities for some reason? On the contrary, a friend lost his daughter and her husband shielding the body of their son Oct 7th, and another--a lifelong peace activist in the IDF Reserves--has been deployed to Gaza (his views are close to mine). The assumptions people leap to here are troubling. But maybe you meant to post this more generally in response to prof. Richardson's letter--the visuals in Substack can be confusing.
The odds of stopping Israeli's obliteration of Gaza and its residents aren't good, but every day of cease-fire brings in more aide and another day of peace.
'Israel and Hamas said they agreed Thursday to extend their cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, keeping alive tenuous hopes for a lasting halt to the fighting.'
'Minutes before the truce was set to expire on Thursday morning at 7 a.m. local time, Hamas said in a statement that it would last another day. Israel’s military announced the deal on social media around the same time, but did not immediately provide details on a timeline.'
'Qatar, the chief mediator, said the two sides had agreed to extend the pause for an additional day with the same conditions in effect.'
'International negotiators had worked into the night to lock in an extension, seeing it as the best way to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, secure the release of more Israeli captives and slow the war’s surging death toll for at least a little longer.'
'Officials with knowledge of the talks said they also hoped that the succession of short-term pauses would pave the way toward a larger goal: negotiations over a longer-term cease-fire to bring the war to a close.'
'Achieving that is no easy task. Israeli officials have vowed not to stop their military campaign until Hamas’s leadership has been eliminated and the group’s military and governance infrastructure is uprooted from Gaza, objectives that remain far off.'
'The arrangement that has underpinned the cease-fire so far — the release of hostages from Gaza, nearly all of them women and children, in exchange for the discharge of Palestinian women and minors from Israeli prisons and the entry of more aid into Gaza — is likely to become much trickier when the parties begin negotiating to exchange captured combatants.' (NYTimes)
It surprises me that Hamas is able to be negotiated with. Important to note also is that Israel does not occupy Gaza. Unfortunately, it is an area of land that has no sovereignty, since Lebanon gave it up.
'Following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent Arab-Israeli war, Israel seized land from the Palestinian Arab-allocated state and ended up with 77% of the total territory. More than half of the Palestinian Arab population was expelled or fled as refugees to Gaza, the West Bank and neighboring countries.'
'Gaza was under the control of Egypt from 1948 until 1967. Israel subsequently gained control of and occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank following its victory in the 1967 Six-Day War against Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The United Nations classifies Israel as an occupier state over the Palestinian territories.'
'Fast forward to 2006, and Hamas emerged victorious in Gaza’s elections against its rival, the Fatah party. It has been in control of Gaza since. No elections have been held thereafter and Hamas maintains political control.'(cnbc) See link below.
The situation is heartbreaking. I do not believe that assumptions were made about your awareness of the situation. However, I may have misread your writing. If so, my apologies.
Heartbreaking is exactly right. I’ve been bursting into tears at the drop of a hat for almost 2 months. As have my friends and colleagues here with family in Gaza or Israel or the West Bank—where 200 had been murdered as of Monday. On the ground I fear the grief must be too deep for the relief of tears.
I am so sorry for you and for so many others with deeply personal connections to this malignancy. I can hardly bear the news myself even personally distanced as I am from the heart of the problem.
Since 2016 I have been looking for the Edward R. Murrow of our times. Newscaster Murrow took down Senator McCarthy in a broadcast on March 9, 1954, mostly in McCarthy own words. and lancing the boil of McCarthyism.
Close to the end Murrow said: “We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men -- not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result.”
Seated next to Senator McCarthy in his hearings on communism was Roy Cohn. Roy Cohn was Donald Trump’s lawyer and the person who taught him to double down. One person linking McCarthy and Trump. Both talking about witch hunts.
I think Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC may well be the broadcaster who will take down Trump and lance the boil of Trumpism in this time. He was on that path in his broadcast this evening when he talked about Trump and his birtherism. I looked into Trump’s claim that Obama was not born in the United States. I asked the question, where was his mother when he was born? The answer was she was in Hawaii enrolled in the University there. As a piece of personal trivia it also turns out that Obama’s mother was born in the same hospital in Wichita, Kansas, where I was born 7 years later.
Last night Lawrence appeared to be carving a new and quite deliberate path to take down “Orange Jesus.” He has superb tone and delivery for the job. Go Lawerence, Go.
You will only take down the Trump believers if you can talk to them. They do not read this letter. They do not read New York Times, Washington Post or The Atlantic. They do not listen to MSNBC. You can only help them understand what is happening if you can speak to them and this is proving to be the problem
Yes, the medium is the problem. In 1954 TV was a pretty small medium yet word spread and Mr. Murrow's thirty minutes brought down McCarthy. Not sure what the equivalent would be in our time when the media are so compartmentalized and feeds on confirmation bias. However, there are now big cracks in the GOP and calling DT "Orange Jesus" is not complementary. So, maybe Mr. O'Donnell can find the spike that splits open the cracks and allows even some of the MAGAites to see how bad DT is for our country. My gut says that DT is not going to be the nominee of the GOP. Even the Koch brothers are now agreeing about that! I never believed the red wave in 2022 because I saw the media ignoring the impact of Dobbs and that it would be forgotten about in a few weeks. Think again! My anger over women's rights is not going away! Let's all VOTE!!! With the Vote there's Hope!
Yes, spot on! Defending democracy AND being a President for all Americans....this should not be a hard to understand and appreciate.
Carol, yes, defending Democracy is or should be our priority at the moment. However, we should all understand that America's support for dictatorship is "deep and wide". We are just not aware of that fact for the most part.
Everyone. Please read Robert Reich's SubStack writing today entitled
"Henry Kissinger, 1923-2023. War criminal"
It is absolutely one of the most well written (and chilling) chronicles of American History I have ever read. A real and true "Portrait in Evil".
Reason to Read: Gain a better understanding the origins of the Republican Party's move toward dictatorship. His writing is a real warning because, in America's past, American Presidents (Republican ones) have actively and ably sought to ensure the violent death of Democracy.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/henry-kissinger-1923-2023
Of course, 99.9% of Americans, including me until today, have no idea how horrible our history is where creating death and destruction, chaos and dictatorship is relevant. I did know about our role in turning Iran from an elected Democracy into a bloody dictatorship in a 1953 coup though. For the same dumb reason: The guy they assassinated was "thought' to be a "communist".
Folks, the American Government thought it was totally OK to kill anyone they labeled "communist" for 80 years of history. Then? Establish a brutal dictatorship based on murder that put a murderer in charge of an entire country.
Why stop with Iran, or Chile? Why not do the same thing right here!! That's what the Pubs want.
That's US, the USA!
Last observation: Some Americans DO know about America's murderous past. Isabelle Wilkerson "The Warmth of Other Suns" is one, and, Nicole Hannah Jones "The 1619 Book Project" are two of them. George Floyd?? Yep, him too.
Mike, what an excellent and on-point comment! Thank you.
A quick note: I renewed and expanded my membership in Human Rights Watch yesterday, in consideration of all they have done and are doing to discover and publicize human rights abuses worldwide. Highly recommended.
I will also take a look.
Porter, Thank you for your pointer. I will take a look.
I will look into that too! Thanks
I concur, Mike -- I coincidentally just finished reading it before reading your comment here. It was just one example of what HK wrought -- I wish Reich also included his work in destroying Cambodia, leading to Pol Pot, as well as his activities in Africa. I don't believe in the concept of Hell, but if it exists, it would be too easy a punishment for him to spend eternity. Maybe there's a special room reserved for him and his ilk.
It would be nice if bad people suffered a bad outcome after an evil life.
But. That does sound like something a human would dream up.
Isabelle Wilkerson's books were really good reads.
Truly eye opening and brilliantly crafted and written.
I own both "The Warmth of Other Suns" and "Caste".
Wanted to get them before they are banned in the next administration.
Please don’t despair. It’s dangerous. Sign up to help get out the vote!
About the size of it in Iran and elsewhere. Social conscience based movements have often been subverted by USA, tarred as "communists". Or supported so called democratic governments which in fact could no stand on their own military feet: Vietnam, USA abandoned after 58k American's death after maybe 1.5m native deaths; Afghanistan, after nearly 20 years propping up warlord based regime to, let's face, a Pashtan based religious moment, the Taliban, sprawled across southern Afgh and northern Pakistan. ; and what to make of Iraq and its non existent weapons of mass destruction, not that Saddam was any kind of "angel"
Come to think of it. America is no angel, either. When we're not waging war on smaller, weaker countries and thereby feeding our military industrial complex, we're financing proxy wars.
Hey Mary, didn't i just pretty much say that? :)
Yep. I'm not contradicting you.
The problem is that when the military hammer is consulted, everything is a nail. That's Israel and the Palestinians in a nutshell. You cannot oppress, slaughter and steal from a people for decades and then express dismay when those people decide they've had enough. But trillions in profits trump the bloodshed and heartbreak. It wasn't 24 hours after Israel was attacked by the occupied people that Anthony Blinken flew to Tel Aviv. Then Biden went himself, and asked for $14 billion to buy weapons for Israel. $14 billion to blow up a million unarmed people, thousands of whom are children.
Mike our history is horrible, beyond horrible and more and more Dems are all in. This is why Chris Hedges has named the Democrats the party of war. I don’t know how HCR can continue to support Biden the way she does.
Nora.
Biden is in a tough spot.
The USA has sponsored, through money and weapons, the displacement and genocide of Palestinians on Palestinian land since 1917 after the ill fated “Balfour Declaration” exported most Jewish folks from Great Britain.
So, Biden is just one more US leader who has enabled Israeli death and destruction.
But. We are on the sixth or so day of a ceasefire and THAT is due to Biden.
Netanyahu would keep bombing Gaza until every Palestinian was dead.
Then? Yahoo would take the remaining land for Israeli “settlers”.
Go Biden!
Well I can’t say go Biden after his hugging of Bibi, I find him to be a horrible warmonger. I am unconvinced he does anything for the right reason, I assume he is watching his poll numbers. If he was a better person he would not be running again at his age and with his poll numbers. If we get Trump it’s on him.
Nora,
First, you are correct, Biden is a long time politician and, no, I would not let him babysit anyone younger than, say, 55.
yes, Biden will be looking for campaign contributions from the Jewish community.
But, you cannot fault Biden for the way the system is setup. He is just playing on the tennis court as it is.
I agree, the system itself? Pretty ugly.
Could it be that this system is mostly run by men in most countries, who more often than not think that aggression is the only answer to political problems. Male violence is the cause of most of the suffering in the world and the lack of empathy that so many of these guys seem to have. Biden has the capacity for empathy but he is dealing with people, mostly men, who think it's just fine to kill people to solve problems. The same can be said for the leadership of both Palestine and Israel. We look like the primitive species we are whenever violence is what we resort to.
Just sad
Hedges makes a good living writing florid polemic. Gee, he used to call the GOP the party of war.
What Hedges actually does is the equivalent of what right wing media does. Read him with a giant grain of salt and think for yourself.
I totally disagree with you about Hedges, I think he is a brilliant man, who has seen many wars and knows the cost better than most of us. I read HCR with a huge grain of salt.
Nora - how effective do you think Biden and Blinken would have been negotiating the 'pause' and release of hostages by Hamas if Biden had come out full-throated against Netanyahu and the Israeli government's decision to go to war against Gaza? Netanyahu is *not* going to back off and call a ceasefire no matter what President Biden and others may call for. Taking a hard line, demanding a ceasefire (or else what?), would simply ensure a door closed against future diplomatic efforts.
The West Bank incursions by Israeli "settlers" who murder Palestinians who object to being thrown out of their homes is something that also must be addressed, is being at least mentioned even now. The U.S. needs to be there once Netanyahu has been removed and, hopefully, more democratic governance is in place. We must keep that foot in the door. The U.S. must preserve the opportunity to push (delicately at this point) for changes in Israel's decades of mistreatment of Palestinians.
https://open.substack.com/pub/chrishedges/p/israel-reopens-the-gaza-slaughterhouse?r=7y4y2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I think they would be quite effective if they said no more aid to Israel. We should not be pushing delicately we should be pushing hard as we have helped fund this genocide and it’s long past time to not fund an occupation.
Thank you for this link Mike. I was unaware and am glad to know the truth, even though it brought a sick feeling to my stomach.
Me too.
Mike,
Addressed to “At Large”
Its only evil when you learn about it. It continues to be evil, regardless of your politics At that point, not calling it out is also evil. Pick your poison
An aside on Robert Reich's subscription. Initially, it offers a "free option", but when you get into it to actually read posts, it announces this is only a temporary free trial. What????
It's definitely worth every penny.
Worth every penny if you want to be told what to think. If you read only what you agree with, what does that accomplish? I have nothing against Reich, but sending people to read things that don't challenge them doesn't really do much.
Reich never at any time tells anyone "what to think". Like most of the contributors to Substack, he only offers his opinions. You can either take them or leave them. He very often asks at the end of his essay, "What do you think?" Does that sound like somebody making readers agree with him? That's the whole purpose of Substack: to share ideas. If a writer on here offers opinions that align with my own, or reinforces what I think, I will share that. Again, there is no imperative to believe as I believe. If you don't agree, say so, or scroll on by. Important point: it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with a writer like Reich 100% of the time on other issues, just this particular one. Besides, I'm regularly challenged on Substack by other writers and other commenters on HCR's page. I appreciate the fact that other commenters on here sometimes share content from other sources that I might find interesting or germane to what is being discussed. Again, NOBODY is twisting your arm telling you what to believe on here. That is something each reader has the right to decide for themselves.
Can't agree. I learned a lot from Dr. Reich's essay today and to me, it was worth every penny. As for searching out discordant views, Trump Social and Fox might give you plenty, if we can assume that's what you're after.
I can't subscribe to every worthwhile site. Beside, my point is "false advertising".
Frank,
Understood. It does the trappings of false advertising. Agree.
If you bring up RR's column on HK there should be an option to "continue reading" which allows access without subscribing. I'm not sure if they will want an email address. Chilling read.
Substack contributors all offer a "free trial", usually a week in length, that gives you access to ALL their contributions for a full week, and to the "Comments" section to add comments. Having the "free option" means one either gets access to only some of the weekly content, or, in some cases, free access to "read only" all of the content. The "free option" usually doesn't mean access to comment in the "Comment" sections. I simply can't afford to subscribe to all the writers I'd like to subscribe to and support! Plus, there's also not enough time in the day to wade through it ALL, interesting and compelling as the essays are! For example, I find that with Reich, some of the things he offers each week are only available to paying subscribers, while some of his pieces are free to "read only". Writers like Robert Hubbell give free "read only" access to all his content, but only subscribers can add comments. Sometimes he opens up his comments section to everyone for a couple days. It depends on what the Substack writers wish to offer free and which to offer for subscribers only. For the "free option" one still has to register one's email address and it is ongoing for free, but "free trial" is temporary and includes everything. Does this make sense?
Frank. It’s OK to make a profit! Amurcan Way.
Wasnt my complaint, Mike, just read what i said.
Understood.
Thank you for the Robert Reich link--excellent! Here’s another from Rolling Stone magazine (Spencer Ackerman). Just more proof of the monster he was.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/henry-kissinger-war-criminal-dead-1234804748/
You’re right. See my post above aboutLudlow. We’re on the same page today.
Thank you I will.
If you like podcasts that add humor to atrocity, check out Behind the Bastards' six parter on Kissenger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPPW9eQnOCc
or
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-one-kissinger-94160733/
or
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4RLmIFl6o2kwUrYt11Kn6e
Defending corporate rule/capitalism and genocide. As long as we’re talking about understanding and appreciation.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/11/29/we-can-do-this-but-not-under-capitalism/
“ “There is no explicit charge or comprehensive plan of action in this bill to move quickly to eliminate fossil fuel as the energy foundation of America’s economy. There is nothing in this bill that questions or challenges the U.S. as the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas. Nowhere does this climate bill mandate (set enforceable targets for) fossil-fuel emissions cuts: whether in the extraction of fossil fuels, the industrial use of fossil fuels, the utility-scale generation of electricity, or from transport and agriculture…But the bill contains several key provisions that allow for and facilitate expanded fossil-fuel production, exactly the opposite of what is needed… this legislation falls massively and obscenely short of what is needed. Worse, t…[it] prolongs the dependency of the U.S. economy on fossil fuels…this bill is part of the problem of global warming, not the solution.”
The bill “revive[d] offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska” and “weaken[ed] bedrock environmental laws to give faster fossil fuel project approvals and expedite the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline in Appalachia,” as the Center for Biological Diversity warned.”
******
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israels-savagery-is-so-shocking-its
“I had the same experience reading about the five premature babies who were left to die after the IDF raided al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza earlier this month, their decomposing bodies only discovered when the temporary ceasefire allowed access to the hospital. It's just too insane to believe — they attacked a pediatric hospital? And then they left the babies there to die? What??
The only reason we’re learning about this now is because the pause in fighting allowed journalists to get cameras into the building and show the dead infants to the world. This calls to mind the Politico report immediately prior to the ceasefire which said that the White House was worried “an unintended consequence of the pause” would be “that it would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel.””
If your critique is intended as justification for dismissing American democracy and disparaging President Biden - which in context is a fair assessment - then you are overlooking the elephant in the room. The Republican Party. If you will not vote for Biden, then you will help elect Trump. Again.
American democracy has always been conflicted. Much improvement has been achieved by those working within our political system to achieve the Founders' more progressive aspirations. In the last hundred years, that has been accomplished primarily by Democrats. While Republicans have worked to overturn progress most dramatically, in the past decades, through the capture of the Supreme Court by plutocrat funded racist right wing religious extremists working to overturn equality before the law, equal representation, and equitable taxation. With the help of those who by refusing to vote for Clinton, predictably, helped elect Trump. And who are complicit in Trump emptying American law of justice in general, and in specific, emptying American policy towards Palestinians of fairness.
Whether for national or international justice as fairness, voting in Biden and a Democratic Congressional majority is the only electoral path to progress.
You can take your lesser evil anti-democratic vote shaming duopoly worship and shove it.
People say not voting for Biden is a vote for Trump. So, not voting for Trump is a vote for Biden. You’re welcome.
And please, do not ever use the word ‘complicit’ again in reference to aiding and abetting the GOP. The Democratic Party, ever since it responded to Reagan’s landslides by abandoning the working class in lieu of corporate donor fealty, owns that word.
Tom,
You have always made some good points. I am on the same page when it comes to fossil fuels and the manipulation of our politics and governance. The Oiligarchs like Koch are the puppeteers. But the puppets are those who support anyone other than the Democratic Party. By using "all politicians are bad" thinking and culture wars - the morbidly rich stir chaos and anarchy.
You are right about many of our problems. But instead of facing the freight train of destruction (Republicans) you attack what modest progress Democrats achieve.
Should we be going faster to address the Climate Crisis? Of course. Should we acknowledge our horrific foreign policy blunders of the past? Yes!
If you really would prefer a Trump presidency over a Biden second term, it's clear you are not looking for the preservation of what little democracy we still have. You seem to be living in some vague "middle ground" that is just a pool of criticism. You are not offering a solution to the problems you so clearly describe. Earth to Tom. The middle ground of non participation is in fact another form of supporting MAGA madness. Is that really OK with you?
If you have read Project 2025 and still would not vote for the only solution to another Trump or Republican presidency, then we know all we need to know about your political persuasion. Trump is a sociopath - a psychotic monster who must be crushed at the polls and in the court room. Simply put, be part of defending us from the most dangerous human on the planet. Or be an enabler of Putin's buddy.
Protect us from a hollowing out of our government experts and hard working public servants - to be replaced by MAGA loyalists. Remember Trump's cabinet of unqualified fools? Perry for energy? DeVos for education? It will be worse next time. And do you have any interest in the Supreme Court that Republicans created? Talk about puppets of the Oligarchs! The dismissal of precedent? The removal of women's reproductive rights? That issue alone should send you willingly to the voting booth and voting a straight Democratic ticket.
I suggest you hold your nose and vote for less than perfect to prevent the complete disintegration of our democratic experiment. Or...with Project 2025 you can look forward to an American version of an Orwell or Huxley novel. Or even a Krystallnacht in Kansas.
Bill, sometimes I get the impression that criticism of any position “not perfect” is voluminous, yet empathy for those attempting to provide acceptable solutions (in a democracy of widely varied views) is glaringly absent
For the critics, putting themselves in the hot seat forced to accommodate a fractured Congress, a biased court, and a lying media, the “obvious solutions” disappear as the critic finds his hands tied by the dictates of a democratic process and arcane Congressional Roadblocks like filibusters and Tubervilles
Its as if the notion that God can wave a wand and give you what you want. In politics, that’s called a Dictator
‘Acceptable solutions’. Now that was funny.
Decades decades - The corporatist Democratic Establishment has “given” us our hold your nose vote for the lesser evil option. At some point that arrogant covert demand must be thwarted. Maybe pure chaos is the only force sufficient to occasion the citizenry’s awareness of just how undemocratic the entire existing system is and emphatically demands structural changes to more accurately transmit the Will of the people into legislative action. Gun control, free college, universal health care, decisive effective climate action, clean up the Supreme Court, antitrust actions for corporations and big banks, ditching Citizens United etc - how many decades have we wanted these things?
"Maybe pure chaos is the only force sufficient to occasion the citizenry’s awareness of just how undemocratic the entire existing system is"
This is why we need to vote blue. Who is calling for chaos louder than Donald Trump? Do you really think destroying the government will bring out our better angels?
Oh, so many deprived souls crying here. Look around you. Your bank accounts, investments, your Substack subscriptions, your nice car, your home. Imagine living without those things. Democracy is an experiment and an ongoing project, but you want chaos. Do you know what would happen? You'd lose those things that define your reality. Let that sink in.
I continue to vote blue no matter who but it gets tiring. It seems dems do not learn from their history of the last 40 years and continue making the same mistakes. 4 steps forward and 4 backwards. Climate and Israel could be Biden's downfall? But, I still say vote blue no matter who. UGH!!
It is an insane dance. Though I left the party long ago, I understand your frustration.
Excellent, mature and well reasoned Bill. Thank you.
Bill,
There is nothing pragmatic about incremental solutions to catastrophic problems.
So I’m the puppet? Earth to Bill. There is no ‘little democracy we still have’. You think the Democratic Party will save us, when all the while they have been complicit in our descent into corporate totalitarianism, and continue to prop it up.
You are the middle ground here, somehow thinking elections will save us. You want solutions? Vote third party. Perform acts of nonviolent civil disobedience. Support general strikes.
Accusing me of supporting MAGA because I refuse to support corporate-owned democrats is yet more vile, absurd proof that those who wail about saving democracy are hypocritical cheerleaders for a capitalist duopoly that has eviscerated the middle class, working class, and the poor. I know about your political persuasion. It is lesser evil fantasy, a ratchet effect which is what brought us Trump.
If the Democratic Party cared about my vote, it would advocate aggressively for, regardless of what the voting/electoral consequences were, or what the current political landscape is, policies which would help working people most, like universal health care, a federal jobs guarantee, free college, an end to endless war and arms sales, etc. Those policies would also bring about democracy, because they would potentially energize the bloc of citizens the Democratic Party seems to care about less than it does those of us on the actual left, that being the huge contingent of people who don’t vote.
We’re already living in the Orwell novel, and have been for a while. Those who think the Democrats will fix this mess still don’t realize it. And down the rabbit hole we go.
Hey Tom, take it easy man. Bill's response was imminently reasonable and mature. No need to bludgeon him with words.
You are right in that, under Reagan, Bush I and Clinton, the Democratic Party did, in significant degree, line up behind "trickle down" (bi-partisan votes in 1981), "end welfare as we know it" (Clinton's support for Republican cuts) and selling the common man out.
But, by the time Bush II rolled around, I do think the Democratic party was starting to ask questions about things. Although, all of Bush II's policies including the near unanimous vote to invade Iraq (thank you Barbara Lee for not voting for that war). Yes, the Dems were still crawling around at the feet of Pubs even then to some degree.
I feel angry about both parties selling out the middle class (which I became during this long period).
Even under Obama, the Bush II led bailouts of bad actor banks were amped WAY, WAY up. Nobody helped out a single homeowner who lost their home. Nobody. Dem or Pub.
So, Tom, you are right not wrong about Democrats selling us out for business interests.
But, NOW? Biden has actually begun a (small) attempt at turning the boat so that investment in infrastructure leads to working class jobs.
Biden is (probably) also willing to give up power if he (actually) loses the election (although I personally would support him staying in office if he does). Two can tango.
Don't whip on Bill. Bill is a good guy in all of this mess we have.
Bill, "regardless of what the voting/electoral consequences were"? You don't understand the passion of the electorate that has ZERO interest in letting anyone else spend their money, especially on "those people". Even people ON government funded health care vote against government funded health care.
Please explain how the Democratic Party has been complicit in our descent into corporate totalitarianism. I simply want to understand your viewpoint. I would have pointed to the other party. Thanks!
Well done, and thank you, Bill Alstrom!
After the accomplishments of civil rights movements through legislation, government policy, and judicial decisions, racist right wing religious extremists learned the importance of voting. After disastrously flirting with Ross Perot, they learned the importance of unity.
In 2016, many extremists and so called movement conservatives held their nose to elect Trump - and won the Supreme Court. They did not swallow the elephant whole, they ate it bite by bite before spitting it out in their own image. MAGA. There is a lesson here which progressives such as Bernie Sanders, AOC, Cori Bush and the Progressive Caucus et al have learned. It seems you have not.
Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse and Elizabeth Warren have done more in the struggle against the abuses of unmitigated capitalism than all the specious rhetoricians on the presumptive left.
So yes, your comments are a form of right wing voter suppression and are complicit in Republican irreparable harm to our most vulnerable neighbors fragile planet, and endangered democracy.
More complicity for you to defend. Have at it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0pOaRsfxYc
Elizabeth Warren? Please. Were she at all interested in the ‘struggle against the abuses of unmitigated capitalism’, she would never have undercut the Sanders campaign at every turn. Want to see a ‘specious rhetorician’? Mirror.
Yes. Of course. Voting for Bill Clinton makes me complicit in the abuses of Neo-Liberalism. Being an American, I am responsible for policy I did not vote for and do not approve of. Which is why, although I am Left of Bernie, I struggle to reform the Democratic party and through that, government policy.
The fallacious rhetoric of 'the duopoly' purposefully elides the empirical evidence that the differences between the Democratic and Republican parties are more significant than their similarities. I do not think in terms of 'good and evil' politics, but how to most effectively achieve my progressive goals and avoid reactionary disaster. Even by small steps and incrementally.
You disparage 'the lesser of two evils.' Making the better choice is nothing to sneer at. Some say, 'let things get bad enough and come the revolution.' The revolution has come, but rather than a socialist workers paradise, a significant number of Americans prefer repurposing the American democratic republic as a clerical fascist state. Democratic elected officials are the bulwark against that.
I do not click on unidentified links. But I commend to you CSpan.
It’s obvious that you don’t understand politics or the democratic process. It’s about people, some bright and kind, some stupid and greedy and every shade between. Democracy is messy because humans are. Even the best of US make mistakes. If you don’t know the last line of “Some Like It Hot,” suggesting you see the whole movie. Enjoy!
Tom-Working class people still support the Democrats-it’s the White working class that you say was abandoned and they jumped on the GOP train to feed racism and assuage their fears about having to compete fairly if white supremacy no longer reigns.
American capitalism and “democracy” depend on racism and the GOP is all in. The Dems are not perfect but at least they’re attempting to embrace everyone.
No politics but class politics. Please don’t start with the ‘perfect is the enemy of the good’ rationalization.
We will never crush the GOP, only allow it to gain strength, by thinking it is the enemy instead of the corporate state, and capitalism, and fully attacking that. As long as the Democrats shirk that role, we’ll continue to circle the drain.
Your posts read like Stalinist cant from the 1930s.
T
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No, no and no. A vote for one of the outliers in the presidential race is a vote for Trump. Full stop.
Trump is so deranged that we're in a fight to save this country from a future that would embody the policies and ideologies of the strongmen Trump admires. Has no one heard Trump? In one Truth Social post recently he channeled Joseph McCarthy, but the media rolled over and went back to sleep.
Biden is no prize, but I'll vote for him because this is a watershed in our history, a defining moment where we have to step up. Trump is more than a shit sandwich - he's a madman with a cult following as well as a political party so afraid of displeasing him that they were willing to engage in sedition. Wake up !
Actually, Mary Cat, Biden IS a prize. There is probably no one else in America who could have put NATO back together. I have checked the possible names, and his years of service and understated understanding of the players on the world stage are what may save US. He has a vision of world peace in this era of climate change threat that is essential if humans are going to continue to exist on this planet.
I think Biden's weakness is that he is oblivious to public opinion and is possibly underestimating the impact of his decisions on his reelection bid. Sometimes it looks like Biden is trying to lose. Maybe the problem is that voters just don't care about environmental issues and foreign policy.
NATO needs to die. It’s nothing but a cash cow for the MIC.
Yes.
Oh, those talking points. They're not working, Tom. You're a well-worded troll indeed. I don't think we all should be agreeing with each other, but you sound like you've memorized all the leftist crap I've heard for decades. It's really nothing to me except a whining diatribe of people who do not understand democracy and its essential element - compromise. We are a rich country with many flaws, but as someone who has spent many years living and working in the Third World I can tell you that you are simply whining. You need to see what it's like to live in a poorer place and under dictatorship before you start whingeing about "corporate" this, "working class" that. You have no idea of how to fix the problems, but you have, under this democracy, the right to blame anyone you wish. Do you know how lucky you are?
👆👆👆
All of this.
Oh, those talking points. If only I knew what you knew, Mary. Then I’d be a propagandized corporate stooge indeed. You sound like you’ve memorized all the neoliberal centrist crap I’ve heard for decades. You know how it’s easy to spot a propagandized sycophant of American Empire these days? They use words like ‘compromise’, or ‘bipartisan’ or ‘grand bargain’, and the next thing you know, they’ve lined the pockets of monied interests with even more wealth while stupidly thinking they are making things better for working people.
Whining? That describes you perfectly. I’ve traveled around the world, and I travel around this country, and I know what solutions would fix our problems, but you, and people like you, don’t have the courage to force the politicians to implement them, because you’re the one who values comfort more than anything else. You probably think those dictators you speak of came out of a vacuum instead of through American foreign policy. Do you know how clueless you are?
I am fed up with male privilege and the inherent whining of people such as yourself. I hope that this doesn't upset you, but I don't see yoiu doing anything else. Instead of wasting your time insulting women with different views than yours, why don't you get out there and run for office, since you've done the Donald Trump thing and feel that you alone can fix it!
How do you propose to implement the solutions you "know" would "fix our problems"?
Do I value comfort more than anything else? You don't know a damn thing about me, so shut your aggressive mansplaining gob. I have had more than enough of you pompous idiots who presume to know how to fix anything.
Maybe you should think about the future and do something p, rather than fail to, if you want it to be different.
How many times have you been arrested for protesting injustice?
Protesting is necessary, but not sufficient.
boring. no reasoning here. no actual discussion or disciplined thinking. regurgitation of emotionally-derived opinion is not at all useful because it does not further the exploration we are trying to engage in here. might as well talk to a mirror...
T
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ALERT
I take it as not just looking @ how wonderful we are but to look @ a naked America. When we present ourselves to the rest of world without acknowledging we are a work in progress, it is the story of the "emperor wears no clothes" .
We are not a work in progress. That’s what so many here have yet to fully grasp. We are an Empire, and an evil one at that. We have been fed American Exceptionalism propaganda since the end of WWII, and meanwhile the MIC, the CIA, and the capitalists have owned us. Electoral politics is theater of the absurd.
Everything policy-wise is about oil and trade routes, in order to keep our citizens happy with being able to get a fresh raspberry in the grocery store in winter, or having the latest digital device, and be distracted from the pain and destruction we inflict on the rest of the world.
And all our war criminals, from LBJ to Nixon to Reagan to Clinton to Bush to Obama to Trump, become ‘elder statesman’ instead of doing hard time.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/henry-kissinger-1923-2023?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=365422&post_id=139290025&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=eov1&utm_medium=email
You are right but maybe it is a cold gray miserable day where you are and things are looking dire. On this site we are all history buffs and we spend a good portion of our time looking at how and why we got here. Today, on the Connecticut coast, it is truly a new day in America. We have done many awful things in the past, things we regret and wish we could change but of course we cannot. It is our history but not our future. We have and can change things for the better for others and within ourselves with knowledge and new perspectives.
It’s a sunny, chilly morning here in NC. Things have been looking dire for me since I grasped the concept of inverted totalitarianism after reading Sheldon Wolin’s book in 2010, and watched the red wave sweep the country in 2012.
Doesn’t mean I don’t laugh and enjoy life; I just also recognize reality, and propaganda, and narrative, and empire. I developed compartmentalization skills at an early age. Peace, t
It is always so much easier to tear down than to build up. Anyone can criticize, anyone can trash, anyone can fulminate, anyone can indulge in tirades and rants against something, anything. But in a democracy, those who truly matter are those who try to find reason for hope, who try to understand that the real cause of trouble in the world is simply our all too human determination to amplify whatever we imagine differentiates us into all our little groups and sects and political parties and nations and all the rest at the expense of the humanity we share. There are times I think that the emergence of the human brain was the worst thing that ever happened to the Earth that we and all the other life we often so casually ignore or use to our own ends and to their destruction share, and then I remember all the beauty that some of us have created, all the dreams of men and women through all our history that we might one day come to see that we are all, indeed, one people. What are we but the animal, the poet, the builder, and the would-be god. It was the babel sound of our fears, our dreams, our plans, and our hubris that the Poet heard upon his stage. Where is the beauty that Keats believed he saw in the urn:
"Beauty is truth, and truth beauty; that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." That truth continues to elude us in all the perverted forms in which we've managed to clothe it, but it must be out there because there can be no other reason for us.
If it were easier to tear down than build up, the American Empire would have fallen long ago.
The ‘reason’ for us is evolution. Unfortunately, our lizard brains do far too much of the ‘thinking’ for us.
I agree with you-America is complicit in the world’s destructive tendencies…the question is where do we go from here? Fascism?!
Tom makes some valid points. But he avoids finding solutions. He is right about a lot. But I don't hear any problem solving.
Fascism, or socialism. We’re in the beginning of end-stage capitalism at present. The longer people resist the conversion to socialism, the more likely we get fascism.
You seem to think we either support all that’s going on or be against all that’s going in. This is not the way to use your vote. Each time you have to choose you must choose the best choice on the ballot. I would never choose trump because he’s against democracy, he wants to be a dictator, and destroy everything that gets in his way. On the other hand I will vote for Biden because he’s a law abiding person who always chooses a way that avoids the most urgent catastrophe of the moment. This is being realistic, not ideological.
This is the wolf u want to feed
Right on, Carol Parsons! That’s what I believe, too.
Sometime during GW Bush era, perhaps the first campain against Gore, the media or a pollster started looking at "who would you like to have a beer with?" as a question related to who they would vote for, and I remember thinking,"what does that have to do with running/managing the government or a company? Well, by golly, that became the criteria until it morphed into someone who played a successful executive on TV, and then as President hired as if from central casting. We are a shallow people.
It would be easier for folks to understand and appreciate if more of the media were reporting it accurately and drawing the appropriate contrast to Republican behavior and 'policy'. Laurence O'Donnell has a great presentation on this topic.
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-media-still-not-ready-to-cover-trump-after-years-of-his-lies-199042117756?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_lw&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Thank you for reporting the Colorado visit.....those types of visits and confrontation of the facts about who supports and who blocks progress FOR PEOPLE, can, and need to be, held in every state in the nation.
Per my "Colorado Newsline" digital feed, Biden was introduced to CS Wind workers to on the facility floor exactly where Biden continues rebuild the working middle class now with new & renewable Energy.
Why ISN'T this news reported?
Because it doesn't "bleed" so it doesn't "lead," and it violates the MSM rule that the only "news" about Biden they will print is that he is old old old, and gasoline is $5/gal (it isn't, even in California).
Gasoline here in NW Georgia is currently $2.79 a gallon. I was glad Heather reported that Pres. Biden called out that ignorant and stupid Larean Boebert while he was in Colorado. These dumb idiots in the Fascist GQP House of Representatives keep on being a huge embarrassment to the United States. Boebert and Maggot Traitor Goon seem to be competing to see which one is the most ignorant Congress critters ever.
"Boebert and Maggot Traitor Goon seem to be competing to see which one is the most ignorant Congress critters ever." Shame on both! Their behavior is disgusting. Who promised what to them for their relentless display of lack of education and civility?
Their lack of education and civility are their very worst traits. Their blatantly disrespectful behavior at President Biden's State of the Union speech was despicable. They screamed and called him a liar and their numerous interruptions proved that they have the minds of spoiled brat 5 year old children. MTG is so dumb she can't even spell simple words like the time she spelled, ''Gestapo'' the '' Gachpago'' MTG and Boebert should have been removed from Congress immediately after the JAN 6 riots and insurrection. Before TUMP, their despicable behavior would not have been tolerated for one minute in our Congress.
I wonder why their despicable behavior IS tolerated and why none of the GOP members has the guts to have them taken out. But seeing what it takes to get George Santos removed (and he finally was expelled today) I wonder (again) what it will take for those uneducated dumbbells to get removed.
In Indiana gas is any where from 3.15 to 2.89. However the gas tax on this about 52 cents a gallon. Republicans continue to increase our gas tax...however claim to lower our taxes. And they are upset over having electric vehicles that no longer use gasoline. Just wait....another tax is in the works.
Yes, in some places in Northern CA is it actually over $5, TC. I go to Costco. I paid $4.49 a gallon. Still too high but I don’t blame Biden.
The US has much lower gas prices than most countries in the world.
Because we subsidize the fossil fuel industry with tax breaks and tax cuts.
Study: U.S. Fossil Fuel Subsidies Exceed Pentagon Spending
The world would be richer and healthier if the full costs of fossil fuels were paid, according to a new report from the International Monetary Fund
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/fossil-fuel-subsidies-pentagon-spending-imf-report-833035/
How many more people would buy EVs and hybrids if gasoline prices were comparable to Europe?
Got that right Gary. The UCSF Hospital parking facility has Hybrid - EV charging stations while a patient is at her appointment.
Yes, that’s true
Go to the UK, Marlene, where petrol is around $3.00US a LITRE. And why? Because it is heavily taxed in order to pay for road improvements and construction. Which is why the roads and motorways in the UK are in excellent condition despite the level of use they experience daily. You get what you pay for.
Marlene, I go to a "Safeway Fuel Station" in Concord, CA on Contra Costa Blvd,. The pumps are OPEN now at the price of $4.459. I get up to $1.00 off that pump price with my "Safeway 'Rewards" 10 cents per 'Reward' credit .
So Today in my world after my trip to the UCSF hospital, in the City I am expecting $3.459 per gallon NET bottom line. I have been doing this since the 2020 CV19 Pandemic. Other folks have other strategies as well. : )
Bryan, you are not far from me. I go to Costco mostly and charge it on my card. That way, I get cash back every year not just from Costco but also from their credit card company.
Yes. I get three 3 tiered discounts ... 3 per cent on gas at Safeway Fuel Station recently increased to 3.25 % with automatic deposit feature as BofA "preferred"… Low mileage driver anyway. Hybrid or EV suggestions?
I hate to play the coupon rewards game and in fact I don't. I want to buy a fair product for a fair price. I get almost no junk mail because I refuse to give away my data for 10 cents off. I am sure I too can be bought, the price needs to be much higher though!
Understand all your points. In CA consumers have the legal right to control marketing data & delete data as well as an express right of Privacy in our California state Constitution Article 1, , Section 7.
"Still too high but I don’t blame Biden." ✅ BTW, it's $4.69 at the cheap station in Burbank.
In LA, it’s over $5.00. I can’t believe people complain about paying < $3.00. We travel around to visit family in KY & OH and the gas is so much less expensive there, but people complain because they want to drive their SUV’s and pick up trucks. We also have much cheaper gas here than Europe.
We have a gas war in the Denver area. I paid $2.33/gal yesterday!
As long as Netanyahu is in office, there will be no peace discussions--only war. If the fighting stops, he and his right-wing extremists lose power AND he faces legal repercussions.
Focused on staying out of jail; damn, where have I heard that before.
Hot damn TC, you're right! I just popped out a Jackson (thankfully, soon to be a Tubman) on my way from L.A. to Valencia, and my needle barely moved the entire way!
Where's that inflation that the former Party of Lincoln is still squawking about?!?
It is still here in the Northwest, however, our gas has gone down in price over the last 8 months paying $3.89 in Portland Oregon but see much higher prices here also. I paid $45 for a turkey and the east says they paid $20 for a 18 pound turkey along with all the other groceries still being high.
Partly because Democrats are not as loud as the Greenes. Broeberts, Jordans etc. They have to get louder and a bit nastier. Otherwise the message is not clear to MAGAs.
and they are ignored by MSM
Perfectly stated!
And as said by Kamala Harris and implied in other comments, there seems to be a challenge in getting Americans to realize how much Bidenomics and a raft of other Biden policies are benefiting all Americans, regardless of party affiliation.
Biden bluntly shining a light on the “massive failure of thinking” by GOP House of Reps for unanimously voting against Biden Administration policies that benefit red districts, is a message that as you say, needs to be blasted out with a bullhorn over and over again.
As Biden hasn’t shown himself to be a strong campaigner, he needs massive amounts of help from surrogates.
If Kamala Harris isn’t suited for that responsibility, those who are equipped, must be identified and dispatched, to saturate districts with the Biden record of accomplishment.
Actually we might be the surrogates Biden/Harris need to amplify their positive actions. IMO
Thanks for thinking of me as someone who could effectively respond to your “call to action.”
I agree with you, that surrogates are needed at grassroots, local, & community levels.
Maybe I’m being lazy, but IMO, we/Biden need surrogates of stature with strong, positive, & persuasive communication skills.
I’m pretty good at identifying or recognizing what needs to be said, but face to face “messenger” isn’t one of my gifts.
Yet, I will heed your suggestion, and give it some thought.
As I reflect on the fly, so to speak, if given a template, I might be up to the task of what you wisely described as “amplification.”
It occurs to me, the content of Biden’s visit to Boebert’s district could be the template for grassroots amplification.
Not to pass the buck, but Democratic US Senators, Governors, Congressman, and state legislative reps might be the most effective surrogates to wade into red districts that are benefitting from Biden & Democratic Party legislation.
Your thoughts?
Interesting. My narrow scope of skills drives me toward making a video or a song. What needs to be said is crystallizing and perhaps I need to push on that.
Even as former president Trump threatened to use the government to silence press outlets he doesn't like, Harris noted the billions of dollars invested in infrastructure and clean energy, allowing the U.S. to be a global leader in new technologies; the cap of insulin at $35; rural broadband and the clean-up of lead pipes; and pointed out that all of the things the Democrats have accomplished are “incredibly popular with the American people.” The challenge, she noted, is getting people to understand these transformations, and which party is responsible for them.
Can someone explain how Eli Lilly and others could monopolize the insulin market for so long, essentially forcing diabetics to choose between survival and eating? I know several type one diabetics who struggled to afford their insulin.
And now that Biden is forcing Big Pharma to lower the price of several common medications they are suing to reverse that. Just like TFFG, they are murderers.
Our GA Senator, Warnock, proposed the bi-partisan $35 cap on insulin. He promotes that in GA as he has lots of people lining up to run against him. I just do not know if any other Congresspersons who voted FOR it are out there campaigning they supported it.
Eli Lilly got by with it just like other pharms...big lobby and no one challenging.
I am for research on RXs, but no one is really watching the balance of research and production.
This is the insulin patent discussion from Wikipedia-
Patent
Toward the end of January 1922, tensions mounted between the four "co-discoverers" of insulin and Collip briefly threatened to separately patent his purification process. John G. FitzGerald, director of the non-commercial public health institution Connaught Laboratories, therefore stepped in as peacemaker. The resulting agreement of 25 January 1922 established two key conditions: 1) that the collaborators would sign a contract agreeing not to take out a patent with a commercial pharmaceutical firm during an initial working period with Connaught; and 2) that no changes in research policy would be allowed unless first discussed among FitzGerald and the four collaborators.[133] It helped contain disagreement and tied the research to Connaught's public mandate.
Initially, Macleod and Banting were particularly reluctant to patent their process for insulin on grounds of medical ethics. However, concerns remained that a private third-party would hijack and monopolize the research (as Eli Lilly and Company had hinted[134]), and that safe distribution would be difficult to guarantee without capacity for quality control. To this end, Edward Calvin Kendall gave valuable advice. He had isolated thyroxin at the Mayo Clinic in 1914 and patented the process through an arrangement between himself, the brothers Mayo, and the University of Minnesota, transferring the patent to the public university.[135] On April 12, Banting, Best, Collip, Macleod, and FitzGerald wrote jointly to the president of the University of Toronto to propose a similar arrangement with the aim of assigning a patent to the Board of Governors of the university.[136] The letter emphasized that:[137]
The patent would not be used for any other purpose than to prevent the taking out of a patent by other persons. When the details of the method of preparation are published anyone would be free to prepare the extract, but no one could secure a profitable monopoly.
The assignment to the University of Toronto Board of Governors was completed on 15 January 1923, for the token payment of $1.00.[138] The arrangement was congratulated in The World's Work in 1923 as "a step forward in medical ethics".[139] It has also received much media attention in the 2010s regarding the issue of healthcare and drug affordability.
Following further concern regarding Eli Lilly's attempts to separately patent parts of the manufacturing process, Connaught's Assistant Director and Head of the Insulin Division Robert Defries established a patent pooling policy which would require producers to freely share any improvements to the manufacturing process without compromising affordability.[140]
My question is "why hasn't the patent expired for Insulin after 100 years?
Yes. I vote for bluntly worded billboards in every and all regions where Biden's infrastructure programs have been competed or started with a list of which Republicans in that state voted against them (and are likely shamelessly taking credit for them).
How to get Biden’s brilliant record out nationwide is a huge problem….if folks really understood what he has done for the country his ‘stats’ would be double their current numbers. Perhaps Heathers last point where Biden identifies in a speech in Colorado exactly what he has done, what the reps have done to fight it and then asked how folks specifically felt about the specific program…with detail..perhaps Biden and all his surrogates should be doing exactly that?
We can help too. I just forwarded this to ten friends. I’m sick of hearing news about MAGA loudmouths. America is doing a lot of good things right now and we need to hear that story and be proud. President Biden and his Administration
WH fb page is infected with Maga loudmouths!
And Bots.
It's not just getting the word out. It's also being the vote out. There are media outlets like FOX and the Wall Street Journal truly believe that Biden is at best ineffective. They hate any regulation and government-led program. It's another type of religion named on the mantra, "no taxes, no taxes..."
Definitely true.
and our "free press"
Boebert, Margorie Taylor Green, George Santos, Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz -- all national jokes.
The biggest laugh of all comes in how these Republicans yet slaver over what another Republican admitted as their "orange Jesus." This particular orange guy now goes on record calling as "vermin" all who don't follow him. Also on record as vowing to kill from the national air waves all media who don't but slavishly follow him.
Good for Heather Cox Richardson pointing out the positive, practical steps the other political party has accomplished, Biden's and Kamala Harris's Dems -- even in Colorado, even for new jobs in Boebert's district, much as she would cut off her own nose to spite anyone benefitting from any federal programs.
And in Florida, the new House speaker and some Florida Rs take credit for the economic help that this administration has provided which they all voted against.
Of course they do. They have no scruples.
I am smiling somewhat because this is an understatement. They are the party of death and totally without a shred of human decency. The Speaker is a total far right "Christian" whack job. Rs in Florida seems especially slimy for some reason.
Maybe it's the humidity?
LOL. I was thinking swampy.
As does Desantis, who does NOTHING to help the people of our state to protect us from the gougers-our inflation is much higher than the national average-but they pay his coffers so he looks the other way.
And yet, and yet, the majority of the folks around here blame Bidenomics-the brainwashing in this area of Sarasota County is deeply embedded. We can’t confuse them with truth or facts-they know what they know because Desantis and trump told them so. 🤷🏻♀️
I was recently in Punta Gorda for Thanksgiving. See no need to go back.
You listened to MSNBC tonight. Sacrelege is the new Covenant.
Thanks, Ransom Rideout.
I did see Lawrence O'Donnell and his take on blasphemy -- but that after I'd posted mine here.
He was on point, as usual. Justifiably proud that The Orange Jesus wants to take him down.
Phil, that was a great comment. Accurate, and exactly my thoughts about the current situation. The cretins you named in your first sentence are indeed national jokes and could possibly be called worldwide jokes. Add Donald TUMP to the list too.
Here in Colorado the Republicans are seeking an alternative to Boebert. Her Beetlejuice debauchery was the last straw. Meanwhile Democrat Adam Friach is raking in cash in anticipation of finally defeating Lauren.
Yep. He was not many votes shy last time. He's on my ActBlue monthly list.
Boebert won by 546 votes (0.3%) in a very red district. Same candidates in 2024: Boebert v Frisch. Frisch can win but must have an effective ground game. This is a race where get-out-the-vote volunteers and donations to GOTV efforts can make a difference.
Frish has his shit together and has not stopped since the tight one. Beto has a great GOTV PAC in texas. No Dem Left Behind was started my an ex marine in W.VA. Vote Vets is effective. Progressive Change Campaign Commitee (PCCC). quite a few others. GOTV is as or more important than individual contributions because they are targeted to the ones that need it the most.
Yes. GOTV is the only really important factor. Donations to well-organized GOTV efforts, whether in effort or cash, are the most effective contributions that individuals can make to the preservation of US democracy. The efforts must be smartly chosen, though. Work on winnable races only. No hail Marys.
TN is also a heavily red, gerrymandered state and often races have only one person running—the repub. Blue Tennessee is raising money to launch a PAC that will help support Dems in state races. See https://Linktr.ee/BlueTennessee.
I practically went broke donating to Beto last time. Didn't know that he has GOTV PAC in TX. Will check it out, although my resources are way less than before
I'm Leftist Coast.
I am Eastern Appalachia. Dems are few and far between here. Me and my family are literally surrounded by those MAGA wingnuts.
That is great news, Bob. I wish someone here in Georgia would seek an alternative to the equally ignorant, loud mouthed Maggot Traitor Goon. Her and Boebert aren't fit to be in our Congress. Those two aren't fit to do anything useful.
I like Adam F. This is great news.
Is he any better? I’m asking for a friend
You can't replace boebert. That level of stupid is unique.
"Frisch said that he hopes to "restore dignity" to the district" - I vote for dignity! Bet that boebert 'lady' doesn't know how to spell that word, much less know its meaning. Remember that groping event in Denver a few weeks ago? "Boebert cites her ongoing divorce as a factor, saying she's tried to handle it with "strength and grace" .... Yeah, playing hanky-panky in a public theatre shows a lot of grace, right? Not so this member of Congress. Of CONGRESS!
Please, President Biden, travel to as many places in the U.S. as possible and deliver the same loud-and-clear message you delivered in Colorado — and single out the Republicans who are hell-bent on seeing the country decline in every conceivable way.
Oh, it was good to hear even a mention of Ukraine in the Letter, and it was just a whisper.
'Battleground states Pennsylvania and Arizona are reaping billions of dollars from Washington’s efforts to arm Ukraine, according to a graphic the Biden administration has circulated on Capitol Hill.'
'The circulation of the graphic is part of the administration’s push to sell the American public — and their congressional representatives — on President Joe Biden’s proposal to spend billions of additional taxpayer dollars on the wars in Ukraine and Israel.'
'During an Oval Office address last month, Biden highlighted the benefit to U.S. manufacturing centers when making the case that Republicans should support the $60 billion for Ukraine contained in the $106 billion emergency supplemental. A faction of GOP members has fought further funding, arguing that the U.S. is spending money to help Ukraine rather than focusing on problems at home.'
“Let me be clear about something,” Biden said. “We send Ukraine equipment sitting in our stockpiles. And when we use the money allocated by Congress, we use it to replenish our own stores, our own stockpiles with new equipment.”
“Equipment that defends America and is made in America. Patriot missiles for air defense batteries, made in Arizona. Artillery shells manufactured in 12 states across the country, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas. And so much more,” he said. “You know, just as in World War II, today patriotic American workers are building the arsenal of democracy and serving the cause of freedom.”
Biden is selling democracy, jobs, American manufacturing and Ukraine all at once!
'POLITICO reported last month that the White House was switching up its messaging after running into continued resistance on Capitol Hill, after determining that selling the war funding effort based on national security wasn’t changing minds.'
'According to the map, obtained by POLITICO, Pennsylvania has received $2.364 billion in investments to build munitions and tactical vehicles for Ukraine, the most of any state. Meanwhile, Arizona is a close second with $2.259 billion. Texas and Arkansas received $1.449 billion and $1.478 billion, respectively, while Florida got $1.011 billion.'
'In total, the states have enjoyed more than $27 billion in investments from arming Ukraine, according to the graphic, the existence of which was first reported by Reuters.'
'After this story was published, the Defense Department posted an updated version of the map, and other briefing slides showing breakdowns of specific weapons totals.'
“As Department of Defense leaders have said previously, support for Ukraine has mobilized the U.S. defense industrial base, in ways that haven’t been seen in decades,” DOD spokesperson Jeff Jurgensen said in a statement when asked for comment. “Our industry partners all across the nation have stepped up to meet the kind of production, manufacturing and infrastructure investment capabilities to directly support U.S. commitments to Ukraine — and that will build the kind of industrial base capacity we need for the future.” (Politico) See link below.
Biden will never not stop selling democracy around the world and made in America!
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/29/biden-admin-map-states-benefit-ukraine-aid-00129068
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/29/biden-admin-map-states-benefit-ukraine-aid-00129068
Can always count on you, my dear Fern!💞
That feeling is mutual Marlene. You often remind us of what we need to know but has gotten
lost in the tumult of this time.
Such great information. Thank you!
Thank you, Karen. Americans need to know how we are in this together. We all benefit from Ukraine's ultimate success for democracy as well as stuff this down the throats of the Republicans who are doing everything they can to turn Americans against their own best interests.
There will be NO success in Ukraine.....wit for the back-peddaling.
Absolutely.
They are doing the heavy lifting, it's up to us to support them. Success is the possibility of the improbable
➡️ "Biden is selling democracy, jobs, American manufacturing and Ukraine all at once!" ⬅️
Thank you for the link to the Politico article. According to the map, WV is getting more $$$ than CA or MI. And their complaint is what now? 🤦🏼♀️
Thank you Fran! I am forwarding this on to others.
I did not know any of this, and as always, I appreciate the way you enhance and expand the information the forum discusses every day.
Thank you for your concern about the democracy of Ukraine and working together for that to happen. Salud, Moseley!
Can't stop the Military Industrial Complex too many people will be out of work..........Bidenomics!
I wonder who is hearing Biden and the information provided about the new programs. The Dems are doing astounding work in this divisive time. Who knows it?
Ask the MSM why it’s more important to see a news story about,say, a man painting the likeness of Taylor Swift on a monstrous pumpkin, than latest job numbers and lowering inflation. It’s the Limbaugh/Kardashian syndrome, where a large percentage of American’s reptile brains are titillated by hatred of “the other” and vapid celebrity worship.
I’ve read that young voters are getting their info via TikTok. Would be great if celebs that are popular with the TikTok generation would put together a list of Biden’s accomplishments that would capture their attention and why they need to get out and vote. These “youngsters” are concerned about not being able to purchase a $40,000 car, or a home. We need to educate them as to why and how sitting it out will not give them what they’re looking for.
Agreed. Yesterday, whilst randomly perusing Yahoo I came across a bit about Beyonce. Apparently she posted some photo where she had platinum hair and wearing a silver dress. I guess that on TikTok, there was rumors/speculation that she was "whitening" her skin. Her mother was outraged at the allegations and took to social media to complain.
Beyonce, according to the news, did not respond to the criticisms.
I've posted this on this forum before: I truly wish that she would use her influence to recruit young black women to register and vote! I've been retired a few years now, but I can affirm that the majority of the young women of color who were on our staff were not interested in politics and did not vote.
And regarding TikTok---yesterday. I picked up my cellphone and saw it had sent an announcement that I had installed TikTok. WHAT?!? Sure enough, there was the app. I uninstalled it. I have absolutely no explanation how that happened.
Tell everyone you know and those you don’t, too.
That’s the problem. With voters in information silos they have no idea what the White House is saying or the true facts about the positive financial effects of Biden’s policies and leadership on their lives.
While Biden is accomplishing things for all Americans, Trump and the Republicans are promising to repeal Obamacare for a better plan. It’s a lie. Republicans have said they have a better plan for 15 years and never shown it to anyone. They had 100 votes to repeal it; still without proposing an alternative. What kind of salesman takes 15 years to show you her product? I make no distinction between Republicans and MAGA Trumpers. The GOP has died, sold out to a fascist cabal of oligarchs who want to run the country exclusively for their own benefit. Vote them all out and send Trump And Co. to jail for life.
Remember the poison pill in all the 2017 Republican replacements for Obamacare: instead of guaranteed issue with no penalty for preexisting conditions, their plans that provided guaranteed issue would have allowed insurers to charge whatever the market would bear. Their plans would also reinstate coverage caps such as $100,000 per illness and $1 million lifetime. We’d be back to having more than 90% of bankruptcies due to medical bills.
MAGA's are still waiting for the Reaganomics ship to come in. Just a few more massive gifts to the one percent, and a few more years of austerity should bring it home. Look! It's there on the horizon!
Oh wait, that's a tropical storm....
Just a water spout.
But there are whitecaps.
Biden astounds in his foreign policy skill with his eyes in the future...may the little boebert et al go back to living their small lives in peace and leave the rest of us to continue to think for ourselves and see what can truly be
It’s incredibly important we talk to our neighbors and family members to make sure they know that things are looking up in so many communities thanks to what Missouri State Rep Peter Meredith calls “Biden Bucks”. That is a great #. All I can say is we have to have the conversations and they aren’t easy but educate your people so we get Biden/Harris 2024. I’m tired of MSM and the Harris coverage. She has done a great job and 4 more years seems cool with me.
"far-right Israeli leaders are pressuring Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restart the assault on Hamas. Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir warned today that unless he does, Ben-Gvir’s faction will leave the government coalition Netanyahu leads. “Stopping the war = breaking apart the government,” Ben-Gvir said."
The last war wasn't won and the upcoming war, if any, won't be won. Only, in this truce, the hostages won, when the Israeli and Hamas stopped the war.
We have to remember that Ben-Gvir is a convicted domestic terrorist. The Israeli equivalent of a Hamas terrorist.
In my most diplomatic Abba Eban manner, I would say to Minister Ben-Gvir, FUCK OFF!
It seems Ben-Gvir has another war with Netanyahu, to dim his popularity through the Gaza war. The Gaza war is a domestic war for him to win. When Netanyahu called for a truce with Hamas, Ben-Gvir knew he was likely to lose it.
That’s an interesting point.
Spot on, Edwin!
Thank you, Heather Richarson... please keep informing us of the good happening in our nation. Biden: one of the rare presidents who has accomplished something quite extraordinary -- and all while being fought by the MAGApublicans. We the People applaud you! Republicans -- shame on you!
" the White House said. 'The Biden-Harris Administration will continue to deliver for workers and families in Colorado’s third congressional district and across the country—even if self-described MAGA Republicans like Representative Boebert put politics ahead of jobs and opportunities created by Bidenomics.' "
Two things there I like: "The Biden-Harris Administration", Biden shares the credit, and "Bidenomics.". OK, after decades of shared opportunity and security getting basically worse, we're trying something different.
I agree with you. President Biden always shares the credit and that is refreshing.
Biden still continues to amaze me with all that he’s accomplished—including surrounding himself with cabinet members who also outperform expectations like Blinken and Buttigieg (maybe it’s a last name beginning with the letter B thing :-) ). I love seeing reports of Buttigieg overpowering Fox News hosts with his knowledge and quick wit.
I just wish that main stream media would advertise that, among western nations, the US has the lowest inflation since the pandemic.
Wow this is fantastic writing of true facts. We have to somehow get the truth of those like Biden who are protecting our democracy!!!
Wondering what HCR will write about Henry Kissinger.
One should always say good of the dead.
Henry Kissinger is dead.
Good!
Too bad he wasn't a dead "war hero" 80 years ago.
HA!🤣👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
My words for Kissinger: FINALLY the finale for a monstrous human being!
'Walter Isaacson’s biography showed in detail how Kissinger had the FBI put wiretaps on journalists and government officials, including some of his own top staffers. A couple of years ago, it was revealed that back in 1975, while discussing how the Khmer Rouge had killed tens of thousands, he told Thailand’s foreign minister, “You should also tell the Cambodians”—the Khmer Rouge—“that we will be friends with them. They are murderous thugs, but we won’t let that stand in our way.” More recently, an Oval Office tape was released that captured Kissinger in 1973 saying, “if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern.”
'And yet Kissinger continues to be publicly lionized in some circles. After his remarkably successful decades-long marketing campaign, he can still call upon an impressive array of friends and cronies to promote him, give him fancy awards or explicitly exonerate him in the press. Last June, at his gala black-tie 90th birthday party at the St. Regis Hotel in New York, the guests included Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Barbara Walters, Tina Brown and hundreds more. Secretary of State John Kerry hailed him as an “indispensable statesman,” while Senator John McCain told a reporter, “I know of no individual who is more respected in the world than Henry Kissinger.”
'Just this week, Kissinger will be speaking at the Center for the National Interest (CNI), a Washington think tank dedicated to realism and therefore regular encomiums to its most famous practitioner. Once again, he is more likely to be acclaimed than to face serious questions about, for instance, the 1972 “Christmas bombing” of Hanoi and Haiphong or the civilian death toll from the massive bombing of Cambodia.'
'Of all the incidents in Kissinger’s dark past, one of the least defensible must be his and President Richard Nixon’s staunch support of Pakistan’s military dictatorship while it carried out a bloody crackdown on its restive Bengali population in 1971. As Nixon's national security adviser, Kissinger stood behind Pakistan—a Cold War ally that prized its close military and diplomatic relationship with the United States—even as it swept away the results of a democratic election, killed horrific numbers of Bengalis and targeted the Hindu minority among Bengalis. He reserved his vitriol for India. And he trashed the career of Archer Blood, the brave U.S. consul general in Dhaka who, while witnessing and documenting the onslaught against the Bengalis, dissented from the White House’s pro-Pakistan policy. Here is a case where you’d think that even Kissinger’s most ardent defenders might settle for an embarrassed silence.' (Politico) See link below.
___Gary J. Bass, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University and author of The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/indefensible-kissinger-102123
Really good article, Fern. Explains everything about the evil and the devious ways of Kissinger. Bangladesh was in such disarray that I remember. The poor people had no way to fight back. Gawwwwd…I despised him and Nixon so much!
Robert Reich wrote today about Kissenger's role in the overthrow of Allende's democratically elected government in Chile. Seems there are many outrages to review when it comes to Kissenger.
Only the good die young.
The remark I made about Kissinger to my wife, and too many very positive people died too young, but Jimmy Carter still lives, though grieving, and Biden's still kicking.
For your listening pleasure: https://youtu.be/Crif5E67ar0?si=7COd-Rq-xNtS9Pj0
You know Marlene, the classic phrase "de mortuis nil nisi bonum" (of the dead, speak only good) might apply here. Then again, it might not.
I wonder how the many thousands of souls taken violently and sans rationale due directly to his policies, whether in Indonesia, Chile, Vietnam, Laos, etc., would say about his departure.
I can tell you about how the remaining Vietnam Vets feel because I am married to one. Daniel, I cannot and will not speak of the good regarding Kissinger. He was an embarrassment to us Jews and to the US. I am not saying he was not brilliant, but he lacked any compassion, something we are going through with the R party right now.
If there is a more overrated public figure than Kissinger, I’d like to know who it is.
Well let’s see: The Don, Mike Johnson, Dick Cheney, Leonard Leo, Alito, Thomas, Ginni, Gorusch, Roberts, etc. etc.
Yes, those are examples of people whose political success has been far beyond any reasonable assessment of their talents. They have fooled lots of rubes and boobies. Kissinger fooled a lot of people who should have known better.
Couldn't agree more, Marlene
Sorry, he was evil in my book, he and Nixon the evil twins
In retrospect, Nixon was Thomas Paine compared to the Seditionist Sociopath and his ilk
There’s a brand new ring of Hell just waiting for him!
I was just wondering about Kissinger too. i read a very long article in the NYT about him. Huff Post's headline about his death was not kind and called him a war criminal. I was never a fan of what he advocated.
Remember Peter Sellers in "Dr Strangelove"?
Oh yes. One of my fav movies.
Given her failure to see anything wrong with Biden's $14.3 billion ask to further arm a genocide in Gaza, I no longer trust her ability to see simple right and wrong when it comes to Biden. Not that anything to do with Israel and Gaza, or Israel and Palestine, is emotionally simple. But the legal and political difference between warfare and crimes against humanity is quite clear, and those organizations tasked with marking the boundaries have been equally clear.
Then maybe you ought to leave and contribute your subscription to someone of equal ignorance, like Jill Stein.
Gosh!
I'm actually not very ignorant on this topic though admittedly Jill Stein is. I think you may be seeing ignorance where there is difference of opinion. Have you read the legal briefs?
"... the Convention describes genocide as a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part."
There is no declaration by Israel, and no intention, to 'destroy' Palestinians - as there Is one to destroy Jews and Israelis by both Hamas and the PLO. Could it be that an 'emotionally simple' view of Israelis defending themselves
in the complexity of ways they have to against the constant barrage of suicide bombings, rockets frequently misfiring, and
that MSM simplicity 'reporting' has satisfied a need for ongoing simplification in a complex-as-hell world?
BTW being a lawyer does not in any way ensure fairness - witness the Georgia parade of confessions under oath by tfg's
toadie lawyer group.
Wising up will get more truth than satisfying an emotional craving for black-and-white.
Opinion is not fact.
You obviously do not know the definition of genocide. Because this is not one of those. F. Y. I. The Gaza population doubled in 20 years. That is not indicative of a genocide at all. If anyone has treated the Gazans consistently badly it is Hamas.
Agree fully that Hamas has been terrible for Gaza. But I do know the UN’s definition of genocide and more to the point, so do the international lawyers whose job it is to make these calls and see the law enforced. Biden’s advisors have been warning him.
I believe Israelis has said they want to eliminate Hamas, not the entire Palestinian population. I do agree that Israel has treated Palestinians very badly, but many countries have contributed to creating having all these people crowded into Gaza. It's been a mess for a very long time. I do wish we weren't supporting Israel as much as we do. Biden does seem to be bothered by what is happening to Gazans by the Israeli bombing. And when exactly have we seen international law enforced in most situations. Countries do what they want.
"the Convention describes genocide as a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part."
There is no intention and never has been on israel's part to destroy the palestinians on either bank.
That is incorrect. Most recently (last month), but the history goes back many decades, one of Israel's top generals expressed himself quite colorfully on his intentions. He was not fired. I'm talking about politicians and national leaders, but one of my dearest students, an Israeli who wrote her senior thesis with me on the novels of Anzia Yezierska, once told me solemnly that "nothing will work but the Final Solution."
Because you do not supply any source material for your comments here It is possible to assume that you are extracting from a quote you don't have for the person whose name we don't have, a generalization that cannot be made . This is called opinion not discussion. Opinion is not fact and in this case, most certainly cannot apply to an entire history of the last many years.
I am waiting to see what MSM makes of this event. I have not seen anything yet:
https://www.jta.org/2023/11/28/politics/stark-images-of-murder-and-torture-in-israel-leave-us-senators-in-tears-and-silence
Oops, just read the news of Kissinger’s death (about time!)—now I understand your comment. I live on the East Coast, it just showed up in the Guardian in my email.
What a whirlpool of darkness he was, making the dark side look cool to so many impressionable ambitious men…
Was this in answer to my comment? Do you think I'm unaware of the atrocities for some reason? On the contrary, a friend lost his daughter and her husband shielding the body of their son Oct 7th, and another--a lifelong peace activist in the IDF Reserves--has been deployed to Gaza (his views are close to mine). The assumptions people leap to here are troubling. But maybe you meant to post this more generally in response to prof. Richardson's letter--the visuals in Substack can be confusing.
The odds of stopping Israeli's obliteration of Gaza and its residents aren't good, but every day of cease-fire brings in more aide and another day of peace.
'Israel and Hamas said they agreed Thursday to extend their cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, keeping alive tenuous hopes for a lasting halt to the fighting.'
'Minutes before the truce was set to expire on Thursday morning at 7 a.m. local time, Hamas said in a statement that it would last another day. Israel’s military announced the deal on social media around the same time, but did not immediately provide details on a timeline.'
'Qatar, the chief mediator, said the two sides had agreed to extend the pause for an additional day with the same conditions in effect.'
'International negotiators had worked into the night to lock in an extension, seeing it as the best way to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, secure the release of more Israeli captives and slow the war’s surging death toll for at least a little longer.'
'Officials with knowledge of the talks said they also hoped that the succession of short-term pauses would pave the way toward a larger goal: negotiations over a longer-term cease-fire to bring the war to a close.'
'Achieving that is no easy task. Israeli officials have vowed not to stop their military campaign until Hamas’s leadership has been eliminated and the group’s military and governance infrastructure is uprooted from Gaza, objectives that remain far off.'
'The arrangement that has underpinned the cease-fire so far — the release of hostages from Gaza, nearly all of them women and children, in exchange for the discharge of Palestinian women and minors from Israeli prisons and the entry of more aid into Gaza — is likely to become much trickier when the parties begin negotiating to exchange captured combatants.' (NYTimes)
It surprises me that Hamas is able to be negotiated with. Important to note also is that Israel does not occupy Gaza. Unfortunately, it is an area of land that has no sovereignty, since Lebanon gave it up.
'Following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent Arab-Israeli war, Israel seized land from the Palestinian Arab-allocated state and ended up with 77% of the total territory. More than half of the Palestinian Arab population was expelled or fled as refugees to Gaza, the West Bank and neighboring countries.'
'Gaza was under the control of Egypt from 1948 until 1967. Israel subsequently gained control of and occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank following its victory in the 1967 Six-Day War against Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The United Nations classifies Israel as an occupier state over the Palestinian territories.'
'Fast forward to 2006, and Hamas emerged victorious in Gaza’s elections against its rival, the Fatah party. It has been in control of Gaza since. No elections have been held thereafter and Hamas maintains political control.'(cnbc) See link below.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/17/what-is-the-gaza-strip-and-who-controls-it.html
The situation is heartbreaking. I do not believe that assumptions were made about your awareness of the situation. However, I may have misread your writing. If so, my apologies.
Heartbreaking is exactly right. I’ve been bursting into tears at the drop of a hat for almost 2 months. As have my friends and colleagues here with family in Gaza or Israel or the West Bank—where 200 had been murdered as of Monday. On the ground I fear the grief must be too deep for the relief of tears.
I am so sorry for you and for so many others with deeply personal connections to this malignancy. I can hardly bear the news myself even personally distanced as I am from the heart of the problem.
Words are cheap in light of the horror.
Since 2016 I have been looking for the Edward R. Murrow of our times. Newscaster Murrow took down Senator McCarthy in a broadcast on March 9, 1954, mostly in McCarthy own words. and lancing the boil of McCarthyism.
Close to the end Murrow said: “We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men -- not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result.”
Seated next to Senator McCarthy in his hearings on communism was Roy Cohn. Roy Cohn was Donald Trump’s lawyer and the person who taught him to double down. One person linking McCarthy and Trump. Both talking about witch hunts.
I think Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC may well be the broadcaster who will take down Trump and lance the boil of Trumpism in this time. He was on that path in his broadcast this evening when he talked about Trump and his birtherism. I looked into Trump’s claim that Obama was not born in the United States. I asked the question, where was his mother when he was born? The answer was she was in Hawaii enrolled in the University there. As a piece of personal trivia it also turns out that Obama’s mother was born in the same hospital in Wichita, Kansas, where I was born 7 years later.
Here's this evening program: https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-media-still-not-ready-to-cover-trump-after-years-of-his-lies-199042117756
Lawrence, are you ready to take on my challenge to you? The time feels right. Are you ready to take down “Orange Jesus”!?
I encourage everyone to read one of my favorite biographies of a man I greatly admire: Murrow His Life and Times by A.M. Sperber. See pages 429-439.
Here’s the half hour broadcast by Mr. Murrow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=dMgoi9pBRwg
Here is the transcript of the broadcast if you’d prefer to read it.
http://www.plosin.com/beatbegins/archive/Murrow540309.htm
Last night Lawrence appeared to be carving a new and quite deliberate path to take down “Orange Jesus.” He has superb tone and delivery for the job. Go Lawerence, Go.
I do like Lawrence.
Thank you, I agree
You will only take down the Trump believers if you can talk to them. They do not read this letter. They do not read New York Times, Washington Post or The Atlantic. They do not listen to MSNBC. You can only help them understand what is happening if you can speak to them and this is proving to be the problem
Yes, the medium is the problem. In 1954 TV was a pretty small medium yet word spread and Mr. Murrow's thirty minutes brought down McCarthy. Not sure what the equivalent would be in our time when the media are so compartmentalized and feeds on confirmation bias. However, there are now big cracks in the GOP and calling DT "Orange Jesus" is not complementary. So, maybe Mr. O'Donnell can find the spike that splits open the cracks and allows even some of the MAGAites to see how bad DT is for our country. My gut says that DT is not going to be the nominee of the GOP. Even the Koch brothers are now agreeing about that! I never believed the red wave in 2022 because I saw the media ignoring the impact of Dobbs and that it would be forgotten about in a few weeks. Think again! My anger over women's rights is not going away! Let's all VOTE!!! With the Vote there's Hope!