I enjoy your letters a lot. The summary of the day’s news from a liberal perspective is thoughtful and separates chaff from wheat. Your great benefit to me is when you put the news into a historical framework and that has given me new insights into our society.
Recently in agonizing over the failures of our country to deal with its problems a common theme occurred to me. It is not just that things are screwed up. It is that no one is doing anything about the things that are screwed up. Big ones like climate change, inequality, and racism are ignored but also lots of lesser things like medical care and guns, voting rights, immigration, education, police reform, and infrastructure fall by the wayside.
I wonder if you have a historical perspective on the United States’ dealing with these issues over time. I am an old man and have seen some of these things develop over the last few decades, but our history stretches much farther back, and I don’t have that knowledge.
The failure of America to make even the tiniest effort to deal with the pathology of guns was my wake-up call as to how deep the malaise is. The inability to deal with guns is directly attributable to the gun manufacturers providing resources and a framework for the propaganda that led to the quandary today. In my youth the NRA was a worthy organization providing gun safety training and even standards for the use of guns in a rural and semi-rural society. That society used guns but looked on them as tools, not as sexual or religious objects. The manufactures’ propaganda that someone was going to “take your guns away” was swallowed by a portion of the population who mythologized guns into manhood. That propaganda provided the Supreme Court cover to issue its ridiculous and stunning rulings on guns. A ruling that had not been the law for the previous 200 years. This blatant corporate framing and promulgation of the issue has resulted in our deplorable current cycle of random death.
Recognizing the gun manufacturer’s origin of the gun problem and seeing the Supreme Court’s newfound reverence for corporations in Citizens United and Hobby Lobby and its portending cut back on congress’s right to regulate interstate commerce have combined to give me pause. It causes me to question whether our problems and inability to deal with problems are and have been, simply, the result of the abuse of corporate and commercial power. I remembered a quote from the seldom quoted Calvin Coolidge, “The Business of America is Business”. And it resonated with that possibility.
Decent medical care for all Americans was first proposed by Truman but was defeated by the American Medical Society. Since then, even more powerful forces like the lobbyists and public relations flacks of pharmaceutical companies, the hospital associations and some doctor groups have made that even more difficult. The corporate-driven diminution of unions has restricted the development of employer-based systems that had once created healthcare for the working middle class.
Similarly, inequality has increased dramatically with refusal to tax the wealthy and the tamping down of the minimum wage and the emasculation of unions. Congress and the Supreme Court have come to the rescue of corporations when they have felt the need.
Education has become privatized and there’s great pressure to increase that tendency with vouchers and charter schools and tax cuts. Universities and colleges have become mostly concerned about career path, tenure, and the ability to pull in money from students, parents, and donors. This leaves the focus less on the values of exploration of ideas, and curiosity and the nurturing of maturity for young people. Those commercial concerns are manifested by the scrum for patents and trademarks in the scientific arena and for articles and books in the humanities that conflict with the values of teaching skills and making individuals better as opposed to richer.
The problems of racism are grounded in the idea that one human can enslave another to provide for their own commercial success. Racism is so pervasive in our society’s institutions and so tied to the forces of commercialism and corporate governance that it can get overlooked as only combining with the forces driving inequality. The red lining of real estate, predatory lending and school segregation are the easy tools of forcing racism in addition to the factors of inequality. The forces affecting inequality affect minorities harder than other people.
The obverse of my analysis is the defense industry. In that case the money bestowed on lobbyists and for “education” of the public, flowing through the corporate giants of defense industry and the military has resulted in a bloated defense budget. This absorbs huge amounts of our treasure. We spend more on defense that the next 25 nations combined which proves the correctness of President Eisenhower’s warning of the Military-Industrial Complex. The silliness of that effort is proven by our inability to use our “military force” to deal with Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, or Afghanistan. Our only tool for dealing with rogue countries is – economic sanctions.
The biggest problem our country – and the world faces is climate change. Our governments do little to address climate change and the private efforts are miniscule when confronted by government inaction or hostility.
Inability to regulate the financial sector and big tech emphasize the problems I see. The power of those industries and the individual owners becoming super-wealthy was turned loose by the Supreme Court and now they have increased their power rather than see reasonable limits to their desires.
Maybe the problem is just so pervasive that we have come to accept it as normal. No answers from me. The linear solution is to change the congress that makes things happen. But the power that exercises these abuses is also the power that decides who is elected to power and placed on the Supreme Court.
Larry, thank-you for your amazing post. We live in a world where even the facts you have based your observations on have become debatable. Without facts there can be no trust. Without trust there will be no action. The good news is that the majority of us have begun to accept this reality. Once accepted, actionable, real-time plans can be made to address the very real issues outlined in your post. I am very grateful you took the time to write it.
Thank you Larry. Reading your post has pulled together for me the threads I have been following for years. Unfortunately the patterns that emerge reveal how money and profit dictate who we are. The major flaws of capitalism have supported destruction of our environment, women and children living in abject poverty, our children being murdered in schools, so corporations can make money?
Your last sentence is most chilling: The power that exercises these abuses is also the power that decides who is elected to power and placed on the Supreme Court.
For 50 years I had held the belief we could make a difference and leave our country in a better place. It is because of Heather’s letters and this group i carry some hope but i am scared for our children and grandchildren.
For them we must gather together, for them we must act. While we still can. NOW.
I myself have just written a horrible post. But the situation is so dangerous... To keep out of jail, the madman will imprison most of the nation. This, at a crucial juncture in the world's history...
I feel that Drump doesn't give thought to being caught and punished for his evil and corrupt deeds. He's too vain. He has a following, and he has his Republican elected officials by the balls so to speak. He yearns to speak, control, and destroy. Just look at the deep obsession he had with Biden long before the 2020 election. The man was so obsessed he committed acts of criminality that got him impeached. His hold on the Republican party kept him in office. He knew he was going to lose to a Democrat as experienced as Biden. He said it in about every public nonsense he spewed running up to and after the election. His anger over not being reelected pushed him to incite those who adored him to commit violent acts. The man is an abomination to our country. Somehow we have caused this man to manipulate America. To act like a bully, baby, middle-schooler using his ignorance of the Constitution, the economy, and every topic needed to run a nation is what is sinking us. He has a minority of elected officials mimicking his words and actions with no consequences. He has like-minded crooks out doing his dirty work in order to get TBG back into power. He riles of the lower and middle class idiots to give him his power fix in rallies, in school boards, and his fake audits he demands of Republican state leaders. We got to get out and vote like our lives depend on it for any upcoming elections. Never vote Republican until this group loses it's grip on destroying the USA.
He has Hitler's gift of giving a voice to people's pent-up hatred, rage and resentment, a direct line to the lowest levels of the collective unconscious.
That's where he draws his power from, without this he'd be nothing.
This is what makes the poor wretch so dangerous. He too wants to take the world down with him when he goes.
Well, I certainly can't disagree with much you've written, but who's "we?" "They" are the ones who voted for that dim-witted monster because they are stupid, evil, bigots. (And so we sing as we march off to war...)
Thank you, Larry, your essay -- for that is what it is -- complements HCR's work perfectly.
Our economics have become divorced from the household, our technology is divorced from mankind too, autonomous, self-serving, we find ourselves on board an immensely powerful vehicle in a state of constant acceleration, and the motor driving it is an economic system...
WITH NO BRAKES.
NO BRAKES. And junkies drugged to the eyeballs on SuperCrack, SuperMeth and God only knows what.... shooting at the driver... screaming for more speed, Speed, SPEED...
This madness cannot go on. The collective psyche is already critically sick, delirious, the body of our society, the body social, politic, economic, can only follow.
I don't expect readers to grasp what I have just written, I hope, I pray that I am utterly mistaken... but do not believe that to be the case. Fever and convulsions seem inevitable and more will be needed to restore basic health than all the respite that the good doctors in Washington can offer.
This makes it all the more urgent, indeed crucial, to gather together and support the Biden Administration while citizens still can. To gain, to use the respite that's on offer.
Well said. A nicely eloquent description of the major problems we face that are being papered over and allowed to fester due to the unabashed greed, IMO, of the corporatocracy we now live in. Thanks.
Thank you for this essay. It touches on the failings that we've managed to amass, and that bill is now coming due with a vengeance. Someone alluded to our country being a frog in a pot of water that is now rapidly approaching boiling. We are heading towards an authoritarian oligarchy and the people who have been misled in believing that they are "true patriots" will be those bringing this civil war home.
Duane's analysis is equally applicable today. I submit we are at Stage IV. The question is do we collapse in 'authoritarianism or do we enter a 'transformational' change period?
Discussed elsewhere in today’s forum. I posted a brief by Knight Foundation called “Scaling Civic Tech”. Following debacle last week and exposure of Facebook, some conversation I had with military personnel during online learning during pandemic. Talked about new architecture of education and military progress on many things tech. One thing involves changing algorithms beyond limited social media and harnessing tech for civic engagement and more responsive government. It’s a transformational path.
There are informational paths to learn where business and how models are with this. I struggled for understanding but worth it because I have thought about need for change in architecture of public education.
Innovative tech, such as civic tech, can be part of a transformational model.
There seems to be a severe limitation in the excellent Duane analysis, certainly in current terms, in that it deals almost exclusively with governmental bureaucracies (and the most overblown ones, at that) without considering corporate bureaucracy... or the intricate web of interactions between the two monstrosities...
Things fall apart, the center cannot hold...
We are already at the stage when there’s no choice but to opt for transformation—otherwise total disaster is guaranteed. Look…
We face the failure of systems far larger than any bureaucracy, failure upon failure, all taking place at much the same time:
The current deliquescent form of capitalism—governance at all levels—in America, constitutional rigor mortis (in Britain, it’s already constitutional decomposition)—footling, totally irrelevant hyperactivity, surface effects, a society in which what we called “the short term” only twenty years ago... must seem an eternity—the confluence of all our foul polluted rivers-of-the-mind-turned-sewers.
And, barely beyond us now, the immeasurable, barely conceivable chain reactions arising from climate change—we speak of migration, it’s the stuff of our purblind politics. But we’ve seen nothing of what’s to come. NO-THING.
[At times like these criminal elements will always thrive, as we are seeing, not just in the United States, but with the worldwide emergence of criminal regimes—oligarchy. Crooks combine intuition and all the skills of the streetwise, to seize the moment... even if it’s no better than a successful heist while the Titanic goes down.]
Or simply - the government at the time of the writing of the constitution, bill of rights etc. was a very small bureaucratic "organization" - NOW? the government is immense & changes sure do need to be made. HOW these changes are made is the big million or trillion dollar question & by WHOM, right?
Boy,',,, you really put a lot in that letter Larry, and every bit of it pertinent!!! We, as a nation , the way we are headed, and it is all, in one way or another, attributed to big money, are going to die. It is NOT sustainable!!! We are rotting from the inside out….. And it is avoidable, but it does NOT look like we’re avoiding it. We’ve got to get big money OUT of politics, and particularly BIG special interest money out of our elections, and as special favors for the politicians……..
As I’ve said before, I’m old, 81 to be exact. And for that, in this day in age, I feel lucky, I get to die pretty soon!!! Although I hope it’s not to soon . Lol…..
Hi from another octogenarian! I'm reading Deep Adaptation re: Climate Change, and as Larry said, it is our most over-arching problem. I share your thoughts that I may not live to see all the coming tragedies, but our young people will suffer terribly.
A note of hope: Dear Friends of Heather; you might want to know about a movement called RAM which is calling moderate Republicans et al together to vote against the loose cannons in the party who are amassing power regardless of method. The RAM program will make recommendations for candidates REGARDLESS OF PARTY to vote for. It seeks traditional Republican values, which personally I believe are old-hat given the state of the world, but the point is, they know that forming a third party will not help them in the short run, but this method will advocate for decent, capable politicians to win elections and help "right" a sinking ship.
Thanks Hope, I'm becoming and old goat anyway, so why not be a RAM? I'm assuming here that you're talking about the Renew America Movement, not the 60s Maoists or the anti-Antifa group :) Forming a new political party is A LOT of work, but that is the scale of the task before us. I will research this group.
That is good, but decent doesn't seem to be what Republlican voters want these days. RAM is up against Trump fanatics who already have more than a foothold in many states. What we really need is for Trump to disappear, the sooner the better.
Thanx Larry for the rundown of our recent history of decline in the U.S. Like many others have mentioned already, it is a good wrap-up. Like many here with history, I too have seen these things first hand. Grew up with rifles & shotguns, collected guns pistols as an adult & was a member of the NRA long before it became a terrorist enabling organization. Those were innocent times before X-Ray baggage checks at airports, when you could actually carry two pistols onto a commercial airliner in a briefcase. (Yes, I did in 1966).
I also grew up in a household where my dad was the "breadwinner" and we prospered on his single paycheck. Mom wanted to work and I remember the discussion whether it would be feasible due to tax changes with her income. When I got out of the service in the late '60s thru the '70s, I worked front line jobs for minimum wages and managed to live comfortably on it. How can anyone live on $7.50 an hour now? The system has definitely broken and the Repugnant Party doesn't care about the poor fools who still vote for them against their own best interest.
The bottom line to all this is the apparent mass insanity that has taken over our nation like some real life Zombie Apocalypse. I am in Floriduh, where our Insane Governor and the Repugnant Cult stacked Education Dept and even the Health Dept with a quack for state Surgeon General are fighting against proven health precautions to prevent spreading an airborne viral pandemic as if it were a political game instead of a deadly furtherance of the disease.
I am so appalled at this total disregard of science and the attacks on those who try to abide by sound preventive measures (I worked in Nursing, wearing a mask is just part of infection control). I fear for what will be the outcome of this. It won’t impact me personally as a septuagenarian without too much more future, but my grandsons & great-grandsons are going to be stuck in a Near Dystopian Future that once was relegated to fiction.
My take on the gun problem is that Rs want the peons to do the dirty work while they grab power. As for universal health care, it was to be part of the New Deal, but was killed by the AMA using two California political operatives who went on to help Rs. I recommend These Truths by Jill Lapore as an excellent history of the US and how we got here. The super rich think that their money will save them although climate change is so pervasive that is difficult even now to find a place not affected. I am elderly and glad for it without direct descendants. Meanwhile my dirt poor relatives in the midwest continue to do what they do best and have children. I hate to think what awaits them.
I have two great nephews who live in CA and are in a much better situation. However, my husband and I are appalled at the gifts that roll in for birthdays and Christmas making them little consumers of plastic junk. The latest this summer is some kind of computer game where you can buy your way out of situations which of course means sending money to the makers of this scam. In addition there are all these plastic figurines to buy. Younger people just shrug their shoulders at this. We give them money, most of which goes into their college fund and I wonder whether that will be viable when they reach that stage.
I read with interest that the most wanted toys will possibly not be available this Christmas as well as a lot of other goods which I guess are often sitting on container ships waiting to come in to ports. We have our Christmas shopping done this week as Powells had a sale and we buy each other books. We try to buy as locally as possible.
Our gift to our grandchildren a couple years ago were books from the San Diego Zoo. There are stories about the special animals saved and conservation. They got the small plush that went with the book. I felt better for having sent something educational. We were fortunate to have the author write them a personal message. We were weekly volunteers before the pandemic hit.
Also subscriptions to science kits that come monthly or bi-monthly. My goal is something that will keep them wanting to learn.
My 4 year old great niece loves gift certificates from her local books store, which I gladly give her. She already chooses her own books (Might have something to do w/her mom, who has a Master's degree in Creative Writing-LOL!)
That sounds great. Our list is fortunately very short and so it's money for our nephews and great nephews and a few things for other people that I am putting together now like some bay leaves from my garden. I also made apple butter for the first time in my life and i will give away some of that too. It's so good that I want to keep it all.
I’m old too, this embolden of evil went into high gear with the election of Obama. But it had been brewing for decades. From They Thought They We’re Free, Milton Meyer “The steps were so small, so inconsequential…”. Worth a Google
Actually, since Reagan!!! But it was actually brewing from before that, you might say ever since the republicans lost to FDR and his policies, but really started getting traction with Reagan……..
Larry. Thank you for your powerful response. "The power that exercises these abuses is also the power that decides who is elected is also the power and placed on the Supreme Court". Spine tingling!
At my school districts professional development Friday, they cut the day short so teachers could go back to their classrooms and make a list of book titles they have on their shelves. I didn’t fall in the category so I don’t know all the instructions. Our superintendent said specifically this is not a book ban. Hmm. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck.
A teacher of the year from one elementary, last year allowed a student to select a book about anti racism to take home and read it. Why did she have the book? The district gave it to teachers for free to include in their libraries. Our now conservative school board have reprimanded her and put a letter in her records. How did the school board find out about it? The parents filed a letter of complaint.
So we’re in the news again. Hope the people vote their November election to change this school board! Yes, ignorance is very dangerous, indeed!
Denise, I don't know how you and other teachers do it in this climate of intolerance. The unwillingness of the very vocal few to recognize the fragile sameness and difference in each person is destructive beyond reason. Sometimes parents are their child's worst enemy – this is one of those times.
With utmost respect for you and all your colleagues. Our children are better people because of you.
Thanks! I just focus on loving these sweet kids. And teaching a lesson to the ones who aren’t so sweet! Friday was hard! Professional development focused on “self care” while expecting us to give up our rights to freedom of speech and censor our books. I left wondering how long could I live off the money I could make selling my house? These people sunk a LOT of money into winning the school board positions. I hope the election in November evens out the numbers!
It isn’t just that some can’t tell fact from fiction it is that they choose to not do so.
It is far easier to believe what you want to hear because it gives justification to your own beliefs and fears and for many, their own hatred against others, than to take the time and energy to sort through and figure out the truth.
So, is the "American" way to take the easy way out? Based on our myths, I don't think so, but then again, we don't like to examine our history all too closely either, and prefer our myths?
I believe you have touched on the reason we are so complacent - we like to believe our own myths.
I think that Americans have long believed themselves and our country as exceptional and that acts like a blinder to reality. We aren’t exceptional. This country was founded on slavery and genocide. Our government has long interfered in other countries, telling them how to live without first attending to the problems at home. We start wars for reasons of profit for and ego of those in power (yet the one war we absolutely should have joined far sooner was WWII). Americans believe that we are so exceptional, that city on a hill bs, that demagoguery, fascism, authoritarianism and even a dictatorship just can’t happen here and so, they turn a blind eye to politics and current events. It is a “if I don’t pay attention, then it won’t happen” kind of thinking. I spoke to several people last week who said this very thing - “I don’t pay attention to all that”, “oh, that’s just reactionary talk - no one will ever destroy America”, “that can’t really happen here, right?” and even “God won’t let us fall” (I had to ask which “us” they were referring to and sadly, it was the far-right yet ironically they didn’t see the link between the far-right’s goals and authoritarianism).
For a multitude of reasons - political, economical, societal, cultural, technological, etc - we as a society have definitely lost our way in working together (not that everyone always did). I’m not sure there exists An American Way anymore except that which panders to all the ugly aspects of humanity - greed, hatred, bigotry, exclusion, etc - sort of the “I want mine & you can’t have any” approach to life.
Of course, there are exceptions to this and I hope there are enough who aren’t part of the hateful, greedy majority to either turn the current tide or bring fascism to an end once it does take over.
Spot on, Kasumii. We have defined our "greatness" without acknowledging its true cost (enslavement and genocide). We are "true believers" that our country is great and good, when it has a horrible infection underneath a poorly healed scab. It is my opinion that, while the works of Movement Conservatives have been underway for at least two generations, it was the election of Barak Obama that ripped the scab off the infection of genocide and slavery and let the pus of racists get out and run free.
Very descriptive words Ally House! I will get back to my breakfast later. We definitely need realistic and descriptive language to help people see what is happening, so no complaint here. That I had to stop eating speaks to how well your words worked.
I agree with you. The election and reelection of Obama definitely lit the fuse. That a Black man could be elected to the Presidency really pissed off all the racists, didn’t it?
Yup, Ally, it was Obama. Never believed I’d see a Black president in my lifetime. “We did it,” I thought, utterly clueless. Then I became aware of the powerful raging hatred unleashed.
For two terms we had the Sublime. Then crashed head first into the despicable Ridiculous. And spiraled down from there …
We live in a nation of groups of people that use "I heard from..... that [insert fake statement.] I'm so sick of this. It's laziness and gravitating to find someone who bolsters your opinion. It isn't fact checking.
I read all of these postings and everything Dr coxRichardson write and I just get more and more afraid that we are headed towards a civil war. For which the general public is not prepared. If they thought not having TP was bad wait till it is more and more food. A little sitting on container ships off shore. How many lives will be lost to a civil war? Will it compete with the Covid death toll?
The other thing I don’t understand is how intelligent people still think trump is the answer. The man is a lunatic who is bringing this civil war on. I have family who are great people to be around but firmly believe all the garbage that trump and his cohorts spew as gospel and anything a democratic says as absolute lies. Is there no middle ground? Why isn’t trump in jail for the some of the things he did as President especially 6 Jan 2021?
I realize this is not the most elegantly worded ir thought out post I just want everyone to step back take a deep breath or two and think about what the politicians are doing to us and our country. Then do something short of civil war to fix it.
The newest thing I saw going around on Twitter over the weekend was the talk of civil war from the RWNJ. They claim they have all the guns and will destroy liberals. This is how naive they are. Liberals have guns. They’ve learned the proper use and they know how to aim and shoot. And they don’t dress up in cosplay and wave them wildly. Do these guys think they are the only ones going to gun ranges?
But then they also think somehow civil war will only affect liberals. Everything they value will also be destroyed. We are not a segregated society. The only reason Republicans win in the red states is because they are gerrymandered and votes are suppressed. This will be useless in a civil war. The liberals will outnumber them and they are not pansies.
I wonder how the Biden Administration is planning for the next insurrection, or if they are at all. Martial law, the suspension of habeas corpus? Thousands of troops at the ready? You know that's exactly what Republicans would be prepared for.
I have had thoughts about what rhetoric to use to reach "the other side." I have a cousin who used to work as a scientist at NIH years ago. He was testing the effects of smoking on rats. Whenever he would see someone smoking, he'd run up to them and give them a big 'ol bear hug, thanking them for keeping him employed!
I support the Lincoln Project. Their messaging tactics are quite different from the DNC messaging for good reason. The Lincoln Project's aim is to have a laser focus on an issue or person and to run target ads in a specific area. This just isn't the function of the DNC.
Anyway. I invite you to support the Lincoln Project.
You know, you're absolutely right. I'm sitting here thinking why didn't I think of that? Mashing together a few images with a voice running in the background would be a snap. Give it a shot Gailee and I'll start thinking about doing the same. It won't cost us anything but time. Thank you!!!
I find myself in a quandary about AT&T. My only link with them is my landline which I have maintained because it is the *only* means of communication in a power outage. This was clear to me during the huge power blackout in southern California some years back when even cellphone towers were down. I have 2 telephones, one a portable AT&T handset from the late 1970s (an excellent phone but useless bcz the base requires electricity) and an older traditional phone with wired handset. At least I was able to use the hard-wired phone to call my sister on the east coast to find out what was happening. Plus how do you charge a cellphone (if towers are functioning) unless you hook up in your car and keep it running? Everyone with digital home phone service is likely to lose that (I've heard that there is a fail-safe setup but I don't trust it).
Thanks. My view as well. Can't call 911 even if electricity and cell towers are down. I feel fortunate that I can afford, in addition to my cellphone, a phone line that I rarely use.
I cannot read anymore. It is destroying my health and wellbeing. We are having gorgeous fall weather here in San Sebastián, and I need to embrace it, be creative once again with a screenplay and a new website. My hope is that American's finally take to the streets to protest and call out the evil being done by the remnants of a party that must lie, cheat, steal, kill to stay afloat. How ironic that the NRA gun lovers believed they needed weapons to protect themselves from the government are now attacking our democracy and the majority who believe in President Biden's platform.
Get out in nature. Bask in the glorious weather. Ground yourself.
In music, we have a thing called "stagger breathing". Picture, if you will, the "A" that is three below middle "C" (three ledger lines below the bottom of the bass clef. It is a very low note). Now, picture that note as 12 whole notes, tied together, as one long, low tone to sustain a chord that builds throughout the piece. Us three tubas can't do that all at once, all together, but if we do the "I breathe here, you go 3 beats after me, and you go 3 beats after that, I'll breathe three beats after you" we can all breathe, and at least two of us are sustaining the note at all times. It is how we work together to anchor the orchestra.
Step away. Bask in nature. Read for leisure or pleasure. Come back in when someone else needs to breathe.
Ally, thank you so much for the "staggered breathing" image. It is "conspiring" in such a healthy, cooperative way; someone is always holding the note!
Get out into the day and soak it in! Smile at a stranger, and make them wonder what the heck is wrong with you. You can’t dwell on this all day, but I relish being informed. Take care of your well being!
Gailee, take care of yourself. Get out into nature. Here's a quote I have taped where I can see it everyday...."The natural world is a way of correcting the chaos of oneself and the world."
I have a question.......why was 1/6/2021 a day when the guns of the MAGA protesters were silent? Why were flagpoles and bear spray and fists the weapons of choice that day? Possession of guns is prohibited on Capital grounds, but hiding guns is not difficult. School shootings prove that. So were they testing the waters? But without their guns this time? Thoughts?
I'm right there with you Gailee. I can't wait to read Letters...in the morning but the hope I look for is not there. We need the democrats to pull together, that means Manchin and Sinema to stop there crap and do the job they were elected to do! They were elected by democrats! The same democrats that elected Joe Biden. Get rid of the filibuster and prove to those following the new republican party just how good things can be for the 99%.
Who remembers that, toward the end of 2012 election, Mitt Romney was so bouyed by the crowds that turned out for him that he genuinely felt he would win the election? That's why I don't draw any conclusions about crowd size at trump rallies. In fact, I believe there is a growing new silent majority, which includes Republicans playing it close to the vest, as well as Dems, that will turn out and vote against the trump wing of the GOP.
While all we see and that is covered are the angry trump republican'ts (spelling intentional) in our midst at school board meetings and elsewhere, I still believe in that silent majority of average Americans who are truly concerned for the future of our country.
My mom, who had only an eighth grade education but was intelligent beyond measure, used to tell me, "It's a great life if you don't weaken."
Now more than ever is the time to stay internally strong and hold the light for all of us and our country, and to endorse and promote the Biden agenda, which will be so restorative for the soul of our country, as well as the current and very sick Republican't Party.
Love your spelling-fits perfectly given that party has become unwilling to do anything that helps their constituents., only their corporate donors. Do you mind if I use "Republican'ts?
I've just learned today about civic tech on MSNBC with Ayman Mohyeldin. This is what rethinking democracy in the digital world and positive use of algorithms in social media can do. Instead of having social media algorithms that split us apart, civic tech uses techniques to move groups toward consensus. Taiwan is the leader in digital democracy or edemocracy. Read the following article on what Taiwan is accomplishing. Makes me want to move to Taiwan and participate in open democracy for the digital age! I don't understand all this yet, but know this is going to be my focus until I do. This is truly exciting if this is the solution we need to make democracy work again.
More and more organizations, including government organizations in the US, are using a team building process in meetings to address issues. It's interesting and hopeful to see how a collaborative process is supported by technology to shape legislation.
That's good to hear. I'll point out though that Taiwan is in an increasingly precarious position, geopolitically. China is making ever more aggressive noises about returning that wayward territory to its control. It seems to have gotten Hong Kong firmly within its grasp, and it wants Taiwan next.
I know one thing for sure TFG’s ‘Deal ‘ with China over trade called “ Phase One was / is a huge failure. Oddly it was sighed Jan 15 th 2020 in a Big Show of Big Corp presence at the WH. And of course Xi was his friend. Xi was not present but a letter was read. Then we hear TFG is in India Feb 26-28 th.2020. Then on March 11th 2020 he finally tells us we have this “Really bad Flu !” Which of course we are told originates in Wahun China, that ‘now ‘ we are told TFG was informed around Dec of 2019 ? And by April of 2020 he’s throwing Xi under the bus and of course because China is stricken( not telling us even earlier than we thought )but now begins the problem with Supply Chain.Which with leaving all the Tariffs in place ($) is way less due to less production.But one person I read said” China won the Trade War.”Our Gov has been been to several Asian Countries to fill the Void.So another mess Biden has to deal with. Remember all the $ TFG was giving to Iowans cuz they were going belly up ! “Soybeans anyone ? “. And those Dumbass’s still want him to run ? So many lost so much. But not Big Corp. Hmm ? Taiwan , Viet Nam , India stand to make lots of $.
I have spoken about this with a high ranking military friend of mine. Also in conjunction with visioning a new architecture of public education. Our military is very much involved currently with preserving democracy. And the correct administration is in place to help that movement flourish.
I had to look up “civil tech”. Is this what yiu mesman? “Civil engineering is traditionally broken into a number of sub-disciplines. It is considered the second-oldest engineering discipline after military engineering,[3] and it is defined to distinguish non-military engineering from military engineering.[4] Civil engineering can take place in the public sector from municipal public works departments through to federal government agencies, and in the private sector from locally based firms to global Fortune 500 companies.[5]“
Susan, It is civic with a c not civil with an l. Civil engineering is bridges and roads etc. Civic Civics is the study of the rights and duties of citizens and of how government works. Civic tech is using technology to help government work well.
To help understand the observations and reports from HRC, read Anne Applebaum's June 2021 book "Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism".
The chaos created by not addressing real issues, as well as the political moves to undermine and radically alter our institutions until they don't work, all contribute to the movement toward authoritarianism. Trump's pronouncements that only he can fix things even as he destroys them is the essence of this movement.
Applebaum, about 56, an Armerican well known for her Atlantic Magazine articles, has lived in Poland since she was a student and young courier of British funds to support Polish anti communist dissidents. She married one of these dissidents who has been active in the Polish government until the Law & Justice Party took over that is really the Unlawful & Injustice Party of authoritarianism.
She covers Poland, Hungary and Brexit Britain which demonstrate the pattern. Our 2021 Big Lie is the lynchpin (literally our democracy being lynched like blacks lynched during Jim Crow) of our authoritarianism movement.
Terrorism is a distraction. Authoritarianism is the goal.
If one needs a shorter read, try “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” by Timothy Snyder. It is short & concise for those who do not have the time or energy for an in-depth book.
No insult intended to Anne Applebaum. I have several of her books and always read her articles. I highly recommend her work.
I just looked for Snyder's book online and recommend buying it directly from his website (I avoid Amazon to the greatest extent possible which is close to 100%). https://www.timothysnyder.org/books/on-tyranny-tr
Thank you for recommending Timothy Snyder's book, Kasumii. A graphic edition of the book '... lessons for surviving and resisting America's arc toward authoritarianism, featuring the visual storytelling talents of renowned illustrator Nora Krug. ...On Tyranny uses the darkest moments in twentieth-century history, from Nazism to Communism, to teach twenty lessons on resisting modern-day authoritarianism. Among the twenty include a warning to be aware of how symbols used today could affect tomorrow ("4: Take responsibility for the face of the world"), an urgent reminder to research everything for yourself and to the fullest extent ("11: Investigate"), a point to use personalized and individualized speech rather than cliched phrases for the sake of mass appeal ("9: Be kind to our language")... '. The link below provides a short bio of Timothy Snyder, lists 'On Tyranny, along with other books, and a list of sellers:
Timothy Snyder is also on substack and currently presenting the 20 lessons from 'On Tyranny; with additional commentary as part of his podcasts called 'Thinking about...'. A link to it is below.
Bought "Midnight in Washington " by Adam Schiff last night, on Audible and Kindle. One of my all-time heroes. No time to stop to listen today. What he writes is not for background while you do chores and other distracting stuff....I do have my very worn copy of "On Tyranny" as well. Time to replace it, along with the Constitution, but I am loathe to get new ones without all my notes in them!
You’re welcome. It’s nice to see someone else who appreciates Anne Applebaum’s work. Her book “Gulag” is also very good.
Another good book along the line of gulags is “KL - A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps” by Nikolaus Wachsmann. I’m still working my way through it and can recommend it so far. It is very detailed on how the camps were set up and it lays out how people are drawn into such behaviors, even those initially reluctant to participate. Not an easy read but important, especially now.
I find Tim Snyder’s BLOODLANDS the most detailed and comprehensive book on the extermination practices of the Germans and the Russians in Eastern Europe. Snyder also details the involvement of ‘ordinary Germans,’ not just the SS and other “Nazi’ killing groups.
And we are well on the path. They make no secret of their goal. As Rush and Rupert have screamed for decades, the libtards are the enemy. Anything to vanquish them. The hate rules the MAGAt fools. Again, propaganda works…
In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas / corpora; ("I intend to speak of forms changed into new entities;")
- Ovid, The Metamorphoses
At first, I'd thought of two 1932 Hollywood movies: Freaks and The Island of Lost Souls. The films are morality plays, in which the oppressed take revenge on their tormentors. And then next came to mind Ovid. But Ovid's work, which ends with the deification of Julius Caesar, transforms a tradition of violent transformation inspiring moral reflection into an amusement of artful manipulation.
It seems to me a natural reaction to the Party of Lincoln morphing into the Party of Reagan and now the Party of Trump.
The true horror of Kafka's iteration is that Gregor gradually accepts his metamorphosis as the natural order of things.
Somewhere (The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte) Marx remarks: Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
The Lincoln presidency is our historic fact. The Reagan presidency is our tragedy. The Trump presidency is our farce.
Lincoln upheld our Founders revolutionary vision of radical equality. Reagan, behind the rhetorical myth making of 'the shining city on a hill', weaponized racism and religion in the service of deregulating business and defunding the social safety net. Trump sees himself as a new Caesar, the preeminent god in his own pantheon, but he is more like the buffoonish self proclaimed dictator, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte.
But ... the human wreckage and the deformation of the body politic.
Trump personifies the Republican party, but the Republican party personifies 'the banality of evil.' Not that in its devolution evil has become commonplace, but that Trump has been elevated "to that bad eminence" by a GOP bureaucracy of small men 'just doing their job' and giving no thought to the harm they doing in the larger community. (Gingrich, McConnell et al.) The GOP motto seems to be 'nasty as we want to be' or, in the words of Milton's Satan 'better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.' Pandemonium.
Republican right wing extremists have been muttering about civil war since the election of Pres. Barack Obama. At the drop of a, red, hat, Trump has amplified and legitimized their cry. Today's GOP is the ideological, and in many cases actual, heirs to the Confederacy who have nursed sedition in their breast since their Civil War defeat. And so back to Julius Caesar, this time Shakespeare's Antony: Cry havoc! and let slip the dogs of war.
I’m terribly frightened for our country - is there any hope? Is it is inevitable that we will devolve into Gilead? The war of southern rebellion was a terrible thing, but at least it was straight forward. The current events seem so much more insidious.
As HCR and Joanne Freeman described in their most recent podcast, use our voices to speak up to our representatives, and then there is a point where the mechanics of our election system must be fixed. We citizens cannot fix the filibuster problem, but we can continue to write/call/text/petition our representatives to fix the filibuster problem and to reach out to their colleagues.
Well said Ellie. Hope is a skill as long as it has a plan - which you describe.
I turn to Snyder’s book often. Even though I no longer believe we will avoid what is coming because those with the power and authority to do anything won’t, I still believe in resistance and always will.
Thanks Joseph. You betcha. Very few Smart Ones gave Biden-Harris a chance; almost no one gave Senators Warnock or Ossoff a chance, yet here we are. Now we must give our Democracy a chance by fighting through our fears, lifting where we stand, doing all we can to support our leaders. They need us!
The reason Biden/Harris won the election is that they ran a well organized campaign and Trump (among many other things) screwed up by refusing to put on a mask in April of 2019. The reason Warnock and Ossof won in Georgia is that Stacie Abrams led a years-long get out the vote effort there, and MTG suppressed Republican turnout by saying the election was rigged.
Thank you, Joseph. It’s a real Old Man of Yolanda moment, “But the world is hollow, and I have touched the sky…” I hope there is a Captain Kirk waiting in the wings to get us back on track.
Capt. Kirk: “Those of you who have served for long on this vessel have encountered alien life-forms. You know the greatest danger facing us is ourselves, and irrational fear of the unknown. But there’s no such thing as ‘the unknown,’ only things temporarily hidden, temporarily not understood.”
I have no idea who this author is, but I like what she espoused in this article:
"Leadership isn’t about being the most visible, the loudest, or even the highest earner. Leadership is truly about leading from behind. Real leaders are the types who want to share their success rather than bask in the glory, and those who when things go wrong, take ownership and take the fall to ensure their team is taken care of. As I always like to say, 'Teamwork makes the dream work.'”
Fantecies are useless. The reality is we must stand up on our himd legs and bark to scare away the cowsrdly Republican bullies and then get in with life.
Thank you Heather for this rather disturbing Letter.
I watched several interviews this weekend remarking where we are in this calamity. Dr Fiona Hill, Carl Berstein just to name 2, have sounded the alarm. We are well beyond "I hope this won't happen mode". We are in it. The GOP gameplan is no longer fantasy. The Trump GOP is in power. Make no mistake. The Democrats are in a reactive state, they missed the mark, as usual, to right the ship.
I see absolutely no good coming out of this juncture. The GOP are kneeling at the corner of this Nation with a lighted match ready to burn it down.
I would think that Trump’s comment about the need for the Republicans to ‘burn down the country’ should make his Twitter ban permanent. It reminds me of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s ruling that it is illegal to shout fire in a crowded theater. Trump’s statement comes days after Steve Bannon (whose sanity I find in doubt) spoke of ‘20,000 shock troops.’ All this smells like insurrection. Are the Proud Boys and others again being invited to arms?
These people are terrorists and should be treated as terrorists. Terrorist - a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.
Completely agree. There is a line and laws that separate free speech from using speech for calls for violence and intimidation and it is way past time for the laws to be used.
Like Biden, Garland is in over his head. Both are fine people of upstanding values but too many Democrats think taking the high road is the best path. However, past events, actions by Republicans, and reactions by Democrats suggest otherwise.
Politics has devolved into ruthless game playing. The Republican game plan has been easier to implement because their core strategy is to undermine and invalidate their opponent/enemy. Negotiations and compromise are a sign of weakness.
Every time Republicans speak, it's to their constituency which has conveniently been programmed/brainwashed for decades with the same underlying message - Democrats are socialists who give away stuff to the lazy and poor and ask you to pay for it in higher taxes.
Unfortunately, Democrats are in the impossible position of trying to create programs that help everyone, but especially the most disadvantaged while at the same time appeasing their wealthy donors. Most Democrats believe that to get elected and stay in office requires sucking up to the wealthy and demonstrating quid pro quo. They're probably not wrong though progressives like Sanders proved that if you focus on ideas that reverse income and wealth inequality you'll earn people's support. There are many Democrats, but the Clintons and Pelosi offer good examples of impressive feats of triangulation.
The key to political success is delivering the goods. On this count, Republicans excel and Democrats fail. From the top down to the rank and file, money pours into the Republican Party; not so much for the Democrats. Think about the politicians who decide to run and wondering where the money will come from to mount an effective campaign. The Republican machine with all its interlinked support systems (e.g. conservative media empire and self-affirming think tanks) combined with a blank check makes running as a Trump acolyte a no-brainer. Again, with a Democratic candidate, not even close.
Back to Garland. Not only is he in over his head but there's so much crap hitting the fan, there aren't enough people or hours in the day to process all the information and evidence that already exists. Biden should fund a major expansion of the Justice Department and maybe appoint more deputy AGs with greater but more focused authority. (He also would be well advised to rejuvenate and expand the IRS.)
Frankly, I think for Democrats it's all but over. Too much time has been wasted, priorities have floundered because of dysfunction and chaos within party ranks. Without doing away with the filibuster and getting Manchin and Sinema in line, they can't accomplish anything. At this point, whatever they do, it will be too little, too late.
Yes, absolutely this piece of _____ (unprintable). He should have been recalled by the military and court-martialed for fomenting violence of our government a very long time ago. That he has not been is a black mark against the UCMJ and the US Army. (Same for a few other veterans openly fomenting violence.)
It should also bring about immediate charges of fomenting violence against the government. But hey, that should have happened on Jan 6th and if not then, then Jan 22nd. And it didn’t.
The Democrats have always been reactive and never proactive. That has been my complaint for decades. This all could have been prevented if Democrats met every attack with a counterattack going back to the 1990s. Democratic supporters need to understand why the Democratic Party has been overly compromising and feckless. The negotiations ongoing over the Build Back Better legislation are a perfect example of how the party is compromised by the interests of "big money."
Democratic passivity and dysfunction have allowed the Republicans to build a formidable organization that has unlimited financial support from the wealthy. They are unstoppable! Elections, getting out the vote campaigns and campaign contributions are not going to change the trajectory. We are essentially a year away from the Democrats losing the House and Senate. Game over!
Anyone thinking that if the Democrats can somehow manage to cut the head off the beast, the beast will die, is going to be sadly disappointed. The wealthy oligarchs have been working toward establishing a plutocracy for at least 40 years. They have managed to take a lemon like Trump and make it into lemonade to further their cause. Trump could die tomorrow and the Republicans will march on undeterred, just as strong and just as destructive.
I agree with your take on the Democrats (the majority of them anyway). Those in charge right now are not at all up to the task of thwarting the takeover - either because they are fully owned with their individual and corporate donors and/or because they really aren’t capable of seeing what is happening right in front of them and reacting with the kind of strong, capable leadership and legal standings that are needed.
The Democrats in charge right now are the same people who were in charge or in leadership positions for the last 20+ years. It's on their watch that Republicans have burst forth.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
I am beyond sick and tired of the current Democrat Leadership - Pelosi, Schumer, Hoyer, Nadler, etc. Just as you said - look what has happened under their watch. Plus, people should look into their donors and how their families have benefited from their positions.
I know this next comment will piss off some who will tell me I am being ageist but I think the subject needs to be broached. There should be age limits to holding political and judicial positions. And, barring that, there should be mandatory competence & psychological exams for anyone in either position, one that takes place upon filing to run and one that takes place with every election for Congress and the Presidency and one that takes place every five years for judges, including the Supreme Court.
I piss people off here all the time with my refusal to bow to the great Pelosi.
But, I'll go one further than you - term limits!
I also think those who hold elective offices and take an oath should be held accountable. All these Republicans who refused to certify the vote for purely partisan reasons have betrayed their oath of office. They should have been censored or expelled. Republicans refusing to investigate an attempted coup should be expelled. And obviously, those Republicans who colluded with Trump should be expelled. If they don't face consequences, future coups are all but guaranteed!
The fact that none of what you and I propose will happen, just convinces me more that our system of governance is damaged beyond repair.
I equate Republicans to a deadly cancer that is killing the body politic.
Then I am in good company :) with reference to the near worship that Pelosi garners. She has accomplished some good but she needed to leave office a long time ago. In my humble, and researched, opinion.
I agree with you completely on term limits. Human behavior dictates the necessity of that. Power almost always corrupts and the longer a person stays in a position of power, the more likely that will happen. It just makes sense to look out for that from the beginning by having term limits on every position of authority.
I also agree with you on what should have happened to everyone who refused to certify the vote. (Of course, that would have meant removing most of Indiana’s politicians but it would have been for the best long-term.)
Linda, Fiona Hill has been outstandingly articulate. She has been warning us all along. One of her comments Sunday was that we should be listening to the experiences of immigrants coming to this country as refugees from the kind of totalitarianism we are heading into. Ironic, no?--some in U.S. are contemplating leaving this country to get away from the authoritarianism of "trumpism" even while the rest of the world is struggling to get into the U.S. as a safe haven!
Carol. Yes, she is. I have followed her works for many years through The Brookings Institute. I find her to be Heather's counterpart in many ways. Dr Hill is as astute in Russian History as Heather is in American History. Both are similar in their ways of teaching and writing.
I thought it was brilliant that she tied in looking through the eyes of an immigrant in that interview. When Fiona rings the alarm, we all need to listen .
Fiona Hill has earned the Medal of Freedom from President Biden! Her personal story and her fearless and totally convincing testimony at the impeachment hearing are heartrending both for an immigrant and for an American citizen. By contrast, I was dismayed by Colonel Vindman’s backsliding on General Milley, after he proudly spoke the truth at the impeachment hearing, thus jeopardizing a distinguished military career. It is worth rereading PROFILES IN COURAGE (published under JFK’s authorship, though his role in producing the book was somewhat limited). As a Nixon White House Enemies List member, I initially abhorred President Ford’s pardoning of Richard Nixon. Years later I applauded the granting to President Ford of a ‘Kennedy Profiles in Courage’ award. Historical perspective can be a sobering experience.
Keith, she has worked in several Administration's. George W, Obama and Trump. I'm somewhat surprised she hasn't been asked by this Administration, given her expansive knowledge and the hands on working of foreign affairs.
I'm with you 100% on Vindman. I can't tell you how surprised I was by his immediate comments regarding Milley.
I do have Profiles of Courage in my library here at the house. I should give that a re-read.
Thanks for this post Linda. You are 100% correct - we are already in the middle of turning into an authoritarian state. And, once again, the Democrats have done very little to counter the attack. Including President Biden and especially, the DOJ.
I too don’t see this turning around, changing for the better, or being stopped at this point. I’m still working against it as best I can but I don’t believe it will work. Not anymore.
Kasumii I found yesterday's interview with Dr Fiona Hill on Face the Nation to be incredibly revealing and very much on target. I'm not able to provide a direct link for some reason, but a Google search will quickly bring it up.
I’ll look it up. Thanks Linda. Last week (October 6th) I listened to an interview she did on Fresh Air. She is quite articulate & knowledgeable. Her book arrived today. I look forward to reading it and checking out the interview you mention.
So this chilling account of the precipice on which we now perch begs this question: like moderate Democrats in 1860, will moderate Republicans switch parties to defend and save the nation? Will they finally show courage at personal risk now that their former president and still maniacal leader of their party is, in essence, embracing a civil war? And what about business leaders who perpetually straddle the fence? Are they ready to try to stop economic chaos that would engulf not just their companies but the nation and world? We will know soon enough.
Trump undoubtedly is stoking tensions to a fever pitch, hoping that a civil war would destroy the institutions trying to bring him, finally, to justice. He's manipulating the manipulated to fight for him, this time with blood. Only such an unthinkable reckoning can save him.
He is truly the biggest loser and cult leader. Sadly, cults don’t deprogram themselves. Ike knew that, he made sure that the German population saw what they had wrought.
The best way to avoid having to go back to what happened in 1860 which resulted in over half a million deaths in the Civil War is to make sure all those convicted of crimes in connection with the January 6 insurrection, including elected officials, receive sentences in tough prisons, not cupcake white collar crime institutions. That ought to have some effect on the Republican Party and its confused and misguided supporters who fail to understand how democracy works.
I'm with you in wanting to see serious jail time handed out to all of the Jan. 6 miscreants who planned and participated in that disgusting display of treachery. But to be honest I don't think that will change the dynamic that creates those fools, and I'll tell you why. I have a secure, well paid, blue collar Union job, and the particular location I work at is chock full of diehard Maga-hat anti-vax guys (pretty much all guys - one woman out of 60-80 people). I've had several long discussions there arguing the lunacy of working class people supporting a conservative party whose interests run counter to our economic class. I haven't yet found an angle that changes anyone's view. I may have gotten a little traction on vaccines and masks, because after a while blatant facts do make a dent, but even that is minimal.
I bring this up because there's an apt comparison on our job. Overtime. That is one topic that shares wide agreement. Everybody likes it when OT is available. But when it's not, trouble starts. The majority of us are in our 40's and 50's with 20 to 30 years on the job. We're basically a bunch of cranky older men who get upset when we don't get what we want. When there's OT, money's flowing and people are happy. When the OT gets shut down, tempers rise. People start sniping at each other, then complaining to either management or the Union, who then have to respond and take actions that upset other people. With everyone second guessing everything the atmosphere gets real tense. And that continues until when? Until the work picks up and the OT starts flowing. All of a sudden people are too busy to worry about other people's business and the problems all seem to melt away.
To relate to our current politics - these guys like trump and hate Dems because they feel like the government is always trying to take their money and give it to undeserving... take your pick - immigrants, welfare cheats, liberal art pansies, etc. etc., all while ignoring the danger to society these groups pose. They feel like trump tries to take a firm stand against those groups, while Dems try to pander to them and buy their votes with cash handouts. I disagree with their analysis, but there you have it.
My point is, it's the economy (stupid! Have to throw that in). I think that trump's support is driven by economic, and also cultural, insecurity. When people have secure, well paying jobs, where they can take a vacation and have a retirement, other problems seem to melt away. Even the cultural issues would fade in prominence. Our larger problem, I'd say, is that our economy has long been based on extractive, environmentally destructive industries to the point where we've hit a wall in what more we can ask of our Earth without seriously compromising our ability to actually, you know, have a functioning civilization. It's kind of a downer, but until we figure out a way to create prosperity, and spread it equitably, based on my local observations we are doomed to engage in pitched battles against our own selves as we circle the drain to oblivion.
On a happier note (for me anyway), I'm able to post such a lengthy note today due to having a paid holiday. Go Union! Happy Indigenous People's Day!
In my opinion, If the attitude of "what's good for me, and screw everybody else" (which seems prevalent among your co-workers) prevailed in 1776 and in 1860, democracy would not have succeeded in our country. Democracy was helped in that the people were convinced that the wars were theirs, but neither struggle actually was directed at benefitting the common people . Both the Revolution, freeing us from English economic controls, and the Civil War, fought over the expansion of slavery, were for the benefit of business interests which wanted economic independence in 1776 and in 1860, didn't want to compete with slavery-based enterprises. And today, we wonder whom the policies of our political parties are really serving, beyond the issues sitting on the table. I have a pretty good idea of the answer regarding the Republicans. As for the Democrats, each of the groups within it seem to think their goals are dominant ... but they all can't be correct.
It's even worse than "what's good for me, and screw everybody else." What they're voting for isn't even good for them. It's bad for over 99% of Americans.
What you say is in line with my own personal maxim - Money runs the show. Which is just my version of "he who pays the Piper calls the tune." This has always been the case throughout history, and seems to have the aspect of an unchanging Law of Nature. So I think it's best to accept and reckon with it. My point of inquiry is in looking for ways to create wealth that do less damage to the planet or less privileged people. It may not be possible. I can't point to any evidence of it happening. Wealth seems to depend on exploitation of one form or another.
I use my workplace as an example because I know it and see the dynamic play out. But we are not a bunch of cutthroats looking to step on each other to get ahead. We have amazing solidarity as Union members when necessary to protect our rights on the job. But human nature being what it is, people get on each other's nerves if allowed the chance. Idle hands...
Yes, there are many times I think too many people have too much time on their hands to watch tv, which now has an infinite number of channels or indulge in social media. I think all that, has helped give rise to the anger and distrust. I remember when it was just the three major networks and a couple of local stations. I think the views presented were more centrist. Everyday I hope that more followers of TFG wake up and walk away from him.
Great, informative, down to earth where the people live post. Thank you, Syd. How can the bills and plans Biden is calling for reach the ears and hopes of the people you work with? Most Americans appear to support them, but Biden's poll numbers continue to trend downward. Even if both infrastructure bills get through, it will take time before their effects will be felt in the lives and wallets of the people. The bills will provide many jobs, along with a long shredded safety net, educational opportunity and support for families, children and the elderly. How can a bridge be built to the people in advance of the bills' implementation? How can the people believe in what is not yet right in front of their eyes?
These are the big questions. I really really wish I had the answers! I'm sure you feel the frustration I do, where the Democrats, while far from perfect and subject to the foibles and shortcomings that afflict us all, at least try to work toward greater equity in society. While the Republicans seem to have become intransigent attack animals, jumping on every weakness, be it in logic, or implementation, or personality, what have you, to ceaselessly push for the utter dominance of their worldview. Which I find to be exclusionary and classist. But they have been sharpening their techniques for decades now, and combined with a winner take all, no room for compromise attitude, they are tough adversaries. They are very aware of projecting an image of strength, and that is a large part of their appeal to my compatriots. I do take heart however, in the belief that those of us who do our best to practice compassion and fairness far outnumber those who are willing to tear others down to get ahead. It may be a long road, but I think (hope!) righteousness toward others will win the day, eventually.
Someone said, as I fast scanned my 3 recorded msnbc shows during the one hour a day I am permitted, "Dems need to stop selling the recipe and start selling the brownies." I like it!
I was scanning for news about the republican editorials on Sunday, referredto by HCR.
There was none! What? Why? If it wasn't on any of those shows, msnbc isn't covering the story.
Has anyone seen news on daytime msnbc, or anywhere?
They need to bring back hard labor, move say a pile of large rocks a hundred feet and once they have all been moved, move them back, over and over, day after day, year after year, for a couple decades. No more idea of rehabilitation as the goal, just hard labor, punishment that is well deserved.
I can't say watching McTurtleneck get upstaged by Chuck, isn't somewhat of a pleasure. What I absolutely abhor is that TFG still has a stronghold over the Repubs. What the hell does he have on them? Are they ALL crooked gangsters? To me, TFG looks like the Pied Piper and his loyal subjects follow him wherever he goes.
I beseech thee to embrace the decisions of the DOJ (If we ever get any!) and of the SDNY, Georgia, and any other states, who are inclined about what to do with this buffoon and his gaggle of illegitimate lapdogs.
My high school history teacher was a man named Mark Gillette, son of Guy Gillette, a US Senator from Iowa, first during FDR's first term, then again in the late 40's to mid-50s. Mark , like HCR, taught history from the point of view of 'why'. Early on he told us he didn't care if we didn't know WHEN the War of 1812 was fought - he wanted us to understand WHY it was fought.
He lectured for an hour each class, all tests and exams were from the notes we took (and God forbid you were out; you'd better borrow the best note-taker's notes!), all questions were essay questions - no multiple choice questions on HIS tests!
He was strict as a tyrant and we hated him. For about the first year. By the time I graduated, anyone in any of his classes would have crawled over ground glass for him! Our final exam in World History class (I had him for Civics, American History and World History), had two questions, if memory serves: Name the major events leading up to, the major events of, and the outcome of WWII. I can't recall the second question!!
He didn't believe in 'A's', as that represented perfection, and he believed nothing is ever perfect. When I got an A- on an oral report on Karl Marx, I was over the moon! It's because of him that I became a serious student, and my already love of history took a more in depth turn. You might say having Mark as a teacher led me, eventually, to this daily letter.
Every word written by Heather Cox Richardson is undoubtedly true. But what’s missing defines the author. The dreadful truth, the sickness underlying it all is ignored - as is the etiology of Trump’s sickness, and the sickness of his tribal followers. And the nation. We’ve seen all this many times. Nothing new here. In Trump’s history it’s Queens racism in Queen’s real estate directed by his brutal crude racist misogynist father. Donald learned how to disrespect women at home. He learned how to “restrict” his Queens apartments and play the race card - copying exclusive Manhattan buildings that banned Jews and the Negro and whole neighborhoods in the suburbs that banned Jews and Blacks post war. Newark and Harlem and the Bronx and many others remain segregated. Trump merely said what others do.
Today’s voting denying mess, the Big Lie, the other tribal games and idiotic mask and vaccine issues are much the same.
Trump needs chaos to employ the troops. Nixon wanted to flex following Kent State. Dictators need an enemy. A whipping post. Prejudice. Fear and ignorance. Dysfunction. Dystopia.
Our deficit and massive monetization may deliver chaos in markets. Bonds will fall first. Yields will rise - even soar. Long rates will slice 50% out of long maturities. Equity will collapse. It’s coming. Biden has the right ideas. The GOP will try to cripple his plans for rehabilitation of population segments, neighborhoods, schools, roads and infrastructure…
More another time. HCR must decapitate racism and slam business as usual.
We are going to experience agony, one way or another.
To supplement Sandy's comment, Queens is one of the five boroughs in NYC and where Donald Trump grew up.
'In partnership with his mother, Elizabeth Christ Trump, Fred (Donald Trump's father) began a career in home construction and sales.... It grew to build and manage single-family houses in Queens, barracks and garden apartments for U.S. Navy personnel near major shipyards along the East Coast, and more than 27,000 apartments in New York City. Trump was investigated by a U.S. Senate committee for profiteering in 1954, and again by the State of New York in 1966. Donald became the president of his father's real estate business in 1971, and they were sued by the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division for violating the Fair Housing Act in 1973; in the case settlement, the Trumps were ordered to take several measures to curb racial discrimination.'
'In 1933 Trump built one of New York City's first modern supermarkets, called Trump Market, in Woodhaven, Queens. It was modeled on Long Island's King Kullen, a self-service supermarket chain. Trump's store advertised "Serve Yourself and Save!" and quickly became popular. After six months, Trump sold it to King Kullen.[24][34]'
'In 1934, Trump and a partner acquired in federal court the mortgage-servicing subsidiary of Brooklyn's J. Lehrenkrauss Corporation,[35] which had gone bankrupt and subsequently been broken up. This gave Trump access to the titles of many properties nearing foreclosure, which he bought at low cost and sold at a profit. This and similar real estate ventures quickly thrust him into the limelight as one of New York City's most successful businessmen.[36][16]'
'Trump made use of loan subsidies created by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) not long after the program was initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934.[11] By 1936, Trump had 400 workers[g] digging foundations for houses that would be sold at prices ranging from $3,000 to $6,250.[37] Trump used his father's tactic of listing properties at prices like $3,999.99. In the late 1930s, he used a yacht called the Trump Show Boat to advertise his business off the shore of Coney Island. It played patriotic music and floated out swordfish-shaped balloons which could be redeemed for $25 or $250 towards one of his properties.[11] In 1938, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle referred to Trump as the "Henry Ford of the home building industry".[11][38]'
'In early 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and other federal leaders began denouncing real estate profiteers. On June 11, The New York Times included Trump on a list of 35 city builders accused of profiteering from government contracts.[79] He and others were investigated by a U.S. Senate banking committee for windfall gains. Trump and his partner William Tomasello[o] were cited as examples of how profits were made by builders using the FHA.[84] The two paid $34,200 for a piece of land which they rented to their corporation for $76,960 annually in a 99-year lease, so that if the apartment they built on it ever defaulted, the FHA would owe them $1.924 million. Trump and Tomasello evidently obtained loans for $3.5 million more than Beach Haven Apartments had cost.[85][86] Trump argued that because he had not withdrawn the money, he had not literally pocketed the profits.[79][87] He further argued that due to rising costs, he would have had to invest more than the 10% of the mortgage loan not provided by the FHA, and therefore suffer a loss if he built under those conditions.[88]'
We may fairly say that corruption was bred-in-the-bone for father and son Trump. The governments, both state and national, did nothing to stop them from cashing in.
'In 1966, Trump was again investigated for windfall profiteering, this time by New York's State Investigation Commission. After Trump overestimated building costs sponsored by a state program, he profited $598,000 on equipment rentals in the construction of Trump Village, which was then spent on other projects. Under testimony on January 27, 1966, Trump said that he had personally done nothing wrong and praised the success of his building project.[89] The commission called Trump "a pretty shrewd character" with a "talent for getting every ounce of profit out of his housing project", but no indictments were made. Instead, tighter administration protocols and accountability in the state's housing program were called for.[90]'. (Wikipedia)
I enjoy your letters a lot. The summary of the day’s news from a liberal perspective is thoughtful and separates chaff from wheat. Your great benefit to me is when you put the news into a historical framework and that has given me new insights into our society.
Recently in agonizing over the failures of our country to deal with its problems a common theme occurred to me. It is not just that things are screwed up. It is that no one is doing anything about the things that are screwed up. Big ones like climate change, inequality, and racism are ignored but also lots of lesser things like medical care and guns, voting rights, immigration, education, police reform, and infrastructure fall by the wayside.
I wonder if you have a historical perspective on the United States’ dealing with these issues over time. I am an old man and have seen some of these things develop over the last few decades, but our history stretches much farther back, and I don’t have that knowledge.
The failure of America to make even the tiniest effort to deal with the pathology of guns was my wake-up call as to how deep the malaise is. The inability to deal with guns is directly attributable to the gun manufacturers providing resources and a framework for the propaganda that led to the quandary today. In my youth the NRA was a worthy organization providing gun safety training and even standards for the use of guns in a rural and semi-rural society. That society used guns but looked on them as tools, not as sexual or religious objects. The manufactures’ propaganda that someone was going to “take your guns away” was swallowed by a portion of the population who mythologized guns into manhood. That propaganda provided the Supreme Court cover to issue its ridiculous and stunning rulings on guns. A ruling that had not been the law for the previous 200 years. This blatant corporate framing and promulgation of the issue has resulted in our deplorable current cycle of random death.
Recognizing the gun manufacturer’s origin of the gun problem and seeing the Supreme Court’s newfound reverence for corporations in Citizens United and Hobby Lobby and its portending cut back on congress’s right to regulate interstate commerce have combined to give me pause. It causes me to question whether our problems and inability to deal with problems are and have been, simply, the result of the abuse of corporate and commercial power. I remembered a quote from the seldom quoted Calvin Coolidge, “The Business of America is Business”. And it resonated with that possibility.
Decent medical care for all Americans was first proposed by Truman but was defeated by the American Medical Society. Since then, even more powerful forces like the lobbyists and public relations flacks of pharmaceutical companies, the hospital associations and some doctor groups have made that even more difficult. The corporate-driven diminution of unions has restricted the development of employer-based systems that had once created healthcare for the working middle class.
Similarly, inequality has increased dramatically with refusal to tax the wealthy and the tamping down of the minimum wage and the emasculation of unions. Congress and the Supreme Court have come to the rescue of corporations when they have felt the need.
Education has become privatized and there’s great pressure to increase that tendency with vouchers and charter schools and tax cuts. Universities and colleges have become mostly concerned about career path, tenure, and the ability to pull in money from students, parents, and donors. This leaves the focus less on the values of exploration of ideas, and curiosity and the nurturing of maturity for young people. Those commercial concerns are manifested by the scrum for patents and trademarks in the scientific arena and for articles and books in the humanities that conflict with the values of teaching skills and making individuals better as opposed to richer.
The problems of racism are grounded in the idea that one human can enslave another to provide for their own commercial success. Racism is so pervasive in our society’s institutions and so tied to the forces of commercialism and corporate governance that it can get overlooked as only combining with the forces driving inequality. The red lining of real estate, predatory lending and school segregation are the easy tools of forcing racism in addition to the factors of inequality. The forces affecting inequality affect minorities harder than other people.
The obverse of my analysis is the defense industry. In that case the money bestowed on lobbyists and for “education” of the public, flowing through the corporate giants of defense industry and the military has resulted in a bloated defense budget. This absorbs huge amounts of our treasure. We spend more on defense that the next 25 nations combined which proves the correctness of President Eisenhower’s warning of the Military-Industrial Complex. The silliness of that effort is proven by our inability to use our “military force” to deal with Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, or Afghanistan. Our only tool for dealing with rogue countries is – economic sanctions.
The biggest problem our country – and the world faces is climate change. Our governments do little to address climate change and the private efforts are miniscule when confronted by government inaction or hostility.
Inability to regulate the financial sector and big tech emphasize the problems I see. The power of those industries and the individual owners becoming super-wealthy was turned loose by the Supreme Court and now they have increased their power rather than see reasonable limits to their desires.
Maybe the problem is just so pervasive that we have come to accept it as normal. No answers from me. The linear solution is to change the congress that makes things happen. But the power that exercises these abuses is also the power that decides who is elected to power and placed on the Supreme Court.
Thanks for the hard work you put in.
Larry, thank-you for your amazing post. We live in a world where even the facts you have based your observations on have become debatable. Without facts there can be no trust. Without trust there will be no action. The good news is that the majority of us have begun to accept this reality. Once accepted, actionable, real-time plans can be made to address the very real issues outlined in your post. I am very grateful you took the time to write it.
Without facts there can be no truth, without truth there can be no trust. Maria Ressa.
Thank you Larry. Reading your post has pulled together for me the threads I have been following for years. Unfortunately the patterns that emerge reveal how money and profit dictate who we are. The major flaws of capitalism have supported destruction of our environment, women and children living in abject poverty, our children being murdered in schools, so corporations can make money?
Your last sentence is most chilling: The power that exercises these abuses is also the power that decides who is elected to power and placed on the Supreme Court.
For 50 years I had held the belief we could make a difference and leave our country in a better place. It is because of Heather’s letters and this group i carry some hope but i am scared for our children and grandchildren.
For our children and grandchildren.
For them we must gather together, for them we must act. While we still can. NOW.
I myself have just written a horrible post. But the situation is so dangerous... To keep out of jail, the madman will imprison most of the nation. This, at a crucial juncture in the world's history...
I feel that Drump doesn't give thought to being caught and punished for his evil and corrupt deeds. He's too vain. He has a following, and he has his Republican elected officials by the balls so to speak. He yearns to speak, control, and destroy. Just look at the deep obsession he had with Biden long before the 2020 election. The man was so obsessed he committed acts of criminality that got him impeached. His hold on the Republican party kept him in office. He knew he was going to lose to a Democrat as experienced as Biden. He said it in about every public nonsense he spewed running up to and after the election. His anger over not being reelected pushed him to incite those who adored him to commit violent acts. The man is an abomination to our country. Somehow we have caused this man to manipulate America. To act like a bully, baby, middle-schooler using his ignorance of the Constitution, the economy, and every topic needed to run a nation is what is sinking us. He has a minority of elected officials mimicking his words and actions with no consequences. He has like-minded crooks out doing his dirty work in order to get TBG back into power. He riles of the lower and middle class idiots to give him his power fix in rallies, in school boards, and his fake audits he demands of Republican state leaders. We got to get out and vote like our lives depend on it for any upcoming elections. Never vote Republican until this group loses it's grip on destroying the USA.
He has Hitler's gift of giving a voice to people's pent-up hatred, rage and resentment, a direct line to the lowest levels of the collective unconscious.
That's where he draws his power from, without this he'd be nothing.
This is what makes the poor wretch so dangerous. He too wants to take the world down with him when he goes.
Well, I certainly can't disagree with much you've written, but who's "we?" "They" are the ones who voted for that dim-witted monster because they are stupid, evil, bigots. (And so we sing as we march off to war...)
Thank you, Larry, your essay -- for that is what it is -- complements HCR's work perfectly.
Our economics have become divorced from the household, our technology is divorced from mankind too, autonomous, self-serving, we find ourselves on board an immensely powerful vehicle in a state of constant acceleration, and the motor driving it is an economic system...
WITH NO BRAKES.
NO BRAKES. And junkies drugged to the eyeballs on SuperCrack, SuperMeth and God only knows what.... shooting at the driver... screaming for more speed, Speed, SPEED...
This madness cannot go on. The collective psyche is already critically sick, delirious, the body of our society, the body social, politic, economic, can only follow.
I don't expect readers to grasp what I have just written, I hope, I pray that I am utterly mistaken... but do not believe that to be the case. Fever and convulsions seem inevitable and more will be needed to restore basic health than all the respite that the good doctors in Washington can offer.
This makes it all the more urgent, indeed crucial, to gather together and support the Biden Administration while citizens still can. To gain, to use the respite that's on offer.
I'm old, been watching for decades. Bill Moyers warned us... Rupert slandered him from even before Fox.
A chilling but accurate assessment…I’m sorry to have to agree with you.
Agree.
Well said. A nicely eloquent description of the major problems we face that are being papered over and allowed to fester due to the unabashed greed, IMO, of the corporatocracy we now live in. Thanks.
Thank you for this essay. It touches on the failings that we've managed to amass, and that bill is now coming due with a vengeance. Someone alluded to our country being a frog in a pot of water that is now rapidly approaching boiling. We are heading towards an authoritarian oligarchy and the people who have been misled in believing that they are "true patriots" will be those bringing this civil war home.
I was not sure where to post this, but here it is. This, historically, is not a great mystery. I recommend a thorough reading of a classic in systems analysis. See https://duaneelgin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Limits-to-Large-Complex-Systems.pdf
Duane's analysis is equally applicable today. I submit we are at Stage IV. The question is do we collapse in 'authoritarianism or do we enter a 'transformational' change period?
Discussed elsewhere in today’s forum. I posted a brief by Knight Foundation called “Scaling Civic Tech”. Following debacle last week and exposure of Facebook, some conversation I had with military personnel during online learning during pandemic. Talked about new architecture of education and military progress on many things tech. One thing involves changing algorithms beyond limited social media and harnessing tech for civic engagement and more responsive government. It’s a transformational path.
There are informational paths to learn where business and how models are with this. I struggled for understanding but worth it because I have thought about need for change in architecture of public education.
Innovative tech, such as civic tech, can be part of a transformational model.
Here's another potential resource for using tech to increase civic engagement. https://cpd.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/48/2020/05/The-Wise-Collaborator_-A-New-Ideal-for-Civic-Decision-Making-National-Civic-League.pdf
Excellent article, thank you Charlie. Equally interesting that it was written in 1977.
I agree we are probably in Stage IV and the question of which direction will we end up moving toward is the source of my sleepless nights.
There seems to be a severe limitation in the excellent Duane analysis, certainly in current terms, in that it deals almost exclusively with governmental bureaucracies (and the most overblown ones, at that) without considering corporate bureaucracy... or the intricate web of interactions between the two monstrosities...
Things fall apart, the center cannot hold...
We are already at the stage when there’s no choice but to opt for transformation—otherwise total disaster is guaranteed. Look…
We face the failure of systems far larger than any bureaucracy, failure upon failure, all taking place at much the same time:
The current deliquescent form of capitalism—governance at all levels—in America, constitutional rigor mortis (in Britain, it’s already constitutional decomposition)—footling, totally irrelevant hyperactivity, surface effects, a society in which what we called “the short term” only twenty years ago... must seem an eternity—the confluence of all our foul polluted rivers-of-the-mind-turned-sewers.
And, barely beyond us now, the immeasurable, barely conceivable chain reactions arising from climate change—we speak of migration, it’s the stuff of our purblind politics. But we’ve seen nothing of what’s to come. NO-THING.
[At times like these criminal elements will always thrive, as we are seeing, not just in the United States, but with the worldwide emergence of criminal regimes—oligarchy. Crooks combine intuition and all the skills of the streetwise, to seize the moment... even if it’s no better than a successful heist while the Titanic goes down.]
Or simply - the government at the time of the writing of the constitution, bill of rights etc. was a very small bureaucratic "organization" - NOW? the government is immense & changes sure do need to be made. HOW these changes are made is the big million or trillion dollar question & by WHOM, right?
Maybe we need a new 'operating system'?
You think?
Yep. And the 'powers that be' aren't going to be happy campers. The Hopi call it the coming of the 5th world.
Boy,',,, you really put a lot in that letter Larry, and every bit of it pertinent!!! We, as a nation , the way we are headed, and it is all, in one way or another, attributed to big money, are going to die. It is NOT sustainable!!! We are rotting from the inside out….. And it is avoidable, but it does NOT look like we’re avoiding it. We’ve got to get big money OUT of politics, and particularly BIG special interest money out of our elections, and as special favors for the politicians……..
As I’ve said before, I’m old, 81 to be exact. And for that, in this day in age, I feel lucky, I get to die pretty soon!!! Although I hope it’s not to soon . Lol…..
Hi from another octogenarian! I'm reading Deep Adaptation re: Climate Change, and as Larry said, it is our most over-arching problem. I share your thoughts that I may not live to see all the coming tragedies, but our young people will suffer terribly.
Yes, they and future generations will loathe us.
Write this to all politicians!
A note of hope: Dear Friends of Heather; you might want to know about a movement called RAM which is calling moderate Republicans et al together to vote against the loose cannons in the party who are amassing power regardless of method. The RAM program will make recommendations for candidates REGARDLESS OF PARTY to vote for. It seeks traditional Republican values, which personally I believe are old-hat given the state of the world, but the point is, they know that forming a third party will not help them in the short run, but this method will advocate for decent, capable politicians to win elections and help "right" a sinking ship.
Here is a link to an opinion piece in the NY Times by Miles Taylor and Christine Todd Whitman outlining this plan. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/11/opinion/2022-house-senate-trump.html
Thanks Hope, I'm becoming and old goat anyway, so why not be a RAM? I'm assuming here that you're talking about the Renew America Movement, not the 60s Maoists or the anti-Antifa group :) Forming a new political party is A LOT of work, but that is the scale of the task before us. I will research this group.
Yes, it is the Renew America Movement. I think a RAM would be a good logo beside the donkey and elephant!
That is good, but decent doesn't seem to be what Republlican voters want these days. RAM is up against Trump fanatics who already have more than a foothold in many states. What we really need is for Trump to disappear, the sooner the better.
Thanx Larry for the rundown of our recent history of decline in the U.S. Like many others have mentioned already, it is a good wrap-up. Like many here with history, I too have seen these things first hand. Grew up with rifles & shotguns, collected guns pistols as an adult & was a member of the NRA long before it became a terrorist enabling organization. Those were innocent times before X-Ray baggage checks at airports, when you could actually carry two pistols onto a commercial airliner in a briefcase. (Yes, I did in 1966).
I also grew up in a household where my dad was the "breadwinner" and we prospered on his single paycheck. Mom wanted to work and I remember the discussion whether it would be feasible due to tax changes with her income. When I got out of the service in the late '60s thru the '70s, I worked front line jobs for minimum wages and managed to live comfortably on it. How can anyone live on $7.50 an hour now? The system has definitely broken and the Repugnant Party doesn't care about the poor fools who still vote for them against their own best interest.
The bottom line to all this is the apparent mass insanity that has taken over our nation like some real life Zombie Apocalypse. I am in Floriduh, where our Insane Governor and the Repugnant Cult stacked Education Dept and even the Health Dept with a quack for state Surgeon General are fighting against proven health precautions to prevent spreading an airborne viral pandemic as if it were a political game instead of a deadly furtherance of the disease.
I am so appalled at this total disregard of science and the attacks on those who try to abide by sound preventive measures (I worked in Nursing, wearing a mask is just part of infection control). I fear for what will be the outcome of this. It won’t impact me personally as a septuagenarian without too much more future, but my grandsons & great-grandsons are going to be stuck in a Near Dystopian Future that once was relegated to fiction.
My take on the gun problem is that Rs want the peons to do the dirty work while they grab power. As for universal health care, it was to be part of the New Deal, but was killed by the AMA using two California political operatives who went on to help Rs. I recommend These Truths by Jill Lapore as an excellent history of the US and how we got here. The super rich think that their money will save them although climate change is so pervasive that is difficult even now to find a place not affected. I am elderly and glad for it without direct descendants. Meanwhile my dirt poor relatives in the midwest continue to do what they do best and have children. I hate to think what awaits them.
As do I, my grands will live in a world very different from Mine. Not a good thing
I have two great nephews who live in CA and are in a much better situation. However, my husband and I are appalled at the gifts that roll in for birthdays and Christmas making them little consumers of plastic junk. The latest this summer is some kind of computer game where you can buy your way out of situations which of course means sending money to the makers of this scam. In addition there are all these plastic figurines to buy. Younger people just shrug their shoulders at this. We give them money, most of which goes into their college fund and I wonder whether that will be viable when they reach that stage.
I read with interest that the most wanted toys will possibly not be available this Christmas as well as a lot of other goods which I guess are often sitting on container ships waiting to come in to ports. We have our Christmas shopping done this week as Powells had a sale and we buy each other books. We try to buy as locally as possible.
Our gift to our grandchildren a couple years ago were books from the San Diego Zoo. There are stories about the special animals saved and conservation. They got the small plush that went with the book. I felt better for having sent something educational. We were fortunate to have the author write them a personal message. We were weekly volunteers before the pandemic hit.
Also subscriptions to science kits that come monthly or bi-monthly. My goal is something that will keep them wanting to learn.
https://shopzoo.com/pages/san-diego-zoo-wildlife-alliance-press
Yes, I'm a big proponent of giving something to learn. Science and animal magazines, etc.
Love that your gifts are books. I am trying to find gifts of experiences also.
My 4 year old great niece loves gift certificates from her local books store, which I gladly give her. She already chooses her own books (Might have something to do w/her mom, who has a Master's degree in Creative Writing-LOL!)
That sounds great. Our list is fortunately very short and so it's money for our nephews and great nephews and a few things for other people that I am putting together now like some bay leaves from my garden. I also made apple butter for the first time in my life and i will give away some of that too. It's so good that I want to keep it all.
No, from Salem, Oregon, and originally from Elkhart, Indiana.
I’m old too, this embolden of evil went into high gear with the election of Obama. But it had been brewing for decades. From They Thought They We’re Free, Milton Meyer “The steps were so small, so inconsequential…”. Worth a Google
Actually, since Reagan!!! But it was actually brewing from before that, you might say ever since the republicans lost to FDR and his policies, but really started getting traction with Reagan……..
McCarthy contributed some "manouvers" to the playbook too.
Thank you for this thoughtful post.
Larry. Thank you for your powerful response. "The power that exercises these abuses is also the power that decides who is elected is also the power and placed on the Supreme Court". Spine tingling!
Stalin said it's the people who count the votes that matter. Republicans buy this 100%
Thank you so much for this
Thank you Larry.
Larry, you have covered so much in this synopsis that I work through for answers daily. Much appreciated and looking forward to your next post.
Thank you for a powerful essay Larry describing the historical arc of my lifetime also. It’s heartbreaking and true.
A thought before sleeping...
The most violent element in society is ignorance. – Emma Goldman
At my school districts professional development Friday, they cut the day short so teachers could go back to their classrooms and make a list of book titles they have on their shelves. I didn’t fall in the category so I don’t know all the instructions. Our superintendent said specifically this is not a book ban. Hmm. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck.
A teacher of the year from one elementary, last year allowed a student to select a book about anti racism to take home and read it. Why did she have the book? The district gave it to teachers for free to include in their libraries. Our now conservative school board have reprimanded her and put a letter in her records. How did the school board find out about it? The parents filed a letter of complaint.
So we’re in the news again. Hope the people vote their November election to change this school board! Yes, ignorance is very dangerous, indeed!
Denise, I don't know how you and other teachers do it in this climate of intolerance. The unwillingness of the very vocal few to recognize the fragile sameness and difference in each person is destructive beyond reason. Sometimes parents are their child's worst enemy – this is one of those times.
With utmost respect for you and all your colleagues. Our children are better people because of you.
Thanks! I just focus on loving these sweet kids. And teaching a lesson to the ones who aren’t so sweet! Friday was hard! Professional development focused on “self care” while expecting us to give up our rights to freedom of speech and censor our books. I left wondering how long could I live off the money I could make selling my house? These people sunk a LOT of money into winning the school board positions. I hope the election in November evens out the numbers!
Professional development? Self care? Talk about doublespeak. Sounds more like rules to be an obedient servant.
Please continue to be a candle in the darkness for as long as possible. You have our gratitude.
Self care and censorship? Who knew they were so closely intertwined? /s
Keep safe. Thinking of you, Denise.
THIS, Daria.
Thank you for saying this loud and clear, Daria.
The MAGAts smelled power, now the path is clear, they think
When masses can't tell fact from fiction, we're in trouble.
It isn’t just that some can’t tell fact from fiction it is that they choose to not do so.
It is far easier to believe what you want to hear because it gives justification to your own beliefs and fears and for many, their own hatred against others, than to take the time and energy to sort through and figure out the truth.
So, is the "American" way to take the easy way out? Based on our myths, I don't think so, but then again, we don't like to examine our history all too closely either, and prefer our myths?
What is the soul of our nation?
I believe you have touched on the reason we are so complacent - we like to believe our own myths.
I think that Americans have long believed themselves and our country as exceptional and that acts like a blinder to reality. We aren’t exceptional. This country was founded on slavery and genocide. Our government has long interfered in other countries, telling them how to live without first attending to the problems at home. We start wars for reasons of profit for and ego of those in power (yet the one war we absolutely should have joined far sooner was WWII). Americans believe that we are so exceptional, that city on a hill bs, that demagoguery, fascism, authoritarianism and even a dictatorship just can’t happen here and so, they turn a blind eye to politics and current events. It is a “if I don’t pay attention, then it won’t happen” kind of thinking. I spoke to several people last week who said this very thing - “I don’t pay attention to all that”, “oh, that’s just reactionary talk - no one will ever destroy America”, “that can’t really happen here, right?” and even “God won’t let us fall” (I had to ask which “us” they were referring to and sadly, it was the far-right yet ironically they didn’t see the link between the far-right’s goals and authoritarianism).
For a multitude of reasons - political, economical, societal, cultural, technological, etc - we as a society have definitely lost our way in working together (not that everyone always did). I’m not sure there exists An American Way anymore except that which panders to all the ugly aspects of humanity - greed, hatred, bigotry, exclusion, etc - sort of the “I want mine & you can’t have any” approach to life.
Of course, there are exceptions to this and I hope there are enough who aren’t part of the hateful, greedy majority to either turn the current tide or bring fascism to an end once it does take over.
Spot on, Kasumii. We have defined our "greatness" without acknowledging its true cost (enslavement and genocide). We are "true believers" that our country is great and good, when it has a horrible infection underneath a poorly healed scab. It is my opinion that, while the works of Movement Conservatives have been underway for at least two generations, it was the election of Barak Obama that ripped the scab off the infection of genocide and slavery and let the pus of racists get out and run free.
Very descriptive words Ally House! I will get back to my breakfast later. We definitely need realistic and descriptive language to help people see what is happening, so no complaint here. That I had to stop eating speaks to how well your words worked.
I agree with you. The election and reelection of Obama definitely lit the fuse. That a Black man could be elected to the Presidency really pissed off all the racists, didn’t it?
It was during Obama’s term that I became aware of the profound racism in some of my “friends”. That was when the ugly truth came out of the closet.
Yup, Ally, it was Obama. Never believed I’d see a Black president in my lifetime. “We did it,” I thought, utterly clueless. Then I became aware of the powerful raging hatred unleashed.
For two terms we had the Sublime. Then crashed head first into the despicable Ridiculous. And spiraled down from there …
Even President Obama understood the time wasn't right for a black American to be the leader of our country. Then he insulted Drump...
There ARE enough of us, Kasumii. What I worry abt is that we won’t all VOTE.
That worries me too.
Yes, the majority of our nation do not vote. That says it all.
This word, this ugly word "authoritarianism".
I take note.
I note, too, that it entails a total absence of genuine authority.
Fake Father Figure, fake everything, the devil in the driver's seat.
In the pulpit, too.
Yes, good question ….. What is the soul of our Nation???
Hatred and anger release adrenaline. Another American addiction.
We live in a nation of groups of people that use "I heard from..... that [insert fake statement.] I'm so sick of this. It's laziness and gravitating to find someone who bolsters your opinion. It isn't fact checking.
Fox just celebrated 25 years of blasting lies and the most venomous propaganda. Rupert pushed Humpty Dumpty off the wall.
Rest up Daria! All of us on call for democracy. So true about ignorance. It’s not an excuse, it’s a choice …..every time.
My thought is that the most peaceful element in society is wisdom. Tried and true, so to speak.
Salud!
I read all of these postings and everything Dr coxRichardson write and I just get more and more afraid that we are headed towards a civil war. For which the general public is not prepared. If they thought not having TP was bad wait till it is more and more food. A little sitting on container ships off shore. How many lives will be lost to a civil war? Will it compete with the Covid death toll?
The other thing I don’t understand is how intelligent people still think trump is the answer. The man is a lunatic who is bringing this civil war on. I have family who are great people to be around but firmly believe all the garbage that trump and his cohorts spew as gospel and anything a democratic says as absolute lies. Is there no middle ground? Why isn’t trump in jail for the some of the things he did as President especially 6 Jan 2021?
I realize this is not the most elegantly worded ir thought out post I just want everyone to step back take a deep breath or two and think about what the politicians are doing to us and our country. Then do something short of civil war to fix it.
"I read all of these postings and everything Dr coxRichardson write and I just get more and more afraid..."Char McHugh
Gailee Walker Wells
"I cannot read anymore. It is destroying my health and wellbeing."
For me the middle ground is to take a look at things, remain politically active and then let it go.
Here is AG Garlands's email link. https://www.justice.gov/contact-us
Have a good day everyone. Enjoy Fall where ever you are.
Yes, fear simply immobilizes us from taking any action. We must first not be afraid to act!
I wish, but propaganda works, what more proof do we need? Mitch’s Frankenstein has devoured him, it seems
The newest thing I saw going around on Twitter over the weekend was the talk of civil war from the RWNJ. They claim they have all the guns and will destroy liberals. This is how naive they are. Liberals have guns. They’ve learned the proper use and they know how to aim and shoot. And they don’t dress up in cosplay and wave them wildly. Do these guys think they are the only ones going to gun ranges?
But then they also think somehow civil war will only affect liberals. Everything they value will also be destroyed. We are not a segregated society. The only reason Republicans win in the red states is because they are gerrymandered and votes are suppressed. This will be useless in a civil war. The liberals will outnumber them and they are not pansies.
I wonder how the Biden Administration is planning for the next insurrection, or if they are at all. Martial law, the suspension of habeas corpus? Thousands of troops at the ready? You know that's exactly what Republicans would be prepared for.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!!
I have had thoughts about what rhetoric to use to reach "the other side." I have a cousin who used to work as a scientist at NIH years ago. He was testing the effects of smoking on rats. Whenever he would see someone smoking, he'd run up to them and give them a big 'ol bear hug, thanking them for keeping him employed!
The Lincoln Project's latest ad regarding AT&T made me think of my cousin: https://youtu.be/fwePYaUKLYw
That’s good! They always are actually.
Wow! Quite the message.
I was going to say almost the same thing! Definitely “wow”!
It's really easy to create videos like TLP and post them publicly from your social media.
This is brilliant! Why can’t Democratic support groups create and disseminate equally powerful messages?
I support the Lincoln Project. Their messaging tactics are quite different from the DNC messaging for good reason. The Lincoln Project's aim is to have a laser focus on an issue or person and to run target ads in a specific area. This just isn't the function of the DNC.
Anyway. I invite you to support the Lincoln Project.
Why can't the DNC and the DSCC?
You know, you're absolutely right. I'm sitting here thinking why didn't I think of that? Mashing together a few images with a voice running in the background would be a snap. Give it a shot Gailee and I'll start thinking about doing the same. It won't cost us anything but time. Thank you!!!
Don and Gailee…
Sarcasm, in some cases when used for messaging can be hilarious and very effective. Thus is name of the game on TikTok.
Thanks Lynell. Until this all broke open we were planning to change our cable etc. to AT&T. No longer. I’m doing what I can to encourage a boycott.
I find myself in a quandary about AT&T. My only link with them is my landline which I have maintained because it is the *only* means of communication in a power outage. This was clear to me during the huge power blackout in southern California some years back when even cellphone towers were down. I have 2 telephones, one a portable AT&T handset from the late 1970s (an excellent phone but useless bcz the base requires electricity) and an older traditional phone with wired handset. At least I was able to use the hard-wired phone to call my sister on the east coast to find out what was happening. Plus how do you charge a cellphone (if towers are functioning) unless you hook up in your car and keep it running? Everyone with digital home phone service is likely to lose that (I've heard that there is a fail-safe setup but I don't trust it).
Hey, Judith. My advice to you would be to keep the landline. I see it as a safety issue for you.
Thanks. My view as well. Can't call 911 even if electricity and cell towers are down. I feel fortunate that I can afford, in addition to my cellphone, a phone line that I rarely use.
Hey, hey, Gail...hurray for your activism!
AMAZING!
HaHa!
Thanks for the link, Lynell. I might have missed it; I don't always see their latest.
You're welcome, Sandra.
What a horrible advertisement!
I cannot read anymore. It is destroying my health and wellbeing. We are having gorgeous fall weather here in San Sebastián, and I need to embrace it, be creative once again with a screenplay and a new website. My hope is that American's finally take to the streets to protest and call out the evil being done by the remnants of a party that must lie, cheat, steal, kill to stay afloat. How ironic that the NRA gun lovers believed they needed weapons to protect themselves from the government are now attacking our democracy and the majority who believe in President Biden's platform.
Get out in nature. Bask in the glorious weather. Ground yourself.
In music, we have a thing called "stagger breathing". Picture, if you will, the "A" that is three below middle "C" (three ledger lines below the bottom of the bass clef. It is a very low note). Now, picture that note as 12 whole notes, tied together, as one long, low tone to sustain a chord that builds throughout the piece. Us three tubas can't do that all at once, all together, but if we do the "I breathe here, you go 3 beats after me, and you go 3 beats after that, I'll breathe three beats after you" we can all breathe, and at least two of us are sustaining the note at all times. It is how we work together to anchor the orchestra.
Step away. Bask in nature. Read for leisure or pleasure. Come back in when someone else needs to breathe.
Ally, thank you so much for the "staggered breathing" image. It is "conspiring" in such a healthy, cooperative way; someone is always holding the note!
Yes Carol. And I picture the opposite visual with insurrectionists and those posed in ignorance and direct defiance to democracy. Gasping for breath.
I am trying to hear the music as I breathe. Thank you, Ally. My nephew plays the tuba, so the instrument is part of the family.
Beautiful. As is “breath”.
Thank you, Ally.
I love this so much! Thank you.
What a wonderful analogy, Ally. I can't read music, but can certainly hold a note if given. Today let's help each other out with a note/breath or two.
Get out into the day and soak it in! Smile at a stranger, and make them wonder what the heck is wrong with you. You can’t dwell on this all day, but I relish being informed. Take care of your well being!
Gailee, take care of yourself. Get out into nature. Here's a quote I have taped where I can see it everyday...."The natural world is a way of correcting the chaos of oneself and the world."
I have a question.......why was 1/6/2021 a day when the guns of the MAGA protesters were silent? Why were flagpoles and bear spray and fists the weapons of choice that day? Possession of guns is prohibited on Capital grounds, but hiding guns is not difficult. School shootings prove that. So were they testing the waters? But without their guns this time? Thoughts?
chilling
Interesting question....Guess we'll find out at some point.
I'm right there with you Gailee. I can't wait to read Letters...in the morning but the hope I look for is not there. We need the democrats to pull together, that means Manchin and Sinema to stop there crap and do the job they were elected to do! They were elected by democrats! The same democrats that elected Joe Biden. Get rid of the filibuster and prove to those following the new republican party just how good things can be for the 99%.
Quite ironic.
"Hope" doesn't get us anywhere, as action is required for change. Definitely split your time.
Who remembers that, toward the end of 2012 election, Mitt Romney was so bouyed by the crowds that turned out for him that he genuinely felt he would win the election? That's why I don't draw any conclusions about crowd size at trump rallies. In fact, I believe there is a growing new silent majority, which includes Republicans playing it close to the vest, as well as Dems, that will turn out and vote against the trump wing of the GOP.
While all we see and that is covered are the angry trump republican'ts (spelling intentional) in our midst at school board meetings and elsewhere, I still believe in that silent majority of average Americans who are truly concerned for the future of our country.
My mom, who had only an eighth grade education but was intelligent beyond measure, used to tell me, "It's a great life if you don't weaken."
Now more than ever is the time to stay internally strong and hold the light for all of us and our country, and to endorse and promote the Biden agenda, which will be so restorative for the soul of our country, as well as the current and very sick Republican't Party.
Thank Deborah. Ditto, ditto, ditto to the truth you write.
United!
I meant to say that Romney thought "he might actually win." But you get the point. :)
I so agree with you, DUnger, at least on good days. I so hope and pray that you and I are correct. The real and true silent majority.
Love your spelling-fits perfectly given that party has become unwilling to do anything that helps their constituents., only their corporate donors. Do you mind if I use "Republican'ts?
Please do!
I've just learned today about civic tech on MSNBC with Ayman Mohyeldin. This is what rethinking democracy in the digital world and positive use of algorithms in social media can do. Instead of having social media algorithms that split us apart, civic tech uses techniques to move groups toward consensus. Taiwan is the leader in digital democracy or edemocracy. Read the following article on what Taiwan is accomplishing. Makes me want to move to Taiwan and participate in open democracy for the digital age! I don't understand all this yet, but know this is going to be my focus until I do. This is truly exciting if this is the solution we need to make democracy work again.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/taiwan-democracy-social-media
Cathy, interesting read, thanks for posting link. Consensus building rather than division. What a concept!
Deport Rupert
More and more organizations, including government organizations in the US, are using a team building process in meetings to address issues. It's interesting and hopeful to see how a collaborative process is supported by technology to shape legislation.
It’s the forward architecture of this century. And is, what I believe, will save our planet.
That's good to hear. I'll point out though that Taiwan is in an increasingly precarious position, geopolitically. China is making ever more aggressive noises about returning that wayward territory to its control. It seems to have gotten Hong Kong firmly within its grasp, and it wants Taiwan next.
And why it has not happened is because of the system of consensus building that Cathy describes above. Very, very powerful in this age.
I know one thing for sure TFG’s ‘Deal ‘ with China over trade called “ Phase One was / is a huge failure. Oddly it was sighed Jan 15 th 2020 in a Big Show of Big Corp presence at the WH. And of course Xi was his friend. Xi was not present but a letter was read. Then we hear TFG is in India Feb 26-28 th.2020. Then on March 11th 2020 he finally tells us we have this “Really bad Flu !” Which of course we are told originates in Wahun China, that ‘now ‘ we are told TFG was informed around Dec of 2019 ? And by April of 2020 he’s throwing Xi under the bus and of course because China is stricken( not telling us even earlier than we thought )but now begins the problem with Supply Chain.Which with leaving all the Tariffs in place ($) is way less due to less production.But one person I read said” China won the Trade War.”Our Gov has been been to several Asian Countries to fill the Void.So another mess Biden has to deal with. Remember all the $ TFG was giving to Iowans cuz they were going belly up ! “Soybeans anyone ? “. And those Dumbass’s still want him to run ? So many lost so much. But not Big Corp. Hmm ? Taiwan , Viet Nam , India stand to make lots of $.
I have spoken about this with a high ranking military friend of mine. Also in conjunction with visioning a new architecture of public education. Our military is very much involved currently with preserving democracy. And the correct administration is in place to help that movement flourish.
For the people! Unitad!
I had to look up “civil tech”. Is this what yiu mesman? “Civil engineering is traditionally broken into a number of sub-disciplines. It is considered the second-oldest engineering discipline after military engineering,[3] and it is defined to distinguish non-military engineering from military engineering.[4] Civil engineering can take place in the public sector from municipal public works departments through to federal government agencies, and in the private sector from locally based firms to global Fortune 500 companies.[5]“
Several available. Thus is an article by the Knight Foundation regarding “civic tech”. https://knightfoundation.org/features/civictechbiz/ ndation on “civic tech”.
Susan, It is civic with a c not civil with an l. Civil engineering is bridges and roads etc. Civic Civics is the study of the rights and duties of citizens and of how government works. Civic tech is using technology to help government work well.
Difference between civil tech and civic tech.
Thank you Cathy. This is one of the most hopeful things I’ve read in awhile.
This is fabulous and constructive. What a model for what is possible!
Interesting article. Thanks for sharing
To help understand the observations and reports from HRC, read Anne Applebaum's June 2021 book "Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism".
The chaos created by not addressing real issues, as well as the political moves to undermine and radically alter our institutions until they don't work, all contribute to the movement toward authoritarianism. Trump's pronouncements that only he can fix things even as he destroys them is the essence of this movement.
Applebaum, about 56, an Armerican well known for her Atlantic Magazine articles, has lived in Poland since she was a student and young courier of British funds to support Polish anti communist dissidents. She married one of these dissidents who has been active in the Polish government until the Law & Justice Party took over that is really the Unlawful & Injustice Party of authoritarianism.
She covers Poland, Hungary and Brexit Britain which demonstrate the pattern. Our 2021 Big Lie is the lynchpin (literally our democracy being lynched like blacks lynched during Jim Crow) of our authoritarianism movement.
Terrorism is a distraction. Authoritarianism is the goal.
If one needs a shorter read, try “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” by Timothy Snyder. It is short & concise for those who do not have the time or energy for an in-depth book.
No insult intended to Anne Applebaum. I have several of her books and always read her articles. I highly recommend her work.
I just looked for Snyder's book online and recommend buying it directly from his website (I avoid Amazon to the greatest extent possible which is close to 100%). https://www.timothysnyder.org/books/on-tyranny-tr
That link above is to the former edition. For new 'graphic' edition, click on 'Buy', with several buying options on this link instead:
https://www.timothysnyder.org/books/on-tyranny-graphic-edition
Thank you for recommending Timothy Snyder's book, Kasumii. A graphic edition of the book '... lessons for surviving and resisting America's arc toward authoritarianism, featuring the visual storytelling talents of renowned illustrator Nora Krug. ...On Tyranny uses the darkest moments in twentieth-century history, from Nazism to Communism, to teach twenty lessons on resisting modern-day authoritarianism. Among the twenty include a warning to be aware of how symbols used today could affect tomorrow ("4: Take responsibility for the face of the world"), an urgent reminder to research everything for yourself and to the fullest extent ("11: Investigate"), a point to use personalized and individualized speech rather than cliched phrases for the sake of mass appeal ("9: Be kind to our language")... '. The link below provides a short bio of Timothy Snyder, lists 'On Tyranny, along with other books, and a list of sellers:
https://www.timothysnyder.org/books/on-tyranny-graphic-edition
Timothy Snyder is also on substack and currently presenting the 20 lessons from 'On Tyranny; with additional commentary as part of his podcasts called 'Thinking about...'. A link to it is below.
https://snyder.substack.com/
You are simply great, Fern!
Bought "Midnight in Washington " by Adam Schiff last night, on Audible and Kindle. One of my all-time heroes. No time to stop to listen today. What he writes is not for background while you do chores and other distracting stuff....I do have my very worn copy of "On Tyranny" as well. Time to replace it, along with the Constitution, but I am loathe to get new ones without all my notes in them!
You are welcome. It is a valuable book, among others also mentioned here.
Thanks.
You’re welcome. It’s nice to see someone else who appreciates Anne Applebaum’s work. Her book “Gulag” is also very good.
Another good book along the line of gulags is “KL - A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps” by Nikolaus Wachsmann. I’m still working my way through it and can recommend it so far. It is very detailed on how the camps were set up and it lays out how people are drawn into such behaviors, even those initially reluctant to participate. Not an easy read but important, especially now.
I find Tim Snyder’s BLOODLANDS the most detailed and comprehensive book on the extermination practices of the Germans and the Russians in Eastern Europe. Snyder also details the involvement of ‘ordinary Germans,’ not just the SS and other “Nazi’ killing groups.
And we are well on the path. They make no secret of their goal. As Rush and Rupert have screamed for decades, the libtards are the enemy. Anything to vanquish them. The hate rules the MAGAt fools. Again, propaganda works…
Anne Applebaum and Tim Snyder are superb and outspoken on the creep towards authoritarianism.
In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas / corpora; ("I intend to speak of forms changed into new entities;")
- Ovid, The Metamorphoses
At first, I'd thought of two 1932 Hollywood movies: Freaks and The Island of Lost Souls. The films are morality plays, in which the oppressed take revenge on their tormentors. And then next came to mind Ovid. But Ovid's work, which ends with the deification of Julius Caesar, transforms a tradition of violent transformation inspiring moral reflection into an amusement of artful manipulation.
It seems to me a natural reaction to the Party of Lincoln morphing into the Party of Reagan and now the Party of Trump.
The true horror of Kafka's iteration is that Gregor gradually accepts his metamorphosis as the natural order of things.
Somewhere (The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte) Marx remarks: Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
The Lincoln presidency is our historic fact. The Reagan presidency is our tragedy. The Trump presidency is our farce.
Lincoln upheld our Founders revolutionary vision of radical equality. Reagan, behind the rhetorical myth making of 'the shining city on a hill', weaponized racism and religion in the service of deregulating business and defunding the social safety net. Trump sees himself as a new Caesar, the preeminent god in his own pantheon, but he is more like the buffoonish self proclaimed dictator, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte.
But ... the human wreckage and the deformation of the body politic.
Trump personifies the Republican party, but the Republican party personifies 'the banality of evil.' Not that in its devolution evil has become commonplace, but that Trump has been elevated "to that bad eminence" by a GOP bureaucracy of small men 'just doing their job' and giving no thought to the harm they doing in the larger community. (Gingrich, McConnell et al.) The GOP motto seems to be 'nasty as we want to be' or, in the words of Milton's Satan 'better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.' Pandemonium.
Republican right wing extremists have been muttering about civil war since the election of Pres. Barack Obama. At the drop of a, red, hat, Trump has amplified and legitimized their cry. Today's GOP is the ideological, and in many cases actual, heirs to the Confederacy who have nursed sedition in their breast since their Civil War defeat. And so back to Julius Caesar, this time Shakespeare's Antony: Cry havoc! and let slip the dogs of war.
I’m terribly frightened for our country - is there any hope? Is it is inevitable that we will devolve into Gilead? The war of southern rebellion was a terrible thing, but at least it was straight forward. The current events seem so much more insidious.
Like Timothy Snyder writes in regard to authoritarianism, Lesson #1 is, Do not obey in advance. Don't give away your power.
https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1444727952239828992?s=20
As HCR and Joanne Freeman described in their most recent podcast, use our voices to speak up to our representatives, and then there is a point where the mechanics of our election system must be fixed. We citizens cannot fix the filibuster problem, but we can continue to write/call/text/petition our representatives to fix the filibuster problem and to reach out to their colleagues.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/split-party-politics/id1567665859?i=1000537583947
Hope is a survival skill.
Well said Ellie. Hope is a skill as long as it has a plan - which you describe.
I turn to Snyder’s book often. Even though I no longer believe we will avoid what is coming because those with the power and authority to do anything won’t, I still believe in resistance and always will.
We're living in dangerous times. But nothing is inevitable and no one sees the future. It may turn out better than we can reasonably believe.
Joseph in Missoula
Thanks Joseph. You betcha. Very few Smart Ones gave Biden-Harris a chance; almost no one gave Senators Warnock or Ossoff a chance, yet here we are. Now we must give our Democracy a chance by fighting through our fears, lifting where we stand, doing all we can to support our leaders. They need us!
The reason Biden/Harris won the election is that they ran a well organized campaign and Trump (among many other things) screwed up by refusing to put on a mask in April of 2019. The reason Warnock and Ossof won in Georgia is that Stacie Abrams led a years-long get out the vote effort there, and MTG suppressed Republican turnout by saying the election was rigged.
Steve, boil it down a bit more: At least here in GA, they all won because the People Voted. Stacy and Joe are my heroes, but that's the bottom line.
Wish I had the money that Republicans and Democrats think I do. Not on Soros’ doner list, sad to say
Exactly, Gus!
Thank you! That needed to be said. The tRepubs weapon is FEAR. Half the posts here are strengthening that weapon.
Agree. Much more about organizing and acting. Less teeth gnashing
Dynamics of Prejudice - fear and ignorance - Morris Janowitz and Bruno Bettelheim
Thank you, Joseph. It’s a real Old Man of Yolanda moment, “But the world is hollow, and I have touched the sky…” I hope there is a Captain Kirk waiting in the wings to get us back on track.
There is no Captain Kirk. There is US to strengthen democracy. Strength in numbers. Be part of the solution.
“There is no Captain Kirk.” And there is no Cavalry coming. WE are the Cavalry. Mount Up!
Is not Biden our Captain Kirk?
Capt. Kirk: “Those of you who have served for long on this vessel have encountered alien life-forms. You know the greatest danger facing us is ourselves, and irrational fear of the unknown. But there’s no such thing as ‘the unknown,’ only things temporarily hidden, temporarily not understood.”
I have no idea who this author is, but I like what she espoused in this article:
"Leadership isn’t about being the most visible, the loudest, or even the highest earner. Leadership is truly about leading from behind. Real leaders are the types who want to share their success rather than bask in the glory, and those who when things go wrong, take ownership and take the fall to ensure their team is taken care of. As I always like to say, 'Teamwork makes the dream work.'”
https://www.jashleypanter.com/the-true-meaning-of-leading-from-behind/
True, so true..A LOT of them aliens....a LOT of them things.
That would make Harris Uhuru?
Who would be Pelosi?
Schumer as Spock...
I give up.
Bones.
If you want to hold a fictional character in mind to strengthen hope and resolve, I suggest Frodo and Samwise of Lord of the Rings.
I have absolutely no idea who you are talking about, Christine. Obviously my loss for missing that show....
Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien. Wonderful books. MiddlecEarth with the hobbits. Peter Jackson directed the trilogy of movies.
Oh, okay -- I know people who are fans, like I was a fan of Monty Python. Now I know some more fans! Thanks.
Yes, excellent recommendation. Especially as they get closer to Mount Doom. Thank you. ❤️🩹
Fantecies are useless. The reality is we must stand up on our himd legs and bark to scare away the cowsrdly Republican bullies and then get in with life.
Absolutely Susan! But I find that fantasy breaks help me bark louder....
Dreaming.
I’m old, this crisis has been coming for decades, the water has been tepid, coming to a roiling boil, sad to say
Yes. You are right.
Thank you Heather for this rather disturbing Letter.
I watched several interviews this weekend remarking where we are in this calamity. Dr Fiona Hill, Carl Berstein just to name 2, have sounded the alarm. We are well beyond "I hope this won't happen mode". We are in it. The GOP gameplan is no longer fantasy. The Trump GOP is in power. Make no mistake. The Democrats are in a reactive state, they missed the mark, as usual, to right the ship.
I see absolutely no good coming out of this juncture. The GOP are kneeling at the corner of this Nation with a lighted match ready to burn it down.
Be safe, be well.
I would think that Trump’s comment about the need for the Republicans to ‘burn down the country’ should make his Twitter ban permanent. It reminds me of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s ruling that it is illegal to shout fire in a crowded theater. Trump’s statement comes days after Steve Bannon (whose sanity I find in doubt) spoke of ‘20,000 shock troops.’ All this smells like insurrection. Are the Proud Boys and others again being invited to arms?
Keith, I absolutely think it is a call to arms. Both Bannon's and Trump's statements are loud and clear. January 6th was a practice run.
These people are terrorists and should be treated as terrorists. Terrorist - a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.
Completely agree. There is a line and laws that separate free speech from using speech for calls for violence and intimidation and it is way past time for the laws to be used.
Don, is Garland turning a blind eye to this ? If the tables were turned, Barr would have been all over this, as he should.
Like Biden, Garland is in over his head. Both are fine people of upstanding values but too many Democrats think taking the high road is the best path. However, past events, actions by Republicans, and reactions by Democrats suggest otherwise.
Politics has devolved into ruthless game playing. The Republican game plan has been easier to implement because their core strategy is to undermine and invalidate their opponent/enemy. Negotiations and compromise are a sign of weakness.
Every time Republicans speak, it's to their constituency which has conveniently been programmed/brainwashed for decades with the same underlying message - Democrats are socialists who give away stuff to the lazy and poor and ask you to pay for it in higher taxes.
Unfortunately, Democrats are in the impossible position of trying to create programs that help everyone, but especially the most disadvantaged while at the same time appeasing their wealthy donors. Most Democrats believe that to get elected and stay in office requires sucking up to the wealthy and demonstrating quid pro quo. They're probably not wrong though progressives like Sanders proved that if you focus on ideas that reverse income and wealth inequality you'll earn people's support. There are many Democrats, but the Clintons and Pelosi offer good examples of impressive feats of triangulation.
The key to political success is delivering the goods. On this count, Republicans excel and Democrats fail. From the top down to the rank and file, money pours into the Republican Party; not so much for the Democrats. Think about the politicians who decide to run and wondering where the money will come from to mount an effective campaign. The Republican machine with all its interlinked support systems (e.g. conservative media empire and self-affirming think tanks) combined with a blank check makes running as a Trump acolyte a no-brainer. Again, with a Democratic candidate, not even close.
Back to Garland. Not only is he in over his head but there's so much crap hitting the fan, there aren't enough people or hours in the day to process all the information and evidence that already exists. Biden should fund a major expansion of the Justice Department and maybe appoint more deputy AGs with greater but more focused authority. (He also would be well advised to rejuvenate and expand the IRS.)
Frankly, I think for Democrats it's all but over. Too much time has been wasted, priorities have floundered because of dysfunction and chaos within party ranks. Without doing away with the filibuster and getting Manchin and Sinema in line, they can't accomplish anything. At this point, whatever they do, it will be too little, too late.
And Flynn.
Yes, absolutely this piece of _____ (unprintable). He should have been recalled by the military and court-martialed for fomenting violence of our government a very long time ago. That he has not been is a black mark against the UCMJ and the US Army. (Same for a few other veterans openly fomenting violence.)
Exactly.
It should also bring about immediate charges of fomenting violence against the government. But hey, that should have happened on Jan 6th and if not then, then Jan 22nd. And it didn’t.
If this isn’t treason what is? What will it take to arrest them?
The Democrats have always been reactive and never proactive. That has been my complaint for decades. This all could have been prevented if Democrats met every attack with a counterattack going back to the 1990s. Democratic supporters need to understand why the Democratic Party has been overly compromising and feckless. The negotiations ongoing over the Build Back Better legislation are a perfect example of how the party is compromised by the interests of "big money."
Democratic passivity and dysfunction have allowed the Republicans to build a formidable organization that has unlimited financial support from the wealthy. They are unstoppable! Elections, getting out the vote campaigns and campaign contributions are not going to change the trajectory. We are essentially a year away from the Democrats losing the House and Senate. Game over!
Anyone thinking that if the Democrats can somehow manage to cut the head off the beast, the beast will die, is going to be sadly disappointed. The wealthy oligarchs have been working toward establishing a plutocracy for at least 40 years. They have managed to take a lemon like Trump and make it into lemonade to further their cause. Trump could die tomorrow and the Republicans will march on undeterred, just as strong and just as destructive.
i have watched it for 40 years, Democrats still think it's politics as usual.
I agree with your take on the Democrats (the majority of them anyway). Those in charge right now are not at all up to the task of thwarting the takeover - either because they are fully owned with their individual and corporate donors and/or because they really aren’t capable of seeing what is happening right in front of them and reacting with the kind of strong, capable leadership and legal standings that are needed.
The Democrats in charge right now are the same people who were in charge or in leadership positions for the last 20+ years. It's on their watch that Republicans have burst forth.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
I agree Don. 100%.
I am beyond sick and tired of the current Democrat Leadership - Pelosi, Schumer, Hoyer, Nadler, etc. Just as you said - look what has happened under their watch. Plus, people should look into their donors and how their families have benefited from their positions.
I know this next comment will piss off some who will tell me I am being ageist but I think the subject needs to be broached. There should be age limits to holding political and judicial positions. And, barring that, there should be mandatory competence & psychological exams for anyone in either position, one that takes place upon filing to run and one that takes place with every election for Congress and the Presidency and one that takes place every five years for judges, including the Supreme Court.
I piss people off here all the time with my refusal to bow to the great Pelosi.
But, I'll go one further than you - term limits!
I also think those who hold elective offices and take an oath should be held accountable. All these Republicans who refused to certify the vote for purely partisan reasons have betrayed their oath of office. They should have been censored or expelled. Republicans refusing to investigate an attempted coup should be expelled. And obviously, those Republicans who colluded with Trump should be expelled. If they don't face consequences, future coups are all but guaranteed!
The fact that none of what you and I propose will happen, just convinces me more that our system of governance is damaged beyond repair.
I equate Republicans to a deadly cancer that is killing the body politic.
Then I am in good company :) with reference to the near worship that Pelosi garners. She has accomplished some good but she needed to leave office a long time ago. In my humble, and researched, opinion.
I agree with you completely on term limits. Human behavior dictates the necessity of that. Power almost always corrupts and the longer a person stays in a position of power, the more likely that will happen. It just makes sense to look out for that from the beginning by having term limits on every position of authority.
I also agree with you on what should have happened to everyone who refused to certify the vote. (Of course, that would have meant removing most of Indiana’s politicians but it would have been for the best long-term.)
Precisely.
Spot on Don
Thanks Linda! You and I are always on the same page, or at least it seems that way to me.
I think so too Don !
Linda, Fiona Hill has been outstandingly articulate. She has been warning us all along. One of her comments Sunday was that we should be listening to the experiences of immigrants coming to this country as refugees from the kind of totalitarianism we are heading into. Ironic, no?--some in U.S. are contemplating leaving this country to get away from the authoritarianism of "trumpism" even while the rest of the world is struggling to get into the U.S. as a safe haven!
Carol. Yes, she is. I have followed her works for many years through The Brookings Institute. I find her to be Heather's counterpart in many ways. Dr Hill is as astute in Russian History as Heather is in American History. Both are similar in their ways of teaching and writing.
I thought it was brilliant that she tied in looking through the eyes of an immigrant in that interview. When Fiona rings the alarm, we all need to listen .
Fiona Hill has earned the Medal of Freedom from President Biden! Her personal story and her fearless and totally convincing testimony at the impeachment hearing are heartrending both for an immigrant and for an American citizen. By contrast, I was dismayed by Colonel Vindman’s backsliding on General Milley, after he proudly spoke the truth at the impeachment hearing, thus jeopardizing a distinguished military career. It is worth rereading PROFILES IN COURAGE (published under JFK’s authorship, though his role in producing the book was somewhat limited). As a Nixon White House Enemies List member, I initially abhorred President Ford’s pardoning of Richard Nixon. Years later I applauded the granting to President Ford of a ‘Kennedy Profiles in Courage’ award. Historical perspective can be a sobering experience.
Keith, she has worked in several Administration's. George W, Obama and Trump. I'm somewhat surprised she hasn't been asked by this Administration, given her expansive knowledge and the hands on working of foreign affairs.
I'm with you 100% on Vindman. I can't tell you how surprised I was by his immediate comments regarding Milley.
I do have Profiles of Courage in my library here at the house. I should give that a re-read.
Thanks for this post Linda. You are 100% correct - we are already in the middle of turning into an authoritarian state. And, once again, the Democrats have done very little to counter the attack. Including President Biden and especially, the DOJ.
I too don’t see this turning around, changing for the better, or being stopped at this point. I’m still working against it as best I can but I don’t believe it will work. Not anymore.
Kasumii I found yesterday's interview with Dr Fiona Hill on Face the Nation to be incredibly revealing and very much on target. I'm not able to provide a direct link for some reason, but a Google search will quickly bring it up.
Here's the transcript. All I could find otherwise was parts of her interview on Face the Nation. MSNBC won't let me in at all unless I disable my ad blocker - not going to happen. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/transcript-fiona-hill-on-face-the-nation/ar-AAPlqyN
I’ll look it up. Thanks Linda. Last week (October 6th) I listened to an interview she did on Fresh Air. She is quite articulate & knowledgeable. Her book arrived today. I look forward to reading it and checking out the interview you mention.
And burn it down, they will. And fools still think it’s the old GOP.
So this chilling account of the precipice on which we now perch begs this question: like moderate Democrats in 1860, will moderate Republicans switch parties to defend and save the nation? Will they finally show courage at personal risk now that their former president and still maniacal leader of their party is, in essence, embracing a civil war? And what about business leaders who perpetually straddle the fence? Are they ready to try to stop economic chaos that would engulf not just their companies but the nation and world? We will know soon enough.
Trump undoubtedly is stoking tensions to a fever pitch, hoping that a civil war would destroy the institutions trying to bring him, finally, to justice. He's manipulating the manipulated to fight for him, this time with blood. Only such an unthinkable reckoning can save him.
And again, TFG is in it only for himself, not caring about any damage or destruction for others. Bringing it down to feed his ego.
He is truly the biggest loser and cult leader. Sadly, cults don’t deprogram themselves. Ike knew that, he made sure that the German population saw what they had wrought.
The best way to avoid having to go back to what happened in 1860 which resulted in over half a million deaths in the Civil War is to make sure all those convicted of crimes in connection with the January 6 insurrection, including elected officials, receive sentences in tough prisons, not cupcake white collar crime institutions. That ought to have some effect on the Republican Party and its confused and misguided supporters who fail to understand how democracy works.
I'm with you in wanting to see serious jail time handed out to all of the Jan. 6 miscreants who planned and participated in that disgusting display of treachery. But to be honest I don't think that will change the dynamic that creates those fools, and I'll tell you why. I have a secure, well paid, blue collar Union job, and the particular location I work at is chock full of diehard Maga-hat anti-vax guys (pretty much all guys - one woman out of 60-80 people). I've had several long discussions there arguing the lunacy of working class people supporting a conservative party whose interests run counter to our economic class. I haven't yet found an angle that changes anyone's view. I may have gotten a little traction on vaccines and masks, because after a while blatant facts do make a dent, but even that is minimal.
I bring this up because there's an apt comparison on our job. Overtime. That is one topic that shares wide agreement. Everybody likes it when OT is available. But when it's not, trouble starts. The majority of us are in our 40's and 50's with 20 to 30 years on the job. We're basically a bunch of cranky older men who get upset when we don't get what we want. When there's OT, money's flowing and people are happy. When the OT gets shut down, tempers rise. People start sniping at each other, then complaining to either management or the Union, who then have to respond and take actions that upset other people. With everyone second guessing everything the atmosphere gets real tense. And that continues until when? Until the work picks up and the OT starts flowing. All of a sudden people are too busy to worry about other people's business and the problems all seem to melt away.
To relate to our current politics - these guys like trump and hate Dems because they feel like the government is always trying to take their money and give it to undeserving... take your pick - immigrants, welfare cheats, liberal art pansies, etc. etc., all while ignoring the danger to society these groups pose. They feel like trump tries to take a firm stand against those groups, while Dems try to pander to them and buy their votes with cash handouts. I disagree with their analysis, but there you have it.
My point is, it's the economy (stupid! Have to throw that in). I think that trump's support is driven by economic, and also cultural, insecurity. When people have secure, well paying jobs, where they can take a vacation and have a retirement, other problems seem to melt away. Even the cultural issues would fade in prominence. Our larger problem, I'd say, is that our economy has long been based on extractive, environmentally destructive industries to the point where we've hit a wall in what more we can ask of our Earth without seriously compromising our ability to actually, you know, have a functioning civilization. It's kind of a downer, but until we figure out a way to create prosperity, and spread it equitably, based on my local observations we are doomed to engage in pitched battles against our own selves as we circle the drain to oblivion.
On a happier note (for me anyway), I'm able to post such a lengthy note today due to having a paid holiday. Go Union! Happy Indigenous People's Day!
In my opinion, If the attitude of "what's good for me, and screw everybody else" (which seems prevalent among your co-workers) prevailed in 1776 and in 1860, democracy would not have succeeded in our country. Democracy was helped in that the people were convinced that the wars were theirs, but neither struggle actually was directed at benefitting the common people . Both the Revolution, freeing us from English economic controls, and the Civil War, fought over the expansion of slavery, were for the benefit of business interests which wanted economic independence in 1776 and in 1860, didn't want to compete with slavery-based enterprises. And today, we wonder whom the policies of our political parties are really serving, beyond the issues sitting on the table. I have a pretty good idea of the answer regarding the Republicans. As for the Democrats, each of the groups within it seem to think their goals are dominant ... but they all can't be correct.
It's even worse than "what's good for me, and screw everybody else." What they're voting for isn't even good for them. It's bad for over 99% of Americans.
What you say is in line with my own personal maxim - Money runs the show. Which is just my version of "he who pays the Piper calls the tune." This has always been the case throughout history, and seems to have the aspect of an unchanging Law of Nature. So I think it's best to accept and reckon with it. My point of inquiry is in looking for ways to create wealth that do less damage to the planet or less privileged people. It may not be possible. I can't point to any evidence of it happening. Wealth seems to depend on exploitation of one form or another.
I use my workplace as an example because I know it and see the dynamic play out. But we are not a bunch of cutthroats looking to step on each other to get ahead. We have amazing solidarity as Union members when necessary to protect our rights on the job. But human nature being what it is, people get on each other's nerves if allowed the chance. Idle hands...
Yes, there are many times I think too many people have too much time on their hands to watch tv, which now has an infinite number of channels or indulge in social media. I think all that, has helped give rise to the anger and distrust. I remember when it was just the three major networks and a couple of local stations. I think the views presented were more centrist. Everyday I hope that more followers of TFG wake up and walk away from him.
Great, informative, down to earth where the people live post. Thank you, Syd. How can the bills and plans Biden is calling for reach the ears and hopes of the people you work with? Most Americans appear to support them, but Biden's poll numbers continue to trend downward. Even if both infrastructure bills get through, it will take time before their effects will be felt in the lives and wallets of the people. The bills will provide many jobs, along with a long shredded safety net, educational opportunity and support for families, children and the elderly. How can a bridge be built to the people in advance of the bills' implementation? How can the people believe in what is not yet right in front of their eyes?
These are the big questions. I really really wish I had the answers! I'm sure you feel the frustration I do, where the Democrats, while far from perfect and subject to the foibles and shortcomings that afflict us all, at least try to work toward greater equity in society. While the Republicans seem to have become intransigent attack animals, jumping on every weakness, be it in logic, or implementation, or personality, what have you, to ceaselessly push for the utter dominance of their worldview. Which I find to be exclusionary and classist. But they have been sharpening their techniques for decades now, and combined with a winner take all, no room for compromise attitude, they are tough adversaries. They are very aware of projecting an image of strength, and that is a large part of their appeal to my compatriots. I do take heart however, in the belief that those of us who do our best to practice compassion and fairness far outnumber those who are willing to tear others down to get ahead. It may be a long road, but I think (hope!) righteousness toward others will win the day, eventually.
Thank you, Syd. We belong to the same Union of the people, politically and in spirit.
Someone said, as I fast scanned my 3 recorded msnbc shows during the one hour a day I am permitted, "Dems need to stop selling the recipe and start selling the brownies." I like it!
I was scanning for news about the republican editorials on Sunday, referredto by HCR.
There was none! What? Why? If it wasn't on any of those shows, msnbc isn't covering the story.
Has anyone seen news on daytime msnbc, or anywhere?
“There are a lot that have some.I’ll end up with less “. The real Truth. “ There are a Few who have a lot more than I. I want More.”
* Edit - create prosperity without destroying our habitat! and spreading it equitably...
They need to bring back hard labor, move say a pile of large rocks a hundred feet and once they have all been moved, move them back, over and over, day after day, year after year, for a couple decades. No more idea of rehabilitation as the goal, just hard labor, punishment that is well deserved.
Get the bosses, the followers will think twice next time.
I can't say watching McTurtleneck get upstaged by Chuck, isn't somewhat of a pleasure. What I absolutely abhor is that TFG still has a stronghold over the Repubs. What the hell does he have on them? Are they ALL crooked gangsters? To me, TFG looks like the Pied Piper and his loyal subjects follow him wherever he goes.
I beseech thee to embrace the decisions of the DOJ (If we ever get any!) and of the SDNY, Georgia, and any other states, who are inclined about what to do with this buffoon and his gaggle of illegitimate lapdogs.
What the hell does he have on them?
I eould bet a nickle they are all abused and/or abused as chikdren.
My high school history teacher was a man named Mark Gillette, son of Guy Gillette, a US Senator from Iowa, first during FDR's first term, then again in the late 40's to mid-50s. Mark , like HCR, taught history from the point of view of 'why'. Early on he told us he didn't care if we didn't know WHEN the War of 1812 was fought - he wanted us to understand WHY it was fought.
He lectured for an hour each class, all tests and exams were from the notes we took (and God forbid you were out; you'd better borrow the best note-taker's notes!), all questions were essay questions - no multiple choice questions on HIS tests!
He was strict as a tyrant and we hated him. For about the first year. By the time I graduated, anyone in any of his classes would have crawled over ground glass for him! Our final exam in World History class (I had him for Civics, American History and World History), had two questions, if memory serves: Name the major events leading up to, the major events of, and the outcome of WWII. I can't recall the second question!!
He didn't believe in 'A's', as that represented perfection, and he believed nothing is ever perfect. When I got an A- on an oral report on Karl Marx, I was over the moon! It's because of him that I became a serious student, and my already love of history took a more in depth turn. You might say having Mark as a teacher led me, eventually, to this daily letter.
I am forever in his debt.
Every word written by Heather Cox Richardson is undoubtedly true. But what’s missing defines the author. The dreadful truth, the sickness underlying it all is ignored - as is the etiology of Trump’s sickness, and the sickness of his tribal followers. And the nation. We’ve seen all this many times. Nothing new here. In Trump’s history it’s Queens racism in Queen’s real estate directed by his brutal crude racist misogynist father. Donald learned how to disrespect women at home. He learned how to “restrict” his Queens apartments and play the race card - copying exclusive Manhattan buildings that banned Jews and the Negro and whole neighborhoods in the suburbs that banned Jews and Blacks post war. Newark and Harlem and the Bronx and many others remain segregated. Trump merely said what others do.
Today’s voting denying mess, the Big Lie, the other tribal games and idiotic mask and vaccine issues are much the same.
Trump needs chaos to employ the troops. Nixon wanted to flex following Kent State. Dictators need an enemy. A whipping post. Prejudice. Fear and ignorance. Dysfunction. Dystopia.
Our deficit and massive monetization may deliver chaos in markets. Bonds will fall first. Yields will rise - even soar. Long rates will slice 50% out of long maturities. Equity will collapse. It’s coming. Biden has the right ideas. The GOP will try to cripple his plans for rehabilitation of population segments, neighborhoods, schools, roads and infrastructure…
More another time. HCR must decapitate racism and slam business as usual.
We are going to experience agony, one way or another.
To supplement Sandy's comment, Queens is one of the five boroughs in NYC and where Donald Trump grew up.
'In partnership with his mother, Elizabeth Christ Trump, Fred (Donald Trump's father) began a career in home construction and sales.... It grew to build and manage single-family houses in Queens, barracks and garden apartments for U.S. Navy personnel near major shipyards along the East Coast, and more than 27,000 apartments in New York City. Trump was investigated by a U.S. Senate committee for profiteering in 1954, and again by the State of New York in 1966. Donald became the president of his father's real estate business in 1971, and they were sued by the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division for violating the Fair Housing Act in 1973; in the case settlement, the Trumps were ordered to take several measures to curb racial discrimination.'
'In 1933 Trump built one of New York City's first modern supermarkets, called Trump Market, in Woodhaven, Queens. It was modeled on Long Island's King Kullen, a self-service supermarket chain. Trump's store advertised "Serve Yourself and Save!" and quickly became popular. After six months, Trump sold it to King Kullen.[24][34]'
'In 1934, Trump and a partner acquired in federal court the mortgage-servicing subsidiary of Brooklyn's J. Lehrenkrauss Corporation,[35] which had gone bankrupt and subsequently been broken up. This gave Trump access to the titles of many properties nearing foreclosure, which he bought at low cost and sold at a profit. This and similar real estate ventures quickly thrust him into the limelight as one of New York City's most successful businessmen.[36][16]'
'Trump made use of loan subsidies created by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) not long after the program was initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934.[11] By 1936, Trump had 400 workers[g] digging foundations for houses that would be sold at prices ranging from $3,000 to $6,250.[37] Trump used his father's tactic of listing properties at prices like $3,999.99. In the late 1930s, he used a yacht called the Trump Show Boat to advertise his business off the shore of Coney Island. It played patriotic music and floated out swordfish-shaped balloons which could be redeemed for $25 or $250 towards one of his properties.[11] In 1938, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle referred to Trump as the "Henry Ford of the home building industry".[11][38]'
'In early 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and other federal leaders began denouncing real estate profiteers. On June 11, The New York Times included Trump on a list of 35 city builders accused of profiteering from government contracts.[79] He and others were investigated by a U.S. Senate banking committee for windfall gains. Trump and his partner William Tomasello[o] were cited as examples of how profits were made by builders using the FHA.[84] The two paid $34,200 for a piece of land which they rented to their corporation for $76,960 annually in a 99-year lease, so that if the apartment they built on it ever defaulted, the FHA would owe them $1.924 million. Trump and Tomasello evidently obtained loans for $3.5 million more than Beach Haven Apartments had cost.[85][86] Trump argued that because he had not withdrawn the money, he had not literally pocketed the profits.[79][87] He further argued that due to rising costs, he would have had to invest more than the 10% of the mortgage loan not provided by the FHA, and therefore suffer a loss if he built under those conditions.[88]'
We may fairly say that corruption was bred-in-the-bone for father and son Trump. The governments, both state and national, did nothing to stop them from cashing in.
'In 1966, Trump was again investigated for windfall profiteering, this time by New York's State Investigation Commission. After Trump overestimated building costs sponsored by a state program, he profited $598,000 on equipment rentals in the construction of Trump Village, which was then spent on other projects. Under testimony on January 27, 1966, Trump said that he had personally done nothing wrong and praised the success of his building project.[89] The commission called Trump "a pretty shrewd character" with a "talent for getting every ounce of profit out of his housing project", but no indictments were made. Instead, tighter administration protocols and accountability in the state's housing program were called for.[90]'. (Wikipedia)
I thought at one time we could wait for the new generation, those who don’t fear our differences. Sadly that well is being poisoned
Prejudice requires education and face to face confrontation. FB and the other silly
anti-social social media get off on crisis, fear, ignorance, hatred, prejudice, chaos, dystopian nihilism and addiction.