We can only hope for the backstory behind the shameless, shameful pass the NY Times, WaPo, WSJ, and other big media have given Trump & MAGA and, until recently, Project 2025. Who's making the decisions about coverage? Even their headlines have reflected bias and outright hostility to Biden and now Harris.
More than ever, it's up to the grassroots to organize, get out the vote, and then get out the vote again. It's good to be a Democrat or like-minded ally, but it's worthless if those people don't vote. When Democrats don't vote, Republicans win. When Democrats vote, America wins.
I have to say that although the NYT coverage of Biden and now Harris has on the whole been negative, in recent days, the Editorial Board has twice come out severely warning against a Trump Presidency.
They've been showing signs of being a little unconfortable over the upswell of criticism they've received of late (but not so uncomfortble as to be motivated to clean up their act). Harris is wise to sail ahead without pandering to the major news outlets. She's running her own campaign, and she doesn't need them.
Yes she is. But credit is due to Biden here again I'm thinking; he didn't rely on them. Kudos to Harris for taking that lesson. I think we have to admit that Biden and Harris know what we've known and talked about here for a very long time; The MSM failures.
During times like these, I need to wax philosophical and suggest that the greater numbers of malcontents known as American society are willing to walk off those proverbial cliffs if for only to feel “We socked it to ‘em.” And who’s the ‘em here? Issues are not important to the new MAGA movement. No siree. They approach ballot box mind-twisted as if on meth crystal with the notion that they will git the motha. And what have we done to deserve such lack of support? I apply this question in my personal life as well when I embark on a mission and it doesn’t swing. What have I done wrong I often have asked myself upon reflection. I suggest this approach is a good one to have going forward. Even if Harris succeeds, we likely lose the senate and we already lost the House. As extremist partisans, they will prevent Kamala Harris from doing any legislative work just so they could run another mad dog lite for president in 2028. We have crossed or are about to cross the Rubicon into autocratic rule for the sake of money and power. Money already is held supreme in this land. This may be the final nail in the coffin of American Democracy as we have known it.
All because “fear of others” has taken hold in this country by those screaming about immigration. Who’d a thunk so much ignorance could take hold so tightly.
(Introducing The Goose-Step, Two-Step March) From "Donald's Vanity Tantrums"
A new dance craze is sweeping the nation called, The Goose-Step, Two-step March. This invigorating new exercise is easy to learn! First, link arms on the dance floor. As you move backward in line, turn your head to the right and lift your left leg straight up as high as it will go. Then step forward as you turn your head to the left and lift your right leg straight up in the air.
It's very similar to square dancing or line dancing. Soon the dance floor will be filled with goose-steppers. Forward, backward, round and round. If you step out of line, you are tagged, the caller detains you, interrogates you, strip searches you, and sends you off to detainment camps for disloyalty.
This new dance craze is not to be confused with serious charges of criminal activity. By the time the youngins reach the age of reason, they will be quick to form into lines upon request for impromptu Goose-Step, Two-Step Marches and other forms of family entertainment.
And here we all are reading Professor Richardson's daily newsletter on Substack. And there are at least a dozen or more other very well respected "journalists" on Substack as well. And their are an almost unlimited number of podcasts aired daily.
I applaud the Harris campaign's efforts of seeking out the podcasts and alternate media sources. There are only 72 million cable TV subscribers as of 2023 in the US down from 98.7 million in 2016.
Spectrum is paying us $10/month to keep our Cable TV package. If we drop it, our Internet rate increases by $10/month and their cable fee is free.
I would LOVE to know how you pulled that off with 'Rectum", Gary! I'm saddled with them here in Northeast Ohio, and have never seen or heard of a package such as you describe. Details, please!!
I told them I wanted to drop cable and just have the Internet package.
And they said they had a bundle for $90 for the highest Internet speed we can get (not all that great but better than dial-up) and cable with every one of the channels we never watch.
I'm a sucker for what sounds like a good deal. After a year, it will probably jump back up over $100 and I'll have to call them again.
I was at Spectrum four days ago returning a modem and I complained about the ever rising cost of internet service; and I asked if there were not less expensive plans with slower Mbps. (I have 300, soon to be 400, and would be fine with 100 or maybe even 50). "No, not in your area," I was told. Their rep was very nice and kept looking for some way that I might save some money, either on internet or TV content. Lo and behold he discovered a $10/month discount he could give me for 12 months. I have no idea what the discount was for, but I accepted it (even though I am looking intently for a way to leave Spectrum behind).
Wow! We pulled the cable plug about a year ago. Spectrum was ridiculously expensive. It’s taken some experimentation to find the mix of streaming subscriptions that works for us, but we think we have it figured out and are paying about $100 less per month, and now have fiber which is great.
I have stopped reading most of the MSM, but do look at special sections like Science (NYT) and Well (WaPo). Our local rag is Gannett and it is nearly worthless. We take the online version to get obits. They also own the Eugene Register Guard, so use the stories from those reporters. We have a couple online local news as well as news from Portland. I think it is great that Harris is appearing on alternative formats. Yesterday a friend and I went out to lunch and then drove the back roads to another small town to visit a gallery. Lots of death star flags along the way, which received some pointed words from me as we drove past. I think most were small rural holdings. Since he is so monstrous and awful, I can only wonder why although I know some of the reasons.
As amazing as it is this ‘follow the leader mentality’ has followed MAN after MAN of multiple failures both financial and moral. The MAGA takeover is an insidious pattern …of repetition , unforfilled promise, bullying, and trust busting tactics which history has well documented as disasterous but…only EVENTUALLY. Same as WAR. Little focus on the few women who have throughout history brought significant contribution to Science, The Political Spectrum , or reading/writing( except the emails of course) and arithmetic( except of course populating ie servant fodder).
My hope ..this critical round ..will prove a value long pointedly exploited but overlooked ..the affect/effect of NUTURE for ALL vs the strongman philosophy.
It's also for "access" in the unlikely event that the former president and current felon wins the election. His vindictiveness exceeds even his narcissistic desire for attention and they're all afraid they won't get interviews if they've been mean to him.
They bury the lede, relegating it to the Opinion page. If Trump wins, at least they have plausible deniability (they likely think) that it wasn't their fault, thereby preserving some anti-Trump readership. If Kamala Harris wins, they can claim some responsibility.
Nonetheless, the overall front-page castigation of Kamala Harris for her supposed transgression — refusing a sit-down with them — contrasted to their treatment of Trump belies their stated mission: "All the News That's Fit to Print." In fact, their wildly unbalanced treatment of all the legitimate political news amounts to front page editorializing.
If the worst that these "newspapers" can come up with is a hissy fit about not getting enough interview access to VP Harris - we are in great shape.
Harris and Company are running a brilliant campaign. IMO, the regular readers of these legacy outlets have almost all made up their minds already. Harris knows this.
The focus on the younger persuasibles using the media that they live in is brilliant.
I love this letter and several others that most of us read. Hubbell, Reich, Vance, etc. But the average age of our readership is on the high end. We get upset over the MSM. The new voters don't care. They are on SM. And podcasts.
You are right about some stories being buried in "Opinion". There is a great one from Dana Milbank in the WaPo today. MSM speaking the truth.
Love yours, Russell, that "they can claim some responsibility."
Note that this gets them only points, as if the only purpose of journalism were winning -- market share, "likes," numbers as in a poll or the grubbiest of cumulative totals and rankings in standardized testing.
Nowhere in these calculations by the mainstream press does anything personal figure at all. That is, no journalist looks out as did, for instance, the poet Auden, where in "August, 1968" he looked "about a subjugated plain / Among its desperate and slain," and saw, first, real human pain. Seeing that, he could see, second and more vitally, the greater truth of the Ogre stalking the land "with hands on hips / while drivel gushes from his lips."
The mainstream press indeed gushes with "drivel," in the sense that, all void of humanities, they have no arts to help them see pain or anything human. They went to school instead to master the inanities of wonk, properly abstracted categories, being neutered, as if nothing human but only numbers could ever speak.
This flagrant disregard for the personal links to a disdain for all humanities that submits all such even more to Auden's censure in that poem's first stanza. There, he claimed such dehumanization and elite knackery only leave all effectively illiterate of humane language so, for any such an (educated) Ogre "one prize is beyond his reach: / The Ogre cannot master speech."
“ all the news that’s fit to print “ my eye. It more like the motto of a mental health advocacy group I endorsed years ago, “ all the fits that’s news to print “. And for that advocacy group it was courageous. For mainstream media it’s pandering to Trump’s MAGA fits for profit and it is cowardly.
Good point Annie. What explains this discrepancy? My surmise, NYT decided it wanted to go more 'middle of the road' maybe to attract a broader swath of readers and started hiring columnists/reporters/editors who are closet MAGA-light types who constantly gaslight around the edges so cumulatively it is a shift? My barf moment when it gave a constitutional law op-ed to John Yoo (calling him a professor of law) without mentioning that this POS was an Assistant Attorney General who wrote the bogus 'torture is ok, waterboarding is fine' memo for WBush! This became the disingenuous 'fig leaf' for WBush's 9/11 abuses.
The NY Metropolitan area is FULL of well off voters who care only about Financial matters. Their women can go to other countries for abortions if needed. (ie. They lean Republican. Even Dems in this region are “corporate Dems”, not “social Dems”)
I'm a New Yorker -- certainly not in that $$ bracket - no one I know is a 'corp dem" -- we are hardcore, progressive democrats who know how to live in a diverse community and relish it. I'm sure some Park Ave types are not as concerned but the average New Yorker is.
What I don't understand is that, if these "well off voters" care only about "financial matters," why are they supporting a candidate whose economic plan has been widely criticized by mainstream economists??
Too little, too late, as far as I'm concerned. 'Getting the backstory' as our friend LaurieOregon says will only interest me in an entertaining fashion. To me, knowing where they've stood when we needed them is all I have to know and act on.
The NYT and other Media only profits when all that Citizens United advertising dollars roll in. To acquire that money, they purposely report the race is closer than it is by giving unequal coverage. They act like Don King promoting a heavy weight fight between the champ and a bum, so that the masses tune in and buy tickets and pay per view. But the fight ends in the first few seconds. Trump has lost suburban women, the business Republicans, and the defense and national security base. And while I predict a total historic ass whopping margin in the popular vote, it’s that damn electoral college I’m worried about. And then there’s the Georgia Electoral Commission types in every red state, a tea party House of Representatives, and a corrupted Supreme Court. Mark Elias is going to be busy.
Too little too late! I am happily one of those who dumped the NYTimes long ago. Their bias has left us with a despicable divided country and now they throw us some crumbs. I have no good words for them and we will pay cleaning up this mess for generations or our children and grandchildren will live in a lost democracy.
Heather, as always your letters inform and remind us of our fate and this moment in
which we have the imperative opportunity to make the right choice,the only choice that matters for a future in which our children and their children on into the future can flourish. Of all the endorsements I have seen so far, The Atlantic has beautifully and starkly given us the information we all need Kamala must win, that choice is clear
The NYT is late to the game and have set up such a tone of equality between the candidates that when they came out and strongly endoresed Harris, there was little supporting background in their own coverage.
Yes, NYT finally warned against Trump. I do wonder how many readers cancelled before that late warning. They can got to ___. I really don’t miss their biased coverage at all.
I believe that is just a cynical gesture, a check box exercise to make people question the data in front of them. At the end, NYT’s everyday post and editorials have provided evidence of where their alliances have been: with oligarchs. They lead and exerted the most unethical and gang style polished and elitist attack on Biden from every corner after his very first debate, and did not miss the opportunity to give their “list” of acceptable options. I will dare say what they did to Biden can be certainly classified as elderly abuse, which Biden took with honor, grace and keeping his focus where it mattered. The NYT is despicable.
Too little and much too late. It is now dawning on them if tRump wins they will be destroyed by him should they show any opposition to him.
The biggest positive from my perspective is that to run a country in a fascistic manner you cannot do it without the military on your side. So far I do not see any signs of this.
I do NOT subscribe to the "we can only hope" mindset. We fight, WE WIN. We have bold voices. WE make things happen. Don't dismiss the POWER of YOUR VOICE.
I like that. It's almost 2 am, and I'm up writing postcards. Simon Rosenberg is right: Do more and worry less. It works. 2 am is also a surprisingly peaceful time to write.
There is indeed some empowerment in writing those post cards at 2 a.m. and knocking on doors for Harris-Walz and down ballot folks at 10 a.m.
Especially here in swing state N.C., where our education system will be gutted and the governor’s office desecrated were we not to win from the top down.
It is hard to fathom the inability of fellow humans not seeing — in the midst of Helene and Milton — the life-and-death importance of this election.
Working to get the word out and have been. Appreciate all of us door-knocking, postcard writing, “learn how to engage with civility” folks who mean so much to the Harris-Walz effort and are the mainstay our way of life.
Indeed! Getting prepared (mentally and physically) to go back out and canvass this weekend in North Carolina. There is a lot to do in this state and I am committed.
As an Aside, This Came Up on NBCNews.com on 8-Oct-2023:
They were Israel's eyes on the border, but their warnings about Hamas went unheard
Richard Engel and Gabe Joselow and Shira Pinson
Updated Tue, October 8, 2024 at 4:32 PM PDT
TEL AVIV — They were Israel’s eyes on the border with Gaza, but former soldiers from a military observation unit say their warnings about suspicious Hamas activity ahead of the Oct. 7 terror attacks were repeatedly ignored. A year later, they are still seeking answers.“If I had been valued a little more — not much, just a little — maybe it could have ended differently,” Roni Lifshitz, one of the former observers, told NBC News last month. “It’s anger and sadness, mainly frustration, because I was there and no one listened to me.”
Lifshitz, 21, was part of the Israel Defense Forces' unit 414 stationed at the Nahal Oz military base on the Gaza border. Soldiers in the all-women field observers team, most just 19 or 20 years old and fulfilling their mandatory military service, would spend hours glued to feeds from surveillance cameras watching for threats. In the months leading up to Oct. 7, Lifshitz said she started noticing unusual activity. Truckloads of Hamas militants, which appeared to be special forces units because they were all dressed in black, were driving within 300 yards of the fence, in a “combat patrol,” she said. After they stopped, she said they would carefully scan Israeli positions while talking amongst themselves. Israeli soldier Roni Lifshitz speaking to NBC News' chief foreign correspondent, Richard Engel, in Tel Aviv on Sept. 12. (NBC News)
In August 2023, opposition leader Yair Lapid testified that, two months before the Oct. 7 attacks, he had taken part in a military intelligence briefing in which Netanyahu received detailed warnings that Hamas had noticed a weakness, division and a loss of military competence in Israel. Netanyahu appeared “bored and indifferent , ” he said.
Danny Yatom, the former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, also testified on Sept. 10, 2024. Speaking to NBC News at the commission’s offices in Tel Aviv on the day of his testimony, Yatom said he did not have an explanation for Israel’s security failures, but said all the layers of defense in Israel, in his assessment, “collapsed at the same time.” He added that Netanyahu “is responsible because he got some early warning, even though it was not the exact date, the exact location. He did not pay attention to it the way the prime minister should pay attention to it.”
This effects OUR COUNTRY if Netanyahu's Save-His-A*s-Wars start to effect this Election Heavily, or of U.S. Forces become heavily involved in Ground Combat in Israel's spreading Conflagration... . The Tragedy of All-This-Death, Suffering, and Destruction, is that it was so PREVENTABLE...
This is a deeper view of the women working at those posts. Disgusting misogyny at work. "The female soldiers who predicted Oct. 7 say they are still being silenced"
Yes, indeed, MisTBlu, "they are still being silenced."
The corrupt Netanyahu refuses the needed commission to investigate this. He knows it will show his culpability, his cynical failures in the field all as part of his priority that IDF forces be available primarily then to aid his favored far-right settlers in their assiduous assaults on and thefts of land from Palestinians in the West Bank.
Misogyny in the military is so predictable as to be a cliché . Those who view women as less analytic, less capable of warfare's hard decisions, and less tenacious in their pursuit of victory would do well to remember the saying "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
"Israel's spreading conflagration?" Well, you're right that an authoritarian AH like Netanyahu ignored information that didn't fit the narrative he created in his mind is similar to authoritarian AH Trump's documented tendency to created his own isolated reality, which leads to national security risks.
But the current conflagration was started by Hamas's invasion of Israel on 10/7/2023 (preceded by weekly rocket attacks on Israel since 2006) and by Hezbolah's persistent and increasing rocket attacks on northern Israel (also preceded by spiradic rocket attacks since before 2000). Also, the conflagration was widened by Iran's 2 large missile attacks on Israel in recent months. Israel did not start this, but it feels "enough is enough" and it must finish it.
I suspect that Netanyahu is hoping to get American forces engaged during a Democratic administration before a potential isolationist Republican administration takes over in January. Fortunately, Biden hasn't bought in to that, and has taken a stance of protecting Israel with missile defenses and alliance support while limiting Israel's access to the largest bombs because of their broad destruction zones (and Netanyahu's cynical militancy).
This is Iran's conflagration, directly and via its proxies Hamas and Hezbolah, who both use their fellow Arabs as human shields. Your phrase leads a reader towards blaming the victim, though that victim is quite strong.
Blaming the victim is illogical as is your post about Israel within a Substack thread about Trump vs. Harris.
The Problem of this Conflagration, is that it is the latest 'Eye-For-An-Eye' that goes back to the 19th Century... The HAMAS Attack of Oct-7th was very preventable... If the latest Conflagration Explodes to involve U.S. Ground Forces, or Tanks the Oil & Financial Markets, this will affect the Election just like the non-release of U.S. Hostages held by Iran affected the Carter vs. Reagan in 1980... The Republicans are trying to Weaponize this, I see it on their Bumper Stickers... My Rule-Of-Thumb regarding the Middle-East is, There Are No Good Guys in the Middle-East.... You should watch Fareed Zacaria's 6-Oct-2024 Episode... Israel is a Regional Superpower with Nuclear Weapons backed by the USA, and it is surrounded by Failed/Near-Failed Nation States... Pay Attention to the Casualty Rates between the two sides...
The NYT and WaPo click-bait negative headlines drive me crazy - even if the story itself lays out the facts, the micro-aggression of the article headlines is negative. After Trump told so many lies about Springfield and disaster relief, I had hoped to read that in the headlines - that's where it should have been.
The only time I read the NYT for any length of time (& got addicted) was when I was caregiver to a wealthy retired economist. During Bush's years in office. I noticed then that I needed to read the entire article to get the actual truth but sometimes it just wasn't there. I don't know if anyone else paid attention to it but when Bush was appointed to office the entire demeanor of reporting (as well as advertising) changed. It was as if everyone was rich, elegance was at the forefront, descriptions emphasized the lavish accoutrements of opulence & wealth, this from MPT at the Inaugural. Then I noticed that everything became "highend", granite countertops, specialty water wasting multi shower heads were all the rage. Media brainwashing at its finest, all geared toward waste & extravagance, like a page had been turned universally, everywhere, all at once. I am pretty attuned to a change in tone & the tone changed for sure in 2000- 2001. Then we get endless wars & Bush's advice to citizens was shop. Remember that? No sacrifice like in WWII. This was republicans declaring that FDR had finally been defeated.
I don't think the general Trump fan reads most of these papers. I think they get the majority of their news from YouTube bloggers, then maybe OAN, Newsmax and FOX. I don't think much reading is going on by these folks.
On a long flight, an airline generally offers two choices for a meal. In the case of this election, we are being offered the choice of a good chicken dinner or a pile of poop with broken glass on top. The media is asking questions like was the chicken free range? Are the potatoes organic? Rather than focusing on the real question: how did a pile of poop become a menu choice on this airline? I, for one, refuse to eat poop and can't understand why no one is asking why it is being served in the first place. Main S__t Media seems more like it.
IMO, the NYT’s scandalous lack of coverage of the Democrats and sanewashing of Big Orange is traceable to Sulzberger’s hurt feefees because Biden wouldn’t sit down with him for a one on one when Biden was still the candidate. There was more than a whiff of privilege, a sort of ‘I will not be ignored, I’m the mighty New York Times.’
The paper is a shadow of the greatness it once was and current management doesn’t seem to realize how irrelevant the Paper of Record has become.
Many people I know have canceled their subs. I haven’t, but the paper is such a deeply-ingrained habit with me that it’s become like heroin. I can’t imagine my day without it. Sadly, not the case for a lot of people lately.
In the popular novel, 'James', Huck Finn and Jim discuss the fate of two con-men busted by angry locals. I wonder if the author, Percival Everett, had our times partly in mind when he penned this exchange. 😯
Jim: ". . . . Maybe they get tarred and feathered. I don't know."
Huck: "That seems right awful."
Jim: ". . . . But they was stealin' from dem folk. Tellin' lies lak dey was. . . ."
Huck: "Yes, but them people liked it, Jim. Did you see their faces? They had to know them was lies, but they wanted to believe. What do you make of that?"
Jim: "Folks be funny lak dat. Dey take the lies dey want and throws away the truths dat scares 'em."
Wow, that's portentous stuff. My take is the YAHOO had the knowledge and ignored it the same way DonOLD ignored what Woodward told him about Covid in 2019. It was intentional. The YAHOO wants the Middle East in flames. Then America will HAVE to make a decision to support terrorism on a grand scale or not. South American banana republics are nothing compared to this.
(And before you get your wind up, I am not antisemitic but I am against Palestinian genocide. We shouldn't be killing thousands of innocents at Yahoo's whim and we have the way to stop it)
1. Yahoo is a mostly defunct internet search engine. The Israeli PM is Bibi. Please stop confusing me.
2. Bibi's idiocy is boundless. There is no daylight between Trump and Putin and no daylight between Putin and Iran. If he thinks a Trump presidency is going to do him any good, he's an idiot. He desperately wants to join the Trump Putin Orban club, and doesn't get that it's exclusive.
I am devoted to the Jewish state almost my whole life.🇮🇱 I am learning the bitter lesson - after learning from the ghastly war in Viêt Nam and 0peration lraq Freedom - that a good people can do some bad things. 😢 Disagree that what lsraël is doing in Gaza constitutes a genocide . . . yet; 🫨She has been warned by the lnternation Court of Justice. 🚸lsraël has displayed a genocidal intent by bombing hospitals, museums, and waging total war in a densely populated area. 😫While l respect President Biden deeply and would vote for him without hesitation, his unfortunate support for the Netanyahu government facilitated the tragic use of bunker- busting bombs in a above ground while Hamas gangsters laugh at the world hiding underground.🫣
I'm gonna have to look into "James". Huck Finn was one of my favorites growing up (that and Robin Hood, go figure). Jim says it all: "...throws away the truths dat scares 'em."
A wunnerfool book, Ally. I am a prod-so-long, plod-along reader. ¡One the few books l ever read in less than two days! Mr Everett surprises the reader with James’s wisdom and other gifts.
Yup, 2 years after JB "was heading up 101" I was heading up 101 but, it was to go to the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival to see the Jefferson Airplane Live to see & hear Grace sing: "If the Truth is found to be Lies ... You better find somebody to Love".
Prompted me to go look for this: For America (1986) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZqrjMmpr1c They say history doesn’t exactly repeat, but it does rhyme….deja vu all over again!
Those big media plus Fox are controlled by historic rich Republicans. The wording in a heading can turn good news into something questionable. Eg: “Will women supporters of Harris lose steam?”
Laurie's hit on the NYT got a huge community endorsement . NYT editorial board came out against Trump in June I believe, and called for support for Kamala in late September. This endorsement was widely reported across msm. Someone complained to me when i pointed out the Sept endorsement "too little too late". So what does that make of the Atlantic's endorsement in the final weeks of the campaign? I didn't see Heather complain over "too little too late". The editorials, in both June and Sept were unambiguously damning of Trump. So Trump threatens if he gets in power msm like NYT et al will have their licenses revoked for let's call it treasonous messaging, and Heather seems to take that one very seriously. We can't have it both ways folks, or, can we?
What backstory? Trump makes them money by keeping the discussion going as though it were a competitive race. If the legacy media covered the failed insurrectionist the way they've covered his various opponents, there would be no contest at all because he'd have been hustled into a dark corner and kept there where he belongs. Today's column is another good reason I subscribe to HCR, Robert Hubbell, The Bulwark, The Dispatch, and The Atlantic using the money I don't spend on subscriptions to the Times and the Post anymore.
I note, in light of Dr. Richardson's tale of the 1860 election and the beginnings of the NYT, that they started as a Republican newspaper and have now returned to their roots even though the current growth is incomparably noxious compared to the original.
I can't help but think the misogyny and monied elitism has something to do with the prejudiced coverage. One would think that criminal acts would get more continual coverage and complaints rather than not submitting to the behavior of being talked over during interviews.
Biden and Harris had FEMA on the ground before Hurricane Milton hit—prepared and accountable. Trump’s response to Hurricane Maria? Delayed, chaotic, and lacking empathy. The contrast is clear: Biden leads, Trump failed.
And if the con is on, and the plan is to cheat to get elected, then actual job performance doesn't matter. Which is why -- I'll say it again - it's up to us, the grassroots, to get out the vote and get out the vote again.
Yes , I agree it's critical to that we show up in droves to vote. To encourage your family, friends and anyone who is doubt about who to vote for, talk to them.
Per David Robson's 10/9 'NEW SCIENTIST' report, "The discovery of a small blue blob of neurons, the locus COERULEUS controls your mode of thinking suggests ways to increase learning, creativity, focus & alertness."
These neurons more commony referenced as the "little blue dot". 🔵
David's 6 page piece takes reports the participants [ cohort ]from "mind wandering" to "better control over their locus coeruleus, a fact confirmed by a functional MRI scan that directly measured its activity."
The publication, New Scientist is valuable. I track cutting edge medical research, lead authors & institutional support of same. Probably tickles my "blue dot" 🔵 but, I don't have a bulky MRI machine handy to confirm, alas. : ... (
Yet the survivors interviewed are probably in the backroads in the mountains somewhere. if it takes horses, boats and helicopters to get supplies to them, hmm. Graham Allen (BIG TIME TRUMP SUPPORTER) did a thing showing how awful things were. I wished I had watched more carefully, but he showed a big tree that had to be sawed to make the road passable. I suspect that there was more than one tree that had to be cut down, possibly more if the guy lived in the woods. One tree to a guy's driveway (or road) whose house was so far off the road, you could barely see it.
We had three trees down on my street and as well as all the other streets surrounding me. I was stuck (this was for a major unannounced blizzard ice storm we had in CT years back). This was in suburbs. No one complained. We were not survivalists. We lit our fireplaces, used our grills, cooked hotdogs. When the trees were cut we just went to friends and relatives. I don't know if FEMA was there or not. I suspect they were. Fortunately, there was no flooding or houses blown down. We did have cold and no power. There were a lot of electric workers from out of state. We had some guys from Georgia. If you live where there are trees you make sure you have some sort of generator. End of problem.
Heather, I watched you on the Women for Harris today and I loved what you said about Trump being enabled by the media and others in convincing millions that whatever he said (and said repeatedly) in convincing millions that he is the one who be the better person to pick. I didn’t realize, until, you mentioned it, that the ‘big lie” came from Hitler constructing a story about how Germans were victims in WWI. You used the analogy of Trump used rigging the election as his story he repeats ad nauseum, thus entrancing his crowds to believe him. The falsehoods the media puts out just “encourages people to give up their political rights” {paraphrasing here}.
Tonight, Kamala held a town hall with the Latina/Latino community. She addressed the immigration issue but also really showed her compassion, her empathy to a woman whose mother died 6 weeks ago before she could claim legal status. The mother was one who worked very hard for many years but slipped through the cracks of our immigration laws. The young daughter was sobbing and I was tearful also. We cannot let this monster and his monstrous team come near us again.
FT 6 sent 250,000 texts to unregistered NC and WI folk yesterday. Today is the last day to register online in NC. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Last day to register in Pa and MI online is Oct. 21. WI online Oct 16, but MI and NC permit registrations in person during early voting periods and WI at the polls.
It is great to hear that these Newspapers are endorsing Harris. But our work won't be done until November 5th. I had a meeting at my house and I invited 8 of my friends who voted for Trump in 2020. I explained to them in detail about project 25 of which they weren't aware of. We sat for 5 hours discussing the differences between Trump and Harris. They were all in shock and couldn't believe it. Long story short they had changed their minds and voted for Harris. All of us turned in our ballots today. It was a great feeling. My point is , that it is never to late to talk to your relatives or friends about how critical this election is. Now isn't the time to quit because every vote counts. Just a quick note. I know part of this comment isn't related to Heather's newsletter but I felt it was important to share.
Wow, Patricia, you made a wonderfully bold move to invite so many Trump voter friends, and then you pulled off the conversions! And sealed the deal with turning in your ballots! Big respect!
BTW I suspect that Heather would agree that any reader's report like this of saving democracy through your personal network is above and beyond related to her newsletters!
Patricia, I am glad you got that far. In the two attempts I've made (one on one, over coffee) both of my retired cop friends (from two different agencies) absolutely believe that fpotus has disavowed Project 2025, even as his statements reflect everything in it.
They may change their mind. I did a bunch or research about his supposed disavowing of Project 2025:
There’s a video of Trump attending an event for The Heritage Foundation in Amelia Island, Florida, on April 21, 2022. During the speech he’s making the video shows him praising the foundation's plans for its just-announced “2025 Presidential Transition Project”.
The Heritage Foundation in 2022 called it the “2025 Presidential Transition Project”. Now they call it “Project 2025”. (Probably because the title “presidential transition project” would more easily be seen how it was/ is tied to Trump.)
Going back to the video from 2022…. In the video Trump praises Project 2025's 'Colossal Mandate'. Kind of a stark contrast to one of his “Truth Social” posts in July of this year where he wrote: “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it."
In the video he praises The Heritage Foundation and Project 2025's forthcoming "Mandate for Leadership" plans. Once again the word “Mandate” is used regarding Project 2025.
About 20 minutes into Trump's speech, just after referring to the upcoming election in 2024 election, he spoke about Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and said, "Already we have shown the power of our winning formula, working closely with many of the great people at Heritage over the four incredible years that we've worked with you a lot and we were just discussing it with Kevin….”
I am making phone calls for Harris/Walz every day between now and election day. I am calling on a Slack DNC channel that uses a terrific autodialer. It’s easy. It’s fast. It’s effective. It’s uplifting. I have persuaded undecideds and non voters, and a few 3rd party voters, in swing states, to vote for Kamala. This election will more than likely be decided in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. If we win there and we get 1 electoral vote from Nebraska (very likely) we win the White House. It’s time for all hands in deck. This race will be won, or lost, by a few thousand votes in those 3 states. SO, sign up to canvass, or to phone bank. These are the most impactful actions we can take. Sign up for a training on “Anytime Calls” with the DNC and call anytime that works in your schedule. Drop in for a half hour, an hour, two hours. The autodialers and the coaches and moderators are available 12 hours a day Monday through Saturday, and 6 hours on Sundays on the Slack platform. Sign up and get trained. It takes one hour on Zoom to learn how. Do this! Do something! Do it now! Have no regrets on 11/6 about what you did to save our democracy. You are here because you care. This is care in action. Go to: https://events.democrats.org/event/551644/
The original link that I included above was to sign up for MAKING calls. I meant to post the sign up for TRAINING. I have corrected the link above to the "TRAINING for calling" sign up. Here it is again. Sorry for my initial error. Thank goodness for the "edit" feature. Okay. Now, sign up. This is care in action: https://events.democrats.org/event/551644/
Thank you Sally! These calls, and the data we collect for the campaign, are hugely helpful to the campaign. And you will change minds! Not Trump voters, but undecideds, wavering, those who say they are not voting, and those who say third party. This is where the conversations happen, where you can help someone to move toward Harris. This happens through being an active listener, through your expressed interest in why they are not voting, or what will help them to decide. What issues do they care about? How do they feel about the current Supreme Court? I find that the future of the Supreme Court can be something that moves people to vote. I point out that if Trump wins that most likely Alito and Thomas will retire because they know that he will replace them with younger versions of them, and we will have an ultra conservative, right wing Court for two generations. You get the idea. Listening, inquiring and open sharing about what motivates you to call and to advocate for Harris will make an impact. I promise you!! Thank you for fighting on the frontlines for our democracy!
The polls are failing at their one job, as is the mainstream press. The most important thing now is getting out the vote and making sure the voters vote blue all the way down to town dog catcher.
Sadly, this time, the chance of violence is high when we win. But that is better by far than living in a fascist dictatorship if we lose.
Whether we live in a fascist dictatorship will be up to us. We don't need to accept it, and given that the Constitution will have been abrogated there will be no legal or legitimate basis for governance.
Kamala Harris is demonstrating LEADERSHIP in the information side of the world in which we live: She is giving interviews to journalists who ask substantive (not “gotcha” / GOP talking points) questions!
And in the case of 60 Minutes, which asked its share of “gotcha” questions, she accepted to match what she expected Trump to agree to.
Related: (And maybe a little snarky) If The NY Times is angry because she won’t grant their editorial board an interview, they should invite Trump. He’ll never say “Yes,” and that should wake them up to the fact that neither side wants to talk to them!
HCR: “They also note the observation of Timothy Snyder, a scholar of authoritarianism, that power is often freely given to an authoritarian in anticipation of punishment, what Snyder calls “anticipatory obedience.”
“And yet, in the past in the U.S., when the media has appeared to become captive to established interests, new media have begun to give a voice to the opposition.”
I have heard that your Letters from an American has readership that surpasses WAPO. That makes YOU one of the new media! 🍾🥂❤️👍🏼
It is a pleasure to support you, Joyce Vance, Timothy Snyder, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Mark Elias and my favorite: TheJuiceMedia!
Absolutely, Ellie. I learned about Hubble here several years ago; I think he was my 4th Substack subscription (after Professor Richardson, Timothy Snyder, and Katelyn Jetelina (Your Local Epidemiologist).
The Media Owners value lower taxes more than stable, honest government. They may find, however, that Trump will expect some additional personal loyalties from them—especially as Trump is showing signs of mental deterioration in addition to his low moral and “truth” values.
Good that Heather specifies how Viktor Orbán drove out independent media from Hungary.
She might have added how he corrupted Hungary's judicial system, too.
The really piquant note would be how Orbán always couched his anti-democratic moves in the mantle of defending Hungary's particular culture -- a people totally unrelated to the Germanic, Slav, and romance language Europeans otherwise surrounding them.
Hungarian playwrights, film makers, novelists, composers, and other artists all throve as they borrowed from their cultural neighbors throughout the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and on for decades into the 20th century.
But one thing you will never have seen in any of Viktor Orbán's statements -- ever -- is any specific reference to any of those great artists. He has always used defense of Hungarian culture as an abstraction only -- against the binary opposite abstractions and blanket paranoias held up against other nationality immigrants seeking refuge in Europe in the early decades of this century after idiot U.S. militarism totally destabilized most of the Middle East.
The far right in the U.S. follows the same pattern. All know zero of American culture, can cite nothing personally appropriate from any American arts. Can only fulminate against immigrant anything and everything as if non-whites threatened whatever MAGA postures American culture ever to have been.
That's the idiocy typical of dictators, authoritarians everywhere.
The Howard Stern interview was, in one way, the best. Absolutely biassed in favor of Vice President Harris and open in his antipathy toward Trump, Mr Stern is almost pukingly effusive in his manner. The pay-off, however, lies in Mr Stern going out of his way to put Vice President at her ease. 🤝
Vice President Harris is able to relax and show her stuff; and formidable stuff it is. Vice President Harris is sturdy, mirthful, high-minded, morally driven, resolutely optimistic, and charitable. What is not to like? She has her faults, one can be sure; she will do her best, one can be sure again. ✌🏽
In the popular novel, 'James', Huck Finn and Jim discuss the fate of two con-men busted by angry locals. I wonder if the author, Percival Everett, had our times partly in mind when he penned this exchange. 😯
Jim: ". . . . Maybe they get tarred and feathered. I don't know."
Huck: "That seems right awful."
Jim: ". . . . But they was stealin' from dem folk. Tellin' lies lak dey was. . . ."
Huck: "Yes, but them people liked it, Jim. Did you see their faces? They had to know them was lies, but they wanted to believe. What do you make of that?"
Jim: "Folks be funny lak dat. Dey take the lies dey want and throws away the truths dat scares 'em."
Wait a minute. Once again, even Heather and Joyce Vance have been sucked into letting Trump take up all the oxygen. And the result of a lack of oxygen is a vacuum.
Instead of yet another article telling me that Trump lied (yawn), why not tell me stories about the FEMA teams like the ones from Missouri (MOTF-1), that was on the ground days before Helene and through it, went home for a few days to repack their gear, and shipped out to NC to be on the ground before Milton hit. Some of them have now rotated back home for another few days to check and repack their gear, say hello to their families, pay bills, and ease sore muscles. They have already been told there is a likelihood of being deployed back again as the Task Force consolidates units. And that's without the likelihood of another hurricane occurring this season.
What about the teams of volunteers who have been authorized to clear trees? What about FEMA working with local pilots and trained disaster responders who have attained certification to assist, showing that FEMA uses every resource available to respond to the need?
What about the fact that that at the WTC after 911, the FEMA teams, equipped and trained to work in such disasters, showed great respect and understanding for the NYC Firemen who were so distraught to find their fallen comrades that they were taking unnecessary risks? FEMA teams worked to establish a compassionate and safe solution--they would search, and once they found a fireman and secured the location from collapse, they would stand aside and allow the firemen to retrieve the body with love and dignity.
Telling Trump supporters that he lies falls on deaf ears. Telling those who oppose him that he lies is repeating the obvious. Telling the story in terms of Trump did, Trump said, etc. is a great part of why people are tuning out of political coverage, discourse, and engagement. There's nothing new there. There's nothing uplifting there. There's nothing hopeful there.
Instead, tell the story of what is really being done and by whom. Tell these truths until the lies become self-evident. Tell the story that makes people want to be part of it. Tell the real story, the story of compassionate disaster relief undertaken by the people, for the people.
Though, then again, I wouldn't mind periodically in the future hearing his name in association with the big fat orange slob who again massively shit himself in open court while also snoring in another criminal trial.
Or reading court transcript quoting in full the fulsome exact words of obscenity-cum-vulgarity-cum-indecipherable-gutter-English getting him again fined and declared in contempt of court.
Phil - I can't say that some part of me (which I try hard to squash) doesn't agree with you.
But, not wishing to get all "Momsy" on you - what has that guy DONE to the people in this country? Were you like that before he started his shenanigans? Was I? Is there anybody else in your entire life who has debased you to the point of wishing and hoping for those things to happen? This is not just you I am talking about - all of us! He has turned nearly every American - Liberals, Democrats AND Republicans - into festering creatures of loathing. You see language and imagery employed every day that would have been unimaginable ten years ago. Dear Lord, that man really IS the Antichrist.
The Powell memo, Lady Emsworth, did maybe more damage.
Since Aug. 23, 1971, its lawyers, CEOs, and well-coiffed bankers offshored the tens of millions of jobs, killed humanities in schools, and changed the U.S. judiciary all in prep for the criminal monster and his spineless immediate enablers.
And by downvoting coverage of government worker competency we are creating a vacuum for destroying their mental health, should the Project 2025 goal of abolishing civil service protections prevail. Not to mention the perilous outcomes under future disasters.
KEM, this is pure gold. I'd love to see a longer piece on FEMA, and what it means to be part of those rescue efforts. I have friends who went to Katrina (several cadaver dog handlers, some National Guard member, and some members of regional peer support teams). I haven't seen any info on CISM deployment yet; that usually has to wait until recovery begins, and not at active rescue and stabilization times.
We need Michael Lewis to do a piece on them! If you haven’t read his book The Fifth Risk*, I highly recommend it….beyond its initial focus of the presidential transition process from Obama to TFFFG, it does a deep focus on what civil servants contribute to the health & welfare of our nation. As someone who was a public servant (as were you!) for 40+ years, I felt “seen”. Also recommend his book The Premonition about the outbreak of Covid.
*He has recently teamed up with other writers to do a series of articles in The Washington Post about oft unsung gov’t employees/civil service jobs—I don’t subscribe (so mostly don’t have access), but was able to read the first one, his, about a mine safety inspector….who knew it could be so riveting! Sometimes a job Is not just a job, it’s a right-livelihood!
The complaint that Harris is avoiding the media and interviews is a product of hurt mainstream media egos. The NY Times is the primary crybaby. Same as when Biden wouldn’t kowtow.
Exactly David. Even the Biden debate, ABSURD as it was by having the dignity of a sitting President of this great country appearing on a stage (no less) with a crooked-SOB, unfaithful father, criminal-awaiting sentencing...POS (Piece Of Sh-t).. a total insult to Americans everywhere.. (long sentence, I know, please continue)..., yes, the "media" had to put their cameras onto our elected president, who although perhaops not feeling 100%, was probably just FLOORED by being confronted with the need to respond to such lunacy!! The cameras took such an awkward moment to MAKE President Biden look like a fool. And, I fear it was intentional that they (the media $$) took that opportunity. I defend the hard-working men and women...'employees' of the Media-Machine, who are trying to make a house payment and raise their kids. But, the talking heads and their well-financed managers are the despicable bastards/bitches I most despise.
We can only hope for the backstory behind the shameless, shameful pass the NY Times, WaPo, WSJ, and other big media have given Trump & MAGA and, until recently, Project 2025. Who's making the decisions about coverage? Even their headlines have reflected bias and outright hostility to Biden and now Harris.
More than ever, it's up to the grassroots to organize, get out the vote, and then get out the vote again. It's good to be a Democrat or like-minded ally, but it's worthless if those people don't vote. When Democrats don't vote, Republicans win. When Democrats vote, America wins.
I have to say that although the NYT coverage of Biden and now Harris has on the whole been negative, in recent days, the Editorial Board has twice come out severely warning against a Trump Presidency.
Maybe it's for deniability?
They've been showing signs of being a little unconfortable over the upswell of criticism they've received of late (but not so uncomfortble as to be motivated to clean up their act). Harris is wise to sail ahead without pandering to the major news outlets. She's running her own campaign, and she doesn't need them.
Yes she is. But credit is due to Biden here again I'm thinking; he didn't rely on them. Kudos to Harris for taking that lesson. I think we have to admit that Biden and Harris know what we've known and talked about here for a very long time; The MSM failures.
The corporatization of the media, Christianity, and the gun industry is staggering.
🎯
During times like these, I need to wax philosophical and suggest that the greater numbers of malcontents known as American society are willing to walk off those proverbial cliffs if for only to feel “We socked it to ‘em.” And who’s the ‘em here? Issues are not important to the new MAGA movement. No siree. They approach ballot box mind-twisted as if on meth crystal with the notion that they will git the motha. And what have we done to deserve such lack of support? I apply this question in my personal life as well when I embark on a mission and it doesn’t swing. What have I done wrong I often have asked myself upon reflection. I suggest this approach is a good one to have going forward. Even if Harris succeeds, we likely lose the senate and we already lost the House. As extremist partisans, they will prevent Kamala Harris from doing any legislative work just so they could run another mad dog lite for president in 2028. We have crossed or are about to cross the Rubicon into autocratic rule for the sake of money and power. Money already is held supreme in this land. This may be the final nail in the coffin of American Democracy as we have known it.
Welcome to the New Snazzy Nazi States of America.
All because “fear of others” has taken hold in this country by those screaming about immigration. Who’d a thunk so much ignorance could take hold so tightly.
I do not agree that we have already lost the House. It will be close. I do hope we can keep the Senate, but we will see.
Welcome to The New Snazzy Nazi States of America
(Introducing The Goose-Step, Two-Step March) From "Donald's Vanity Tantrums"
A new dance craze is sweeping the nation called, The Goose-Step, Two-step March. This invigorating new exercise is easy to learn! First, link arms on the dance floor. As you move backward in line, turn your head to the right and lift your left leg straight up as high as it will go. Then step forward as you turn your head to the left and lift your right leg straight up in the air.
It's very similar to square dancing or line dancing. Soon the dance floor will be filled with goose-steppers. Forward, backward, round and round. If you step out of line, you are tagged, the caller detains you, interrogates you, strip searches you, and sends you off to detainment camps for disloyalty.
This new dance craze is not to be confused with serious charges of criminal activity. By the time the youngins reach the age of reason, they will be quick to form into lines upon request for impromptu Goose-Step, Two-Step Marches and other forms of family entertainment.
And possibly the threat that if he wins, they will be forcibly shut down...
I was referring to the Washington Post and New York times....
And here we all are reading Professor Richardson's daily newsletter on Substack. And there are at least a dozen or more other very well respected "journalists" on Substack as well. And their are an almost unlimited number of podcasts aired daily.
I applaud the Harris campaign's efforts of seeking out the podcasts and alternate media sources. There are only 72 million cable TV subscribers as of 2023 in the US down from 98.7 million in 2016.
Spectrum is paying us $10/month to keep our Cable TV package. If we drop it, our Internet rate increases by $10/month and their cable fee is free.
I would LOVE to know how you pulled that off with 'Rectum", Gary! I'm saddled with them here in Northeast Ohio, and have never seen or heard of a package such as you describe. Details, please!!
Daniel, when I called them to end my service, they threw all kinds of incentives at me. Maybe try that?
I told them I wanted to drop cable and just have the Internet package.
And they said they had a bundle for $90 for the highest Internet speed we can get (not all that great but better than dial-up) and cable with every one of the channels we never watch.
I'm a sucker for what sounds like a good deal. After a year, it will probably jump back up over $100 and I'll have to call them again.
I was at Spectrum four days ago returning a modem and I complained about the ever rising cost of internet service; and I asked if there were not less expensive plans with slower Mbps. (I have 300, soon to be 400, and would be fine with 100 or maybe even 50). "No, not in your area," I was told. Their rep was very nice and kept looking for some way that I might save some money, either on internet or TV content. Lo and behold he discovered a $10/month discount he could give me for 12 months. I have no idea what the discount was for, but I accepted it (even though I am looking intently for a way to leave Spectrum behind).
Wow! We pulled the cable plug about a year ago. Spectrum was ridiculously expensive. It’s taken some experimentation to find the mix of streaming subscriptions that works for us, but we think we have it figured out and are paying about $100 less per month, and now have fiber which is great.
Do you get your local news shows? and national news at 5:30 or 6:30 as I drop into them once in awhile.
I have stopped reading most of the MSM, but do look at special sections like Science (NYT) and Well (WaPo). Our local rag is Gannett and it is nearly worthless. We take the online version to get obits. They also own the Eugene Register Guard, so use the stories from those reporters. We have a couple online local news as well as news from Portland. I think it is great that Harris is appearing on alternative formats. Yesterday a friend and I went out to lunch and then drove the back roads to another small town to visit a gallery. Lots of death star flags along the way, which received some pointed words from me as we drove past. I think most were small rural holdings. Since he is so monstrous and awful, I can only wonder why although I know some of the reasons.
As amazing as it is this ‘follow the leader mentality’ has followed MAN after MAN of multiple failures both financial and moral. The MAGA takeover is an insidious pattern …of repetition , unforfilled promise, bullying, and trust busting tactics which history has well documented as disasterous but…only EVENTUALLY. Same as WAR. Little focus on the few women who have throughout history brought significant contribution to Science, The Political Spectrum , or reading/writing( except the emails of course) and arithmetic( except of course populating ie servant fodder).
My hope ..this critical round ..will prove a value long pointedly exploited but overlooked ..the affect/effect of NUTURE for ALL vs the strongman philosophy.
💙💙VOTE BLUE.STOP THE COUP.💙💙
It's also for "access" in the unlikely event that the former president and current felon wins the election. His vindictiveness exceeds even his narcissistic desire for attention and they're all afraid they won't get interviews if they've been mean to him.
Or maybe there cancelations of subscriptions is finally sending a message.
They bury the lede, relegating it to the Opinion page. If Trump wins, at least they have plausible deniability (they likely think) that it wasn't their fault, thereby preserving some anti-Trump readership. If Kamala Harris wins, they can claim some responsibility.
Nonetheless, the overall front-page castigation of Kamala Harris for her supposed transgression — refusing a sit-down with them — contrasted to their treatment of Trump belies their stated mission: "All the News That's Fit to Print." In fact, their wildly unbalanced treatment of all the legitimate political news amounts to front page editorializing.
If the worst that these "newspapers" can come up with is a hissy fit about not getting enough interview access to VP Harris - we are in great shape.
Harris and Company are running a brilliant campaign. IMO, the regular readers of these legacy outlets have almost all made up their minds already. Harris knows this.
The focus on the younger persuasibles using the media that they live in is brilliant.
I love this letter and several others that most of us read. Hubbell, Reich, Vance, etc. But the average age of our readership is on the high end. We get upset over the MSM. The new voters don't care. They are on SM. And podcasts.
You are right about some stories being buried in "Opinion". There is a great one from Dana Milbank in the WaPo today. MSM speaking the truth.
Just read it; you're right. Thank you.
Love yours, Russell, that "they can claim some responsibility."
Note that this gets them only points, as if the only purpose of journalism were winning -- market share, "likes," numbers as in a poll or the grubbiest of cumulative totals and rankings in standardized testing.
Nowhere in these calculations by the mainstream press does anything personal figure at all. That is, no journalist looks out as did, for instance, the poet Auden, where in "August, 1968" he looked "about a subjugated plain / Among its desperate and slain," and saw, first, real human pain. Seeing that, he could see, second and more vitally, the greater truth of the Ogre stalking the land "with hands on hips / while drivel gushes from his lips."
The mainstream press indeed gushes with "drivel," in the sense that, all void of humanities, they have no arts to help them see pain or anything human. They went to school instead to master the inanities of wonk, properly abstracted categories, being neutered, as if nothing human but only numbers could ever speak.
This flagrant disregard for the personal links to a disdain for all humanities that submits all such even more to Auden's censure in that poem's first stanza. There, he claimed such dehumanization and elite knackery only leave all effectively illiterate of humane language so, for any such an (educated) Ogre "one prize is beyond his reach: / The Ogre cannot master speech."
Yes. The Calculations of Corrupted Journalism. This motto should replace their current motto.
“ all the news that’s fit to print “ my eye. It more like the motto of a mental health advocacy group I endorsed years ago, “ all the fits that’s news to print “. And for that advocacy group it was courageous. For mainstream media it’s pandering to Trump’s MAGA fits for profit and it is cowardly.
Gee I wish I had sad that
Spot on.
Good point Annie. What explains this discrepancy? My surmise, NYT decided it wanted to go more 'middle of the road' maybe to attract a broader swath of readers and started hiring columnists/reporters/editors who are closet MAGA-light types who constantly gaslight around the edges so cumulatively it is a shift? My barf moment when it gave a constitutional law op-ed to John Yoo (calling him a professor of law) without mentioning that this POS was an Assistant Attorney General who wrote the bogus 'torture is ok, waterboarding is fine' memo for WBush! This became the disingenuous 'fig leaf' for WBush's 9/11 abuses.
The NY Metropolitan area is FULL of well off voters who care only about Financial matters. Their women can go to other countries for abortions if needed. (ie. They lean Republican. Even Dems in this region are “corporate Dems”, not “social Dems”)
I'm a New Yorker -- certainly not in that $$ bracket - no one I know is a 'corp dem" -- we are hardcore, progressive democrats who know how to live in a diverse community and relish it. I'm sure some Park Ave types are not as concerned but the average New Yorker is.
Trump has totally killed Conservatism. His Roy Cohn MO of attack attack attack and deny deny deny doesn't leave room for him to accomplish anything.
What is the last piece of legislation passed by Republicans that could be classified as Conservative? (And Fascism doesn't count).
What I don't understand is that, if these "well off voters" care only about "financial matters," why are they supporting a candidate whose economic plan has been widely criticized by mainstream economists??
Corporate Dems, not social Dems. That makes a lot of sense. I hadn't thought of it that way. Thanks.
I'm a long time New Yorker and no way am I a Corporate Dem. Ditto every other New Yorker I know.
Too little, too late, as far as I'm concerned. 'Getting the backstory' as our friend LaurieOregon says will only interest me in an entertaining fashion. To me, knowing where they've stood when we needed them is all I have to know and act on.
Agreed
The NYT and other Media only profits when all that Citizens United advertising dollars roll in. To acquire that money, they purposely report the race is closer than it is by giving unequal coverage. They act like Don King promoting a heavy weight fight between the champ and a bum, so that the masses tune in and buy tickets and pay per view. But the fight ends in the first few seconds. Trump has lost suburban women, the business Republicans, and the defense and national security base. And while I predict a total historic ass whopping margin in the popular vote, it’s that damn electoral college I’m worried about. And then there’s the Georgia Electoral Commission types in every red state, a tea party House of Representatives, and a corrupted Supreme Court. Mark Elias is going to be busy.
Too little too late! I am happily one of those who dumped the NYTimes long ago. Their bias has left us with a despicable divided country and now they throw us some crumbs. I have no good words for them and we will pay cleaning up this mess for generations or our children and grandchildren will live in a lost democracy.
Heather, as always your letters inform and remind us of our fate and this moment in
which we have the imperative opportunity to make the right choice,the only choice that matters for a future in which our children and their children on into the future can flourish. Of all the endorsements I have seen so far, The Atlantic has beautifully and starkly given us the information we all need Kamala must win, that choice is clear
The NYT is late to the game and have set up such a tone of equality between the candidates that when they came out and strongly endoresed Harris, there was little supporting background in their own coverage.
Yes, NYT finally warned against Trump. I do wonder how many readers cancelled before that late warning. They can got to ___. I really don’t miss their biased coverage at all.
I believe that is just a cynical gesture, a check box exercise to make people question the data in front of them. At the end, NYT’s everyday post and editorials have provided evidence of where their alliances have been: with oligarchs. They lead and exerted the most unethical and gang style polished and elitist attack on Biden from every corner after his very first debate, and did not miss the opportunity to give their “list” of acceptable options. I will dare say what they did to Biden can be certainly classified as elderly abuse, which Biden took with honor, grace and keeping his focus where it mattered. The NYT is despicable.
Too little and much too late. It is now dawning on them if tRump wins they will be destroyed by him should they show any opposition to him.
The biggest positive from my perspective is that to run a country in a fascistic manner you cannot do it without the military on your side. So far I do not see any signs of this.
But the day-by-day coverage and emphasis of that coverage is far more significant.
Too little; too late.
WaPo published an editorial criticizing trump for his lies about FEMA, and the very next day ran a cartoon by Lisa Benson spouting the same lie.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/08/lisa-benson-cartoon-hurricane-fema-funding-shortfall/
I do NOT subscribe to the "we can only hope" mindset. We fight, WE WIN. We have bold voices. WE make things happen. Don't dismiss the POWER of YOUR VOICE.
I like that. It's almost 2 am, and I'm up writing postcards. Simon Rosenberg is right: Do more and worry less. It works. 2 am is also a surprisingly peaceful time to write.
I love “ do more, worry less”……..
Love this. Thank you Susan Troy.
There is indeed some empowerment in writing those post cards at 2 a.m. and knocking on doors for Harris-Walz and down ballot folks at 10 a.m.
Especially here in swing state N.C., where our education system will be gutted and the governor’s office desecrated were we not to win from the top down.
It is hard to fathom the inability of fellow humans not seeing — in the midst of Helene and Milton — the life-and-death importance of this election.
Working to get the word out and have been. Appreciate all of us door-knocking, postcard writing, “learn how to engage with civility” folks who mean so much to the Harris-Walz effort and are the mainstay our way of life.
❤️🦋❤️🦋❤️🦋❤️
Let’s keep encouraging each other.
November 5 is in our faces.
🥰
Thank you for all your doing!
I just finished my cards to PA and heading to the PO. Get out the vote!
I won't, but the Electoral College might.
Indeed! Getting prepared (mentally and physically) to go back out and canvass this weekend in North Carolina. There is a lot to do in this state and I am committed.
As an Aside, This Came Up on NBCNews.com on 8-Oct-2023:
They were Israel's eyes on the border, but their warnings about Hamas went unheard
Richard Engel and Gabe Joselow and Shira Pinson
Updated Tue, October 8, 2024 at 4:32 PM PDT
TEL AVIV — They were Israel’s eyes on the border with Gaza, but former soldiers from a military observation unit say their warnings about suspicious Hamas activity ahead of the Oct. 7 terror attacks were repeatedly ignored. A year later, they are still seeking answers.“If I had been valued a little more — not much, just a little — maybe it could have ended differently,” Roni Lifshitz, one of the former observers, told NBC News last month. “It’s anger and sadness, mainly frustration, because I was there and no one listened to me.”
Lifshitz, 21, was part of the Israel Defense Forces' unit 414 stationed at the Nahal Oz military base on the Gaza border. Soldiers in the all-women field observers team, most just 19 or 20 years old and fulfilling their mandatory military service, would spend hours glued to feeds from surveillance cameras watching for threats. In the months leading up to Oct. 7, Lifshitz said she started noticing unusual activity. Truckloads of Hamas militants, which appeared to be special forces units because they were all dressed in black, were driving within 300 yards of the fence, in a “combat patrol,” she said. After they stopped, she said they would carefully scan Israeli positions while talking amongst themselves. Israeli soldier Roni Lifshitz speaking to NBC News' chief foreign correspondent, Richard Engel, in Tel Aviv on Sept. 12. (NBC News)
In August 2023, opposition leader Yair Lapid testified that, two months before the Oct. 7 attacks, he had taken part in a military intelligence briefing in which Netanyahu received detailed warnings that Hamas had noticed a weakness, division and a loss of military competence in Israel. Netanyahu appeared “bored and indifferent , ” he said.
Danny Yatom, the former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, also testified on Sept. 10, 2024. Speaking to NBC News at the commission’s offices in Tel Aviv on the day of his testimony, Yatom said he did not have an explanation for Israel’s security failures, but said all the layers of defense in Israel, in his assessment, “collapsed at the same time.” He added that Netanyahu “is responsible because he got some early warning, even though it was not the exact date, the exact location. He did not pay attention to it the way the prime minister should pay attention to it.”
This effects OUR COUNTRY if Netanyahu's Save-His-A*s-Wars start to effect this Election Heavily, or of U.S. Forces become heavily involved in Ground Combat in Israel's spreading Conflagration... . The Tragedy of All-This-Death, Suffering, and Destruction, is that it was so PREVENTABLE...
This is a deeper view of the women working at those posts. Disgusting misogyny at work. "The female soldiers who predicted Oct. 7 say they are still being silenced"
https://wapo.st/4eBegtd
I agree... Now so many Innocents are paying for it... Netanyahu is making them all Expendable in his Clinging to Power...
Yes, indeed, MisTBlu, "they are still being silenced."
The corrupt Netanyahu refuses the needed commission to investigate this. He knows it will show his culpability, his cynical failures in the field all as part of his priority that IDF forces be available primarily then to aid his favored far-right settlers in their assiduous assaults on and thefts of land from Palestinians in the West Bank.
Perhaps this was just what yahoo wanted - to start a big war to keep his a$$ out of prison.
Yep
Yep
Misogyny in the military is so predictable as to be a cliché . Those who view women as less analytic, less capable of warfare's hard decisions, and less tenacious in their pursuit of victory would do well to remember the saying "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
Can’t remember the name of the book about the women of the CIA—but a similar situation—ignored in their analysis of Bin Laden’s activities.
Wow. I'd heard about advance knowledge, but not to this degree.
Hello Jade... It gets Worse.... The above was just Excerpts from that Article...
Well, it's hard to comprehend this level of evil, but Netanhayu benefits from the war for personal reasons.....
Its almost as if Netanyahu was planning it all along. Its happened before
Isn't this pure sexism? Men rarely listen to women...
Yup. No matter where.
Depends on the Culture.... A lot of the Indigenous Cultures were Matriarchies... Don't Mess With Grandma!!!
Would love to live in a matriarchy.
What Netanyahu got was more detailed, and therefore more damning than the PDB that Dubya famously ignored ahead of 9/11.
INDEED...
"Israel's spreading conflagration?" Well, you're right that an authoritarian AH like Netanyahu ignored information that didn't fit the narrative he created in his mind is similar to authoritarian AH Trump's documented tendency to created his own isolated reality, which leads to national security risks.
But the current conflagration was started by Hamas's invasion of Israel on 10/7/2023 (preceded by weekly rocket attacks on Israel since 2006) and by Hezbolah's persistent and increasing rocket attacks on northern Israel (also preceded by spiradic rocket attacks since before 2000). Also, the conflagration was widened by Iran's 2 large missile attacks on Israel in recent months. Israel did not start this, but it feels "enough is enough" and it must finish it.
I suspect that Netanyahu is hoping to get American forces engaged during a Democratic administration before a potential isolationist Republican administration takes over in January. Fortunately, Biden hasn't bought in to that, and has taken a stance of protecting Israel with missile defenses and alliance support while limiting Israel's access to the largest bombs because of their broad destruction zones (and Netanyahu's cynical militancy).
This is Iran's conflagration, directly and via its proxies Hamas and Hezbolah, who both use their fellow Arabs as human shields. Your phrase leads a reader towards blaming the victim, though that victim is quite strong.
Blaming the victim is illogical as is your post about Israel within a Substack thread about Trump vs. Harris.
The Problem of this Conflagration, is that it is the latest 'Eye-For-An-Eye' that goes back to the 19th Century... The HAMAS Attack of Oct-7th was very preventable... If the latest Conflagration Explodes to involve U.S. Ground Forces, or Tanks the Oil & Financial Markets, this will affect the Election just like the non-release of U.S. Hostages held by Iran affected the Carter vs. Reagan in 1980... The Republicans are trying to Weaponize this, I see it on their Bumper Stickers... My Rule-Of-Thumb regarding the Middle-East is, There Are No Good Guys in the Middle-East.... You should watch Fareed Zacaria's 6-Oct-2024 Episode... Israel is a Regional Superpower with Nuclear Weapons backed by the USA, and it is surrounded by Failed/Near-Failed Nation States... Pay Attention to the Casualty Rates between the two sides...
& no schools, Apache, even modestly attempting to create humane "GOOD GUYS."
The NYT and WaPo click-bait negative headlines drive me crazy - even if the story itself lays out the facts, the micro-aggression of the article headlines is negative. After Trump told so many lies about Springfield and disaster relief, I had hoped to read that in the headlines - that's where it should have been.
The only time I read the NYT for any length of time (& got addicted) was when I was caregiver to a wealthy retired economist. During Bush's years in office. I noticed then that I needed to read the entire article to get the actual truth but sometimes it just wasn't there. I don't know if anyone else paid attention to it but when Bush was appointed to office the entire demeanor of reporting (as well as advertising) changed. It was as if everyone was rich, elegance was at the forefront, descriptions emphasized the lavish accoutrements of opulence & wealth, this from MPT at the Inaugural. Then I noticed that everything became "highend", granite countertops, specialty water wasting multi shower heads were all the rage. Media brainwashing at its finest, all geared toward waste & extravagance, like a page had been turned universally, everywhere, all at once. I am pretty attuned to a change in tone & the tone changed for sure in 2000- 2001. Then we get endless wars & Bush's advice to citizens was shop. Remember that? No sacrifice like in WWII. This was republicans declaring that FDR had finally been defeated.
Such interesting observations, Sharon. Thanks for sharing.
I don't think the general Trump fan reads most of these papers. I think they get the majority of their news from YouTube bloggers, then maybe OAN, Newsmax and FOX. I don't think much reading is going on by these folks.
On a long flight, an airline generally offers two choices for a meal. In the case of this election, we are being offered the choice of a good chicken dinner or a pile of poop with broken glass on top. The media is asking questions like was the chicken free range? Are the potatoes organic? Rather than focusing on the real question: how did a pile of poop become a menu choice on this airline? I, for one, refuse to eat poop and can't understand why no one is asking why it is being served in the first place. Main S__t Media seems more like it.
👍
Exactly so, Steve.
IMO, the NYT’s scandalous lack of coverage of the Democrats and sanewashing of Big Orange is traceable to Sulzberger’s hurt feefees because Biden wouldn’t sit down with him for a one on one when Biden was still the candidate. There was more than a whiff of privilege, a sort of ‘I will not be ignored, I’m the mighty New York Times.’
The paper is a shadow of the greatness it once was and current management doesn’t seem to realize how irrelevant the Paper of Record has become.
Many people I know have canceled their subs. I haven’t, but the paper is such a deeply-ingrained habit with me that it’s become like heroin. I can’t imagine my day without it. Sadly, not the case for a lot of people lately.
Maybe they are running scared; definitely running on empty.
In the popular novel, 'James', Huck Finn and Jim discuss the fate of two con-men busted by angry locals. I wonder if the author, Percival Everett, had our times partly in mind when he penned this exchange. 😯
Jim: ". . . . Maybe they get tarred and feathered. I don't know."
Huck: "That seems right awful."
Jim: ". . . . But they was stealin' from dem folk. Tellin' lies lak dey was. . . ."
Huck: "Yes, but them people liked it, Jim. Did you see their faces? They had to know them was lies, but they wanted to believe. What do you make of that?"
Jim: "Folks be funny lak dat. Dey take the lies dey want and throws away the truths dat scares 'em."
Wow, that's portentous stuff. My take is the YAHOO had the knowledge and ignored it the same way DonOLD ignored what Woodward told him about Covid in 2019. It was intentional. The YAHOO wants the Middle East in flames. Then America will HAVE to make a decision to support terrorism on a grand scale or not. South American banana republics are nothing compared to this.
(And before you get your wind up, I am not antisemitic but I am against Palestinian genocide. We shouldn't be killing thousands of innocents at Yahoo's whim and we have the way to stop it)
1. Yahoo is a mostly defunct internet search engine. The Israeli PM is Bibi. Please stop confusing me.
2. Bibi's idiocy is boundless. There is no daylight between Trump and Putin and no daylight between Putin and Iran. If he thinks a Trump presidency is going to do him any good, he's an idiot. He desperately wants to join the Trump Putin Orban club, and doesn't get that it's exclusive.
I am devoted to the Jewish state almost my whole life.🇮🇱 I am learning the bitter lesson - after learning from the ghastly war in Viêt Nam and 0peration lraq Freedom - that a good people can do some bad things. 😢 Disagree that what lsraël is doing in Gaza constitutes a genocide . . . yet; 🫨She has been warned by the lnternation Court of Justice. 🚸lsraël has displayed a genocidal intent by bombing hospitals, museums, and waging total war in a densely populated area. 😫While l respect President Biden deeply and would vote for him without hesitation, his unfortunate support for the Netanyahu government facilitated the tragic use of bunker- busting bombs in a above ground while Hamas gangsters laugh at the world hiding underground.🫣
I'm gonna have to look into "James". Huck Finn was one of my favorites growing up (that and Robin Hood, go figure). Jim says it all: "...throws away the truths dat scares 'em."
A wunnerfool book, Ally. I am a prod-so-long, plod-along reader. ¡One the few books l ever read in less than two days! Mr Everett surprises the reader with James’s wisdom and other gifts.
🤞🏽📕🤝😇✌🏼
I cannot recommend "James" long or loud enough. Read it Today!
This has been in my backlog for long enough that I forgot it was in my backlog. I've got a solid block of free time coming up, I think I'll read it.
🎶 running blind 🎶
Ahhhh, Jackson Browne.
Yup, 2 years after JB "was heading up 101" I was heading up 101 but, it was to go to the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival to see the Jefferson Airplane Live to see & hear Grace sing: "If the Truth is found to be Lies ... You better find somebody to Love".
No, I didn't bring a tambourine.
Prompted me to go look for this: For America (1986) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZqrjMmpr1c They say history doesn’t exactly repeat, but it does rhyme….deja vu all over again!
Spot on JB 🎶Link 🎶 'For America'
Those big media plus Fox are controlled by historic rich Republicans. The wording in a heading can turn good news into something questionable. Eg: “Will women supporters of Harris lose steam?”
"The sun rose today. Not everyone is happy."
Laurie's hit on the NYT got a huge community endorsement . NYT editorial board came out against Trump in June I believe, and called for support for Kamala in late September. This endorsement was widely reported across msm. Someone complained to me when i pointed out the Sept endorsement "too little too late". So what does that make of the Atlantic's endorsement in the final weeks of the campaign? I didn't see Heather complain over "too little too late". The editorials, in both June and Sept were unambiguously damning of Trump. So Trump threatens if he gets in power msm like NYT et al will have their licenses revoked for let's call it treasonous messaging, and Heather seems to take that one very seriously. We can't have it both ways folks, or, can we?
It’s money, as usual. Our outrage about trump sold newspapers. They just forgot to be outraged too, so many of us have moved on.
What backstory? Trump makes them money by keeping the discussion going as though it were a competitive race. If the legacy media covered the failed insurrectionist the way they've covered his various opponents, there would be no contest at all because he'd have been hustled into a dark corner and kept there where he belongs. Today's column is another good reason I subscribe to HCR, Robert Hubbell, The Bulwark, The Dispatch, and The Atlantic using the money I don't spend on subscriptions to the Times and the Post anymore.
I note, in light of Dr. Richardson's tale of the 1860 election and the beginnings of the NYT, that they started as a Republican newspaper and have now returned to their roots even though the current growth is incomparably noxious compared to the original.
I can't help but think the misogyny and monied elitism has something to do with the prejudiced coverage. One would think that criminal acts would get more continual coverage and complaints rather than not submitting to the behavior of being talked over during interviews.
@LaurieO Will NY Times, WaPo, WSJ, and other big media like Fox defend CBS from Trump?
MONEY…. Pure and simple.
Biden and Harris had FEMA on the ground before Hurricane Milton hit—prepared and accountable. Trump’s response to Hurricane Maria? Delayed, chaotic, and lacking empathy. The contrast is clear: Biden leads, Trump failed.
And if the con is on, and the plan is to cheat to get elected, then actual job performance doesn't matter. Which is why -- I'll say it again - it's up to us, the grassroots, to get out the vote and get out the vote again.
Yes , I agree it's critical to that we show up in droves to vote. To encourage your family, friends and anyone who is doubt about who to vote for, talk to them.
Every time Trump opens his mouth a lie falls out. He's so full of nonsense it just falls out. Wait, wait, he's about to lie again right now!...
"In a democracy it is the duty of every citizen to think.”
Per David Robson's 10/9 'NEW SCIENTIST' report, "The discovery of a small blue blob of neurons, the locus COERULEUS controls your mode of thinking suggests ways to increase learning, creativity, focus & alertness."
These neurons more commony referenced as the "little blue dot". 🔵
I'd love to know more about this research! Thanks for the tip, Counsellor.
David's 6 page piece takes reports the participants [ cohort ]from "mind wandering" to "better control over their locus coeruleus, a fact confirmed by a functional MRI scan that directly measured its activity."
The publication, New Scientist is valuable. I track cutting edge medical research, lead authors & institutional support of same. Probably tickles my "blue dot" 🔵 but, I don't have a bulky MRI machine handy to confirm, alas. : ... (
"BY the people". We daren't be asleep at our post.
Love, love that!!
I like that quote
True. Additionally, his every accusation is a confession.
LOCK HIM UP
David, especially his accusation that the Biden administration “robbed” FEMA of money to give to immigrants.
In fact, he took money out of FEMA’s disaster fund in 2019 to build cages at the southern border for adult male immigrants.
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/politifact/2024/10/09/trumps-claim-that-biden-wiped-out-fema-aid-for-immigration-is-absurd/75470700007/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/fema-did-spend-disaster-funds-205630621.html
Yes , I agree. This is why we have a responsibility to see to it that the truth is told.
Yet the story on the TV news this morning referenced a "controversy" over FEMA's response. The only controversy is in Trump's tiny brain.
Legacy media has failed it's responsibility. Makes me fear they long for Trump.
To trump….we’re all just Puerto Rico
Yet the survivors interviewed are probably in the backroads in the mountains somewhere. if it takes horses, boats and helicopters to get supplies to them, hmm. Graham Allen (BIG TIME TRUMP SUPPORTER) did a thing showing how awful things were. I wished I had watched more carefully, but he showed a big tree that had to be sawed to make the road passable. I suspect that there was more than one tree that had to be cut down, possibly more if the guy lived in the woods. One tree to a guy's driveway (or road) whose house was so far off the road, you could barely see it.
We had three trees down on my street and as well as all the other streets surrounding me. I was stuck (this was for a major unannounced blizzard ice storm we had in CT years back). This was in suburbs. No one complained. We were not survivalists. We lit our fireplaces, used our grills, cooked hotdogs. When the trees were cut we just went to friends and relatives. I don't know if FEMA was there or not. I suspect they were. Fortunately, there was no flooding or houses blown down. We did have cold and no power. There were a lot of electric workers from out of state. We had some guys from Georgia. If you live where there are trees you make sure you have some sort of generator. End of problem.
Heather, I watched you on the Women for Harris today and I loved what you said about Trump being enabled by the media and others in convincing millions that whatever he said (and said repeatedly) in convincing millions that he is the one who be the better person to pick. I didn’t realize, until, you mentioned it, that the ‘big lie” came from Hitler constructing a story about how Germans were victims in WWI. You used the analogy of Trump used rigging the election as his story he repeats ad nauseum, thus entrancing his crowds to believe him. The falsehoods the media puts out just “encourages people to give up their political rights” {paraphrasing here}.
Tonight, Kamala held a town hall with the Latina/Latino community. She addressed the immigration issue but also really showed her compassion, her empathy to a woman whose mother died 6 weeks ago before she could claim legal status. The mother was one who worked very hard for many years but slipped through the cracks of our immigration laws. The young daughter was sobbing and I was tearful also. We cannot let this monster and his monstrous team come near us again.
I’m with Her and The Atlantic. I am informed and will vote early in North Carolina. October 17th.
FT 6 sent 250,000 texts to unregistered NC and WI folk yesterday. Today is the last day to register online in NC. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Last day to register in Pa and MI online is Oct. 21. WI online Oct 16, but MI and NC permit registrations in person during early voting periods and WI at the polls.
States with late registration. https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/same-day-voter-registration
Perhaps The Electoral College will look into the details.. perhaps not.
It is great to hear that these Newspapers are endorsing Harris. But our work won't be done until November 5th. I had a meeting at my house and I invited 8 of my friends who voted for Trump in 2020. I explained to them in detail about project 25 of which they weren't aware of. We sat for 5 hours discussing the differences between Trump and Harris. They were all in shock and couldn't believe it. Long story short they had changed their minds and voted for Harris. All of us turned in our ballots today. It was a great feeling. My point is , that it is never to late to talk to your relatives or friends about how critical this election is. Now isn't the time to quit because every vote counts. Just a quick note. I know part of this comment isn't related to Heather's newsletter but I felt it was important to share.
Wow, Patricia, you made a wonderfully bold move to invite so many Trump voter friends, and then you pulled off the conversions! And sealed the deal with turning in your ballots! Big respect!
BTW I suspect that Heather would agree that any reader's report like this of saving democracy through your personal network is above and beyond related to her newsletters!
While I'm shocked that your friends didn't know about Project 2025, Patricia, I'm also super-impressed by your effort! 👍
I am sure that a lot of Trump supporters do not know the tenets of Project 2025!
Patricia, I am glad you got that far. In the two attempts I've made (one on one, over coffee) both of my retired cop friends (from two different agencies) absolutely believe that fpotus has disavowed Project 2025, even as his statements reflect everything in it.
They may change their mind. I did a bunch or research about his supposed disavowing of Project 2025:
There’s a video of Trump attending an event for The Heritage Foundation in Amelia Island, Florida, on April 21, 2022. During the speech he’s making the video shows him praising the foundation's plans for its just-announced “2025 Presidential Transition Project”.
The Heritage Foundation in 2022 called it the “2025 Presidential Transition Project”. Now they call it “Project 2025”. (Probably because the title “presidential transition project” would more easily be seen how it was/ is tied to Trump.)
Going back to the video from 2022…. In the video Trump praises Project 2025's 'Colossal Mandate'. Kind of a stark contrast to one of his “Truth Social” posts in July of this year where he wrote: “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it."
In the video he praises The Heritage Foundation and Project 2025's forthcoming "Mandate for Leadership" plans. Once again the word “Mandate” is used regarding Project 2025.
About 20 minutes into Trump's speech, just after referring to the upcoming election in 2024 election, he spoke about Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and said, "Already we have shown the power of our winning formula, working closely with many of the great people at Heritage over the four incredible years that we've worked with you a lot and we were just discussing it with Kevin….”
This is timely. I’ll save this as I rebut the carp one of them will be posting soon.
I am making phone calls for Harris/Walz every day between now and election day. I am calling on a Slack DNC channel that uses a terrific autodialer. It’s easy. It’s fast. It’s effective. It’s uplifting. I have persuaded undecideds and non voters, and a few 3rd party voters, in swing states, to vote for Kamala. This election will more than likely be decided in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. If we win there and we get 1 electoral vote from Nebraska (very likely) we win the White House. It’s time for all hands in deck. This race will be won, or lost, by a few thousand votes in those 3 states. SO, sign up to canvass, or to phone bank. These are the most impactful actions we can take. Sign up for a training on “Anytime Calls” with the DNC and call anytime that works in your schedule. Drop in for a half hour, an hour, two hours. The autodialers and the coaches and moderators are available 12 hours a day Monday through Saturday, and 6 hours on Sundays on the Slack platform. Sign up and get trained. It takes one hour on Zoom to learn how. Do this! Do something! Do it now! Have no regrets on 11/6 about what you did to save our democracy. You are here because you care. This is care in action. Go to: https://events.democrats.org/event/551644/
The original link that I included above was to sign up for MAKING calls. I meant to post the sign up for TRAINING. I have corrected the link above to the "TRAINING for calling" sign up. Here it is again. Sorry for my initial error. Thank goodness for the "edit" feature. Okay. Now, sign up. This is care in action: https://events.democrats.org/event/551644/
Thank You Avery
Signed up!!!!
I'm on board. I also text via FT 6 daily.
Thank you, Daniel. What is FT 6?
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Thank you Sally! These calls, and the data we collect for the campaign, are hugely helpful to the campaign. And you will change minds! Not Trump voters, but undecideds, wavering, those who say they are not voting, and those who say third party. This is where the conversations happen, where you can help someone to move toward Harris. This happens through being an active listener, through your expressed interest in why they are not voting, or what will help them to decide. What issues do they care about? How do they feel about the current Supreme Court? I find that the future of the Supreme Court can be something that moves people to vote. I point out that if Trump wins that most likely Alito and Thomas will retire because they know that he will replace them with younger versions of them, and we will have an ultra conservative, right wing Court for two generations. You get the idea. Listening, inquiring and open sharing about what motivates you to call and to advocate for Harris will make an impact. I promise you!! Thank you for fighting on the frontlines for our democracy!
🙏 💙🙏💙🇺🇸💙
Good for you!!!! 👍 👏
The polls are failing at their one job, as is the mainstream press. The most important thing now is getting out the vote and making sure the voters vote blue all the way down to town dog catcher.
Sadly, this time, the chance of violence is high when we win. But that is better by far than living in a fascist dictatorship if we lose.
Vote blue!
Whether we live in a fascist dictatorship will be up to us. We don't need to accept it, and given that the Constitution will have been abrogated there will be no legal or legitimate basis for governance.
Kamala Harris is demonstrating LEADERSHIP in the information side of the world in which we live: She is giving interviews to journalists who ask substantive (not “gotcha” / GOP talking points) questions!
And in the case of 60 Minutes, which asked its share of “gotcha” questions, she accepted to match what she expected Trump to agree to.
Related: (And maybe a little snarky) If The NY Times is angry because she won’t grant their editorial board an interview, they should invite Trump. He’ll never say “Yes,” and that should wake them up to the fact that neither side wants to talk to them!
HCR: “They also note the observation of Timothy Snyder, a scholar of authoritarianism, that power is often freely given to an authoritarian in anticipation of punishment, what Snyder calls “anticipatory obedience.”
“And yet, in the past in the U.S., when the media has appeared to become captive to established interests, new media have begun to give a voice to the opposition.”
I have heard that your Letters from an American has readership that surpasses WAPO. That makes YOU one of the new media! 🍾🥂❤️👍🏼
It is a pleasure to support you, Joyce Vance, Timothy Snyder, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Mark Elias and my favorite: TheJuiceMedia!
Now, let’s Roe, Roe, ROE the vote!
Many HCR readers and I also include Robert Hubbell's "Today's Edition" in this illustrious list of daily reading.
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/mobilizing-the-vote
And don't forget Simon Rosenberg' Hopium newsletter!
Absolutely, Ellie. I learned about Hubble here several years ago; I think he was my 4th Substack subscription (after Professor Richardson, Timothy Snyder, and Katelyn Jetelina (Your Local Epidemiologist).
Gently down Mainstream...
Merrily, Merrily, Merrily,
Let's expand the dream!
Roe, Roe, Roe the Vote,
Gently down mainstream…
Merrily, Merrily, Merrily,
Let’s expand the dream!🥰
Roe, Roe, Roe the vote (etc ad inf)
Why do billionaire owned media outlets pander to Trump? Who owns the major outlets? Follow the money with this interactive map.
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/08/08/billionaire-owned-media-outlets-hide-trump-dementia-follow-the-money/
The Media Owners value lower taxes more than stable, honest government. They may find, however, that Trump will expect some additional personal loyalties from them—especially as Trump is showing signs of mental deterioration in addition to his low moral and “truth” values.
I'm with The Atlantic! I will memorize that endorsement and recite it every chance I get!
Good that Heather specifies how Viktor Orbán drove out independent media from Hungary.
She might have added how he corrupted Hungary's judicial system, too.
The really piquant note would be how Orbán always couched his anti-democratic moves in the mantle of defending Hungary's particular culture -- a people totally unrelated to the Germanic, Slav, and romance language Europeans otherwise surrounding them.
Hungarian playwrights, film makers, novelists, composers, and other artists all throve as they borrowed from their cultural neighbors throughout the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and on for decades into the 20th century.
But one thing you will never have seen in any of Viktor Orbán's statements -- ever -- is any specific reference to any of those great artists. He has always used defense of Hungarian culture as an abstraction only -- against the binary opposite abstractions and blanket paranoias held up against other nationality immigrants seeking refuge in Europe in the early decades of this century after idiot U.S. militarism totally destabilized most of the Middle East.
The far right in the U.S. follows the same pattern. All know zero of American culture, can cite nothing personally appropriate from any American arts. Can only fulminate against immigrant anything and everything as if non-whites threatened whatever MAGA postures American culture ever to have been.
That's the idiocy typical of dictators, authoritarians everywhere.
What a terrific statement by The Atlantic!
www.theatlantic.com then go the "October 2024" Link the "In This Issue"'
The Atlantic's endorsement is in a light blue banner at the top of the "In This Issue" digital page:
"The Atlantic for the 5th time in its 167 year history is endorsing a candidate for President: Kamala Harris."
Mainstream media, apparently, is chock-full of whusses. 🤢
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNbwMrBMGgE
The Howard Stern interview was, in one way, the best. Absolutely biassed in favor of Vice President Harris and open in his antipathy toward Trump, Mr Stern is almost pukingly effusive in his manner. The pay-off, however, lies in Mr Stern going out of his way to put Vice President at her ease. 🤝
Vice President Harris is able to relax and show her stuff; and formidable stuff it is. Vice President Harris is sturdy, mirthful, high-minded, morally driven, resolutely optimistic, and charitable. What is not to like? She has her faults, one can be sure; she will do her best, one can be sure again. ✌🏽
In the popular novel, 'James', Huck Finn and Jim discuss the fate of two con-men busted by angry locals. I wonder if the author, Percival Everett, had our times partly in mind when he penned this exchange. 😯
Jim: ". . . . Maybe they get tarred and feathered. I don't know."
Huck: "That seems right awful."
Jim: ". . . . But they was stealin' from dem folk. Tellin' lies lak dey was. . . ."
Huck: "Yes, but them people liked it, Jim. Did you see their faces? They had to know them was lies, but they wanted to believe. What do you make of that?"
Jim: "Folks be funny lak dat. Dey take the lies dey want and throws away the truths dat scares 'em."
Wait a minute. Once again, even Heather and Joyce Vance have been sucked into letting Trump take up all the oxygen. And the result of a lack of oxygen is a vacuum.
Instead of yet another article telling me that Trump lied (yawn), why not tell me stories about the FEMA teams like the ones from Missouri (MOTF-1), that was on the ground days before Helene and through it, went home for a few days to repack their gear, and shipped out to NC to be on the ground before Milton hit. Some of them have now rotated back home for another few days to check and repack their gear, say hello to their families, pay bills, and ease sore muscles. They have already been told there is a likelihood of being deployed back again as the Task Force consolidates units. And that's without the likelihood of another hurricane occurring this season.
What about the teams of volunteers who have been authorized to clear trees? What about FEMA working with local pilots and trained disaster responders who have attained certification to assist, showing that FEMA uses every resource available to respond to the need?
What about the fact that that at the WTC after 911, the FEMA teams, equipped and trained to work in such disasters, showed great respect and understanding for the NYC Firemen who were so distraught to find their fallen comrades that they were taking unnecessary risks? FEMA teams worked to establish a compassionate and safe solution--they would search, and once they found a fireman and secured the location from collapse, they would stand aside and allow the firemen to retrieve the body with love and dignity.
Telling Trump supporters that he lies falls on deaf ears. Telling those who oppose him that he lies is repeating the obvious. Telling the story in terms of Trump did, Trump said, etc. is a great part of why people are tuning out of political coverage, discourse, and engagement. There's nothing new there. There's nothing uplifting there. There's nothing hopeful there.
Instead, tell the story of what is really being done and by whom. Tell these truths until the lies become self-evident. Tell the story that makes people want to be part of it. Tell the real story, the story of compassionate disaster relief undertaken by the people, for the people.
God grant that in 25 days we will never have to hear his name again.
Maybe, Lady Emsworth.
Though, then again, I wouldn't mind periodically in the future hearing his name in association with the big fat orange slob who again massively shit himself in open court while also snoring in another criminal trial.
Or reading court transcript quoting in full the fulsome exact words of obscenity-cum-vulgarity-cum-indecipherable-gutter-English getting him again fined and declared in contempt of court.
Phil - I can't say that some part of me (which I try hard to squash) doesn't agree with you.
But, not wishing to get all "Momsy" on you - what has that guy DONE to the people in this country? Were you like that before he started his shenanigans? Was I? Is there anybody else in your entire life who has debased you to the point of wishing and hoping for those things to happen? This is not just you I am talking about - all of us! He has turned nearly every American - Liberals, Democrats AND Republicans - into festering creatures of loathing. You see language and imagery employed every day that would have been unimaginable ten years ago. Dear Lord, that man really IS the Antichrist.
The Powell memo, Lady Emsworth, did maybe more damage.
Since Aug. 23, 1971, its lawyers, CEOs, and well-coiffed bankers offshored the tens of millions of jobs, killed humanities in schools, and changed the U.S. judiciary all in prep for the criminal monster and his spineless immediate enablers.
What a useful educational tool these threads are. . .
So - off I went to research the Powell Memo - which I'd never heard of before.
Wow.
Woah.
I read it with my jaw dropped open.
I mean, I know it was 1971, but - whaaaat?
And i can see exactly what you mean - that sounds like a prep doc. for the whole mess we're in today.
In case anyone else is as ignorant as I was - here's a link:
https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=powellmemo
And by downvoting coverage of government worker competency we are creating a vacuum for destroying their mental health, should the Project 2025 goal of abolishing civil service protections prevail. Not to mention the perilous outcomes under future disasters.
KEM, this is pure gold. I'd love to see a longer piece on FEMA, and what it means to be part of those rescue efforts. I have friends who went to Katrina (several cadaver dog handlers, some National Guard member, and some members of regional peer support teams). I haven't seen any info on CISM deployment yet; that usually has to wait until recovery begins, and not at active rescue and stabilization times.
We need Michael Lewis to do a piece on them! If you haven’t read his book The Fifth Risk*, I highly recommend it….beyond its initial focus of the presidential transition process from Obama to TFFFG, it does a deep focus on what civil servants contribute to the health & welfare of our nation. As someone who was a public servant (as were you!) for 40+ years, I felt “seen”. Also recommend his book The Premonition about the outbreak of Covid.
*He has recently teamed up with other writers to do a series of articles in The Washington Post about oft unsung gov’t employees/civil service jobs—I don’t subscribe (so mostly don’t have access), but was able to read the first one, his, about a mine safety inspector….who knew it could be so riveting! Sometimes a job Is not just a job, it’s a right-livelihood!
Thanks for the recommendation, Barbara! And a "thank you for your service" to you as well!!
Well said, KEM
"Kamala Harris doesn’t owe the mainstream press anything"
All citizens owe the mainstream media is a subscription cancellation.
The complaint that Harris is avoiding the media and interviews is a product of hurt mainstream media egos. The NY Times is the primary crybaby. Same as when Biden wouldn’t kowtow.
Exactly David. Even the Biden debate, ABSURD as it was by having the dignity of a sitting President of this great country appearing on a stage (no less) with a crooked-SOB, unfaithful father, criminal-awaiting sentencing...POS (Piece Of Sh-t).. a total insult to Americans everywhere.. (long sentence, I know, please continue)..., yes, the "media" had to put their cameras onto our elected president, who although perhaops not feeling 100%, was probably just FLOORED by being confronted with the need to respond to such lunacy!! The cameras took such an awkward moment to MAKE President Biden look like a fool. And, I fear it was intentional that they (the media $$) took that opportunity. I defend the hard-working men and women...'employees' of the Media-Machine, who are trying to make a house payment and raise their kids. But, the talking heads and their well-financed managers are the despicable bastards/bitches I most despise.