A report from the Labor Department yesterday showed that inflation has dropped again, falling back to 2.4%, the same rate as it was just before the coronavirus pandemic.
Thank you for exposing the truth behind the Republicans claims that they know best how to manage the economy. On the same subject, in a recent speech Barack Obama brilliantly exposed Trump‘s lie that his economy was great until the pandemic hit. Obama said the reason that the economy was great when Trump was President until the pandemic hit is because it was the Obama economy that was actually still in effect. Here’s a clip of what Obama said. It needs to be shared widely!
My Cat Babe and Donald Trump Have Something in Common
(From 'Donald's Vanity Tantrums')
Recently, I prepared to have a spaghetti dinner but I couldn’t find the bowl that I normally use. I looked high and low for the bowl. I walked through every room in my house searching for it. I opened every kitchen cabinet. I even went into the basement on the unusual chance that I decided to eat my pasta in my unfinished basement. No bowl. Could I have put the bowl somewhere during a sleep walking episode? I never considered I had a sleep walking problem but one shouldn’t leave out any such possibilities. Nothing. The bowl was gone. Then, as I sat back in my studio with my feet up on my desk, I looked up at a shelf and there was the bowl. After eating my pasta one evening, I had placed it there so one of my cats couldn’t get at the remaining tomato source and olive oil. Babe has a voracious appetite and he will eat anything he can get his paws on. And if he had gotten hold of my pasta dish, he would have had another diarrhea episode around the house. And cat diarrhea is no fun to wipe up.
This all reminds me of the need to keep private citizen Donald Trump away from the White House least he again, crap all over the institution as he did the first go ‘round. He was so unfit and unstable that certain military chiefs had to insure he couldn’t get his hands on the nuclear codes during his last days in office. Those who were and are his supporters conveniently forget these moments. But I will never forget how much this Trump crapped all over America.
Every word out of his mouth was a lie. He befriended our enemies and made life difficult for our friends. He hired the worst creeps into administrative positions. He likely gave up national secrets to Putin. He encouraged an insurrection when he didn’t get his way to be re-elected. He deregulated as much as possible and in case you forget, regulations are put in place to protect its citizens. He reduced taxes for the wealthy corporate community and now that we have runaway debt, the republicans are doing a blame game on the democrats. Par for the course.
Let’s not forget that Trump has something in common with my cat, Babe, who was found almost newborn and dying in my driveway on a cold December morning a few years ago. He’s a wonderful cat now. But if he gets anywhere near some remaining oil in the frying pan or anywhere near my pasta bowl, he will lick it up until he splats diarrhea all over the floors of my house — just like Trump will do if he is re-elected by those who think he has their best interests at heart.
By the way, he doesn’t have their interests at heart. He has no heart. A narcissistic personality disorder reveals that truth. (That's Babe in the photo.)
Despite his claims to have a beautiful beach body for all to admire, and that he is better looking than Kamala Harris. I say, any cat, any day, even the orange ones, are much better looking and behaving than His Orangeness.
Your post was fun to read, Bill Katz, but I wish I hadn’t read it during breakfast. Your analysis is supported by Bannon, who has bragged for a decade about “flooding the zone with shit.”
Bill, OMG….the times I have searched high ‘n low for something I put in a “safe” place…it is a baffling process until the a-ha moment & it all “clicks”. You nailed the dude in a few short paragraphs…bravo & well put! It is beyond my comprehension that folks—even those who want deregulation and tax cuts—could possibly see TFFFG as fit to even visit the WH as a tourist. I never have paid attn to NY politics/celebrities, but even I—living in far northern coastal CA—knew the guy was a putz when he ran the first time. I’d hoped, once he lost the 2020 election he would finally STFU so that I wouldn’t dread waking in the morning to the latest diatribe/SNAFU…..but no. Can’t someone tape his lips & fingers together or put him in a soundproof padded room w/o a cell phone? Pleeeeeze!
McCarthy should be tarred and feathered for resurrecting that vicious blood sucker. Cats are not malicious (unless cornered, has been my experience) but chump is as evil as any black cat has been accused of being. For the fun of it, and to puff up his already overstuffed ego. BTW, my beautiful Rosie died last week. She had IBS with diarrhea and vomiting at times. I miss the mess. She was a loving girl. Chump has not one redeeming feature to counter his Everest high mountain of Schitt. Loved your post. Can really relate to the searches of my digs. Seems to be happening more and more…
Oh, dart to the heart 💔….so hard to lose one of your pack. I have my “garden of dogs” where they lay beneath the willow tree…each with a statue to mark the spot & planted with spring & fall bulbs. It’s the best when they visit my dreams now and then. I don’t think TFFFG likes animals and am pretty sure they’d smell a rat (no offense to rats!) when they’d be near him—bet he gives off the very worst vibes.
Garden of dogs. I’ll tell that to my daughter who just lost her third one this year. Said that it had been a bad year for dogs. So wish I could see loved ones in a dream, human and critters. Usually dreams are just nonsense. NO, chump hates animals and they hate him, if the eagle he had near him once is a clue. I hope a majority of us can detect the stench of evil.
So sorry to hear this. I count the creatures that I shed tears for both human and cats. And yet they come now counting 7. They make me happy and sad. Today I just made 28 pounds of cat food that will last 2 weeks. I’m happy to provide this super best nutrition.
People who make animals lives better are my heroes. Takes an unselfish heart and a degree of empathy that some never have a clue about. The rewards have no $ signs
I do but after finishing dinner in my studio that night, I put my bowl high up so Babe couldn’t get at it. What don’t you understand. I forgot the bowl was out there.
I have to be careful as well, Bill with my big pal, a standard poodle. I wash my dishes, but not always immediately. Rowdy thinks it’s his right to lick the plate. Often he does.
When I was a kid I had an aunt who had a standard poodle. One Sunday she went to church, leaving a chicken in the sink to defrost….came back and the dog had eaten the entire thing, plastic mesh bag, plastic covering, and all!!
Doug, years ago I read somewhere that the perfect way to get guests to never accept another meal invitation is, afterward, to put the dishes on the floor and let the pets lick them clean. Then put them straightaway into the cabinet….after all they’re clean…right?
Bill Katz, I adore cats and feel a little bad comparing tffg to a lovely cat that is only following their survival instincts. That aside, fabulous analogy, tffg shitting all over this country!
So, imagine if this mechanism Trump has - to produce more crap than than he could possibly consume - could be used to create energy. We'd solve our energy issues and the geopolitical challenges they engender. However, if the technical challenges are overcome, the horrible stench might remain. We need NSF research funding on this.
Entertaining and insightful as usual, Bill Katz. TFG is a nightmare; let's puh-leeze not roll over and go back to sleep. Let's shake the deplorables awake and remind them that far from a dreamboat, TFFG is an evil, ugly monster who will rip everyone's life to shreds. Especially theirs.
He relies on mostly malignant intellects by surrounding himself with lickspittle yes-men. Remember that Roy Cohn was probably more of a father figure to him than his own father.
The Republican Southern Strategy transformed the Party of Lincoln into a GOP driven by the blood heirs and ideological heirs of the Confederacy. When Reagan jumped in bed with Ralph Reed - movement conservatism with the religious right - all manner of economic favoritism and social bigotry became the party platform. The main planks being voter suppression and contempt for the law. The hollowing out of the three pillars of our democracy - equality before the law, equal representation and separation of church and state.
Before D J Trump and his MiniMe Yap Dog J D Vance, "claimed the right to determine which government policies he considers legal" - the 'constitutional sheriffs' movement declared they not the Supreme Court were the arbiters of constitutional law. And they are the ones Republicans will deploy to round up deportees. Trump says local authorities know exactly who to round up. Just think about *that* for a moment. Hint: the Portage Ohio Republican sheriff instructing people to record the addresses of homes with Harris Walz signs.* see link below
Although we have the modern technology to overcome racist and political gerrymandering, it is being used in exactly the opposite way. Here is Library of Congress cartographer John Hessler explaining mapping the electoral demographics of the United States - a tutorial in how to draw fair lines vs hi tech 'stacking and cracking'
I believe you've hit the nail on the head, Lin. "When Reagan jumped in bed with Ralph Reed - movement conservatism with the religious right - all manner of economic favoritism and social bigotry became the party platform. The main planks being voter suppression and contempt for the law. The hollowing out of the three pillars of our democracy - equality before the law, equal representation and separation of church and state." This brings me back to Reagan's repeated statement concerning his belief of what government really is: in his inaugural address and even before, he claimed that "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." For him to provide wealth for his cronies, he would have to isolate and degrade, or as you say, "hollow out",
those three pillars of democracy. In Robert Caro's book, Master of the Senate, he eloquently points out the ever-changing philosophies of democrats and republicans. One will remember that in the 1860's, the republicans were...well, somewhat, at least, more socially aware and receptive to social and human concerns; it was the democrats who were all over the map in human trafficking. As years went by, and up to the early 1940's with the arrival of folks like Hubert Humphrey, the two parties essentially switched on the important issue concerning human freedoms. Republicans would hold onto that term "human freedom", but it was the democrats who actually walked the walk while republicans talked the talk. Lyndon Johnson, who at one time was part of the Southern Strategy Senate cabal, somehow, saw the writing on the wall, Richard Russell from Georgia died a democrat; had he lived longer, he would have switched parties much like many of his Southern based senator friends did. It was Talmage, from Georgia, who ultimately, was one, who rejected the democratic party and went to the republican side, and who eventually called LBJ a "traitor" to the cause. This red herring that republicans often use to remind democrats that they were the party of segregation is just that: a red herring. Since the early part of the century, republicans have been manipulating people, economy, and the future of this nation to the point of wanton self-destructiveness. And now, it's upon us. Just this morning, I got a blanket text from Preston Nouri who is running for Congress in PA. He quotes Trump in saying that "internment camps" will be brought back when he is once again President. One needs to really think about what is now happening. This is just another red flag concerning Trump/Vance. It appears that he no longer gives a wit about the judiciary, even though he is singularly responsible for creating 1/3 of it to his liking. One of my favorite lines from Walt Kelly's comic strip Pogo: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
There is a precedent for GOP internment camps for Hispanic people. For 24 years from the 1990s to 2017, GOP Sheriff Joe Arpaio ran what he called a 'concentration camp.' In 2017 Pres. Donald Trump pardoned Arpaio of criminal contempt.
"On August 25, 2017, President Donald Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio for criminal contempt of court, a misdemeanor.[1] Arpaio had been convicted of the crime two months earlier for disobeying a federal judge's order to stop racial profiling in detaining "individuals suspected of being in the U.S. illegally".[2][3] The pardon covered Arpaio's conviction and "any other offenses under Chapter 21 of Title 18, United States Code that might arise, or be charged, in connection with Melendres v. Arpaio."[4] The official White House statement announcing the grant of clemency described Arpaio as a "worthy candidate" having served the nation for more than fifty years "protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration."[2][5][6]
"Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio routinely pointed to the notorious, outdoor Tent City Jail he opened in the 1990s as a symbol of his "tough on crime" stance. Inmates live in tents through the sweltering Arizona summer heat and are issued old-fashioned striped prison jumpsuits and pink underwear..."This facility is not a crime deterrent, it is not cost efficient, and it is not tough on criminals," newly-elected Sheriff Paul Penzone told reporters at a news conference Tuesday."
Joe Arpaio, who erected the facility in 1993, his first year in office, and held it up as an inexpensive solution to overcrowded jails. Penzone defeated Arpaio in last year's general election, ending his 24-year span as sheriff."
"Maricopa County sheriff, Joe Arpaio, called this outdoor jail close to downtown Phoenix – his own tough-on-crime creation – a “concentration camp” in a speech to political supporters at his local Italian-American club."
Herman Talmadge died a Democrat, defeated by Republican Mack Mattingly after "Hummun's" financial cheating with his second divorce was revealed. Both Russell and Talmadge were fine with the Democratic platform except for its insistence on racial equality.
That video was very informative. I had no idea how difficult it is to draw voting district maps. I need to lok at the rules for Saskatchewan. There has been a tendency to include rural areas and parts of urban areas to dilute urban votes which tend to be NDP
This is it exactly! The support for Trump has almost nothing to do with the economy. The Groper-in-Chief's promise to Make America White Again is the tie that binds.
Dan Sadly I must agree with you. And carrying the banner at the head of these modern Crusaders are the white Christian evangelicals! Pope Donald of Orange has thus declared it!
Actually, no. Though I loathe Trump, he is technically not a convicted criminal until the judge says he is… at sentencing. That occurs after the election.
When he loses, he will get three years in Rikers (??). That should finish him. But the MAGAts will not go away. There are 70 million of them. Decent Americans will be fighting them forever. Even if they crawl back under their rocks they are still there.
I’m no lawyer, but I think people become convicted criminals as soon as the jury delivers a guilty verdict. I guess the status would revert to non-criminal if the conviction were overturned.
It’s also my impression that convicted criminals are usually remanded to prison when the guilty verdict comes down and begin serving their sentence even though the length of the sentence isn’t yet known. Or maybe that’s only if the criminals are black. I’m not clear on the details.
Steve, thank you for using the L word. I have great respect for HCR, but let’s call Republican myth making LIES and the politicians that spout falsehoods LIARS. LIARS cannot be trusted.
Liars who believe their own crap are willfully blind fools. Liars could be trusted to look out for their own interests, rocking the boat without sinking it. FOOLS cannot be trusted at all.
I watched the Obama speech, and he is a master speaker. Also, I am grateful that the truth is exposed by someone with a wide audience. Professor Richardson should also be making the media rounds with just this information. I have known this all my life, and am also grateful that Prof. Richardson is naming what the Democrats should have been naming all along since Reagan was president with his Reaganomics. Of course, now there is more data, and we cannot rely on Corporate media to share this, since they are a lot of the reason that lies about the Democratic party is spread as truth. Another lie is that the press is leftist! It most certainly is not and has not been in my recollection. I am a Boomer. Also, the myth that the Democratic party is Leftist. That is a fallacy, except if we say relative to the far right swing of the Republican party. We are certainly left of that, but so is most of the Democratic world.
Agree! Especially now with the joining of noted Republicans, Kamala is going centrist. That's not a criticism; it's survivalism! But may she fight for "the three pillars of our democracy—equality before the law, equal representation, and separation of church and state." The latter, especially applies to the Opus Dei shysters.
I think TNR had an article on how Kamala's economic policies were centrist, in a good way.
A columnist for either NYT or WaPo said reform of the SCROTUS should include term limits but no more judges. The idea that their should be 15 federal districts and 15 Supreme Court Justices made sense to me, an outsider. I did not consider that packing, just keeping up with reality
Who are part of the Christian Nationalists (CNs), only the CNs include the protestant sects as well. Project 2025 is written by Catholic and Protestant CNs. They are wanting to force all of the US and any country that we support to embrace CN or else? Or else what? Since the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) has an End-of-Days belief that they must convert everyone to their way of being on the planet, or else God will not return to save them, they have a lot of pressure to force us to their ways, which are so extreme that most people don't even know about them. Andra Watkins details the difference in their end of days beliefs in her Substack.
Since it appears that both Mike Johnson and Sam Alito, as well as Amy Coney Barrett and perhaps more of SCOTUS are members of the NAR, we should be very concerned with their mission in the court. They should be removed, and other members perhaps for different reasons. Take your pick.
The movement of this minority group to dominate us all is the opposite of democracy. Read this The Guardian article.
They are so full of it, I don’t think there is any way they believe their own nonsense. Pure power play all dressed up with lipstick and robes of inquisitors
Ally, you’re not serious. But you are. I think the Democratic Party has gone so left that it needs to return to the center. But you are a leftist whatever that means. We need to save democracy and we are not going to be a leftist nation as much as you would like. The only outcome in that instance is an autocratic regime. We don’t want that to happen.
Love it. Ginger Rogers all the way. When I was a small boy in the 50s one of my heroes was Charolotte Whitten, Mayor of Ottawa, who said, "Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult". She was even quoted on Home Improvement.
Stating the obvious, should the orange turd get into office again, the same thing will be the case…he’ll be inheriting the Biden-Harris economy. It’s the only way he’d be a success, to inherit it!
Now to have the media show this on the news etc. we all know how well the democrats manage the economy and then a republican gets in office and boom another recession. Clinton gave Bush/Cheney a surplus and they managed it poorly. Then Obama dug us out and tRump showed us what a poor businessman he actually is. 🤦🏼♀️ Why doesn’t the media cover this better. It isn’t rocket science
I have come to believe that general middle class Americans are not satisfied with the economy because the measuring stick is celebrity culture and specifically how celebrities live. We are hypnotized into a world that does not exist for the vast majority of population but less than that and we've been cheated.
I think that is true but I am also so fed up with the double standard of how the MSM reports on Harris vs. Traamp and it was the same when Biden was still in the running. They poison the opinions of people and have normalized his horrible behavior.
Sorry I disagree. We need the MSM because the people who we need to reach read our watch the MSM. They do not read Heather's column or any of the other liberal Substack pages that we Harros supporters read. Here we are preaching to the choir and by denigrating the MSM instead of trying to gain is support we really don't reach anyone we need.
Kamala's alt-media blitz this week has been brilliant! I am so pleased with this tactic. It seems she has reached a few million citizens, while He-who-shall-not-be named dithers in public appearances.
Still, over the last tumultuous decade, the MSM lost its way and is in the process of re-establishing its sea-legs — while scrambling to figure out how to finance it. The news business is in crisis, one not experienced since the old “yellow journalism” days. The industry needs to right itself, needs news consumers’ help to find its way back: A robust democracy cannot exist without healthy, trusted news sources.
I am not saying they are not needed. What I am saying is that while the former president and his running mate spread lies, spread division, spread racism etc., the MSM doesn't really cover the gravity of their statements nor do they demand detailed plans from him. Instead they sane wash his statements and normalize his behaviors. I am just suggesting the same treatment.
I agree 100%. I only read here this s all group applauding each other to go out and vote as if it was going to make any significant impact. I was interested reaching out to go to eastern Pennsylvania to work on Election Day from CT but instead I will go to Washington for a few days including election day, to sit in front of the White House , perform my anti trump songs and sell my remaining supply of my book. Should be get in, I’ll order more books and have 4 more years to enlighten the blind.
MSM are not relevent in reaching potential Harris voters. She knows this and ignores them which pisses them off. Her alt media appearances were brilliant.
I respectfully think you are VERY wrong here. If you are correct then there is nothing sensible to do. Until this week (when I think she did much better) she had completely ignored the MSM and that is where MOST of the undecided voters are. Writing those people off is tantamount to saying we don't need any more votes. And yet we absolutely do. I expect the money of undecided voters who read Heather is about .05% and most of those are people who might not vote for Harris because of her position on the Gaza War who aren't voting for Trump either. The ones we need to win in all the swing states definitely DO read the MSM.
I agree, Collette, although I'm not sure about the "poisoning" unless you refer specifically to Faux News and not MSM in general.
There is an imbalance in how MSM covers the two candidates (and their running mates.) I gave up my NYT subscription months ago and told them exactly why (I received a lengthy response from them defending their coverage ) I still subscribe to the WaPo, but probably not for much longer. I support the Guardian and follow the BBC, and though I don't rely on NPR as much anymore, still read and listen occasionally. American legacy MSM in general has let us down, and I don't understand why, as it's clearly against their best long-term interests if Harris loses.
I think you hit the nail on the head: "long-term interests". Is anyone out there even discussing long-term repercussions? We are stuck in this horse race mentality and discussing polls. Who is even participating in these polls? I know I am not. I can't be bothered and don't want my data gathered.
I am very surprised that you gave up on the NYT but kept the WaPo the latter of which I used to respect but no longer. They are far worse with their reporting than the Times, at least IMHO.
Jon, it was the opinion pieces by the NYT Editorial Board saying Biden should withdraw from the race due to age, without also saying trompy should due to, oh, I don't know — age, incoherence, criminal record, keeping of official classified records, bribery, anti-democratic/authoritarian yearnings, etc. etc. I've enjoyed the NYT, beyond its news content — the puzzles are the best; I love and subscribed to NYT Cooking, Wirecutter and more. Hated to give that up but that piece was the proverbial straw. WaPo subscription will be going after the election is over.
The NYT only took that position after Biden totally blew the first debate. It was not because of age, it was because he clearly had a serious cognitive problem or at least what looked like a cognitive problem during the debate. He was so confused it was incredibly disastrous. If he had not been chased or, we would not be in a razor close toss up, Biden would be wiped out by 10+ pts. I predicted that from watching him closely before the debate but hoped i was wrong. I don't know what would have been better, waiting as he did or dropping out much earlier. But that is water under the bridge, can't change it now.
Jon, the debate was a singularly catastrophic event, likely dooming his chances (of which I was more optimistic than you, at least prior to the debate. His SotU speech was Biden at his best.) In any event, my point was that the NYT should have at the same time called for both candidates to withdraw, given what we've known about the other guy’s past legal and moral (and other) problems, but also his own cognitive issues which we've all been aware of for some time. And that's what I wrote the NYT: Use the same standards for both candidates, which they didn't do. Anyway, as you say, it's water... Cheers and hopes for a happy November!
Yes he melted down in front of the cameras and right on time, Trump took full advantage and said, “I don’t know what he just said.” Omg what a bad moment.
Colette, the biased stories about the economy continue, much to my frustration and some how reporters always find the guy on the street who back up the story.
The coverage of person on the street really is very imbalanced, even on NPR. I regularly send comments about this and find I have less trust in NPR now. I wonder if their corporate donors are the reason for this.
I don't know what NPR you are watching but the nightly PBS news has been extremely balanced. They have continually reported on the positive economic news and they have called trump out on his lies often. They have criticized Harris for not talking more to the MSM and i agree with that criticism.
I agree Rosa, our preoccupation with celebrity and wealth is unhealthy. Not everyone who loves to sing can or will become a rock star. and many who do aren't happy, if they were truly happy they wouldn't be consuming harmful chemicals to ease their emotional fear and pain.
Celebrity is a stressful, rocky world in any case. Cher put it aptly, You're only as good as your last performance... maybe oversimplified, given how often movie actors manage to work through less than stellar products
“If you’re black in this country, if you’re a woman in this country, if you are any minority in this country at all, what could possibly possess you to vote Republican?”
I have wondered the same — why Hispanics in particular would vote for someone who is so anti- immigrant. I have decided it must be because they are evangelical, and/or they are against new Hispanics or other immigrants coming in illegally.
Frank, there are at least 2 "stellar projects" completed & receiving pre-release screenings for Oscar consideration.
I don't have the U.S. release date but Kate Winslet's "LEE" is already getting raves. It's a bio about a famous female WWII photo journalist directed by a woman, ELLEN KURAS.
Update: The film was released in the U.K. & Island on 9/13/24. Apparently, streaming now on Apple TV. Well received at the Toronto Film Festival in Canada.
My sister tells me the people in her office sign up for Netflix, Max, Apple, Paramount+, Disney, etc. when they are ready to stream several shows. And then they cancel after a month or two and go on to the next service.
I'm too lazy to do that, but hey, it's not illegal.
The short answer is simpler. Taxation policy on top management levels and corporation taxation, read the Economic Policy Institute. For example, as I've already posted, https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-in-2023/
I notice that the solutions the EPI might be suggesting are kept well out of the light by the Harris - Walz ticket. For one very good reason, I suspect: the emotionally laden charge of "socialism" ... it's already been thrown at the dems like a meat pie. Heather is so right when she suggests the electorate overall has internalized fears against a redistribution of wealth back into the hands of the broad middle and lower income earning classes. That of course will simply redefine demand, and businesses will continue to prosper.
Our "educated," Rose, have zero education in anything that reports on "the vast majority."
The novels, histories, memoirs, films, and songs are there -- many super fine. But it was always first goal of the Powell memo (1971) to kill humanities in American ed. School would never again relate to anything personal for anyone across the land.
Rather, our "educated" would all speak wonk. Numbers. Stats. Life as nothing more than units in the packaged forms of commerce which our nihilist rich would master, own, they forever after all on the safe side of the ever-growing wealth gap from where the masses and "less-educated" who lost their jobs to the offshoring would forever be consigned.
The war on education continues Phil. DeSantis is leading the charge by rewriting textbooks to allow for learning how to read and write and nothing about our history or critical thinking. Banning books must start with the Bible which is full of hate and vengeance. In our house, we love banned books. My daughter and wife used to read them together and now my wife and I listen to them.
I'm not sure if this is true, but I heard the other day the Trump Bible, which he's hawked as containing the US Constitution only includes the first 13 amendments. WTF point is there in doing that unless the Christian Nationalists had a hand in this.
Jon, I am against banning books. I am also against having religion force-fed to me, and to any children attending public school. As a non-theist, I also find the Bible irrelevant to me, but I must know about it because it drives so many people to do what they do. That two different someones can condemn gays or welcome them based on what they read in it leads me to believe that it is all about interpretation, thus making it more like fiction or poetry than the word of "God" as scribed by men.
Thank you, Ally House. As a Christian, I think you've expressed this perfectly. Your last phrase says it all - "as scribed by men". I've believed for decades that once humans were introduced into the equation, it became all about interpretation.
When we talk of the Bible, which Bible are we talking about? The King James version? The original Hebrew and Aramaic of the Tanach (not the Old Testament, at least not to Jews)? The original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek of the Christian Bible? The myriad translations, all with their subtle points of view and sometimes not so subtle agendas? I am learning to chant from the Torah, and when we look at the translations and at the original Hebrew and Aramaic, it's an interesting process to figure out what's going on. A lot of what fundamentalists thunder about as the word of God is based on a misunderstanding of the original.
To me, the Bible is more like mythology with stories handed down by word of mouth until someone wrote them down. Many of the stories are similar to Greek, Roman and Norse mythology. Almost every civilization has a giant flood story and so on. They may all be true or they may all be exaggerations. But we've all heard many of them.
I've worked with many Indians that practice Hinduism. Their stories seem rather fantastic, but if you've heard them since you were little, they probably seem as real as the Bible stories I was told as long as I remember.
Humans love stories and the Bible has some good ones, but it also contains a lot of garbage in my opinion.
No, I'm not advocating banning the Bible or any books.
We probably have a dozen Bibles in our house and I have read the Bible cover to cover more than once. And I am a non-theist.
I am also opposed to allowing white Christian Nationaliststs from editing text books or curriculum.
One of the most influential books for me was one of the most banned books of all time - Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5. By banning this book, it has likely driven millions of people to read it which is obviously an unintended consequence of book banning.
Would I like to see Trump and his MAGA friends censored? Sure. But, to what end? Assuming he loses the election, the media will still report on his incoherent and looney ramblings because they are greedy bastards.
I like to believe I live my life according to the teachings of Jesus Christ because I feel his values and morals align more with mine. But many other characters in the Bible, like Paul are misogynistic and believe that women are basically the property of men. In other words, they are patriarchal.
Long answer to your question, but NO I am against censorship in all forms.
Your comment that the bible is "full of hate and vengeance" and the replies, tell me that the bible and probably other religious texts are sadly misrepresented in popular culture.
There were classes in the bible as literature when I was in college, but I suppose that didn't happen in much of the country. It certainly should have been part of a real understanding of critical thinking.
"The Bible" does not really exist as most of this discussion posits it. There is no one, authoritative version of the Jewish and Christian sacraments. There is no "original" version; paper doesn't last that long. But most importantly the writings of the bible are a collection, not a book. A collection that was chosen by committee and then revised by committee a few hundred years later. A collection that was hand copied with comments and "corrections" added for centuries before printing was developed.
To read any version of the bible today as you would read a modern book is ridiculous if not criminal.
If you will read the book of Genesis, you can easily see that there are two different creation stories crammed together there. Both were considered too important to leave out, so they just put them both in. Genesis 1 tells one story and Genesis 2 tells a different story.
It's like a giant game of "telephone" , from many oral transmissions to many written transmissions, to translations to codification to more translations, etc.
The 14th Amendment, section three, specifically calls for the removal from ballots for public office of any insurrectionists. That would obviously include the fat orange felon.
Too bad (for us) that the Clarence court refuses to abide by the Constitution, but only promotes its medieval lunacies instead.
Phil trump had not even been legally accused of insurrection let alone convicted of it. Until then I don't believe the 14th amendment even applies. Is this a miscarriage? IMHO absolutely but in practice neither my opinions nor yours matter to the law. Even Lawrence Tribe's opinions don't matter. The only thing that matters is actual charges brought and actual verdicts. That's why I think Merrick Garland sadly played a terrible part in all of this by sitting on it for almost 2 years.
I think the nine justices could have looked at his behavior on and up to Jan. 6 and by the Constitution ruled him ineligible for any more public office.
We all saw what he did. We can all read the words of Article 14, section three.
They could have applied that to him and his behavior.
I disagree with your suggestion Phil. This court actually MIGHT do something like that given their history of creating decisions for the right wing but I can't imagine them doing it to block trump and no matter who they did it for I believe it should be unconstitutional. The 14th amendment says clearly that anyone who committed insurrection could not hold office, but I do not think the Supreme Court would have the right on their own to declare that. Someone would need to file a charge of insurrection and the accused (trump) would have a right to a trial before you could consider him an insurrectionist. No insurrection charge has ever been filed so I can't see how the SCOTUS would be able to just "declare" it to be so. That isn't how our legal system is supposed to work.
Don’t fully dismiss criticisms of some books. New Think accuses white people of privilege. And this is one reason so many run into the arms of a mad man. I get peed when I’m accused of being privileged and there is some but not a lot of truth to it but if you keep hammering this, MAGA is the end result. Something to consider.
Changes in taxation policy on top level and corporated income, deregulation, had more to do with the growth in inequality than more STEM and technical and less humanities, I would say, Phil. Much, if not entirely, more.
Basically you are right,. I would like to add that Americans, and I am one, always want more than they can or do have. We do not know the meaning of contentment. Many can buy a small car but they choose the SUV and not just the standard SUV, the one with all the bells and whistles, then they complain that everything at the grocery store costs too much because they have taken that gigantic car payment because they are making a bit more, and the suppliers say we need to raise the prices of x, y, and z because we have to pay my workers a living wage. In America we generally live on credit. When we get over extended and can't pay our bills we complain about the economy and need someone to blame, and it is usually the President. Finally, we got a president that actually did something for everyone during an economic crisis and did everything right, rather than a president that did nothing at alll or only for the bankerl...and we complained he is too old and our cost of living is too high even though we have better pay or maybe our first job in a long time. We are chronic bellyachers. That is on us, just like our credit scores, and our mounting bills. I'm not saying there aren't poor people that need and deserve help, more then they are given, but let's focus on lifting their boats ..I'm not sure I agree with giving money for building homes or making babies ..too much "free" cash (clearly there is no such thing as free cash or a free lunch) for people to resist, you can't make them use the 6K to buy baby stuff unless you make them submit receipts for baby stuff, and good luck staying that organized. As for 25k to buy a house, builders will see the opportunity to jack up the prices, hardware and tools will go up, and some of it go to the realtors to compensate for the govt trying to keep them from gouging sellers and buyers at closing....I really doubt it will ultimately help reduce their mortgage, because in the end, like the SUV car payment, it is about the mortgage. Possibly we will end up just making those bankers we envy richer because people will be people and many are very greedy. How do we stop the greedy? Many people gringe at taking handouts and others take them gladly but most screem when the national debt grows? Sort of like being against contraception and against abortion. They are not compatible with the concept of individual freedom or each other for that matter. I get vertigo thinking about human nature.
People themselves cause most of their own financial problems. I listen to my kid whine about not being able to afford to go on a vacation that doesn't involve a tent. That same kid also wrestles with the problem that the affordable apartments are not in the best neighborhoods. That kid will probably never be able to handle a mortgage (remember 2008 subprime loans and how that turned out?) That same kid, has more brains than me, is now 40, and still won't go to college, because it is too much with work. It doesn't matter that I've explained to the said kid, that I bought my first little house in a very nice neighborhood at 40 but went on one vacation between the ages of 20 and 40. Most of the time I worked a lot more than 40 hrs a week to do that. It paid off for me. It cost more monthly than an apartment in a nice neighborhood but it paid off in equity. It was my dream and I earned it. It didn't come without going to college, or without foregoing fun stuff, and it didn't come at 3% interest, and it didn't come with govt subsides, and it didn't come by living outside of what I could really afford, but it did come.
I know way too many who spend themselves into crisis without much of a clue as to who did it. Unreal. True of people buying half million dollar houses, and being shocked at the upkeep. Of course, some companies screw the pooch when dealing with desperate customers, like car repairs.
I don't see "celebrity culture" as that important to people. I think the fact that a meal at McDonald's is at least $25 is why people believe the economy is bad.
All the "economic indicators" that are quoted by "experts" don't mean anything to most people. But the price jumps that people see every day are what are real and inflation going down is not bringing those prices down.
But prices aren't going up every day. That's a myth that is successfully being put forward by Trump and his MAGAs.
Trump had an opportunity to raise the Federal minimum wage which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009. Even at 2% inflation the minimum wage should be $9.75 an hour. And in 20 states (17 of them red) they REFUSE to raise their minimum wage.
Rosa... I would add to what you said, that most Americans have no idea how to manage money. I spent my career as an accountant. I found most of my clients were very impulsive when it came to spending money. They never felt like they spent too much, but usually felt they didn't make enough. One client, who always had money problems, told me he had gotten a new credit card. "The best thing" he said "is that you have to pay it off each month". I looked at him and said "you can pay all your credit cards off each month" He looked at me like... what a concept! I still see friends of mine prioritize spending money on things (like exotic vacations) rather than paying off/down their debt. Which they are constantly complaining about.
Sherry, sex education and financial education is absent in the US culture. Most people have to fail dismally and then look for that information themselves. After sorting through misinformation from friends, being drawn to financial scams and porn sites, you might land somewhere useful. Most don't get there with either subject. We can do better!!
@Rosa: "that general middle class Americans are not satisfied with the economy" is BS brought to you by the MSM to create the appearance of a horse race.
Here's what is effective: tell MAGATs they have to be crazy to vote for a deranged candidate.
"Celebrity culture:" Had I been the DNC operative that placed Obama in Pennsyltucky, my native land, I'd have equipped him m with a Terrible Towel.
Harris also has to overcome the information deficit which our century has brought through the death of a common, reliable news source. All of the amazing accomplishments Dr Richardson describes here are completely unknown to a shockingly high percentage of the population.
Very few people actually read billboards. They are most effective to communicate brand names and very short messages. 6-8 words are must effective. That's all people have time to see and read. Pretty hard to communicate even a short message of facts in 6-8 words
Best one I have seen lately was on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Harrisburg with a recognizable close-up of Trump's eyes with the word "UNFIT" writ large across them . Succinct and to the point. And only one word.
Yeah but that is not communicating why. It's just a flat out opinion. Fair enough if you want to spend your money on that but it doesn't likely change any minds. My point was that it is difficult to communicate WHY people should vote for Harris in 6 words.
That's a great "headline" for a billboard but it doesn't in any way explain WHY someone should vote for Harris or WHY they should believe you. I was just suggesting that billboards aren't going to convince anyone that Trump is a terrible choice unless someone already believes that.
Of course that's true but it hasn't changed enough yet in my opinion to just arbitrarily write off the MSM. maybe in 8-12 more years but right now large numbers of purple who have not made up their mind are so reading the papers and watching network news. Very few are reading Heather's blog.
Having visited Normandie, France yesterday, I could not sleep last night as I thought about how the T/V administration plans to dismantle our government as we know it to benefit the wealthy, to deport immigrants and to punish their enemies. Following Hitlers playbook by using the big lie and blaming “the other” for any woes, is already on full display. And visiting the American Cemetary near Omaha Beach, where over 9,000 Americans are buried, reminded me of how pulling out of NATO and siding with Putin will make the entire world unsafe. I do not understand how every American cannot see the threat that we are facing.
You aren’t alone in your concerns, and the readers here are well aware of what’s going on and that we can only save ourselves, as no one else will do so. That being said, I agree with you that I too can’t understand why many of our fellow Americans can’t see the threat we’re facing. Jack Posobiec, one of Trump’s toadies, calls those of us who don’t agree with him “unhuman” and has co-written a book with Joshua Lisec called “Unhumans,” in which he fantasizes that those of us who don’t support Trump are ”communists” and calls for the sort of brutal kidnapping and killing our government encouraged the military governments of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay unto use against their own citizens. When we get to a point where some people don’t think of their fellow citizens as human, we have reached a very low point indeed. It is the mindset that encouraged the Holocaust, the World War I slaughter of Armenians, and the murder of Rwandans.
@KathyHughes we have to think, breath, and act on Blue Blue Blue. In my parents memory I will not see this happen. Nor for the sake of my grandchildren will I let this hate and fear take over. Be happy, worry less and don’t let their tough, trash talk frighten. We are much stronger than that. We are much smarter than that. Please. Work harder, worry less! Give more. I state this in love.
That requires some critical thinking beyond unfettered jealousy, rage and outright hate. For that, you need an education system that is functioning well - and that is exactly what the Republicans DON’T want, so they destroyed it in the long game. Well played, I say, because now the stage is set for a Trump dictatorship. And yes, if that happens, it will be the end of democracy, not only in the US, but also in Europe. We’ll be fighting WW3 against Putin here. That is what is really at stake. Sadly, most Americans can’t see that past their red-white-and-blue coloured shades…
Susan, I was there in July and experienced and thought the same thing! Very powerful emotions. We can't turn into the kind of country we rescued France from 80 years ago!
My kids used to play this ‘opposite day’ game to my great, good humor ed frustration. Yes meant no, up meant down, wrong meant right, day meant night. This myth about economic policy and the ramifications for public debt, income inequality, and a basic ‘freedom from want’ safety net always triggers me. But not with the good humor bit. As news of Trump’s and Vance escalating vitriolic falsehoods land every morning I feel like I am trapped in an Opposite Day, night, week, month Halloween house of horrors.
Trump would create a real hellhole as opposed to the fictional hellhole he imagines we are. In his dismal imagination, Trump thinks things would be perfect if he were in charge again. They wouldn’t, and he’d cause irreparable damage.
Actually Trump imagines that things would be perfect for HIM; he doesn't give a mouse-sized shite about any body or any thing other than he remains out of jail and can continue to grift from his big money donors and reap applause and adulation from his MAGA fancult.
Can anybody think of even one problem that we have today that repubs have not created or made worse. The hellscape that chump sees is the one he created, as he blames everybody else. From WaPo, 9-16-16. “it was typical of Trump to justify his own transgressions with the argument that someone else had done it first. …his refusal to apologize is yet another measure of his strength as a leader. He wears the scorn of a legion of fact-checkers as a badge of authenticity.” Clyburn (in the same article) said his lies were no longer dog whistles, but the howls of wolves.” And we are the prey, are we not?
I ran into this Today... It is a very thoughtful piece written by a Jewish Rabbi that shows that it is possible to evolve beyond a 'Eye-For-A-Eye', and a 'Tooth-For-A-Tooth'... As of now, I haven't heard of any Massive Israeli Attacks on Iran... Perhaps the 'October Surprise' will be a Ceasefire...:
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11-OCT-2024: From The L.A.Times: Opinion: I'm a rabbi and a former IDF soldier. This Yom Kippur I'm atoning for my part in the occupation
Forty-one years ago, I was posted with the Israel Defense Forces as a soldier, in the Palestinian village of Tekoa in the West Bank. From the roof of the school building my unit was based in, I could look into a Palestinian family’s backyard. Every once in a while when I sat there on guard duty, M-16 across my lap, I caught the eye of a woman bringing in her family’s laundry. There was disdain, bordering on pity, in her eyes that I felt deep in my soul. I was already rethinking the morality of the IDF, and the woman’s contempt knocked me off balance.
Today, I live in Los Angeles. I’m a rabbi and a professor who trains future rabbis. During the four years I studied Torah in a West Bank settlement, I saw and encountered many Palestinians but I never had a real conversation with even one of them. We lived in different countries, but sometimes it seemed like different planets.
This year, as Jews celebrate the High Holy Days, I feel a responsibility to model a different way of being Jewish. For this reason, earlier this month I joined a protest at the offices of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the largest Jewish pro-Israel organization in America. We were demanding that AIPAC stop pressuring Congress to continue funding Israel’s war in Gaza; the U.S. should halt military aid to Israel as long as we believe it is committing human rights violations. We invited AIPAC to join us in calling for a hostage and prisoner deal and immediate cease-fire.
Decades ago, when preparing for my reserve duty, I resolved to act with kindness and justice. I would refuse to take part in any unnecessary or unprovoked violence, I thought. However, once I donned the IDF uniform I quickly realized I was part of the military machine that allowed Israeli Jews to live in what Sara Yael Hirschhorn, a scholar of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, calls “occupied suburbia,” while forcing Palestinians to live in constant fear. As one Israeli soldier put it in 2014: “The whole thing is, ‘We’re here, fear us, we’re in control here.’”
This Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, my time as an IDF soldier has me carrying a need to repent for the occupation and call urgently for a cease-fire. There is a long list of sins — the Al Chet — that traditionally is recited several times during Yom Kippur services. It is written in plural, to signal that each individual accepts responsibility for the actions of the community. As we consider what we have to atone for this year, I think these transgressions listed in the Al Chet are a good place to start: “For the sins we have sinned unknowingly. For the sins we have sinned openly. For the sins we have sinned with intention and deception. For the sins we have sinned with internal thought.”
What sins in particular? To start, some in the American Jewish community have indiscriminately supported the state of Israel, even though in January the International Court of Justice found it plausible that the Israeli government was committing genocide and ordered it to take measures to stop. Israel has been criticized for not complying by groups including the United Nations and Human Rights Watch. And yet, the website of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles proclaims: “Our Federation and the Jewish community of Los Angeles stand in unequivocal solidarity with our homeland,” despite growing evidence of alleged war crimes.
Additionally, some in my community have been so focused on the necessary grieving for the more than 1,200 Israelis killed in Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7 that they have not been able to acknowledge and grieve the killing of more than 41,000 Palestinians, many of them children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, after Oct. 7 in both Gaza and the West Bank. In the Nova exhibition, for example, which documents the Oct. 7 massacre and recently came to Los Angeles, there is not a word about Oct. 6 or Oct. 8, 2023. In other words, there is no context except Israeli suffering. The occupation is not named; Palestinians are not named.
The children who were displaced from the school my fellow soldiers and I occupied 41 years ago are now entering middle age. I think about them as I teach the students in my classroom now. I hope these soon-to-be rabbis learn by my example that there is a rich and vital Judaism that opposes oppression, violence and war. I hope they learn that standing in opposition to wrongdoing is a mitzvah, a Jewish sacred obligation.
My protests, my call for a cease-fire, are part of the way I am still responding to that moment, decades ago, when I locked eyes with my Palestinian neighbor carrying her laundry while I held an M-16 and felt ashamed. As a rabbi and a teacher of rabbis, I’m repenting this Yom Kippur for having been a part of the occupation.
This is a Very Nice Piece... Let's Hope This Rabbi's Prayers are Answered as He Wishes... Shalom...
Love your account of those many years ago, Apache -- or Rabbi.
Love how your pair your youthful experiences then with your work trying to handle AIPAC and similar others now.
"Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return" (Auden -- for me, St. Auden).
At some point, some will wake up to the fact that we needn't rut in the worst forms of the worst repetitions. Our schools could begin to teach youth the essaying skills to see "others" -- to quote generously, aptly from them and their humanities.
Humanities? Did I use that word? Do any of our schools anywhere in the world have any of that left in them?
Raised Irish Catholic and still see myself as such and am so glad to have read this this morning. What you have learned can be a well learned ethos for all of us. At 77 I’ve learned that we were meant to be life long learners. I will keep this next to my heart. Thank you so much, Rabbi.
Apache, Thank you very much for that insightful recollection and how your mind has changed over the years. On the number of Gazen dead, there is credible documentation and reporting that the actual deaths may exceed that by 10,000 "or so"...
It has been said, that the actual number of those killed in Gaza far exceeds the 41,000 as many are still buried under Rubble... Lets Pray for a Ceasefire in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran on All-Sides....
I feel this deeply. Fortunately, I belong to a Jewish community that is very much involved in peace activism and that understands that Israel's peace cannot be achieved at the expense of Palestinian destruction. I know, too, that there are Palestinians that feel this way, too. While I agree that there is no balance between the loss of life between the Palestinians and the Israelis, I feel sadness, however, that many protesters, here and abroad, never acknowledged, from the beginning and still, any sense of loss, injustice, or wrongdoing in the actions of Hamas on October 7.
Wow, Heather, a lot of work and reflection must have gone into laying out all the pieces of this mini-history of the US economy. OK, it’s your specialty, but making it so clear & encompassing is your talent. Thanks for taking the time.
I bought into Reaganomics. I was young and didn't know anything about FDR and what he had done or about how economies work. I'm old now and I'm still not well educated in economics, but I imagine it works like a well controlled flood gate. Too much supply overwhelms demand and producers collapse because consumers can't buy all that's on offer. Too little supply causes a drought below the gate and consumers fight over what little is available and producers flourish. But little is said about the consumer without enough resources to compete during either supply situation. A historic myth comes to mind..."Let them eat cake." Survival will cause a response. FDR's economic policies answered that need for a response for those who could not compete and Biden wisely followed his lead. Harris has been guided by her father, her own economic studies during college, working as attorney general during the housing crisis, and as vice president during the pandemic. She travelled beyond our borders before she became an adult. She interacted with the southern border in her role as law enforcement in California. She has traveled both ceremonally and on the ground as an extension of Biden's foreign diplomacy. She is prepared to the manage the ship of state if only Americans would trust a woman. There is a subset of American women who allow men to make the decisions for them. They are comfortable with the patriarchy. They would never consider a marital relationship that was based on a partnership. Their livelihood is based on the success of a man and they will do anything to maintain that connection. There is a subset of men who are so insecure, they demand these kind of relationships and see any woman with power as a direct threat to theirs. They will do anything to crush that powerful woman. These men are currently the greatest threat to our republic. Men, look into your heart, are you this kind of man? Women do you have this kind of relationship with the men in your life?
showing how a perverted slimy lawyer, called Roy Cohn, mentored, trained and corrupted a spoilt psychologically abused little rich boy in 1970's New York?
They could call it.... something like...
"The Apprentice"
Would that be a good thing to do? Or would it just feed the tumor?
Actually I think his comment was slightly facetious as the film The Apprentice was just released today. It's great! It's a definite anti Trump film. It's showing in San Francisco. Not sure where else.
''Harris has to overcome more than a century of American mythmaking.''
An excellent historical lesson on American mythmaking. Myths are widely held but false beliefs or ideas. (or bullshit stories) A perfect description of what Trump has been selling his entire life.
Myths are not about objective truth. But they do bind, unite, and create a collective mindset.
"Turtles all the way down" may be a "myth" in that this isn't what objective scientific research tells us (please don't get me started on the mythical "objectivity" of science), but it does provide a different view of ultimate reality for many Indigenous people.
Some myths are, to us, just ridiculous stories of an imagined past; others have real power-for good or ill - to affect our daily lives. Example: the myth that feeding the insatiable overlords of our economic system will trickle down to the lesser beings the rest of us are. Let justice roll down like mountains.
Leaping out of the page at me from an article --Charlie Warzel: "I'm running out of ways to say how bad this is"' -- in yesterday's Atlantic, the words of a meteorologist:
"Murdering meteorologists won't stop hurricanes."
At issue, the thing I -- born into WW2 -- feared most all my life: mass madness.
We lived through this madness in the first years of my life -- and the horror was unimaginable.
Then, in 1945 and after the Nuremberg trials and the trial and execution of Japanese militarists, we believed that by killing men's bodies we had obliterated the poisonous ideas they stood for.
Such gross delusion.
The rivers of poison went underground. And now, nearly 80 years later they have burst forth again in the most improbable places. Among the peoples who were the greatest victims of the Nazi-Fascist onslaught. In our midst.
Expanding this vast inundation, the new cuckoo-in-our-nest technologies spreading "Virtual Reality".
Thanks. One point - Republican voters hire many more undocumented immigrants than others, I expect. Small businesses, and big businesses that ignore the law and morals. Awkward? Not for them. No moral compass for them, it’s for you and me.
That wealth grew $70 Trillion in the past ten years.
Our federal obligations grew $17 Trilllion in that time.
( thanks for showing that Reagan was a debt monster, *tripled* the national debt, he was also diabolically proud of making the nation weaker )
The wealthiest, the top 1%, have about $46 Trillion, net. They could pay our federal obligations, $35 Trillion, *entirely*, and still have $11 Trillion.
Rs say we are broke. It’s traitorous.
We are so not broke.
The wealthiest are sticking us with the bills.
I need to hear an opening offer from progressives that the top 1% can pay our entire debt, so we can start anew!
Peterson and other cabals of the rich have been telling me for 40 years that debt is bad, and we have to cut Social Security ( entirely specious, incompetent connection ).
So let’s pay the debt! — waiting for my prize, b.rad
ps paying the debt is not truly directly possible, but there are many equivalents that would work just fine
You know more than the bellyaching Republicans, that’s certain. I’m tired of a government that concentrates on enabling the wealthy to accumulate even more wealth without considering or concentrating on the common good of all in the U.S. We need a big Marshall Plan here, particularly for people who have always been treated in demeaning and discriminatory fashion.
How can we have lost sight of that, who has exploited the immigration situation? That has been fairly common knowledge, that it's been the rich profiting. Now this is an important part of our economy & these twisted people are crashing it without any regard. It is so past time to deconstruct the myths & lies.
Welcome, Joe! I'm glad to hear about your positive experience. Your description of the dynamics here captivated me and has kept me around for quite some time.
Welcome aboard, Joe. I like to think of this as a bunch of us auditing one of the Professor's classes, then going out afterwards for coffee/beer and discussing what we learned. I call it LFAA University!
Republicans are dead set against anything that challenges their disinformation engines. They have managed to quash some federal institutional attempts to monitor and warn of propaganda that could have public safety issues. I'm glad to see the pendulum beginning to swing toward the position that it is a First Amendment issue for anyone or any agency of the government to utilize their own speech rights to push back on the lies and deception.
Boy, it that accurate. I cannot deal with my MAGAt friends any longer. What they believe is true is nothing close to the truth, and any evidence to the contrary is met with "fake news".
By every metric, the US economy is, and should be the envy of the world right now. But 75% of respondents say it’s fair or poor? Why?
I think it’s two things: Misinformation, combined with the dumbing down of our electorate. The result of this should be called “mythinformation”.
For forty years, resources have been taken from public education to pay for tax cuts and wars. Our children have been taught WHAT to think, not HOW to think. They are fed a daily pablum of lies and propaganda, and they don’t have the critical thinking skills necessary to see through it. And Project 2025 is certainly not going to solve that.
And oh yeah, Obama’s speech was definitely kick ass! I love listening to the “hopey-changey” guy!
My state of Ohio is doing exactly that. They were ordered more than 20 years ago by the Supreme Court of Ohio to reform school funding, and since then, they haven’t lifted a finger to do it. Our gerrymandered state General Assembly speaker is taking public school funding and using it for funding private school vouchers, while trying to copy other states in trying to forbid honest teaching of history. School districts are having to hold special levies and state taxpayers are feeling strapped. The taxpayers often don’t understand that the reason for this is because the public schools are not receiving all of the tax money they are supposed to get.
We have a citizen initiative on the ballot this fall to permit citizen redistricting, as the General Assembly and Senate have seen fit to ignore the citizens’ prior initiative to require nonpartisan redistricting. Our Republican dominated state Supreme Court has allowed our current Secretary of State, Frank LaRose, to provide a confusing and misleading description of Issue 1, which would require citizen panels to be appointed to redraw districts to prevent the current gerrymandering that has been going on. There are dishonest political signs around the state telling people to vote no to end gerrymandering. It’s dishonest because voting no will permit the state Republicans to continue their gerrymandering of General Assembly and state Senate districts as well as their gerrymandering of Federal house districts. LaRose tried the same dishonest tactics in offering misleading descriptions of his attempt to require a supermajority to pass ballot initiatives (he lost that one,) as well as his attempts to defeat a constitutional amendment to allow legalized abortion and to allow legislators to legalize recreational marijuana in Ohio (he lost these also.) None of them worked before, and I hope that enough voters see through LaRose’s dishonest descriptions and vote yes on Issue 1.
For me, it's that How we teach must come first, before What we teach. Children will grow their thinking skills if we quit smooshing them and get out of the way!
Thank you for exposing the truth behind the Republicans claims that they know best how to manage the economy. On the same subject, in a recent speech Barack Obama brilliantly exposed Trump‘s lie that his economy was great until the pandemic hit. Obama said the reason that the economy was great when Trump was President until the pandemic hit is because it was the Obama economy that was actually still in effect. Here’s a clip of what Obama said. It needs to be shared widely!
https://youtu.be/xPYKrAl_Btk
Yeah, Steve, he gave a smokin’ speech…man was on fire! Nothin’ like an Obama speech to get the synapses going!! Well, except maybe one from Michelle!
My Cat Babe and Donald Trump Have Something in Common
(From 'Donald's Vanity Tantrums')
Recently, I prepared to have a spaghetti dinner but I couldn’t find the bowl that I normally use. I looked high and low for the bowl. I walked through every room in my house searching for it. I opened every kitchen cabinet. I even went into the basement on the unusual chance that I decided to eat my pasta in my unfinished basement. No bowl. Could I have put the bowl somewhere during a sleep walking episode? I never considered I had a sleep walking problem but one shouldn’t leave out any such possibilities. Nothing. The bowl was gone. Then, as I sat back in my studio with my feet up on my desk, I looked up at a shelf and there was the bowl. After eating my pasta one evening, I had placed it there so one of my cats couldn’t get at the remaining tomato source and olive oil. Babe has a voracious appetite and he will eat anything he can get his paws on. And if he had gotten hold of my pasta dish, he would have had another diarrhea episode around the house. And cat diarrhea is no fun to wipe up.
This all reminds me of the need to keep private citizen Donald Trump away from the White House least he again, crap all over the institution as he did the first go ‘round. He was so unfit and unstable that certain military chiefs had to insure he couldn’t get his hands on the nuclear codes during his last days in office. Those who were and are his supporters conveniently forget these moments. But I will never forget how much this Trump crapped all over America.
Every word out of his mouth was a lie. He befriended our enemies and made life difficult for our friends. He hired the worst creeps into administrative positions. He likely gave up national secrets to Putin. He encouraged an insurrection when he didn’t get his way to be re-elected. He deregulated as much as possible and in case you forget, regulations are put in place to protect its citizens. He reduced taxes for the wealthy corporate community and now that we have runaway debt, the republicans are doing a blame game on the democrats. Par for the course.
Let’s not forget that Trump has something in common with my cat, Babe, who was found almost newborn and dying in my driveway on a cold December morning a few years ago. He’s a wonderful cat now. But if he gets anywhere near some remaining oil in the frying pan or anywhere near my pasta bowl, he will lick it up until he splats diarrhea all over the floors of my house — just like Trump will do if he is re-elected by those who think he has their best interests at heart.
By the way, he doesn’t have their interests at heart. He has no heart. A narcissistic personality disorder reveals that truth. (That's Babe in the photo.)
Brilliant analogy. Thank you for a well thought, well said post. A big difference is the cat is beautiful. DJT is not.
Despite his claims to have a beautiful beach body for all to admire, and that he is better looking than Kamala Harris. I say, any cat, any day, even the orange ones, are much better looking and behaving than His Orangeness.
Your post was fun to read, Bill Katz, but I wish I hadn’t read it during breakfast. Your analysis is supported by Bannon, who has bragged for a decade about “flooding the zone with shit.”
Thank you.
Bill, OMG….the times I have searched high ‘n low for something I put in a “safe” place…it is a baffling process until the a-ha moment & it all “clicks”. You nailed the dude in a few short paragraphs…bravo & well put! It is beyond my comprehension that folks—even those who want deregulation and tax cuts—could possibly see TFFFG as fit to even visit the WH as a tourist. I never have paid attn to NY politics/celebrities, but even I—living in far northern coastal CA—knew the guy was a putz when he ran the first time. I’d hoped, once he lost the 2020 election he would finally STFU so that I wouldn’t dread waking in the morning to the latest diatribe/SNAFU…..but no. Can’t someone tape his lips & fingers together or put him in a soundproof padded room w/o a cell phone? Pleeeeeze!
McCarthy should be tarred and feathered for resurrecting that vicious blood sucker. Cats are not malicious (unless cornered, has been my experience) but chump is as evil as any black cat has been accused of being. For the fun of it, and to puff up his already overstuffed ego. BTW, my beautiful Rosie died last week. She had IBS with diarrhea and vomiting at times. I miss the mess. She was a loving girl. Chump has not one redeeming feature to counter his Everest high mountain of Schitt. Loved your post. Can really relate to the searches of my digs. Seems to be happening more and more…
Oh, dart to the heart 💔….so hard to lose one of your pack. I have my “garden of dogs” where they lay beneath the willow tree…each with a statue to mark the spot & planted with spring & fall bulbs. It’s the best when they visit my dreams now and then. I don’t think TFFFG likes animals and am pretty sure they’d smell a rat (no offense to rats!) when they’d be near him—bet he gives off the very worst vibes.
Garden of dogs. I’ll tell that to my daughter who just lost her third one this year. Said that it had been a bad year for dogs. So wish I could see loved ones in a dream, human and critters. Usually dreams are just nonsense. NO, chump hates animals and they hate him, if the eagle he had near him once is a clue. I hope a majority of us can detect the stench of evil.
So sorry to hear this. I count the creatures that I shed tears for both human and cats. And yet they come now counting 7. They make me happy and sad. Today I just made 28 pounds of cat food that will last 2 weeks. I’m happy to provide this super best nutrition.
People who make animals lives better are my heroes. Takes an unselfish heart and a degree of empathy that some never have a clue about. The rewards have no $ signs
Perfect analogy
Bill, you don't wash your dishes?
I do but after finishing dinner in my studio that night, I put my bowl high up so Babe couldn’t get at it. What don’t you understand. I forgot the bowl was out there.
I have to be careful as well, Bill with my big pal, a standard poodle. I wash my dishes, but not always immediately. Rowdy thinks it’s his right to lick the plate. Often he does.
When I was a kid I had an aunt who had a standard poodle. One Sunday she went to church, leaving a chicken in the sink to defrost….came back and the dog had eaten the entire thing, plastic mesh bag, plastic covering, and all!!
The dog survived but did not eat for a week.
Cheeses.
Doug, years ago I read somewhere that the perfect way to get guests to never accept another meal invitation is, afterward, to put the dishes on the floor and let the pets lick them clean. Then put them straightaway into the cabinet….after all they’re clean…right?
Haha, Barbara!
hey... the man just put his bowl out of sight...
Bill Katz, I adore cats and feel a little bad comparing tffg to a lovely cat that is only following their survival instincts. That aside, fabulous analogy, tffg shitting all over this country!
So, imagine if this mechanism Trump has - to produce more crap than than he could possibly consume - could be used to create energy. We'd solve our energy issues and the geopolitical challenges they engender. However, if the technical challenges are overcome, the horrible stench might remain. We need NSF research funding on this.
Yeah, but Jerry, there are technical issue with using toxic waste as a fuel source….😜
Entertaining and insightful as usual, Bill Katz. TFG is a nightmare; let's puh-leeze not roll over and go back to sleep. Let's shake the deplorables awake and remind them that far from a dreamboat, TFFG is an evil, ugly monster who will rip everyone's life to shreds. Especially theirs.
Amen Bill. I agree wholeheartedly 🇺🇸
After owning many cats over the years, I would say you are being unfair to your cat.
Liked as much for your admission of a memory lapse as for the reasons you gave your pasta bowl temporarily to the cats. We all have these moments!
🤣🤣👍
where's the photo?!?
Here
I listened to that speech yesterday & shared it on Facebook! Hopefully the people who need to hear it, listen closely!
People have such short memories also, Trump couldn’t even manage a pandemic and disdains experts.
He relies on mostly malignant intellects by surrounding himself with lickspittle yes-men. Remember that Roy Cohn was probably more of a father figure to him than his own father.
The "economy" like all other campaign issues are pretexts for the fact that Trump and the Republican Party are RACIST.
The Republican Southern Strategy transformed the Party of Lincoln into a GOP driven by the blood heirs and ideological heirs of the Confederacy. When Reagan jumped in bed with Ralph Reed - movement conservatism with the religious right - all manner of economic favoritism and social bigotry became the party platform. The main planks being voter suppression and contempt for the law. The hollowing out of the three pillars of our democracy - equality before the law, equal representation and separation of church and state.
Before D J Trump and his MiniMe Yap Dog J D Vance, "claimed the right to determine which government policies he considers legal" - the 'constitutional sheriffs' movement declared they not the Supreme Court were the arbiters of constitutional law. And they are the ones Republicans will deploy to round up deportees. Trump says local authorities know exactly who to round up. Just think about *that* for a moment. Hint: the Portage Ohio Republican sheriff instructing people to record the addresses of homes with Harris Walz signs.* see link below
Although we have the modern technology to overcome racist and political gerrymandering, it is being used in exactly the opposite way. Here is Library of Congress cartographer John Hessler explaining mapping the electoral demographics of the United States - a tutorial in how to draw fair lines vs hi tech 'stacking and cracking'
https://youtu.be/l3iexp_pVxc?si=pAiBrW-aPzLadije
*
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/16/ohio-harris-walz-political-sign/
I believe you've hit the nail on the head, Lin. "When Reagan jumped in bed with Ralph Reed - movement conservatism with the religious right - all manner of economic favoritism and social bigotry became the party platform. The main planks being voter suppression and contempt for the law. The hollowing out of the three pillars of our democracy - equality before the law, equal representation and separation of church and state." This brings me back to Reagan's repeated statement concerning his belief of what government really is: in his inaugural address and even before, he claimed that "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." For him to provide wealth for his cronies, he would have to isolate and degrade, or as you say, "hollow out",
those three pillars of democracy. In Robert Caro's book, Master of the Senate, he eloquently points out the ever-changing philosophies of democrats and republicans. One will remember that in the 1860's, the republicans were...well, somewhat, at least, more socially aware and receptive to social and human concerns; it was the democrats who were all over the map in human trafficking. As years went by, and up to the early 1940's with the arrival of folks like Hubert Humphrey, the two parties essentially switched on the important issue concerning human freedoms. Republicans would hold onto that term "human freedom", but it was the democrats who actually walked the walk while republicans talked the talk. Lyndon Johnson, who at one time was part of the Southern Strategy Senate cabal, somehow, saw the writing on the wall, Richard Russell from Georgia died a democrat; had he lived longer, he would have switched parties much like many of his Southern based senator friends did. It was Talmage, from Georgia, who ultimately, was one, who rejected the democratic party and went to the republican side, and who eventually called LBJ a "traitor" to the cause. This red herring that republicans often use to remind democrats that they were the party of segregation is just that: a red herring. Since the early part of the century, republicans have been manipulating people, economy, and the future of this nation to the point of wanton self-destructiveness. And now, it's upon us. Just this morning, I got a blanket text from Preston Nouri who is running for Congress in PA. He quotes Trump in saying that "internment camps" will be brought back when he is once again President. One needs to really think about what is now happening. This is just another red flag concerning Trump/Vance. It appears that he no longer gives a wit about the judiciary, even though he is singularly responsible for creating 1/3 of it to his liking. One of my favorite lines from Walt Kelly's comic strip Pogo: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
There is a precedent for GOP internment camps for Hispanic people. For 24 years from the 1990s to 2017, GOP Sheriff Joe Arpaio ran what he called a 'concentration camp.' In 2017 Pres. Donald Trump pardoned Arpaio of criminal contempt.
"On August 25, 2017, President Donald Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio for criminal contempt of court, a misdemeanor.[1] Arpaio had been convicted of the crime two months earlier for disobeying a federal judge's order to stop racial profiling in detaining "individuals suspected of being in the U.S. illegally".[2][3] The pardon covered Arpaio's conviction and "any other offenses under Chapter 21 of Title 18, United States Code that might arise, or be charged, in connection with Melendres v. Arpaio."[4] The official White House statement announcing the grant of clemency described Arpaio as a "worthy candidate" having served the nation for more than fifty years "protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration."[2][5][6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon_of_Joe_Arpaio
"Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio routinely pointed to the notorious, outdoor Tent City Jail he opened in the 1990s as a symbol of his "tough on crime" stance. Inmates live in tents through the sweltering Arizona summer heat and are issued old-fashioned striped prison jumpsuits and pink underwear..."This facility is not a crime deterrent, it is not cost efficient, and it is not tough on criminals," newly-elected Sheriff Paul Penzone told reporters at a news conference Tuesday."
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/05/522707158/joe-arpaios-infamous-tent-city-jail-in-maricopa-county-will-shut-down
"The tents served as a prominent symbol of
Joe Arpaio, who erected the facility in 1993, his first year in office, and held it up as an inexpensive solution to overcrowded jails. Penzone defeated Arpaio in last year's general election, ending his 24-year span as sheriff."
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-breaking/2017/04/04/maricopa-county-sheriff-paul-penzone-tent-city-closing/100023562/
"Maricopa County sheriff, Joe Arpaio, called this outdoor jail close to downtown Phoenix – his own tough-on-crime creation – a “concentration camp” in a speech to political supporters at his local Italian-American club."
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/aug/21/arizona-phoenix-concentration-camp-tent-city-jail-joe-arpaio-immigration
Herman Talmadge died a Democrat, defeated by Republican Mack Mattingly after "Hummun's" financial cheating with his second divorce was revealed. Both Russell and Talmadge were fine with the Democratic platform except for its insistence on racial equality.
Thank you for demonstrating that the Republican Party holds no legitimate claim to being "the party of Lincoln."
Gotta love “mini me yapdog.”
Your first paragraph is a great summation, •lin. Your last paragraph is spot on; I'm booking some time this afternoon to watch that video.
Thank you!
I listened while writing postcards to voters ; )
Excellent as always, lin*.
And wife Nancy was helping RR with her astronomers.
They were astrologers, not astronomers. Let’s not confuse science with the hogwash most Americans believe.
Lin, thanks for the Hessler link. Doesn't he speak well? And, I feel slightly less dumb now.
Hessler also has an interesting talk on the history and science of pandemics in the Americas.
John Hopkins talk
https://youtu.be/I17K46_X4A0?si=D-ShkXmYTU9Ldtbq
That video was very informative. I had no idea how difficult it is to draw voting district maps. I need to lok at the rules for Saskatchewan. There has been a tendency to include rural areas and parts of urban areas to dilute urban votes which tend to be NDP
Same in Canada as in the US, then. More or less. Probably less. Could hardly be more.
Excellent insight, as always. TY.
This is it exactly! The support for Trump has almost nothing to do with the economy. The Groper-in-Chief's promise to Make America White Again is the tie that binds.
And the insistence that he won the election is the lie that binds.
The lie that binds. How true
“All men are created equal”
Most disputed words in the English language
Dan Sadly I must agree with you. And carrying the banner at the head of these modern Crusaders are the white Christian evangelicals! Pope Donald of Orange has thus declared it!
Exactly right, Mr. Solomon.
He said often “Where is my Roy Cohn.” Just look in the mirror chump. You will see him oozing Out of every pore.
And likely had his way with him so who cares, right?
Over a million of our friends and neighbors died while he fiddled with horse wormer. He’s a proven, adjudicated criminal!
Actually, no. Though I loathe Trump, he is technically not a convicted criminal until the judge says he is… at sentencing. That occurs after the election.
When he loses, he will get three years in Rikers (??). That should finish him. But the MAGAts will not go away. There are 70 million of them. Decent Americans will be fighting them forever. Even if they crawl back under their rocks they are still there.
I’m no lawyer, but I think people become convicted criminals as soon as the jury delivers a guilty verdict. I guess the status would revert to non-criminal if the conviction were overturned.
It’s also my impression that convicted criminals are usually remanded to prison when the guilty verdict comes down and begin serving their sentence even though the length of the sentence isn’t yet known. Or maybe that’s only if the criminals are black. I’m not clear on the details.
That is my impression, too. I read CFDT= Convicted Felon Donald Trump.
Thanks. But I’ve watched him commit crimes on tv. I stand corrected and appreciate you, Tom.
Let's hope that Covid-fighting equipment that Trump sent to Putin when we could have used it gets lots of play.
He is a brilliant orator! He really took Traaaamp down in the speech! Thank you for the clip.
Steve, thank you for using the L word. I have great respect for HCR, but let’s call Republican myth making LIES and the politicians that spout falsehoods LIARS. LIARS cannot be trusted.
Liars who believe their own crap are willfully blind fools. Liars could be trusted to look out for their own interests, rocking the boat without sinking it. FOOLS cannot be trusted at all.
Yes, but Trump has no beliefs. He’s pure bullshit.
I watched the Obama speech, and he is a master speaker. Also, I am grateful that the truth is exposed by someone with a wide audience. Professor Richardson should also be making the media rounds with just this information. I have known this all my life, and am also grateful that Prof. Richardson is naming what the Democrats should have been naming all along since Reagan was president with his Reaganomics. Of course, now there is more data, and we cannot rely on Corporate media to share this, since they are a lot of the reason that lies about the Democratic party is spread as truth. Another lie is that the press is leftist! It most certainly is not and has not been in my recollection. I am a Boomer. Also, the myth that the Democratic party is Leftist. That is a fallacy, except if we say relative to the far right swing of the Republican party. We are certainly left of that, but so is most of the Democratic world.
Well said, Linda. In my mind, the Democratic Party has moved so far to the right that they are more or less Eisenhower Republicans.
Agree! Especially now with the joining of noted Republicans, Kamala is going centrist. That's not a criticism; it's survivalism! But may she fight for "the three pillars of our democracy—equality before the law, equal representation, and separation of church and state." The latter, especially applies to the Opus Dei shysters.
I think TNR had an article on how Kamala's economic policies were centrist, in a good way.
A columnist for either NYT or WaPo said reform of the SCROTUS should include term limits but no more judges. The idea that their should be 15 federal districts and 15 Supreme Court Justices made sense to me, an outsider. I did not consider that packing, just keeping up with reality
Only packing in Repub circles, hopefully
Who are part of the Christian Nationalists (CNs), only the CNs include the protestant sects as well. Project 2025 is written by Catholic and Protestant CNs. They are wanting to force all of the US and any country that we support to embrace CN or else? Or else what? Since the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) has an End-of-Days belief that they must convert everyone to their way of being on the planet, or else God will not return to save them, they have a lot of pressure to force us to their ways, which are so extreme that most people don't even know about them. Andra Watkins details the difference in their end of days beliefs in her Substack.
https://project2025istheocracy.substack.com/p/what-is-a-christian-nationalist
https://project2025istheocracy.substack.com/p/what-is-the-new-apostolic-reformation
Since it appears that both Mike Johnson and Sam Alito, as well as Amy Coney Barrett and perhaps more of SCOTUS are members of the NAR, we should be very concerned with their mission in the court. They should be removed, and other members perhaps for different reasons. Take your pick.
The movement of this minority group to dominate us all is the opposite of democracy. Read this The Guardian article.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/12/jenny-donnelly-anti-trans-christian-nationalist-rally?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
They are so full of it, I don’t think there is any way they believe their own nonsense. Pure power play all dressed up with lipstick and robes of inquisitors
Thanks, Linda. I subscribed to 2025...
Bill Maher said that Democrats had moved to the center and republicans had moved into the insane asylum.
Ally, you’re not serious. But you are. I think the Democratic Party has gone so left that it needs to return to the center. But you are a leftist whatever that means. We need to save democracy and we are not going to be a leftist nation as much as you would like. The only outcome in that instance is an autocratic regime. We don’t want that to happen.
VP Harris has to overcome more than a century of Republican lies about the economy. Lies, not myths.
She must also do so in high heels and backwards, 10 times better.
Love it. Ginger Rogers all the way. When I was a small boy in the 50s one of my heroes was Charolotte Whitten, Mayor of Ottawa, who said, "Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult". She was even quoted on Home Improvement.
Love that quote
Thank you Steve for this link. It should be circulated widely.
Thank you for that. So miss President O’bama
Stating the obvious, should the orange turd get into office again, the same thing will be the case…he’ll be inheriting the Biden-Harris economy. It’s the only way he’d be a success, to inherit it!
Now to have the media show this on the news etc. we all know how well the democrats manage the economy and then a republican gets in office and boom another recession. Clinton gave Bush/Cheney a surplus and they managed it poorly. Then Obama dug us out and tRump showed us what a poor businessman he actually is. 🤦🏼♀️ Why doesn’t the media cover this better. It isn’t rocket science
I have come to believe that general middle class Americans are not satisfied with the economy because the measuring stick is celebrity culture and specifically how celebrities live. We are hypnotized into a world that does not exist for the vast majority of population but less than that and we've been cheated.
I think that is true but I am also so fed up with the double standard of how the MSM reports on Harris vs. Traamp and it was the same when Biden was still in the running. They poison the opinions of people and have normalized his horrible behavior.
I completely agree.
Sorry I disagree. We need the MSM because the people who we need to reach read our watch the MSM. They do not read Heather's column or any of the other liberal Substack pages that we Harros supporters read. Here we are preaching to the choir and by denigrating the MSM instead of trying to gain is support we really don't reach anyone we need.
Unless you count Fox and Newsmax as part of the MSM, the people you are talking about don't generally watch--never mind read--the MSM.
True but on the margins. Most who watch the MSM and legacy networks have already made up their minds.
SM and podcasts are where the most persuadibles live. Fortunately the Harris campaign gets it.
Kamala's alt-media blitz this week has been brilliant! I am so pleased with this tactic. It seems she has reached a few million citizens, while He-who-shall-not-be named dithers in public appearances.
Well-said, Mr. Rosen.
Still, over the last tumultuous decade, the MSM lost its way and is in the process of re-establishing its sea-legs — while scrambling to figure out how to finance it. The news business is in crisis, one not experienced since the old “yellow journalism” days. The industry needs to right itself, needs news consumers’ help to find its way back: A robust democracy cannot exist without healthy, trusted news sources.
I am not saying they are not needed. What I am saying is that while the former president and his running mate spread lies, spread division, spread racism etc., the MSM doesn't really cover the gravity of their statements nor do they demand detailed plans from him. Instead they sane wash his statements and normalize his behaviors. I am just suggesting the same treatment.
I agree 100%. I only read here this s all group applauding each other to go out and vote as if it was going to make any significant impact. I was interested reaching out to go to eastern Pennsylvania to work on Election Day from CT but instead I will go to Washington for a few days including election day, to sit in front of the White House , perform my anti trump songs and sell my remaining supply of my book. Should be get in, I’ll order more books and have 4 more years to enlighten the blind.
That is why Pete goes on FOX a lot to reach people who only watch FOX.
Yes but Harris is the candidate. She needs to do it herself.
MSM are not relevent in reaching potential Harris voters. She knows this and ignores them which pisses them off. Her alt media appearances were brilliant.
I also think that alt media reaches NOBODY who hasn't made up their mind already. Certainly less than .01%
I respectfully think you are VERY wrong here. If you are correct then there is nothing sensible to do. Until this week (when I think she did much better) she had completely ignored the MSM and that is where MOST of the undecided voters are. Writing those people off is tantamount to saying we don't need any more votes. And yet we absolutely do. I expect the money of undecided voters who read Heather is about .05% and most of those are people who might not vote for Harris because of her position on the Gaza War who aren't voting for Trump either. The ones we need to win in all the swing states definitely DO read the MSM.
What should we do to gain their support? They are going under anyway!
I agree, Collette, although I'm not sure about the "poisoning" unless you refer specifically to Faux News and not MSM in general.
There is an imbalance in how MSM covers the two candidates (and their running mates.) I gave up my NYT subscription months ago and told them exactly why (I received a lengthy response from them defending their coverage ) I still subscribe to the WaPo, but probably not for much longer. I support the Guardian and follow the BBC, and though I don't rely on NPR as much anymore, still read and listen occasionally. American legacy MSM in general has let us down, and I don't understand why, as it's clearly against their best long-term interests if Harris loses.
I think you hit the nail on the head: "long-term interests". Is anyone out there even discussing long-term repercussions? We are stuck in this horse race mentality and discussing polls. Who is even participating in these polls? I know I am not. I can't be bothered and don't want my data gathered.
Advertising dollars?
I am very surprised that you gave up on the NYT but kept the WaPo the latter of which I used to respect but no longer. They are far worse with their reporting than the Times, at least IMHO.
Jon, it was the opinion pieces by the NYT Editorial Board saying Biden should withdraw from the race due to age, without also saying trompy should due to, oh, I don't know — age, incoherence, criminal record, keeping of official classified records, bribery, anti-democratic/authoritarian yearnings, etc. etc. I've enjoyed the NYT, beyond its news content — the puzzles are the best; I love and subscribed to NYT Cooking, Wirecutter and more. Hated to give that up but that piece was the proverbial straw. WaPo subscription will be going after the election is over.
The NYT only took that position after Biden totally blew the first debate. It was not because of age, it was because he clearly had a serious cognitive problem or at least what looked like a cognitive problem during the debate. He was so confused it was incredibly disastrous. If he had not been chased or, we would not be in a razor close toss up, Biden would be wiped out by 10+ pts. I predicted that from watching him closely before the debate but hoped i was wrong. I don't know what would have been better, waiting as he did or dropping out much earlier. But that is water under the bridge, can't change it now.
Jon, the debate was a singularly catastrophic event, likely dooming his chances (of which I was more optimistic than you, at least prior to the debate. His SotU speech was Biden at his best.) In any event, my point was that the NYT should have at the same time called for both candidates to withdraw, given what we've known about the other guy’s past legal and moral (and other) problems, but also his own cognitive issues which we've all been aware of for some time. And that's what I wrote the NYT: Use the same standards for both candidates, which they didn't do. Anyway, as you say, it's water... Cheers and hopes for a happy November!
Yes he melted down in front of the cameras and right on time, Trump took full advantage and said, “I don’t know what he just said.” Omg what a bad moment.
Colette, the biased stories about the economy continue, much to my frustration and some how reporters always find the guy on the street who back up the story.
The coverage of person on the street really is very imbalanced, even on NPR. I regularly send comments about this and find I have less trust in NPR now. I wonder if their corporate donors are the reason for this.
I don't know what NPR you are watching but the nightly PBS news has been extremely balanced. They have continually reported on the positive economic news and they have called trump out on his lies often. They have criticized Harris for not talking more to the MSM and i agree with that criticism.
Nightly News Hour is the best.
Yup and I have not seen much if any biased coverage there.
If you mean NPR as in radio, I don't listen to that just because I am not in a car much and rarely listen to radio.
I agree Rosa, our preoccupation with celebrity and wealth is unhealthy. Not everyone who loves to sing can or will become a rock star. and many who do aren't happy, if they were truly happy they wouldn't be consuming harmful chemicals to ease their emotional fear and pain.
Celebrity is a stressful, rocky world in any case. Cher put it aptly, You're only as good as your last performance... maybe oversimplified, given how often movie actors manage to work through less than stellar products
She also asked,
“If you’re black in this country, if you’re a woman in this country, if you are any minority in this country at all, what could possibly possess you to vote Republican?”
Girl’s got her blinders off, no?
So very true Vermont Girl 57
I have wondered the same — why Hispanics in particular would vote for someone who is so anti- immigrant. I have decided it must be because they are evangelical, and/or they are against new Hispanics or other immigrants coming in illegally.
Now Trump says he wants to deport legal immigrants.
I have my hand raised and waving violently. Deport Rupert Murdoch and his serial immigrant family and Elon Musk and his progeny as well. /S
Actually, which country would actually accept any of our deportees legal or illegal unless they were like Einstein (Melanie's Einstein visa excepted)?
If they don't have permission to land or for people to come ashore, what is the point.
Trump is in fantasyland if he thinks any country will take his castoffs even though most of them are excellent workers and generally good people.
best to remember 45s bedside reading of Mein Kampf..."the final solution."
Frank, there are at least 2 "stellar projects" completed & receiving pre-release screenings for Oscar consideration.
I don't have the U.S. release date but Kate Winslet's "LEE" is already getting raves. It's a bio about a famous female WWII photo journalist directed by a woman, ELLEN KURAS.
Update: The film was released in the U.K. & Island on 9/13/24. Apparently, streaming now on Apple TV. Well received at the Toronto Film Festival in Canada.
Counsellor, thanks for this. It just might be the ticket to getting my wife to finally let me get Apple TV.
My sister tells me the people in her office sign up for Netflix, Max, Apple, Paramount+, Disney, etc. when they are ready to stream several shows. And then they cancel after a month or two and go on to the next service.
I'm too lazy to do that, but hey, it's not illegal.
🍎👀
I heard a podcast on Lee and it was fascinating! I intend to read the book and see the movie.
Apparently, the movie script put Lee's entire life in context: wild, better ... then world class realism. Made for Kate Winslet.
The short answer is simpler. Taxation policy on top management levels and corporation taxation, read the Economic Policy Institute. For example, as I've already posted, https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-in-2023/
I notice that the solutions the EPI might be suggesting are kept well out of the light by the Harris - Walz ticket. For one very good reason, I suspect: the emotionally laden charge of "socialism" ... it's already been thrown at the dems like a meat pie. Heather is so right when she suggests the electorate overall has internalized fears against a redistribution of wealth back into the hands of the broad middle and lower income earning classes. That of course will simply redefine demand, and businesses will continue to prosper.
Harris-Walz ticket.
fixed, thanks. Dont know if writing at 4am had something to do with that.
Our "educated," Rose, have zero education in anything that reports on "the vast majority."
The novels, histories, memoirs, films, and songs are there -- many super fine. But it was always first goal of the Powell memo (1971) to kill humanities in American ed. School would never again relate to anything personal for anyone across the land.
Rather, our "educated" would all speak wonk. Numbers. Stats. Life as nothing more than units in the packaged forms of commerce which our nihilist rich would master, own, they forever after all on the safe side of the ever-growing wealth gap from where the masses and "less-educated" who lost their jobs to the offshoring would forever be consigned.
The war on education continues Phil. DeSantis is leading the charge by rewriting textbooks to allow for learning how to read and write and nothing about our history or critical thinking. Banning books must start with the Bible which is full of hate and vengeance. In our house, we love banned books. My daughter and wife used to read them together and now my wife and I listen to them.
I'm not sure if this is true, but I heard the other day the Trump Bible, which he's hawked as containing the US Constitution only includes the first 13 amendments. WTF point is there in doing that unless the Christian Nationalists had a hand in this.
So you are advocating banning the Bible? I ask with all due respect is this serious or facetious? I honestly can't tell from the tone of your post.
As an atheist, I personally find the Bible totally irrelevant but I am more opposed to censorship in almost every form.
To paraphrase "I may find what you read to be offensive, but I will defend to the death your right to read it."
Jon, I am against banning books. I am also against having religion force-fed to me, and to any children attending public school. As a non-theist, I also find the Bible irrelevant to me, but I must know about it because it drives so many people to do what they do. That two different someones can condemn gays or welcome them based on what they read in it leads me to believe that it is all about interpretation, thus making it more like fiction or poetry than the word of "God" as scribed by men.
Thank you, Ally House. As a Christian, I think you've expressed this perfectly. Your last phrase says it all - "as scribed by men". I've believed for decades that once humans were introduced into the equation, it became all about interpretation.
When we talk of the Bible, which Bible are we talking about? The King James version? The original Hebrew and Aramaic of the Tanach (not the Old Testament, at least not to Jews)? The original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek of the Christian Bible? The myriad translations, all with their subtle points of view and sometimes not so subtle agendas? I am learning to chant from the Torah, and when we look at the translations and at the original Hebrew and Aramaic, it's an interesting process to figure out what's going on. A lot of what fundamentalists thunder about as the word of God is based on a misunderstanding of the original.
Exactly
Well put Ally.
To me, the Bible is more like mythology with stories handed down by word of mouth until someone wrote them down. Many of the stories are similar to Greek, Roman and Norse mythology. Almost every civilization has a giant flood story and so on. They may all be true or they may all be exaggerations. But we've all heard many of them.
I've worked with many Indians that practice Hinduism. Their stories seem rather fantastic, but if you've heard them since you were little, they probably seem as real as the Bible stories I was told as long as I remember.
Humans love stories and the Bible has some good ones, but it also contains a lot of garbage in my opinion.
Ally i agree with you 100%
No, I'm not advocating banning the Bible or any books.
We probably have a dozen Bibles in our house and I have read the Bible cover to cover more than once. And I am a non-theist.
I am also opposed to allowing white Christian Nationaliststs from editing text books or curriculum.
One of the most influential books for me was one of the most banned books of all time - Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5. By banning this book, it has likely driven millions of people to read it which is obviously an unintended consequence of book banning.
Would I like to see Trump and his MAGA friends censored? Sure. But, to what end? Assuming he loses the election, the media will still report on his incoherent and looney ramblings because they are greedy bastards.
I like to believe I live my life according to the teachings of Jesus Christ because I feel his values and morals align more with mine. But many other characters in the Bible, like Paul are misogynistic and believe that women are basically the property of men. In other words, they are patriarchal.
Long answer to your question, but NO I am against censorship in all forms.
Thanks Gary for the clarification. I expect we are pretty much in agreement.
Good point, Jon
Your comment that the bible is "full of hate and vengeance" and the replies, tell me that the bible and probably other religious texts are sadly misrepresented in popular culture.
There were classes in the bible as literature when I was in college, but I suppose that didn't happen in much of the country. It certainly should have been part of a real understanding of critical thinking.
"The Bible" does not really exist as most of this discussion posits it. There is no one, authoritative version of the Jewish and Christian sacraments. There is no "original" version; paper doesn't last that long. But most importantly the writings of the bible are a collection, not a book. A collection that was chosen by committee and then revised by committee a few hundred years later. A collection that was hand copied with comments and "corrections" added for centuries before printing was developed.
To read any version of the bible today as you would read a modern book is ridiculous if not criminal.
If you will read the book of Genesis, you can easily see that there are two different creation stories crammed together there. Both were considered too important to leave out, so they just put them both in. Genesis 1 tells one story and Genesis 2 tells a different story.
It's like a giant game of "telephone" , from many oral transmissions to many written transmissions, to translations to codification to more translations, etc.
Maybe an artifact of having been printed in China?
That's very funny, Gary.
The 14th Amendment, section three, specifically calls for the removal from ballots for public office of any insurrectionists. That would obviously include the fat orange felon.
Too bad (for us) that the Clarence court refuses to abide by the Constitution, but only promotes its medieval lunacies instead.
Phil trump had not even been legally accused of insurrection let alone convicted of it. Until then I don't believe the 14th amendment even applies. Is this a miscarriage? IMHO absolutely but in practice neither my opinions nor yours matter to the law. Even Lawrence Tribe's opinions don't matter. The only thing that matters is actual charges brought and actual verdicts. That's why I think Merrick Garland sadly played a terrible part in all of this by sitting on it for almost 2 years.
Sad, Jon.
I think the nine justices could have looked at his behavior on and up to Jan. 6 and by the Constitution ruled him ineligible for any more public office.
We all saw what he did. We can all read the words of Article 14, section three.
They could have applied that to him and his behavior.
Should have.
I disagree with your suggestion Phil. This court actually MIGHT do something like that given their history of creating decisions for the right wing but I can't imagine them doing it to block trump and no matter who they did it for I believe it should be unconstitutional. The 14th amendment says clearly that anyone who committed insurrection could not hold office, but I do not think the Supreme Court would have the right on their own to declare that. Someone would need to file a charge of insurrection and the accused (trump) would have a right to a trial before you could consider him an insurrectionist. No insurrection charge has ever been filed so I can't see how the SCOTUS would be able to just "declare" it to be so. That isn't how our legal system is supposed to work.
Don’t fully dismiss criticisms of some books. New Think accuses white people of privilege. And this is one reason so many run into the arms of a mad man. I get peed when I’m accused of being privileged and there is some but not a lot of truth to it but if you keep hammering this, MAGA is the end result. Something to consider.
Changes in taxation policy on top level and corporated income, deregulation, had more to do with the growth in inequality than more STEM and technical and less humanities, I would say, Phil. Much, if not entirely, more.
Indeed!
Basically you are right,. I would like to add that Americans, and I am one, always want more than they can or do have. We do not know the meaning of contentment. Many can buy a small car but they choose the SUV and not just the standard SUV, the one with all the bells and whistles, then they complain that everything at the grocery store costs too much because they have taken that gigantic car payment because they are making a bit more, and the suppliers say we need to raise the prices of x, y, and z because we have to pay my workers a living wage. In America we generally live on credit. When we get over extended and can't pay our bills we complain about the economy and need someone to blame, and it is usually the President. Finally, we got a president that actually did something for everyone during an economic crisis and did everything right, rather than a president that did nothing at alll or only for the bankerl...and we complained he is too old and our cost of living is too high even though we have better pay or maybe our first job in a long time. We are chronic bellyachers. That is on us, just like our credit scores, and our mounting bills. I'm not saying there aren't poor people that need and deserve help, more then they are given, but let's focus on lifting their boats ..I'm not sure I agree with giving money for building homes or making babies ..too much "free" cash (clearly there is no such thing as free cash or a free lunch) for people to resist, you can't make them use the 6K to buy baby stuff unless you make them submit receipts for baby stuff, and good luck staying that organized. As for 25k to buy a house, builders will see the opportunity to jack up the prices, hardware and tools will go up, and some of it go to the realtors to compensate for the govt trying to keep them from gouging sellers and buyers at closing....I really doubt it will ultimately help reduce their mortgage, because in the end, like the SUV car payment, it is about the mortgage. Possibly we will end up just making those bankers we envy richer because people will be people and many are very greedy. How do we stop the greedy? Many people gringe at taking handouts and others take them gladly but most screem when the national debt grows? Sort of like being against contraception and against abortion. They are not compatible with the concept of individual freedom or each other for that matter. I get vertigo thinking about human nature.
People themselves cause most of their own financial problems. I listen to my kid whine about not being able to afford to go on a vacation that doesn't involve a tent. That same kid also wrestles with the problem that the affordable apartments are not in the best neighborhoods. That kid will probably never be able to handle a mortgage (remember 2008 subprime loans and how that turned out?) That same kid, has more brains than me, is now 40, and still won't go to college, because it is too much with work. It doesn't matter that I've explained to the said kid, that I bought my first little house in a very nice neighborhood at 40 but went on one vacation between the ages of 20 and 40. Most of the time I worked a lot more than 40 hrs a week to do that. It paid off for me. It cost more monthly than an apartment in a nice neighborhood but it paid off in equity. It was my dream and I earned it. It didn't come without going to college, or without foregoing fun stuff, and it didn't come at 3% interest, and it didn't come with govt subsides, and it didn't come by living outside of what I could really afford, but it did come.
I know way too many who spend themselves into crisis without much of a clue as to who did it. Unreal. True of people buying half million dollar houses, and being shocked at the upkeep. Of course, some companies screw the pooch when dealing with desperate customers, like car repairs.
The fact that so many celebrities now are people of color has to infuriate the Magats.
I don't see "celebrity culture" as that important to people. I think the fact that a meal at McDonald's is at least $25 is why people believe the economy is bad.
All the "economic indicators" that are quoted by "experts" don't mean anything to most people. But the price jumps that people see every day are what are real and inflation going down is not bringing those prices down.
But prices aren't going up every day. That's a myth that is successfully being put forward by Trump and his MAGAs.
Trump had an opportunity to raise the Federal minimum wage which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009. Even at 2% inflation the minimum wage should be $9.75 an hour. And in 20 states (17 of them red) they REFUSE to raise their minimum wage.
Rosa... I would add to what you said, that most Americans have no idea how to manage money. I spent my career as an accountant. I found most of my clients were very impulsive when it came to spending money. They never felt like they spent too much, but usually felt they didn't make enough. One client, who always had money problems, told me he had gotten a new credit card. "The best thing" he said "is that you have to pay it off each month". I looked at him and said "you can pay all your credit cards off each month" He looked at me like... what a concept! I still see friends of mine prioritize spending money on things (like exotic vacations) rather than paying off/down their debt. Which they are constantly complaining about.
Sherry, sex education and financial education is absent in the US culture. Most people have to fail dismally and then look for that information themselves. After sorting through misinformation from friends, being drawn to financial scams and porn sites, you might land somewhere useful. Most don't get there with either subject. We can do better!!
Yes, it’s the “American Dream” myth.
@Rosa: "that general middle class Americans are not satisfied with the economy" is BS brought to you by the MSM to create the appearance of a horse race.
Here's what is effective: tell MAGATs they have to be crazy to vote for a deranged candidate.
"Celebrity culture:" Had I been the DNC operative that placed Obama in Pennsyltucky, my native land, I'd have equipped him m with a Terrible Towel.
Harris also has to overcome the information deficit which our century has brought through the death of a common, reliable news source. All of the amazing accomplishments Dr Richardson describes here are completely unknown to a shockingly high percentage of the population.
Absolutely. I keep saying it -- Billboards with facts - in swing states - something people can't help but see!
Hate bill boards, but you are correct,Laurie
Very few people actually read billboards. They are most effective to communicate brand names and very short messages. 6-8 words are must effective. That's all people have time to see and read. Pretty hard to communicate even a short message of facts in 6-8 words
https://wheelhousecreativellc.com/the-six-second-billboard-rule/
Best one I have seen lately was on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Harrisburg with a recognizable close-up of Trump's eyes with the word "UNFIT" writ large across them . Succinct and to the point. And only one word.
Yeah but that is not communicating why. It's just a flat out opinion. Fair enough if you want to spend your money on that but it doesn't likely change any minds. My point was that it is difficult to communicate WHY people should vote for Harris in 6 words.
Many powerful messages can be conveyed in eight words.
DON'T OWN A CORPORATION? HARRIS IS YOUR PRESIDENT.
Anybody else got one? Let's list a few here.
That's a great "headline" for a billboard but it doesn't in any way explain WHY someone should vote for Harris or WHY they should believe you. I was just suggesting that billboards aren't going to convince anyone that Trump is a terrible choice unless someone already believes that.
How people get their news is changing. I think we are in the midst of an information revolution....
Of course that's true but it hasn't changed enough yet in my opinion to just arbitrarily write off the MSM. maybe in 8-12 more years but right now large numbers of purple who have not made up their mind are so reading the papers and watching network news. Very few are reading Heather's blog.
and of course, think of Fox et al.... and esp, the Republican/Maga party itself.
Having visited Normandie, France yesterday, I could not sleep last night as I thought about how the T/V administration plans to dismantle our government as we know it to benefit the wealthy, to deport immigrants and to punish their enemies. Following Hitlers playbook by using the big lie and blaming “the other” for any woes, is already on full display. And visiting the American Cemetary near Omaha Beach, where over 9,000 Americans are buried, reminded me of how pulling out of NATO and siding with Putin will make the entire world unsafe. I do not understand how every American cannot see the threat that we are facing.
You aren’t alone in your concerns, and the readers here are well aware of what’s going on and that we can only save ourselves, as no one else will do so. That being said, I agree with you that I too can’t understand why many of our fellow Americans can’t see the threat we’re facing. Jack Posobiec, one of Trump’s toadies, calls those of us who don’t agree with him “unhuman” and has co-written a book with Joshua Lisec called “Unhumans,” in which he fantasizes that those of us who don’t support Trump are ”communists” and calls for the sort of brutal kidnapping and killing our government encouraged the military governments of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay unto use against their own citizens. When we get to a point where some people don’t think of their fellow citizens as human, we have reached a very low point indeed. It is the mindset that encouraged the Holocaust, the World War I slaughter of Armenians, and the murder of Rwandans.
@KathyHughes we have to think, breath, and act on Blue Blue Blue. In my parents memory I will not see this happen. Nor for the sake of my grandchildren will I let this hate and fear take over. Be happy, worry less and don’t let their tough, trash talk frighten. We are much stronger than that. We are much smarter than that. Please. Work harder, worry less! Give more. I state this in love.
So important what you post
That requires some critical thinking beyond unfettered jealousy, rage and outright hate. For that, you need an education system that is functioning well - and that is exactly what the Republicans DON’T want, so they destroyed it in the long game. Well played, I say, because now the stage is set for a Trump dictatorship. And yes, if that happens, it will be the end of democracy, not only in the US, but also in Europe. We’ll be fighting WW3 against Putin here. That is what is really at stake. Sadly, most Americans can’t see that past their red-white-and-blue coloured shades…
Red shades, or the bill of their MAGA hat.
It is one of the things that keeps me awake at night.
Same here; although it is what prevents me from going back to sleep when I awaken 3 hours early.
Susan, I was there in July and experienced and thought the same thing! Very powerful emotions. We can't turn into the kind of country we rescued France from 80 years ago!
My kids used to play this ‘opposite day’ game to my great, good humor ed frustration. Yes meant no, up meant down, wrong meant right, day meant night. This myth about economic policy and the ramifications for public debt, income inequality, and a basic ‘freedom from want’ safety net always triggers me. But not with the good humor bit. As news of Trump’s and Vance escalating vitriolic falsehoods land every morning I feel like I am trapped in an Opposite Day, night, week, month Halloween house of horrors.
House of horrors is not just for Halloween anymore
Trump would create a real hellhole as opposed to the fictional hellhole he imagines we are. In his dismal imagination, Trump thinks things would be perfect if he were in charge again. They wouldn’t, and he’d cause irreparable damage.
Actually Trump imagines that things would be perfect for HIM; he doesn't give a mouse-sized shite about any body or any thing other than he remains out of jail and can continue to grift from his big money donors and reap applause and adulation from his MAGA fancult.
Can anybody think of even one problem that we have today that repubs have not created or made worse. The hellscape that chump sees is the one he created, as he blames everybody else. From WaPo, 9-16-16. “it was typical of Trump to justify his own transgressions with the argument that someone else had done it first. …his refusal to apologize is yet another measure of his strength as a leader. He wears the scorn of a legion of fact-checkers as a badge of authenticity.” Clyburn (in the same article) said his lies were no longer dog whistles, but the howls of wolves.” And we are the prey, are we not?
ThankYou Mike Johnson.
I ran into this Today... It is a very thoughtful piece written by a Jewish Rabbi that shows that it is possible to evolve beyond a 'Eye-For-A-Eye', and a 'Tooth-For-A-Tooth'... As of now, I haven't heard of any Massive Israeli Attacks on Iran... Perhaps the 'October Surprise' will be a Ceasefire...:
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11-OCT-2024: From The L.A.Times: Opinion: I'm a rabbi and a former IDF soldier. This Yom Kippur I'm atoning for my part in the occupation
Aryeh Cohen
Fri, October 11, 2024 at 3:00 AM PDT
https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-im-rabbi-former-idf-100009613.html
Forty-one years ago, I was posted with the Israel Defense Forces as a soldier, in the Palestinian village of Tekoa in the West Bank. From the roof of the school building my unit was based in, I could look into a Palestinian family’s backyard. Every once in a while when I sat there on guard duty, M-16 across my lap, I caught the eye of a woman bringing in her family’s laundry. There was disdain, bordering on pity, in her eyes that I felt deep in my soul. I was already rethinking the morality of the IDF, and the woman’s contempt knocked me off balance.
Today, I live in Los Angeles. I’m a rabbi and a professor who trains future rabbis. During the four years I studied Torah in a West Bank settlement, I saw and encountered many Palestinians but I never had a real conversation with even one of them. We lived in different countries, but sometimes it seemed like different planets.
This year, as Jews celebrate the High Holy Days, I feel a responsibility to model a different way of being Jewish. For this reason, earlier this month I joined a protest at the offices of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the largest Jewish pro-Israel organization in America. We were demanding that AIPAC stop pressuring Congress to continue funding Israel’s war in Gaza; the U.S. should halt military aid to Israel as long as we believe it is committing human rights violations. We invited AIPAC to join us in calling for a hostage and prisoner deal and immediate cease-fire.
Decades ago, when preparing for my reserve duty, I resolved to act with kindness and justice. I would refuse to take part in any unnecessary or unprovoked violence, I thought. However, once I donned the IDF uniform I quickly realized I was part of the military machine that allowed Israeli Jews to live in what Sara Yael Hirschhorn, a scholar of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, calls “occupied suburbia,” while forcing Palestinians to live in constant fear. As one Israeli soldier put it in 2014: “The whole thing is, ‘We’re here, fear us, we’re in control here.’”
This Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, my time as an IDF soldier has me carrying a need to repent for the occupation and call urgently for a cease-fire. There is a long list of sins — the Al Chet — that traditionally is recited several times during Yom Kippur services. It is written in plural, to signal that each individual accepts responsibility for the actions of the community. As we consider what we have to atone for this year, I think these transgressions listed in the Al Chet are a good place to start: “For the sins we have sinned unknowingly. For the sins we have sinned openly. For the sins we have sinned with intention and deception. For the sins we have sinned with internal thought.”
What sins in particular? To start, some in the American Jewish community have indiscriminately supported the state of Israel, even though in January the International Court of Justice found it plausible that the Israeli government was committing genocide and ordered it to take measures to stop. Israel has been criticized for not complying by groups including the United Nations and Human Rights Watch. And yet, the website of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles proclaims: “Our Federation and the Jewish community of Los Angeles stand in unequivocal solidarity with our homeland,” despite growing evidence of alleged war crimes.
Additionally, some in my community have been so focused on the necessary grieving for the more than 1,200 Israelis killed in Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7 that they have not been able to acknowledge and grieve the killing of more than 41,000 Palestinians, many of them children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, after Oct. 7 in both Gaza and the West Bank. In the Nova exhibition, for example, which documents the Oct. 7 massacre and recently came to Los Angeles, there is not a word about Oct. 6 or Oct. 8, 2023. In other words, there is no context except Israeli suffering. The occupation is not named; Palestinians are not named.
The children who were displaced from the school my fellow soldiers and I occupied 41 years ago are now entering middle age. I think about them as I teach the students in my classroom now. I hope these soon-to-be rabbis learn by my example that there is a rich and vital Judaism that opposes oppression, violence and war. I hope they learn that standing in opposition to wrongdoing is a mitzvah, a Jewish sacred obligation.
My protests, my call for a cease-fire, are part of the way I am still responding to that moment, decades ago, when I locked eyes with my Palestinian neighbor carrying her laundry while I held an M-16 and felt ashamed. As a rabbi and a teacher of rabbis, I’m repenting this Yom Kippur for having been a part of the occupation.
This is a Very Nice Piece... Let's Hope This Rabbi's Prayers are Answered as He Wishes... Shalom...
Thank you for sharing this Apache.
Peace is the intention this Yom Kippur,
a ceasefire has been and is urgently needed now,
end the senseless death and destruction in so many war torn countries around the world
good governance in our Nation and a great outcome for the election on November 5th
G'mar chatima tova
Shalom...
Love your account of those many years ago, Apache -- or Rabbi.
Love how your pair your youthful experiences then with your work trying to handle AIPAC and similar others now.
"Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return" (Auden -- for me, St. Auden).
At some point, some will wake up to the fact that we needn't rut in the worst forms of the worst repetitions. Our schools could begin to teach youth the essaying skills to see "others" -- to quote generously, aptly from them and their humanities.
Humanities? Did I use that word? Do any of our schools anywhere in the world have any of that left in them?
Yes, at least some teachers do!!and their classes do!!
Raised Irish Catholic and still see myself as such and am so glad to have read this this morning. What you have learned can be a well learned ethos for all of us. At 77 I’ve learned that we were meant to be life long learners. I will keep this next to my heart. Thank you so much, Rabbi.
Apache, Thank you very much for that insightful recollection and how your mind has changed over the years. On the number of Gazen dead, there is credible documentation and reporting that the actual deaths may exceed that by 10,000 "or so"...
It has been said, that the actual number of those killed in Gaza far exceeds the 41,000 as many are still buried under Rubble... Lets Pray for a Ceasefire in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran on All-Sides....
I feel this deeply. Fortunately, I belong to a Jewish community that is very much involved in peace activism and that understands that Israel's peace cannot be achieved at the expense of Palestinian destruction. I know, too, that there are Palestinians that feel this way, too. While I agree that there is no balance between the loss of life between the Palestinians and the Israelis, I feel sadness, however, that many protesters, here and abroad, never acknowledged, from the beginning and still, any sense of loss, injustice, or wrongdoing in the actions of Hamas on October 7.
Thank you for sharing your story, Apache; both the experiences and the growth based on those experiences.
Thank you for what you have written.
🎯💯🙏
Wow, Heather, a lot of work and reflection must have gone into laying out all the pieces of this mini-history of the US economy. OK, it’s your specialty, but making it so clear & encompassing is your talent. Thanks for taking the time.
I bought into Reaganomics. I was young and didn't know anything about FDR and what he had done or about how economies work. I'm old now and I'm still not well educated in economics, but I imagine it works like a well controlled flood gate. Too much supply overwhelms demand and producers collapse because consumers can't buy all that's on offer. Too little supply causes a drought below the gate and consumers fight over what little is available and producers flourish. But little is said about the consumer without enough resources to compete during either supply situation. A historic myth comes to mind..."Let them eat cake." Survival will cause a response. FDR's economic policies answered that need for a response for those who could not compete and Biden wisely followed his lead. Harris has been guided by her father, her own economic studies during college, working as attorney general during the housing crisis, and as vice president during the pandemic. She travelled beyond our borders before she became an adult. She interacted with the southern border in her role as law enforcement in California. She has traveled both ceremonally and on the ground as an extension of Biden's foreign diplomacy. She is prepared to the manage the ship of state if only Americans would trust a woman. There is a subset of American women who allow men to make the decisions for them. They are comfortable with the patriarchy. They would never consider a marital relationship that was based on a partnership. Their livelihood is based on the success of a man and they will do anything to maintain that connection. There is a subset of men who are so insecure, they demand these kind of relationships and see any woman with power as a direct threat to theirs. They will do anything to crush that powerful woman. These men are currently the greatest threat to our republic. Men, look into your heart, are you this kind of man? Women do you have this kind of relationship with the men in your life?
Paula, I should frame your post and hang it on the wall. It reflects everything I believe!
Big YES, Betty
How about somebody brings out a movie
just before the election
showing how a perverted slimy lawyer, called Roy Cohn, mentored, trained and corrupted a spoilt psychologically abused little rich boy in 1970's New York?
They could call it.... something like...
"The Apprentice"
Would that be a good thing to do? Or would it just feed the tumor?
There in fact is a new movie about just all that, called The Choice 2024. https://gem.cbc.ca/the-choice-2024/s01e01?autoplay=1
Actually I think his comment was slightly facetious as the film The Apprentice was just released today. It's great! It's a definite anti Trump film. It's showing in San Francisco. Not sure where else.
Show all around the towns
The cult won't see it...
So many people I have encountered base their sense of history on movies. Look at Gone with the Wind! Maybe the answer to getting people to think.
Bush walks into a good economy and crashes it. Obama fixes it.
Trump walks into a good economy and crashes it. Biden fixes it.
Call me silly but I believe I see a pattern here.
And they seem to enjoy, even thrive, on crashing it (the economy)…
Yes, Gary, and don't stop with 2 examples.
- Reagan / Bush 41 stock market crash in 1987, followed by junk bond and real estate collapse, recession and bear stock market in 1990.
- Nixon / Ford in 1975, deep recession.
- The granddaddy of crises, Coolidge / Hoover in 1929-1932, the Great Depression.
GOP is the official party of economic crises and market crashes. There is an acute pattern.
If trump is elected, it will happen again, egged on by higher tariffs (can you say Smoot-Hawley?). Once again, the GOP is due.
Fixed it with never before so publicly declared obstructionism in lieu of leadership & government by the people.
Give FDR Credit for lifting the USA out of the Great Republican Depression, Winning WW2, and Building the Middle Class thru Wise USG Intervention...
- Pulled Quote -
''Harris has to overcome more than a century of American mythmaking.''
An excellent historical lesson on American mythmaking. Myths are widely held but false beliefs or ideas. (or bullshit stories) A perfect description of what Trump has been selling his entire life.
Vote!
Myths are not about objective truth. But they do bind, unite, and create a collective mindset.
"Turtles all the way down" may be a "myth" in that this isn't what objective scientific research tells us (please don't get me started on the mythical "objectivity" of science), but it does provide a different view of ultimate reality for many Indigenous people.
Some myths are, to us, just ridiculous stories of an imagined past; others have real power-for good or ill - to affect our daily lives. Example: the myth that feeding the insatiable overlords of our economic system will trickle down to the lesser beings the rest of us are. Let justice roll down like mountains.
Who is satisfied with a trickle?
Leaping out of the page at me from an article --Charlie Warzel: "I'm running out of ways to say how bad this is"' -- in yesterday's Atlantic, the words of a meteorologist:
"Murdering meteorologists won't stop hurricanes."
At issue, the thing I -- born into WW2 -- feared most all my life: mass madness.
We lived through this madness in the first years of my life -- and the horror was unimaginable.
Then, in 1945 and after the Nuremberg trials and the trial and execution of Japanese militarists, we believed that by killing men's bodies we had obliterated the poisonous ideas they stood for.
Such gross delusion.
The rivers of poison went underground. And now, nearly 80 years later they have burst forth again in the most improbable places. Among the peoples who were the greatest victims of the Nazi-Fascist onslaught. In our midst.
Expanding this vast inundation, the new cuckoo-in-our-nest technologies spreading "Virtual Reality".
The battle is over but the war goes on....
Thanks. One point - Republican voters hire many more undocumented immigrants than others, I expect. Small businesses, and big businesses that ignore the law and morals. Awkward? Not for them. No moral compass for them, it’s for you and me.
Income and taxes are hard to keep straight.
Our net personal wealth is $154 Trillion.
see <uswealthclock.com> totals, links to US Fed
That wealth grew $70 Trillion in the past ten years.
Our federal obligations grew $17 Trilllion in that time.
( thanks for showing that Reagan was a debt monster, *tripled* the national debt, he was also diabolically proud of making the nation weaker )
The wealthiest, the top 1%, have about $46 Trillion, net. They could pay our federal obligations, $35 Trillion, *entirely*, and still have $11 Trillion.
Rs say we are broke. It’s traitorous.
We are so not broke.
The wealthiest are sticking us with the bills.
I need to hear an opening offer from progressives that the top 1% can pay our entire debt, so we can start anew!
Peterson and other cabals of the rich have been telling me for 40 years that debt is bad, and we have to cut Social Security ( entirely specious, incompetent connection ).
So let’s pay the debt! — waiting for my prize, b.rad
ps paying the debt is not truly directly possible, but there are many equivalents that would work just fine
Brad, your ideas are shared by many, and are correct, and I think it would be great if a Nobel prize in economics was shared by a few thousand souls!
You know more than the bellyaching Republicans, that’s certain. I’m tired of a government that concentrates on enabling the wealthy to accumulate even more wealth without considering or concentrating on the common good of all in the U.S. We need a big Marshall Plan here, particularly for people who have always been treated in demeaning and discriminatory fashion.
Go for it somebody with clout
How can we have lost sight of that, who has exploited the immigration situation? That has been fairly common knowledge, that it's been the rich profiting. Now this is an important part of our economy & these twisted people are crashing it without any regard. It is so past time to deconstruct the myths & lies.
I'm new here y'all, i absolutely love great thoughtful not hateful banter!
Come in, Joe!
Welcome Joe!
Hi Joe! We do have a couple of trolls that pop up from time to time, but this group overall provides great food for thought. Glad to have you!
Welcome, Joe! I'm glad to hear about your positive experience. Your description of the dynamics here captivated me and has kept me around for quite some time.
Welcome aboard, Joe. I like to think of this as a bunch of us auditing one of the Professor's classes, then going out afterwards for coffee/beer and discussing what we learned. I call it LFAA University!
Then you’re in the right place, Joe!!!
Great to have you in the conversation.
Glad you are here! It's really rewarding to be among thinking people that value integrity, honestly & reason over force & rationalization.
Republicans are dead set against anything that challenges their disinformation engines. They have managed to quash some federal institutional attempts to monitor and warn of propaganda that could have public safety issues. I'm glad to see the pendulum beginning to swing toward the position that it is a First Amendment issue for anyone or any agency of the government to utilize their own speech rights to push back on the lies and deception.
Boy, it that accurate. I cannot deal with my MAGAt friends any longer. What they believe is true is nothing close to the truth, and any evidence to the contrary is met with "fake news".
By every metric, the US economy is, and should be the envy of the world right now. But 75% of respondents say it’s fair or poor? Why?
I think it’s two things: Misinformation, combined with the dumbing down of our electorate. The result of this should be called “mythinformation”.
For forty years, resources have been taken from public education to pay for tax cuts and wars. Our children have been taught WHAT to think, not HOW to think. They are fed a daily pablum of lies and propaganda, and they don’t have the critical thinking skills necessary to see through it. And Project 2025 is certainly not going to solve that.
And oh yeah, Obama’s speech was definitely kick ass! I love listening to the “hopey-changey” guy!
“Don’t boo… vote!”
My state of Ohio is doing exactly that. They were ordered more than 20 years ago by the Supreme Court of Ohio to reform school funding, and since then, they haven’t lifted a finger to do it. Our gerrymandered state General Assembly speaker is taking public school funding and using it for funding private school vouchers, while trying to copy other states in trying to forbid honest teaching of history. School districts are having to hold special levies and state taxpayers are feeling strapped. The taxpayers often don’t understand that the reason for this is because the public schools are not receiving all of the tax money they are supposed to get.
We have a citizen initiative on the ballot this fall to permit citizen redistricting, as the General Assembly and Senate have seen fit to ignore the citizens’ prior initiative to require nonpartisan redistricting. Our Republican dominated state Supreme Court has allowed our current Secretary of State, Frank LaRose, to provide a confusing and misleading description of Issue 1, which would require citizen panels to be appointed to redraw districts to prevent the current gerrymandering that has been going on. There are dishonest political signs around the state telling people to vote no to end gerrymandering. It’s dishonest because voting no will permit the state Republicans to continue their gerrymandering of General Assembly and state Senate districts as well as their gerrymandering of Federal house districts. LaRose tried the same dishonest tactics in offering misleading descriptions of his attempt to require a supermajority to pass ballot initiatives (he lost that one,) as well as his attempts to defeat a constitutional amendment to allow legalized abortion and to allow legislators to legalize recreational marijuana in Ohio (he lost these also.) None of them worked before, and I hope that enough voters see through LaRose’s dishonest descriptions and vote yes on Issue 1.
For me, it's that How we teach must come first, before What we teach. Children will grow their thinking skills if we quit smooshing them and get out of the way!