Gaetz might think MAGA is ascendant but only in the confines of a tightly controlled bubble like the Republicans within the House of Representatives when it wears its members into exhaustion so they'll vote for anyone just to shut up the extremists. Wait until they try to put that extremism into action. The elevation of Johnson to Speaker seals the fate of the Republican Party in 2024. Why? Because women will not continue to be denied and demeaned. The MAGAts just don't get it. There are more of us than them and we'll be sure that reproductive rights are at the top of the list in 2024. Every time they try to fight against it, they have lost since Dobbs. We'll make sure they lose again.
It will not be an easy fight. There is a lot of dark money out there from the billionaires who are behind organizations like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society. They have made huge progress in taking over state legislatures and the judiciary and are primed to gut the executive branch with Project 2025. MAGA is ascendent in many states and there are many states with Republican trifectas or veto-proof majorities in their legislatures--its not just a "tightly controlled bubble" in the House. It in no way will be a fair fight on a level playing field.
And we can be sure Putin will go all out to reinstall his puppet. Throw in AI and a media that refuses to challenge lies, plays the “both sides are the same” game and can’t stop reminding everyone Biden is old. It’s up to each of us to rally the biggest BLUE tsunami anyone has ever seen.
Bryan Sean McKown, you nailed it! The MAGA gospel according to MAGA MIKE,........ We could throw in some Seinfeld, " No soup for you!" " No New Deal for you!" "Just deals for big donors!"
And Biden is nowhere near demented. He has slowed as we all do with age. But his mind is still sharp even if his gait has slowed. His speech is that of a person who has had impediments for his life. And he has triumphed over them as well. Trumps mind was never sharp. It is full-on the mind of a true deviant. And one that could never be reformed because his only true love is MONEY. And we know what the Bible says about that. .
Thanks, Gina. I keep thinking about the day as a child that I read in an illustrated version of the Bible and SAW the golden calf. My mother used to say your referred to quote almost daily as we moved out of the Depression, so I have watched the idolatry and know what it has meant to our institutions.
The Golden calf story was a metaphor for money of course.
I am always aware of the the statement, not sure where it came from actually but it seems it was in the old testament, of the idea that money is not bad, it is the love of money that corrupts hearts and minds. I believe that is true of anything that had the potential to corrupt. For me, it has been in the past, a box of assorted chocolates. I can never have only one! So I avoid entirely and always pass on offers for such. ;o)
The blond bimbo on Fox and her co anchor were laughing hysterically at a "goof" Biden made when he mentioned the Web telescope, which is what he meant to say. They thought he was supposed to be saying Hubbel telescope. They never heard of the other one. I do believe an on-air apology was made.
Proof that those clowns are all so out of touch with reality in so many ways. I am by no means a scholar by I do know how to think which is more than I can say for so many on the Right. Parrots who repeat what they are told to say.
The Koch Bros. were probably the most formidable in changing US' politics in the modern era.
'How David Koch and His Brother Shaped American Politics'
'The billionaire, who died Friday, understood the power of changing “hearts and minds.” He spent almost unlimited money on behalf of limited government.'
'The Kochs and their network spent hundreds of millions of dollars in support of their particular brand of conservatism: One of limited government, more lenient immigration policy, free trade, free markets and limited corporate regulations — all while running Koch Industries, a conglomerate with annual revenues of $100 billion. But not long after they rose to become two of the most coveted political donors in America, they saw much of their worldview rejected by President Trump’s ascendant version of the Republican Party.'
'Because so much of their network’s money was funneled through an array of nonprofits, where full disclosure of finances is not required, it is near impossible to assess the full scope of their operations, but the influence is vast.'
“The Koch brothers have been very strategically thinking about how best to shape politics over decades and at the same time they were amassing a fortune that would power whatever strategy they devised,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics. She noted that they were especially effective working on narrow issues while pursuing a larger strategy.'
“The Kochs,” she said, “have built an empire.” (NYTimes) See gifted link below.
'Rather than throwing their considerable wealth – they are both billionaires – at fly-by-night political operations, they built their own from scratch, with an eye not toward short-term gains but to affecting longer-term changes in the culture. So, it wasn’t just a single quasi-political organization. There were think tanks to incubate libertarian ideas that the Koch favored. There were various foundations to influence public policy outside of the context of campaigns. It was a one-stop political and policy shop, a sort of shadow Republican Party but crafted in the libertarian molds of the Kochs and entirely controlled by them.'
'That wasn’t the only thing that the Koch brothers did differently. While most outside groups up until Americans for Prosperity’s formation had dumped all the money they raised into TV ads, the Koch brothers instead focused far more on building grassroots infrastructures – focusing, again, on sustainability rather than immediate success. By the 2016 election, Americans for Prosperity had state directors in 34 states, according to the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer.'
'And while most outside groups sought to use their money to influence the presidential race and other high-profile contests, the Kochs often poured their money into far less sexy projects like influencing policy at the state legislative level (through their donations to the American Legislative Exchange Council) and winning majorities in state legislatures around the country (thanks to donations to the Republican State Leadership Committee).' (CNN) See link below.
Jeri, he is still around unfortunately as are several other of the obscenely rich pouring their money into regressive causes. Just read an article this week about a billionaire who is funding anti-trans legislation. If you are different in any way, we are going to make your life miserable seems to be the slogan. I might add that the current Speaker is nauseating to the nth degrees. i knew it wouldn't take long to read just how awful he is. Might as well have yanked some two bit preacher from a corner church in the South and given him the gavel.
Michele, as a retired "two-bit preacher from a corner church in the South" (I actually was appointed to a few corner churches) I must declare that I was never offered the gavel.
If I had been I would have accepted--and immediately handed it to Hakeem Jeffries....
I knew that there would be someone who would call me on that. I am sure there are good pastors in the South who do not follow the MAGA mantra. Kudos to you and too bad you or someone could not hand the gavel to Jeffries. That's why we should all support races in swing districts to either defend Ds or defeat Rs.
This is a Supreme Court manipulation of our society beginning with the Citizen's United decisions, and their continued swing towards a minority influence. They have left no question about the contaminating influence of unregulated power and money, not only in the country but, clearly, in SCOTUS itself. Sometimes it does seems like we could be a hair's breadth away from a christian nationalist country. Now, the Repug party put the stamp of affirmation about that concern with the appointment of MAGA Mike. While every election is critical, clearly, 2024 is MAGA CRITICAL.
K Barnes, just out of curiosity, have you actually read the Citizens United case?
I suspect that your reference to the "contaminating influence" of unregulated power and money concerns more than what CU v FEC was all about.
One of the principal points made in that case was speech is protected whether it is the speech of an individual or of a corporation. I assume you don't have a problem with that proposition. If you do, I'd ask you if PBS, NPR, the NYT, WaPo, WSJ, ABC, CBS, NBC, even Fux Newz, should have the right to freedom of speech. They are all corporations.
The case also stood for the proposition that a person may spend as much of his or her money to promote whatever idea he/she chooses. I assume that's okay.
And, that corporations and PACs can spend unlimited amounts of money. Disclaimer and disclosure requirements relating to the identities of their donors are valid concerns but one also has to protect those identities to guard against threats, violence, etc.
That last bit remains troubling. But if they could spend unlimited sums provided they disclosed the identities of their donors, you'd have the same "contaminating influence."
I have read CU v. FEC three or four times - that means reading lots of opinions.
I still haven't figured out why people are so upset with the basic principles it espouses. I don't particularly care for the result that we have unlimited spending by PACs but when I think about it, there's nothing to prevent liberals from getting their donors to spend more on such causes. In fact, right-wing yahoos often criticize Soros and Gates of funding lefty causes.
And what happened to the separation of Religion ( Church) and State written into our constitution ? Is that document only relevant for one way of thinking depending on who holds the gavel?
The current Rs and the majority on the Supreme Court are determined to break that barrier down and muddy the line. I am thinking of the recent decisions of the Court in favor of coaches leading prayers and business owners in the public sphere discriminating based on their religious beliefs. I coached and while I was fine with my players praying if they wished, I would not lead them in prayer. I had a real problem when I was helped with an Olympics of the Mind team and my fellow adult was (and is) a religious nut and most of the team was also.
They were also hypocrites....the kids couldn't play Dungeons and Dragons, but it was OK for them to play an equally violent version featuring criminals and I guess LE. Pffft.
Money is not bad. It is the LOVE OF MONEY that causes all the problems. People who place money as that important in their lives are typically shallow and focused only on their own personal power and well being- at least from my experience.
Fern, thanks for this info! Yes, Koch brothers, family, have been a HUGE influence on American politics for decades. With their connections not only in the political arena, but the news, broadcasting, networks they have utilized it to the max!
To further his agenda, Americans for prosperity is behind one of the candidates for the mayor race in Wichita, Kansas. She is not qualified to be a candidate for mayor. But she is a former news reporter. Her significant other is a developer who wants to use downtown Wichita for his new project. Charles Koch wants to control the world so he found a mouthpiece who can speak to the camera.
'The Koch brothers, Charles and David, became well-known for their libertarian and conservative politics, often portrayed as significant personalities that impact elections and government decisions. However, despite fame as political influencers, their primary activities centered around running Koch Industries Inc., of which they owned over 80%.'
'Koch Industries is a private company that has annual revenues topping $110 billion.'
'The company is not really a single business, but rather a conglomerate of different companies under one umbrella. On June 5, 2018, David Koch retired from all roles related to Koch Industries due to health reasons and he later passed away on Aug. 23, 2019.'
'KEY TAKEAWAYS'
'Koch companies collectively employ over 130,000 people in 70 countries, and more than half are in the United States.'
'The company owns subsidiaries that produce various goods such as resins, polymers, glass, oil pipelines, tissue paper, robotics, and more.'
'Koch Industries controls some lesser-known companies as well, such as Matador Cattle Company, the Koch Chemical Technology Group, Koch Disruptive Technologies, and Koch Minerals.'
'Koch Ag and Energy Solutions operate three separate companies: Koch Energy, Koch Methanol, and Koch Fertilizer.'
'Koch subsidiaries are also involved in investing, commodities trading, and ranching.'
'Koch Industries' Revenue Growth'
'Because Koch Industries is not a publicly-traded company, some of its key financial information is not readily available to investors. However, per an SEC fact sheet, the conglomerate has, since 1960, seen its value grow at a rate 16 times greater than that of the S&P 500.'
'The industries under the Koch umbrella are diverse, ranging from companies that deal with energy to spandex. Koch companies manufacture paper, process minerals, create fertilizers, and refine oil. Some of the subsidiaries are also involved in ranching, commodities trading, and investing.'
HOW HAVE THE KOCHS' IMPACTED OUR GOVERNMENT'S POLICIES CONCERNING THE USE OF FOSSIL FUELS AND ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE? AMERICANS NEED TO HAVE SOLID INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTIC
COVERAGE ABOUT THE POWERBROKERS' INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE. WE NEED A LIST OF THE DIRTY DOZEN, at least!
'1. Flint Hills Resources'
'Flint Hills offers petroleum products, gasoline, diesel fuels, jet fuels, and other oil products, as well as those related to polymers and other chemicals. The company's ethanol plants have a combined production capacity of roughly 725 million gallons per year.'
'The company also explores biofuels. Flint Hills markets a variety of chemical applications, coatings, automotive parts, and asphalt and sells products on a worldwide basis, including the United States, Asia, Australia, Europe, South America, Central America, and New Zealand.'
'2. Georgia-Pacific'
'Koch Industries acquired Georgia Pacific on Dec. 23, 2005, for $21 billion.'
'The company employs more than 30,000 people in over 180 locations. It is based in Atlanta, Georgia, but markets worldwide.'
'Originally known as Georgia Hardwood Lumber Co., Georgia-Pacific is a pulp and paper company that produces paper, tissue, toilet paper, and building products. The list of products also includes the well-known brands Quilted Northern tissue, Brawny paper towels, and Dixie cups. Wallboard, napkins, boxes, paper dispensers, and pulp round out the company’s offerings.'
'3. Guardian Industries'
'Koch Industries completed its full acquisition of Guardian Industries on Feb. 1, 2017, after earlier buying a 44.5% stake in the company.'
' Based in Michigan, Guardian Industries employees 18,000 people in the United States, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.'
'Think of Guardian Industries as a glass company. It manufactures glass for automobiles, building applications, fiberglass insulation, and coated glass for architectural needs. The company is also known for its research and development of new applications for glass, such as energy-efficient windows.' (Investopedia)
For more about the Kochs' businesses, see link below.
Fern!!! OMG, thus list you have started here, along with all these points you make so well aware to all of us is astounding!
Honestly I had absolutely no idea just how deep these clowns gave infiltrated, as well as became, an influence in the Trumputin communist politics in this nation.
They have their fingers in absolutely everything! Everything! If you could, would you mind doing a deeper investigation into them, they’re businesses they own, their influences on different political endorsements, etc? I believe that would make a tremendous series for posting for everyone to read.
I didn't know the Kochs were into ethanol. It's probably corn ethanol, the impetus for which was the misguided "renewable fuel standard." Turns out, instead of reducing global warming, growing crops for ethanol increases global warming. Here's my story about that:
Thanks Fern you explain the evil geography of the Koch Empire incredibly well.
I add some insight to their particular manipulations of public policies as they demonstrated in upstate New York.
In the 1990’s the coal fired electric energy facilities, antique and heavily subsidized were obvious candidates for replacement with solar and wind renewable energy development.
As proposals were developed in higher wind designations incredibly well organized NIMBY’s sprang into action first as defenders of the coal plants then gradually as insistent of gas replacements.
Years later many still sow poisonous irritants to any proposed solar or wind project.
A major and very well funded organizer to this NIMBY effort had obvious ties to the Koch organization and was also a major spreader of Climate Change Doubt in New York and North Carolina.
Thus Koch Oil Money representing petroleum the product most associated with Greenhouse Gases and Climate has successfully seeded doubt about Global Warming that is relentlessly chomping up our human future.
Naturally Republican Politicos are the stalwart companions to the Koch Manipulations. Todays children are their main victims.
Thanks Art. There are many nasty Koch Brothers episodes over the decades. True Crime. Decades ago, the Kochs were forced by Federal law to stop flaring off natural gas from their oil patch in Eastern UTAH, the Wasach Mountain range (one of the few that runs east-west).
With no property rights, no permission from local landowners whose title went back to original 160 acre homestead & no notice, the Kochs simply built a pipeline over adjacent lands monetizing another income stream. I was very young & way Pre-law back then but, I wish I kept my cease & desist letter for the small folks who got run over.
Another example of the results of ensuring revenue flow by constant pipeline development.
Once you master the mechanics of financially supporting criminal trespass with well paid law enforcement and legislatures all that remains is convincing empty skulls of the threat of higher priced gas and the rest is easy.
Besides the perps all share the purity of not leaving one single fingerprint or any signatures.
Art, thank you for these details, full of those devils that provide them with $$$$$, while they poison us, species, the plants, the water...the earth, the whole shebang!
FERN is it time for the publication of your 'Collected Comments' a veritable annotated History book? a URL? If you go hardback, I want to write some teasers on the book jacket.
Kochland is a great book documenting their hypocrisy and how they gamed the system to beat the system. They practice this fake philanthropy by giving to hospitals, museums, art foundations, while using their money and influence to undermine the government to allow them to build their profits.
Aug 13, 2019 — Jane Mayer writes about the new book “Kochland,” by Christopher Leonard, which is about how Charles and David Koch crippled government ...
'Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America'
'Christopher Leonard’s Kochland uses the extraordinary account of how one of the biggest private companies in the world grew to be that big to tell the story of modern corporate America.'
'The annual revenue of Koch Industries is bigger than that of Goldman Sachs, Facebook, and US Steel combined. Koch is everywhere: from the fertilizers that make our food to the chemicals that make our pipes to the synthetics that make our carpets and diapers to the Wall Street trading in all these commodities. But few people know much about Koch Industries and that’s because the billionaire Koch brothers have wanted it that way.'
'For five decades, CEO Charles Koch has kept Koch Industries quietly operating in deepest secrecy, with a view toward very, very long-term profits. He’s a genius businessman: patient with earnings, able to learn from his mistakes, determined that his employees develop a reverence for free-market ruthlessness, and a master disrupter. These strategies made him and his brother David together richer than Bill Gates.'
'But there’s another side to this story. If you want to understand how we killed the unions in this country, how we widened the income divide, stalled progress on climate change, and how our corporations bought the influence industry, all you have to do is read this book.' (goodreads)
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2019 * WINNER OF THE J ANTHONY LUKAS WORK-IN-PROGRESS AWARD * FINANCIAL TIMES’ BEST BOOKS OF 2019 * NPR FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2019 * FINALIST FOR THE FINACIAL TIMES/MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF 2019 * KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOKS OF 2019 * SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOKS OF 2019
“Superb…Among the best books ever written about an American corporation.” —Bryan Burrough, The New York Times Book Review'
'Just as Steve Coll told the story of globalization through ExxonMobil and Andrew Ross Sorkin told the story of Wall Street excess through Too Big to Fail, Christopher Leonard’s Kochland uses the extraordinary account of how one of the biggest private companies in the world grew to be that big to tell the story of modern corporate America.'
Yeah, the Koch brothers planned for the long term to buy themselves politicians at every level, so that government would operate to their advantage. They have been careful about their strategy. Have you ever seen their "I am an energy voter" ads. Very professional with smiling Koch employees.
The story of this capture of American politics is hugely important, but to resist and rebuild, don't we need to quickly shift from Trump, Koch and the evidence of malignant intent, to how we look after the people abandoned by overall Democratic Party acquiescence in megabucks politics and daily life?
I had a chance to ask an assistant minister in a progressive Baptist church in Raleigh NC, how is it that your congregation works on defending Cuba from Washington's strangling of that country's economy, plight of people in Latin America subject to Washington's corporatist overthrow of governments, etc. He responded, Rev. Finlator takes such good care of all the parishioners that they are willing to look outside of themselves, following that example of mutual care. Extreme concentration of wealth allows Kochs and others to divide us by playing on jealousy and justifiable anger of economic plight in our ranks. Isn't our task to reclaim the attention of a Democratic party (or other groupings) to economic choices affecting working people: student debt, rising cost of shelter, medical debt, etc?
For me, the antidote to this is not more information. Feeding the thinking brain does nothing to ease the survival brain. We don’t do well in states of flight or freeze... but rather (IMHO) need to put practices in place to use adrenaline-fueled reactions into responses that are purposeful, thoughtful and sane. We all have a say.
Okay, last pitch ahead of Nov. 3, which is the deadline for fundraising for progressive Virginia state legislature candidates who are receiving funds from The States Project Giving Circles. Virginia is on the cusp. Even from out-of-state, we can donate, and we can help cure ballots:
Ellie, Thank you for writing. If I may, I wish to expand upon your post by listing the six VA Delegate and Senate candidates Simon Rosenberg is promoting whom he claims are in very close races and are particularly poised to help flip the House and hold the Senate: 1) HD 21 Josh Thomas, 2) HD 65 Joshua Cole, 3) HD 82 Kimberly Pope Adams, 4) HD 97 Michael Feggans, 5) SD 16 Schuyler VanValkenburg, 6) SD 31 Russet Perry. Both donating and text- and phone-banking are critical for the reason we not only need to control both legislatures but also must repudiate Governor Youngkin, Mike Johnson’s not so obvious doppelgänger, whom the Republican elite are eyeing as their pick for VP candidate to add legitimacy (purported, that is) to the Trump ticket.
Jeri, I would note one reason for investing all we can in Virginia’s November 2023 election rests with a great concern among people far smarter than I that Youngkin, who is throwing all he can at these races, were he to succeed, could prove to be an enormous asset to the presumed Trump ticket.
Jeri, at the last Saturday Market of the year this weekend, a huge pink pig called Petunia showed up and parked next to the market. It has been there before along with the wing nuts who are this time specifically against a tax that will help fund Salem's shortfall. They are also religious nuts. When my husband looked up some info on how they could afford this large (don't know what it is made of) pink pig, he found, shock, a regressive entity which funds such nonsense. A lot of what we see of this type of activity is funded by out-of-state dark money. But then we have our own Uncle Phil (Knight) who likes to donate large sums to Rs.
Jeri, if you are able to call those VA Dems who need to “cure” (fix) their mail in ballots, that effort is just as essential as $$. See Ellie’s link above if you can do that for a couple hours.
Thank you for your robust response of donations to the Tending to Democracy Giving Circle on behalf of these good Dem candidates for the Virginia state legislature!
Keep our eyes on the candidates elevated by Simon Rosenberg, as listed below by Barbara Jo Krieger:
"It in no way will be a fair fight on a level playing field."
Georgia, no Republican I have met in modern times is interested in a "fair fight". They are interested in winning.
Period.
And, Pubs have won frequently enough, through questionable means, to have obtained in the outcomes in HCR's letter today.
If it were not for Mike Pence, Pubs would have converted the US to an authoritarian, fascist dictatorship in 2020. Mark Milley can make all the noise he wants about sticking to the constitution but all he did was nothing.
Pence ruined his career to keep that Maggots from taking over.
I don't personally like the guy and think he probably is mildly retarded. But, he did the right thing.
Pence did one right thing. But the bigger thing, the most important thing, would be for him to actually flip on trump and show the country the truth. Isn’t it in the Bible that “The Truth will set you Free”?
Pence should be outraged that Trump was OK with him getting hanged! Why the guy hasn’t totally discredited Trump is beyond me. He was Trump’s sycophant the entire four years. Yes, he did certify the election but if he could’ve found a way to give Trump what he wanted he would’ve.
Yes. He did the right thing and that is truly a big deal. Pence and Cheney both did the right thing and were thrown under the bus by MAGA. But doing the right thing requires courage and should be applauded and appreciated whatever your political views.
Mildly retarded, plus.. this is only my impression... ever since I heard his self-righteous homophobic pov, me’thinks he’s probably locked up in a or ‘the closet’ with his wife holding the key. Just saying....
Sometimes I just can't help it. Had a beloved friend who told me I sounded more radical than some of his Fox-watching friends. I was offended, saying that he hadn't been paying attention. to anything but the lying blather. Worst insult that has ever been hurled at me.
Jeri. Chilcutt, ouch that would hurt. Our yells are to damn and drown out the lies that cause so much suffering to humans, to all life, to our very planetary existence. They are our urgent and pleading wake-up calls to the urgency and the truth of it all. Bang on,Jeri. I am right there with you.
What an insult to your obvious intelligence. Surely a “best defense is a good offense” line of thinking. My guess is he knows you’re right but can’t admit it.
Dark money does not fight fair. The robber barons work to rig the system to give themselves the advantage. In NC, Tricia Cotham switched parties to give the Republicans a one vote veto proof majority. If I were in her district and had voted for her as a Democrat, I would be mad as hell. I would work my butt off to defeat her. Of course, with the EGREGIOUS gerrymandering in NC, that would be a tall order. The evil perpetuated by greed always rears its ugly head to attack ordinary folks. We can never, ever let our guard down, as evidenced by our current situation.
I am furious about Tricia Cotham. I will never understand why it's been allowed for someone elected as one thing to switch to the other after winning. Seems like it should be an automatic do-over. What a backwards, upside-down world!
The legislative trend has actually reversed in the past few years, with Democrats making modest progress in a number of important states. We may hope that that trend will continue next week in Virginia (and there’s still time to help that happen). It won’t be an easy fight, but we can face it with confidence.
Funny you mention Heritage Foundation. Over the weekend I was stopped in traffic in front of the Heritage Foundation here in PA and I happened to look over and on top of a large tree at the entrance was a group of about 6 - 8 turkey vultures just perched on the bare branches. It was a very eerie feeling seeing them just sitting there and of all places.
After the November 2022 elections, there were 27 state legislatures where one party held a veto-proof majority in both legislative chambers.[1] The number grew to 29 in 2023 due to legislators who switched parties. Republicans controlled twenty of the veto-proof legislatures, and Democrats controlled nine.
Four states have Democratic governors and republican veto proof legislatures: Kansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and North Carolina. Vermont has a Democratic veto proof legislatures and a Republican governor.
The rest of the 29 have trifectas, both legislatures and the governor are of the same party. Seven of those are Democratic. Sixteen are Republican.
Just a suggestion--take some time to become an expert googler to find out info like this. "states with veto proof majority" pops up the balletopedia reference as the first one.
It will also bring up many articles on what Republicans in particular are doing with their supermajorities to push their agenda. The push into state and local races is a tactic being used by the Koch affiliated political network while they wait out Trump. In their post 2022 audit of their results they estimated that they were 80% effective in the local raes.
Don’t forget about school boards! Moms for liberty, a 1984 name if ever there was one, is heavily invested in our local race, no pun intended. Scary and outrageous
Thank you!! It helped clarify some questions. Will be a useful source in the coming months. Living in a trifecta state, I fully appreciate the sense of takeover and shock at the proposals bandied about and the changes occurring in the structure of state policy. I wonder how many voters still remain in the dark about the implications of a trifecta in their state? With the move towards the christian far right, surely, it will be hard to hide....
The issue is in trifecta states that they can do a lot of damage and it can be years before the trifecta can be broken especially with the increasing amount of money being targeted at state elections by the dark money networks like Koch's.
is a great source to see who of your Federal elected officials are getting funding and from where--but it also has information on state ballot initiatives. NJ has a searchable database similar to opensecrets.org. Maybe your state does as well.
Do you think there is any chance of waking up Americans to the existential threat that the religious right, which include the MAGAts pose? They sell fear/hate and it is an easy sale. The fear and hatred of immigrants and people of color and those of a different sexual orientation. Oh how scary on the eve of Halloween.
Frankly, the latter portion of today's Letter are why abortion has, according to those inside-the-beltway media types, become such a "motivating factor" for "liberal-leaning voters" since the Dobbs decision, and why - to the great surprise of these oh-so-wise-and-educated media types - the "backlash" has been so "durable," despite what we keep being told is voters' "deep concerns and misgivings" about "the economy," which is obviously the only thing anyone should ever actually care about, right? When people are saying abortion is top of mind when they vote in 2022/3/4, they aren't simply voting the way they are voting to restore abortion access alone (although obviously doing so is key). They are voting against the entire insufferable Christian nationalist worldview that people like the Mikes of the Johnson and Pence variety are intent on forcing on the entire rest of us. What the recent Supreme Court decisions did was sharply crystallized how we have been putting up with these people and their sickening, pious intolerance for our whole lives, how we clearly haven't pushed back enough out of some misplaced sense of neighborly politeness, and how this needs to absolutely be put back in its place, right here and right now. But when you get one of those "Please name your top 3 issues before voting" surveys, there is no checkbox for "I am so pissing done with these religious wingnuts holding our country back and all I want is for them to all to get off my ass and go back to the other side of the stupid mountain where they belong!!!" but there is a checkbox for "abortion," so that will suffice.
Look, I love this country, and I don't hate anyone. I really, really don't. I promise! But people in this country do not *actually* like each other that much, never really have (see: Tom Lehrer's "National Brotherhood Week"), and I am no exception. It's a big place, with a lot of different kinds of folks, so it's to be expected! The difference here is I genuinely had/have no desire to make the Evangelical folks - many of whom I have fond memories of growing up with - any different than they were/are, but they seem completely unwilling to do the same for me. Anyone who makes any life choices separate from the narrow confines that they have deemed acceptable is immoral and the reason that society is doomed to collapse. And since society has been steadily moving away from their narrow, judgemental confines for a century in order to let people actually experience this whole "freedom" thing in anything more that the most removed abstract, they have in turn spent the last century getting progressively more angry and determined to save us all from damnation before it is all too late. The majority of the country thinks that kindness and caring are more important moral tenets than purity to a vengeful authority and that kids getting shot in school is a more valid cause for concern than a man kissing another man or a woman going childless. This majority is beginning to reassert itself just a little bit more stringently, hence this newfound "polarization."
Most people vote based on their values and how they see themselves in society, period. I have yet to have someone convince me that people voting based on "the economy" is anything more than a smokescreen, a thing that we all say because we know it is publicly acceptable, especially since it has become unmistakably clear that most people have no clue what "the economy" is and what it is supposed to look like, other than letting me buy buy buy buy buy lots lots lots of stuff stuff stuff.
Sorry. Really feeling it tonight. Anyway, here is the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution Survey for this year, showing how most Republicans believe that “God intended America to be a new promised land where European Christians could create a society that could be an example to the rest of the world,” and a smaller proportion think violence and authoritarianism are likely necessary to get it, and a strong majority would rather have the government "preserve their way of life" to "manage the economy" properly. Eye-opening, or shall I say pants-wetting! Good times! https://www.prri.org/research/threats-to-american-democracy-ahead-of-an-unprecedented-presidential-election/
You nailed it Will. It is time for all of us to open our eyes and recognize that we are sitting on the edge of the abyss.
I am in the USA right now for a 6-week visit with friends and family, most of whom will surely vote democratic in 2024. When I tell them Trump will go to jail and that there is an opportunity for a blue landslide, they look at me and shake their heads as if I really don't understand. I mean, how could I? I live in frigging Italy for godsake!
"Oh, we're so worried" the older ones say, "there's no way to stop Trump." And the younger ones say, " Yeah, it's pretty bad, I really can't stand to read the news, it's so depressing". But when I ask if they are going to vote, they all say yes.
Then someone says, "Can't we talk about something else?" and so we do, despite this creeping coup d'etat led by grown up Jesus freaks, cynical businessmen and flaming racists.
David, glad you and your family discussed this difficult topic. The part that terrifies me is that I read somewhere that there’s nothing to stop Trump from serving as President even from behind bars. I wish I had a link to a reliable source for everyone but there are so many moving parts I’m having difficulty juggling. Googling required!
Before we cross that bridge, I think there might be a civil war.
Or perhaps 5 or 10 million people standing peacefully on the Mall would be enough to keep him behind bars with his lips zipped. We haven't tried anything like that since the immediate aftermath of his inauguration .
We wouldn’t be on Substack if we weren’t worried but we can’t let ourselves be paralyzed by worry because that is precisely what the opposition wants us to do. Italy did overthrow its Fascists at great cost to everyone, but they did it. We can too. I think a first step might be to really clarify our values. The right-wing accepts codes that have been handed down. Robert Bella’s has a book on The Evolution of Religion that I’m going to read. People do better with some kind of moral compass, but literal biblical set in stone for all time world without end is not it. The Humanists are working on something called The Ten Commitments which is pretty interesting.
Italy did overthrow it's Fascists, but needed the death and destruction of ww2 to accomplish it. Mussolini, a raging, incompetent narcissist in many ways similar to Trump, was eventually hanged, but not before the Nazis sent hundreds of thousands of Italian soldiers to brutal forced labor camps, and the ones who refused to cooperate were gassed along with many thousands of Italian Jews.
Whose Marshall plan will help us recover from a second Trump administration?
Tom Lehrer, Indeed!!! Awesome comment... "Oh the Protestants hate the Catholics and the Catholics hate the Protestants, Oh the Hindus hate the Muslims, and everybody hates the Jews!"
Seriously, this was spot on, loved every word and long live Tom Lehrer (he turned 95 this year and although definitely not as strong as he once was, is still going strong in Santa Cruz and Boston!).
OMG, Barbara. I’m definitely a Kingston Trio fan but had never heard that one. I’m almost weeping with memories of Mum and Jack and our time near Woodstock, NY. Where have all the hippies gone? Long time passing (to paraphrase another song by idol Pete Seeger).
My wife and I went to hear the Kingston Trio (modern iteration) at the Britt Festival in Jacksonville, OR 15+ years ago. We went with a friend, who was amazed that we knew all the words to all the songs. "Merry Little Minuet" is one of our all time favorites.
I can’t take all the credit, tho have been a decades-long KT fan….recently saw it mentioned in a post (no song link, just the song title) on another Substack, and it jogged my memory as a still lamentably resonate song for today, so hunted down the YouTube of it!
My kids (boys), who were about 7 and 11 back then, knew all the words to all of Tom Lehrer’s songs and loved to sing them - together - at home and at parties and gatherings. Nobody had fences back then, so we socialized more. Those were the days (thank you Edith and Archie). My boys are in their 50s now.
^^^^THIS!!!^^^^ Well said, Will! Wasn’t til after I’d read the comment, thinking “nailed it!”, that I realized the commenter is you, Will, from Cal….shuda known it was you slicing it right to the bone.
I have no problem with anyone believing that they know what God intended, but making a law to enforce that is insane. Clearly the Founders found that unacceptable 250 years ago. The First Amendment is very clear proof of that.
“The economy” is where certain factions go to blame and discredit whoever holds office at the time. Which is mostly silly I’ve always thought because it depends. Now these factions simply lie about the condition of the economy and blame the President even when the economy has been strengthening by the day with real ways to measure that.
Will, one of the things I've noticed about surveys over the years I've been following them, (~50 so far) is that they tend to say much more about the surveyor's world view than those whom are surveyed, no matter how carefully they are put together and administered. This is why they have been mostly wrong when predicting all the major elections since 2016. Because of that, I find it much more useful, and much less depressing, to see how actual voters are voting in actual elections and ballot initiatives across the US. These elections are not good news for Republicans.
Still, even though they are an imperfect tool, surveys can be useful, and are really the only fairly nimble indicator of collective opinion we have. Much more thought must go into what questions to ask and how they are asked in future, however.
I’m going to skip the article because I can’t take any more right wing evangelical/libertarian crap this morning. That said, I really, really, really love your rant.you have put into words all the bees that have been buzzing in my head for a very long time. The unanimous nomination of Mike Johnson just about put me over the edge and I’m still fighting to find words to put into a letter to go to the 20 “normal” Republicans I called last week to thank them for rejecting Jim Jordan. I am beyond fed up with the narrow, judgmental supposedly Christian “values “ espoused by White Christian Nationalists. Gandhi said it best, “ I like your Christ. He is so unlike your Christians.” We are going to have to fight this bunch with spirit as well as money. They have insulted and transgressed every value I hold dear.
Yeah, this. Seriously, I actually almost wish that the 20 "normal" Republicans who dashed Jordan's hopes had saved it and voted for him. Why? Because Jordan is, at least IMHO, LESS of a threat to democracy than Johnson. Jordan is, for the most part, just a clown, like Trump. A slightly more dangerous clown, but still a clown. He doesn't believe in our system and is there in Congress just to be a gadfly.
But Johnson is much more serious about the methods needed to wreck our democracy and while he doesn't have the obvious "fame" that Jordan has acquired, that can permit him to be a wolf in sheep's clothing more easily. I am worried that people will look at Johnson's boyish mug and decide that he isn't all that dangerous, when in fact, I think he is much more dangerous than Jordan could ever be.
Tom Lehrer! Will, from Cal, such thanks for the (frankly perfect) presentation of a parenthetical reference to this comic genius, any of whose recordings can only lift spirits. And many thanks, Jon Rosen, for your comment. I’ve lived a mighty long time to just being introduced to him. Now cannot wait to share this so many, many friends. Onward and upward!
Tom made a relatively small number of public satirical songs in his lifetime (about 75, although rumor has it that he has plenty more private versions that will never see the light of day, sigh) but unlike most satire that others put out, most of his songs are insanely timeless and ageless.
I like to tell the story of the song Send the Marines, which I was introduced to by my parents when I was much much younger. As I grew up and played that song at parties and other events ("When someone makes a move of which we don't approve, who is it that always intervenes? U.N. and O.A.S., they have their place I guess, but FIRST, Send the Marines!"), people would ask me, "What event is that song all about? Is it about Grenada?" Or "Is it about the Iraq war"?
Of course, I would just smile and say, "No, its about the invasion of the Dominican Republic." Do you realize how many people in the United States don't even KNOW that we ever invaded the Dominican Republic? And it wasn't in 1816, it was in 1916! We occupied that country for 8 years and most Americans have never even heard of it!
Anyway, I love all of Tom's songs, and if you are interested, here is his website where he has dedicated all of his songs into the public domain:
Thank you Andrea. It's almost insulting that the pundits that proclaim victory for the Republicans are forgetting Women, and their simmering anger at losing our rights. I am expecting them to be stunned & surprised in November 2024.
Mar, just today I came across a hastily made sign on cardboard that I carried in a protest march a few years back (doesn’t often happen in my rural area) that reads:
BIG
MISTAKE
(HUGE!)
TO
PISS OFF
SO
MANY
WOMEN!
Brought this Helen Reddy song to mind…so true after all these years!
Barbara - We women need to resurrect your sign and carry it in any protests or demonstrations (and/or in the background of any speech or 'rally') from now until abortion rights are restored. "Big mistake (huge) ..." is also a quiet emphasis most women can recognize and embrace. Go girls!
Yeah, this was just after Roe v Wade was overturned & women and men were pissed & locally had a bit of a protest gathering. This was a riff from the line in the movie “Pretty Woman” when Julia Roberts goes back to the Bev Hills boutique where the saleswomen wouldn’t wait on her & made her feel like sh*t….she returned, now stylishly dressed & groomed, and gave the “big mistake” line…wonderful scene in the movie.
Yes you are correct. Women ARE pissed off and they have every right to be. I live in a very red county in blood red Ohio. Last summer there was a women's march of sorts in a rather small town near to to me and the women that came out in droves for this astounded me- especially the young women. Therein lies my hope. Women, young women and those who support them will be a huge catalyst in changing this country for the better.It's not gonna happen over night but it is metastasizing.
You’re right about OH women. They won’t get fooled again. My sister who teaches in a blood red county east of Columbus has told me many times women are not going to let any anti-abortion legislation to pass. This is round 2 coming up of “Let’s fool the womenfolk with fancy words vote.” For the 2nd time in a row, women know how to vote to defeat the upcoming proposed legislation to ban abortion in OH. Since the menfolk weren’t clever enough to fool the women the 1st time they tried to crawl up their uterus’s, women slapped them down, “Hands Off!” Now they’re trying it again! Using unclear phrasing and excessive exceptions, they mean to control women through criminal legislation. Won’t stop until we vote them out. Which is exactly where they’re headed. She says there are signs and solidarity on defeating any anti-abortion legislation.
Right you are about the confusing language of this new bill and the one on the special election in August. I early voted on both of these bills and saw right away what the Republicans were trying to do which was basically to dupe people into voting for or against something they were not sure of.In August,"No" meant "Yes". This time the language is also misleading. Women won't stand for our draconian Heartbeat law which makes no exception for the health of the mother, rape or incest.A pox on these cruel legislators.
An especial pox on Mike Dewine, who is fine with trampling our rights, lying that he will fix the problem with the exceptions after the election, gee whiz I’m such a nice guy defying the Ohio Supreme Court about election maps (that same Supreme Court where his son sits), I promise I will “do something” about guns but what he did made things worse. A pox on all of them.
Yes, pious Governor DeWine and Fran lying through their teeth about Issue 1.Saying it is “just wrong for Ohio”. I’ll tell you what wrong, an 11 year old molested by her step-father having to go out-of-state to get the care she desperately needed because of DeWine’s cruel and draconian Heartbeat law.
We are COUNTING on women, who obviously make up 50+ % of the potential vote. If we can just draw 5% more of them (a very small ask) because of the outrageous Roe v Wade overturn, that would be a HUGE HUGE edge in keeping the popular vote strongly positive for the Democratic ticket, and if it is spread around the country enough (rather than all in New York and California where it probably won't change the outcome of the actual Electoral College election because those states will almost certainly support Biden anyway), it will be that much easier for the Dems to win this election outright!
Exhaustion is the weak excuse used. The Republican members in the House of Representatives voted for Mike Johnson because they do NOT want bipartisanship in Congress - that is they do not want to share power with the Democrats, they do not want to govern jointly. Power is the key word, absolute power is where they would like to go.
The GOP knows it has one shot in '24. Make voting as difficult as possible for Democratic voters. Keep an eye out for foreign election interference and right-wing voter intimidation, perhaps even employing firearms, in 2024.
I hope you are right, Andrea! For sure I and all our friends (men and women) will fight like hell against these so called "leaders" but they need to be defeated by their constituents. I don't think we have seen the last of them crawling out from under the rocks. I am terrified.
Of course. The GQP would like to keep all of us either uninformed or terrified or both...my fear doesn't stop me, it just leads to sleepless nights and sadness.
Andrea, Gaetz, and his little band of followers, hopefully will be eliminated from existence, as far as the political world is concerned, in the upcoming 24 election. They are a thorn in the side of every one of us!
This new Speaker of the House isn’t going to be any help. That’s for sure. I’m in fear that Dr. Richardson is correct that his beliefs are going to interfere with his governing. I, for the life of me, don’t understand these politicians who have control of the House right now. Where the hell are their heads?
Even the most "moderate" of the Current GQP crop have bought the fabrication that Democrats are the enemy. We are thought of as if we were the communists of the 50's. The situation is riddled with irony. Because they are the totalitarians! Will has truly nailed it.
But, of course, we ARE their enemy. Not the enemy of democracy or a reasonably regulated capitalism, or the right to be a religious whatever. We are the enemy of those who want to impose. Which is wildly ironic. One central principle of "Libertarianism" was that the government should leave people alone so they can follow any faith (or non faith) they want and be free to compete in a dynamic economic system.
But just like "conservatives", the libertarians have been swallowed by the Oligarchs who use the religious card to pull the strings of their puppets. The Oligarchs who destroyed competition and undermined small businesses. They are not "conservatives" in the classic construct of the word. They are ultra greedy thieves.
This is all "deja vu all over again". Heather's recap of how the depression came about is critical reading for those who are doomed to repeat history. So sadly, this is just another in an endless cycle of the rich getting richer at the expense of the masses. It's been this way since we climbed out of the trees. Nobles and peasants. The peasants suffer until they can't take it any more. Think the French and Russian revolution. Think the American revolution. Our Oligarchs are the same guys who sat in the English Parliament . Yogi was right and so was Polo. "We have seen the enemy...."
I am just about done reading Dennis Lehane's "The Given Day". The time is between the world wars - police are paid half what trolley car drivers get. There are no public worker unions - yet. The great Boston molasses flood is akin to the Triangle Shirt factory fire. But Frances Perkins is a long way off in the future and even the police can't take it anymore.
The question is: "How much suffering and oppression will Jane and Joe Sixpack suffer through before they wake up (get woke about their lives) and realize who is holding them down?" It ain't Joe Biden and that is becoming more and more obvious every day.
Bill- You speak the truth, as always. Your final paragraph is particularly powerful and should be worked into the script of "ads" that the Dems need to have published yesterday to express what we stand for - and to help the voters determine who they are, who they want to be, and who should lead them in government. Thanks.
As per my own comment, Republicans are religious absolutists in grounding, but mainly because of their two fundamental premises: 1) You don't get to tell me what to do. That restricts my freedom. and 2) I get to tell you what to do, because you are wrong.
Andrea, you write: ". We'll make sure they lose again." That's assuming that they don't steal the elections with rigged processes. They know that they are in the minority, they reject the basic premise and practice of democracy: one person, one vote, majority rule. We've got a serious problem as the KKK/MAGA make a run to install a white Protestant supremacy here. Their use of Christianity as a manipulative tool has been remarkably successful.
“MAGA is ascendant,” Gaetz told former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, “and if you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement, and where the power of the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention.” Could there possibly be a more compelling reason to work to ensure a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives than what Gaetz has to say?
Leonard, also given that Johnson and Gaetz voted against the infrastructure bill and the CHIPS bill, the ads for Democrats practically write themselves.
Johnson’s idea that capitalism is incompatible with attempting to prevent the worst consequences of global warming is bonkers. If it came to a choice between a habitable Earth or capitalism, what would you decide?
It was most interesting to learn that he took donations from Russians.
Those funds didn't come without Putin's approval. The type of authoritarian regime the MAGA admire doesn't allow that. He will have been made aware to whom his gratitude is owed, not unlike Trump
"If it came to a choice between a habitable Earth or capitalism, what would you decide?"
For me? Planet, obviously! Unfortunately, a significant number of Americans would most likely not make the same decision.
That Vivek guy running in the Repub primary has a set of "Truths" he has built his campaign around, and I dunno if y'all got a whiff of that bat guano, but one of them is that fossil fuels are necessary for human success. Which is kind of like saying arsenic is key to a healthy digestive system.
“Human success” reminds me of Mom and apple pie. What’s not to like? Unless we know which humans and what definition of success Johnson has in mind. Of course even if he knows there are better choices than fossil fuels, he can’t let on. He’s a Republican.
On the hopeful side NPR discussed an electric airplane which has had successful test flights and could become a biggie. Cheaper and more sustainable.
I believe Heather herself covered this a short time ago when she wrote (I'm paraphrasing) that some of the things Trump promised (I'm remembering infrastructure repair and improved heath care) Biden has actually delivered. As for Biden's age, it looks like his knees are painful; Mitt Romney has allegedly advised him not to shuffle because it makes him look older. (As I type this, I'm seeing Trump at a rally on the Sioux City stage mocking Biden's walk.) We all know how careful Roosevelt was to conceal his failed legs from the public. I would like to think we're thoughtful enough to take the measure of a human being without resorting to crude playground mockery.
The average IQ of American citizens is 98. That is not a "high" IQ score. Given that the GOP only needs half the country's votes, it is theoretically possibly they could prevail appealing ONLY to simple-minded voteds (those with IQs under 100). This is the scary part of our current political situation.
Wasn’t it Stevenson who was told that he would have the support of the intelligent voters. His response something like, well, I’m in real trouble then. Or something like that…
While I agree our dumber fellow citizens may need help understanding some stuff, I wouldn't put too much stock in IQ testing. It only measures one kind of human intelligence that can only get people so far. And I always thought 100 was, by definition, the average (or median?) score. Guess I'll have to Google that.
It IS a common occurrence on the basketball court, especially among those who do not train consistently. It is also the reason haven't played (or refereed) basketball in 13 years. When I reached 60, with a body that was no longer in shape for a sport like basketball, I stopped playing. Don't want to hurt my body further and don't want anyone else to think I can't do it anymore :-).
Johnson is well-aligned with the Heritage Foundation and its agenda. He is well positioned now to start laying the groundwork for Project 2025, the far-right manifesto to transform the executive branch by gutting it and installing another layer of political appointees to be sure that agencies align with the President's view of priorities. It is the fruition of the the theory of "unitary executive power."
A chilling thing to think about this morning, but has there been any increased security around Biden and Harris right now? MAGA Mike is two steps away from the presidency, away from the “Prize” of christian nationalists....................
Thank you for this clear analysis of the Depression to Regan and beyond---and the formation of the present configuration of political forces on the Right. We do have the Real Thing for Speaker of the House---a rather unvarnished example of Southern Conservative Reactionary Religion joined to politics. Now perhaps more people will see (and more people will perhaps understand) the radical anti-democratic "thing" that the GOP has become. A sad day. But a day that should motivate us to do more and more and more..............
"Those profits, along with tax cuts and stock market dividends, meant that wealth moved upward: in 1929, 5% of the population received one third of the nation’s income."
I saw an excellent documentary on the History Channel some years back, before it had been purchased by the so-called "Discovery" folks, which was all about how the KKK deliberately infiltrated the southern church.
I believe the documentary can still be found on YouTube. At least that was true a year or so back.
With Johnson being the new Speaker of the House I'm reminded of the old saying "Be careful what you wish for". Gaetz made it clear, the Republican party is definitely the MAGA party. Every Republican in the House voted for Johnson and made it clear that they don't care about the majority of Americans. I believe they've overplayed their hand, out of arrogance and hubris, and the majority of voters do not want what they're pushing. I tend to be somewhat cynical, but I believe the Republican party is the frog in the boiling water and that even though many voters are tired of politics, and may not be yelling and shouting, they don't want religious authoritarianism and the message of "hate everyone who isn't a straight, white, Christian male".
I believe that the Republican party is going to split and Mike Johnson is going to be the ultra-conservative clean-cut God-fearing family-values-loving face of the New Republican Party. The insurrectionist MAGAs are bad for business, and are going to be written off, as will Trump because he was so ineffective and openly corrupt. Just keep an ear out for how often you start hearing Republicans stop calling Trump "President Trump".
The old time RINOs inclined to bipartisanship will be excoriated because they don't follow the party line of low taxes and no regulation of businesses and isolationism. Johnson is already papering over his far-right-wing positions--saying gay marriage is settled law or how he was just putting on the best arguments in favor of his clients when he was with ADF. Of course, we all remember how attestations of respect for "settled law" (for now) came up in the confirmations of Trump's 3 Supremes.
Johnson's positions are well aligned with the incredibly well funded ultra-conservative think tanks. They are the folks who developed the gerrymandering strategies and the stacking of the judiciary. They are ones that are crafting "me-too" legislation to limit voting rights and "don't say gay" laws. There is no question that they have been extremely successful at un-leveling the playing field, and just shy of half of Americans were seduced with the insurrectionists and Trump there. These guys are betting that if they clean up their act with a poster boy like Johnson and keep up the assault on democratic institutions they will win if not in 2025, then in 2029.
As Heather said, the winning Republican alliance is between big business and evangelicals. Money and faith are big motivators.
Follow the think tanks - Heritage Foundation - the Koch brothers.
Demand more substantial reporting from the well funded capitalist enterprises known as the Mainstream Media and their gawking tendencies to sensationalism when they don't either know how to, or don't want to dig deep enough and report on news that is 'difficult'. Smirking isn't reporting-from either left or right.
I think you are dead on. The more I am researching the more I am seeing a split between Koch's Americans for Prosperity operation (greedy bastards and Trump haters except when convenient) and the Heritage Foundation (religious greedy bastards and gung ho Trump lovers until recently). Americans for Prosperity have been dominating the state legislature initiatives and have been trying to get Lincoln Project types going, but have not been successful on the latter.
You can distinguish them by what they call TFG, Trump or former President Trump for team Koch and President Trump for team Heritage, but they are starting to insert former into the title too. The more people in the Georgia case that flip on him the more slippage.
Johnson has feet in both camps. Maybe that is why he got 100% acquiescence in the floor vote. Team Koch and Team Heritage decided to get themselves in alignment and that is what got bruited around in the Republican conference meeting ahead of Johnson's election. A subtle reminder that neither team would provide campaign support if you didn't vote for Johnson would be enough to do it. No proof yet, but that has been my biggest question--why did all dissent evaporate at just that moment.?
Thank you, Georgia. I wondered about the same thing. It surely wasn’t that they all suddenly got embarrassed about their inability to function as a caucus or that they cared that they were impeding the entire Congress from functioning.
Thank you for being so attuned to the minutia that most miss. I'm so disappointed in some of the religiously devoted that I thought were good people. They signed on to hatred when Jesus was about anything but - best I recall. My late b-in-law was a life long repub, but gave up on them when W/Dickie came along.. Now he was a "good people." The others, not so much.
Well said!! The well-funded think tanks, e.g. Heritage Foundation, are going to be more prominent---as you point out. They are regressive activists of the first order. I just started reading your substack. Thanks for your insights.....
Glad you are finding it helpful. Please contribute to the conversation there! I am reading Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's book today on the impact of the SCOTUS Citizens United decision which was written in 2016. The sums back then were enormous back then. Eight years later they are going to be monstrous.
Nearly half of all the money contributed through the spring of 2016 in the 2016 presidential contest came from just 150 families, most of them with corporate connections; and most contributed secretly, through super PACs and 501(c)(4)s.
A study by the Annenberg Public Policy Center looked at the four top-spending political 501(c)(4) organizations—which don’t have to disclose their donors—over a six-month period in 2012. It turns out that an estimated 85 percent of their election spending went to ads that the Annenberg Center determined to contain deceptions. So not only are 70 percent of the ads out there negative, but at least during parts of the election cycle, the big spenders were putting 85 percent of their money toward deceptive advertising.
I knew it was awful, but I am shocked at these numbers and they are from 7 years ago!
Whitehouse, Senator Sheldon. Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy (pp. 35-36). The New Press. Kindle Edition.
Whitehouse, Senator Sheldon. Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy (p. 31). The New Press. Kindle Edition.
Wow HCR. Thank you for connecting the dots to shine light into this dystopian and frightening moment. You bring a perspective only a literary historian could provide. This horror show requires no costume
Not many Americans can remember 1929 or the Great Depression that followed. My mother-in-law, almost 101, can pretty vividly recall the early 1930s, when WWI veterans seeking their promised bonuses so they could survive economically, were attacked by firehouses. https://jimbuie.substack.com/p/recalling-1930s-traumas
More than firehoses. When Douglas MacArthur cleared the Bonus Marchers from Washington, Major George S. Patton Jr., a rock-ribbed Southern reactionary, ran his World War I First Sergeant of the company he commanded through with his sword shouting "Take that, you Bolshevik bastard!"
George Patton was such an awful, awful, *awful* person. It's just that he found the perfect line of work at the right time in order to make his notable, unbridled, unrepentant awfulness seem like a virtue ripe for achievement.
Patton was a sociopath who, as commander of the 3rd Army, found a job that required one. Or, to put it another way, Eisenhower needed a sociopath to lead the 3rd Army, and he found one in Patton.
What makes anyone think that all of the repellent people in power will accept any election results? The path has been laid and the pieces are in place now. Those of us who love the promise of this country had better be wary of being overconfident in our future elections. I’m afraid the ride will be awfully bumpy.
SPW, please keep in mind those of us who resist these fascist agendas number in the millions now. We are an aware, “woke” if you will, group of thinking, feeling, active adults and young adults who will not abide the right taking over. Remember what Mahatma Gandhi accomplished, with a very bumpy ride as you know, with non-violent resistance to the most vicious colonial power on Earth! I live in India, so I see the results of the struggle of millions of unarmed and very poor citizens who rose up and threw the British out! It is my daily inspiration.
Patton was not a rock-ribbed Southern reactionary, he and his family were from just outside Pasadena where his father managed the Huntington property, at that time they owned Santa Catalina Island, and had a large piece of property close to the Huntington estate.
The September 1935 Hurricane in the Keys destroyed the Overseas Railroad. “Flagler’s Folly” was built largely by WWI vets, as the government had no idea what to do with them. Most perished in the storm.
My Granny (now 93), always avoided talking about her childhood in Arkansas. We kids thought that was disappointing; we wanted to know what it was like when the oldsters were still small and fun like us! When I did get some snippets later on, I understood why: potato sacks for clothes, only mud to play with, etc. It would be almost comical if it weren't the crushing reality for most people alive in that place and time.
I think of this sometimes when I hear someone crying how they "can't afford these ridiculous prices" of the huge cart of groceries they are getting ready to put in their fully functioning car en route to their fully functioning refrigerator.
“his 2018 campaign accepted money from a group of Russian nationals, and he has said he does not support additional funding for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.”
I am sorry, but I respectfully think you and way too many other commenters are WAY too positive/hopeful. I encounter too many right wing nuts in my left leaning world. We all need to get busy as the election cycle ramps up and help get out the vote for our rights to not be taken over by the maga nut jobs. There will be tons of volunteer opportunities so let's get to it!
Follow the think tanks - Heritage Foundation - the Koch brothers.
Demand more substantial reporting from the well funded capitalist enterprises known as the Mainstream Media and their gawking tendencies to sensationalism when they don't either know how to, or don't want to dig deep enough and report on news that is 'difficult'. Smirking isn't reporting-from either left or right.
I am active in local issues and I vote. I see the MAGA b.s. all around me, but I have hope. There are two levels of hope. First is a weak hope that MAGA will be defeated in the next election cycle or two. The second is a trust in average Americans who will hate a MAGA world once they actually live in one.
This saga keeps getting more ominous. We know what Mike Johnson and his demented band of religious zealots want to do to this country. Their sanctimonious brand of politics would turn this country into something out of a Margaret Atwood novel, filled with hate and the most vile kinds of repression.
Maybe, just maybe this will wake up old-style Republicans as well as libertarians to the fact that freedom is under assault like never before. I very much doubt Johnson will survive the media scrutiny of his life and radical "Christian" views.
Thing is, he doesn't actually. He has what the kids today call a "punchable" face.
I can't believe I'm saying this in such polite company, but he looks like he's never played with himself, unless it was by "accident." Maybe that's the problem?
As today’s letter points out, Brown v Board and its enforcement, such as it was, marked the division of the electorate into those committed to minority (that is, white) rule and those seeking fair treatment for all Americans. It took a while to kick into full force but has seen solid and consistent growth with only a few setbacks since 1980. At this point, roughly 60% of white voters are firmly committed to autocratic government, which they see as the only reliable way to ensure the preservation of systemic advantages for white Americans. A recent essay in WaPo by Jennifer Rubins cited a Public Religion Research Institute finding that 59% of white voters believe that the reelection of Biden would be a threat to democracy. Imagine! That is how delusional, not to mention fundamentally indecent, most white voters are. They imagine that electing an autocrat would save democracy when, in fact, it would probably destroy democracy. What it would save, though, are myriad (and probably expanded) systemic advantages for white Americans.
I am glad i am not a part of the 60% of the white voters that are firmly committed to an autocratic government. I would think an autocrat would destroy democracy. A man of color that works with my son at his job was astonished when my son told him that me and him are dedicated Democrats, The man of color told my son that he thought most all white folks voted for the corrupt and criminal Fascist GQP. I have been a Democrat all of my life.
We are back to the long-buried theory that the US is a “Christian democracy.” The Constitution does not say that one group is superior to another and republicants want to strictly adhere to the Constitution. They can’t have it both ways but they sure try.
I might be wrong, but i think these fanatic Fascist Rethuglicans use the Christian and religious crap to justify their corrupt and very evil agenda. They think they can openly hide behind religion to convince the public they are good people when they are the polar opposite to good. I would tend to think that almost all of the dedicated Democrats can see right through their endless lies and corruption. These scumbags don't fool me for one second. My next door neighbor is a prime example of a TUMP worshiping religious fanatic.
Of course I am delighted that you and your son are loyal Democrats on the right side of history. Your son's friend was, unfortunately, correct that most white folks voted for the criminal Fascist. Just a bit under 60%, according to exit polls, and a substantially higher in the white working class and in rural areas, nationwide. Your son's friend knows that whenever he sees a white man, he is more probably looking at a Trump voter than a decent human being.
That is so sad to hear. I am a bit curious where your son and his co-worker live, because the racial element of the voting demographics really depends on the area of the country. In the deep south it is still strongly racially polarized, but Vermont is over 90% white and one of the most heavily Democratic states.
Yes, Vermont and most of New England but especially Vermont has an exceptionally decent population of white voters. We have all benefited from their voting patterns. On the plus side, we have just barely enough Democratic-leaning voters to put Democrats in charge of the presidency and both chambers of the legislature in 2024. Our challenge is to get them to the polls. Numerous, well-organized, get-out-the-vote organizations are putting their backs into that project. The Democratic Party helps, too, but it seems to me they would be more effective if they put almost all of their effort and money into get-out-the-vote efforts. It's the one thing that really makes a difference. Messaging on policy and accomplishments is the least effective. You cannot convert a magat by presenting the facts, must less by appealing to decency. You cannot convert magats, no way, no how. But you can get people who lean Democratic to vote, and there are just enough of them to make success possible.
You're right to use "convert". The MAGA "system" is a belief system as much as anything else. And you don't 'persuade' them The only way is a total conversion of world view---essentially a religious conversion, yes a religious conversion.
I for sure wish i was living in Vermont now. I really like Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Canada. But i am not sure i am up to the challenge of all of the red tape and paperwork of getting into Canada. I wonder how Vermont rates on the cost of living there?? It would be far easier to relocate to Vermont than it would to relocate to Canada.
Will, i live in the racist state of Georgia. I live in the NW part of the state just one district down from the ugliest hag witches in Congress, Maggot Traitor Goon. I despise that horrible excuse for a human being. The Congress member that represents my district is almost a bad, Drew Ferguson. You are spot on when you said the deep south is still strongly racially polarized. Me and my family are the only Democrats that live on the 4 mile paved county road i live on. Everyone else is tried and true Donald TUMP lovers. They don't like us, and i sure as hell don't like them.
Rex, I never heard of PRRI before. Go to the source. And remember it was 59% of the 2550 people in the poll. Jennifer Rubin and other reporters need to say what the sample was rather than making headlines with what ALL Americans believe.
I wrote the following after looking at PRRI’s website:
Another opinion poll hits the headlines summarized and telling us what all Americans believe. Prri.org. “The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) is an American nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education organization that conducts public opinion polls on a variety of topics, specializing in the quantitative and qualitative study of political issues as they relate to religious values. Conducted August 25-30, 2023, among a representative sample of 2,525 adults who are part of the Ipsos Knowledge Panel.”
We know which party focuses on religion and the American way of life. We should take the headline poll results with the eyeroll they deserve and do something to get the truth out.
See my comment to Gloria below. I know we have (correctly) developed a skepticism of poll results around here, but not all polls are created equal. The more respectable surveys use representative samples of a quality high enough that you *can* adequately extrapolate the results to the wider population. There will always be a margin of error, but any bias will be unintentional.
I was not expecting today to be the day I would appoint myself the white knight for math, but I guess here we are lol.
Ipsos Knowledge Panel? it's a site that solicits your membership, screens your demographics and then pays a nominal fee for your opinion on surveys. If you carefully curate the audience, you can predict what their survey response will be.
The key here is that Ipsos uses those demographics to make sure that they do not have too many or too few of a demographic. For instance, if 3,500 Republicans respond but only 1,200 Democrats, they will either only use half of the Repubican responses, or weight each response half as much, because it is common knowledge that there are roughly the same number in the general population. If Ipsos or a similar outfit did NOT gather basic info on demographics, then that would *prevent* the survey from being reliable/accurate. They are not "curating" or excluding people to get the results they want, quite the opposite. That does not mean any result will be exact, but it will be honest and professional.
And what do they do to ascertain if what the respondents say is true? There Might 😇😂 be Some 😏😵💫😜😝 cultists, rabid fans of a narcissistic sociopath who Lie and have a few Aliases. Honest and Professional just like tfg....
And what a joy it is to experience well educated, thoughtful non-white people making such huge contributions to our world! And the mix of genders: how preposterous it is today to look at photographs of influential groups from decades ago -- practically all male!
The PRRI is actually a very trustworthy organization: nonprofit, nonpartisan, academic. They partner with Brookings, Cornell, and Georgetown, among others, run their surveys year after year, and are rigorous and transparent.
Religion is a key part of the human experience, and essential to an understanding of sociology, anthropology, etc. Just because an individual or organization studies religion does not mean they are pushing for religious governance. I think we need to not dismiss things out of hand here, and I say this all as someone who is an agnostic at most.
Robert P. Jones is the president and founder of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and a leading scholar and commentator on religion and politics. Jones writes regularly on politics, culture, and religion for The Atlantic, TIME, and Religion News Service. He is frequently featured in major national media, such as MSNBC, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and others. He holds a PhD in religion from Emory University and a MDiv from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, which won a 2021 American Book Award, and The End of White Christian America, which won the 2019 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. He writes a regular Substack newsletter at RobertPJones.substack.com. (From Simon and Schuster author’s webpage.) He also has been a guest and has hosted webinars with colleagues such as Kristen du Mez and other authors, historians and anti-racism leaders. If anyone knows about Christian nationalism,he is definitely one of them. An excellent writer on the intersection of (bad) theology and public life in America.
Thanks, Juanita! Looks like Simon & Schuster needs to update his bio. I didn't catch that HRWS was missing, especially since it’s now on the NYTimes best seller list.
What are the people in Speaker Johnson's home town saying about him?
'SHREVEPORT, La. — In this small town masquerading as a city, a mention of newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson during the lunchtime rush at Strawn’s Eat Shop Too (“home of the ice box pie”) drew an interruption.' (WAPO, excerpts)
“Are you talking about Mike Johnson?” said a woman in a flowered blouse, gold-cross necklace and gray ponytail. “I’m his mom.”
'Jeanne “Jee Jee” Johnson, 69, had been sharing a “celebration lunch” Thursday with her cousin here in the central Broadmoor neighborhood, pausing to greet fellow diners as her cellphone exploded with well wishes.'
'Johnson saw her son’s selection in spiritual terms.' “God did this,” she said. “ … It’s so good for America.”
'In northwest Louisiana, people navigate their lives by family and faith. The politician raised here shares a heavy reliance on both.'
'Mike Johnson, 51, is a staunch conservative who championed religious causes before he was elected to the state legislature in 2015 and to Congress the following year. Although more low-profile than other Donald Trump supporters in Congress, he played a pivotal role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election and opposes abortion rights, gun control and same-sex marriage, views shared by many supporters at home.'
'In accepting the speakership last week, Johnson prayed on the House floor and said, “God is the one that raises up those in authority.” His wife, Kelly Lary Johnson, a pastoral counselor whose brother is a local Baptist minister, prayed for her husband for days leading up to his selection as speaker, both the new speaker and Jeanne Johnson said.'
“It’s a cultural conservatism, a view not only of politics but of religion and faith,” 'said Royal Alexander, 56, a conservative lawyer, referring to what guides much of the community and Johnson, who he got to know after college.' “People here are rugged individualists who want to make their own decisions.”
'The Ark-La-Tex region in northwest Louisiana that includes Johnson’s hometown is full of historic Black and White churches, more like neighboring Arkansas, Texas and the rest of the Bible Belt than the rest of the state. It’s often overshadowed by flashier cities to the south: New Orleans and the state capital, Baton Rouge. The idea that one of its sons is now second in line to the presidency has been met with joyous surprise in many quarters. But views are mixed about whether his ascension will benefit all residents, who remain divided, like much of the country, along ideological and racial lines.'
'Residents call the metro area of about 760,000 Shreveport-Bossier, encompassing Shreveport — population 180,000, where Johnson was raised on the west bank of the Red River — and growing suburbs to the east in Bossier Parish, where the speaker now lives.'
'But there are vast distinctions between the two sides, the residue of disinvestment and white flight by families like Johnson’s.'
'The city proper is about 57 percent Black, 37 percent White and 3 percent Latino, according to the most recent census. Bossier Parish, home to about 130,000 people, is about 70 percent White, 24 percent Black and 7 percent Latino. Overall, Johnson’s district has a median household income of about $48,600, below the national median of nearly $75,000. About 22 percent live below the poverty level.'
'Shreveport native Celeste Gauthier, 45, went away to Middlebury College in Vermont but returned to help her family run Strawn’s three restaurants, including its flagship in the city’s Highland Historic District and another in Bossier Parish. That’s become harder with pandemic lockdowns, rising costs and labor challenges, the mother of three said.'
“Politics here is personal. People really do look at the funding we’re sending to Israel and Ukraine and say, ‘I can’t afford to go to Kroger,’” Gauthier said as she sat amid the lunchtime crowd, some of whom she said had stopped buying beverages because of the cost.'
“A lot of these customers know Mike Johnson and think we often get overlooked and maybe we won’t anymore,” she said.
'Customer Beth Hayes, a retired registered nurse from Shreveport, said she was proud of Johnson and had high hopes for him as speaker.'
'A registered Democrat, Hayes, 83, said she has become more independent in recent years. She’s a Methodist who respects LGBTQ+ rights even though her church doesn’t allow same-sex marriage or ministers, feels conflicted about abortion and voted for Trump twice. She said she appreciated Johnson’s support for Trump’s fight to overturn the 2020 election, but believes Biden ultimately won. She called the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol “the worst thing I have ever seen in my life” and said she isn’t sure who she will vote for in 2024.'
“We need to stand up for our rights, but we can do it in a more civilized manner” than Trump does, Hayes said. She hopes Johnson will be able to do that, by working with Democrats.'
'Others here have their doubts, particularly in Shreveport’s mostly Black and low-income Mooretown neighborhood.'
“He was a part of that exodus from Shreveport; he didn’t stay and make the community better and as a congressman, he has done little to make the community better,” 'said the Rev. Theron Jackson, the Black pastor of 94-year-old Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church.'
'A former Shreveport city council member, Jackson, 54, was once a Democrat but said he now considers himself an independent. He’s working to counter homelessness and what he calls “trans-generational poverty” that dates to segregation.'
'While Black leaders scored victories in Shreveport during the Civil Rights era, hosting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for seminars on nonviolent protest, he said,' “The fact that you have to fight for folks to be civil, that says something. If that’s our only accomplishment, we have to say ‘Is that all?’ Because that’s not all that life’s about. The best cities in the world give opportunities for people to thrive, not just survive.”
'Earlier this year, Jackson traveled to Baton Rouge to lobby for changes to Louisiana’s congressional districts — only one of six is a majority Black district despite a state population that is more than 30 percent Black. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request to speed up redrawing the districts after a federal judge found the latest map still dilutes the strength of Black voters.'
“When you become speaker of the house, that’s supposed to mean a lot more for your district and your state. The question is, what is that going to mean for us?” Jackson said. “It may mean more for those who have already benefited from his presence, but certainly not all of us.” (WAPO) Below is
line to the article. Sorry that I do not have any gifted links left.
Rhea's link is to 'House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Louisiana hometown guided by faith and family', which I copied excerpts from and wrote about in my comment that indicates what people in Speaker Johnson's hometown have to say about him.
Rhea, you came to the rescue another time that I was out of gift links. Thank you very much for your generosity on behalf of all of us.
I hesitate to disagree with an august historian such as yourself, HRC, but the history books and other documentation I've read say that Eisenhower was completely flummoxed by Earl Warren's turn to liberalism, particularly desegregation in Brown v Board. Eisenhower has been quoted as saying putting Earl Warren in the Supreme Court was "the worst thing" that happened in his administration. If one looks at Warren's record before his appointment as Chief Justice, Eisenhower was right to be flummoxed. Warren was the chief advocate for Executive Order 9066, putting Japanese residents and native born citizens in concentration camps. He was also a leader in the 30s against the Poor People's campaign when Sinclair Lewis ran for governor of California. In all ways, he was an obvious conservative Republican.
From the Atlantic (2018): "Over coffee, Eisenhower took Warren by the arm and asked him to consider the perspective of white parents in the Deep South. “These are not bad people,” the president said. “All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big black bucks.”
My Mom always taught me that if someone says "But..." everything before the "but" is usually either a distraction or a lie. As in "I don't think you need to lose weight, but..." or "You are valuable to this company, but..." or "I'm not racist, but..." etc.
The corollary to this is that when someone says "They are not bad people. They just..." they almost definitely *are* bad people, and everything after that statement is going to tell you exactly how their badness expresses itself.
Color, race, sexuality and gender may be first determinants but ultimately everyone not part of the inner circle moneyed class will also experience the impact of rule by the rich. The very people voting for these autocrats are voting themselves into poverty. They can forget about education, healthcare, retirement, any kind of vacation/rest, safe food and water, ... the list goes on. They can look forward to crumbling infrastructure, working until they die, food and water insecurity, ... basically same conditions as workers portrayed in “The Men Who Made America.”
Correct... Ike was audibly pissed off.. but he honored their deal.. and put Warren on the Court, then Sen. Knowland - a suicide - then the honorable Tricky Dick Nixon, legislator Jessie Unruh, Gov. Pat Brown, goofy Gov. Jerry Brown, then... son of a fall down drunk, first married to a drunk, Gov. Dumbo Voodoo Economics Ronny Reagan, Rep. David Stockman’s leering monkey, and the recently departed Baltimore SanFran millionaire’s daughter, spell out much of California’s colorful borderline useless contribution...
Gonna have to disagree about Unruh and Pat Brown. Unruh was the best operational politician California ever had, and a battler for the people's side. He created the modern state legislature. Might find his aphorisms "unwelcome" in today's "diverse" Democratic Party but that doesn't make them any less accurate. Pat Brown created - among other things - the California education system that let me get three college degrees without debt.
My Dad told me the other day that before my Grandpa passed too early, he was in line for a judgeship. Grandpa Collman - a sensible Republican - had done a local TV interview on behalf of Republicans to Re-Elect Pat Brown. He thought Brown was doing a decent job and Reagan was truly dangerous. His name got taken off the list for the judgeship, and he was "fit to be tied" (Dad's phrase).
Dad and I both voted for *Jerry* Brown in our 20s. I didn't really have any complaints, but I like Newsom a bunch too, so it's a matter of taste I guess.
Met with Gov. Jerry Brown for a short visit. He was sent to 76 Beaver, 17th floor, by Bob Rubin of Goldman Sachs arbitrage. Bob wanted an evaluation. I was clear with both. Jerry Brown was amusing and unstable, I stated that to him and to Bob, and excused him from my office.
And, to be blunt, what has California produced that makes a meaningful and lasting difference? Nada? Ah! Hollywood. The movies. The Oscars. Hepburn. Brando. Jimmy Stewart. The unknown girl in Last Tango in Paris. Pollution. Trust Company of the West. Alcoholism and a transplanted kidney in the founder. Nixon. Reagan. Divorced presidents. Weightlifting German Governor. More pollution. Education? Please. Jack Benny. Groucho Marx. Bob Hope. The Tonight Show. Comedy. Johnny Carson. Paar. Ten. The Late Show.
Jealousy is so unbecoming, you sad old talentless loser. Why don't you crawl back to Flyover Loserville where you belong and won't be so obvious among all the other senile old boomer losers? You know, go back to getting drunk every night and spewing your loserness on the rest of us, you old fool.
I had read that as well, TC. I believe that Ike considered Warren his worst appointment. I do recall from prior study (that happened 45 years ago) that Eisenhower expected Warren to be his "middle way" representative, and was completely aghast at his "liberal" interpretations of what we now call "social justice" issues.
Thank you Heather! He is so frightening! We have to all push voters to oust this man and elect people that care about all individuals ! Vote blue! At all levels of government!
If we become a bible based theocracy due to inattention and laziness rather than protect the existence of our ‘Republic’ …we will have deserved it. The very thing our Founders had come to America to prevent! It is our turn, our time and our fault if we lose our democracy!
Actually, to be fair, you should read some REAL history of the early settlers in America. To suggest that they didn't want a bible-based theocracy is a serious misreading of early American politics. They absolutely WANTED that kind of country, they just wanted the theocracies to be THEIR theocracies (plural as reflected by the different theocracies in different states) rather than King George's theocracy, i.e., the one that had descended from Henry VIII's abandonment of Catholicism. They wanted THEIR religious freedoms, not at all freedom FROM religion. This did change over time, and when the United States finally was formed as a union of all of these diverse cultures, we definitely started to modify our direction. But to suggest that somehow the early American settlers wanted a religion-free country is nonsense at best.
Thank “God” we still have a Democratic Senate and President who will not cave to the MAGA crowd in the lowest of lower Houses. Time for real journalists to show up and put an end to this fiasco. True Believers are always hiding something. I bet his wife is miserable.
That's been pretty obvious for a very long while for those of us in the know. Hating yourself for the things the imposed ideas are telling you are wrong, and that you believe because of your upbringing and the herd Instinct and all that stuff, turns into hating the people who can do it and are open. I've been the recipient myself. So the people who are trumpeting about freedom are the least free and don't want to see anybody else being free either. Selfish fearful little souls.
We simply have to outvote them. We may have to end up protecting our polling places, certainly fighting the gross attempts to squelch votes and gerrymander them.
That is WAY WAY WAY too simplistic. Most sociologists believe that the average amount of homosexuality across the globe is about 15%, not significantly higher than that. Sure, its easy to believe that all the people who say they hate homosexuals and homosexuality are just closeted deniers of their own desires. Its easy to believe that, but almost certainly false in reality. MOST of these anger mongers REALLY DO hate homosexuals and believe it is sin and wrong and something that should be dealt with either by trying to convert them or legally by prison and/or execution. As much as it might make you feel better to believe all of these people would, if given the opportunity in an accepting world, drop their pretenses and actually out themselves is just nonsense and dangerous. A few might (as I am sure there are closeted gays among them) but don't count on there numbers to get you to a majority, because factually speaking, there just aren't that many who exist. In the end, we need to get EVERYONE to accept that EVERYONE has the right to be who they truly are, but we are a long way from that reality, even if we would like to think that the 15-year lucky/crazy that got us a pro-Supreme Court decision endorsing gays, gays in the military and pro-trans attitudes among many of our leaders was universally supported. Look around, its obviously not, and despite the fact that we got quick advances in gay rights between 2008 and 2023 (much faster than we ever got advances in rights for racial and religious minorities as well as women) its a tenuous hold and if the right wing crazies get back in power, look for it all to be revoked virtually instantly.
Vigilance is necessary, from EVERYONE on our side.
1) The concerted fight for LGBT rights had some major victories post-Obama, but that was the cresting of the wave. Act Up was 20 years prior, Stonewall was 40 years prior, and there were societies and publications even before that (like the Mattachine Society, which would be considered downright prudish today!)
2) Again, not to be nitpicky, but as a bisexual man I feel obligated to point out that 15% of people might have *same-sex attractions,* which is not the same as being homosexual (strictly same-sex). 15% is the high end of the LGBT estimate, and most of those people would be bisexual, i.e. also experience opposite-sex attractions and would have just repressed/ignored their "irregular" attractions in the old days (or not even known what what they were feeling was called), and only pursued acceptable love interests. Some bi folks are 50/50, some are 80/20, but most are monogamous regardless. All good to keep in mind.
3) "MaYbE tHeY aRe SeCrEtLy..." persists because it is a fun thing to think. While I am not in the business of quashing fun, and there are definitely some stray examples, I agree with you in feeling that it diminishes the amount of bigotry and how deep-rooted it can be. Not everyone in Iran is gay. Although wouldn't that be FABULOUS, hunty?
I’m not suggesting that Mike Johnson is gay but that his religious fervor , also directed at LGBTQ, is so angry and unkind and thorough that his wife, family and associates must be miserable living with that level of judgement. If Christ’s message was LOVE, (all over the Bible) then MJ missed quite a few chapters. Something’s “off”.
Something I’ve seen over the years with conservative, Bible-based leaders (be they televangelists or politicians) is that they often wind up having personal morality problems that expose the hypocrisy of their “this way is how a better world can work” claims.
I expect the new Speaker and his wife to be exposed as having bizarre behavioral histories which will undercut this movement. We’ve already learned he has an adopted Black son only 11 years younger than he is (except the adoption was never formalized), and that his wife ran (runs?) a program that treats homosexuality as being similar to bestiality. (SNL had fun with the Black “son” this past Saturday)
I don’t know what else will come out, as investigative reporters do their thing. But when a “holier than thou” person with a bizarre personal life gets in power, who they really are needs to become front page news! I hope the major networks do their jobs and inform the American people who this guy really is!
President Biden and VP Harris need to triple their security. TFFG and the MAGAts have stirred up so much hate that I'm sure there are serious threats out their right now. And the FBI has far-right agents as we have seen from various investigations and news coverage.
The MSM media is profit driven, so don't look for them to expose Mike Johnson. The NYT or the WAPO will be in big trouble if the Heritage Foundation is able to muzzle the MSM like Putin has done in Russia. They editors of these publications and dozens of others are clever enough to see the threat of having Mike Johnson as Speaker.
It's time they report the dirt everyday on all the MAGAts and stop bashing Biden for being too old. They also need to sing the praises of Bidenomics and report on how the MAGAts are trying to sabotage the economy to take over the government in 2024.
Well, yes about everything except the criticism that Biden is too old. He IS too old and although I am reconciled that he will be the nominee in 2024, I am NOT blind to the facts that (a) he is already the oldest President ever elected or served and (b) even with Trump being very old, he is still 4 years behind Biden and that is enough of a difference to be "trumped" up to the electorate. It will have an effect, hopefully not enough to deter the nation from re-electing Biden but it is going to make the election a LOT closer than it needed to be.
But, is he really too old compared to say Reagan who had Alzheimer's for at least his entire 2nd term. Q: How did he pull that off? A: By surrounding himself with competent staff and having a Speaker of the House that was bi-partisan.
Or say Trump, who let his son-in-law play Secretary of State. Remember when he got locked out of the meeting room when he went to the bathroom. (What a moron). But mostly Trump ignored his cabinet and advisors, so yeah he was too old 25 years ago because again he's a moron.
Biden was not my first choice but he has one of the best, if not the best, group of advisors and cabinet members of any President. He is not as charismatic as Trump or Obama but in the last 3 months he has delivered two speeches that were effing amazing. In 4 years, Trump had no speeches that were even mediocre. Plus,Trump always lied several times in every speech.
If you look at all of the legislation that Biden has passed, plus the economy, plus his foreign policy, I'd still vote for him if he was 90. Thank goodness Biden didn't have the Fascist CINOs in the House during his first two years.
Gary, I obviously do NOT completely disagree with you. As I noted, I will be supporting Biden all the way as right now, looking at the Democrats, there is still too much disarray to mount a credible campaign against Biden that would also be able to prevail over Trump. For the moment, Biden has to be our guy and we all need to support him. I just wish Biden had done more to put someone in place, particularly as VP, who would by now be a clearly worthy candidate. I personally adore Kamala, and I hope someday she gets where she SHOULD be, i.e., on the Supreme Court, but I don't see her with the executive leadership skills to be President. If it happens as a fluke, I am sure she will do fine, but I doubt she could win an election against Trump. And while there are plenty of really good credible Democrats out there (Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, the governor of Michigan, etc.) none of them have the current "street cred" to do it. So Biden it will have to be in 2024. And of course, Trump is a moron, but his base isn't believing it and in the end its his base that we have to defeat.
So yes, I agree, Biden has to be reelected and then hopefully by 2028, a really good 50ish-60ish year old President will emerge from the Democratic pack that we can all agree on as a consensus candidate. By that time, Trump will almost certainly be long gone from public opinion (although I have to admit i thought that would be true this year too and I was obviously wrong). And I agree 100% with your assessments. While I don't agree with everything he does or says, he has been one of the best Presidents in actuality during my lifetime (from 1952 onward). Although for the actual best, I would suggest (many may disagree, but that's okay) that the REAL "best" is the one who never got a second term, President Jimmy Carter. One of the worst things that ever happened to this country, IMHO, was the wool pulled over our eyes by the Reagan "landslide". Sigh... Gag...
Gaetz might think MAGA is ascendant but only in the confines of a tightly controlled bubble like the Republicans within the House of Representatives when it wears its members into exhaustion so they'll vote for anyone just to shut up the extremists. Wait until they try to put that extremism into action. The elevation of Johnson to Speaker seals the fate of the Republican Party in 2024. Why? Because women will not continue to be denied and demeaned. The MAGAts just don't get it. There are more of us than them and we'll be sure that reproductive rights are at the top of the list in 2024. Every time they try to fight against it, they have lost since Dobbs. We'll make sure they lose again.
It will not be an easy fight. There is a lot of dark money out there from the billionaires who are behind organizations like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society. They have made huge progress in taking over state legislatures and the judiciary and are primed to gut the executive branch with Project 2025. MAGA is ascendent in many states and there are many states with Republican trifectas or veto-proof majorities in their legislatures--its not just a "tightly controlled bubble" in the House. It in no way will be a fair fight on a level playing field.
And we can be sure Putin will go all out to reinstall his puppet. Throw in AI and a media that refuses to challenge lies, plays the “both sides are the same” game and can’t stop reminding everyone Biden is old. It’s up to each of us to rally the biggest BLUE tsunami anyone has ever seen.
GOP Corollary to “Biden is too old” is “Anyone else is too young and inexperienced”
Mark my words; you can Bob my words too
Dave Dalton, thanks for the great REFRAME!
The 'Gospel' according to 'MAGA Mike' is sedition & opposition to Any New Deal for any person. 2024 💙 Vote!
Bryan Sean McKown, you nailed it! The MAGA gospel according to MAGA MIKE,........ We could throw in some Seinfeld, " No soup for you!" " No New Deal for you!" "Just deals for big donors!"
I knew I was skeptical of Christians. The ones I have met were hypocrites. Except for one minister.
And his current opponent is what? 2 years younger? Come on, let's put things into perspective here.
We need to get out the vote like our lives depended on it, because guess what - it does!!
If Biden were demented he would be a far far greater choice than you know who. I have trouble writing his name.
And Biden is nowhere near demented. He has slowed as we all do with age. But his mind is still sharp even if his gait has slowed. His speech is that of a person who has had impediments for his life. And he has triumphed over them as well. Trumps mind was never sharp. It is full-on the mind of a true deviant. And one that could never be reformed because his only true love is MONEY. And we know what the Bible says about that. .
Thanks, Gina. I keep thinking about the day as a child that I read in an illustrated version of the Bible and SAW the golden calf. My mother used to say your referred to quote almost daily as we moved out of the Depression, so I have watched the idolatry and know what it has meant to our institutions.
And we all have had a real good look at the "anointed king of gold" havent we? More a gold toilet than a gold calf!!
The Golden calf story was a metaphor for money of course.
I am always aware of the the statement, not sure where it came from actually but it seems it was in the old testament, of the idea that money is not bad, it is the love of money that corrupts hearts and minds. I believe that is true of anything that had the potential to corrupt. For me, it has been in the past, a box of assorted chocolates. I can never have only one! So I avoid entirely and always pass on offers for such. ;o)
Yes, Gina. Even if we were talking about a "back-flip" contest between the two, Biden would still win.
Gail, Yes! without a doubt he would win. No contest!
The blond bimbo on Fox and her co anchor were laughing hysterically at a "goof" Biden made when he mentioned the Web telescope, which is what he meant to say. They thought he was supposed to be saying Hubbel telescope. They never heard of the other one. I do believe an on-air apology was made.
Proof that those clowns are all so out of touch with reality in so many ways. I am by no means a scholar by I do know how to think which is more than I can say for so many on the Right. Parrots who repeat what they are told to say.
The Koch Bros. were probably the most formidable in changing US' politics in the modern era.
'How David Koch and His Brother Shaped American Politics'
'The billionaire, who died Friday, understood the power of changing “hearts and minds.” He spent almost unlimited money on behalf of limited government.'
'The Kochs and their network spent hundreds of millions of dollars in support of their particular brand of conservatism: One of limited government, more lenient immigration policy, free trade, free markets and limited corporate regulations — all while running Koch Industries, a conglomerate with annual revenues of $100 billion. But not long after they rose to become two of the most coveted political donors in America, they saw much of their worldview rejected by President Trump’s ascendant version of the Republican Party.'
'Because so much of their network’s money was funneled through an array of nonprofits, where full disclosure of finances is not required, it is near impossible to assess the full scope of their operations, but the influence is vast.'
“The Koch brothers have been very strategically thinking about how best to shape politics over decades and at the same time they were amassing a fortune that would power whatever strategy they devised,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics. She noted that they were especially effective working on narrow issues while pursuing a larger strategy.'
“The Kochs,” she said, “have built an empire.” (NYTimes) See gifted link below.
'Rather than throwing their considerable wealth – they are both billionaires – at fly-by-night political operations, they built their own from scratch, with an eye not toward short-term gains but to affecting longer-term changes in the culture. So, it wasn’t just a single quasi-political organization. There were think tanks to incubate libertarian ideas that the Koch favored. There were various foundations to influence public policy outside of the context of campaigns. It was a one-stop political and policy shop, a sort of shadow Republican Party but crafted in the libertarian molds of the Kochs and entirely controlled by them.'
'That wasn’t the only thing that the Koch brothers did differently. While most outside groups up until Americans for Prosperity’s formation had dumped all the money they raised into TV ads, the Koch brothers instead focused far more on building grassroots infrastructures – focusing, again, on sustainability rather than immediate success. By the 2016 election, Americans for Prosperity had state directors in 34 states, according to the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer.'
'And while most outside groups sought to use their money to influence the presidential race and other high-profile contests, the Kochs often poured their money into far less sexy projects like influencing policy at the state legislative level (through their donations to the American Legislative Exchange Council) and winning majorities in state legislatures around the country (thanks to donations to the Republican State Leadership Committee).' (CNN) See link below.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/us/politics/david-koch-republican-politics.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6kw.rC_e.ZL617pbW_kTp&smid=url-share
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/23/politics/david-koch-charles-koch-brothers/index.html
Damn, when I started reading this, I thought that Charles has croaked. Had to scroll down and be disappointed.
Jeri, he is still around unfortunately as are several other of the obscenely rich pouring their money into regressive causes. Just read an article this week about a billionaire who is funding anti-trans legislation. If you are different in any way, we are going to make your life miserable seems to be the slogan. I might add that the current Speaker is nauseating to the nth degrees. i knew it wouldn't take long to read just how awful he is. Might as well have yanked some two bit preacher from a corner church in the South and given him the gavel.
Michele, as a retired "two-bit preacher from a corner church in the South" (I actually was appointed to a few corner churches) I must declare that I was never offered the gavel.
If I had been I would have accepted--and immediately handed it to Hakeem Jeffries....
I knew that there would be someone who would call me on that. I am sure there are good pastors in the South who do not follow the MAGA mantra. Kudos to you and too bad you or someone could not hand the gavel to Jeffries. That's why we should all support races in swing districts to either defend Ds or defeat Rs.
This is a Supreme Court manipulation of our society beginning with the Citizen's United decisions, and their continued swing towards a minority influence. They have left no question about the contaminating influence of unregulated power and money, not only in the country but, clearly, in SCOTUS itself. Sometimes it does seems like we could be a hair's breadth away from a christian nationalist country. Now, the Repug party put the stamp of affirmation about that concern with the appointment of MAGA Mike. While every election is critical, clearly, 2024 is MAGA CRITICAL.
Yes, I was thinking of Citizens United. Do you need a large loan forgiven?
K Barnes, just out of curiosity, have you actually read the Citizens United case?
I suspect that your reference to the "contaminating influence" of unregulated power and money concerns more than what CU v FEC was all about.
One of the principal points made in that case was speech is protected whether it is the speech of an individual or of a corporation. I assume you don't have a problem with that proposition. If you do, I'd ask you if PBS, NPR, the NYT, WaPo, WSJ, ABC, CBS, NBC, even Fux Newz, should have the right to freedom of speech. They are all corporations.
The case also stood for the proposition that a person may spend as much of his or her money to promote whatever idea he/she chooses. I assume that's okay.
And, that corporations and PACs can spend unlimited amounts of money. Disclaimer and disclosure requirements relating to the identities of their donors are valid concerns but one also has to protect those identities to guard against threats, violence, etc.
That last bit remains troubling. But if they could spend unlimited sums provided they disclosed the identities of their donors, you'd have the same "contaminating influence."
I have read CU v. FEC three or four times - that means reading lots of opinions.
I still haven't figured out why people are so upset with the basic principles it espouses. I don't particularly care for the result that we have unlimited spending by PACs but when I think about it, there's nothing to prevent liberals from getting their donors to spend more on such causes. In fact, right-wing yahoos often criticize Soros and Gates of funding lefty causes.
You may want to take a look at the case.
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/558/310/#tab-opinion-1963050
And what happened to the separation of Religion ( Church) and State written into our constitution ? Is that document only relevant for one way of thinking depending on who holds the gavel?
The current Rs and the majority on the Supreme Court are determined to break that barrier down and muddy the line. I am thinking of the recent decisions of the Court in favor of coaches leading prayers and business owners in the public sphere discriminating based on their religious beliefs. I coached and while I was fine with my players praying if they wished, I would not lead them in prayer. I had a real problem when I was helped with an Olympics of the Mind team and my fellow adult was (and is) a religious nut and most of the team was also.
They were also hypocrites....the kids couldn't play Dungeons and Dragons, but it was OK for them to play an equally violent version featuring criminals and I guess LE. Pffft.
two bit is what they are worth. Repubs never disappoint in their ability to sink lower and lower
Best thing to do is show by example. I learned a long time ago that the mindset is just that...SET. Like concrete.
Not sure MAGAs are worth a plugged nickel.
He is around and Koch Enterprises is alive and well in Russia, in spite of sanctions!
Still selling their schitt here too. Not to me thogh
Jeri, off course you are aware of this--but let me take this opportunity to stipulate something:
Any family, political, or financial association between me and the billionaire Koch is purely fictional. Nada. Nyet.
Sadly enough, my taxes can prove it....
Thanks Jeri. Be well my friend.
lol
Reading Jane Mayers “Dark Money” was a totally enlightening snd frightening experience
Wasn't that the best scariest book ever! I need to read this again.
Dark money - thanks to the SCOTUS.
How trite - money the root of all evil - but right!!
Money is not bad. It is the LOVE OF MONEY that causes all the problems. People who place money as that important in their lives are typically shallow and focused only on their own personal power and well being- at least from my experience.
Kochland as well.
Fern, thanks for this info! Yes, Koch brothers, family, have been a HUGE influence on American politics for decades. With their connections not only in the political arena, but the news, broadcasting, networks they have utilized it to the max!
To further his agenda, Americans for prosperity is behind one of the candidates for the mayor race in Wichita, Kansas. She is not qualified to be a candidate for mayor. But she is a former news reporter. Her significant other is a developer who wants to use downtown Wichita for his new project. Charles Koch wants to control the world so he found a mouthpiece who can speak to the camera.
Qualifications for government jobs not necessary, but I would gather it is a priority for Koch Industries!
'7 Companies Owned by the Koch Brothers'
'The Koch brothers, Charles and David, became well-known for their libertarian and conservative politics, often portrayed as significant personalities that impact elections and government decisions. However, despite fame as political influencers, their primary activities centered around running Koch Industries Inc., of which they owned over 80%.'
'Koch Industries is a private company that has annual revenues topping $110 billion.'
'The company is not really a single business, but rather a conglomerate of different companies under one umbrella. On June 5, 2018, David Koch retired from all roles related to Koch Industries due to health reasons and he later passed away on Aug. 23, 2019.'
'KEY TAKEAWAYS'
'Koch companies collectively employ over 130,000 people in 70 countries, and more than half are in the United States.'
'The company owns subsidiaries that produce various goods such as resins, polymers, glass, oil pipelines, tissue paper, robotics, and more.'
'Koch Industries controls some lesser-known companies as well, such as Matador Cattle Company, the Koch Chemical Technology Group, Koch Disruptive Technologies, and Koch Minerals.'
'Koch Ag and Energy Solutions operate three separate companies: Koch Energy, Koch Methanol, and Koch Fertilizer.'
'Koch subsidiaries are also involved in investing, commodities trading, and ranching.'
'Koch Industries' Revenue Growth'
'Because Koch Industries is not a publicly-traded company, some of its key financial information is not readily available to investors. However, per an SEC fact sheet, the conglomerate has, since 1960, seen its value grow at a rate 16 times greater than that of the S&P 500.'
'The industries under the Koch umbrella are diverse, ranging from companies that deal with energy to spandex. Koch companies manufacture paper, process minerals, create fertilizers, and refine oil. Some of the subsidiaries are also involved in ranching, commodities trading, and investing.'
HOW HAVE THE KOCHS' IMPACTED OUR GOVERNMENT'S POLICIES CONCERNING THE USE OF FOSSIL FUELS AND ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE? AMERICANS NEED TO HAVE SOLID INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTIC
COVERAGE ABOUT THE POWERBROKERS' INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE. WE NEED A LIST OF THE DIRTY DOZEN, at least!
'1. Flint Hills Resources'
'Flint Hills offers petroleum products, gasoline, diesel fuels, jet fuels, and other oil products, as well as those related to polymers and other chemicals. The company's ethanol plants have a combined production capacity of roughly 725 million gallons per year.'
'The company also explores biofuels. Flint Hills markets a variety of chemical applications, coatings, automotive parts, and asphalt and sells products on a worldwide basis, including the United States, Asia, Australia, Europe, South America, Central America, and New Zealand.'
'2. Georgia-Pacific'
'Koch Industries acquired Georgia Pacific on Dec. 23, 2005, for $21 billion.'
'The company employs more than 30,000 people in over 180 locations. It is based in Atlanta, Georgia, but markets worldwide.'
'Originally known as Georgia Hardwood Lumber Co., Georgia-Pacific is a pulp and paper company that produces paper, tissue, toilet paper, and building products. The list of products also includes the well-known brands Quilted Northern tissue, Brawny paper towels, and Dixie cups. Wallboard, napkins, boxes, paper dispensers, and pulp round out the company’s offerings.'
'3. Guardian Industries'
'Koch Industries completed its full acquisition of Guardian Industries on Feb. 1, 2017, after earlier buying a 44.5% stake in the company.'
' Based in Michigan, Guardian Industries employees 18,000 people in the United States, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.'
'Think of Guardian Industries as a glass company. It manufactures glass for automobiles, building applications, fiberglass insulation, and coated glass for architectural needs. The company is also known for its research and development of new applications for glass, such as energy-efficient windows.' (Investopedia)
For more about the Kochs' businesses, see link below.
https://www.investopedia.com/insights/companies-owned-koch-brothers/
Thank you Fern!
You are our resident deep-dive researcher.
Be well my friend....
Thank you, Gus. With all, our hands and hearts entwined.
Fern!!! OMG, thus list you have started here, along with all these points you make so well aware to all of us is astounding!
Honestly I had absolutely no idea just how deep these clowns gave infiltrated, as well as became, an influence in the Trumputin communist politics in this nation.
They have their fingers in absolutely everything! Everything! If you could, would you mind doing a deeper investigation into them, they’re businesses they own, their influences on different political endorsements, etc? I believe that would make a tremendous series for posting for everyone to read.
Thank you Daniel. It is up to us -- you and me and the rest of us to contact our elected
officials about addressing Climate Change or they will lose our vote. We must spread the word and VOTE!
I didn't know the Kochs were into ethanol. It's probably corn ethanol, the impetus for which was the misguided "renewable fuel standard." Turns out, instead of reducing global warming, growing crops for ethanol increases global warming. Here's my story about that:
https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/the-damage-done-by-renewable-fuel-to-classics-and-the-planet/
I wish the other Koch would croak.
David: Who--me?
Exactly Daniel. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Or to have slowly manipulated and washed.
Read Dark Money, and Kochland to understand how they managed to bring together the network of money to buy the politicians.
Thanks, Rickey, I shall.
Thanks Fern you explain the evil geography of the Koch Empire incredibly well.
I add some insight to their particular manipulations of public policies as they demonstrated in upstate New York.
In the 1990’s the coal fired electric energy facilities, antique and heavily subsidized were obvious candidates for replacement with solar and wind renewable energy development.
As proposals were developed in higher wind designations incredibly well organized NIMBY’s sprang into action first as defenders of the coal plants then gradually as insistent of gas replacements.
Years later many still sow poisonous irritants to any proposed solar or wind project.
A major and very well funded organizer to this NIMBY effort had obvious ties to the Koch organization and was also a major spreader of Climate Change Doubt in New York and North Carolina.
Thus Koch Oil Money representing petroleum the product most associated with Greenhouse Gases and Climate has successfully seeded doubt about Global Warming that is relentlessly chomping up our human future.
Naturally Republican Politicos are the stalwart companions to the Koch Manipulations. Todays children are their main victims.
https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/fighting-climate-chaos/climate-deniers/koch-industries/
Thanks Art. There are many nasty Koch Brothers episodes over the decades. True Crime. Decades ago, the Kochs were forced by Federal law to stop flaring off natural gas from their oil patch in Eastern UTAH, the Wasach Mountain range (one of the few that runs east-west).
With no property rights, no permission from local landowners whose title went back to original 160 acre homestead & no notice, the Kochs simply built a pipeline over adjacent lands monetizing another income stream. I was very young & way Pre-law back then but, I wish I kept my cease & desist letter for the small folks who got run over.
Another example of the results of ensuring revenue flow by constant pipeline development.
Once you master the mechanics of financially supporting criminal trespass with well paid law enforcement and legislatures all that remains is convincing empty skulls of the threat of higher priced gas and the rest is easy.
Besides the perps all share the purity of not leaving one single fingerprint or any signatures.
Art, thank you for these details, full of those devils that provide them with $$$$$, while they poison us, species, the plants, the water...the earth, the whole shebang!
FERN is it time for the publication of your 'Collected Comments' a veritable annotated History book? a URL? If you go hardback, I want to write some teasers on the book jacket.
Dear Bryan, you are the best advocate and most likeable to boot! Perfectio!
They are the DEEP STATE.
Kochland is a great book documenting their hypocrisy and how they gamed the system to beat the system. They practice this fake philanthropy by giving to hospitals, museums, art foundations, while using their money and influence to undermine the government to allow them to build their profits.
“Kochland” Examines the Koch Brothers'
The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com › News › Koch Brothers
Aug 13, 2019 — Jane Mayer writes about the new book “Kochland,” by Christopher Leonard, which is about how Charles and David Koch crippled government ...
'Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America'
'Christopher Leonard’s Kochland uses the extraordinary account of how one of the biggest private companies in the world grew to be that big to tell the story of modern corporate America.'
'The annual revenue of Koch Industries is bigger than that of Goldman Sachs, Facebook, and US Steel combined. Koch is everywhere: from the fertilizers that make our food to the chemicals that make our pipes to the synthetics that make our carpets and diapers to the Wall Street trading in all these commodities. But few people know much about Koch Industries and that’s because the billionaire Koch brothers have wanted it that way.'
'For five decades, CEO Charles Koch has kept Koch Industries quietly operating in deepest secrecy, with a view toward very, very long-term profits. He’s a genius businessman: patient with earnings, able to learn from his mistakes, determined that his employees develop a reverence for free-market ruthlessness, and a master disrupter. These strategies made him and his brother David together richer than Bill Gates.'
'But there’s another side to this story. If you want to understand how we killed the unions in this country, how we widened the income divide, stalled progress on climate change, and how our corporations bought the influence industry, all you have to do is read this book.' (goodreads)
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2019 * WINNER OF THE J ANTHONY LUKAS WORK-IN-PROGRESS AWARD * FINANCIAL TIMES’ BEST BOOKS OF 2019 * NPR FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2019 * FINALIST FOR THE FINACIAL TIMES/MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF 2019 * KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOKS OF 2019 * SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOKS OF 2019
“Superb…Among the best books ever written about an American corporation.” —Bryan Burrough, The New York Times Book Review'
'Just as Steve Coll told the story of globalization through ExxonMobil and Andrew Ross Sorkin told the story of Wall Street excess through Too Big to Fail, Christopher Leonard’s Kochland uses the extraordinary account of how one of the biggest private companies in the world grew to be that big to tell the story of modern corporate America.'
To purchase 'Kochland', see link below.
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Kochland/Christopher-Leonard/9781476775395
thanks for posting this. is an excellent book.
Yes. This extends to the whole Billionaire-Boys Club, who are making “god” in their own image, and shoving it down our throats.
Agreed. While one hand is giving, the other is picking you pocket.
Yeah, the Koch brothers planned for the long term to buy themselves politicians at every level, so that government would operate to their advantage. They have been careful about their strategy. Have you ever seen their "I am an energy voter" ads. Very professional with smiling Koch employees.
WI is the prime example, sadly. And the repercussions continue to this day.
The story of this capture of American politics is hugely important, but to resist and rebuild, don't we need to quickly shift from Trump, Koch and the evidence of malignant intent, to how we look after the people abandoned by overall Democratic Party acquiescence in megabucks politics and daily life?
I had a chance to ask an assistant minister in a progressive Baptist church in Raleigh NC, how is it that your congregation works on defending Cuba from Washington's strangling of that country's economy, plight of people in Latin America subject to Washington's corporatist overthrow of governments, etc. He responded, Rev. Finlator takes such good care of all the parishioners that they are willing to look outside of themselves, following that example of mutual care. Extreme concentration of wealth allows Kochs and others to divide us by playing on jealousy and justifiable anger of economic plight in our ranks. Isn't our task to reclaim the attention of a Democratic party (or other groupings) to economic choices affecting working people: student debt, rising cost of shelter, medical debt, etc?
For me, the antidote to this is not more information. Feeding the thinking brain does nothing to ease the survival brain. We don’t do well in states of flight or freeze... but rather (IMHO) need to put practices in place to use adrenaline-fueled reactions into responses that are purposeful, thoughtful and sane. We all have a say.
the Kochs also had ties to the MPS
You may wish to check our deSmog
https://www.desmog.com/
Once again, many thanks for the helpful sources!
Thanks for gifting an enlightening and frightening article!
Okay, last pitch ahead of Nov. 3, which is the deadline for fundraising for progressive Virginia state legislature candidates who are receiving funds from The States Project Giving Circles. Virginia is on the cusp. Even from out-of-state, we can donate, and we can help cure ballots:
https://www.grapevine.org/giving-circle/1XQhnyD/-
https://www.mobilize.us/virginiavoterprotection/
Ellie, Thank you for writing. If I may, I wish to expand upon your post by listing the six VA Delegate and Senate candidates Simon Rosenberg is promoting whom he claims are in very close races and are particularly poised to help flip the House and hold the Senate: 1) HD 21 Josh Thomas, 2) HD 65 Joshua Cole, 3) HD 82 Kimberly Pope Adams, 4) HD 97 Michael Feggans, 5) SD 16 Schuyler VanValkenburg, 6) SD 31 Russet Perry. Both donating and text- and phone-banking are critical for the reason we not only need to control both legislatures but also must repudiate Governor Youngkin, Mike Johnson’s not so obvious doppelgänger, whom the Republican elite are eyeing as their pick for VP candidate to add legitimacy (purported, that is) to the Trump ticket.
They never rest. Still trying to put lipstick on the ugliest pig ever to climb out of the morass. Apologies to swine.
Jeri, I would note one reason for investing all we can in Virginia’s November 2023 election rests with a great concern among people far smarter than I that Youngkin, who is throwing all he can at these races, were he to succeed, could prove to be an enormous asset to the presumed Trump ticket.
Yep, he's one of those who wears a jacket. Just as dangerous as Johnson.
Thank you. It’s frustrating that my General Assembly districts have been abandoned by Democratic activism.
Jeri, at the last Saturday Market of the year this weekend, a huge pink pig called Petunia showed up and parked next to the market. It has been there before along with the wing nuts who are this time specifically against a tax that will help fund Salem's shortfall. They are also religious nuts. When my husband looked up some info on how they could afford this large (don't know what it is made of) pink pig, he found, shock, a regressive entity which funds such nonsense. A lot of what we see of this type of activity is funded by out-of-state dark money. But then we have our own Uncle Phil (Knight) who likes to donate large sums to Rs.
The dark money feels like right-wing nuts are a good investment in the future, if you're a cult nut. Who is the puppet and who is the master.
Thank you, my funds are scarce but I will try to help
Jeri, if you are able to call those VA Dems who need to “cure” (fix) their mail in ballots, that effort is just as essential as $$. See Ellie’s link above if you can do that for a couple hours.
I saved it
Thank you!
It’s easy to preach doom and gloom, harder to get off your butt and make good happen n
Thank You Ellie for your work and keeping us inspired to help where we can. I just donated.
Thank you MLRGRMI for helping meet our goal in time for the Nov. 4 distribution to the Virginia Dem candidates of the funds we raised!
Thank you for your robust response of donations to the Tending to Democracy Giving Circle on behalf of these good Dem candidates for the Virginia state legislature!
Keep our eyes on the candidates elevated by Simon Rosenberg, as listed below by Barbara Jo Krieger:
1) HD 21 Josh Thomas
2) HD 65 Joshua Cole
3) HD 82 Kimberly Pope Adams
4) HD 97 Michael Feggans
5) SD 16 Schuyler VanValkenburg
6) SD 31 Russet Perry
"It in no way will be a fair fight on a level playing field."
Georgia, no Republican I have met in modern times is interested in a "fair fight". They are interested in winning.
Period.
And, Pubs have won frequently enough, through questionable means, to have obtained in the outcomes in HCR's letter today.
If it were not for Mike Pence, Pubs would have converted the US to an authoritarian, fascist dictatorship in 2020. Mark Milley can make all the noise he wants about sticking to the constitution but all he did was nothing.
Pence ruined his career to keep that Maggots from taking over.
I don't personally like the guy and think he probably is mildly retarded. But, he did the right thing.
Pence did one right thing. But the bigger thing, the most important thing, would be for him to actually flip on trump and show the country the truth. Isn’t it in the Bible that “The Truth will set you Free”?
Pence should be outraged that Trump was OK with him getting hanged! Why the guy hasn’t totally discredited Trump is beyond me. He was Trump’s sycophant the entire four years. Yes, he did certify the election but if he could’ve found a way to give Trump what he wanted he would’ve.
Yes. He did the right thing and that is truly a big deal. Pence and Cheney both did the right thing and were thrown under the bus by MAGA. But doing the right thing requires courage and should be applauded and appreciated whatever your political views.
Mildly retarded, plus.. this is only my impression... ever since I heard his self-righteous homophobic pov, me’thinks he’s probably locked up in a or ‘the closet’ with his wife holding the key. Just saying....
You have not only been paying attention, you know the details. They have created a cult and we no longer have Ike. Scream on, it will take all of us
Jeri Chilcutt, what great motivational words, "Scream on......" I love them. Thank you!
Sometimes I just can't help it. Had a beloved friend who told me I sounded more radical than some of his Fox-watching friends. I was offended, saying that he hadn't been paying attention. to anything but the lying blather. Worst insult that has ever been hurled at me.
Jeri. Chilcutt, ouch that would hurt. Our yells are to damn and drown out the lies that cause so much suffering to humans, to all life, to our very planetary existence. They are our urgent and pleading wake-up calls to the urgency and the truth of it all. Bang on,Jeri. I am right there with you.
What an insult to your obvious intelligence. Surely a “best defense is a good offense” line of thinking. My guess is he knows you’re right but can’t admit it.
He didn't live long enough to admit it. I'd like to think he would have.
Dark money does not fight fair. The robber barons work to rig the system to give themselves the advantage. In NC, Tricia Cotham switched parties to give the Republicans a one vote veto proof majority. If I were in her district and had voted for her as a Democrat, I would be mad as hell. I would work my butt off to defeat her. Of course, with the EGREGIOUS gerrymandering in NC, that would be a tall order. The evil perpetuated by greed always rears its ugly head to attack ordinary folks. We can never, ever let our guard down, as evidenced by our current situation.
Looks like you have a great candidate for attorney general waiting in the wings. I really like Jeff Jackson!
I am furious about Tricia Cotham. I will never understand why it's been allowed for someone elected as one thing to switch to the other after winning. Seems like it should be an automatic do-over. What a backwards, upside-down world!
McCrory and Art Pope really screwed NC. And McCrory is still at it I hear.
Georgia, I agree. It will be very difficult because like you said it is not “a fair fight on a level playing field”
Read Dark Money by Jane Mayer for a long list of the Dark Money cast.
The legislative trend has actually reversed in the past few years, with Democrats making modest progress in a number of important states. We may hope that that trend will continue next week in Virginia (and there’s still time to help that happen). It won’t be an easy fight, but we can face it with confidence.
Funny you mention Heritage Foundation. Over the weekend I was stopped in traffic in front of the Heritage Foundation here in PA and I happened to look over and on top of a large tree at the entrance was a group of about 6 - 8 turkey vultures just perched on the bare branches. It was a very eerie feeling seeing them just sitting there and of all places.
Georgia: Is it possible to name these states with “veto proof (legislative) majorities”?
https://ballotpedia.org/Election_results,_2022:_State_legislative_veto-proof_majorities
After the November 2022 elections, there were 27 state legislatures where one party held a veto-proof majority in both legislative chambers.[1] The number grew to 29 in 2023 due to legislators who switched parties. Republicans controlled twenty of the veto-proof legislatures, and Democrats controlled nine.
Four states have Democratic governors and republican veto proof legislatures: Kansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and North Carolina. Vermont has a Democratic veto proof legislatures and a Republican governor.
The rest of the 29 have trifectas, both legislatures and the governor are of the same party. Seven of those are Democratic. Sixteen are Republican.
Just a suggestion--take some time to become an expert googler to find out info like this. "states with veto proof majority" pops up the balletopedia reference as the first one.
It will also bring up many articles on what Republicans in particular are doing with their supermajorities to push their agenda. The push into state and local races is a tactic being used by the Koch affiliated political network while they wait out Trump. In their post 2022 audit of their results they estimated that they were 80% effective in the local raes.
Don’t forget about school boards! Moms for liberty, a 1984 name if ever there was one, is heavily invested in our local race, no pun intended. Scary and outrageous
Georgia Fisanick, thanks for the comprehensive info and your advice.
Thank you!! It helped clarify some questions. Will be a useful source in the coming months. Living in a trifecta state, I fully appreciate the sense of takeover and shock at the proposals bandied about and the changes occurring in the structure of state policy. I wonder how many voters still remain in the dark about the implications of a trifecta in their state? With the move towards the christian far right, surely, it will be hard to hide....
The issue is in trifecta states that they can do a lot of damage and it can be years before the trifecta can be broken especially with the increasing amount of money being targeted at state elections by the dark money networks like Koch's.
https://opensecrets.org/orgs/all-profiles
is a great source to see who of your Federal elected officials are getting funding and from where--but it also has information on state ballot initiatives. NJ has a searchable database similar to opensecrets.org. Maybe your state does as well.
Thank you!! It helped clarify some questions. Will be a useful source in the coming months.
My own is one. That’s why a group of us are working hard on Blue Tennessee to have it ready for 2024: https://Linktr.ee/BlueTennessee
I fear you are correct! However, we must fight and fight back hard !
Robert Reich asked "Do billionaires have a right to exist?" last week.
This is one of the roots of the problem. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/billionaires-dont-have-a-right-to
Do you think there is any chance of waking up Americans to the existential threat that the religious right, which include the MAGAts pose? They sell fear/hate and it is an easy sale. The fear and hatred of immigrants and people of color and those of a different sexual orientation. Oh how scary on the eve of Halloween.
So, we have to double down on efforts to get involved. For me, that’s the antidote to worrying and being negative.
Exactly
Frankly, the latter portion of today's Letter are why abortion has, according to those inside-the-beltway media types, become such a "motivating factor" for "liberal-leaning voters" since the Dobbs decision, and why - to the great surprise of these oh-so-wise-and-educated media types - the "backlash" has been so "durable," despite what we keep being told is voters' "deep concerns and misgivings" about "the economy," which is obviously the only thing anyone should ever actually care about, right? When people are saying abortion is top of mind when they vote in 2022/3/4, they aren't simply voting the way they are voting to restore abortion access alone (although obviously doing so is key). They are voting against the entire insufferable Christian nationalist worldview that people like the Mikes of the Johnson and Pence variety are intent on forcing on the entire rest of us. What the recent Supreme Court decisions did was sharply crystallized how we have been putting up with these people and their sickening, pious intolerance for our whole lives, how we clearly haven't pushed back enough out of some misplaced sense of neighborly politeness, and how this needs to absolutely be put back in its place, right here and right now. But when you get one of those "Please name your top 3 issues before voting" surveys, there is no checkbox for "I am so pissing done with these religious wingnuts holding our country back and all I want is for them to all to get off my ass and go back to the other side of the stupid mountain where they belong!!!" but there is a checkbox for "abortion," so that will suffice.
Look, I love this country, and I don't hate anyone. I really, really don't. I promise! But people in this country do not *actually* like each other that much, never really have (see: Tom Lehrer's "National Brotherhood Week"), and I am no exception. It's a big place, with a lot of different kinds of folks, so it's to be expected! The difference here is I genuinely had/have no desire to make the Evangelical folks - many of whom I have fond memories of growing up with - any different than they were/are, but they seem completely unwilling to do the same for me. Anyone who makes any life choices separate from the narrow confines that they have deemed acceptable is immoral and the reason that society is doomed to collapse. And since society has been steadily moving away from their narrow, judgemental confines for a century in order to let people actually experience this whole "freedom" thing in anything more that the most removed abstract, they have in turn spent the last century getting progressively more angry and determined to save us all from damnation before it is all too late. The majority of the country thinks that kindness and caring are more important moral tenets than purity to a vengeful authority and that kids getting shot in school is a more valid cause for concern than a man kissing another man or a woman going childless. This majority is beginning to reassert itself just a little bit more stringently, hence this newfound "polarization."
Most people vote based on their values and how they see themselves in society, period. I have yet to have someone convince me that people voting based on "the economy" is anything more than a smokescreen, a thing that we all say because we know it is publicly acceptable, especially since it has become unmistakably clear that most people have no clue what "the economy" is and what it is supposed to look like, other than letting me buy buy buy buy buy lots lots lots of stuff stuff stuff.
Sorry. Really feeling it tonight. Anyway, here is the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution Survey for this year, showing how most Republicans believe that “God intended America to be a new promised land where European Christians could create a society that could be an example to the rest of the world,” and a smaller proportion think violence and authoritarianism are likely necessary to get it, and a strong majority would rather have the government "preserve their way of life" to "manage the economy" properly. Eye-opening, or shall I say pants-wetting! Good times! https://www.prri.org/research/threats-to-american-democracy-ahead-of-an-unprecedented-presidential-election/
You nailed it Will. It is time for all of us to open our eyes and recognize that we are sitting on the edge of the abyss.
I am in the USA right now for a 6-week visit with friends and family, most of whom will surely vote democratic in 2024. When I tell them Trump will go to jail and that there is an opportunity for a blue landslide, they look at me and shake their heads as if I really don't understand. I mean, how could I? I live in frigging Italy for godsake!
"Oh, we're so worried" the older ones say, "there's no way to stop Trump." And the younger ones say, " Yeah, it's pretty bad, I really can't stand to read the news, it's so depressing". But when I ask if they are going to vote, they all say yes.
Then someone says, "Can't we talk about something else?" and so we do, despite this creeping coup d'etat led by grown up Jesus freaks, cynical businessmen and flaming racists.
Now I'm getting worried too.
David, glad you and your family discussed this difficult topic. The part that terrifies me is that I read somewhere that there’s nothing to stop Trump from serving as President even from behind bars. I wish I had a link to a reliable source for everyone but there are so many moving parts I’m having difficulty juggling. Googling required!
Before we cross that bridge, I think there might be a civil war.
Or perhaps 5 or 10 million people standing peacefully on the Mall would be enough to keep him behind bars with his lips zipped. We haven't tried anything like that since the immediate aftermath of his inauguration .
I quibble only with your choice of the word “serving.” Has he ever served anyone other than himself?
My experience as well
We wouldn’t be on Substack if we weren’t worried but we can’t let ourselves be paralyzed by worry because that is precisely what the opposition wants us to do. Italy did overthrow its Fascists at great cost to everyone, but they did it. We can too. I think a first step might be to really clarify our values. The right-wing accepts codes that have been handed down. Robert Bella’s has a book on The Evolution of Religion that I’m going to read. People do better with some kind of moral compass, but literal biblical set in stone for all time world without end is not it. The Humanists are working on something called The Ten Commitments which is pretty interesting.
Italy did overthrow it's Fascists, but needed the death and destruction of ww2 to accomplish it. Mussolini, a raging, incompetent narcissist in many ways similar to Trump, was eventually hanged, but not before the Nazis sent hundreds of thousands of Italian soldiers to brutal forced labor camps, and the ones who refused to cooperate were gassed along with many thousands of Italian Jews.
Whose Marshall plan will help us recover from a second Trump administration?
Tom Lehrer, Indeed!!! Awesome comment... "Oh the Protestants hate the Catholics and the Catholics hate the Protestants, Oh the Hindus hate the Muslims, and everybody hates the Jews!"
Seriously, this was spot on, loved every word and long live Tom Lehrer (he turned 95 this year and although definitely not as strong as he once was, is still going strong in Santa Cruz and Boston!).
Jon, reminded me of this Kingston Trio song (sigh, sadly still true today!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUfUAnqRJTQ
OMG, Barbara. I’m definitely a Kingston Trio fan but had never heard that one. I’m almost weeping with memories of Mum and Jack and our time near Woodstock, NY. Where have all the hippies gone? Long time passing (to paraphrase another song by idol Pete Seeger).
Love that song. Especially the line “ And I don’t like anybody very much!” Always makes me laugh.
Barbara, you beat me to it.
"And I don't like anybody very much".
My wife and I went to hear the Kingston Trio (modern iteration) at the Britt Festival in Jacksonville, OR 15+ years ago. We went with a friend, who was amazed that we knew all the words to all the songs. "Merry Little Minuet" is one of our all time favorites.
Brilliant. And heartbreaking. Thank you for your post, Barbara.
I can’t take all the credit, tho have been a decades-long KT fan….recently saw it mentioned in a post (no song link, just the song title) on another Substack, and it jogged my memory as a still lamentably resonate song for today, so hunted down the YouTube of it!
❤️
So what you're saying is Tom Lehrer is the Tony Bennett of cutting satire? Go, Banana Slugs!
ROFLMAO! :-)
I left my heart in San Francisco, amid the foul and stinking bay,
Where lots of gas guzzling cars spew odor to the stars,
The sun is hiding there, we just don't know where,
My loves are fine in San Francisco,
Their genders mean nothing to me,
But I won't come home to you San Francisco,
There are so many places I'd rather be!
My kids (boys), who were about 7 and 11 back then, knew all the words to all of Tom Lehrer’s songs and loved to sing them - together - at home and at parties and gatherings. Nobody had fences back then, so we socialized more. Those were the days (thank you Edith and Archie). My boys are in their 50s now.
I agree! Fabulous comment by Will. And I will NEVER forget Tom Lehrer. :D
^^^^THIS!!!^^^^ Well said, Will! Wasn’t til after I’d read the comment, thinking “nailed it!”, that I realized the commenter is you, Will, from Cal….shuda known it was you slicing it right to the bone.
Go, man.
Will, absolutely spot on. Let’s all get megaphones and start standing on street corners!
I have no problem with anyone believing that they know what God intended, but making a law to enforce that is insane. Clearly the Founders found that unacceptable 250 years ago. The First Amendment is very clear proof of that.
You’re BAAAACK! Yay! I so enjoy your writing.
“The economy” is where certain factions go to blame and discredit whoever holds office at the time. Which is mostly silly I’ve always thought because it depends. Now these factions simply lie about the condition of the economy and blame the President even when the economy has been strengthening by the day with real ways to measure that.
Will, one of the things I've noticed about surveys over the years I've been following them, (~50 so far) is that they tend to say much more about the surveyor's world view than those whom are surveyed, no matter how carefully they are put together and administered. This is why they have been mostly wrong when predicting all the major elections since 2016. Because of that, I find it much more useful, and much less depressing, to see how actual voters are voting in actual elections and ballot initiatives across the US. These elections are not good news for Republicans.
Still, even though they are an imperfect tool, surveys can be useful, and are really the only fairly nimble indicator of collective opinion we have. Much more thought must go into what questions to ask and how they are asked in future, however.
Oh Will, you speak so eloquently for me.
I’m going to skip the article because I can’t take any more right wing evangelical/libertarian crap this morning. That said, I really, really, really love your rant.you have put into words all the bees that have been buzzing in my head for a very long time. The unanimous nomination of Mike Johnson just about put me over the edge and I’m still fighting to find words to put into a letter to go to the 20 “normal” Republicans I called last week to thank them for rejecting Jim Jordan. I am beyond fed up with the narrow, judgmental supposedly Christian “values “ espoused by White Christian Nationalists. Gandhi said it best, “ I like your Christ. He is so unlike your Christians.” We are going to have to fight this bunch with spirit as well as money. They have insulted and transgressed every value I hold dear.
Yeah, this. Seriously, I actually almost wish that the 20 "normal" Republicans who dashed Jordan's hopes had saved it and voted for him. Why? Because Jordan is, at least IMHO, LESS of a threat to democracy than Johnson. Jordan is, for the most part, just a clown, like Trump. A slightly more dangerous clown, but still a clown. He doesn't believe in our system and is there in Congress just to be a gadfly.
But Johnson is much more serious about the methods needed to wreck our democracy and while he doesn't have the obvious "fame" that Jordan has acquired, that can permit him to be a wolf in sheep's clothing more easily. I am worried that people will look at Johnson's boyish mug and decide that he isn't all that dangerous, when in fact, I think he is much more dangerous than Jordan could ever be.
Thank you.
Tom Lehrer! Will, from Cal, such thanks for the (frankly perfect) presentation of a parenthetical reference to this comic genius, any of whose recordings can only lift spirits. And many thanks, Jon Rosen, for your comment. I’ve lived a mighty long time to just being introduced to him. Now cannot wait to share this so many, many friends. Onward and upward!
Tom made a relatively small number of public satirical songs in his lifetime (about 75, although rumor has it that he has plenty more private versions that will never see the light of day, sigh) but unlike most satire that others put out, most of his songs are insanely timeless and ageless.
I like to tell the story of the song Send the Marines, which I was introduced to by my parents when I was much much younger. As I grew up and played that song at parties and other events ("When someone makes a move of which we don't approve, who is it that always intervenes? U.N. and O.A.S., they have their place I guess, but FIRST, Send the Marines!"), people would ask me, "What event is that song all about? Is it about Grenada?" Or "Is it about the Iraq war"?
Of course, I would just smile and say, "No, its about the invasion of the Dominican Republic." Do you realize how many people in the United States don't even KNOW that we ever invaded the Dominican Republic? And it wasn't in 1816, it was in 1916! We occupied that country for 8 years and most Americans have never even heard of it!
Anyway, I love all of Tom's songs, and if you are interested, here is his website where he has dedicated all of his songs into the public domain:
https://www.tomlehrersongs.com
Thank you Andrea. It's almost insulting that the pundits that proclaim victory for the Republicans are forgetting Women, and their simmering anger at losing our rights. I am expecting them to be stunned & surprised in November 2024.
Mar, just today I came across a hastily made sign on cardboard that I carried in a protest march a few years back (doesn’t often happen in my rural area) that reads:
BIG
MISTAKE
(HUGE!)
TO
PISS OFF
SO
MANY
WOMEN!
Brought this Helen Reddy song to mind…so true after all these years!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrVLL7soS1U
Barbara - We women need to resurrect your sign and carry it in any protests or demonstrations (and/or in the background of any speech or 'rally') from now until abortion rights are restored. "Big mistake (huge) ..." is also a quiet emphasis most women can recognize and embrace. Go girls!
Yeah, this was just after Roe v Wade was overturned & women and men were pissed & locally had a bit of a protest gathering. This was a riff from the line in the movie “Pretty Woman” when Julia Roberts goes back to the Bev Hills boutique where the saleswomen wouldn’t wait on her & made her feel like sh*t….she returned, now stylishly dressed & groomed, and gave the “big mistake” line…wonderful scene in the movie.
Yes you are correct. Women ARE pissed off and they have every right to be. I live in a very red county in blood red Ohio. Last summer there was a women's march of sorts in a rather small town near to to me and the women that came out in droves for this astounded me- especially the young women. Therein lies my hope. Women, young women and those who support them will be a huge catalyst in changing this country for the better.It's not gonna happen over night but it is metastasizing.
You’re right about OH women. They won’t get fooled again. My sister who teaches in a blood red county east of Columbus has told me many times women are not going to let any anti-abortion legislation to pass. This is round 2 coming up of “Let’s fool the womenfolk with fancy words vote.” For the 2nd time in a row, women know how to vote to defeat the upcoming proposed legislation to ban abortion in OH. Since the menfolk weren’t clever enough to fool the women the 1st time they tried to crawl up their uterus’s, women slapped them down, “Hands Off!” Now they’re trying it again! Using unclear phrasing and excessive exceptions, they mean to control women through criminal legislation. Won’t stop until we vote them out. Which is exactly where they’re headed. She says there are signs and solidarity on defeating any anti-abortion legislation.
Right you are about the confusing language of this new bill and the one on the special election in August. I early voted on both of these bills and saw right away what the Republicans were trying to do which was basically to dupe people into voting for or against something they were not sure of.In August,"No" meant "Yes". This time the language is also misleading. Women won't stand for our draconian Heartbeat law which makes no exception for the health of the mother, rape or incest.A pox on these cruel legislators.
An especial pox on Mike Dewine, who is fine with trampling our rights, lying that he will fix the problem with the exceptions after the election, gee whiz I’m such a nice guy defying the Ohio Supreme Court about election maps (that same Supreme Court where his son sits), I promise I will “do something” about guns but what he did made things worse. A pox on all of them.
Yes, pious Governor DeWine and Fran lying through their teeth about Issue 1.Saying it is “just wrong for Ohio”. I’ll tell you what wrong, an 11 year old molested by her step-father having to go out-of-state to get the care she desperately needed because of DeWine’s cruel and draconian Heartbeat law.
We are COUNTING on women, who obviously make up 50+ % of the potential vote. If we can just draw 5% more of them (a very small ask) because of the outrageous Roe v Wade overturn, that would be a HUGE HUGE edge in keeping the popular vote strongly positive for the Democratic ticket, and if it is spread around the country enough (rather than all in New York and California where it probably won't change the outcome of the actual Electoral College election because those states will almost certainly support Biden anyway), it will be that much easier for the Dems to win this election outright!
That was an excellent comment, Andrea. I proudly agree with everything you said in it.
Thank you.
You are most welcome, i wish your comment could be read all over the Untied States. I hope people wake up and vote against these Fascists in droves.
Exhaustion is the weak excuse used. The Republican members in the House of Representatives voted for Mike Johnson because they do NOT want bipartisanship in Congress - that is they do not want to share power with the Democrats, they do not want to govern jointly. Power is the key word, absolute power is where they would like to go.
The GOP knows it has one shot in '24. Make voting as difficult as possible for Democratic voters. Keep an eye out for foreign election interference and right-wing voter intimidation, perhaps even employing firearms, in 2024.
"Wait until they try to put that extremism into action."
Wait until they give a chunk of Europe to Russia, you mean!
I hope you are right, Andrea! For sure I and all our friends (men and women) will fight like hell against these so called "leaders" but they need to be defeated by their constituents. I don't think we have seen the last of them crawling out from under the rocks. I am terrified.
In the moments when you're not terrified, do something. That's how wars are won.
Of course. The GQP would like to keep all of us either uninformed or terrified or both...my fear doesn't stop me, it just leads to sleepless nights and sadness.
YES, and thank you, Andrea. Exactly what I needed to hear today. We will take those fanatics down.
Right on, Andrea!!! ❤️
Andrea, Gaetz, and his little band of followers, hopefully will be eliminated from existence, as far as the political world is concerned, in the upcoming 24 election. They are a thorn in the side of every one of us!
This new Speaker of the House isn’t going to be any help. That’s for sure. I’m in fear that Dr. Richardson is correct that his beliefs are going to interfere with his governing. I, for the life of me, don’t understand these politicians who have control of the House right now. Where the hell are their heads?
Even the most "moderate" of the Current GQP crop have bought the fabrication that Democrats are the enemy. We are thought of as if we were the communists of the 50's. The situation is riddled with irony. Because they are the totalitarians! Will has truly nailed it.
But, of course, we ARE their enemy. Not the enemy of democracy or a reasonably regulated capitalism, or the right to be a religious whatever. We are the enemy of those who want to impose. Which is wildly ironic. One central principle of "Libertarianism" was that the government should leave people alone so they can follow any faith (or non faith) they want and be free to compete in a dynamic economic system.
But just like "conservatives", the libertarians have been swallowed by the Oligarchs who use the religious card to pull the strings of their puppets. The Oligarchs who destroyed competition and undermined small businesses. They are not "conservatives" in the classic construct of the word. They are ultra greedy thieves.
This is all "deja vu all over again". Heather's recap of how the depression came about is critical reading for those who are doomed to repeat history. So sadly, this is just another in an endless cycle of the rich getting richer at the expense of the masses. It's been this way since we climbed out of the trees. Nobles and peasants. The peasants suffer until they can't take it any more. Think the French and Russian revolution. Think the American revolution. Our Oligarchs are the same guys who sat in the English Parliament . Yogi was right and so was Polo. "We have seen the enemy...."
I am just about done reading Dennis Lehane's "The Given Day". The time is between the world wars - police are paid half what trolley car drivers get. There are no public worker unions - yet. The great Boston molasses flood is akin to the Triangle Shirt factory fire. But Frances Perkins is a long way off in the future and even the police can't take it anymore.
The question is: "How much suffering and oppression will Jane and Joe Sixpack suffer through before they wake up (get woke about their lives) and realize who is holding them down?" It ain't Joe Biden and that is becoming more and more obvious every day.
Bill- You speak the truth, as always. Your final paragraph is particularly powerful and should be worked into the script of "ads" that the Dems need to have published yesterday to express what we stand for - and to help the voters determine who they are, who they want to be, and who should lead them in government. Thanks.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
👏👏👏
Up chump’s arse.
Hoping but fearful.
As per my own comment, Republicans are religious absolutists in grounding, but mainly because of their two fundamental premises: 1) You don't get to tell me what to do. That restricts my freedom. and 2) I get to tell you what to do, because you are wrong.
That’s them, all right. Perfect!
Andrea, you write: ". We'll make sure they lose again." That's assuming that they don't steal the elections with rigged processes. They know that they are in the minority, they reject the basic premise and practice of democracy: one person, one vote, majority rule. We've got a serious problem as the KKK/MAGA make a run to install a white Protestant supremacy here. Their use of Christianity as a manipulative tool has been remarkably successful.
From your lips to God’s ears!!!!!
I sure hope you’re right!
“MAGA is ascendant,” Gaetz told former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, “and if you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement, and where the power of the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention.” Could there possibly be a more compelling reason to work to ensure a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives than what Gaetz has to say?
Leonard, also given that Johnson and Gaetz voted against the infrastructure bill and the CHIPS bill, the ads for Democrats practically write themselves.
MAGA has given us a vast armory of ammunition if we use it wisely.
Johnson’s idea that capitalism is incompatible with attempting to prevent the worst consequences of global warming is bonkers. If it came to a choice between a habitable Earth or capitalism, what would you decide?
It was most interesting to learn that he took donations from Russians.
Those funds didn't come without Putin's approval. The type of authoritarian regime the MAGA admire doesn't allow that. He will have been made aware to whom his gratitude is owed, not unlike Trump
To me it’s ironic in the extreme the religious fanatics take $$ from Russians—kinda like Judas took silver.
"If it came to a choice between a habitable Earth or capitalism, what would you decide?"
For me? Planet, obviously! Unfortunately, a significant number of Americans would most likely not make the same decision.
That Vivek guy running in the Repub primary has a set of "Truths" he has built his campaign around, and I dunno if y'all got a whiff of that bat guano, but one of them is that fossil fuels are necessary for human success. Which is kind of like saying arsenic is key to a healthy digestive system.
Yeah, Will, kinda comes down to choosing a habitable earth or the newest iPhone…..sigh, probably the iPhone…..
“Human success” reminds me of Mom and apple pie. What’s not to like? Unless we know which humans and what definition of success Johnson has in mind. Of course even if he knows there are better choices than fossil fuels, he can’t let on. He’s a Republican.
On the hopeful side NPR discussed an electric airplane which has had successful test flights and could become a biggie. Cheaper and more sustainable.
Find a republican who doesn’t
I believe Heather herself covered this a short time ago when she wrote (I'm paraphrasing) that some of the things Trump promised (I'm remembering infrastructure repair and improved heath care) Biden has actually delivered. As for Biden's age, it looks like his knees are painful; Mitt Romney has allegedly advised him not to shuffle because it makes him look older. (As I type this, I'm seeing Trump at a rally on the Sioux City stage mocking Biden's walk.) We all know how careful Roosevelt was to conceal his failed legs from the public. I would like to think we're thoughtful enough to take the measure of a human being without resorting to crude playground mockery.
Crude playground mockery is tFfg's primary political schtick, if you weren't already aware...
The Roger Stone/Roy Cohn playbook from Nixon days forward -- "attack, attack, attack, deny, deny, deny."
It obviously works for simple minded voters especially in Red states where social media magnifies the message.
The average IQ of American citizens is 98. That is not a "high" IQ score. Given that the GOP only needs half the country's votes, it is theoretically possibly they could prevail appealing ONLY to simple-minded voteds (those with IQs under 100). This is the scary part of our current political situation.
Wasn’t it Stevenson who was told that he would have the support of the intelligent voters. His response something like, well, I’m in real trouble then. Or something like that…
While I agree our dumber fellow citizens may need help understanding some stuff, I wouldn't put too much stock in IQ testing. It only measures one kind of human intelligence that can only get people so far. And I always thought 100 was, by definition, the average (or median?) score. Guess I'll have to Google that.
Yeah, Just Sayin’, that is his only substance….grade school bully.
Playground mockery and bullying are all repubs know.
Funny, he's mocking Biden but he can't spell "cat" anymore.
One would like to think that wouldn’t they
It's the "America's Funniest Home Videos" school of political commentary, and it is not exactly James Baldwin.
It IS a common occurrence on the basketball court, especially among those who do not train consistently. It is also the reason haven't played (or refereed) basketball in 13 years. When I reached 60, with a body that was no longer in shape for a sport like basketball, I stopped playing. Don't want to hurt my body further and don't want anyone else to think I can't do it anymore :-).
They are the gift that keeps on giving 👍😎
At 90 decibels please
Johnson is well-aligned with the Heritage Foundation and its agenda. He is well positioned now to start laying the groundwork for Project 2025, the far-right manifesto to transform the executive branch by gutting it and installing another layer of political appointees to be sure that agencies align with the President's view of priorities. It is the fruition of the the theory of "unitary executive power."
https://georgiafisanick.substack.com/p/mike-johnson-and-the-heritage-foundation
A chilling thing to think about this morning, but has there been any increased security around Biden and Harris right now? MAGA Mike is two steps away from the presidency, away from the “Prize” of christian nationalists....................
***THIS***⬆️Project 2025 is
the end game. A chilling forecast. VOTE BLUE!
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.“
Thank you for this clear analysis of the Depression to Regan and beyond---and the formation of the present configuration of political forces on the Right. We do have the Real Thing for Speaker of the House---a rather unvarnished example of Southern Conservative Reactionary Religion joined to politics. Now perhaps more people will see (and more people will perhaps understand) the radical anti-democratic "thing" that the GOP has become. A sad day. But a day that should motivate us to do more and more and more..............
"Those profits, along with tax cuts and stock market dividends, meant that wealth moved upward: in 1929, 5% of the population received one third of the nation’s income."
Follow the money.
Grover I have an image of Junk Fish Johnson singing
“Bring me that old time religion,
Bring me that old time religion,
Bring me that old time religion,
It’s good enough for me.”
Yeah, if you are enamored with the 19th century South. Lots of ‘Christians’ were KKK members.
Yep, if that didn’t cause a little cognitive dissonance…. But apparently the brain can work wonders with a little propaganda and a dog in the fight
And racism is a helluva drug.
Beats any pharmaceutical
I saw an excellent documentary on the History Channel some years back, before it had been purchased by the so-called "Discovery" folks, which was all about how the KKK deliberately infiltrated the southern church.
I believe the documentary can still be found on YouTube. At least that was true a year or so back.
With Johnson being the new Speaker of the House I'm reminded of the old saying "Be careful what you wish for". Gaetz made it clear, the Republican party is definitely the MAGA party. Every Republican in the House voted for Johnson and made it clear that they don't care about the majority of Americans. I believe they've overplayed their hand, out of arrogance and hubris, and the majority of voters do not want what they're pushing. I tend to be somewhat cynical, but I believe the Republican party is the frog in the boiling water and that even though many voters are tired of politics, and may not be yelling and shouting, they don't want religious authoritarianism and the message of "hate everyone who isn't a straight, white, Christian male".
I believe that the Republican party is going to split and Mike Johnson is going to be the ultra-conservative clean-cut God-fearing family-values-loving face of the New Republican Party. The insurrectionist MAGAs are bad for business, and are going to be written off, as will Trump because he was so ineffective and openly corrupt. Just keep an ear out for how often you start hearing Republicans stop calling Trump "President Trump".
The old time RINOs inclined to bipartisanship will be excoriated because they don't follow the party line of low taxes and no regulation of businesses and isolationism. Johnson is already papering over his far-right-wing positions--saying gay marriage is settled law or how he was just putting on the best arguments in favor of his clients when he was with ADF. Of course, we all remember how attestations of respect for "settled law" (for now) came up in the confirmations of Trump's 3 Supremes.
Johnson's positions are well aligned with the incredibly well funded ultra-conservative think tanks. They are the folks who developed the gerrymandering strategies and the stacking of the judiciary. They are ones that are crafting "me-too" legislation to limit voting rights and "don't say gay" laws. There is no question that they have been extremely successful at un-leveling the playing field, and just shy of half of Americans were seduced with the insurrectionists and Trump there. These guys are betting that if they clean up their act with a poster boy like Johnson and keep up the assault on democratic institutions they will win if not in 2025, then in 2029.
As Heather said, the winning Republican alliance is between big business and evangelicals. Money and faith are big motivators.
Follow the think tanks - Heritage Foundation - the Koch brothers.
Demand more substantial reporting from the well funded capitalist enterprises known as the Mainstream Media and their gawking tendencies to sensationalism when they don't either know how to, or don't want to dig deep enough and report on news that is 'difficult'. Smirking isn't reporting-from either left or right.
So it’s between the greedy bastards and the religious greedy bastards. But you have an ear for the subtle changes, so I’ll listen
I think you are dead on. The more I am researching the more I am seeing a split between Koch's Americans for Prosperity operation (greedy bastards and Trump haters except when convenient) and the Heritage Foundation (religious greedy bastards and gung ho Trump lovers until recently). Americans for Prosperity have been dominating the state legislature initiatives and have been trying to get Lincoln Project types going, but have not been successful on the latter.
You can distinguish them by what they call TFG, Trump or former President Trump for team Koch and President Trump for team Heritage, but they are starting to insert former into the title too. The more people in the Georgia case that flip on him the more slippage.
Johnson has feet in both camps. Maybe that is why he got 100% acquiescence in the floor vote. Team Koch and Team Heritage decided to get themselves in alignment and that is what got bruited around in the Republican conference meeting ahead of Johnson's election. A subtle reminder that neither team would provide campaign support if you didn't vote for Johnson would be enough to do it. No proof yet, but that has been my biggest question--why did all dissent evaporate at just that moment.?
Thank you, Georgia. I wondered about the same thing. It surely wasn’t that they all suddenly got embarrassed about their inability to function as a caucus or that they cared that they were impeding the entire Congress from functioning.
Thank you for being so attuned to the minutia that most miss. I'm so disappointed in some of the religiously devoted that I thought were good people. They signed on to hatred when Jesus was about anything but - best I recall. My late b-in-law was a life long repub, but gave up on them when W/Dickie came along.. Now he was a "good people." The others, not so much.
Well said!! The well-funded think tanks, e.g. Heritage Foundation, are going to be more prominent---as you point out. They are regressive activists of the first order. I just started reading your substack. Thanks for your insights.....
Glad you are finding it helpful. Please contribute to the conversation there! I am reading Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's book today on the impact of the SCOTUS Citizens United decision which was written in 2016. The sums back then were enormous back then. Eight years later they are going to be monstrous.
Nearly half of all the money contributed through the spring of 2016 in the 2016 presidential contest came from just 150 families, most of them with corporate connections; and most contributed secretly, through super PACs and 501(c)(4)s.
A study by the Annenberg Public Policy Center looked at the four top-spending political 501(c)(4) organizations—which don’t have to disclose their donors—over a six-month period in 2012. It turns out that an estimated 85 percent of their election spending went to ads that the Annenberg Center determined to contain deceptions. So not only are 70 percent of the ads out there negative, but at least during parts of the election cycle, the big spenders were putting 85 percent of their money toward deceptive advertising.
I knew it was awful, but I am shocked at these numbers and they are from 7 years ago!
Whitehouse, Senator Sheldon. Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy (pp. 35-36). The New Press. Kindle Edition.
Whitehouse, Senator Sheldon. Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy (p. 31). The New Press. Kindle Edition.
Let's keep the pot boiling. Join me in electing Democrats. Consider my free newsletter Len's Political Notes. https://lenspoliticalnotes.com
Wow HCR. Thank you for connecting the dots to shine light into this dystopian and frightening moment. You bring a perspective only a literary historian could provide. This horror show requires no costume
Not many Americans can remember 1929 or the Great Depression that followed. My mother-in-law, almost 101, can pretty vividly recall the early 1930s, when WWI veterans seeking their promised bonuses so they could survive economically, were attacked by firehouses. https://jimbuie.substack.com/p/recalling-1930s-traumas
More than firehoses. When Douglas MacArthur cleared the Bonus Marchers from Washington, Major George S. Patton Jr., a rock-ribbed Southern reactionary, ran his World War I First Sergeant of the company he commanded through with his sword shouting "Take that, you Bolshevik bastard!"
George Patton was such an awful, awful, *awful* person. It's just that he found the perfect line of work at the right time in order to make his notable, unbridled, unrepentant awfulness seem like a virtue ripe for achievement.
And Hollywood sucked it up.
True fact. The book on which the movie was based, by Ladilas Farago, was much more balanced.
Patton was a sociopath who, as commander of the 3rd Army, found a job that required one. Or, to put it another way, Eisenhower needed a sociopath to lead the 3rd Army, and he found one in Patton.
The first Kennedy assassination was a coup. The Oswald assassination and Warren Commission were white noise. (Am I awake?)
Uh...................................
No?
Holy shit, TC!!!
What makes anyone think that all of the repellent people in power will accept any election results? The path has been laid and the pieces are in place now. Those of us who love the promise of this country had better be wary of being overconfident in our future elections. I’m afraid the ride will be awfully bumpy.
The ride will definitely be bumpy, but being afraid will not make it any more bump-free.
SPW, please keep in mind those of us who resist these fascist agendas number in the millions now. We are an aware, “woke” if you will, group of thinking, feeling, active adults and young adults who will not abide the right taking over. Remember what Mahatma Gandhi accomplished, with a very bumpy ride as you know, with non-violent resistance to the most vicious colonial power on Earth! I live in India, so I see the results of the struggle of millions of unarmed and very poor citizens who rose up and threw the British out! It is my daily inspiration.
Patton was not a rock-ribbed Southern reactionary, he and his family were from just outside Pasadena where his father managed the Huntington property, at that time they owned Santa Catalina Island, and had a large piece of property close to the Huntington estate.
Good insight to have. Trace the money, yet again...... Thanks. Also a reminder that rock-ribbed reactionaries come from places other than the South.
The September 1935 Hurricane in the Keys destroyed the Overseas Railroad. “Flagler’s Folly” was built largely by WWI vets, as the government had no idea what to do with them. Most perished in the storm.
Traumatic events carry on through more than direct memory. How many of us are a child of a child of the Depression?
Both my parents lived through the Depression. My Dad was 12, my Mom was 8 when it hit.
My Granny (now 93), always avoided talking about her childhood in Arkansas. We kids thought that was disappointing; we wanted to know what it was like when the oldsters were still small and fun like us! When I did get some snippets later on, I understood why: potato sacks for clothes, only mud to play with, etc. It would be almost comical if it weren't the crushing reality for most people alive in that place and time.
I think of this sometimes when I hear someone crying how they "can't afford these ridiculous prices" of the huge cart of groceries they are getting ready to put in their fully functioning car en route to their fully functioning refrigerator.
The young have no clue
If they did they’d rule the world.
And I have met your amazing mother-in-law!!
“his 2018 campaign accepted money from a group of Russian nationals, and he has said he does not support additional funding for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.”
YIKES!
I have some hope that MAGA can be defeated in the 2024 elections, but will Ukraine survive?
I am sorry, but I respectfully think you and way too many other commenters are WAY too positive/hopeful. I encounter too many right wing nuts in my left leaning world. We all need to get busy as the election cycle ramps up and help get out the vote for our rights to not be taken over by the maga nut jobs. There will be tons of volunteer opportunities so let's get to it!
I am hopeful but I plan to be an active thorn in the side of anyone who might not vote. Hope without action is meaningless.
Hope without action is a tease
Thanks. Only action counts in the results column.
Follow the think tanks - Heritage Foundation - the Koch brothers.
Demand more substantial reporting from the well funded capitalist enterprises known as the Mainstream Media and their gawking tendencies to sensationalism when they don't either know how to, or don't want to dig deep enough and report on news that is 'difficult'. Smirking isn't reporting-from either left or right.
I am active in local issues and I vote. I see the MAGA b.s. all around me, but I have hope. There are two levels of hope. First is a weak hope that MAGA will be defeated in the next election cycle or two. The second is a trust in average Americans who will hate a MAGA world once they actually live in one.
Unfortunately, if we end up on a "MAGA world" there is no returning.....
This saga keeps getting more ominous. We know what Mike Johnson and his demented band of religious zealots want to do to this country. Their sanctimonious brand of politics would turn this country into something out of a Margaret Atwood novel, filled with hate and the most vile kinds of repression.
Maybe, just maybe this will wake up old-style Republicans as well as libertarians to the fact that freedom is under assault like never before. I very much doubt Johnson will survive the media scrutiny of his life and radical "Christian" views.
Religion is the Halloween costume White Privilege wears.
The only thing too scary for the Spirit store!
Ha ha ha Aye, lad.
Oh, but doesn’t he have such a nice face!
A reader from, I believe, Robert Hubbell's last newsletter called him a..."friendly fascist!"
And an unattractive soul.
Thing is, he doesn't actually. He has what the kids today call a "punchable" face.
I can't believe I'm saying this in such polite company, but he looks like he's never played with himself, unless it was by "accident." Maybe that's the problem?
Lol
Or he didn't do it enough perhaps !! Just saying !!🤬🤬🤬 Gee , look at all the potential offspring he could have fathered , the new Aryan race !!
Just picture it with a Hitler mustache then
As today’s letter points out, Brown v Board and its enforcement, such as it was, marked the division of the electorate into those committed to minority (that is, white) rule and those seeking fair treatment for all Americans. It took a while to kick into full force but has seen solid and consistent growth with only a few setbacks since 1980. At this point, roughly 60% of white voters are firmly committed to autocratic government, which they see as the only reliable way to ensure the preservation of systemic advantages for white Americans. A recent essay in WaPo by Jennifer Rubins cited a Public Religion Research Institute finding that 59% of white voters believe that the reelection of Biden would be a threat to democracy. Imagine! That is how delusional, not to mention fundamentally indecent, most white voters are. They imagine that electing an autocrat would save democracy when, in fact, it would probably destroy democracy. What it would save, though, are myriad (and probably expanded) systemic advantages for white Americans.
I am glad i am not a part of the 60% of the white voters that are firmly committed to an autocratic government. I would think an autocrat would destroy democracy. A man of color that works with my son at his job was astonished when my son told him that me and him are dedicated Democrats, The man of color told my son that he thought most all white folks voted for the corrupt and criminal Fascist GQP. I have been a Democrat all of my life.
We are back to the long-buried theory that the US is a “Christian democracy.” The Constitution does not say that one group is superior to another and republicants want to strictly adhere to the Constitution. They can’t have it both ways but they sure try.
I might be wrong, but i think these fanatic Fascist Rethuglicans use the Christian and religious crap to justify their corrupt and very evil agenda. They think they can openly hide behind religion to convince the public they are good people when they are the polar opposite to good. I would tend to think that almost all of the dedicated Democrats can see right through their endless lies and corruption. These scumbags don't fool me for one second. My next door neighbor is a prime example of a TUMP worshiping religious fanatic.
We know tfg has not 1 religious bone in his body. Sorry about your neighbor. Be careful out there!!
Of course I am delighted that you and your son are loyal Democrats on the right side of history. Your son's friend was, unfortunately, correct that most white folks voted for the criminal Fascist. Just a bit under 60%, according to exit polls, and a substantially higher in the white working class and in rural areas, nationwide. Your son's friend knows that whenever he sees a white man, he is more probably looking at a Trump voter than a decent human being.
Always on my mind and I’m pale
That is so sad to hear. I am a bit curious where your son and his co-worker live, because the racial element of the voting demographics really depends on the area of the country. In the deep south it is still strongly racially polarized, but Vermont is over 90% white and one of the most heavily Democratic states.
Yes, Vermont and most of New England but especially Vermont has an exceptionally decent population of white voters. We have all benefited from their voting patterns. On the plus side, we have just barely enough Democratic-leaning voters to put Democrats in charge of the presidency and both chambers of the legislature in 2024. Our challenge is to get them to the polls. Numerous, well-organized, get-out-the-vote organizations are putting their backs into that project. The Democratic Party helps, too, but it seems to me they would be more effective if they put almost all of their effort and money into get-out-the-vote efforts. It's the one thing that really makes a difference. Messaging on policy and accomplishments is the least effective. You cannot convert a magat by presenting the facts, must less by appealing to decency. You cannot convert magats, no way, no how. But you can get people who lean Democratic to vote, and there are just enough of them to make success possible.
Wish Vermont were the size of Texas
Or, better, Texas the size of Vermont.
Yep, that would work
You're right to use "convert". The MAGA "system" is a belief system as much as anything else. And you don't 'persuade' them The only way is a total conversion of world view---essentially a religious conversion, yes a religious conversion.
I for sure wish i was living in Vermont now. I really like Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Canada. But i am not sure i am up to the challenge of all of the red tape and paperwork of getting into Canada. I wonder how Vermont rates on the cost of living there?? It would be far easier to relocate to Vermont than it would to relocate to Canada.
Will, i live in the racist state of Georgia. I live in the NW part of the state just one district down from the ugliest hag witches in Congress, Maggot Traitor Goon. I despise that horrible excuse for a human being. The Congress member that represents my district is almost a bad, Drew Ferguson. You are spot on when you said the deep south is still strongly racially polarized. Me and my family are the only Democrats that live on the 4 mile paved county road i live on. Everyone else is tried and true Donald TUMP lovers. They don't like us, and i sure as hell don't like them.
I have, too, but I was a rare bird when I lived in Florida.
Rex, I never heard of PRRI before. Go to the source. And remember it was 59% of the 2550 people in the poll. Jennifer Rubin and other reporters need to say what the sample was rather than making headlines with what ALL Americans believe.
I wrote the following after looking at PRRI’s website:
Another opinion poll hits the headlines summarized and telling us what all Americans believe. Prri.org. “The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) is an American nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education organization that conducts public opinion polls on a variety of topics, specializing in the quantitative and qualitative study of political issues as they relate to religious values. Conducted August 25-30, 2023, among a representative sample of 2,525 adults who are part of the Ipsos Knowledge Panel.”
We know which party focuses on religion and the American way of life. We should take the headline poll results with the eyeroll they deserve and do something to get the truth out.
See my comment to Gloria below. I know we have (correctly) developed a skepticism of poll results around here, but not all polls are created equal. The more respectable surveys use representative samples of a quality high enough that you *can* adequately extrapolate the results to the wider population. There will always be a margin of error, but any bias will be unintentional.
I was not expecting today to be the day I would appoint myself the white knight for math, but I guess here we are lol.
Good sir, I would be your squire, except that numbers vex me so that you don't want me anywhere near them!
Ipsos Knowledge Panel? it's a site that solicits your membership, screens your demographics and then pays a nominal fee for your opinion on surveys. If you carefully curate the audience, you can predict what their survey response will be.
The key here is that Ipsos uses those demographics to make sure that they do not have too many or too few of a demographic. For instance, if 3,500 Republicans respond but only 1,200 Democrats, they will either only use half of the Repubican responses, or weight each response half as much, because it is common knowledge that there are roughly the same number in the general population. If Ipsos or a similar outfit did NOT gather basic info on demographics, then that would *prevent* the survey from being reliable/accurate. They are not "curating" or excluding people to get the results they want, quite the opposite. That does not mean any result will be exact, but it will be honest and professional.
You can hope...
And what do they do to ascertain if what the respondents say is true? There Might 😇😂 be Some 😏😵💫😜😝 cultists, rabid fans of a narcissistic sociopath who Lie and have a few Aliases. Honest and Professional just like tfg....
And what a joy it is to experience well educated, thoughtful non-white people making such huge contributions to our world! And the mix of genders: how preposterous it is today to look at photographs of influential groups from decades ago -- practically all male!
Those stats are from "a Public Religion Research Institute?" Which Public Religion Research Institute? That is BS!
The PRRI is actually a very trustworthy organization: nonprofit, nonpartisan, academic. They partner with Brookings, Cornell, and Georgetown, among others, run their surveys year after year, and are rigorous and transparent.
Religion is a key part of the human experience, and essential to an understanding of sociology, anthropology, etc. Just because an individual or organization studies religion does not mean they are pushing for religious governance. I think we need to not dismiss things out of hand here, and I say this all as someone who is an agnostic at most.
Robert P. Jones is the president and founder of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and a leading scholar and commentator on religion and politics. Jones writes regularly on politics, culture, and religion for The Atlantic, TIME, and Religion News Service. He is frequently featured in major national media, such as MSNBC, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and others. He holds a PhD in religion from Emory University and a MDiv from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, which won a 2021 American Book Award, and The End of White Christian America, which won the 2019 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. He writes a regular Substack newsletter at RobertPJones.substack.com. (From Simon and Schuster author’s webpage.) He also has been a guest and has hosted webinars with colleagues such as Kristen du Mez and other authors, historians and anti-racism leaders. If anyone knows about Christian nationalism,he is definitely one of them. An excellent writer on the intersection of (bad) theology and public life in America.
He also just recently published The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future.
Thanks, Juanita! Looks like Simon & Schuster needs to update his bio. I didn't catch that HRWS was missing, especially since it’s now on the NYTimes best seller list.
What are the people in Speaker Johnson's home town saying about him?
'SHREVEPORT, La. — In this small town masquerading as a city, a mention of newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson during the lunchtime rush at Strawn’s Eat Shop Too (“home of the ice box pie”) drew an interruption.' (WAPO, excerpts)
“Are you talking about Mike Johnson?” said a woman in a flowered blouse, gold-cross necklace and gray ponytail. “I’m his mom.”
'Jeanne “Jee Jee” Johnson, 69, had been sharing a “celebration lunch” Thursday with her cousin here in the central Broadmoor neighborhood, pausing to greet fellow diners as her cellphone exploded with well wishes.'
'Johnson saw her son’s selection in spiritual terms.' “God did this,” she said. “ … It’s so good for America.”
'In northwest Louisiana, people navigate their lives by family and faith. The politician raised here shares a heavy reliance on both.'
'Mike Johnson, 51, is a staunch conservative who championed religious causes before he was elected to the state legislature in 2015 and to Congress the following year. Although more low-profile than other Donald Trump supporters in Congress, he played a pivotal role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election and opposes abortion rights, gun control and same-sex marriage, views shared by many supporters at home.'
'In accepting the speakership last week, Johnson prayed on the House floor and said, “God is the one that raises up those in authority.” His wife, Kelly Lary Johnson, a pastoral counselor whose brother is a local Baptist minister, prayed for her husband for days leading up to his selection as speaker, both the new speaker and Jeanne Johnson said.'
“It’s a cultural conservatism, a view not only of politics but of religion and faith,” 'said Royal Alexander, 56, a conservative lawyer, referring to what guides much of the community and Johnson, who he got to know after college.' “People here are rugged individualists who want to make their own decisions.”
'The Ark-La-Tex region in northwest Louisiana that includes Johnson’s hometown is full of historic Black and White churches, more like neighboring Arkansas, Texas and the rest of the Bible Belt than the rest of the state. It’s often overshadowed by flashier cities to the south: New Orleans and the state capital, Baton Rouge. The idea that one of its sons is now second in line to the presidency has been met with joyous surprise in many quarters. But views are mixed about whether his ascension will benefit all residents, who remain divided, like much of the country, along ideological and racial lines.'
'Residents call the metro area of about 760,000 Shreveport-Bossier, encompassing Shreveport — population 180,000, where Johnson was raised on the west bank of the Red River — and growing suburbs to the east in Bossier Parish, where the speaker now lives.'
'But there are vast distinctions between the two sides, the residue of disinvestment and white flight by families like Johnson’s.'
'The city proper is about 57 percent Black, 37 percent White and 3 percent Latino, according to the most recent census. Bossier Parish, home to about 130,000 people, is about 70 percent White, 24 percent Black and 7 percent Latino. Overall, Johnson’s district has a median household income of about $48,600, below the national median of nearly $75,000. About 22 percent live below the poverty level.'
'Shreveport native Celeste Gauthier, 45, went away to Middlebury College in Vermont but returned to help her family run Strawn’s three restaurants, including its flagship in the city’s Highland Historic District and another in Bossier Parish. That’s become harder with pandemic lockdowns, rising costs and labor challenges, the mother of three said.'
“Politics here is personal. People really do look at the funding we’re sending to Israel and Ukraine and say, ‘I can’t afford to go to Kroger,’” Gauthier said as she sat amid the lunchtime crowd, some of whom she said had stopped buying beverages because of the cost.'
“A lot of these customers know Mike Johnson and think we often get overlooked and maybe we won’t anymore,” she said.
'Customer Beth Hayes, a retired registered nurse from Shreveport, said she was proud of Johnson and had high hopes for him as speaker.'
'A registered Democrat, Hayes, 83, said she has become more independent in recent years. She’s a Methodist who respects LGBTQ+ rights even though her church doesn’t allow same-sex marriage or ministers, feels conflicted about abortion and voted for Trump twice. She said she appreciated Johnson’s support for Trump’s fight to overturn the 2020 election, but believes Biden ultimately won. She called the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol “the worst thing I have ever seen in my life” and said she isn’t sure who she will vote for in 2024.'
“We need to stand up for our rights, but we can do it in a more civilized manner” than Trump does, Hayes said. She hopes Johnson will be able to do that, by working with Democrats.'
'Others here have their doubts, particularly in Shreveport’s mostly Black and low-income Mooretown neighborhood.'
“He was a part of that exodus from Shreveport; he didn’t stay and make the community better and as a congressman, he has done little to make the community better,” 'said the Rev. Theron Jackson, the Black pastor of 94-year-old Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church.'
'A former Shreveport city council member, Jackson, 54, was once a Democrat but said he now considers himself an independent. He’s working to counter homelessness and what he calls “trans-generational poverty” that dates to segregation.'
'While Black leaders scored victories in Shreveport during the Civil Rights era, hosting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for seminars on nonviolent protest, he said,' “The fact that you have to fight for folks to be civil, that says something. If that’s our only accomplishment, we have to say ‘Is that all?’ Because that’s not all that life’s about. The best cities in the world give opportunities for people to thrive, not just survive.”
'Earlier this year, Jackson traveled to Baton Rouge to lobby for changes to Louisiana’s congressional districts — only one of six is a majority Black district despite a state population that is more than 30 percent Black. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request to speed up redrawing the districts after a federal judge found the latest map still dilutes the strength of Black voters.'
“When you become speaker of the house, that’s supposed to mean a lot more for your district and your state. The question is, what is that going to mean for us?” Jackson said. “It may mean more for those who have already benefited from his presence, but certainly not all of us.” (WAPO) Below is
line to the article. Sorry that I do not have any gifted links left.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/10/29/mike-johnson-louisiana-hometown-house-speaker/
“People here are rugged individualists who want to make their own decisions.”... and feel entitled to force their personal will on everybody else.
Yup
https://wapo.st/3SjdqsB
Rhea's link is to 'House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Louisiana hometown guided by faith and family', which I copied excerpts from and wrote about in my comment that indicates what people in Speaker Johnson's hometown have to say about him.
Rhea, you came to the rescue another time that I was out of gift links. Thank you very much for your generosity on behalf of all of us.
You are welcome
Fern, just keep posting when you're out of links. We'll pick you up.
Thank You, Fern. I think.
I hesitate to disagree with an august historian such as yourself, HRC, but the history books and other documentation I've read say that Eisenhower was completely flummoxed by Earl Warren's turn to liberalism, particularly desegregation in Brown v Board. Eisenhower has been quoted as saying putting Earl Warren in the Supreme Court was "the worst thing" that happened in his administration. If one looks at Warren's record before his appointment as Chief Justice, Eisenhower was right to be flummoxed. Warren was the chief advocate for Executive Order 9066, putting Japanese residents and native born citizens in concentration camps. He was also a leader in the 30s against the Poor People's campaign when Sinclair Lewis ran for governor of California. In all ways, he was an obvious conservative Republican.
From the Atlantic (2018): "Over coffee, Eisenhower took Warren by the arm and asked him to consider the perspective of white parents in the Deep South. “These are not bad people,” the president said. “All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big black bucks.”
And there you have it. Thanks for digging that up!
My Mom always taught me that if someone says "But..." everything before the "but" is usually either a distraction or a lie. As in "I don't think you need to lose weight, but..." or "You are valuable to this company, but..." or "I'm not racist, but..." etc.
The corollary to this is that when someone says "They are not bad people. They just..." they almost definitely *are* bad people, and everything after that statement is going to tell you exactly how their badness expresses itself.
Think about it.
Color, race, sexuality and gender may be first determinants but ultimately everyone not part of the inner circle moneyed class will also experience the impact of rule by the rich. The very people voting for these autocrats are voting themselves into poverty. They can forget about education, healthcare, retirement, any kind of vacation/rest, safe food and water, ... the list goes on. They can look forward to crumbling infrastructure, working until they die, food and water insecurity, ... basically same conditions as workers portrayed in “The Men Who Made America.”
Sounds like "good people on both sides" DJT about Charlottesville.
Correct... Ike was audibly pissed off.. but he honored their deal.. and put Warren on the Court, then Sen. Knowland - a suicide - then the honorable Tricky Dick Nixon, legislator Jessie Unruh, Gov. Pat Brown, goofy Gov. Jerry Brown, then... son of a fall down drunk, first married to a drunk, Gov. Dumbo Voodoo Economics Ronny Reagan, Rep. David Stockman’s leering monkey, and the recently departed Baltimore SanFran millionaire’s daughter, spell out much of California’s colorful borderline useless contribution...
Gonna have to disagree about Unruh and Pat Brown. Unruh was the best operational politician California ever had, and a battler for the people's side. He created the modern state legislature. Might find his aphorisms "unwelcome" in today's "diverse" Democratic Party but that doesn't make them any less accurate. Pat Brown created - among other things - the California education system that let me get three college degrees without debt.
My Dad told me the other day that before my Grandpa passed too early, he was in line for a judgeship. Grandpa Collman - a sensible Republican - had done a local TV interview on behalf of Republicans to Re-Elect Pat Brown. He thought Brown was doing a decent job and Reagan was truly dangerous. His name got taken off the list for the judgeship, and he was "fit to be tied" (Dad's phrase).
Dad and I both voted for *Jerry* Brown in our 20s. I didn't really have any complaints, but I like Newsom a bunch too, so it's a matter of taste I guess.
Reagan was dangerous. A closet fascist that couldn’t spell fascist. A fool in sheep’s clothing.
"F-A-S-H-I-S-T" :-)
I was in Sacramento when Jer was governor the first time. Which is why I dislike him.
Met with Gov. Jerry Brown for a short visit. He was sent to 76 Beaver, 17th floor, by Bob Rubin of Goldman Sachs arbitrage. Bob wanted an evaluation. I was clear with both. Jerry Brown was amusing and unstable, I stated that to him and to Bob, and excused him from my office.
And, to be blunt, what has California produced that makes a meaningful and lasting difference? Nada? Ah! Hollywood. The movies. The Oscars. Hepburn. Brando. Jimmy Stewart. The unknown girl in Last Tango in Paris. Pollution. Trust Company of the West. Alcoholism and a transplanted kidney in the founder. Nixon. Reagan. Divorced presidents. Weightlifting German Governor. More pollution. Education? Please. Jack Benny. Groucho Marx. Bob Hope. The Tonight Show. Comedy. Johnny Carson. Paar. Ten. The Late Show.
Uh, lots?
We aren't the 4th largest economy in the world because we've spent the years since our statehood playing ring-a-ring-a-rosie.
CA got my husband his private disability payments.
Thanks to CA suing the insurance companies, they had to follow the laws that CA had in place and now we get a monthly check from them
They also let me know that muscle milk has heavy metals in it, instead of protein that I needed.
But yeah, go ahead and bash CA, envy isn't a nice look.
Trolls don't last long here, so give it your best shot while ya can.
No place is perfect. Try Texas after 1994
Jealousy is so unbecoming, you sad old talentless loser. Why don't you crawl back to Flyover Loserville where you belong and won't be so obvious among all the other senile old boomer losers? You know, go back to getting drunk every night and spewing your loserness on the rest of us, you old fool.
Met Unruh once. Nice man. In the middle. Ultimately failed. Heart in the right place.
I had read that as well, TC. I believe that Ike considered Warren his worst appointment. I do recall from prior study (that happened 45 years ago) that Eisenhower expected Warren to be his "middle way" representative, and was completely aghast at his "liberal" interpretations of what we now call "social justice" issues.
Thank you Heather! He is so frightening! We have to all push voters to oust this man and elect people that care about all individuals ! Vote blue! At all levels of government!
If we become a bible based theocracy due to inattention and laziness rather than protect the existence of our ‘Republic’ …we will have deserved it. The very thing our Founders had come to America to prevent! It is our turn, our time and our fault if we lose our democracy!
"It's our turn, our time and our fault if we lose our democracy!" Words that capture the test we are facing today!
Actually, to be fair, you should read some REAL history of the early settlers in America. To suggest that they didn't want a bible-based theocracy is a serious misreading of early American politics. They absolutely WANTED that kind of country, they just wanted the theocracies to be THEIR theocracies (plural as reflected by the different theocracies in different states) rather than King George's theocracy, i.e., the one that had descended from Henry VIII's abandonment of Catholicism. They wanted THEIR religious freedoms, not at all freedom FROM religion. This did change over time, and when the United States finally was formed as a union of all of these diverse cultures, we definitely started to modify our direction. But to suggest that somehow the early American settlers wanted a religion-free country is nonsense at best.
Thank “God” we still have a Democratic Senate and President who will not cave to the MAGA crowd in the lowest of lower Houses. Time for real journalists to show up and put an end to this fiasco. True Believers are always hiding something. I bet his wife is miserable.
"I bet his wife is miserable."-YUP, she chose him!
"True Believers are always hiding something." Homophobes Might Be Hidden Homosexuals https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/homophobes-might-be-hidden-homosexuals/
That's been pretty obvious for a very long while for those of us in the know. Hating yourself for the things the imposed ideas are telling you are wrong, and that you believe because of your upbringing and the herd Instinct and all that stuff, turns into hating the people who can do it and are open. I've been the recipient myself. So the people who are trumpeting about freedom are the least free and don't want to see anybody else being free either. Selfish fearful little souls.
We simply have to outvote them. We may have to end up protecting our polling places, certainly fighting the gross attempts to squelch votes and gerrymander them.
That is WAY WAY WAY too simplistic. Most sociologists believe that the average amount of homosexuality across the globe is about 15%, not significantly higher than that. Sure, its easy to believe that all the people who say they hate homosexuals and homosexuality are just closeted deniers of their own desires. Its easy to believe that, but almost certainly false in reality. MOST of these anger mongers REALLY DO hate homosexuals and believe it is sin and wrong and something that should be dealt with either by trying to convert them or legally by prison and/or execution. As much as it might make you feel better to believe all of these people would, if given the opportunity in an accepting world, drop their pretenses and actually out themselves is just nonsense and dangerous. A few might (as I am sure there are closeted gays among them) but don't count on there numbers to get you to a majority, because factually speaking, there just aren't that many who exist. In the end, we need to get EVERYONE to accept that EVERYONE has the right to be who they truly are, but we are a long way from that reality, even if we would like to think that the 15-year lucky/crazy that got us a pro-Supreme Court decision endorsing gays, gays in the military and pro-trans attitudes among many of our leaders was universally supported. Look around, its obviously not, and despite the fact that we got quick advances in gay rights between 2008 and 2023 (much faster than we ever got advances in rights for racial and religious minorities as well as women) its a tenuous hold and if the right wing crazies get back in power, look for it all to be revoked virtually instantly.
Vigilance is necessary, from EVERYONE on our side.
Thank you for this, Jon. A few things:
1) The concerted fight for LGBT rights had some major victories post-Obama, but that was the cresting of the wave. Act Up was 20 years prior, Stonewall was 40 years prior, and there were societies and publications even before that (like the Mattachine Society, which would be considered downright prudish today!)
2) Again, not to be nitpicky, but as a bisexual man I feel obligated to point out that 15% of people might have *same-sex attractions,* which is not the same as being homosexual (strictly same-sex). 15% is the high end of the LGBT estimate, and most of those people would be bisexual, i.e. also experience opposite-sex attractions and would have just repressed/ignored their "irregular" attractions in the old days (or not even known what what they were feeling was called), and only pursued acceptable love interests. Some bi folks are 50/50, some are 80/20, but most are monogamous regardless. All good to keep in mind.
3) "MaYbE tHeY aRe SeCrEtLy..." persists because it is a fun thing to think. While I am not in the business of quashing fun, and there are definitely some stray examples, I agree with you in feeling that it diminishes the amount of bigotry and how deep-rooted it can be. Not everyone in Iran is gay. Although wouldn't that be FABULOUS, hunty?
Hi all,
I’m not suggesting that Mike Johnson is gay but that his religious fervor , also directed at LGBTQ, is so angry and unkind and thorough that his wife, family and associates must be miserable living with that level of judgement. If Christ’s message was LOVE, (all over the Bible) then MJ missed quite a few chapters. Something’s “off”.
"Not everyone in Iran is gay." :-). Ya think? LOL
We're in this together.
Something I’ve seen over the years with conservative, Bible-based leaders (be they televangelists or politicians) is that they often wind up having personal morality problems that expose the hypocrisy of their “this way is how a better world can work” claims.
I expect the new Speaker and his wife to be exposed as having bizarre behavioral histories which will undercut this movement. We’ve already learned he has an adopted Black son only 11 years younger than he is (except the adoption was never formalized), and that his wife ran (runs?) a program that treats homosexuality as being similar to bestiality. (SNL had fun with the Black “son” this past Saturday)
I don’t know what else will come out, as investigative reporters do their thing. But when a “holier than thou” person with a bizarre personal life gets in power, who they really are needs to become front page news! I hope the major networks do their jobs and inform the American people who this guy really is!
President Biden and VP Harris need to triple their security. TFFG and the MAGAts have stirred up so much hate that I'm sure there are serious threats out their right now. And the FBI has far-right agents as we have seen from various investigations and news coverage.
The MSM media is profit driven, so don't look for them to expose Mike Johnson. The NYT or the WAPO will be in big trouble if the Heritage Foundation is able to muzzle the MSM like Putin has done in Russia. They editors of these publications and dozens of others are clever enough to see the threat of having Mike Johnson as Speaker.
It's time they report the dirt everyday on all the MAGAts and stop bashing Biden for being too old. They also need to sing the praises of Bidenomics and report on how the MAGAts are trying to sabotage the economy to take over the government in 2024.
In other words, just print the truth.
Well, yes about everything except the criticism that Biden is too old. He IS too old and although I am reconciled that he will be the nominee in 2024, I am NOT blind to the facts that (a) he is already the oldest President ever elected or served and (b) even with Trump being very old, he is still 4 years behind Biden and that is enough of a difference to be "trumped" up to the electorate. It will have an effect, hopefully not enough to deter the nation from re-electing Biden but it is going to make the election a LOT closer than it needed to be.
But, is he really too old compared to say Reagan who had Alzheimer's for at least his entire 2nd term. Q: How did he pull that off? A: By surrounding himself with competent staff and having a Speaker of the House that was bi-partisan.
Or say Trump, who let his son-in-law play Secretary of State. Remember when he got locked out of the meeting room when he went to the bathroom. (What a moron). But mostly Trump ignored his cabinet and advisors, so yeah he was too old 25 years ago because again he's a moron.
Biden was not my first choice but he has one of the best, if not the best, group of advisors and cabinet members of any President. He is not as charismatic as Trump or Obama but in the last 3 months he has delivered two speeches that were effing amazing. In 4 years, Trump had no speeches that were even mediocre. Plus,Trump always lied several times in every speech.
If you look at all of the legislation that Biden has passed, plus the economy, plus his foreign policy, I'd still vote for him if he was 90. Thank goodness Biden didn't have the Fascist CINOs in the House during his first two years.
Gary, I obviously do NOT completely disagree with you. As I noted, I will be supporting Biden all the way as right now, looking at the Democrats, there is still too much disarray to mount a credible campaign against Biden that would also be able to prevail over Trump. For the moment, Biden has to be our guy and we all need to support him. I just wish Biden had done more to put someone in place, particularly as VP, who would by now be a clearly worthy candidate. I personally adore Kamala, and I hope someday she gets where she SHOULD be, i.e., on the Supreme Court, but I don't see her with the executive leadership skills to be President. If it happens as a fluke, I am sure she will do fine, but I doubt she could win an election against Trump. And while there are plenty of really good credible Democrats out there (Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, the governor of Michigan, etc.) none of them have the current "street cred" to do it. So Biden it will have to be in 2024. And of course, Trump is a moron, but his base isn't believing it and in the end its his base that we have to defeat.
So yes, I agree, Biden has to be reelected and then hopefully by 2028, a really good 50ish-60ish year old President will emerge from the Democratic pack that we can all agree on as a consensus candidate. By that time, Trump will almost certainly be long gone from public opinion (although I have to admit i thought that would be true this year too and I was obviously wrong). And I agree 100% with your assessments. While I don't agree with everything he does or says, he has been one of the best Presidents in actuality during my lifetime (from 1952 onward). Although for the actual best, I would suggest (many may disagree, but that's okay) that the REAL "best" is the one who never got a second term, President Jimmy Carter. One of the worst things that ever happened to this country, IMHO, was the wool pulled over our eyes by the Reagan "landslide". Sigh... Gag...