Some thoughts on Hillary Clinton's comment: when I was in the military and stationed at USCENTCOM, we dealt, long-term, with the wily tactics of the Iranians in the Persian Gulf. One thing the IRGC Navy (yes, IRGC have a naval component too) did was, intermittently but with deliberateness, violate how close they came to our larger vessels. They were seemingly reckless behaviors that weren't. After a while, the reason became obvious: to desensitize us to their actions, so when the day came to REALLY try something audacious, we'd have our guard down, let them too close, while thinking, "Oh, it's just those Iranians acting crazy again." Well, Trump has done the same. To us. There's been SO much craziness, "unprecedented," and outright stupidity the past five years, we too have let our guard down. Things are said or done, sometimes daily, that 20 years ago would have everyone on full-alert. Now? The frog is nearly boiled. The media doesn't help, because THEY often can't see the forest for the trees either, STILL focus on the most outlandish, click-baity or visible moments, and have told us quite a few times how "disastrous" this or that thing is...and 24 or 48 hrs later, we move on; after a while it's just a big Boy Who Cried Wolf job...while the real wolf's been there all along. And, frankly, too few of us understand the pieces (or want to) of what's involved enough to accurately assess it for ourselves. Lastly, of course, we're also dealing with COVID and all that entails for closing in on two years as well--that part is understandable--so, we're worn out, den-sensitized, and partially ignorant...while the scared, desperate 1/3 of our population keeps trying to steal a march on us and steal the flag. Yes, we absolutely are in this moment--something that's existed and been swelling for nearly 11 months now--yet seem half-awake, and largely-incognizant of what's really happening or at stake. Unfortunately, it might take something Pearl Harbor/Fort Sumter-like in scale (I mean, we already had an INSURRECTION, and barely put down our cell phones) to change this.
Very much agree. We as a Country are numb. We have been battered for 5 hard years. There is only so much trauma and drama people can take. The Republicans have embraced an anti-Democratic rhetoric so unheard of before that people really can't comprehend the seriousness of it. They think politicians and Fox, Newsmax, OAN and others are just popping off like trump. They fail to see the deadly message embedded in the raucous lies. I sometimes wonder if these people getting rich off the lies they are spreading have a true idea that they are involved in an attempt to destroy Democracy. I fully believe the MAGA Cult members have absolutely no idea how miserable their lives would be under a Dictatorship.
We need to support people such as HRC, Jennifer Rubin, James Carville, John Meacham and members of the Lincoln Project and most importantly the Biden Administration who are beating the drum of Democracy. We can continue to be awake to what is happening and to do what we can as an American.
Chet, that was Jocelyn’s beautiful voice and one of the many reasons I collaborate with her. We do it primarily for our own enjoyment but we like to share. Here are the words:
Jennifer Rubin is a columnist for the Washington Post. James Carville is a Democratic Strategist and is considered quite the sage when it comes to politics. James Meacham is a historian of great renown. Both Carville and Meacham told Brian Williams recently that Democracy is hanging by a thread. Yikes. Stuart Stevens of the Lincoln Project said the same thing yesterday. I support the Lincoln Project. They helped elect President Biden.
Barbara, I have seen John Meacham interviewed many times in recent years Here is a bit about him and a listing of the books he has written.
Jon Ellis Meacham is an American writer, reviewer, historian and presidential biographer. He has helped shape some of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s important speeches. A former executive editor and executive vice president at Random House, he is a contributing writer to The New York Times Book Review, a contributing editor to Time magazine, and a former editor-in-chief of Newsweek. (Wikipedia)
JON MEACHAM BOOKS IN ORDER
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
Voices in Our Blood (2001) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
Franklin and Winston (2003) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
American Gospel (2006) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
American Lion (2008) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (2012) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
Thomas Jefferson: President & Philospher (2014) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
Destiny and Power (2015) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
The Soul of America (2018) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
Songs of America (2019) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
The Hope of Glory (2020) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
In the Hands of the People (2020) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
His Truth Is Marching on (2020) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
@RobertMcTague You are spot on. Thank You very much for posting this.
I spent 10 hours a week volunteering and thousands of dollars in Dem political donations last year through Jan 5th and now I am bombarded w daily political email that scream
louder and louder and yet I ignore them because I am exhausted, need to focus on my own life, my non political business and my family and no longer have the energy for the intense fight I showed up for a year and more ago.
I agree that this is “an urgent existential crisis” and yet all I can do is keep my monthly donations to Dems going, read HCR daily, try to stay informed and post some on social media but I do not want to make one phone call, send one text or postcard to register more Dems or fight for Texas women or even climate change!
I am spent! Help! What to do??
what are you all doing now?
I am so grateful for the community of intelligent democracy loving fellows.
Cara, I often feel like you do. I’m simply exhausted by all the threats and trying my damnedest to save democracy with postcards, letters, whatever. And I , too, feel like I’m neglecting my personal life. So what I’ve found helpful is to take breaks. Every Sunday, for example. One or two days during the week. I find doing something away every day doesn’t help as much, but full (or nearly full) days helps more. Also less news and more music. If you recharge your batteries they will propel you longer. Yesterday I went to the post office for a new supply of stamps and postcards and now I’m ready for another round of communications. Oh, and if this fits for you, a little wine doesn’t hurt either. Good luck.
During the Vietnam War, the Quakers sent little plastic bags with rice to the White House. The government never mentioned it at the time, but decades later, when some secret documents became abailable, it was discovered that the government had discussed this peaceful measssge at length. No effort made in good faith is wasted.
The weekends are away from the news for me. This weekend we will work out in the yard getting it ready for winter....I am starting to prune back roses....and I will cook a stew for the week on Sunday while listening to Sunday Brunch (10-1 PDT) on All Classical which you can stream. They are working to be inclusive in their music and so you will hear lots of composers and musicians that are new at least to me. I also read a lot staying away from political books. I am a mystery fan and right now I am reading about five female writers who the author calls outsiders...Mary Shelley, Emily Bronte, George Eliot, Olive Schreiner, and Virginia Woolf. I am fortunate in that I am retired and also an introvert, so I don't mind the COVID restrictions too much. We are getting our booster tomorrow.
I used to spend huge amounts of time reading historical romances or sewing. Now I have trouble focusing. I can’t get through a book because my mind won’t relax. Now I waste time playing iPad games and jumping back to the news. I’m working very hard at breaking that cycle.
I understand that problem. When I have monkey mind, it's time to do breathing exercises or meditation. Years ago when I found myself unable to focus and also had neck issues, I found reiki and that has helped me tremendously since. It hooks me into the energy of the universe as do the other things I mention in this post and that helps me to relax. Also I do not feel compelled to finish every book I start. If i can't get into it, I put it down. I have two, one on cotton slavery and one on the forced expulsion of Native Americans from the east to west of the Mississippi, that made me so angry that I had to put them down. I am sill not ready to take them up again.
I’m right there with you. Only I listen to audiobooks while I play, and don’t go to the news at all. I’ve had a very very difficult year on a personal level, and am finding that reading new fiction is just too much for me right now. I’m rereading old favorites. Sometimes on incessant repeat! Harry Potter got me through cancer treatment, and here I am, listening to it again.
We watched the entire Harry Potter movies during my husbands recovery from prostate cancer surgery recovery. It was tough for him to go from working every day to nothing. I am trying to get back to sewing but the 500 Covid masks I made last year wiped me out so bad I couldn’t look at a machine again.
Disclaimer: Retired , although cared for beloved dad with dementia who lived with us almost 3 years before he passed away several months ago. I now have the emotional energy to do, as Annette, postcards, letters, emails. I live in a RED FL county so I connected with a neighboring FL House Rep who is young and progressive. Just reading her weekly updates gives me hope and suggests ways to help including voter reg at local colleges which could be fun.
I love to read, especially historical fiction. I try to read all my news to avoid the drama of the talking heads. Household rule is no television at dinner, just music and non-political convo. A lot of yoga, meditation/deep breathing especially with brain spin in the middle of the night. Daily gratitude…..and wine :)
Hi, again. Do you have any interest in joining a subset of this group for community and activism? We call ourselves "Heather's Herd". If so, just send an e-mail to heathersherd@gmail.com and I or Ellie Kona will respond.
We are kindred spirits for sure! Less news, more music, a mellow-glowing candle, and a glass or two of wine — perfect salve for such world-weary exhaustion!
Thanks for responding! I take loads of breaks but I still have a business and family to run… would love to hear more from others here what you are (or are not!) doing politically during this existential time…
Cara, boy do I feel you especially on the issue of making calls. Take a break, renew and when you are ready get back in the fight. Although it seems like you are continuing to contribute and you should not be so hard on yourself.
Hello. I was looking forward to hearing this. I can see and feel the horses slow heavy energy and the darkened stable :). Thank you for that image. Unfortunately it won’t let me open it. Not sure if you can repost? Thanks.
For all of you who fight the good fight and find yourselves exhausted, frustrated, disheartened, my professional advice is to see your truth of how you feel, acknowledge it, and open your heart to yourself that that is your truth in this moment. In over 35 years of medical practice, the only thing I've ever seen really heal someone is self-compassion. But it needs to be for your truth in this moment. Open-heartedly witnessing your truth will, indeed, set you free.
Thank you Robert, i have felt this is exactly what the extremists on the right have been doing, little by little taking more and more. But what can we do when our own agencies and legal solutions continue to allow them to run rampant over our democracy with no punishment? Thank you for your service, i know this makes it that much harder to watch.
Robert McT, … and don’t you just feel like a voice crying in the wilderness when you post this.
The irony of today’s two topics on HCR is that a light is being shined on the medium being the message in the Facebook hearings. While that medium and its flood of messages has desensitized us so completely that we now have these wonderful broad fully accessible media platforms which we can all partake in yet it leaves us completely powerless to have an effect on the actual world where the GOP has been busy transmuting fact to fantasy.
Meanwhile Mr. Zuckerberg (Sugarhill?) is pushing the Next Big Thing; the Metaverse, which will make our disassociation with reality complete.
This is a brilliant clarion call. Thank you for taking the time to write it, Robert.
The danger is almost inconceivable and is often demonstrated in seemingly small bits of news.
For example, a Washington judge made news the other day when she sentenced a 1/6 rioter to *more than the prosecution had asked for*. It seems there has been a disturbing pattern of accused getting extraordinarily light sentences.
Could there be any more telling example of either a) how feckless the DOJ has become or b) how deeply it is in the grip of Trump loyalists?
The Supremes have emerged from obscurity recently to make earnest speeches whose intent is to prop up their legitimacy. “Nothing to see here” is the general theme. Just business as usual, rockin’ the shadow docket.
When has this ever happened?
The “When the cat’s away, the mouse will play” act going on in Idaho where the Lieutenant Governor, in a spasm of energy that arose from the governor’s absence from the state, issued an executive order banning all institutions in the state from issuing mask mandates or vaccination requirements. The Governor has announced he will repeal the results of his adjunct’s brazen quest for attention, but once again we are seeing democracy taking a pummeling, this time in the “great” state of Idaho, which incidentally is near rock bottom in handling this wave of the pandemic.
When things get to the point of, “You can’t make this stuff up”, one can be sure that a serious reckoning lies ahead. It’s a question of when, not if, a moment of historic violence acts as a catalyst for chaos.
Maybe, in the soon to be immortal words of Mike Pence on “a single day in January”.
I wish I could say that I myself am desensitized, but if my blood pressure is any indication, I'm on high alert ALL the time, anticipating the worst every moment...because it seems the "worst" is just around the bend. The debt ceiling debacle may do it once and for all.
The GOP Fascist Party seems to be unaware that they too will become extinguished in this boiling cauldron, not only politically, but financially. Unless they are among the billionaires whose hidden assets are off shore, unless they have undisclosed safe locations, not a single one of them will be safe when their constituent "base" loses savings, social security, Medicare, jobs and the roofs over their heads. And these constituents are the white supremacist base - angry, out of control, violent, and ARMED. So Mitch better watch his back - he's in as much danger playing with this fire as anyone on either side of the aisle. My two cents.
As as been said time and again, our democracy will not be destroyed like the quick and dramatic implosion of a building, but like the slow and unstoppable flow of lava.
What we are seeing with the actions of the Senate Republicans is proof that there are no "good Republicans" left. Rmoney came out and declared himself in favor of filibustering the debt vote. Murkowski dithers but does nothing. And that @#$%#$#!! Susan Collins has the gall to say that if the Democrats dropped the reconciliation BBB bill, that they could have a debt ceiling vote. There isn't one of them who isn't The Enemy of this country.
TC, we've had "reborn Christians", reborn Trumpsters and why not reborn Repugs...once this is over. Everyone of them will spin in the wind if and when Trump etc desolve into dust......or we'll have reborn Dems à la Manchin/Sinema who were always on the side of power. Power for power's sake is what drives them all to one degree or another.
I access this on my Twitter account. It allows users to Bookmark posts and make lists to organize other Twitter accounts you are interested in. You can name your lists.
For the record, mine are set to Private because a lot of people don’t like to be on public lists. Because mine are private I can’t share them.
Good morning, TC. If default would only damage Americans, I would say, "Fine, let's just default the MFer and learn a good lesson the hard way!" But, given that we would drag the whole world down with us, that is not a good option at all. No the Democrats need to wrap their minds around this. Either they pass voting, infrastructure and the BBB bills in something close to their original form, or the lagers await us. Not, not free beer.
Tell that to Manchin, the man who doesn't have a mind to be changed. What he said this morning is the dumbest-ass shit I have ever heard from any politician, anywhere, ever.
It still sickens me. Hillary was one of the most qualified presidential candidates to ever run. But decades of character assassination by the GOP and plain old sexism made her unelectable. We are our own worst enemies.
Thank you Grace. Listening to this I’m asking myself if Republicans are really worse now or just more visible, because I sure don’t understand how this person could keep getting re-elected all those years. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE
Maine's Sen. Susan Collins was swept into office last year by a broad coalition. She will not be primaried or 'Cheneyed' but is still on board with the ReaganMcConnellTrump anti government agenda and tactics.
Susan Collins like Ted Stevens has finessed the art of buying loyalty with her constituents by bringing home “pork”, and lots of it. Looking back at her Facebook page from the months leading up to the election highlighting all her special projects and $$ she brought to her base plus, could serve as a lesson on how to secure your Senate seat for years to come.
Yes and so far, with the manipulation of re districting and gerrymandering they are doing just that...holding on to power by drawing crazy shaped districts that huddle all dems in one place and effectively reduce the impact of their voices. I recommend David Litt's new book DEMOCRACY IN ONE BOOK OR LESS. Lays out so clearly how we have come to where we are and wonderful engaging read.
And wasn’t Collins explaining her position against federal voting oversight because her state has high turnout so she doesn’t think the federal government should interfere with her state’s election process. Shouldn’t interfere with any state’s process. Is she simply unaware of what has been going on with the obstruction template used by all those states hell bent on suppression?
About the only positive thing to be said about Susan Collins is that she's a bit less gauche than most of her fellow insurrectionists. But, you sure wouldn't want to buy a used car from her.
"The documents I have provided to Congress prove that Facebook has repeatedly misled the public about what it's own research reveals about the safety of children, the efficacy of its artificial intelligence systems and its role in spreading divisive and extreme messages. I came forward because I believe that every human being deserves the dignity of truth." - Seems Francis Haugen is a candidate for the Nobel Peace Price.
Somebody tell Rupert Murdoch, his ownership of the WSJ does not erase the Fox catastrophe. Buying the WSJ was his smoothest move yet, his claim to legitimacy, when he has none.
“I will flatly say that the bulk of this country’s white population impresses me, and has so impressed me for a very long time, as being beyond any conceivable hope of moral rehabilitation. They have been white, if I may so put it, too long: the effect on their personalities, their lives, their grasp of reality, has been as devastating as the lava which so memorably immobilized the citizens of Pompeii. They are unable to conceive that their version of reality, which they want me to accept, is an insult to my history and a parody of theirs and an intolerable violation of myself. James Baldwin, “The Price May Be Too High,” The New York Times, February 2, 1969.”
How then, do we deal with those whom Baldwin condemns "as being beyond any conceivable hope of moral rehabilitation"? Some try to evade the problem by moving to a quaint Maine fishing port, a bucolic Adirondack farm, a gated community in Florida or Arizona or even choose to live outside of the country in places like France or Mexico. Others remain here, usually in our urban centers where these different versions of reality visibly clash on a daily basis. And Baldwin identifies the believers in one of those versions as "the bulk of this country's white population" seventy-four million of whom voted for that perverted version of reality in 2020 and are trying to enshrine it in our educational system wherever they can. Dealing with this is challenging, to say the least. I hope succeeding generations are up to it.
I saved HCR’s 10/4 post for this evening, followed immediately by reading this evening’s post. And…
I’m a musician, not a political scientist, and, given the current state of our union, my soul’s stuck in a spin cycle with a lopsided load. Thanks to Heather’s research and posts, I’m grateful to be learning more about who we are as a nation - irrespective of our troubling past and present. I can only hope more of US awake from our sociopolitical slumbers before it’s too late.
I actually proved this when I had a EEG a few years ago and had the music I had been playing going through my brain while they took the scan. The EEG was totally lit up. The neurologist was quite impressed!
Chopin's etudes, any of them, do the same for me, that and oddly, certain Punk tunes. My wife plays traditional Irish music, and I imagine she and the other musicians get the same effect during a seisiun. I also tend my garden (BUMPER crop of fall-bearing raspberries this year), and try to provide a spiritual/mental/emotional refuge to my family, friends and co-workers. The trick is to stay connected to as large a world/purpose as I can manage. Seems to work most of the time :)
In high school, I was fairly miserable. I would come home and crash out Chopin for an hour or so, and then I could deal with it all again. Definitely Chopin for me too. My animals provide me peace these days. I don’t have that high school roller coaster of emotion anymore, thank God!
Good music 🎵 and our beloved animals >^..^< <^<<, the love of my wife, family and friends, home - inside and out, my faith… With these things I live and give thanks. Without them…
These are the things that give our lives meaning. Like you, I cherish them - and it’s almost the same list of things, subbing husband for wife. And books!
My music lives on another branch of that tree. I find that (as a wind band tuba player) marches, polkas, and overtures fill that bill for me. I'm also getting involved in today's "brass band" music (more like a New Orleans street band with brass, saxes, and percussion that the British Brass Band of conical brass ((with the exception of trombones)) which allows for more improvisation in all lines.
Sadly, I don't have the ability to play Chopin or Bach--studied piano for 8 years, but you'd never know to hear me fumble through anything! But I sang, and sang professionally for over 30 years. Apropos of that and the effect of singing on the brain, I offer this little snippet that's been making the round on the interwebs among us voice types, which you may have seen, of Anderson Cooper's interview for 60 Minutes with the great singer Tony Bennett. At 95, he is suffering from Alzheimer's now and can barely communicate due to an impaired memory--BUT he can still sing!! It's weird how the brain is wired to remember songs and music clearly when everything else has faded. Cooper was moved to tears at the sight, and was floored by the awesome power of music and singing. Have a hanky nearby...
I'm a violinist so the Bach Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin are quite satisfying. I also like to listen to the Bach B minor Mass conducted by John Nelson at Notre Dame Paris (recorded before the fire). Fifty years ago I had an incredible spiritual experience performing the Mass under John Nelson (the very first time he conducted it) when I was playing in the Aspen Chamber Orchestra at the Aspen Music Festival! Used the Kyrie for my wedding processional (solemn and joyful at the same time).
Have you heard of Joshua McClain? He plays cello in a live fb feed nearly every Tuesday and Thursday, and uploads them to YouTube, as well. It's not classical music, but I don't know how to classify it except to say that he is innovative and uses a looping program.
Especially Yo Yo Ma playing No. 1. Probably my all time favorite piece of music. I remember one West Wing episode where they used it. Maybe I should watch West Wing again!
Zuckerberg seems to have learned at the knee of McConnell. That is to lie and obfuscate without shame to maintain power. As for the debt ceiling, I hope the Democrats don't blink. Biden needs to address the nation now on the looming catastrophe and who's causing it.
I liked hearing that Secretary of Treasury Yellen is doing everything she can to gain more time before the US would have to default on its debt. I bet she is also talking to the Federal Reserve and World Bank about other temporary stays to buy more time. That might give Democrats the time to get the BBB bill ready so the debt ceiling and the BBB could be done together by reconciliation. The world must think we've gone mad and are getting quite anxious. It is hard to believe that even insane Republicans would allow default! I wrote to my two senators each twice today on this asking them not to take the country over an economic cliff. United States would never recover any standing in the world. I hope Secretary Yellen can pull something out of the hat. She certainly is the right person at the right time.
I wrote my KY Senators weeks ago to stop playing chicken with $15 trillion in wealth and the 69 million people who receive social security. I received a reply from Rand Paul that was the tired GOP rhetoric about belt tightening.
As long as Facebook continues to make money, the business model will not change. Their model is not based on being purveyors of truth or moral righteousness or even doing the right thing. They couldn't give a rats ass. They are no more than social deviates that get paid well. I'm hoping this public airing will give a couple of College kids a gameplan to start their own Social Media platform.
I live in racist Central New York. It's a historic hotbed of the KKK. The Museum which I am the Director , has archived plenty of KKK material. Including a full women's Klan gown. I assure you none of these items will ever go on exhibit as long as I'm there.
Yesterday morning on a local news page which posts to Facebook was an article regarding Black Nascar driver Bubba Wallace winning the first Nascar Cup Series race since 1963. I'm not a Nascar fan, but happy for him and I gave it a "like". I then noticed I was the only person that gave the story affirmation. Every other person gave it either a laughing or mad emoji. I noticed the first comment was a canned meme of Bubba Wallace with the line " Best Race Card Driver of All Time". This comment, ofcourse was wildly popular. I reported it to Facebook as Hate Speech/ Racist. Within minutes I received the canned "This does not go against Community Standards ....". I asked for it to be reviewed. 5 minutes later, the same line of " After reviewing, it does not go against Community Standards". So, here we are.
I had a conversation with a software designer who said, "I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook implemented its own racist and knowingly incorrect memes just to stoke the fires". I'm starting to think that isn't outlandish.
As the days go by, it appears the GOP smoke and mirrors plan of diversion and division to gain sole control of the Whitehouse in 2022/2024 is coming to fruition.
How did we win the Whitehouse, but lose the Country in less than 2 years?
Linda, thanks for this post. You will be amused to hear that I got dinged and a post removed because I linked ANOTHER FB PAGE that celebrates the fact that KC has a bridge over Independence Avenue with only a 12 foot clearance, and that this bridge is constantly being rammed by stupid dumbass truckers who think running at top speed at the bridge will somehow cause it to move. Instead, their containers get ripped in half horizontally and they total their rigs. The popular nickname for this bridge is "Chompy." Apparently, FB considers my presentation of such truckers as stupid to be inappropriate. It is entirely obvious that their value system is based on profit, and that (like some not-the-news services) extremist speech is profitable.
I'm apparently lucky that I have not had a similar experience. I have also abandoned almost completely political posts on Facebook; I was giving too much space in my head to "friends" of mine that were posting insane drivel and outright seditious lies.
I do have a Facebook account and I enjoy hearing from my ex-students, family, and friends, far and near. I confess to taking someone on now and then. I have a very long list of people I have blocked as well.
Ironically, where I am there is a railroad bridge along Onondaga Lake they trims the top off of trucks almost weekly despite the numerous warnings.
I have a friend that posted to friends only, a picture from her Grand daughters birthday party. She was tossed in FB jail for 30 days because the algorithm picked up a balloon that they claim stated hate speach. The balloon said "Happy 5th Birthday".
Every single racist and hateful meme or comment I have reported to FB has received that same inane brush off. I quit trying, assuming that its algorithms and employees are exactly like its owner - racist.
The Bubba Wallace comment is clearly racist, but is it hate speech? I'm ambivalent. Racism is embedded in the culture, and cultural changes that are legislated or mandated don't stick.
"Racism is so deeply rooted in the makeup of American society that it has been able to reassert itself after each successive wave of reform aimed at eliminating it."**
** New Yorker, Sept. 20, story on attorney Derrick Bell's conclusion after working for years with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. We now know this body of thought as critical race theory.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! Nothing really akin to a silver bullet here, but some feel good thoughts as we trudge through this mess!
Yesterday Hubbell wrote: "Last week, the Senate Parliamentarian confirmed that Democrats could increase the debt ceiling by majority vote on a reconciliation bill. Importantly, the use of the reconciliation process to increase the debt ceiling would not preclude Democrats from using the reconciliation process to also pass the 'Build Back Better' bill." He goes on to explain why Democrats are resisting this path: https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/todays-edition-democrats-have-a-path/comments
Morning Lynell, Rowshan and all. At last things are heating up to the point where the filibuster has got to go for finance and voting bills....or indeed for anything specifically permitted the Feds by the constitution.....or Biden's Presidencey, the Dems and the country go down the tubes and it's about time!. It's going to be "interesting times" this winter.
So I posted in haste as to the debt ceiling. Sorry! I discovered that the seemingly simple answer found in Hubbell's newsletter is lacking. Here is a more detailed explanation about the choices available. The last one seems the most viable: "Democrats could extend the debt ceiling on their own by creating a new exception to the filibuster rule. I've long seen this as the easiest and most obvious solution, and some members of the Senate Democratic caucus are starting to come to the same conclusion.
"Indeed, if the Democratic majority gets to a point where they're saying, 'Republicans crashed the economy on purpose, but don't worry, the filibuster rule remains intact,' that's going to be an awfully tough sell to voters and the rest of the world." Steve Benen of MSNBC.
“The GOP’s threat to use a catastrophic financial default as a partisan bargaining chit is despicable, reckless, and heartless. The GOP is gambling with the financial security of all Americans as they gleefully watch Democrats (and the American people) twist in the wind. What kind of person does that?” -Robert Hubbell
I just started reading his work, Ally. He's a "glass-half-full" type, for sure, but it fortifies me when I read the "sky-is-falling" opinions...morning!!
Robert Hubbell’s wife, Jill, has a blog that focuses on gardening, but really encompasses the therapeutic value of being outdoors and savoring the small, daily treasures around us.
For a lovely, light counterbalance to the heavy stuff:
Zuckerberg is lying about his company's business model. Dr. R quoted him: "He says ... it is 'deeply illogical' that they 'deliberately push content that makes people angry for profit.' 'It’s very important' to him, he says, 'that everything we build is safe and good for kids.'"
This isn't true, and Zuckerberg knows it. It is, in fact, the heart of their business model. His first outside investor, Peter Thiel, studied philosophy at Stanford, partly under the tutelate of René Girard. Girard was an anthropologist turned theologian then at Stanford. Girard's understanding of human nature is that we're wired for envy: for craving what others have. That may have been adaptive in early hominid history when we lived in small tribes competing for resources with one another.
Thiel saw the potential for a business to exploit that Girardian human wiring, and so kicked half a million bucks to Zuckerberg to get them started.
By making it easy for people to compare themselves with one another, the business uses our craving tendency to keep us on their app for a long time each day (they call that "engagement"). That lets them sell more ads. We all know they've automated the process of deciding what to show each of us in order to pump up their engagement numbers. We all know envy and indignation keep us engaged, and Zuckerberg's algorithms know it too.
Zuckerberg said it's "deeply illogical" they would do this. It's actually "deeply immoral," and obviously so. For a world-dominating business it's also deeply logical. His rhetoric is sneaky: he hopes legislators, and the rest of us, will believe his company would never do something like that by claiming it's not logical to be so profoundly immoral. I hope legislators aren't taken in by that.
With respect, I disagree that he's like a teenager (leastways like the teenagers I know). He isn't impulsive. He understands the consequences of his actions.
His publicly visible tweaks to Facebook and other properties over the years show evidence that he continuously employs crisis public relations teams to help him guess how much he can get away with, and for how long, and what to do when he gets caught.
Restated: Zuckerberg is most certainly a conniving narcissist. He heads the biggest social media enterprise in the world yet lacks any social conscience. He utterly lacks the wisdom of a fully mature adult. And yet he is shaping our world. What could possibly go wrong?
I am a tech Neanderthal who has never tweeted nor used Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snap, or other ‘essential’ social media. E-mail suits me just fine. Still, I am concerned by the affect these instant communication vehicles have on our body politic and on the shallowness of any dialogue on matters that should be important to Americans. I relish that Heather’s Letters provide a staccato counterpoint to this hurricane of ‘stuff.’
My personal concern was sparked by how Trump and his sycophants used Twitter as their springboard to national demagoguery. The credo of ‘false facts’ (Trump’s statement ‘don’t believe in what you see or hear, believe in me’) reminds me of Goebbels and George Orwell’s 1984. I was heartened when Twitter finally blocked Trump’s access, though this is only a small finger in the dike that should represent a balance between public interest and crass hucksterism.
Even my technical ignorance has not blocked my disgust for and fear of Zuckerberg. His supreme arrogance, his distance from truthfulness, and his profit-over-all-monopolistic-megalomania render him a public menace. I have no precise idea how modern social media should be constrained by what I consider to be the public interest. However, the excessive crassness of Zuckerberg and Facebook may provide the spark that launches a serious discussion and, perhaps, legislation leading to dome government oversight.
I recall how, more than 60 years ago, televised hearings of Mafia big wigs led to a public awareness of the scope and sordidness of the mafioso octopus. Those Mafia dons gave a personal face to their skullduggery. I hope that flushing Zuckerberg out of his cave and into the glare of public scrutiny might have a similar affect today. Something is amiss with our unfettered modern social media. We have a vacillating history of anti-trustism since Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft took up an anti-trust cudgel more than a century ago. I hope that this cudgel might be used better ‘regulate’ modern social media monopolies.
Teddy created a bully pulpit from which he could mobilize public opinion while pursuing, at times, clearly different behind-the-scenes activities. In his 1904 presidential election campaign, he publicly thrashed some of the largest corporations, while accepting campaign contributions from them, Afterwards, when presented with the evidence, he denied it and kept the contributions. Bored by economics, he reluctantly returned from a hunting trip in the midst of the 1907 financial crisis. One of his arch public enemies, J. P. Morgan, came to the White and personally saved TR’s financial ass. While TR was a most vocal anti-truster, I believe that more successful anti-trust suits were accomplished under the Taft administration. Personally, I relish TR’s style and accomplishments, but I believe that Taft, who, among other things, saved TR’s butt in the Philippines, has been underrated in history.
Keith, Mention of TR reminds me of our annexation and war against the Philippines. Are they not another example of America's penchant for war and the resulting the bounty?
'Spain ceded its longstanding colony of the Philippines to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. On February 4, 1899, just two days before the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty, fighting broke out between American forces and Filipino nationalists led by Emilio Aguinaldo who sought independence rather than a change in colonial rulers. The ensuing Philippine-American War lasted three years and resulted in the death of over 4,200 American and over 20,000 Filipino combatants. As many as 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence, famine, and disease.'
'The decision by U.S. policymakers to annex the Philippines was not without domestic controversy. Americans who advocated annexation evinced a variety of motivations: desire for commercial opportunities in Asia, concern that the Filipinos were incapable of self-rule, and fear that if the United States did not take control of the islands, another power (such as Germany or Japan) might do so. Meanwhile, American opposition to U.S. colonial rule of the Philippines came in many forms, ranging from those who thought it morally wrong for the United States to be engaged in colonialism, to those who feared that annexation might eventually permit the non-white Filipinos to have a role in American national government. Others were wholly unconcerned about the moral or racial implications of imperialism and sought only to oppose the policies of President William McKinley’s administration.'
'After the Spanish-American War, while the American public and politicians debated the annexation question, Filipino revolutionaries under Aguinaldo seized control of most of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and proclaimed the establishment of the independent Philippine Republic. When it became clear that U.S. forces were intent on imposing American colonial control over the islands, the early clashes between the two sides in 1899 swelled into an all-out war. Americans tended to refer to the ensuing conflict as an “insurrection” rather than acknowledge the Filipinos’ contention that they were fighting to ward off a foreign invader.' (Department of State, Office of the Historian)
His attack on the whistle blower, while completely ineffective and ridiculous, was perceived and interpreted exactly for what it was: an immature and amateurish attempt to diss a competent and highly principled former employee. Such is the nature of that narcissistic pouty boy who sits at the helm of FB. He has no integrity, no soul, no anything - just money and a grand opinion of himself.
Ellen I saw an article this morning that related what is happening to Yucky Zucky and Facebook as prospective Black Swans (Nassim Talib’s book—Black Swans. He refers to unpredictable events that can have a massive impact and which, in retrospect, should not have been so surprising to perceptive individuals. (Example: ‘precipitous Afghan military collapse.’) He mentioned the massive Facebook blackout as a possible Black Swan wake up call on being so dependent on a single humongous source. The insider whistleblower’s testimony overarching Yucky Zucky’s less-than-credible performance before Congress could be another Black Swan. Clearly Zucky has been Shaplen out of his
Oophs, my computer sent the above in mid-sentence. ‘Clearly Zucky has been shaken out of his Silicon Valley castle. With his arrogance and lack of credibility, he, and Facebook, are tempting targets in this Black Swan environment.
Black Swan is a new concept for me. I like your description of the "Silicon Valley castle." It IS interesting that the FB blackout occurred almost simultaneously with the testimony of the whistleblower. I heard also that she may be just the first to come forward - I hope this is true.
"The fall of the Republican Party into the hands of extremists who are willing to destroy it" is not really very new though is it?
Remember Newt Gingrich?
Extremism has been part of America since its beginning as your book: To Make Men Free ably outlines.
Remember burning teenage girls alive after convicting them based on hearsay from a local man or local male preacher or respected woman married to a respected man in Salem? The poor teenage girl may have done as little as rebuffing a man on a walking path. Or as much as shown some intelligence.
Remember Sunday hangings down in North Carolina, Alabama and (a bunch of other states) where the whole family came to the town square for some fun and games and to socialize with neighbors?
Remember John Wilkes Booth, as you note in your book, who heard Lincoln speak in ways that angered him because Lincoln recognized black folks as human?
Remember "Red Lining" under FDR no less? That system that still today fosters white segregation in the north?
Remember Reagan? "There he goes again" to Jimmy Carter who had run a balanced budget, avoided any unnecessary wars, and reasonably managed the tough situation of the post embargo America?
Republican Radical Fascism has migrated from Party to Party and currently resides in the Radical Fascist Right Republican party.
But, the philosophy has always been here. Somebody always wants to feel superior to somebody else, somebody always wants power, somebody always feels like violence is the way to power.
Once in a while, a John Adams comes along, and writes a Massachusetts Constitution with a pen sitting alone at a desk in his childhood home in Braintree, MA. Once in a while, those concepts find their way into a US Constitution.
And, once in a while there is a George Washington to recognize the value of such a document, and, step back from being King.
But, a lot of times? Somebody wants to be King.
Especially now that Corporations, which did not exist in John Adams time, pay off the King to do his bidding. Being King will make you rich.
If Mr. Blount is right, why not have a cloture vote on the debt ceiling bill, let the 5 or 6 go on the record in opposition, pass the bill and move on. This looks more dilatory all the time and much less like there is a principle involved.
The Lewis Act and reform of the Electoral Count Act should be priorities in both houses.
Yes, but if Senator Blunt's count is correct and Mr. Schumer is serious about getting it done the vote should end up being 90-10 based on the expectation that at least a couple of Independents/Democrats will vote against as some sort of protest.
At issue here seems to be how one group can impose its will over others without causing disaster. This has been the conundrum of human societies since time immemorial. For the past 245 years, the American Experiment has attempted to solve this problem by holding free and fair elections. This requires most of us to put the rights of others on an equal footing to our own (hence the rule of law). It seems a great many of us have trouble doing that. For a sizeable minority, the American Experiment ended on 11/8/16. For the majority, I believe, the American Experiment was revived on 1/6/21. That is the watershed.
How do Democrats and a few Republicans preserve the rule of law and our time honored decision making process without causing disaster?
1. Stop blaming and complaining (at least not as much), it keeps our attitudes negative and thinking small.
2. Ask "What is the highest purpose that can be served by my actions?"
3. Ask "Are the tools I have at hand useful/effective to enhance this purpose?" If not, pick up new ones.
4. Ask "Who will be helped by my actions?" If the answer isn't "everyone", it's probably not serving the highest purpose.
5. Set firm boundaries and stick to them. Rest, fun, and freedom from nonsense are necessary when doing any great work. The upcoming efforts over the next few years will be your Magnum Opus.
Power is never given. It is either transferred or taken.
Anyone calling for a "civil war" has obviously never been exposed to one. Such an war now would be a sad, spotty affair, that would take hundreds or even thousands of lives, and ruin millions more. Its effects would persist for generations.
Exactly. And those soldiers would be armed with the best weaponry available and fully trained to USE it effectively. Of course, a few remotely aimed rockets would put a quick end to anything a homegrown terrorist might endeavor. This was pointed out to me by a Marine friend.
And too many of them (including at least one family member) believe a civil war will be dramatic, exciting, thrilling, just, quick, surgical, decisive. And that we ALL will be better for it, reap the benefits, begin life anew and better than ever, blah blah blah. “Just do your research.” No clue of the disaster it would ignite. Exhausting.
Quick, surgical and decisive - like in Iraq? Afghanistan? and everywhere else? Like Kathy, I have a hard time envisioning the logistics. How many militia members dispersed over how many government bodies across 50 states and do they all have the same goals? do they have any ideas of how to set up a government? I do not want to experience that thank you. Not to mention the disruption of supply chains for EVERYTHING, even worse than what we experienced during COVID. I'm sure my concerns just scratch the surface, but I really don't think the majority of citizens want to experience this.
I left FB years ago for a number of reasons. Never liked that they were creating bubbles around people and only reinforcing what they already thought. I would never give my gender or right age because I did not want to have what they thought would be a great experience for an old lady.
I’m slow, but gone. They objected to a post almost identical to comment from Gen Milley re trump, then wanted my drivers lic. This from the ones whose data breach resulted in my info being on the dark web.
To my mind, it looks as if Congress is playing "Russian Roulette" with a revolver that has 5 chambers loaded rather than empty.
I cannot help but think that History (assuming there is history left after the game of Russian Roulette mentioned above) will not be kind to the Republiqan extremists, nor the Movement Conservatives that spawned them and have let them have their way.
I have often had the thought if there is any history left. I just had an argument yesterday with someone who confessed he lives in Oklahoma who was throwing around all the buzz words like nazis, socialism, communism, etc. He mentioned jack booted thugs as if those are liberals and I said yes, they are showing up and I named the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers as examples. He was whining about the gas tax, so I guess he doesn't need roads and of course, the southern border. Never did he demonstrate that he had any knowledge of the words he was throwing around....just kept repeating the far right talking points. This is what we are up against....crass ignorance and blind nationalism of true believers.
Some thoughts on Hillary Clinton's comment: when I was in the military and stationed at USCENTCOM, we dealt, long-term, with the wily tactics of the Iranians in the Persian Gulf. One thing the IRGC Navy (yes, IRGC have a naval component too) did was, intermittently but with deliberateness, violate how close they came to our larger vessels. They were seemingly reckless behaviors that weren't. After a while, the reason became obvious: to desensitize us to their actions, so when the day came to REALLY try something audacious, we'd have our guard down, let them too close, while thinking, "Oh, it's just those Iranians acting crazy again." Well, Trump has done the same. To us. There's been SO much craziness, "unprecedented," and outright stupidity the past five years, we too have let our guard down. Things are said or done, sometimes daily, that 20 years ago would have everyone on full-alert. Now? The frog is nearly boiled. The media doesn't help, because THEY often can't see the forest for the trees either, STILL focus on the most outlandish, click-baity or visible moments, and have told us quite a few times how "disastrous" this or that thing is...and 24 or 48 hrs later, we move on; after a while it's just a big Boy Who Cried Wolf job...while the real wolf's been there all along. And, frankly, too few of us understand the pieces (or want to) of what's involved enough to accurately assess it for ourselves. Lastly, of course, we're also dealing with COVID and all that entails for closing in on two years as well--that part is understandable--so, we're worn out, den-sensitized, and partially ignorant...while the scared, desperate 1/3 of our population keeps trying to steal a march on us and steal the flag. Yes, we absolutely are in this moment--something that's existed and been swelling for nearly 11 months now--yet seem half-awake, and largely-incognizant of what's really happening or at stake. Unfortunately, it might take something Pearl Harbor/Fort Sumter-like in scale (I mean, we already had an INSURRECTION, and barely put down our cell phones) to change this.
Very much agree. We as a Country are numb. We have been battered for 5 hard years. There is only so much trauma and drama people can take. The Republicans have embraced an anti-Democratic rhetoric so unheard of before that people really can't comprehend the seriousness of it. They think politicians and Fox, Newsmax, OAN and others are just popping off like trump. They fail to see the deadly message embedded in the raucous lies. I sometimes wonder if these people getting rich off the lies they are spreading have a true idea that they are involved in an attempt to destroy Democracy. I fully believe the MAGA Cult members have absolutely no idea how miserable their lives would be under a Dictatorship.
We need to support people such as HRC, Jennifer Rubin, James Carville, John Meacham and members of the Lincoln Project and most importantly the Biden Administration who are beating the drum of Democracy. We can continue to be awake to what is happening and to do what we can as an American.
Exactly.
Ok I wrote a song with my friend Jocelyn. It’s kind of a lament.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qx9wZVA6qbY&feature=share
You have a beautiful voice. Are the lyrics available anywhere...I can't quite understand them all.
Chet, that was Jocelyn’s beautiful voice and one of the many reasons I collaborate with her. We do it primarily for our own enjoyment but we like to share. Here are the words:
Is the world going crazy
Is the world going mad
If truth doesn’t matter
It’s so very sad
If your heart is full of hate
There’s no room for love
It’s a simple as 1, 2, 3
Wasted the time we had, but this time we have
I’ll spend it wondering
Is the world going crazy
Is the world going mad
It’s the human condition
But we are all we’ll ever have
Color is but a pigment
of your hateful imagination
Is the world going crazy
Is the world going mad
We’ve lost our Sunday School ways
It’s so very sad
If your heart is full of hate
There’s no room for love
It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3
wasted the time we had, but this time we have
Let’s spend it wondering how
We can have a world where
No one goes hungry
Or imagine if no one’s
Without habitation
Dare we work towards a world
Where the ground is finally level
And we at last see each other Eye to Eye
But if your heart is full of hate
There’s no room for love
It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3
Wasted the time we had, but this time we have
I don’t want to spend it wondering
Is the world going crazy
Is the world going mad
Only together can we solve
A world that’s going crazy
A world that’s going mad
Barbara, Thank you for the references we need to support. I’ll look them up.
Jennifer Rubin is a columnist for the Washington Post. James Carville is a Democratic Strategist and is considered quite the sage when it comes to politics. James Meacham is a historian of great renown. Both Carville and Meacham told Brian Williams recently that Democracy is hanging by a thread. Yikes. Stuart Stevens of the Lincoln Project said the same thing yesterday. I support the Lincoln Project. They helped elect President Biden.
Barbara, I have seen John Meacham interviewed many times in recent years Here is a bit about him and a listing of the books he has written.
Jon Ellis Meacham is an American writer, reviewer, historian and presidential biographer. He has helped shape some of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s important speeches. A former executive editor and executive vice president at Random House, he is a contributing writer to The New York Times Book Review, a contributing editor to Time magazine, and a former editor-in-chief of Newsweek. (Wikipedia)
JON MEACHAM BOOKS IN ORDER
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
Voices in Our Blood (2001) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
Franklin and Winston (2003) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
American Gospel (2006) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
American Lion (2008) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (2012) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
Thomas Jefferson: President & Philospher (2014) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
Destiny and Power (2015) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
The Soul of America (2018) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
Songs of America (2019) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
The Hope of Glory (2020) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
In the Hands of the People (2020) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
His Truth Is Marching on (2020) Hardcover Paperback Kindle
Thanks for this Fern.
.Sorry for the typo; his first name is - Jon.
Thanks again.
@RobertMcTague You are spot on. Thank You very much for posting this.
I spent 10 hours a week volunteering and thousands of dollars in Dem political donations last year through Jan 5th and now I am bombarded w daily political email that scream
louder and louder and yet I ignore them because I am exhausted, need to focus on my own life, my non political business and my family and no longer have the energy for the intense fight I showed up for a year and more ago.
I agree that this is “an urgent existential crisis” and yet all I can do is keep my monthly donations to Dems going, read HCR daily, try to stay informed and post some on social media but I do not want to make one phone call, send one text or postcard to register more Dems or fight for Texas women or even climate change!
I am spent! Help! What to do??
what are you all doing now?
I am so grateful for the community of intelligent democracy loving fellows.
Cara, I often feel like you do. I’m simply exhausted by all the threats and trying my damnedest to save democracy with postcards, letters, whatever. And I , too, feel like I’m neglecting my personal life. So what I’ve found helpful is to take breaks. Every Sunday, for example. One or two days during the week. I find doing something away every day doesn’t help as much, but full (or nearly full) days helps more. Also less news and more music. If you recharge your batteries they will propel you longer. Yesterday I went to the post office for a new supply of stamps and postcards and now I’m ready for another round of communications. Oh, and if this fits for you, a little wine doesn’t hurt either. Good luck.
During the Vietnam War, the Quakers sent little plastic bags with rice to the White House. The government never mentioned it at the time, but decades later, when some secret documents became abailable, it was discovered that the government had discussed this peaceful measssge at length. No effort made in good faith is wasted.
Wow
The weekends are away from the news for me. This weekend we will work out in the yard getting it ready for winter....I am starting to prune back roses....and I will cook a stew for the week on Sunday while listening to Sunday Brunch (10-1 PDT) on All Classical which you can stream. They are working to be inclusive in their music and so you will hear lots of composers and musicians that are new at least to me. I also read a lot staying away from political books. I am a mystery fan and right now I am reading about five female writers who the author calls outsiders...Mary Shelley, Emily Bronte, George Eliot, Olive Schreiner, and Virginia Woolf. I am fortunate in that I am retired and also an introvert, so I don't mind the COVID restrictions too much. We are getting our booster tomorrow.
I used to spend huge amounts of time reading historical romances or sewing. Now I have trouble focusing. I can’t get through a book because my mind won’t relax. Now I waste time playing iPad games and jumping back to the news. I’m working very hard at breaking that cycle.
I understand that problem. When I have monkey mind, it's time to do breathing exercises or meditation. Years ago when I found myself unable to focus and also had neck issues, I found reiki and that has helped me tremendously since. It hooks me into the energy of the universe as do the other things I mention in this post and that helps me to relax. Also I do not feel compelled to finish every book I start. If i can't get into it, I put it down. I have two, one on cotton slavery and one on the forced expulsion of Native Americans from the east to west of the Mississippi, that made me so angry that I had to put them down. I am sill not ready to take them up again.
I’m right there with you. Only I listen to audiobooks while I play, and don’t go to the news at all. I’ve had a very very difficult year on a personal level, and am finding that reading new fiction is just too much for me right now. I’m rereading old favorites. Sometimes on incessant repeat! Harry Potter got me through cancer treatment, and here I am, listening to it again.
Yes, totally relate- read Harry Potter during Chemo!
We watched the entire Harry Potter movies during my husbands recovery from prostate cancer surgery recovery. It was tough for him to go from working every day to nothing. I am trying to get back to sewing but the 500 Covid masks I made last year wiped me out so bad I couldn’t look at a machine again.
Kathy, I hope those personal difficulties have waned or evaporated completely!
Being retired makes all the difference! Thank you fir your midweek political work.
Disclaimer: Retired , although cared for beloved dad with dementia who lived with us almost 3 years before he passed away several months ago. I now have the emotional energy to do, as Annette, postcards, letters, emails. I live in a RED FL county so I connected with a neighboring FL House Rep who is young and progressive. Just reading her weekly updates gives me hope and suggests ways to help including voter reg at local colleges which could be fun.
I love to read, especially historical fiction. I try to read all my news to avoid the drama of the talking heads. Household rule is no television at dinner, just music and non-political convo. A lot of yoga, meditation/deep breathing especially with brain spin in the middle of the night. Daily gratitude…..and wine :)
Hi, Kathy.....which "red" county are you in? I am in red Pasco County.
Greetings from across the way.I’m on the east coast in Brevard County.
Hi, again. Do you have any interest in joining a subset of this group for community and activism? We call ourselves "Heather's Herd". If so, just send an e-mail to heathersherd@gmail.com and I or Ellie Kona will respond.
Annette,
We are kindred spirits for sure! Less news, more music, a mellow-glowing candle, and a glass or two of wine — perfect salve for such world-weary exhaustion!
Thanks for responding! I take loads of breaks but I still have a business and family to run… would love to hear more from others here what you are (or are not!) doing politically during this existential time…
Art, bookbinding, news moratoriums and pleasure reading (mystery fiction mostly).
Cara, boy do I feel you especially on the issue of making calls. Take a break, renew and when you are ready get back in the fight. Although it seems like you are continuing to contribute and you should not be so hard on yourself.
This is a special day
…a good day to meditate and start something new, with the new Moon in Libra saying “Can’t we all just get along?”
https://www.icloud.com/notes/0t7Nw5gdchBoQWAsp3QR0tkrg
Hello. I was looking forward to hearing this. I can see and feel the horses slow heavy energy and the darkened stable :). Thank you for that image. Unfortunately it won’t let me open it. Not sure if you can repost? Thanks.
The image on the meditation video is of counyty scenes, not of the stable. https://www.icloud.com/notes/0t7Nw5gdchBoQWAsp3QR0tkrg
I played this to mgy three old mares after lunch today as they relaxed in the stable, which is dark inside (flies dont like dark olaces)
…places. I wish you could have seen them all, lower lips loose, eyes closed, snooring softly…
I take breaks such as a lot of walking and non-political reading. We have to pace ourselves.
For all of you who fight the good fight and find yourselves exhausted, frustrated, disheartened, my professional advice is to see your truth of how you feel, acknowledge it, and open your heart to yourself that that is your truth in this moment. In over 35 years of medical practice, the only thing I've ever seen really heal someone is self-compassion. But it needs to be for your truth in this moment. Open-heartedly witnessing your truth will, indeed, set you free.
@Steven M Hall, MD - That’s Beautiful!! Thank You. 💜
Thank you Robert, i have felt this is exactly what the extremists on the right have been doing, little by little taking more and more. But what can we do when our own agencies and legal solutions continue to allow them to run rampant over our democracy with no punishment? Thank you for your service, i know this makes it that much harder to watch.
Robert McT, … and don’t you just feel like a voice crying in the wilderness when you post this.
The irony of today’s two topics on HCR is that a light is being shined on the medium being the message in the Facebook hearings. While that medium and its flood of messages has desensitized us so completely that we now have these wonderful broad fully accessible media platforms which we can all partake in yet it leaves us completely powerless to have an effect on the actual world where the GOP has been busy transmuting fact to fantasy.
Meanwhile Mr. Zuckerberg (Sugarhill?) is pushing the Next Big Thing; the Metaverse, which will make our disassociation with reality complete.
I can only marvel.
This is a brilliant clarion call. Thank you for taking the time to write it, Robert.
The danger is almost inconceivable and is often demonstrated in seemingly small bits of news.
For example, a Washington judge made news the other day when she sentenced a 1/6 rioter to *more than the prosecution had asked for*. It seems there has been a disturbing pattern of accused getting extraordinarily light sentences.
Could there be any more telling example of either a) how feckless the DOJ has become or b) how deeply it is in the grip of Trump loyalists?
The Supremes have emerged from obscurity recently to make earnest speeches whose intent is to prop up their legitimacy. “Nothing to see here” is the general theme. Just business as usual, rockin’ the shadow docket.
When has this ever happened?
The “When the cat’s away, the mouse will play” act going on in Idaho where the Lieutenant Governor, in a spasm of energy that arose from the governor’s absence from the state, issued an executive order banning all institutions in the state from issuing mask mandates or vaccination requirements. The Governor has announced he will repeal the results of his adjunct’s brazen quest for attention, but once again we are seeing democracy taking a pummeling, this time in the “great” state of Idaho, which incidentally is near rock bottom in handling this wave of the pandemic.
When things get to the point of, “You can’t make this stuff up”, one can be sure that a serious reckoning lies ahead. It’s a question of when, not if, a moment of historic violence acts as a catalyst for chaos.
Maybe, in the soon to be immortal words of Mike Pence on “a single day in January”.
Thanks for your articulation. Many of us feel hopelessness and helplessness. Want to grab my walker and join a counter insurrection.
Me too! What a sight we would be. And yet. Here we are hobbled by Covid.
GAWD, how I wish I didn’t have to “like” your comment, Robert.
Well said.
I wish I could say that I myself am desensitized, but if my blood pressure is any indication, I'm on high alert ALL the time, anticipating the worst every moment...because it seems the "worst" is just around the bend. The debt ceiling debacle may do it once and for all.
The GOP Fascist Party seems to be unaware that they too will become extinguished in this boiling cauldron, not only politically, but financially. Unless they are among the billionaires whose hidden assets are off shore, unless they have undisclosed safe locations, not a single one of them will be safe when their constituent "base" loses savings, social security, Medicare, jobs and the roofs over their heads. And these constituents are the white supremacist base - angry, out of control, violent, and ARMED. So Mitch better watch his back - he's in as much danger playing with this fire as anyone on either side of the aisle. My two cents.
As as been said time and again, our democracy will not be destroyed like the quick and dramatic implosion of a building, but like the slow and unstoppable flow of lava.
The volcano has erupted.
Midterms will tell the future of America.
Exactly Robert. The profound blindness to this growing danger does not bode well.
Excellent comment. Yep, time to put down our cell phones for a few minutes.
Spot on. Thank you for your service.
Robert, In the future, please spell out abbreviations and acronyms, thank you.
What we are seeing with the actions of the Senate Republicans is proof that there are no "good Republicans" left. Rmoney came out and declared himself in favor of filibustering the debt vote. Murkowski dithers but does nothing. And that @#$%#$#!! Susan Collins has the gall to say that if the Democrats dropped the reconciliation BBB bill, that they could have a debt ceiling vote. There isn't one of them who isn't The Enemy of this country.
TC, we've had "reborn Christians", reborn Trumpsters and why not reborn Repugs...once this is over. Everyone of them will spin in the wind if and when Trump etc desolve into dust......or we'll have reborn Dems à la Manchin/Sinema who were always on the side of power. Power for power's sake is what drives them all to one degree or another.
That’s why I’ve been keeping a list of all the Trumpists so I never forget and accidentally support them.
Please keep that list to publish for us, Lisa!!
A few links to who are insurrectionists:
https://twitter.com/sethabramson/status/1428761535778803727?s=21
https://twitter.com/sky_lee_1/status/1417205104701329410?s=21
https://twitter.com/crewcrew/status/1400776875937611783?s=21
https://twitter.com/amoneyresists/status/1360722058410344455?s=21
https://twitter.com/ellie_kona/status/1349612397137281024?s=21
https://twitter.com/jeffjwarwick/status/1444434126094880772?s=21
Twitter Lists (private mode, of course) makes it easy. Every one of them that turns up gets added to the list.
How to access this?
A few links to who are insurrectionists:
https://twitter.com/sethabramson/status/1428761535778803727?s=21
https://twitter.com/sky_lee_1/status/1417205104701329410?s=21
https://twitter.com/crewcrew/status/1400776875937611783?s=21
https://twitter.com/amoneyresists/status/1360722058410344455?s=21
https://twitter.com/ellie_kona/status/1349612397137281024?s=21
https://twitter.com/jeffjwarwick/status/1444434126094880772?s=21
I access this on my Twitter account. It allows users to Bookmark posts and make lists to organize other Twitter accounts you are interested in. You can name your lists.
For the record, mine are set to Private because a lot of people don’t like to be on public lists. Because mine are private I can’t share them.
How about reborn and behind bars?
Good morning, TC. If default would only damage Americans, I would say, "Fine, let's just default the MFer and learn a good lesson the hard way!" But, given that we would drag the whole world down with us, that is not a good option at all. No the Democrats need to wrap their minds around this. Either they pass voting, infrastructure and the BBB bills in something close to their original form, or the lagers await us. Not, not free beer.
Tell that to Manchin, the man who doesn't have a mind to be changed. What he said this morning is the dumbest-ass shit I have ever heard from any politician, anywhere, ever.
Where did you hear it, TC? I'm a "dumb-ass shit" connoisseur. Don't want to miss it.
On MSNBC, just before they started reporting the School Shooting Du Jour.
I'm not sure I can see MSNBC on my computer here in Italy, but I'll give it a try. Thanks.
This has been clear for way before trump, Hillary must be as disillusioned as any human on earth.
It still sickens me. Hillary was one of the most qualified presidential candidates to ever run. But decades of character assassination by the GOP and plain old sexism made her unelectable. We are our own worst enemies.
Fox started out the gate, watched friends become venomous
I had to admit it, but you are correct. What I struggle with is why?
Fear, both of being primaried and of physical harm by members of TFG’s base.
Mary Hardt wins the intertoobz!
Tutorial needed for those of us who do not & never will use Instagram. #intertoobz?
Google Ted Stevens.
Thank you Grace. Listening to this I’m asking myself if Republicans are really worse now or just more visible, because I sure don’t understand how this person could keep getting re-elected all those years. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE
Got it, Thanks for the Memories.
Internet
Maine's Sen. Susan Collins was swept into office last year by a broad coalition. She will not be primaried or 'Cheneyed' but is still on board with the ReaganMcConnellTrump anti government agenda and tactics.
But she is very concerned.
Strong letter to follow no doubt /s
Susan Collins will not support a voting rights bill.
Susan Collins like Ted Stevens has finessed the art of buying loyalty with her constituents by bringing home “pork”, and lots of it. Looking back at her Facebook page from the months leading up to the election highlighting all her special projects and $$ she brought to her base plus, could serve as a lesson on how to secure your Senate seat for years to come.
Greed and power, who said that a taste of absolute power will reveal who someone really is…. But Fox and clones, and MSM, keep the big lie going
Profiles in Cowardice
The demographics are not in their favor and they are desperately trying everything to hold onto power.
Yes and so far, with the manipulation of re districting and gerrymandering they are doing just that...holding on to power by drawing crazy shaped districts that huddle all dems in one place and effectively reduce the impact of their voices. I recommend David Litt's new book DEMOCRACY IN ONE BOOK OR LESS. Lays out so clearly how we have come to where we are and wonderful engaging read.
And wasn’t Collins explaining her position against federal voting oversight because her state has high turnout so she doesn’t think the federal government should interfere with her state’s election process. Shouldn’t interfere with any state’s process. Is she simply unaware of what has been going on with the obstruction template used by all those states hell bent on suppression?
About the only positive thing to be said about Susan Collins is that she's a bit less gauche than most of her fellow insurrectionists. But, you sure wouldn't want to buy a used car from her.
(Sweden)
"The documents I have provided to Congress prove that Facebook has repeatedly misled the public about what it's own research reveals about the safety of children, the efficacy of its artificial intelligence systems and its role in spreading divisive and extreme messages. I came forward because I believe that every human being deserves the dignity of truth." - Seems Francis Haugen is a candidate for the Nobel Peace Price.
“Every human being deserves the dignity of truth.” Yup. 🤙🏻
Somebody tell Rupert Murdoch, his ownership of the WSJ does not erase the Fox catastrophe. Buying the WSJ was his smoothest move yet, his claim to legitimacy, when he has none.
“I will flatly say that the bulk of this country’s white population impresses me, and has so impressed me for a very long time, as being beyond any conceivable hope of moral rehabilitation. They have been white, if I may so put it, too long: the effect on their personalities, their lives, their grasp of reality, has been as devastating as the lava which so memorably immobilized the citizens of Pompeii. They are unable to conceive that their version of reality, which they want me to accept, is an insult to my history and a parody of theirs and an intolerable violation of myself. James Baldwin, “The Price May Be Too High,” The New York Times, February 2, 1969.”
Great quote, Sandy, from a great author whose NYT article could have been written yesterday.
Exactly.
In 1969, this whitey was just trying to scrape by, but this old whitey agrees with him.
How then, do we deal with those whom Baldwin condemns "as being beyond any conceivable hope of moral rehabilitation"? Some try to evade the problem by moving to a quaint Maine fishing port, a bucolic Adirondack farm, a gated community in Florida or Arizona or even choose to live outside of the country in places like France or Mexico. Others remain here, usually in our urban centers where these different versions of reality visibly clash on a daily basis. And Baldwin identifies the believers in one of those versions as "the bulk of this country's white population" seventy-four million of whom voted for that perverted version of reality in 2020 and are trying to enshrine it in our educational system wherever they can. Dealing with this is challenging, to say the least. I hope succeeding generations are up to it.
I saved HCR’s 10/4 post for this evening, followed immediately by reading this evening’s post. And…
I’m a musician, not a political scientist, and, given the current state of our union, my soul’s stuck in a spin cycle with a lopsided load. Thanks to Heather’s research and posts, I’m grateful to be learning more about who we are as a nation - irrespective of our troubling past and present. I can only hope more of US awake from our sociopolitical slumbers before it’s too late.
My solution is to go play some Bach. Playing a musical instrument is like giving the brain a full body workshop. It lights up every part of the brain. See this short Ted ed animation. https://www.ted.com/talks/anita_collins_how_playing_an_instrument_benefits_your_brain
I actually proved this when I had a EEG a few years ago and had the music I had been playing going through my brain while they took the scan. The EEG was totally lit up. The neurologist was quite impressed!
Chopin's etudes, any of them, do the same for me, that and oddly, certain Punk tunes. My wife plays traditional Irish music, and I imagine she and the other musicians get the same effect during a seisiun. I also tend my garden (BUMPER crop of fall-bearing raspberries this year), and try to provide a spiritual/mental/emotional refuge to my family, friends and co-workers. The trick is to stay connected to as large a world/purpose as I can manage. Seems to work most of the time :)
In high school, I was fairly miserable. I would come home and crash out Chopin for an hour or so, and then I could deal with it all again. Definitely Chopin for me too. My animals provide me peace these days. I don’t have that high school roller coaster of emotion anymore, thank God!
Good music 🎵 and our beloved animals >^..^< <^<<, the love of my wife, family and friends, home - inside and out, my faith… With these things I live and give thanks. Without them…
These are the things that give our lives meaning. Like you, I cherish them - and it’s almost the same list of things, subbing husband for wife. And books!
Yes!
Yes to the power and balm of listening to and playing music! And the power of music performed to soothe, delight, and inspire others.
And also to painting and drawing-- to music!!
Yes! Thanks for that reminder. Good music can certainly be good medicine. Making good music all the more.
Yes, yes! And dancing! Often with my dogs.
And hiking near water or on mountaintops.
My music lives on another branch of that tree. I find that (as a wind band tuba player) marches, polkas, and overtures fill that bill for me. I'm also getting involved in today's "brass band" music (more like a New Orleans street band with brass, saxes, and percussion that the British Brass Band of conical brass ((with the exception of trombones)) which allows for more improvisation in all lines.
I love a good NOLA Brass Band! Have you heard of Meute? They're a bit different, but you might enjoy them, too, Ally.
https://youtu.be/NYtjttnp1Rs
Cool. 🤙🏻🎵
Have you seen Meute's videos from the rooftops of Paris and in Germany? Really quite amazing to see & hear them.
We have a local group that sounds a lot like that; less melodic percussion, but similar instrumentation/vocal.
Nice!
Sadly, I don't have the ability to play Chopin or Bach--studied piano for 8 years, but you'd never know to hear me fumble through anything! But I sang, and sang professionally for over 30 years. Apropos of that and the effect of singing on the brain, I offer this little snippet that's been making the round on the interwebs among us voice types, which you may have seen, of Anderson Cooper's interview for 60 Minutes with the great singer Tony Bennett. At 95, he is suffering from Alzheimer's now and can barely communicate due to an impaired memory--BUT he can still sing!! It's weird how the brain is wired to remember songs and music clearly when everything else has faded. Cooper was moved to tears at the sight, and was floored by the awesome power of music and singing. Have a hanky nearby...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxn9yKqz66k
Anderson’s interviews with Tony and Gaga was lovely and deeply moving. :’-)
The full 60 Minutes feature here...again, have a hanky at the ready!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=yNrvXw9juNs&feature=youtu.be
Which Bach pieces do you recommend, Cathy?
I'm a violinist so the Bach Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin are quite satisfying. I also like to listen to the Bach B minor Mass conducted by John Nelson at Notre Dame Paris (recorded before the fire). Fifty years ago I had an incredible spiritual experience performing the Mass under John Nelson (the very first time he conducted it) when I was playing in the Aspen Chamber Orchestra at the Aspen Music Festival! Used the Kyrie for my wedding processional (solemn and joyful at the same time).
Thank you, Cathy. Such a great time to bring up music as a soothe for the soul. Congrats on your musical performances. So satisfying I must imagine.
Also awesome to imagine the music that came from our great composers. What a gift.
So impressive, Cathy. You go, girl!!
If Bach, I would recommend any of his six Suites for solo cello!
So funny to be able to say this…..I’ve got Bach on my playlist!
Cello one of my fave stringed instruments.
Have you heard of Joshua McClain? He plays cello in a live fb feed nearly every Tuesday and Thursday, and uploads them to YouTube, as well. It's not classical music, but I don't know how to classify it except to say that he is innovative and uses a looping program.
Especially Yo Yo Ma playing No. 1. Probably my all time favorite piece of music. I remember one West Wing episode where they used it. Maybe I should watch West Wing again!
I love Bach - doesn't matter what ...
Brandenburg Concertos!!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NCPM8DEsvmc&feature=emb_imp_woyt
Thank you Katherine. On my playlist!
The Well-tempered Clavier, ideally on harpsichord, say, Gustav Leonhardt...
Having said which, I agree with Kathleen.
Definitely! I play them on viola.
Cool!!!
hear, hear! well said
I have light jazz playing in the background all the time. Keeps me sane!
Will history write that they waited too late?
Zuckerberg seems to have learned at the knee of McConnell. That is to lie and obfuscate without shame to maintain power. As for the debt ceiling, I hope the Democrats don't blink. Biden needs to address the nation now on the looming catastrophe and who's causing it.
He has indeed, both have that power above all else smirk
Yes. Lay out the consequences. Can see the storm and chaos coming. But mustbe described in its particulars
I liked hearing that Secretary of Treasury Yellen is doing everything she can to gain more time before the US would have to default on its debt. I bet she is also talking to the Federal Reserve and World Bank about other temporary stays to buy more time. That might give Democrats the time to get the BBB bill ready so the debt ceiling and the BBB could be done together by reconciliation. The world must think we've gone mad and are getting quite anxious. It is hard to believe that even insane Republicans would allow default! I wrote to my two senators each twice today on this asking them not to take the country over an economic cliff. United States would never recover any standing in the world. I hope Secretary Yellen can pull something out of the hat. She certainly is the right person at the right time.
I wrote my KY Senators weeks ago to stop playing chicken with $15 trillion in wealth and the 69 million people who receive social security. I received a reply from Rand Paul that was the tired GOP rhetoric about belt tightening.
Thanks Heather.
As long as Facebook continues to make money, the business model will not change. Their model is not based on being purveyors of truth or moral righteousness or even doing the right thing. They couldn't give a rats ass. They are no more than social deviates that get paid well. I'm hoping this public airing will give a couple of College kids a gameplan to start their own Social Media platform.
I live in racist Central New York. It's a historic hotbed of the KKK. The Museum which I am the Director , has archived plenty of KKK material. Including a full women's Klan gown. I assure you none of these items will ever go on exhibit as long as I'm there.
Yesterday morning on a local news page which posts to Facebook was an article regarding Black Nascar driver Bubba Wallace winning the first Nascar Cup Series race since 1963. I'm not a Nascar fan, but happy for him and I gave it a "like". I then noticed I was the only person that gave the story affirmation. Every other person gave it either a laughing or mad emoji. I noticed the first comment was a canned meme of Bubba Wallace with the line " Best Race Card Driver of All Time". This comment, ofcourse was wildly popular. I reported it to Facebook as Hate Speech/ Racist. Within minutes I received the canned "This does not go against Community Standards ....". I asked for it to be reviewed. 5 minutes later, the same line of " After reviewing, it does not go against Community Standards". So, here we are.
I had a conversation with a software designer who said, "I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook implemented its own racist and knowingly incorrect memes just to stoke the fires". I'm starting to think that isn't outlandish.
As the days go by, it appears the GOP smoke and mirrors plan of diversion and division to gain sole control of the Whitehouse in 2022/2024 is coming to fruition.
How did we win the Whitehouse, but lose the Country in less than 2 years?
Be safe, be well.
Linda, thanks for this post. You will be amused to hear that I got dinged and a post removed because I linked ANOTHER FB PAGE that celebrates the fact that KC has a bridge over Independence Avenue with only a 12 foot clearance, and that this bridge is constantly being rammed by stupid dumbass truckers who think running at top speed at the bridge will somehow cause it to move. Instead, their containers get ripped in half horizontally and they total their rigs. The popular nickname for this bridge is "Chompy." Apparently, FB considers my presentation of such truckers as stupid to be inappropriate. It is entirely obvious that their value system is based on profit, and that (like some not-the-news services) extremist speech is profitable.
I'm apparently lucky that I have not had a similar experience. I have also abandoned almost completely political posts on Facebook; I was giving too much space in my head to "friends" of mine that were posting insane drivel and outright seditious lies.
I do have a Facebook account and I enjoy hearing from my ex-students, family, and friends, far and near. I confess to taking someone on now and then. I have a very long list of people I have blocked as well.
Good lord. They are certainly showing their hand.
Ironically, where I am there is a railroad bridge along Onondaga Lake they trims the top off of trucks almost weekly despite the numerous warnings.
I have a friend that posted to friends only, a picture from her Grand daughters birthday party. She was tossed in FB jail for 30 days because the algorithm picked up a balloon that they claim stated hate speach. The balloon said "Happy 5th Birthday".
Seems to me we won the Whitehouse despite having lost the Country.
Yet here we are on the verge of losing everything.
Every single racist and hateful meme or comment I have reported to FB has received that same inane brush off. I quit trying, assuming that its algorithms and employees are exactly like its owner - racist.
The Bubba Wallace comment is clearly racist, but is it hate speech? I'm ambivalent. Racism is embedded in the culture, and cultural changes that are legislated or mandated don't stick.
"Racism is so deeply rooted in the makeup of American society that it has been able to reassert itself after each successive wave of reform aimed at eliminating it."**
** New Yorker, Sept. 20, story on attorney Derrick Bell's conclusion after working for years with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. We now know this body of thought as critical race theory.
It was how I had to report it to Facebook.
Also, why not exhibit the KKK material. Shine a light....
Michael, it's who would show up to the exhibit that concerns me.
😢
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! Nothing really akin to a silver bullet here, but some feel good thoughts as we trudge through this mess!
Yesterday Hubbell wrote: "Last week, the Senate Parliamentarian confirmed that Democrats could increase the debt ceiling by majority vote on a reconciliation bill. Importantly, the use of the reconciliation process to increase the debt ceiling would not preclude Democrats from using the reconciliation process to also pass the 'Build Back Better' bill." He goes on to explain why Democrats are resisting this path: https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/todays-edition-democrats-have-a-path/comments
Then there's one member of the Patriotic Millionaires Club (Nick Hanauer) who tweeted his frustration with Democrats: "Democrats in Congress who know me and ask me for money continually," he says: "Pass the Biden infrastructure plan or never ask again. Ever." https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/04/megarich-democratic-donor-says-tax-rich-people-me-or-hes-done-party?
Morning Lynell, Rowshan and all. At last things are heating up to the point where the filibuster has got to go for finance and voting bills....or indeed for anything specifically permitted the Feds by the constitution.....or Biden's Presidencey, the Dems and the country go down the tubes and it's about time!. It's going to be "interesting times" this winter.
Agree, Stuart...Fire the Filibuster...Morning!
Agree! Maybe Biden is beginning to see the light.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/10/05/biden-debt-ceiling-filibuster/?utm_campaign=wp_todays_headlines&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_headlines&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F34e4475%2F615d73a79d2fda9d41ffe7e4%2F596b15a7ae7e8a44e7d151fe%2F8%2F77%2F615d73a79d2fda9d41ffe7e4
Hi Pam!
Grab the carving knife. The filibuster before the Thanksgiving bird.
Yes, Christine! Maybe even before the goblins come out for Halloween.
Morning Lynell. Cheerio-o’s to suggestion yesterday to read Hubbell’s column. Makes good democratic sense.
Good week everyone. Wave hi to your neighbors and give a smile to passers by! 😀
So I posted in haste as to the debt ceiling. Sorry! I discovered that the seemingly simple answer found in Hubbell's newsletter is lacking. Here is a more detailed explanation about the choices available. The last one seems the most viable: "Democrats could extend the debt ceiling on their own by creating a new exception to the filibuster rule. I've long seen this as the easiest and most obvious solution, and some members of the Senate Democratic caucus are starting to come to the same conclusion.
"Indeed, if the Democratic majority gets to a point where they're saying, 'Republicans crashed the economy on purpose, but don't worry, the filibuster rule remains intact,' that's going to be an awfully tough sell to voters and the rest of the world." Steve Benen of MSNBC.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/point-gop-s-debt-ceiling-scheme-comes-sharper-focus-n1280788
And an exceedingly good morning to you, Lynell, and to all!
Morning, Rowshan!! BTW, Love your Senator Leahy!
We in Vermont love him, too!
I'm VT born and a 40 year NH resident. I agree! (What's scary is he has served for 46 years-Who will be picked by the VT voters when he retires...)
“The GOP’s threat to use a catastrophic financial default as a partisan bargaining chit is despicable, reckless, and heartless. The GOP is gambling with the financial security of all Americans as they gleefully watch Democrats (and the American people) twist in the wind. What kind of person does that?” -Robert Hubbell
He hits the nail on the head!
Very good evening to you, Lynell.
And now it's good morning again, Daria!
Good morning, Lynell! Thanks for the link to Hubbell's page; I subscribed yesterday.
I just started reading his work, Ally. He's a "glass-half-full" type, for sure, but it fortifies me when I read the "sky-is-falling" opinions...morning!!
Robert Hubbell’s wife, Jill, has a blog that focuses on gardening, but really encompasses the therapeutic value of being outdoors and savoring the small, daily treasures around us.
For a lovely, light counterbalance to the heavy stuff:
https://youtube.com/channel/UCifZMTCKtHWuK5ArQtqj_nw
TY, Ashley!
Zuckerberg is lying about his company's business model. Dr. R quoted him: "He says ... it is 'deeply illogical' that they 'deliberately push content that makes people angry for profit.' 'It’s very important' to him, he says, 'that everything we build is safe and good for kids.'"
This isn't true, and Zuckerberg knows it. It is, in fact, the heart of their business model. His first outside investor, Peter Thiel, studied philosophy at Stanford, partly under the tutelate of René Girard. Girard was an anthropologist turned theologian then at Stanford. Girard's understanding of human nature is that we're wired for envy: for craving what others have. That may have been adaptive in early hominid history when we lived in small tribes competing for resources with one another.
Thiel saw the potential for a business to exploit that Girardian human wiring, and so kicked half a million bucks to Zuckerberg to get them started.
By making it easy for people to compare themselves with one another, the business uses our craving tendency to keep us on their app for a long time each day (they call that "engagement"). That lets them sell more ads. We all know they've automated the process of deciding what to show each of us in order to pump up their engagement numbers. We all know envy and indignation keep us engaged, and Zuckerberg's algorithms know it too.
Here's a piece in the London Review of Books by John Lanchester on this subject. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v39/n16/john-lanchester/you-are-the-product
Zuckerberg said it's "deeply illogical" they would do this. It's actually "deeply immoral," and obviously so. For a world-dominating business it's also deeply logical. His rhetoric is sneaky: he hopes legislators, and the rest of us, will believe his company would never do something like that by claiming it's not logical to be so profoundly immoral. I hope legislators aren't taken in by that.
Zuckerberg is like a teenager who’s. been given power over the world. What could possibly go wrong?
With respect, I disagree that he's like a teenager (leastways like the teenagers I know). He isn't impulsive. He understands the consequences of his actions.
His publicly visible tweaks to Facebook and other properties over the years show evidence that he continuously employs crisis public relations teams to help him guess how much he can get away with, and for how long, and what to do when he gets caught.
Restated: Zuckerberg is most certainly a conniving narcissist. He heads the biggest social media enterprise in the world yet lacks any social conscience. He utterly lacks the wisdom of a fully mature adult. And yet he is shaping our world. What could possibly go wrong?
I am a tech Neanderthal who has never tweeted nor used Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snap, or other ‘essential’ social media. E-mail suits me just fine. Still, I am concerned by the affect these instant communication vehicles have on our body politic and on the shallowness of any dialogue on matters that should be important to Americans. I relish that Heather’s Letters provide a staccato counterpoint to this hurricane of ‘stuff.’
My personal concern was sparked by how Trump and his sycophants used Twitter as their springboard to national demagoguery. The credo of ‘false facts’ (Trump’s statement ‘don’t believe in what you see or hear, believe in me’) reminds me of Goebbels and George Orwell’s 1984. I was heartened when Twitter finally blocked Trump’s access, though this is only a small finger in the dike that should represent a balance between public interest and crass hucksterism.
Even my technical ignorance has not blocked my disgust for and fear of Zuckerberg. His supreme arrogance, his distance from truthfulness, and his profit-over-all-monopolistic-megalomania render him a public menace. I have no precise idea how modern social media should be constrained by what I consider to be the public interest. However, the excessive crassness of Zuckerberg and Facebook may provide the spark that launches a serious discussion and, perhaps, legislation leading to dome government oversight.
I recall how, more than 60 years ago, televised hearings of Mafia big wigs led to a public awareness of the scope and sordidness of the mafioso octopus. Those Mafia dons gave a personal face to their skullduggery. I hope that flushing Zuckerberg out of his cave and into the glare of public scrutiny might have a similar affect today. Something is amiss with our unfettered modern social media. We have a vacillating history of anti-trustism since Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft took up an anti-trust cudgel more than a century ago. I hope that this cudgel might be used better ‘regulate’ modern social media monopolies.
Keith, your description of Zuckerberg is perfect.
We need Teddy back, wasn’t perfect, but he didn’t suffer fools and greedy blood-suckers.
Teddy created a bully pulpit from which he could mobilize public opinion while pursuing, at times, clearly different behind-the-scenes activities. In his 1904 presidential election campaign, he publicly thrashed some of the largest corporations, while accepting campaign contributions from them, Afterwards, when presented with the evidence, he denied it and kept the contributions. Bored by economics, he reluctantly returned from a hunting trip in the midst of the 1907 financial crisis. One of his arch public enemies, J. P. Morgan, came to the White and personally saved TR’s financial ass. While TR was a most vocal anti-truster, I believe that more successful anti-trust suits were accomplished under the Taft administration. Personally, I relish TR’s style and accomplishments, but I believe that Taft, who, among other things, saved TR’s butt in the Philippines, has been underrated in history.
Keith, Mention of TR reminds me of our annexation and war against the Philippines. Are they not another example of America's penchant for war and the resulting the bounty?
'Spain ceded its longstanding colony of the Philippines to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. On February 4, 1899, just two days before the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty, fighting broke out between American forces and Filipino nationalists led by Emilio Aguinaldo who sought independence rather than a change in colonial rulers. The ensuing Philippine-American War lasted three years and resulted in the death of over 4,200 American and over 20,000 Filipino combatants. As many as 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence, famine, and disease.'
'The decision by U.S. policymakers to annex the Philippines was not without domestic controversy. Americans who advocated annexation evinced a variety of motivations: desire for commercial opportunities in Asia, concern that the Filipinos were incapable of self-rule, and fear that if the United States did not take control of the islands, another power (such as Germany or Japan) might do so. Meanwhile, American opposition to U.S. colonial rule of the Philippines came in many forms, ranging from those who thought it morally wrong for the United States to be engaged in colonialism, to those who feared that annexation might eventually permit the non-white Filipinos to have a role in American national government. Others were wholly unconcerned about the moral or racial implications of imperialism and sought only to oppose the policies of President William McKinley’s administration.'
'After the Spanish-American War, while the American public and politicians debated the annexation question, Filipino revolutionaries under Aguinaldo seized control of most of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and proclaimed the establishment of the independent Philippine Republic. When it became clear that U.S. forces were intent on imposing American colonial control over the islands, the early clashes between the two sides in 1899 swelled into an all-out war. Americans tended to refer to the ensuing conflict as an “insurrection” rather than acknowledge the Filipinos’ contention that they were fighting to ward off a foreign invader.' (Department of State, Office of the Historian)
His attack on the whistle blower, while completely ineffective and ridiculous, was perceived and interpreted exactly for what it was: an immature and amateurish attempt to diss a competent and highly principled former employee. Such is the nature of that narcissistic pouty boy who sits at the helm of FB. He has no integrity, no soul, no anything - just money and a grand opinion of himself.
Ellen I saw an article this morning that related what is happening to Yucky Zucky and Facebook as prospective Black Swans (Nassim Talib’s book—Black Swans. He refers to unpredictable events that can have a massive impact and which, in retrospect, should not have been so surprising to perceptive individuals. (Example: ‘precipitous Afghan military collapse.’) He mentioned the massive Facebook blackout as a possible Black Swan wake up call on being so dependent on a single humongous source. The insider whistleblower’s testimony overarching Yucky Zucky’s less-than-credible performance before Congress could be another Black Swan. Clearly Zucky has been Shaplen out of his
Oophs, my computer sent the above in mid-sentence. ‘Clearly Zucky has been shaken out of his Silicon Valley castle. With his arrogance and lack of credibility, he, and Facebook, are tempting targets in this Black Swan environment.
Black Swan is a new concept for me. I like your description of the "Silicon Valley castle." It IS interesting that the FB blackout occurred almost simultaneously with the testimony of the whistleblower. I heard also that she may be just the first to come forward - I hope this is true.
"The fall of the Republican Party into the hands of extremists who are willing to destroy it" is not really very new though is it?
Remember Newt Gingrich?
Extremism has been part of America since its beginning as your book: To Make Men Free ably outlines.
Remember burning teenage girls alive after convicting them based on hearsay from a local man or local male preacher or respected woman married to a respected man in Salem? The poor teenage girl may have done as little as rebuffing a man on a walking path. Or as much as shown some intelligence.
Remember Sunday hangings down in North Carolina, Alabama and (a bunch of other states) where the whole family came to the town square for some fun and games and to socialize with neighbors?
Remember John Wilkes Booth, as you note in your book, who heard Lincoln speak in ways that angered him because Lincoln recognized black folks as human?
Remember "Red Lining" under FDR no less? That system that still today fosters white segregation in the north?
Remember Reagan? "There he goes again" to Jimmy Carter who had run a balanced budget, avoided any unnecessary wars, and reasonably managed the tough situation of the post embargo America?
Republican Radical Fascism has migrated from Party to Party and currently resides in the Radical Fascist Right Republican party.
But, the philosophy has always been here. Somebody always wants to feel superior to somebody else, somebody always wants power, somebody always feels like violence is the way to power.
Once in a while, a John Adams comes along, and writes a Massachusetts Constitution with a pen sitting alone at a desk in his childhood home in Braintree, MA. Once in a while, those concepts find their way into a US Constitution.
And, once in a while there is a George Washington to recognize the value of such a document, and, step back from being King.
But, a lot of times? Somebody wants to be King.
Especially now that Corporations, which did not exist in John Adams time, pay off the King to do his bidding. Being King will make you rich.
Nothing new.
Great synopsis.
The philosophy is not new but the means of communication is...it seems to exponentially ratchet up the ones " who would be King" and their courtiers.
If Mr. Blount is right, why not have a cloture vote on the debt ceiling bill, let the 5 or 6 go on the record in opposition, pass the bill and move on. This looks more dilatory all the time and much less like there is a principle involved.
The Lewis Act and reform of the Electoral Count Act should be priorities in both houses.
Dave, doesn’t a cloture vote still require 60 votes?
Yes, but if Senator Blunt's count is correct and Mr. Schumer is serious about getting it done the vote should end up being 90-10 based on the expectation that at least a couple of Independents/Democrats will vote against as some sort of protest.
Rather than chess, I play the piano. Oregon’s US Rep. Blumenauer ends every correspondence with the exhortation, “courage.”
At issue here seems to be how one group can impose its will over others without causing disaster. This has been the conundrum of human societies since time immemorial. For the past 245 years, the American Experiment has attempted to solve this problem by holding free and fair elections. This requires most of us to put the rights of others on an equal footing to our own (hence the rule of law). It seems a great many of us have trouble doing that. For a sizeable minority, the American Experiment ended on 11/8/16. For the majority, I believe, the American Experiment was revived on 1/6/21. That is the watershed.
How do Democrats and a few Republicans preserve the rule of law and our time honored decision making process without causing disaster?
1. Stop blaming and complaining (at least not as much), it keeps our attitudes negative and thinking small.
2. Ask "What is the highest purpose that can be served by my actions?"
3. Ask "Are the tools I have at hand useful/effective to enhance this purpose?" If not, pick up new ones.
4. Ask "Who will be helped by my actions?" If the answer isn't "everyone", it's probably not serving the highest purpose.
5. Set firm boundaries and stick to them. Rest, fun, and freedom from nonsense are necessary when doing any great work. The upcoming efforts over the next few years will be your Magnum Opus.
Power is never given. It is either transferred or taken.
Anyone calling for a "civil war" has obviously never been exposed to one. Such an war now would be a sad, spotty affair, that would take hundreds or even thousands of lives, and ruin millions more. Its effects would persist for generations.
1. this is the Rep platform
2. requires integrity
3. requires an open mind
4. requires selflessness
5. requires determination with compassion
Power is an illusion that is ego based.
...just an opinion.
Do WE have to be fear/ego based and base our thinking on illusions as well?
Assuming the US Army would participate in a "civil" war, well, honestly, the "war" would be over fairly quickly.
Just imagine those January 6th, fat, out of shape, middle aged white guys up against 20 year old soldiers fresh from boot camp?
How will that all work out?
Exactly. And those soldiers would be armed with the best weaponry available and fully trained to USE it effectively. Of course, a few remotely aimed rockets would put a quick end to anything a homegrown terrorist might endeavor. This was pointed out to me by a Marine friend.
Yes, hard as I try I cannot visualize how a modern civil war would happen...the logistics of it.
And too many of them (including at least one family member) believe a civil war will be dramatic, exciting, thrilling, just, quick, surgical, decisive. And that we ALL will be better for it, reap the benefits, begin life anew and better than ever, blah blah blah. “Just do your research.” No clue of the disaster it would ignite. Exhausting.
The First battle of Manassas had people show up with picnic baskets...they sat on the hill above the field as spectators...
That's right -- instigators underestimated the scope of our first civil war.
And thank goodness someone figured out how to take photographs so the dead and the horrors of war became undeniable reality.
...and thank goodness for Ken Burns.
Quick, surgical and decisive - like in Iraq? Afghanistan? and everywhere else? Like Kathy, I have a hard time envisioning the logistics. How many militia members dispersed over how many government bodies across 50 states and do they all have the same goals? do they have any ideas of how to set up a government? I do not want to experience that thank you. Not to mention the disruption of supply chains for EVERYTHING, even worse than what we experienced during COVID. I'm sure my concerns just scratch the surface, but I really don't think the majority of citizens want to experience this.
I left FB years ago for a number of reasons. Never liked that they were creating bubbles around people and only reinforcing what they already thought. I would never give my gender or right age because I did not want to have what they thought would be a great experience for an old lady.
I’m slow, but gone. They objected to a post almost identical to comment from Gen Milley re trump, then wanted my drivers lic. This from the ones whose data breach resulted in my info being on the dark web.
Drivers license??? How weird.
To my mind, it looks as if Congress is playing "Russian Roulette" with a revolver that has 5 chambers loaded rather than empty.
I cannot help but think that History (assuming there is history left after the game of Russian Roulette mentioned above) will not be kind to the Republiqan extremists, nor the Movement Conservatives that spawned them and have let them have their way.
I have often had the thought if there is any history left. I just had an argument yesterday with someone who confessed he lives in Oklahoma who was throwing around all the buzz words like nazis, socialism, communism, etc. He mentioned jack booted thugs as if those are liberals and I said yes, they are showing up and I named the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers as examples. He was whining about the gas tax, so I guess he doesn't need roads and of course, the southern border. Never did he demonstrate that he had any knowledge of the words he was throwing around....just kept repeating the far right talking points. This is what we are up against....crass ignorance and blind nationalism of true believers.
Yup. “1984” and “Animal House”… :’-(