Those two thundering closing paragraphs bear repeating:
‘Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) summed up the day: “So let me get this straight: Republicans are threatening to remove their own Speaker, impeach the President, and shut down the government on September 30th—disrupting everyday people’s paychecks and general public operations. For what? I don’t think even they know.”
The center-right think tank American Action Forum’s vice president for economic policy, Gordon Gray, had an answer. Ever since the debt ceiling fight was resolved, he told Joan E. Greve of The Guardian, “there’s a big chunk of House Republicans who just want to break something. That’s just how some of these folks define governing. It’s how their constituents define success.” ‘
Thank you, Dr. Richardson. There can be no further doubt that at least half of our legislative branch is under the control of angry and irrational children via their constituents. If there were ever a rationale for imposing controls on voters, it would be to bar from voting anyone that can’t pass a basic political sanity test, approved by a bipartisan committee, consisting of ten questions as part of the actual voting process. These questions would be designed to screen out anyone capable of voting for people such as those now comprising The Freedom Caucus. These very basic questions would be the political equivalent of, for example “it is generally agreed that the force of gravity keeps things from floating away: True or False”.
Who could vote for the likes of the members of our very own Congress who refuse to govern and instead promote sedition and destruction? What’s that about? Do they really believe they need to hurt our country in order to .... do what, as AOC, rightfully asks?
The extremists need to be voted out and replaced by level headed adults who take their oath’s seriously. That day is right around the corner if we want it to be. The blatantly Fascistic Confederate right wing members of our very own Congress....(let that sink in) ....are digging their own graves in the soil of sedition and disloyalty to the country they pledged to serve and protect..our country, the United States of America.
I can feel your sense of paralytic horror. How do things evolve like this? Never in a million years could I have imagined putting this sentence together: I love Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Liz Cheney...but there I go....
"Donald Trump, the least self-aware person in the country, at least seems to know that he’s a terrible debater. He has the vocabulary of a kindergartener, strings words together in combinations that aren’t recognizable as English and has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about most of the time. His sole objective when he begins a sentence is to get to the end of the sentence." -- Ann Coulter.
He repeats thee same thing over and over again. This is a great day to be with all of great people. We will make America great again. We need to be great again. etc.
Look, I'm not going to vote for her if she runs for president, but anyone who opts to commit political suicide over following lie-abiding sheep is to be highly esteemed....
Unfortunately, that seems true today. I also admire her for standing up for her country, even at the cost of her political career. Only one other republican was willing to do so and I admire him too. The republican party seems to be a combination of bullies and cowards (of course bullies are often cowards). Who knows where we would wind up if they are not restrained. For the first time in my 70+ years, I'm afraid to live in our country. Sad.
I think Liz Cheney is an example of how it's possible to know that someone is good and courageous, even if we disagree with every policy they stand for....policies that have a legitimate (at least) two sides that can be debated and about which compromises can be reached.
You or I may disagree with her politics and may or may not vote for her, but she is principled and honest. I prefer her as a choice on the ballot than any member of the Freedom Cacophony and more than most of the spineless Republicans now in the house. Is familial closeness the same as destiny?
She stood up to trump. Kizinger (spelling), Kemp, Beta, all those republican appointed judges who voted according to the law not politics are the strong ones. We don't need to see eye to eye. That is why we have two parties, but they need to vote for what is right not because some extremist party . Infra structure bill is an example.
Cheney actually said (and I heard her) that Democrats want women to be allowed to have an abortion up to the moment of birth. That is an out-and-out lie. Unless the fetus is not viable, the law, and no doctor or mother would condone this. Cheney told a very big Republican lie. At that point I lost all respect for her. I will never vote for her.
I think the MAGA members of the Republican caucus must have been buoyed forward initially by the intoxicating sense of glee they got when the Republicans won the House. Forming this rump was as close to real power as these people would ever get. They are nobodies, have always been as adults, and now they had an opportunity to storm the china shop and break the crockery. The publicity continued - now they’d have to be taken seriously - when they spun the hapless Kevin McCarthy around for days, alternately dangling the leadership before him and then snatching it away in round after round of voting. In the 15th iteration it occurred to some of them that the fun was waning and so they let McCarthy have a soiled and tarnished prize.
From there, they came to the next ride at the carnival. This one, governance, has provided them with endless fodder for mischief. The amazingly fussy barricaded around spending laws have given them a second mighty kick at the can. And the grand poobah of all, Donald Trump has begun to pull their strings in a Hail Mary attempt to get a gigantic piece of false equivalency in front of the public - an impeachment of Biden to match the two he racked up.
In for a penny, out for a pound. These cardboard cutouts have no way out now from the power trip they initiated. Trump has boxed them in. For a while they will strut and cast threatening sound bites. But the rest of the representatives are waking up finally and this time, with Trump not visibly present, they are rumbling in discontent.
There will be a smash up sometime soon. The spending bills will get passed. McCarthy will be sacrificed. Biden has nothing to worry about being impeached. And Greene and Gaetz and Comer et al will suffer terrible injuries as they crash into ignominy.
Democracy in America has real problems to face. The threat to it is still strong as the future is crowded with unknowns. But it will not fail because of the petty shenanigans of these thickheaded simpletons.
November 7 2024 must remain the unblinking focus of the Democrats. The fate of the country rests in winning that and the next election.
Trump surrounded himself with unqualified, rich, sycophants incapable of running an executive department. If elected he wants to replace 50,000 Federal workers with Republican sycophants that know nothing about their jobs.
Meanwhile Biden has surrounded himself with cabinet members that are competent and experienced and have free reign to make day to day decisions and to execute Biden's vision. In other words, Biden delegates Trump is an Autocrat. I am so impressed with the entire Biden cabinet several of whom are capable of being President. If Joe isn't able to serve for four more years, the government will run just fine with President Harris and the existing WH team.
Trump, not so much. DeVos, DeJoy, Barr, Sessions, Munchkin, Perry, Tillerson, Kushner are sycophantic imbeciles who created messes and caused thousands of good government workers to quit.
The Biden team has done yeoman's work just fixing several of thes executive departments, but they have accomplished so much more than anyone in the Trump administration ever could.
Interesting little tidbit. Among all of trump's failed businesses, he had a mortgage company. The guy who was in charge said he worked at a prestigious wall street firm. He told a partial truth. He worked there for like 6 weeks and was a low ranking employee. The company lasted 1 1/2 years. Speaking of unqualified people.
Yes, our Democracy has REAL problems, many that were created or at least fed by the former guy. I hope you are right that they will crash and burn. The sooner the better!
Agree 100% with your final sentence. But, in the meanwhile, there are state and local elections still to come this November. Vote Forward is looking for letter writers for 5! campaigns in Virginia. votefwd.org
KD, I think that the answer to your question to who could vote for these individuals is answered (left handedly) by "hate is the point". They are hateful, angry, fearful people who see the world that we want to see as a place where they no longer have the upper hand.
KD, I hope so. Keystone Kev is spineless and wants to keep his speakership and he is the one who put himself, and the rest of us as collateral damage, by acquiescing to their demands in the first place. They haven't done anything but waste taxpayer's money on trying to get at Biden and and throwing a wrench into the proceedings against death star. The rest of the Rs in the House are thinking of their own futures and those won't bode well if they go along with this insanity.
I read somewhere today that is was like McCarthy was "self gelded". I thought that pretty much summed it up but these vipers that are in the so called "Freedom Caucus" need to be voted OUT and go back to hiding under their slimy rocks.
Self gelded.....I will have to remember that one. They are mostly in dark red districts, so we need to concentrate on those districts where we can win back the House. In the meantime, it's going to be a circus of nonsense.
Who in their right mind would set up system where you could be voted out by one vote. Gaetz is threatening. Is Greene qualified? Now there is an unstable
Republican’ts are bullies and we should treat them as such. How do they get away with not living in the state they represent (Tuberville), stealing money (Santos and who knows how many others), running for re-election as a known criminal (tfg’s responsibility for covid management was murder). How can these things be glossed over??Please read the NPR popular culture column by Linda Holmes today about “The Morning Show” on Apple TV. She feels like the two women stars are not being treated like the villains they are. And that is just the point of the writers I believe—evil villains can be whitewashed by the media.
TCinLA’s Substack column on the Freedom Caucus was right on point.
Steve Schmidt’s The Warning at substack.com pointed out many who should not be in office. Yet because tfg made everything political, some have come to believe Justice is no longer blind and that’s not true. KD, I hope we don’t have to wait another year to vote them out. So many of them should have been removed long ago. Even after we vote them out, like tfg, they will keep getting media attention. Dems need to overcome that early and often.
Unfortunately those in power are afraid of trump ( if he gets in) and his cult. They don't want to lose their votes. They don't care what criminal record these politicians have as long as they are not democrats.
To push the child analogy a bit further, it’s like instead of a cute 6th grader winning “Principal for a Day” at her school and decreeing ice-cream for lunch, the Children of the Corn have taken over the Rethuglican party and want to tear the nation down.
And this "desire to break something" is about searching for someone or something to blame? Is it because breaking is so much easier than building? Do they believe a near-term feeling of revenge justice cracking the edges of our democracy and paving the way for an autocratic leader is the future ?
Patricia, I came to the conclusion that it is all about their own self - as people with power. It is their goal to be defined that way, and they feel entitled to it.
MTG as an example: throughout her life she has weaseled her way into positions where she had the appearance of power, beginning with her now ex-husband's business. She has a drive, but it has to do with how she looks to herself. When she is no longer able to play the role of businesswoman or whatever, she moves on to something else she can ploy into something that appears bigger than it is. She has role models: men have been doing this for ages, and she gets to play both sides of the gender game ( rowdy roughneck in the gallery, ready partner to people with high standing, comforting distaff to the stressed alpha male). Watch her when she is at the podium wielding the gavel: there is a peculiar self-satisfaction in how she regards it.
I spent time watching all of these people in the House Chamber and following them elsewhere. I think nearly all of them are deeply flawed people who are compensating for something, and have developed some strange sense of entitlement that drives their peculiar way of doing things that have absolutely no chance of getting them what they are looking for. They may not be capable of thinking further ahead than the immediate results (though there are others who do, and are ready to pick up the pieces to their advantage). Oddly, McConnell may actually be our ally in heading this off and maintaining equilibrium. As power-driven as he is, I don't think he wants to see our government thrown into a chaos that deep.
I am wondering if we are seeing their unholy coalition fray, ready to disintegtrate. I hope so. If so, I hope to see more moderate Republicans step up to work collaboratively with Dems to do the people's work. But we'd better be ready to move fast.
Such a thoughtful response, Annie. One can't help but wonder about the mental health of these Freedom Caucus members, and those whom they hornswoggled votes from. I agree that with so many GOP decisions, the short-sighted gain for the wealthy creates huge expenses down the road for the Dems to clean up. Our Michigan tax dollars are still paying for the GOP Flint water crisis, court costs for our sixteen false electors, and court costs for the "Dream Team" that tried to kidnap our Governor Whitmer.
Maybe we should give them each a stack of china dishware to throw at a brick wall. If they want to break something, that might be satisfying enough for some of them, especially at a gathering of constituents. They do have constituents, don't they? Really feeling the snark today.
Yes, yes, yes..they do think that! They are nihilistic to the core! They swore to protect and preserve our Constitution and Democracy. They have no intention of "Making America Great Again", but they certainly do plan to do Trumpledumps bidding, even destroying our Democracy as they will!
LeMoine: Yes and Yes to Professor Richardson and you and every reader and poster on this letter. And Thank you. Sometimes I walk around in a new place, or see something I hadn’t noticed. It’s time to listen and look.
Why do the repubs want to break This Democracy? “For what? I don’t think even they know.”
I believe they believe that the only way to regain power is in the chaos of a Mad Maxx world. Kill enough people who oppose them and then they will take over what’s left, cuz “they have guns”
They don’t need to put it back together, the goal is to maintain power; that’s all they have left in their quest for Maslov’s hierarchy of self actualization. Money became unimportant (and Thurston Howell III boring) to them years ago. Their pursuit is one of “owning” your soul, and in that way measure themselves as Your God
I understand its an irrational pursuit, who’ll cook the King’s Deer?
Yes!!! Overwhelming media, money for police and not health care, but they were lucky to have an open minded president. Tfg and the Heritage Foundation have already told us what they will do if put in power. 🤑🤡💩🥺
Screening out voters as you suggest, as tempting as it is for us,I think is a slippery slope and anti-democratic. The remedy is education (& early on) about citizenship and how to discern issues and candidates as a voter. It may be that democracy does not work, but I agree we have to somehow keep it from rotting, which means doing more to keep us straight.
Too bad they removed civics classes from schools years ago. You cannot convince me this was not part of the Koch Bros plan. Read Dark Money ~ Jane Mayer
Two types of classes removed from our schools. Civics classes and shop / home economics have been killed off and replaced with what? Computer courses and AP courses, they may be right for some but basic skills and knowledge are missing. I was a science nerd in high school but I didn't take calculus until my freshman year in college. Yet to learn basic skills for the construction and manufacturing you have take them in community college. I didn't like civics mostly because the quality of those teachers but I did learn a lot none the less.
In this report from the AAUP (American Association of College Professors), the powers that be in NC are proposing adding a civics-type class to university curricula and making it mandatory. Thing is, the Board of Trustees of UNCCH was "preparing to foist on the university a new school that the campus did not need and the faculty did not want. Ostensibly, the School of Civic Life and Leadership would prepare students for a life of engaged citizenship. But the chair of the board revealed in an interview with Fox News that its real purpose is to 'remedy' the “imbalance” that allegedly excludes 'right-of-center views.' In other words, they're gonna bring civics back, but THEIR brand of civics. Sure enough, a bill is up before the NC general assembly . . .
". . . that would require all two- and four-year institutions to add a new graduation requirement to their curricula: a three-credit course on American government or history. If passed, the bill will require students to read a specified set of historical documents reflecting America’s 'founding principles'; the final exam will be heavily weighted to assess knowledge of those documents. Historians across the state were disappointed to learn that the voices of women, laborers, Native Americans, and Black Americans would be excluded from these expressions of the 'American constitutional heritage'—with the exception of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.' Having passed the house easily, the bill will reach the North Carolina senate early next year."
Not good, I had not heard this and I live in NC. I do know from local high school teachers they are very frustrated and concerned about the legislators telling what to teach. A number are retiring early.
It's so disheartening to read that when it comes to pushing and fighting for what one believes in, these teachers cut and run in despair. We thus deserve what we get. There comes a time when action is required - action of some form other than getting out of the way of these authoritarians... which is what they are.
And what is the value of knowing about the documents if you haven't learned about the *structures* of government that the documents inform and support? Plus, I suspect the documents to be studied would be carefully curated.
Democracy does work, and is, as many have pointed out, the natural state of human beings unless something bugs it up. Like a secret society of lawyers pulling strings in the background, the role of dark money in shaping policy and elections, and a large part of media that doesn't do its job as Fourth Estate. The first amendment was meant to promote a viable and dynamic exchange of ideas, and was meant to protect newspapers and other means of exchanging information - as well as critics of the government through peaceful means.
Thank you. Others caution that democracy can sow the seeds of its end. It's an experiment and involves participation and vigilence. We have seen suchdeterioration elsewhere. A party can turn and be authoritarian, anti democratic, get elected by appealing to whipped up crowds. Little by little democracy gets destroyed by those who connive to stay in power. Trump set off alarm bells even before January 6th and even before Trump first was elected (to disbelief that he could possibly win) when the minority did connive and gamed the system. (We do not have a direct democracy. We have a representative democracy.) It's not a sudden death.
Democracy does work I believe. It's still an experiment. Capitalism has it's effect on it- especially runaway capitalism, inequality.
We at least need educated citizens or else we get voters who are the revved up uneducated vulnerable, the angry and resentful falling for ill willed demagoguery. This eats away at our democracy.
So we need an informed citizenry and a nurtured sense of commonality. We need to distinguish between truth and lies, sad to say. The fourth estate had more trouble with that than it has now. Some can now call a lie a lie but they are still afraid of losing readership or viewership. People go to their preferred news, even called news when it's not news but lies/deflection. That feeds division. This does not promote discussion of different POV's The media *actually* doing its job when it variously does, is often called biased. Or it is claimed to be reporting from both sides equally regardless of right and wrong or fact. It's better now than it was, but we are divided more too.
They have the freedom to hold the entire Federal government hostage while they waste millions on their ridiculous hearings where no witnesses or facts are ever presented.
I was thinking the same thing, they can call themselves the Freedom Caucus but can't we (and truthful media) stop perpetuating that lie? Ideas: Fleabag Circus, Freedom Cacophony, Freedumb Caucus, Anti-Freedom Caucus, Bent on Destruction Caucus . . .
Yes. Thank you, Steven. It is not a "they" or "them" doing this. It is specific people and specific organizations, and those should be named. We are a bit lazy about that too much of the time. A "them" lets us off the hook: we get to be indignant without being responsible for either doing too little to prevent this or for doing what is needed to change it.
Thank you for your insightful and witty comment. But you are unfair to children. The ones I grew up with and the ones I currently run into show better judgement and guts.
Linda, not genius, just common sense. Seriously, who could object to a test that keeps people from disqualifying themselves from damaging the rest of us? I'm not aware of any jurisdiction in the US (or the rest of the world for that matter) that doesn't require as a condition to drive a motor vehicle the passage of a basic written test covering the rules of the road. Allowing anyone behind the wheel that thinks "green means stop, red means go, and yellow means 'floor it' would be a very bad idea. The questions could just be embedded in the ballot, true/false, require 80% correct response for passage, and machine scored to automatically reject any vote that failed the test. I very much doubt that many people supporting the likes of MTG could correctly answer a question such as "The official religion of the United States of America is Christianity: True or False".
First of all, 54% of adults in the US read at a 6th grade level or below. What percentage of these adults can interpret a ballot especially that has propositions or ballot initiatives on it? Make sure the questions are written at at least a 10th grade level to weed out the illiterates and uneducated.
Secondly, to secure a spot on a ballot, all candidates need to pass your true/false test and they have one chance to pass per election cycle. Incumbents included. If they flunk, they have to wait for the next election cycle to run.
Oh, you mean like the tests that some states used to have to decide who got to vote and who didn't? Like that? There's a reason that sort of thing got outlawed. Who gets to decide? Think about that for a minute. Ripe for manipulation and abuse. We're still paying the price for that, especially in some of the southern states. Nope, NOT a good idea. A very bad idea.
A better idea is to reach those people who aren't attached to Trump, people who are simply trying to live their lives through often difficult circumstances, and often don't have time to keep up with all this stuff. We need to use proven simple ways of reaching out to them and encourage them to vote and why. Things like postcards and all the other small things that have o been so effective in other elections. And we need to hold that push, keep on smiling, and keep on trying.
They're essentially nihilistic and ignorant! Two bad characteristics in combination. In my own lifetime I have never witnessed such stupidity on display! And their love of repudiation against all those who aren't in lockstep with their regime is reminiscent of other historical Authoritarian regimes! Those who are unaware of history are doomed to repeat it.
I think the issue rest on the quality of the candidate running for office. If you can't pass high school US History and Constitution. Then you are unqualified to run for office. I seriously doubt that the most vocal of the mega republicans could pass 8th government test.
The problem is that Americans who were either gullible or stupid enough to have voted for Republicans like Gaetz and the rest of the Freedumb Caucus are incapable of understanding the hopeless positions of the G.O.P. They will continue, if only out of ignorance or bigotry, to vote for these elementary-school student council level politicians whom they send to Congress. As for voters having to pass a sanity test, that would be undemocratic and in the tradition of the voting restriction measures that were common in the South and something to stay away from. It would be far better to test the candidates who run for office in the manner you suggest.
Well the problem with that is the the candidates are (mostly) smart enough to answer the questions correctly, while many willfully ignorant voters aren't. Recall, I proposed a test based on a limited number of very simple questions, approved by a bipartisan panel, This wouldn't need to be a "litteracy" test, though one has to wonder if a person who is totally illiterate should be voting. Yes, fraught with risk of abuse. Rejected votes would need to be hand audited to protect against abuse.
No. Kevin will not be there as K violated the terms of Office dictated by Matt Gaetz & Fringe Friends.
Wed Morn' Not Really OFF Topic: LISA D. COOK was sworn in for a 2nd Term to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The FED BOARD is need now than ever. Go Lisa.
Yes.I agree.The Putin Republicans, in their effort to”break something” are undermining the rights of their constituents and are doing their country a grave disservice.They need to be gone.
Yes and why is that exactly? Are their constituents so ill-informed/ignorant or they don't care what is happening to them and their families? I don't get it. Meanwhile those of us who DO care , who do KNOW what is going on need to flood our House reps with calls all day long telling them that we will not put up with this garbage. I called yesterday and am calling today. 202-224-3121
Which is their goal in the first place-to treat anyone not them as if our voters are serfs, not real people who have real needs and plans to live their lives as they see fit, not as this political party thinks they should- give up their rights so that party can call what they do as "freedom" which is actually "freedumb".
Well, their followers may just start to understand this if/when the government money they take for granted suddenly stops coming. Fill your freezers, folks.
Herb Klinker, I gotta say I totally agree with your first line. With respect to the second, however, I get your point but think the situation is worse than the insane running the asylum: they know exactly what they are doing and are doing it on purpose!
Herb, I just posted Heather's letter to my Facebook page and that was one of my observations. I also observed that they haven't nor will they pass anything to help ordinary citizens.
What's your point? Already half the electorate havent voted for generations. Curiously, of those who are not inclined to vote, a significant majority think 2020 election was stolen by the Democrats, far more than what is thought by registered voters. Disinformation filters right down; sense of civic duty nyet!
Not running but certainly throwing many spanners in the works. If they ran it Biden would be impeached and a lot of other nasty ideas unleashed on the country.
The question is are the MAGA crazies in the House a bright and shiny distraction or are they too stupid to understand the grand plan of the Republican oligarchs?
Time for America to get a history lesson about when FDR faced down the "economic royalists".
Some eye-opening reports from Tom Hartmann shed light on this--and Project 2025 is just a revisitation on steroids of what went on when the Republican moneyed interests held government before the Great Depression.
Biden needs to start cribbing FDRs speeches and identifying the underlying threat to decomocracy--the billionaire republicans who are funding the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.
Too many Democrats are focused on Trump and Tuberville and MTG and the Proud Boys--the bright and shiny objects. The real threat that needs to be called out is the unelected billionaires that are developing the strategy to take over government. That is what FDR did, That is what Biden needs to do,
Here are the links to two of Hartmann's posts. He writes about this with much more eloquence and knowledge than I have.
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” -Thoreau
Some say the love of money is the root of all evil. Surely that's true when it's sociopathicly so.
How profoundly has "Reaganomic" deregulation of the flow and uses of money changed our governance and society over the last 40+years? Except for Muskovite billionaires, what does the average citizen have to show for it? Are we now a happier, healthier, more secure society? Is our anticipated future brighter than ever?
Teddy Roosevelt promise a "square deal", FDR, a "new deal"? How, after all these years, have Reagnomic "reforms" been anything but a raw deal?
Commencing his campaign against welfare queens in Philadelphia Mississippi, eviscerating the Air Traffic Controllers Union upon taking office, slashing taxes for the rich while smilingly reminiscing about his Gipper days while the resultingly starved governmental services withered, and their beneficiaries suffered, ignoring the first major wave of homelessness due directly to his policies, never mentioning the word "AIDS" while people died during the plague years, waging war against the people of El Salvador and Nicaragua while encouraging the first generation of treacly, creepy fascist, faux Christian warriors (Oliver North, looking at you)....
I just read a banned book ( goal this summer) called Boys Kissing Boys. It talks about 4 different circumstances of boys coming out. The point of the story is that there are "angels" or gays who have died commenting on the state of affairs now and when they were young boys, dying of aids. No one ever mentioned it. No research was being done.
Great, succinct summary of all these deals. To me, the worst legacy of Reagan was the validation of Ayn Rand libertarianism, creating the false shibboleth of federal government as THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. That concept flies in the face of American political tradition, built on the concept of the social contract, and expressed in three short words. WE THE PEOPLE. Reagan’s raw deal created the conditions for the breakdown of America, and the fulfillment of Franklin’s prophecy, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
The rhetoric of the Reaganoid "GOP" is anti-government, and that resonates because some governments are horrible, and even the best of governments is unlikely to please all of the people all of the time. But Republicans routinely talk out of both sides of their mouths, opposing "government" when it troubles the rich or assists the general welfare. Hold that yardstick to the changes they have made and propose, and I think it commonly fits. When Reagan demonized "government" he was aiming at government of, by, and for the people. Not government that props up profligate mega-corporations, or bombs small countries, or arrests and indicts peaceful protesters. Not goverment that polices bedrooms. Societies are extremely interactive and many disparate things are happening at any given time, but how many Republican initiatives since Carter have not disproportionately enriched and empowered the wealthiest among us and not disadvantaged and disempowered the general public, or some already disadvantaged segment of it? Reagan was the smarmy salesman for plutocratic restoration the "Gilded Age". And then some.
Thoreau. the great Transcendentalist, knew what he was doing. What Kenneth Burke called "Beyonding"--seeing beyond the "shiny objects" and working on the root killers.
Why the constant focus on what republicans did many years ago? Democrats have had ample opportunities to make changes. Politics today are not a history lesson and I don’t think invoking FDR helps anyone decide how to vote. You want voters to overwhelmingly vote Biden Harris, then focus on common sense issues; cost of living, high cost of housing, controlling your own budget based on the taxes you take in now, and a reasonable approach for immigration to prevent the hammering cost for US cities. And Who cares what Thoreau said.
Historical perspective does matter, Paul, lest we fall into repeating our mistakes over and over again. And I, for one, do care what Thoreau said. Always seeing the larger picture is essential to moving forward. While aware of what has been done in the past, we can more wisely assess what is happening now, appreciate what is the same or different, and thus can in a more informed way focus on common sense issues to get out the vote.
Not to mention: If you, Paul Lewis, see no value in reviewing Republicans’ past tricks and atrocities, scoff at invoking FDR or Thoreau, believe “Politics today are not a history lesson,” why in the holy heckenbob are you reading the brilliant Heather Cox Richardson?
There’s a difference between learning from the past-- I enjoy that hence why I read this newsletter, and harping on events that don’t win you elections.
Considering that at least two of your common sense issues are directly in the hands of business and a third (budget) is indirectly in the hands of business through government contracting, what measures would you recommend that the government take to reduce the first two and control the third? It seems that so many people blame government for things that are under control of business, instead.
I am of the opinion that "business" does some things that serve society very well, although "we the people" still get to prescribe rules for commerce in instances that are not serving the public interest, such as polluting or passing out opioids like candy. And some of the legitimate interests of our society are too vital and some powers too dangerous to NOT be controlled, supervised and provided by the public sector. I think many current instances of current "privatization" rage from a bad deal for the pubic, to just plain nuts.
Careful, you are on the verge of making the argument that republicans make- that there is little need for so much government given it’s ineffectiveness. I don’t have a set of great answers to your question. But just look at Housing. Nothing hurts housing affordability faster than rising interest rates. Those rising rates are wholly within the term of President Biden and he at least has the tool of budget proposals and he can use restraint in spending. I don’t know how he would tackle wage- price spiraling, corporate greed, or supply constraints.
This is why you need to understand history- your grasp of how economics works and its intersection with government will improve. One hopes. Your "analysis" ascribes things to the government that do not belong there. Example: housing affordability. You seem to have no understanding at all of how that works. For one thing, because something happens during the term of a given president does mean causation: it usually means that economic factors set in motion during the previous administration has finally caught us up in another mess. It's not up to me to educate you, but I can urge you to learn a little more about how things work before you eat any more shoe leather.
Home mortgage rates are set by the government? I didn't know that. On a more general note, I'd subscribe to some of what JL Graham says in his comment above: there are some things that government is better suited for, there are somethings that business is good at, and there are some things that religions are good at. My main point above is that business is seldom adequately held to account for its inefficiencies and inequalities, perhaps because by its nature business is a very diffuse endeavor. It's easy to blame government for things outside its control, if only because its a relatively unitary entity, and so easy to point at.
The fact that Thoreau said it does not make it true, but I think Thoreau and others have managed to state very cogent thoughts gracefully enough to be worth repeating and crediting. Also, often, valued quotations are already familiar to the reader, and citation points to a connection with a specific issue.
History, be it very recent or well in the past, is our only guide to what works and does not work, and why, is our only basis from which to project forward. We don't always call it history, but we learn from experience and and my extending and adjusting the logic of what has happened before. Newton spoke of stranding on the shoulders of giants. We also stand on the shoulders of many, many forgotten people to get to where I can type on a "wireless" device, and you can see it from very far away. Every one of us draws from an enormous pool of accumulated knowledge.
Useful to know, I think, is that we have fought with the seduction of plutocracy before in many forms, including the violence-enforced "supremacy" of feudal lords, and the so-called "Robber Barons" of the "Gilded Age". FDR was among those who helped empower the general public, helping end cynical hazards and exploitation imposed on the public by the overly powerful. And back in the day, his efforts were was popular. As part of a decades long general trend of reforms that a corrupted SCOTUS now rules illegal, the rights of the many abused people were advancing, and the "middle class" expanded. Plutocraticly bankrolled Reagan Republicans attacked that progress, and do to this day. And how has that worked out?
It seems to me that if people had a "good enough" sense of enough of the history of how things got to be the way they are today, many more would be making different choices. In particular; follow the money. It appears to me that reining in the power of exceptional wealth to interfere with the democratic process and a well informed electorate, is key to making better headway with the common sense issues you speak of above. For some, perhaps our whole species, it might realistically be the difference between life and death,
That what trumpers complain about are things some of things which Biden has no control of. Their big complaint is how much it costs to fill the tanks of their trucks. Trump's friend the Prince and Russia have put a cap on oil until Dec. We produce a lot of oil. I read we were the biggest producer, but I don't know. If we cut back on oil use, we might be more independent. Oil production has gone up. They blame Biden for stopping the building the pipeline which was supposed to make hundreds of jobs. They didn't look beyond their noses to see that only 50 people were needed to maintain the pipeline.
Besides the scary environmental consequences fossil energy, it also happens to come in a form that is easily monopolized. It means other nations can extort and threaten us by withholding it, and domestic companies can get away with extortionate prices. Republicans hate taxes that at least build our roads and educate our kids. What to monopoly pricing do for us beside make de facto lords of the very rich that often bankroll efforts to blunt or destroy democracy? What if we had been working far more seriously on alternative energy sources ever since Carter? Even Nixon was on board with that effort; and yet since the "Reagan Revolution" it has been opposed tooth and nail.
"Politics today are not a history lesson..." Oh, but they are, Paul. They reflect the past and unless we understand how things come to pass, we cannot understand how to deal with them. Your "common sense issues" are all based in events of the past which have set the trajectory of the present. Some of those dynamics were set in motion long ago. We need to explore and analyze history in order to deal with those issues. There are many first hand observers of what happened in the past who can shed important light on all those issues you mention. How we got in that mess gives a pretty good clue about what we need to do to get out. Whether you decide to use that tool for insight and understanding is up to you. But you might give it a try.
Yes it is. That is why Biden and Harris have to talk about it. The media will only start reporting it if they start talking about it. And talking about it in historical context. Biden needs to invoke FDRs ghost across the whole breadth of FDRs policies, not just the social safety net issues. It would bring a backlash from the big money, but it might wake up some of those economically left behind in this country to who really is responsible.
Maybe Joe could start with "When America was last at this crossroads, FDR said..."
I'm not one to want to copy the past, but we can surely learn from it. In fact everything we have learned from is now in the past, Including the lines I read on this page. I think the future will always surprise us one way or another, but we rely on learned repeating patterns every day, like how to fry an egg. Some patterns should set off alarm bells, and others that may have rendered service in the past, fallen out of fashion, yet are available to reevaluation in modern circumstances. A lot of things Republicans claim would cause the world to implode proved useful in the past. You can't step in the same river twice, but "fortune favors the prepared mind".
The bit about the river comes from Heraclitus who was a really interesting ancient Greek dude. Only fragments of his ideas remain and those recounted by others. He thought that reality was in flow. Many of the old Greek thinkers were astonishingly prescient, including, by credible means, calculating with surprising accuracy the circumference of the earth, within 50% the circumference of the moon, the correct order of the then observable planets, and the fact that they and we orbit the sun. Aristotle thought everything circled the earth, so that was that for the Middle Ages.
My eighth grade science book attributed "fortune favors the prepared mind" to Alexander Fleming who "accidentally" discovered the anti-bacterial qualities of Penicillin. But what he noticed took a talent for observation and the understanding to grasp it's extended significance, which illustrates the quotation. I have read that he did not actually use those words, but something like them; but I think it is still a powerful phrase even if, in the end, anonymous. It seems to me that this phase captures much of the means to innovation and resilience.
Look at Hitler. Made a deal with Chamberlain not to invade the Chechs. and then he went on to bulldoze his way through Europe, Africa, the Scandanavian countries, Eastern Europe. He even had subs off our coast, destroying our merchant ships. Now we have Russia trying to take over Ukraine with eyes on Latvia, Moldova, etc. He has Belarus in his pocket already.
Perhaps he should invoke both FDR and cousin TR. reiterate the best of the Square Deal & The New Deal changes that made America safer, saner, more civil.
Scariest is this C-SPAN interview from Paul Dans the head of Project 2025--which is now a "huge coalition" of more than 70 Republican groups to "systematically prepare" If you want a true hair on fire moment be sure to listen to the discussion of changes to the justice department and making is subservient to the presidential direction.
The purpose of that project is to set up the next gop admin to throw out the Constitution and rewrite it using the convention of the states that the real DEEP STATE has been organizing for years.
Precisely correct Georgia. Isn't it amazing that nearly everyone focus's on the distracters in plain view without questioning "Where do they get the seeming endless financing"? I've puzzled over much of that for 30 years or so. Along the way I had a theory and have followed the bread crumbs. It is the same that FDR faced, just a bit modernized and better hidden; the same breed of suspects learned and reapplied the learned lessons for this well planned attack, with help from U.S. adversaries. Nothing is beneath them. Nothing...
“Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country”.
-Edward L Bernays (the “father of public relations)
Bernays was a master at propaganda recognizing that indeed the wealthy are “puppeteers” who can control the public mind and compel people to act in whatever ways they want.
Trump along with many others has used all of the techniques designed to appeal to people’s emotions including using simple language, name calling, symbolism, fears, and attacks on opponents.
His whole act is orchestrated to distract and confuse the public. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “when evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hate, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love”.
Bernays concedes that propaganda is “psychological warfare”. Let’s hope that more people will see what’s hidden so evil does not win.
Gina-- So true, “Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country”. -Edward L Bernays (the “father of public relations) -- Basic to the power of the Third Reich.
As this article shows DeSantis is way more amenable to the role of puppet than Trump would or could be. And you can't say he hasn't gotten results in Florida in line with the master agenda.
Spot on, Georgia. Jason Garcia does deep dives into all things DeSantis.
“ In fact, you could make a pretty compelling case that Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature have themselves become just another front group for these same superrich special interests.”
Georgia Fisanick: Yes. Exactly. "The real threat that needs to be called out is the unelected billionaires that are developing the strategy to take over government. "
Agree wholeheartedly. I’ve also suggested elsewhere that the CCC be reincarnated, to deal with the tragedy of America’s homeless and inner city poverty. But, no, the idea would never fly today. It would die on the cross of socialism. But yes, Joe Biden could channel FDR. The case against Google isn’t a bad place to start.
The CCC! Bravo. Spent 3 years of my childhood within walking distance of a CCC camp. My first dog would run off for the petting he got there and was regularly returned! The men kept the National Park clean and trim. Of course they were drafted or had jobs after Pearl Harbor.
I think the answer to the question you pose in the first graf may be "yes."
The MAGA morons in the House are definitely a distraction, to the extent that they divert resources away from governing and toward dealing with their b***s****; it also appears that a goodly number of them (I'm thinking Gym Jordan, Paul Gosar, MTG, etc.) are also too stupid to see where all of this is leading.
It's kind of a case of "We may be lost, but we're making great time!" -- except we're headed toward a cliff.
Absolutely. Nail the perpetrators (predators of democracy) behind the farcical adolescents pretending to be legislators. One example:
"Billionaires Cash In On Abusive Farm Worker Scam
To staff their agricultural properties, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, and other tycoons are using a controversial visa program linked to labor abuses and human trafficking."(levernews.com. Sept 12, 2023) Notable too, for the reader, is in The Lever's reportage about the size of farm land real estate these tycoons are purchasing, and its negative impact on wages for everyone. Isn't it time to cap wealth?
Excellent advice! People like Leonard Leo are running the show, thinking they're doing it behind the curtain but it's as blatant as the sun in the sky....
Thank you Georgia for your links and your intelligence. Hard to believe how easy it is to come up with TRUTH if we look for and listen to the intelligent and brilliant educators and officials and even pundits who are not beholden to the crooks. In any century. Many of us read the same voices. But sadly many do not.
Wow thank you so much for this link. My brother follows Hartmann religiously. I am familiar with him by way of his excellent critiques of mental health.
The House Republicans are holding a hand grenade, thinking they have the ultimate weapon to win. But they don’t realize they’ve dislodged the pin, and they’re about to blow themselves to smithereens.
But there’s going to be a lot of collateral damage from a prolonged government shutdown.
I keep hoping that this time, this time, the absurdity/depravity is going to smack so many in the face that virtually the whole nation will wake to it.
When people stop getting their Social Security or other government benefits and they don't have money to buy food or rent, hopefully they will wake the hell up.
When everyone runs out of money, the billionaires will buy up the ruins of every family in America. The goal here is “create a fire, buy up the smoking hulks”. Then they can rule with an iron fist; which is really their true motivation; Muskdom
No evidence. No vote. No spine.
God help us, the insane are running the asylum!
Those two thundering closing paragraphs bear repeating:
‘Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) summed up the day: “So let me get this straight: Republicans are threatening to remove their own Speaker, impeach the President, and shut down the government on September 30th—disrupting everyday people’s paychecks and general public operations. For what? I don’t think even they know.”
The center-right think tank American Action Forum’s vice president for economic policy, Gordon Gray, had an answer. Ever since the debt ceiling fight was resolved, he told Joan E. Greve of The Guardian, “there’s a big chunk of House Republicans who just want to break something. That’s just how some of these folks define governing. It’s how their constituents define success.” ‘
Thank you, Dr. Richardson. There can be no further doubt that at least half of our legislative branch is under the control of angry and irrational children via their constituents. If there were ever a rationale for imposing controls on voters, it would be to bar from voting anyone that can’t pass a basic political sanity test, approved by a bipartisan committee, consisting of ten questions as part of the actual voting process. These questions would be designed to screen out anyone capable of voting for people such as those now comprising The Freedom Caucus. These very basic questions would be the political equivalent of, for example “it is generally agreed that the force of gravity keeps things from floating away: True or False”.
Who could vote for the likes of the members of our very own Congress who refuse to govern and instead promote sedition and destruction? What’s that about? Do they really believe they need to hurt our country in order to .... do what, as AOC, rightfully asks?
The extremists need to be voted out and replaced by level headed adults who take their oath’s seriously. That day is right around the corner if we want it to be. The blatantly Fascistic Confederate right wing members of our very own Congress....(let that sink in) ....are digging their own graves in the soil of sedition and disloyalty to the country they pledged to serve and protect..our country, the United States of America.
I can feel your sense of paralytic horror. How do things evolve like this? Never in a million years could I have imagined putting this sentence together: I love Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Liz Cheney...but there I go....
"Donald Trump, the least self-aware person in the country, at least seems to know that he’s a terrible debater. He has the vocabulary of a kindergartener, strings words together in combinations that aren’t recognizable as English and has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about most of the time. His sole objective when he begins a sentence is to get to the end of the sentence." -- Ann Coulter.
WTH?
He repeats thee same thing over and over again. This is a great day to be with all of great people. We will make America great again. We need to be great again. etc.
LOL.
Ann Coulter? Is she still around?! Are people still listening to her?! Hardcover of her "in Trump We Trust" can be gotten for $7.24!
🤣🤣🤣🤣
My thoughts too!
I'm laughing so hard...probably horror plus a reaction to your brilliance, Sophia! Thank you! Maybe they will work together to fix this.
We are friends with Germany, Japan, and working on ties with Vietnam. Anything is possible.
I'll share my meds.
LOL
Why do you love Liz Cheney? She, while in politics, did only one good thing. Otherwise, she's her daddy's daughter.
One GREAT thing. That's why. And she sacrificed her political career in so doing.
Definitely a profile in courage. If I didn’t dislike her political positions so much, I’d vote for her for President in a heartbeat
I just replied in the same way....
Look, I'm not going to vote for her if she runs for president, but anyone who opts to commit political suicide over following lie-abiding sheep is to be highly esteemed....
Unfortunately, that seems true today. I also admire her for standing up for her country, even at the cost of her political career. Only one other republican was willing to do so and I admire him too. The republican party seems to be a combination of bullies and cowards (of course bullies are often cowards). Who knows where we would wind up if they are not restrained. For the first time in my 70+ years, I'm afraid to live in our country. Sad.
I disagree. She was doing what she took an oath to do.
I think Liz Cheney is an example of how it's possible to know that someone is good and courageous, even if we disagree with every policy they stand for....policies that have a legitimate (at least) two sides that can be debated and about which compromises can be reached.
You or I may disagree with her politics and may or may not vote for her, but she is principled and honest. I prefer her as a choice on the ballot than any member of the Freedom Cacophony and more than most of the spineless Republicans now in the house. Is familial closeness the same as destiny?
She stood up to trump. Kizinger (spelling), Kemp, Beta, all those republican appointed judges who voted according to the law not politics are the strong ones. We don't need to see eye to eye. That is why we have two parties, but they need to vote for what is right not because some extremist party . Infra structure bill is an example.
Cheney actually said (and I heard her) that Democrats want women to be allowed to have an abortion up to the moment of birth. That is an out-and-out lie. Unless the fetus is not viable, the law, and no doctor or mother would condone this. Cheney told a very big Republican lie. At that point I lost all respect for her. I will never vote for her.
I think the MAGA members of the Republican caucus must have been buoyed forward initially by the intoxicating sense of glee they got when the Republicans won the House. Forming this rump was as close to real power as these people would ever get. They are nobodies, have always been as adults, and now they had an opportunity to storm the china shop and break the crockery. The publicity continued - now they’d have to be taken seriously - when they spun the hapless Kevin McCarthy around for days, alternately dangling the leadership before him and then snatching it away in round after round of voting. In the 15th iteration it occurred to some of them that the fun was waning and so they let McCarthy have a soiled and tarnished prize.
From there, they came to the next ride at the carnival. This one, governance, has provided them with endless fodder for mischief. The amazingly fussy barricaded around spending laws have given them a second mighty kick at the can. And the grand poobah of all, Donald Trump has begun to pull their strings in a Hail Mary attempt to get a gigantic piece of false equivalency in front of the public - an impeachment of Biden to match the two he racked up.
In for a penny, out for a pound. These cardboard cutouts have no way out now from the power trip they initiated. Trump has boxed them in. For a while they will strut and cast threatening sound bites. But the rest of the representatives are waking up finally and this time, with Trump not visibly present, they are rumbling in discontent.
There will be a smash up sometime soon. The spending bills will get passed. McCarthy will be sacrificed. Biden has nothing to worry about being impeached. And Greene and Gaetz and Comer et al will suffer terrible injuries as they crash into ignominy.
Democracy in America has real problems to face. The threat to it is still strong as the future is crowded with unknowns. But it will not fail because of the petty shenanigans of these thickheaded simpletons.
November 7 2024 must remain the unblinking focus of the Democrats. The fate of the country rests in winning that and the next election.
Trump surrounded himself with unqualified, rich, sycophants incapable of running an executive department. If elected he wants to replace 50,000 Federal workers with Republican sycophants that know nothing about their jobs.
Meanwhile Biden has surrounded himself with cabinet members that are competent and experienced and have free reign to make day to day decisions and to execute Biden's vision. In other words, Biden delegates Trump is an Autocrat. I am so impressed with the entire Biden cabinet several of whom are capable of being President. If Joe isn't able to serve for four more years, the government will run just fine with President Harris and the existing WH team.
Trump, not so much. DeVos, DeJoy, Barr, Sessions, Munchkin, Perry, Tillerson, Kushner are sycophantic imbeciles who created messes and caused thousands of good government workers to quit.
The Biden team has done yeoman's work just fixing several of thes executive departments, but they have accomplished so much more than anyone in the Trump administration ever could.
Great observation and comment!
Interesting little tidbit. Among all of trump's failed businesses, he had a mortgage company. The guy who was in charge said he worked at a prestigious wall street firm. He told a partial truth. He worked there for like 6 weeks and was a low ranking employee. The company lasted 1 1/2 years. Speaking of unqualified people.
But I'll bet he kissed up to Donnie boy otherwise he wouldn't have lasted a week.
Yes, our Democracy has REAL problems, many that were created or at least fed by the former guy. I hope you are right that they will crash and burn. The sooner the better!
Wow! Well said - but don't hold back: tell us how you really feel!
Agree 100% with your final sentence. But, in the meanwhile, there are state and local elections still to come this November. Vote Forward is looking for letter writers for 5! campaigns in Virginia. votefwd.org
Eric, I really appreciated your comment! I sure hope it was right on! Made good sense of things - and of the way the hand of justice tends to swing.
KD, I think that the answer to your question to who could vote for these individuals is answered (left handedly) by "hate is the point". They are hateful, angry, fearful people who see the world that we want to see as a place where they no longer have the upper hand.
Your last sentence is powerful. Thank you.
Wow, great comment.
KD, I hope so. Keystone Kev is spineless and wants to keep his speakership and he is the one who put himself, and the rest of us as collateral damage, by acquiescing to their demands in the first place. They haven't done anything but waste taxpayer's money on trying to get at Biden and and throwing a wrench into the proceedings against death star. The rest of the Rs in the House are thinking of their own futures and those won't bode well if they go along with this insanity.
I read somewhere today that is was like McCarthy was "self gelded". I thought that pretty much summed it up but these vipers that are in the so called "Freedom Caucus" need to be voted OUT and go back to hiding under their slimy rocks.
Self gelded.....I will have to remember that one. They are mostly in dark red districts, so we need to concentrate on those districts where we can win back the House. In the meantime, it's going to be a circus of nonsense.
Who in their right mind would set up system where you could be voted out by one vote. Gaetz is threatening. Is Greene qualified? Now there is an unstable
"genius".
Unstable yes, genius no. Just another awful loud crass person.
Republican’ts are bullies and we should treat them as such. How do they get away with not living in the state they represent (Tuberville), stealing money (Santos and who knows how many others), running for re-election as a known criminal (tfg’s responsibility for covid management was murder). How can these things be glossed over??Please read the NPR popular culture column by Linda Holmes today about “The Morning Show” on Apple TV. She feels like the two women stars are not being treated like the villains they are. And that is just the point of the writers I believe—evil villains can be whitewashed by the media.
TCinLA’s Substack column on the Freedom Caucus was right on point.
Steve Schmidt’s The Warning at substack.com pointed out many who should not be in office. Yet because tfg made everything political, some have come to believe Justice is no longer blind and that’s not true. KD, I hope we don’t have to wait another year to vote them out. So many of them should have been removed long ago. Even after we vote them out, like tfg, they will keep getting media attention. Dems need to overcome that early and often.
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/13/1198991146/the-morning-show-season-3-review
Well said. Thank you, KD.
Unfortunately those in power are afraid of trump ( if he gets in) and his cult. They don't want to lose their votes. They don't care what criminal record these politicians have as long as they are not democrats.
To push the child analogy a bit further, it’s like instead of a cute 6th grader winning “Principal for a Day” at her school and decreeing ice-cream for lunch, the Children of the Corn have taken over the Rethuglican party and want to tear the nation down.
If only they were ignorant and not pitifully stupid, there might be some hope.
I'll relate again the quote I used during Trump's presidency. And it applies to so many of his allies.
"Democracy used to mean that anyone could grow up to be president. Now it means that anyone who HASN'T grown up can be president."
Unbelievable!!
What a great analogy
And this "desire to break something" is about searching for someone or something to blame? Is it because breaking is so much easier than building? Do they believe a near-term feeling of revenge justice cracking the edges of our democracy and paving the way for an autocratic leader is the future ?
"Omnishambles." Great word. Especially the SHAM part.
Patricia, I came to the conclusion that it is all about their own self - as people with power. It is their goal to be defined that way, and they feel entitled to it.
MTG as an example: throughout her life she has weaseled her way into positions where she had the appearance of power, beginning with her now ex-husband's business. She has a drive, but it has to do with how she looks to herself. When she is no longer able to play the role of businesswoman or whatever, she moves on to something else she can ploy into something that appears bigger than it is. She has role models: men have been doing this for ages, and she gets to play both sides of the gender game ( rowdy roughneck in the gallery, ready partner to people with high standing, comforting distaff to the stressed alpha male). Watch her when she is at the podium wielding the gavel: there is a peculiar self-satisfaction in how she regards it.
I spent time watching all of these people in the House Chamber and following them elsewhere. I think nearly all of them are deeply flawed people who are compensating for something, and have developed some strange sense of entitlement that drives their peculiar way of doing things that have absolutely no chance of getting them what they are looking for. They may not be capable of thinking further ahead than the immediate results (though there are others who do, and are ready to pick up the pieces to their advantage). Oddly, McConnell may actually be our ally in heading this off and maintaining equilibrium. As power-driven as he is, I don't think he wants to see our government thrown into a chaos that deep.
I am wondering if we are seeing their unholy coalition fray, ready to disintegtrate. I hope so. If so, I hope to see more moderate Republicans step up to work collaboratively with Dems to do the people's work. But we'd better be ready to move fast.
Such a thoughtful response, Annie. One can't help but wonder about the mental health of these Freedom Caucus members, and those whom they hornswoggled votes from. I agree that with so many GOP decisions, the short-sighted gain for the wealthy creates huge expenses down the road for the Dems to clean up. Our Michigan tax dollars are still paying for the GOP Flint water crisis, court costs for our sixteen false electors, and court costs for the "Dream Team" that tried to kidnap our Governor Whitmer.
I have had similar thoughts about McConnell.
Maybe we should give them each a stack of china dishware to throw at a brick wall. If they want to break something, that might be satisfying enough for some of them, especially at a gathering of constituents. They do have constituents, don't they? Really feeling the snark today.
Yes, yes, yes..they do think that! They are nihilistic to the core! They swore to protect and preserve our Constitution and Democracy. They have no intention of "Making America Great Again", but they certainly do plan to do Trumpledumps bidding, even destroying our Democracy as they will!
LeMoine: Yes and Yes to Professor Richardson and you and every reader and poster on this letter. And Thank you. Sometimes I walk around in a new place, or see something I hadn’t noticed. It’s time to listen and look.
Why do the repubs want to break This Democracy? “For what? I don’t think even they know.”
I believe they believe that the only way to regain power is in the chaos of a Mad Maxx world. Kill enough people who oppose them and then they will take over what’s left, cuz “they have guns”
And just what will they "take over"? They don't have the smarts to put it back together.
They don’t need to put it back together, the goal is to maintain power; that’s all they have left in their quest for Maslov’s hierarchy of self actualization. Money became unimportant (and Thurston Howell III boring) to them years ago. Their pursuit is one of “owning” your soul, and in that way measure themselves as Your God
I understand its an irrational pursuit, who’ll cook the King’s Deer?
Time to re-watch "Idiocracy"!
Yes!!! Overwhelming media, money for police and not health care, but they were lucky to have an open minded president. Tfg and the Heritage Foundation have already told us what they will do if put in power. 🤑🤡💩🥺
Screening out voters as you suggest, as tempting as it is for us,I think is a slippery slope and anti-democratic. The remedy is education (& early on) about citizenship and how to discern issues and candidates as a voter. It may be that democracy does not work, but I agree we have to somehow keep it from rotting, which means doing more to keep us straight.
Too bad they removed civics classes from schools years ago. You cannot convince me this was not part of the Koch Bros plan. Read Dark Money ~ Jane Mayer
Two types of classes removed from our schools. Civics classes and shop / home economics have been killed off and replaced with what? Computer courses and AP courses, they may be right for some but basic skills and knowledge are missing. I was a science nerd in high school but I didn't take calculus until my freshman year in college. Yet to learn basic skills for the construction and manufacturing you have take them in community college. I didn't like civics mostly because the quality of those teachers but I did learn a lot none the less.
In this report from the AAUP (American Association of College Professors), the powers that be in NC are proposing adding a civics-type class to university curricula and making it mandatory. Thing is, the Board of Trustees of UNCCH was "preparing to foist on the university a new school that the campus did not need and the faculty did not want. Ostensibly, the School of Civic Life and Leadership would prepare students for a life of engaged citizenship. But the chair of the board revealed in an interview with Fox News that its real purpose is to 'remedy' the “imbalance” that allegedly excludes 'right-of-center views.' In other words, they're gonna bring civics back, but THEIR brand of civics. Sure enough, a bill is up before the NC general assembly . . .
". . . that would require all two- and four-year institutions to add a new graduation requirement to their curricula: a three-credit course on American government or history. If passed, the bill will require students to read a specified set of historical documents reflecting America’s 'founding principles'; the final exam will be heavily weighted to assess knowledge of those documents. Historians across the state were disappointed to learn that the voices of women, laborers, Native Americans, and Black Americans would be excluded from these expressions of the 'American constitutional heritage'—with the exception of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.' Having passed the house easily, the bill will reach the North Carolina senate early next year."
Careful what you wish for. Read on:
https://www.aaup.org/article/north-carolina-esteemed-public-university-system-teeters-brink
Not good, I had not heard this and I live in NC. I do know from local high school teachers they are very frustrated and concerned about the legislators telling what to teach. A number are retiring early.
It's so disheartening to read that when it comes to pushing and fighting for what one believes in, these teachers cut and run in despair. We thus deserve what we get. There comes a time when action is required - action of some form other than getting out of the way of these authoritarians... which is what they are.
They will get away with this only if allowed.
And what is the value of knowing about the documents if you haven't learned about the *structures* of government that the documents inform and support? Plus, I suspect the documents to be studied would be carefully curated.
Democracy does work, and is, as many have pointed out, the natural state of human beings unless something bugs it up. Like a secret society of lawyers pulling strings in the background, the role of dark money in shaping policy and elections, and a large part of media that doesn't do its job as Fourth Estate. The first amendment was meant to promote a viable and dynamic exchange of ideas, and was meant to protect newspapers and other means of exchanging information - as well as critics of the government through peaceful means.
Thank you. Others caution that democracy can sow the seeds of its end. It's an experiment and involves participation and vigilence. We have seen suchdeterioration elsewhere. A party can turn and be authoritarian, anti democratic, get elected by appealing to whipped up crowds. Little by little democracy gets destroyed by those who connive to stay in power. Trump set off alarm bells even before January 6th and even before Trump first was elected (to disbelief that he could possibly win) when the minority did connive and gamed the system. (We do not have a direct democracy. We have a representative democracy.) It's not a sudden death.
Democracy does work I believe. It's still an experiment. Capitalism has it's effect on it- especially runaway capitalism, inequality.
We at least need educated citizens or else we get voters who are the revved up uneducated vulnerable, the angry and resentful falling for ill willed demagoguery. This eats away at our democracy.
So we need an informed citizenry and a nurtured sense of commonality. We need to distinguish between truth and lies, sad to say. The fourth estate had more trouble with that than it has now. Some can now call a lie a lie but they are still afraid of losing readership or viewership. People go to their preferred news, even called news when it's not news but lies/deflection. That feeds division. This does not promote discussion of different POV's The media *actually* doing its job when it variously does, is often called biased. Or it is claimed to be reporting from both sides equally regardless of right and wrong or fact. It's better now than it was, but we are divided more too.
Sorry for going on...
Freedom Caucus? Fleabag Circus suits them much better.
What does Freedom Caucus mean to these imbeciles?
They have the freedom to hold the entire Federal government hostage while they waste millions on their ridiculous hearings where no witnesses or facts are ever presented.
I was thinking the same thing, they can call themselves the Freedom Caucus but can't we (and truthful media) stop perpetuating that lie? Ideas: Fleabag Circus, Freedom Cacophony, Freedumb Caucus, Anti-Freedom Caucus, Bent on Destruction Caucus . . .
Great idea! I've upheld that a similar test be given to people before becoming parents....
Me too. Can you believe we need a license to drive a car and not to raise children! The world has gone insane.
They need to be called out by name, by state and by "constituents".
Not by "them".
Yes. Thank you, Steven. It is not a "they" or "them" doing this. It is specific people and specific organizations, and those should be named. We are a bit lazy about that too much of the time. A "them" lets us off the hook: we get to be indignant without being responsible for either doing too little to prevent this or for doing what is needed to change it.
Well said Annie.
Thank you for your insightful and witty comment. But you are unfair to children. The ones I grew up with and the ones I currently run into show better judgement and guts.
What a great idea. A basic test of competency. Genius.
Linda, not genius, just common sense. Seriously, who could object to a test that keeps people from disqualifying themselves from damaging the rest of us? I'm not aware of any jurisdiction in the US (or the rest of the world for that matter) that doesn't require as a condition to drive a motor vehicle the passage of a basic written test covering the rules of the road. Allowing anyone behind the wheel that thinks "green means stop, red means go, and yellow means 'floor it' would be a very bad idea. The questions could just be embedded in the ballot, true/false, require 80% correct response for passage, and machine scored to automatically reject any vote that failed the test. I very much doubt that many people supporting the likes of MTG could correctly answer a question such as "The official religion of the United States of America is Christianity: True or False".
First of all, 54% of adults in the US read at a 6th grade level or below. What percentage of these adults can interpret a ballot especially that has propositions or ballot initiatives on it? Make sure the questions are written at at least a 10th grade level to weed out the illiterates and uneducated.
Secondly, to secure a spot on a ballot, all candidates need to pass your true/false test and they have one chance to pass per election cycle. Incumbents included. If they flunk, they have to wait for the next election cycle to run.
Oh, you mean like the tests that some states used to have to decide who got to vote and who didn't? Like that? There's a reason that sort of thing got outlawed. Who gets to decide? Think about that for a minute. Ripe for manipulation and abuse. We're still paying the price for that, especially in some of the southern states. Nope, NOT a good idea. A very bad idea.
OF COURSE, a voting test was used to disenfranchise people. And we don’t want to revisit THAT era…
Gad — our only option is to REACH the people who fall for Trump and get them to knock it off …
Oooof
A better idea is to reach those people who aren't attached to Trump, people who are simply trying to live their lives through often difficult circumstances, and often don't have time to keep up with all this stuff. We need to use proven simple ways of reaching out to them and encourage them to vote and why. Things like postcards and all the other small things that have o been so effective in other elections. And we need to hold that push, keep on smiling, and keep on trying.
Yes.
They're essentially nihilistic and ignorant! Two bad characteristics in combination. In my own lifetime I have never witnessed such stupidity on display! And their love of repudiation against all those who aren't in lockstep with their regime is reminiscent of other historical Authoritarian regimes! Those who are unaware of history are doomed to repeat it.
I’d almost be in favor of such a thing. Wow, this is totally ludicrous …!
I think the issue rest on the quality of the candidate running for office. If you can't pass high school US History and Constitution. Then you are unqualified to run for office. I seriously doubt that the most vocal of the mega republicans could pass 8th government test.
Yeah, but it all smacks of Jim Crow, doesn’t it.
Maybe our goose is cooked.
The issue is, I think, GETTING A COGENT MESSAGE OUT ABOUT OUR CANDIDATE!
No history or literacy or any other kind of test.
Gad.
The problem is that Americans who were either gullible or stupid enough to have voted for Republicans like Gaetz and the rest of the Freedumb Caucus are incapable of understanding the hopeless positions of the G.O.P. They will continue, if only out of ignorance or bigotry, to vote for these elementary-school student council level politicians whom they send to Congress. As for voters having to pass a sanity test, that would be undemocratic and in the tradition of the voting restriction measures that were common in the South and something to stay away from. It would be far better to test the candidates who run for office in the manner you suggest.
Well the problem with that is the the candidates are (mostly) smart enough to answer the questions correctly, while many willfully ignorant voters aren't. Recall, I proposed a test based on a limited number of very simple questions, approved by a bipartisan panel, This wouldn't need to be a "litteracy" test, though one has to wonder if a person who is totally illiterate should be voting. Yes, fraught with risk of abuse. Rejected votes would need to be hand audited to protect against abuse.
Kev taps Jordan and Comer to head it up? Talk about bringing a knife (dull and rusted) to a gun fight.
McCarthy hearings for the New Millennium, Certified Decency Free.
Will he still be there?
No. Kevin will not be there as K violated the terms of Office dictated by Matt Gaetz & Fringe Friends.
Wed Morn' Not Really OFF Topic: LISA D. COOK was sworn in for a 2nd Term to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The FED BOARD is need now than ever. Go Lisa.
Great historical analysis 👏 👍!
The Coward of Kern County strikes again!
Yes, they definitely are. We must vote them out of office in 24.
Not sure we can wait that long. They must be stopped-NOW.
But how???
The Republican Party must hold them accountable. There is no other way.
Where is the Republican Diongenese when we need him? And are there enough honest Republicans to even make a difference?
That is the question. May they come out of their corporate-funded houses and become public servants (with security details, of course).
Otherwise they are going to vote the American People out of office.
Yes.I agree.The Putin Republicans, in their effort to”break something” are undermining the rights of their constituents and are doing their country a grave disservice.They need to be gone.
The irony is their constituents don’t seem to care. They re-elect them.
Yes and why is that exactly? Are their constituents so ill-informed/ignorant or they don't care what is happening to them and their families? I don't get it. Meanwhile those of us who DO care , who do KNOW what is going on need to flood our House reps with calls all day long telling them that we will not put up with this garbage. I called yesterday and am calling today. 202-224-3121
You're dealing with tribal loyalties, not scrutiny of the facts. The GOP markets in extremism now.
My dumbass rep Burchett tweeted yesterday Biden will not be nominee for president. That’s probably the only thing he did all day.
Fox
Which is their goal in the first place-to treat anyone not them as if our voters are serfs, not real people who have real needs and plans to live their lives as they see fit, not as this political party thinks they should- give up their rights so that party can call what they do as "freedom" which is actually "freedumb".
Well, their followers may just start to understand this if/when the government money they take for granted suddenly stops coming. Fill your freezers, folks.
Good one Barbara, ‘freedumb’.
The saying ‘Ignorance is bliss’ no longer serves or deserves a place in any space. The far right repubs and their coteries are like lemmings.
Thanks to HCR and her reader-commenters I can at least breathe as I read the daily news. Namaste.
A legacy of cowardice, corruption, arrogance and ignorance. It’s hard to believe anyone would willing bring this infamy on themselves.
Herb Klinker, I gotta say I totally agree with your first line. With respect to the second, however, I get your point but think the situation is worse than the insane running the asylum: they know exactly what they are doing and are doing it on purpose!
Legislative terrorists perhaps?
Herb, I just posted Heather's letter to my Facebook page and that was one of my observations. I also observed that they haven't nor will they pass anything to help ordinary citizens.
People voted for these clowns; now we've got ourselves a circus.
Speaking of voting: do we really think presidential votes are going to make a difference?
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/why-we-need-to-stop-voting-in-presidential
What's your point? Already half the electorate havent voted for generations. Curiously, of those who are not inclined to vote, a significant majority think 2020 election was stolen by the Democrats, far more than what is thought by registered voters. Disinformation filters right down; sense of civic duty nyet!
Irony and a vacuous traditional phrase, of course, asking God to help us…. Unless there are multiples, the fascists know god is helping them…
No words were ever more true
Actually, the insane created the asylum so they could run it.
Not running but certainly throwing many spanners in the works. If they ran it Biden would be impeached and a lot of other nasty ideas unleashed on the country.
“ you should never argue with a crazy mind, you oughta know by now “ Billy Joel,” Movin’ Out”
And as any twelve year old could tell ya
The question is are the MAGA crazies in the House a bright and shiny distraction or are they too stupid to understand the grand plan of the Republican oligarchs?
Time for America to get a history lesson about when FDR faced down the "economic royalists".
Some eye-opening reports from Tom Hartmann shed light on this--and Project 2025 is just a revisitation on steroids of what went on when the Republican moneyed interests held government before the Great Depression.
Biden needs to start cribbing FDRs speeches and identifying the underlying threat to decomocracy--the billionaire republicans who are funding the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.
Too many Democrats are focused on Trump and Tuberville and MTG and the Proud Boys--the bright and shiny objects. The real threat that needs to be called out is the unelected billionaires that are developing the strategy to take over government. That is what FDR did, That is what Biden needs to do,
Here are the links to two of Hartmann's posts. He writes about this with much more eloquence and knowledge than I have.
https://hartmannreport.com/p/can-america-take-on-and-defeat-the-425
https://hartmannreport.com/p/the-shocking-gop-plan-to-dismantle-e60
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” -Thoreau
Some say the love of money is the root of all evil. Surely that's true when it's sociopathicly so.
How profoundly has "Reaganomic" deregulation of the flow and uses of money changed our governance and society over the last 40+years? Except for Muskovite billionaires, what does the average citizen have to show for it? Are we now a happier, healthier, more secure society? Is our anticipated future brighter than ever?
Teddy Roosevelt promise a "square deal", FDR, a "new deal"? How, after all these years, have Reagnomic "reforms" been anything but a raw deal?
Let's see....
Commencing his campaign against welfare queens in Philadelphia Mississippi, eviscerating the Air Traffic Controllers Union upon taking office, slashing taxes for the rich while smilingly reminiscing about his Gipper days while the resultingly starved governmental services withered, and their beneficiaries suffered, ignoring the first major wave of homelessness due directly to his policies, never mentioning the word "AIDS" while people died during the plague years, waging war against the people of El Salvador and Nicaragua while encouraging the first generation of treacly, creepy fascist, faux Christian warriors (Oliver North, looking at you)....
Raw enough so far?!?!
Reaganomics Tartare
Touche, Joanne!
BTW, to you, and to all the kind folk who seem to "like" my post here, I thank you all for your graciousness.
Thanks, Daniel Streeter, Jr., for giving something to be gracious about!
I see you knew the guy.
Reagan was likely already sliding into dementia in that early concrete thinking phase when he was elected to office
He even came in making certain that the hostages weren’t seen to be freed by President Carter.
Boy what a great summation of reaganomics. What damage that shallow self serving dolt did.
I just read a banned book ( goal this summer) called Boys Kissing Boys. It talks about 4 different circumstances of boys coming out. The point of the story is that there are "angels" or gays who have died commenting on the state of affairs now and when they were young boys, dying of aids. No one ever mentioned it. No research was being done.
Thank you, Daniel
J l Graham, excellent verbiage, square deal, new deal, raw deal. I think everyone can understand that plain and simple summation;language. Thank you
Great, succinct summary of all these deals. To me, the worst legacy of Reagan was the validation of Ayn Rand libertarianism, creating the false shibboleth of federal government as THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. That concept flies in the face of American political tradition, built on the concept of the social contract, and expressed in three short words. WE THE PEOPLE. Reagan’s raw deal created the conditions for the breakdown of America, and the fulfillment of Franklin’s prophecy, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
The rhetoric of the Reaganoid "GOP" is anti-government, and that resonates because some governments are horrible, and even the best of governments is unlikely to please all of the people all of the time. But Republicans routinely talk out of both sides of their mouths, opposing "government" when it troubles the rich or assists the general welfare. Hold that yardstick to the changes they have made and propose, and I think it commonly fits. When Reagan demonized "government" he was aiming at government of, by, and for the people. Not government that props up profligate mega-corporations, or bombs small countries, or arrests and indicts peaceful protesters. Not goverment that polices bedrooms. Societies are extremely interactive and many disparate things are happening at any given time, but how many Republican initiatives since Carter have not disproportionately enriched and empowered the wealthiest among us and not disadvantaged and disempowered the general public, or some already disadvantaged segment of it? Reagan was the smarmy salesman for plutocratic restoration the "Gilded Age". And then some.
J L Graham: Raw and Rancid.
Even putrid.
Thoreau. the great Transcendentalist, knew what he was doing. What Kenneth Burke called "Beyonding"--seeing beyond the "shiny objects" and working on the root killers.
WITH the root killers.
Why the constant focus on what republicans did many years ago? Democrats have had ample opportunities to make changes. Politics today are not a history lesson and I don’t think invoking FDR helps anyone decide how to vote. You want voters to overwhelmingly vote Biden Harris, then focus on common sense issues; cost of living, high cost of housing, controlling your own budget based on the taxes you take in now, and a reasonable approach for immigration to prevent the hammering cost for US cities. And Who cares what Thoreau said.
Historical perspective does matter, Paul, lest we fall into repeating our mistakes over and over again. And I, for one, do care what Thoreau said. Always seeing the larger picture is essential to moving forward. While aware of what has been done in the past, we can more wisely assess what is happening now, appreciate what is the same or different, and thus can in a more informed way focus on common sense issues to get out the vote.
Well countered, Carol T.
Not to mention: If you, Paul Lewis, see no value in reviewing Republicans’ past tricks and atrocities, scoff at invoking FDR or Thoreau, believe “Politics today are not a history lesson,” why in the holy heckenbob are you reading the brilliant Heather Cox Richardson?
There’s a difference between learning from the past-- I enjoy that hence why I read this newsletter, and harping on events that don’t win you elections.
Considering that at least two of your common sense issues are directly in the hands of business and a third (budget) is indirectly in the hands of business through government contracting, what measures would you recommend that the government take to reduce the first two and control the third? It seems that so many people blame government for things that are under control of business, instead.
I am of the opinion that "business" does some things that serve society very well, although "we the people" still get to prescribe rules for commerce in instances that are not serving the public interest, such as polluting or passing out opioids like candy. And some of the legitimate interests of our society are too vital and some powers too dangerous to NOT be controlled, supervised and provided by the public sector. I think many current instances of current "privatization" rage from a bad deal for the pubic, to just plain nuts.
Careful, you are on the verge of making the argument that republicans make- that there is little need for so much government given it’s ineffectiveness. I don’t have a set of great answers to your question. But just look at Housing. Nothing hurts housing affordability faster than rising interest rates. Those rising rates are wholly within the term of President Biden and he at least has the tool of budget proposals and he can use restraint in spending. I don’t know how he would tackle wage- price spiraling, corporate greed, or supply constraints.
This is why you need to understand history- your grasp of how economics works and its intersection with government will improve. One hopes. Your "analysis" ascribes things to the government that do not belong there. Example: housing affordability. You seem to have no understanding at all of how that works. For one thing, because something happens during the term of a given president does mean causation: it usually means that economic factors set in motion during the previous administration has finally caught us up in another mess. It's not up to me to educate you, but I can urge you to learn a little more about how things work before you eat any more shoe leather.
Home mortgage rates are set by the government? I didn't know that. On a more general note, I'd subscribe to some of what JL Graham says in his comment above: there are some things that government is better suited for, there are somethings that business is good at, and there are some things that religions are good at. My main point above is that business is seldom adequately held to account for its inefficiencies and inequalities, perhaps because by its nature business is a very diffuse endeavor. It's easy to blame government for things outside its control, if only because its a relatively unitary entity, and so easy to point at.
The fact that Thoreau said it does not make it true, but I think Thoreau and others have managed to state very cogent thoughts gracefully enough to be worth repeating and crediting. Also, often, valued quotations are already familiar to the reader, and citation points to a connection with a specific issue.
History, be it very recent or well in the past, is our only guide to what works and does not work, and why, is our only basis from which to project forward. We don't always call it history, but we learn from experience and and my extending and adjusting the logic of what has happened before. Newton spoke of stranding on the shoulders of giants. We also stand on the shoulders of many, many forgotten people to get to where I can type on a "wireless" device, and you can see it from very far away. Every one of us draws from an enormous pool of accumulated knowledge.
Useful to know, I think, is that we have fought with the seduction of plutocracy before in many forms, including the violence-enforced "supremacy" of feudal lords, and the so-called "Robber Barons" of the "Gilded Age". FDR was among those who helped empower the general public, helping end cynical hazards and exploitation imposed on the public by the overly powerful. And back in the day, his efforts were was popular. As part of a decades long general trend of reforms that a corrupted SCOTUS now rules illegal, the rights of the many abused people were advancing, and the "middle class" expanded. Plutocraticly bankrolled Reagan Republicans attacked that progress, and do to this day. And how has that worked out?
It seems to me that if people had a "good enough" sense of enough of the history of how things got to be the way they are today, many more would be making different choices. In particular; follow the money. It appears to me that reining in the power of exceptional wealth to interfere with the democratic process and a well informed electorate, is key to making better headway with the common sense issues you speak of above. For some, perhaps our whole species, it might realistically be the difference between life and death,
That what trumpers complain about are things some of things which Biden has no control of. Their big complaint is how much it costs to fill the tanks of their trucks. Trump's friend the Prince and Russia have put a cap on oil until Dec. We produce a lot of oil. I read we were the biggest producer, but I don't know. If we cut back on oil use, we might be more independent. Oil production has gone up. They blame Biden for stopping the building the pipeline which was supposed to make hundreds of jobs. They didn't look beyond their noses to see that only 50 people were needed to maintain the pipeline.
Besides the scary environmental consequences fossil energy, it also happens to come in a form that is easily monopolized. It means other nations can extort and threaten us by withholding it, and domestic companies can get away with extortionate prices. Republicans hate taxes that at least build our roads and educate our kids. What to monopoly pricing do for us beside make de facto lords of the very rich that often bankroll efforts to blunt or destroy democracy? What if we had been working far more seriously on alternative energy sources ever since Carter? Even Nixon was on board with that effort; and yet since the "Reagan Revolution" it has been opposed tooth and nail.
"Politics today are not a history lesson..." Oh, but they are, Paul. They reflect the past and unless we understand how things come to pass, we cannot understand how to deal with them. Your "common sense issues" are all based in events of the past which have set the trajectory of the present. Some of those dynamics were set in motion long ago. We need to explore and analyze history in order to deal with those issues. There are many first hand observers of what happened in the past who can shed important light on all those issues you mention. How we got in that mess gives a pretty good clue about what we need to do to get out. Whether you decide to use that tool for insight and understanding is up to you. But you might give it a try.
Thank you, J L
Classic JL...classic🤣
Dealing from the bottom of the deck...
Completely agree. And isn’t it something that Project2025 is not discussed on mainstream media!
Yes it is. That is why Biden and Harris have to talk about it. The media will only start reporting it if they start talking about it. And talking about it in historical context. Biden needs to invoke FDRs ghost across the whole breadth of FDRs policies, not just the social safety net issues. It would bring a backlash from the big money, but it might wake up some of those economically left behind in this country to who really is responsible.
Maybe Joe could start with "When America was last at this crossroads, FDR said..."
I'm not one to want to copy the past, but we can surely learn from it. In fact everything we have learned from is now in the past, Including the lines I read on this page. I think the future will always surprise us one way or another, but we rely on learned repeating patterns every day, like how to fry an egg. Some patterns should set off alarm bells, and others that may have rendered service in the past, fallen out of fashion, yet are available to reevaluation in modern circumstances. A lot of things Republicans claim would cause the world to implode proved useful in the past. You can't step in the same river twice, but "fortune favors the prepared mind".
You can't step in the same river twice, but "fortune favors the prepared mind".
Love this!
The bit about the river comes from Heraclitus who was a really interesting ancient Greek dude. Only fragments of his ideas remain and those recounted by others. He thought that reality was in flow. Many of the old Greek thinkers were astonishingly prescient, including, by credible means, calculating with surprising accuracy the circumference of the earth, within 50% the circumference of the moon, the correct order of the then observable planets, and the fact that they and we orbit the sun. Aristotle thought everything circled the earth, so that was that for the Middle Ages.
My eighth grade science book attributed "fortune favors the prepared mind" to Alexander Fleming who "accidentally" discovered the anti-bacterial qualities of Penicillin. But what he noticed took a talent for observation and the understanding to grasp it's extended significance, which illustrates the quotation. I have read that he did not actually use those words, but something like them; but I think it is still a powerful phrase even if, in the end, anonymous. It seems to me that this phase captures much of the means to innovation and resilience.
Thank you for that mini- lesson. Really appreciate that!
Look at Hitler. Made a deal with Chamberlain not to invade the Chechs. and then he went on to bulldoze his way through Europe, Africa, the Scandanavian countries, Eastern Europe. He even had subs off our coast, destroying our merchant ships. Now we have Russia trying to take over Ukraine with eyes on Latvia, Moldova, etc. He has Belarus in his pocket already.
Perhaps he should invoke both FDR and cousin TR. reiterate the best of the Square Deal & The New Deal changes that made America safer, saner, more civil.
It got a fair amount of mention in the WaPo and gets regular notice on MSNBC.
Not enough to drown out the facist propaganda TC. That propaganda machine has been going non stop for a very long time.
Some coverage like what's below from the AP but google it and not a lot comes up that is not from Heritage itself and conservative outlets.
https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981
Scariest is this C-SPAN interview from Paul Dans the head of Project 2025--which is now a "huge coalition" of more than 70 Republican groups to "systematically prepare" If you want a true hair on fire moment be sure to listen to the discussion of changes to the justice department and making is subservient to the presidential direction.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?530201-3/paul-dans-2025-presidential-transition-project
Georgia, Thanks for posting the link to C-span's interview with Paul Dans. I will have to go to their site after watching this.
The purpose of that project is to set up the next gop admin to throw out the Constitution and rewrite it using the convention of the states that the real DEEP STATE has been organizing for years.
There are now 19 states that have legislatively adopted the Convention of States position for calling an Article 5 convention to amend the U.S. Constitution. The necessary number to make this happen is 34. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/convention-states-constitution/
Precisely correct Georgia. Isn't it amazing that nearly everyone focus's on the distracters in plain view without questioning "Where do they get the seeming endless financing"? I've puzzled over much of that for 30 years or so. Along the way I had a theory and have followed the bread crumbs. It is the same that FDR faced, just a bit modernized and better hidden; the same breed of suspects learned and reapplied the learned lessons for this well planned attack, with help from U.S. adversaries. Nothing is beneath them. Nothing...
“Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country”.
-Edward L Bernays (the “father of public relations)
Bernays was a master at propaganda recognizing that indeed the wealthy are “puppeteers” who can control the public mind and compel people to act in whatever ways they want.
Trump along with many others has used all of the techniques designed to appeal to people’s emotions including using simple language, name calling, symbolism, fears, and attacks on opponents.
His whole act is orchestrated to distract and confuse the public. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “when evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hate, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love”.
Bernays concedes that propaganda is “psychological warfare”. Let’s hope that more people will see what’s hidden so evil does not win.
Gina-- So true, “Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country”. -Edward L Bernays (the “father of public relations) -- Basic to the power of the Third Reich.
Agreed, Georgia, go after the puppeteers, not the puppets.
And the puppet-in-chief-in-waiting is.....
Ron DeSantis
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/conservative-think-tank-emerges-force-behind-desantis-campaign-2023-08-18/
As this article shows DeSantis is way more amenable to the role of puppet than Trump would or could be. And you can't say he hasn't gotten results in Florida in line with the master agenda.
He does have the look of a ventriloquist's puppet.
Spot on, Georgia. Jason Garcia does deep dives into all things DeSantis.
“ In fact, you could make a pretty compelling case that Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature have themselves become just another front group for these same superrich special interests.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/jasongarcia/p/the-billionaires-financing-union?r=fqsxl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Manchurian Candidate . . .
Georgia Fisanick: Yes. Exactly. "The real threat that needs to be called out is the unelected billionaires that are developing the strategy to take over government. "
I am naive, but isn't there a limit on how much can be donated? Or do you go through Russian operatives to get more money?
Agree wholeheartedly. I’ve also suggested elsewhere that the CCC be reincarnated, to deal with the tragedy of America’s homeless and inner city poverty. But, no, the idea would never fly today. It would die on the cross of socialism. But yes, Joe Biden could channel FDR. The case against Google isn’t a bad place to start.
The CCC! Bravo. Spent 3 years of my childhood within walking distance of a CCC camp. My first dog would run off for the petting he got there and was regularly returned! The men kept the National Park clean and trim. Of course they were drafted or had jobs after Pearl Harbor.
I think the answer to the question you pose in the first graf may be "yes."
The MAGA morons in the House are definitely a distraction, to the extent that they divert resources away from governing and toward dealing with their b***s****; it also appears that a goodly number of them (I'm thinking Gym Jordan, Paul Gosar, MTG, etc.) are also too stupid to see where all of this is leading.
It's kind of a case of "We may be lost, but we're making great time!" -- except we're headed toward a cliff.
I like your analogy here, Andrew. "...lost but making great time" as we throw our democracy over the cliff.
Well said. We have worshipped money instead of sustaining democracy. Time to reverse course and try to save the planet and democracy for humans.
Absolutely. Nail the perpetrators (predators of democracy) behind the farcical adolescents pretending to be legislators. One example:
"Billionaires Cash In On Abusive Farm Worker Scam
To staff their agricultural properties, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, and other tycoons are using a controversial visa program linked to labor abuses and human trafficking."(levernews.com. Sept 12, 2023) Notable too, for the reader, is in The Lever's reportage about the size of farm land real estate these tycoons are purchasing, and its negative impact on wages for everyone. Isn't it time to cap wealth?
Excellent advice! People like Leonard Leo are running the show, thinking they're doing it behind the curtain but it's as blatant as the sun in the sky....
Thank you Georgia for your links and your intelligence. Hard to believe how easy it is to come up with TRUTH if we look for and listen to the intelligent and brilliant educators and officials and even pundits who are not beholden to the crooks. In any century. Many of us read the same voices. But sadly many do not.
Thom Hartmann and Heather Cox Richardson are our lifelines for the chaos we've been living through. So appreciate both.
Thank you!!!! Georgia!
Well said, thank you for sharing the link. 👏👏👏👏
Thank you for those links.
Wow thank you so much for this link. My brother follows Hartmann religiously. I am familiar with him by way of his excellent critiques of mental health.
The House Republicans are holding a hand grenade, thinking they have the ultimate weapon to win. But they don’t realize they’ve dislodged the pin, and they’re about to blow themselves to smithereens.
But there’s going to be a lot of collateral damage from a prolonged government shutdown.
I keep hoping that this time, this time, the absurdity/depravity is going to smack so many in the face that virtually the whole nation will wake to it.
When people stop getting their Social Security or other government benefits and they don't have money to buy food or rent, hopefully they will wake the hell up.
When everyone runs out of money, the billionaires will buy up the ruins of every family in America. The goal here is “create a fire, buy up the smoking hulks”. Then they can rule with an iron fist; which is really their true motivation; Muskdom
Muskdom...ugh!