Members of the House of Representatives returned to work today after their summer break. They came back to a fierce fight over funding the government before the September 30 deadline, with only 12 days of legislative work on the calendar. That fight is also tangled up with Republican extremists’ demands to impeach President Joe Biden—although even members of their own caucus admit there are no grounds for such an impeachment—and threats to the continued position of Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker of the House.
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
Hit people in their pocket books. How much of the budget stalling would affect people? Maybe Congress wants to beat trump's record hold of 31 days? As Biden said of the FL relief money. I put the request in. If you don't get it, you know who blame. Although trumpers will blame Biden because he is president. They have no idea who really controls the purse strings.
Absolutely Michael. Whether it is alt-right refusing spending measures or using the option to dump McCarthy, the House will be frozen solid.
I must have missed the final answer during the marathon vote for a speaker in January, but must the speaker be voted in only by members of their party? Could a not totally bat-s**t crazy Republican with the support of like minded Republicans and assisting Democrats be made the new speaker? There must be some mechanism to neutralize the alt-right strangle hold.
I very much hope you are right, Virginia, and the odds are looking fairly good. I've been spending time watching various state races. I believe several Dems are going to take seats now held by repubs- mostly the at-risk people making noise in the House, but also a few of the folks sitting on their thumbs. I am not making a prediction about this, but am feeling more optimistic after seeing how things are at the state level. There are critical things to pay attention to at the fed level (how could there not be, given the people involved?), but we do ourselves a disservice if we do not also pay attention to the state level- and be active there as well.
I totally agree. The postcard writing effort was proved valuable in 2018 and continues to be useful, which is why I mention it often. It’s an easy way to participate in addition to voting. (All of us can use reminders.)
They break things because it creates chaos and this general mistrust and paranoia. Hence inability to believe in any truth—which as Hannah Arendt said is part of moving toward totalitarian or authoritarian seizure of power. People experience the disorder, become afraid, look for a strong man or an enemy or both. It is a not an irrational strategy it is what Trump already figured out aided by Bannon and co. It is imperative not to underestimate these people and also recognize the media’s Inability to be clear. They call these people conservatives instead of extremists. They pretend to believe that they have legitimate fears about spending and deficit. Dem consultants wise up! Tell it like it is. Thank you Heather!
Bannon and Farage - still at large and unscathed. Busy organising the right wing here in Australia - the press is just starting to notice the likeness to the American model.
If after ALL these years and ALL of gop/trump/bannon’s circus shenanigans Dems have NOT grab hold of the narrative, I’m starting to feel they are in on the grift. Don’t get me wrong, I will advocate and stump and donate Dem all the way, but...........I do sit and wonder “Why?” We have the “laws” to prosecute the actions for the gop misdeeds, but we never seem to stand by them. 14th Amendment? Just a “guideline”?
The Lincoln Project are the purveyors of the Dems narrative. They employ Trump's (and Roger Stone's) attack attack attack philosophy. Plus, it's nice to see the attack coming from ex-GOPers.
Jessica Benjamin: Yes. Perfect distillation. The Dems are so poor at marketing and strategizing because they aren't energized, galvanized, and hyper-focalized by hate. Wonder what Arendt and Cronkite would say . . .
At this moment I am in Spain, arriving by high speed train from Portugal. I left the USA two weeks ago and have followed the muck and mire the Repubs are and have been creating for too long. Interesting that the time changes at the border between Portugal and Spain. You can watch your digital device move forward an hour thanks to an agreement made by Franco to stay in Hitler’s graces. Decades ago. Two countries share borders but not time zones. Every country has its problems, its needs, its government and solutions. Many are lasting. Since and when the repubs are in control or able to block and obstruct we are closer to Fascism. Americans supporting and voting for tfg and his supporters don’t know or care about History and the wars created by the very people they elect to provide services and safety nets for all citizens. The long list that the Biden administration is tackling includes the critical services and needs for all citizens. Not just the wealthy. For that repubs MTG and friends want to dump their own leader McCarthy and destroy our Democracy and the lives of those who need services the most. I could quote poems and sayings forever, but let this be a reminder to those tfg and repub voters who are standing back and watching. There are not “good people on both sides.”
If you get to Madrid, hopefully you will have the good fortune to see Goya's work in El Prado? ...and to contrast his later, Black Paintings with his earlier court paintings. It's what we are talking about right here and now.
Yes, wonderful recommendations. I have been to Madrid and agree the also highly regarded Goya’s work is worth the long lines of el Prado. My favorite is the Sophia Reina museum with the original Picasso’s “Guernica,” so massive, it takes up two rooms, no seats or talking. Even school children who may sit on the floor gaze up at the incredible and painful story Picasso painted. I wanted to go to Guernica as I am in Spain but all of Europe is a story of conflict and recovery. I just finished a Habitat for Humanity volunteer build in Porto, Portugal and saw how countries rebuild and recover and also restore and revere their history. Not necessarily from war but from the ages, from time. All the past crumbles like old buildings, but rebuilding and respect are important for our growth as a nation. There are challenges in Europe, too, but also reminders.
just recently visited the reina sophia and it is also my favorite... powerful, socially/politically conscious work... have a wonderful visit! and wow, thank you for HfH volunteering.. I had no idea this was happening outside of usa.
William, I have friends who have emigrated from USA to both Spain snd Portugal. I only know some of the requirements for Portugal from the details they have shared. So do your own research for facts from a reliable source. Both married couples, one a same sex couple and one not, both retirement age, with a required income. No discrimination for requirements. Had to lease a house or apartment; not sure about all financials but easy to find in an internet search. After two years one just had their exit embassy interview. The other is close. They love Portugal. If you live on the east coast you’re closer to Europe than I am. I’m on West coast and as I mentioned my children one on west coast and one on east coast with families travel but aren’t interested in moving. It’s a process and a commitment.
Always good to find out. Takes two years for citizenship so hoping that is enough time. I’m staying in USA because being closer to family is important to me. Because I’m not as young as I used to be. Did I already write that ? There’s the evidence. But sense of humor still young.
Obrigada, Marlene. Indeed it’s a challenging trip of a lifetime. We all have these journeys, but each is different. My backpack is too heavy and I have to either give away what I love or carry it. Like life. Bom Caminho, amiga.
Your trip sounds amazing. I am hoping for an extended visit to Portugal when my wife retires; I don't think we could ever emigrate there (same family concerns that you have), but I would love an extended stay.
Ally, it’s beautiful and with such varied landscapes and beauty. Plus you can eat natas de pastéis to your heart’s content. And dance, walk, hike, socialize, be part of a community. At least a start.
We’ve got friends who live in the Algarve, in Loulé. I found a place on one of our visits called “Tubas Bar”. The town band rehearses downstairs and one of the tuba players owns the bar!
Being part of the community is what I miss. Born and grew up on US west coast which still feels like home. 25 yrs ago took a job in NE "for a few years" because one of my daughters lives here. Ended up stuck here (Lyme took me down, and my life fell apart). It's a different world and there are significant cultural differences. I still suffer from a bit of culture shock. But at least I can take the train to visit my home grounds from time to time. When my children were young, I was offered a position in New Zealand and a job that would lead to a PhD. The catch was that my kids were my parents only grandchildren, and I couldn't do that to them. So I stayed, and eventually ended up in New England. Still a fish out of water, but finding ways to belong. I've done some traveling, but would love to just move somewhere and really get the feel of the people and culture. Love listening to the ex-pats on here and getting their perspectives.
Why am I still blown away by what these far-right radicals will do for power? The (once) GOP has no discernible platform other than to say “NO” to anything good for America & Americans; proving once again that they really are suffering from a case of the terrible twos.
It is true that the MAGAts don't have any discernible platform--they are chaos agents.
But the billionaire Republicans actually running the party have a 900 page manifesto in Project 2025 about how they will change the government. We have to fight them both.
Biden, like FDR, has to talk about both threats. So far Biden has only talked about the chaos agents. He needs to start talking about the threats from the money interests.
“Evidence free” claims of election victory becomes “evidence free” impeachments (see the Wisconsin Supreme Court judge too). The GOP wants to rule. They don’t care about facts, laws, or anything that blocks their pathway to authoritarian control. When will the news media stop using “context free reporting” and declare the GOP a domestic threat to the Constitution?
Steven, I would amplify your reference to Wisconsin's recently-elected State Supreme Court Justice, Janet Protasiewicz. Traditionally, candidates for Supreme Court Justice do not reveal their personal opinions on current political issues. Justice Protasiewicz departed from that tradition by speaking plainly about what she believes personally, but qualifying it by saying what candidates for supreme court always say, that they will base their decisions on the merits of the arguments presented from all sides of the case. A great many of my fellow Wisconsin voters were very enthusiastic about her candor and honesty in expressing her own opinions. In our house we saw it as being almost infinitely more honest than at least two of the recent appointees to the US Supreme Court, when asked about their opinions on Roe v. Wade. Now members of the Wisconsin Legislature -- one of the worst gerrymandered state legislatures in the nation, in favor of the Rs -- are saying they will impeach Justice Protasiewicz, despite having no legal legs to stand on. They appear to believe that she should recuse herself from any case that deals with an issue that she talked about during the campaign. Or something like that. It's not clear to us because they are making it up as they go along. They will play these games as long as they think there is a retreating glacier's chance in a warming world that they might win. They seem to want to try anything to stay in power. Justice Protasiewicz would almost certainly rule in favor of redrawing our districts to make them fair again. It's so bad here that something like two thirds of the votes in an election were cast by people voting for Democrats, but two thirds of the seats in the Legislature are held by Republicans. Justice Protasiewicz is our best hope to change that equation. Wisconsin Republicans are desperate. We can all see the end of Republican power looming on the horizon.
D4N, I admit that I allowed my words to sound hopeful, saying that with the balance of power changing in the Wisconsin Supreme Court for the first time in many years, there is at least some hope that we can break the lock set by a Republican minority in both chambers of our Legislature. I know it goes without saying that it is extremely frustrating to watch those who favor republicanism over democracy, minority rule over the majority of citizens, try every trick they can think of to hold on to power. We suspect that they nurture a patriarchal mentality, like a father who rules the family with an iron will, because he thinks he knows what is best for his wife and his children.
The Republicans will try every trick they can get away with in their efforts to establish the type of culture and morality they think is appropriate for themselves -- it's not enough for them to "live and let live" -- they appear unable to get along with people who do not see the world the same way, so they want to force everybody to think and act and feel the same as those who favor their conservative mindset. I can't begin to imagine what I would do if a new conservative regime were to try to force me to worship with them in their church. Speaking only for myself, I am a war veteran, and I doubt very much that I would be patient with a religious fanatic who tries to dictate how I live my life.
In the past, Congress had an "Un-American Activities Committee", which was eventually dissolved. But the idea remains. The worst conservative Republicans in the House seem very un-American. They are inventing their own customized version of American history, which is quite different from what most of us learned in school. We don't like kings, and we don't like dictators, and we don't like being told what we can and cannot do, even while we do agree to abide by the law and propriety. Why do conservative bullies feel a need to pick on fellow citizens who don't look or act the same as other people? That is a very un-American attitude.
We need to keep hope alive for a democratic majoritarian society, and do everything we can to keep it that way for a very long time into the future. The conservatives can still be conservatives if that's what they want to do -- just don't try to impose their will on the rest of us. We don't want to impose our will on them, other than to insist on a democratic society.
Thank you for saying more about this situation in your state. I hope you're correct and GOP power will eventually end. IMHO the party (nationwide) should get put in the ash heap of history.
Apropos "overshambles", here are two other similar terms with longer histories, both still used in Vienna, Austria: "schlammasel", which is Yiddish, and "palawatsch", which may once have been Hungarian. Both would work well to describe the current situation in the U.S. House, if it weren't for the fact that this particular mess is being made quite deliberately.
And I! and throw salt over your shoulder and “spit”! My grandparents not my parents. In my childhood only Holidays we’re celebrated, and high holidays were for the adults. That’s how the religions change. Expand and contract.
Not to be too fussy, but for future reference, the correct spelling is Schlamassel, (yes, Yiddish) derived from Schlimmasl, meaning misfortune, and 'masl' meaning good luck. The other word is Pallawatsch and is of Bavarian origin. Just saying ... they both mean OMNIshambles ...
Please, please, Congress...just get to work on what was in front if you with those appropriation bills instead of giving us all brain freeze and sucking the air out of the room with such insipid theatrics
Really, the GOP in Congress are repeats from the Civil War. They have managed to conjure up every lie, every dishonest thing they can think of to win. Win what? Like little children not getting their way, they will not choose Qevin in their game of “Red Rover”. They will pick another person instead, like Gaetz himself or the obnoxious MGT. All of their dirty work is commandeered by their leaders, Donald J. Trump and Vlad Putin. The moderate R’s are very uncomfortable about this impeachment inquiry. There is no evidence and they know it.
It’s unfortunate that Joe’s son, Hunter, made very poor choices in his life. For that, he will pay a price but Joe shouldn’t. These Christian Fake Nationalists just want a go at Joe, like he’s the one sitting in the dunk tank at a carnival. They have nothing and they are nothing. We have one year to convince them of that. Let’s do it!
If one of Trump's sons had committed murder, we could not have legitimately impeached Trump so long as he was not obstructing justice. He earned his mugshot of his own accord.
Notice how the republicans go after President Biden when there is nothing, but haven’t done anything with the true definition of political fraud: George Santos. Republican hypocrisy at its best.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy makes me remember with some nostalgia Senator Joe McCarthy. Tail Gunner Joe, with his bold faced lies, anti-communist foo foo dust, and his alcoholism, at least had
Cohesion in his venality.
Castrated McCarthy is flaying like a locomotive without an engineer. During the 15 votes to name a House speaker, McCarthy prostrated himself before the House Republican Feckless Committee: he gave them effective veto power over responsible House governance.
1) After a Perils of Pauline debt limit brouhaha in which limits were placed on forthcoming budgets, the Feckless Committee has demanded more draconian budget cuts;
2) The Feckless Committee demanded that McCarthy initiate impeachment proceedings against President Biden before any discussions on approving budget funding after a September 30th deadline;
3) Cuckold McCarthy, fearful of losing his cherished speakership, has initiated an absolutely ludicrous ‘impeachment inquiry’ of President Biden with zippo grounds for indictment.
Even Republican Senate leader McConnell, who is not a paragon of responsible leadership, seems speechless at Speaker McCarthy’s antics.
With a September 30th budget funding deadline looming, I haven’t a clue how this political chicanery will turn out. The House Feckless Committee is holding the country hostage while Trumpublicans seem stymied with their fingers up their butts.
When I was a Foreign Service Officer in Congo, I thought it ridiculous when the Congolese Assembly, including members of the government, voted unanimously against the government, and the government then continued on its merry way.
Now it’s seems less ridiculous, given Muckiman McCarthy’s political antics.
Alas that's true. Things can also be better. The rub is, bountiful as our earth is (for now) better generally requires some discipline and sustained effort, while worse has natural entropy on its side. My favorite metaphor for life is sailing against the wind (which I never have literally done) where one can use the power of the wind (if luck holds) to go where one wishes, by tacking, by finessing the energy of nature. Nature can crush us like bugs, but we can often hitch a ride if we respect her rules.
JL I have often sailed against the wind. With finesse and patience one can go almost anywhere. Sailing before the wind is a distinct experience. Almost effortlessly, you speed forward. Of course when I did that in a hurricane, we set a sea anchor as we watched 40 foot waves from our cockpit.
I have most no experience with sailing, and never with me in control, but I sense something elegantly primal about it. Multi-sensual beauty but also the beauty of the underlying physics; our map of the bones of reality. My paternal grandfather was a British merchant seaman. Very different kind of boat, but he too was awed by the power of sea.
My favorite 'swap' on that metaphor is urinating into the wind, which is what the 'far wrong' caucus seems most intent on - drenched or not, their doing it and damn proud too. It bears zero resemblance to effective democratic governance - zero. It also seems fully intentional.... it has to be. **edit it > Thought occurs to me that if I had big money, I'd pay big money to assemble the best available forum of independent, Phd. Psychotherapists to convene and publicly assess the behaviors of the "far wrong'ers". I'd take bets that they collectively require long periods *of time spent in separate corners, away from mature adults conducting business. *edit, again* > Furthermore, the frat twins, gates and mgt, would be required immediate and permanent expulsion. How exactly does any business 'of the people' get done with 'Heckle and Jeckle' popping wise and acting out in the gallery workspace ?
It seems very difficult to know what's going on behind the scenes these days. When we were young, we knew that deals were made, and promises were kept, because if they failed to honor their side of the bargain, they would lose credibility going forward. That kind of honor seems to be missing these days, at least among McCarthy's cohort. I like to entertain the amusing idea that McCarthy has some sense of gamesmanship, but I don't see his behavior as "three dimensional chess".
It would require only a handful of patriotic Republican Members to caucus with the Democrats to change the balance of power. Are there any brave people among the Republican Members who would be willing to risk their chances for re-election for the sake of the nation?
David I sense that McCarthy is playing checkers in a complex chess game. A chess champion can think five moves ahead, while McCarthy is playing checkers catch up.
DON’T expect any profundity in the House Chicken Game of READY, FIRE, AIM.
Keith: What an amazing potential speech outline you've created herein ! I can see this existing as a 'framework speech' to be memorized and repeated in mantra fashion by any democrat (like Hakeem Jeffries) who can gain their voice / seat in any committee or congressional forum - 'when' and 'if' they can get recognized to speak their mind on any forum. Certainly the gop majority gets their time on the floor / microphone / idea sessions ! It's high time they fight fire 'with' fire ! With your permission, and of course cred,, I'd like to copy and paste, both your rant and mine, for the purpose to send as a suggestion to Jeffries and any other democrat / independent who doesn't get to fully 'represent' their majority constituencies as they certainly should - especially if one just lays out the dynamic numbers of constituents not heard from. With your permission, I think this could be a dynamic request if many here, so inclined, follow suit to their representatives and senators. Keith, please let me know what you think; then lets get at it ! Thank you for your brilliance, sincerely....
D4N Feel free to take any of my words and spread them to the universe. THE TRUTH SHALL SET US FREE. Don’t trouble yourself with ‘credit.’ As a professor, when a student copied something, that was plagiarism! But if I ‘borrowed’ aphrease or idea from someone else, that was ‘professionalism.’
Keith: There are you and a select number of folks herein that I closely identify with, as do you I've noticed. I encourage you to work with them - good natured banter style, to hone that speech to repeated as a memorized 'mantra' for representatives who with their majority constituents are Not heard in Congress or Senate as they 'should be'. Let us compare notes; I for one will forward the present messages, or a better revised version. When there is consensus, lets get to encouraging those of 'like minds' who care that the majority constituencies' representative 'be heard' and represented, "join us" in forwarding to their respective sympathetic representatives. That's my most earnest intention, and I feel is badly needed to encourage and fortify those representatives.
D4N Go for it. I’ll be 90 next month and intend to fire all the bullets left in my M 16 and have fun doing it. I’ve put my life on the line for the soul of my country and will fervently support you and others in the younger generation who are engaged in this fight.
Bless your little pea-pickin’ heart, Keith! Hope your cake doesn’t topple over when those candles are burning. :) Seriously, my friend, that is a milestone and I wish you only the very best for many more years.
As we saw with McCarthy's election shambles to (eventually) become Speaker, it's very likely that those "moderate" Republicans simply don't have the votes to install a better Speaker :(
I hope your good point elicits more discussion, regarding any plausible scenario that attempting to depose McCarthy would lead to a new Speaker who could accomplish anything. I have not seen even one speculative article about what would happen if Gaetz et al try to remove Speaker McCarthy. Seems to me that no one can see any kind of plausible scenario. Many of us will remember that scene with MTG presiding when the House was in session, trying to call the body to order. Even Members of her party were laughing and jeering at her. A persistently disorderly person calling the House to order is probably indicative of what would happen if they attempt to elect a new Speaker. It was painful enough watching McCarthy get elected. Maybe some back bench Republican't will emerge with soaring oratory to inspire us all to remember why we went to all that trouble to become a nation. (/feeble attempt at humor.)
I think that a boring Republican who is focused on the country’s real business with the democrats and a few congressmen/women supporting him will guide democracy to the ship yards from the extremist torpedo’s
Christopher, that is indeed a plausible scenario. It would be brilliant. It could provide a way forward for all of us, or most of us. Leave the crazies in the dust, wondering where they went wrong.
Default would be a huge mistake, affecting the whole world economically. With such high stakes, it would be refreshing to see a large number of Members of Congress deciding that one term is enough, so they do what is right and good and true, and show the world what we Americans can do when we work together.
I don't think so. The new Biden impeachment investigation is an irritating joke. The Democrats should jump at the chance to get the House up & running again and to neutralize the far right crazies.
I guess I wasn't clear in my post. I meant the Dems won't help McCarthy keep his job if his right-wing colleagues call a vote to unseat him. Some were considering it, but now it would be political suicide to support him now, given his move on impeachment.
Hence the "quotes" -- I don't think the party has many people left, who have a spine and a moral compass, at this point.
Me? Oh, I'm a former Labour Party-supporting Brit who has to hold his nose to vote for Democrats -- even back in 2005, when I became a US citizen, the Republicans were already the "crazy party" in my view! :)
When I taught first grade, every once in awhile one of the 6-year-olds would lose control and throw a tantrum. Reminds me of Congress, except these are supposedly mature adults and their tantrums seem to last for weeks, months, years at a time. I just don't understand why we are willing to accept this.
Yep. A cartel system that nominates and elects the 6-year-olds who never grew up, the delinquents who disrupted their classes and made them unfit places in which to learn, and then put them in charge of the entire school system...that system produces such a Congress.
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!
I am not “buying” that and will write GOTV postcards and comments in this space and others as long as I can. I need a new moniker: “ Toooldtoshoot!
Unfortunately, the puppeteers don't need Social Security and those who do need it won't have the skills or resources to be effective.
Hit people in their pocket books. How much of the budget stalling would affect people? Maybe Congress wants to beat trump's record hold of 31 days? As Biden said of the FL relief money. I put the request in. If you don't get it, you know who blame. Although trumpers will blame Biden because he is president. They have no idea who really controls the purse strings.
That’s what’s right around the corner...
🤞🏼
But the billionaires behind it will reap more billions AND control in the ensuing chaos. That’s disaster capitalism at its most basic.
Absolutely Michael. Whether it is alt-right refusing spending measures or using the option to dump McCarthy, the House will be frozen solid.
I must have missed the final answer during the marathon vote for a speaker in January, but must the speaker be voted in only by members of their party? Could a not totally bat-s**t crazy Republican with the support of like minded Republicans and assisting Democrats be made the new speaker? There must be some mechanism to neutralize the alt-right strangle hold.
The new speaker will be Hakeem Jeffries, with luck very soon.
I very much hope you are right, Virginia, and the odds are looking fairly good. I've been spending time watching various state races. I believe several Dems are going to take seats now held by repubs- mostly the at-risk people making noise in the House, but also a few of the folks sitting on their thumbs. I am not making a prediction about this, but am feeling more optimistic after seeing how things are at the state level. There are critical things to pay attention to at the fed level (how could there not be, given the people involved?), but we do ourselves a disservice if we do not also pay attention to the state level- and be active there as well.
I totally agree. The postcard writing effort was proved valuable in 2018 and continues to be useful, which is why I mention it often. It’s an easy way to participate in addition to voting. (All of us can use reminders.)
In theory, yes. When that did not happen during the selection process, I realized that there were no "good Republicans" only RepubliQans.
Members can vote for any candidate, regardless of party.
They are the political equivalent of suicide bombers. And they don't even know it, apparently. Putin does, however.
Love to watch a conclave of one-handed grenade collectors voting. Thumbs up all the way around.
They break things because it creates chaos and this general mistrust and paranoia. Hence inability to believe in any truth—which as Hannah Arendt said is part of moving toward totalitarian or authoritarian seizure of power. People experience the disorder, become afraid, look for a strong man or an enemy or both. It is a not an irrational strategy it is what Trump already figured out aided by Bannon and co. It is imperative not to underestimate these people and also recognize the media’s Inability to be clear. They call these people conservatives instead of extremists. They pretend to believe that they have legitimate fears about spending and deficit. Dem consultants wise up! Tell it like it is. Thank you Heather!
Right on you are, Jessica!
Hannah Arendt was so right on, in so many ways!
Now, about that little tryst with Herr Heidegger......
Nobody is perfect!
Ha!
True that!
Bannon and Farage - still at large and unscathed. Busy organising the right wing here in Australia - the press is just starting to notice the likeness to the American model.
Exactly. This was no small plan.
I hope the press will be more diligent in pursuing the matter than it seems it did here.
Have you heard of that great Australian, Rupert Murdoch?
Need that laugh emoji...
If after ALL these years and ALL of gop/trump/bannon’s circus shenanigans Dems have NOT grab hold of the narrative, I’m starting to feel they are in on the grift. Don’t get me wrong, I will advocate and stump and donate Dem all the way, but...........I do sit and wonder “Why?” We have the “laws” to prosecute the actions for the gop misdeeds, but we never seem to stand by them. 14th Amendment? Just a “guideline”?
The Lincoln Project are the purveyors of the Dems narrative. They employ Trump's (and Roger Stone's) attack attack attack philosophy. Plus, it's nice to see the attack coming from ex-GOPers.
If they can lie and smear, we have no need to sugarcoat what's real.
Jessica Benjamin: Yes. Perfect distillation. The Dems are so poor at marketing and strategizing because they aren't energized, galvanized, and hyper-focalized by hate. Wonder what Arendt and Cronkite would say . . .
"Flood the zone with sh*t".
What is chuck schumer doing?
Nothing
yep
At this moment I am in Spain, arriving by high speed train from Portugal. I left the USA two weeks ago and have followed the muck and mire the Repubs are and have been creating for too long. Interesting that the time changes at the border between Portugal and Spain. You can watch your digital device move forward an hour thanks to an agreement made by Franco to stay in Hitler’s graces. Decades ago. Two countries share borders but not time zones. Every country has its problems, its needs, its government and solutions. Many are lasting. Since and when the repubs are in control or able to block and obstruct we are closer to Fascism. Americans supporting and voting for tfg and his supporters don’t know or care about History and the wars created by the very people they elect to provide services and safety nets for all citizens. The long list that the Biden administration is tackling includes the critical services and needs for all citizens. Not just the wealthy. For that repubs MTG and friends want to dump their own leader McCarthy and destroy our Democracy and the lives of those who need services the most. I could quote poems and sayings forever, but let this be a reminder to those tfg and repub voters who are standing back and watching. There are not “good people on both sides.”
If you get to Madrid, hopefully you will have the good fortune to see Goya's work in El Prado? ...and to contrast his later, Black Paintings with his earlier court paintings. It's what we are talking about right here and now.
Yes, wonderful recommendations. I have been to Madrid and agree the also highly regarded Goya’s work is worth the long lines of el Prado. My favorite is the Sophia Reina museum with the original Picasso’s “Guernica,” so massive, it takes up two rooms, no seats or talking. Even school children who may sit on the floor gaze up at the incredible and painful story Picasso painted. I wanted to go to Guernica as I am in Spain but all of Europe is a story of conflict and recovery. I just finished a Habitat for Humanity volunteer build in Porto, Portugal and saw how countries rebuild and recover and also restore and revere their history. Not necessarily from war but from the ages, from time. All the past crumbles like old buildings, but rebuilding and respect are important for our growth as a nation. There are challenges in Europe, too, but also reminders.
just recently visited the reina sophia and it is also my favorite... powerful, socially/politically conscious work... have a wonderful visit! and wow, thank you for HfH volunteering.. I had no idea this was happening outside of usa.
Thinking of emigrating to Portugal Irenie. Don’t wanna hijack this thread. Wish I could get further advice on this idea.
William, I have friends who have emigrated from USA to both Spain snd Portugal. I only know some of the requirements for Portugal from the details they have shared. So do your own research for facts from a reliable source. Both married couples, one a same sex couple and one not, both retirement age, with a required income. No discrimination for requirements. Had to lease a house or apartment; not sure about all financials but easy to find in an internet search. After two years one just had their exit embassy interview. The other is close. They love Portugal. If you live on the east coast you’re closer to Europe than I am. I’m on West coast and as I mentioned my children one on west coast and one on east coast with families travel but aren’t interested in moving. It’s a process and a commitment.
Thank you very much Irenie. Plenty of wisdom in your mentioning the process and commitment part. Thanks again.
One young SSM couple with young children I know moved everything for a permanent stay and came home after 6 months. So, do research.
Always good to find out. Takes two years for citizenship so hoping that is enough time. I’m staying in USA because being closer to family is important to me. Because I’m not as young as I used to be. Did I already write that ? There’s the evidence. But sense of humor still young.
Oh Irenie, I am envious! I want to go to both places.
You’re right, if what the GOP does continue to do to manipulate our lives, we are doomed to fascism. We cannot allow that to happen. Safe travels!!
Obrigada, Marlene. Indeed it’s a challenging trip of a lifetime. We all have these journeys, but each is different. My backpack is too heavy and I have to either give away what I love or carry it. Like life. Bom Caminho, amiga.
Your trip sounds amazing. I am hoping for an extended visit to Portugal when my wife retires; I don't think we could ever emigrate there (same family concerns that you have), but I would love an extended stay.
Ally, it’s beautiful and with such varied landscapes and beauty. Plus you can eat natas de pastéis to your heart’s content. And dance, walk, hike, socialize, be part of a community. At least a start.
We’ve got friends who live in the Algarve, in Loulé. I found a place on one of our visits called “Tubas Bar”. The town band rehearses downstairs and one of the tuba players owns the bar!
Being part of the community is what I miss. Born and grew up on US west coast which still feels like home. 25 yrs ago took a job in NE "for a few years" because one of my daughters lives here. Ended up stuck here (Lyme took me down, and my life fell apart). It's a different world and there are significant cultural differences. I still suffer from a bit of culture shock. But at least I can take the train to visit my home grounds from time to time. When my children were young, I was offered a position in New Zealand and a job that would lead to a PhD. The catch was that my kids were my parents only grandchildren, and I couldn't do that to them. So I stayed, and eventually ended up in New England. Still a fish out of water, but finding ways to belong. I've done some traveling, but would love to just move somewhere and really get the feel of the people and culture. Love listening to the ex-pats on here and getting their perspectives.
Why am I still blown away by what these far-right radicals will do for power? The (once) GOP has no discernible platform other than to say “NO” to anything good for America & Americans; proving once again that they really are suffering from a case of the terrible twos.
It is true that the MAGAts don't have any discernible platform--they are chaos agents.
But the billionaire Republicans actually running the party have a 900 page manifesto in Project 2025 about how they will change the government. We have to fight them both.
Biden, like FDR, has to talk about both threats. So far Biden has only talked about the chaos agents. He needs to start talking about the threats from the money interests.
I sense he realizes the money pits are deeper than we can imagine.
That's why I have long called them "Republican'ts". Now, I'm beginning to think that the term that best describes them is traitors.
Only now?
And so much more dangerous than the terrible twos! One can only hope we make it to three!
Gwen, you’re blown away just like so many who are watching a political party care more about power than policies.
“Evidence free” claims of election victory becomes “evidence free” impeachments (see the Wisconsin Supreme Court judge too). The GOP wants to rule. They don’t care about facts, laws, or anything that blocks their pathway to authoritarian control. When will the news media stop using “context free reporting” and declare the GOP a domestic threat to the Constitution?
Steven, I would amplify your reference to Wisconsin's recently-elected State Supreme Court Justice, Janet Protasiewicz. Traditionally, candidates for Supreme Court Justice do not reveal their personal opinions on current political issues. Justice Protasiewicz departed from that tradition by speaking plainly about what she believes personally, but qualifying it by saying what candidates for supreme court always say, that they will base their decisions on the merits of the arguments presented from all sides of the case. A great many of my fellow Wisconsin voters were very enthusiastic about her candor and honesty in expressing her own opinions. In our house we saw it as being almost infinitely more honest than at least two of the recent appointees to the US Supreme Court, when asked about their opinions on Roe v. Wade. Now members of the Wisconsin Legislature -- one of the worst gerrymandered state legislatures in the nation, in favor of the Rs -- are saying they will impeach Justice Protasiewicz, despite having no legal legs to stand on. They appear to believe that she should recuse herself from any case that deals with an issue that she talked about during the campaign. Or something like that. It's not clear to us because they are making it up as they go along. They will play these games as long as they think there is a retreating glacier's chance in a warming world that they might win. They seem to want to try anything to stay in power. Justice Protasiewicz would almost certainly rule in favor of redrawing our districts to make them fair again. It's so bad here that something like two thirds of the votes in an election were cast by people voting for Democrats, but two thirds of the seats in the Legislature are held by Republicans. Justice Protasiewicz is our best hope to change that equation. Wisconsin Republicans are desperate. We can all see the end of Republican power looming on the horizon.
They try to fill the space with as many decoys as possible so you won't notice whose hand is closing around your wallet.
That reminds us of the idiom "daylight robbery".
Ohio and others are in the same position David, except that here, we don't yet see the end of gop power yet.
D4N, I admit that I allowed my words to sound hopeful, saying that with the balance of power changing in the Wisconsin Supreme Court for the first time in many years, there is at least some hope that we can break the lock set by a Republican minority in both chambers of our Legislature. I know it goes without saying that it is extremely frustrating to watch those who favor republicanism over democracy, minority rule over the majority of citizens, try every trick they can think of to hold on to power. We suspect that they nurture a patriarchal mentality, like a father who rules the family with an iron will, because he thinks he knows what is best for his wife and his children.
The Republicans will try every trick they can get away with in their efforts to establish the type of culture and morality they think is appropriate for themselves -- it's not enough for them to "live and let live" -- they appear unable to get along with people who do not see the world the same way, so they want to force everybody to think and act and feel the same as those who favor their conservative mindset. I can't begin to imagine what I would do if a new conservative regime were to try to force me to worship with them in their church. Speaking only for myself, I am a war veteran, and I doubt very much that I would be patient with a religious fanatic who tries to dictate how I live my life.
In the past, Congress had an "Un-American Activities Committee", which was eventually dissolved. But the idea remains. The worst conservative Republicans in the House seem very un-American. They are inventing their own customized version of American history, which is quite different from what most of us learned in school. We don't like kings, and we don't like dictators, and we don't like being told what we can and cannot do, even while we do agree to abide by the law and propriety. Why do conservative bullies feel a need to pick on fellow citizens who don't look or act the same as other people? That is a very un-American attitude.
We need to keep hope alive for a democratic majoritarian society, and do everything we can to keep it that way for a very long time into the future. The conservatives can still be conservatives if that's what they want to do -- just don't try to impose their will on the rest of us. We don't want to impose our will on them, other than to insist on a democratic society.
Look to Michigan's model.
Dear gods, I hope you are right that the end of the RepubliQan power is looming.
Thank you for saying more about this situation in your state. I hope you're correct and GOP power will eventually end. IMHO the party (nationwide) should get put in the ash heap of history.
This is surely corruption on an epic scale. No?
And most certainly premeditated.
Putin Republicans is too nice. Juat say what they really are: anarchists, stochastic terrorists and psychopaths.
Fascists, not Anarchists. They want control of government to control others by their rules, rather than no government at all.
Apropos "overshambles", here are two other similar terms with longer histories, both still used in Vienna, Austria: "schlammasel", which is Yiddish, and "palawatsch", which may once have been Hungarian. Both would work well to describe the current situation in the U.S. House, if it weren't for the fact that this particular mess is being made quite deliberately.
It’s actually OMNIshambles. Great new word!
Let's combine them: ubershambles. More fitting for fascists.
Schlammasel is a word I heard in my home in '63, '65, '69 and '73. Here we are again.
Me too!
And I! and throw salt over your shoulder and “spit”! My grandparents not my parents. In my childhood only Holidays we’re celebrated, and high holidays were for the adults. That’s how the religions change. Expand and contract.
Don't forget FUBAR (actually an acronym), from that wonderful dialect only the US army could create :)
Throw in SNAFU as well.
Not to be too fussy, but for future reference, the correct spelling is Schlamassel, (yes, Yiddish) derived from Schlimmasl, meaning misfortune, and 'masl' meaning good luck. The other word is Pallawatsch and is of Bavarian origin. Just saying ... they both mean OMNIshambles ...
Please, please, Congress...just get to work on what was in front if you with those appropriation bills instead of giving us all brain freeze and sucking the air out of the room with such insipid theatrics
Btw, thank you, Heather for all you do
Stagecraft masquerading as statecraft; the only trick the "GOP" has left.
And Reagan was the ringmaster of stagecraft . . .
As opposed to acting.
Really, the GOP in Congress are repeats from the Civil War. They have managed to conjure up every lie, every dishonest thing they can think of to win. Win what? Like little children not getting their way, they will not choose Qevin in their game of “Red Rover”. They will pick another person instead, like Gaetz himself or the obnoxious MGT. All of their dirty work is commandeered by their leaders, Donald J. Trump and Vlad Putin. The moderate R’s are very uncomfortable about this impeachment inquiry. There is no evidence and they know it.
It’s unfortunate that Joe’s son, Hunter, made very poor choices in his life. For that, he will pay a price but Joe shouldn’t. These Christian Fake Nationalists just want a go at Joe, like he’s the one sitting in the dunk tank at a carnival. They have nothing and they are nothing. We have one year to convince them of that. Let’s do it!
"They have nothing, and they are nothing"
I may have to use that pithy quote of yours Marlene, without attribution!
Please do!
If one of Trump's sons had committed murder, we could not have legitimately impeached Trump so long as he was not obstructing justice. He earned his mugshot of his own accord.
They can’t conceive of someone who isn’t dirty because that’s all they know. So they keep digging just sure they’ll find something.
That sounds like a locker room rallying speech. I say, “yea, let’s hit the field!”
Notice how the republicans go after President Biden when there is nothing, but haven’t done anything with the true definition of political fraud: George Santos. Republican hypocrisy at its best.
I'd forgotten he existed. So he's still there? among his loving constituents?
Speaker Kevin McCarthy makes me remember with some nostalgia Senator Joe McCarthy. Tail Gunner Joe, with his bold faced lies, anti-communist foo foo dust, and his alcoholism, at least had
Cohesion in his venality.
Castrated McCarthy is flaying like a locomotive without an engineer. During the 15 votes to name a House speaker, McCarthy prostrated himself before the House Republican Feckless Committee: he gave them effective veto power over responsible House governance.
1) After a Perils of Pauline debt limit brouhaha in which limits were placed on forthcoming budgets, the Feckless Committee has demanded more draconian budget cuts;
2) The Feckless Committee demanded that McCarthy initiate impeachment proceedings against President Biden before any discussions on approving budget funding after a September 30th deadline;
3) Cuckold McCarthy, fearful of losing his cherished speakership, has initiated an absolutely ludicrous ‘impeachment inquiry’ of President Biden with zippo grounds for indictment.
Even Republican Senate leader McConnell, who is not a paragon of responsible leadership, seems speechless at Speaker McCarthy’s antics.
With a September 30th budget funding deadline looming, I haven’t a clue how this political chicanery will turn out. The House Feckless Committee is holding the country hostage while Trumpublicans seem stymied with their fingers up their butts.
When I was a Foreign Service Officer in Congo, I thought it ridiculous when the Congolese Assembly, including members of the government, voted unanimously against the government, and the government then continued on its merry way.
Now it’s seems less ridiculous, given Muckiman McCarthy’s political antics.
"Even Republican Senate leader McConnell, who is not a paragon of responsible leadership, seems speechless at Speaker McCarthy’s antics."
Every time I see a modern Republican who seems a depraved as it gets, there is generally another one who's worse.
JL My mother in law used to say “There’s nothing so bad that it couldn’t get worse.”
Your mother in law was wise.
Alas that's true. Things can also be better. The rub is, bountiful as our earth is (for now) better generally requires some discipline and sustained effort, while worse has natural entropy on its side. My favorite metaphor for life is sailing against the wind (which I never have literally done) where one can use the power of the wind (if luck holds) to go where one wishes, by tacking, by finessing the energy of nature. Nature can crush us like bugs, but we can often hitch a ride if we respect her rules.
JL I have often sailed against the wind. With finesse and patience one can go almost anywhere. Sailing before the wind is a distinct experience. Almost effortlessly, you speed forward. Of course when I did that in a hurricane, we set a sea anchor as we watched 40 foot waves from our cockpit.
I have most no experience with sailing, and never with me in control, but I sense something elegantly primal about it. Multi-sensual beauty but also the beauty of the underlying physics; our map of the bones of reality. My paternal grandfather was a British merchant seaman. Very different kind of boat, but he too was awed by the power of sea.
My favorite 'swap' on that metaphor is urinating into the wind, which is what the 'far wrong' caucus seems most intent on - drenched or not, their doing it and damn proud too. It bears zero resemblance to effective democratic governance - zero. It also seems fully intentional.... it has to be. **edit it > Thought occurs to me that if I had big money, I'd pay big money to assemble the best available forum of independent, Phd. Psychotherapists to convene and publicly assess the behaviors of the "far wrong'ers". I'd take bets that they collectively require long periods *of time spent in separate corners, away from mature adults conducting business. *edit, again* > Furthermore, the frat twins, gates and mgt, would be required immediate and permanent expulsion. How exactly does any business 'of the people' get done with 'Heckle and Jeckle' popping wise and acting out in the gallery workspace ?
It seems very difficult to know what's going on behind the scenes these days. When we were young, we knew that deals were made, and promises were kept, because if they failed to honor their side of the bargain, they would lose credibility going forward. That kind of honor seems to be missing these days, at least among McCarthy's cohort. I like to entertain the amusing idea that McCarthy has some sense of gamesmanship, but I don't see his behavior as "three dimensional chess".
It would require only a handful of patriotic Republican Members to caucus with the Democrats to change the balance of power. Are there any brave people among the Republican Members who would be willing to risk their chances for re-election for the sake of the nation?
David I sense that McCarthy is playing checkers in a complex chess game. A chess champion can think five moves ahead, while McCarthy is playing checkers catch up.
DON’T expect any profundity in the House Chicken Game of READY, FIRE, AIM.
McCarthy is mostly bluffing and threatening to throw over the table if it looks like he's losing.
JL McCarthy is a loser who is losing.
I agree Keith; all ambition with no courage and zero honor. It's 'all about him' - who has no public awareness, plan for greater good, and zero honor.
David Singing ‘Let’s hang McCarthy from a rotten apple tree’ as they vote for America rather than the ‘Freedom Caucus.’
The "Freedom Caucus" is down the hall from the "Ministry of Love".
JL Chapter 6 of 1984, next to the interpreter of Speaktalk?
Keith: What an amazing potential speech outline you've created herein ! I can see this existing as a 'framework speech' to be memorized and repeated in mantra fashion by any democrat (like Hakeem Jeffries) who can gain their voice / seat in any committee or congressional forum - 'when' and 'if' they can get recognized to speak their mind on any forum. Certainly the gop majority gets their time on the floor / microphone / idea sessions ! It's high time they fight fire 'with' fire ! With your permission, and of course cred,, I'd like to copy and paste, both your rant and mine, for the purpose to send as a suggestion to Jeffries and any other democrat / independent who doesn't get to fully 'represent' their majority constituencies as they certainly should - especially if one just lays out the dynamic numbers of constituents not heard from. With your permission, I think this could be a dynamic request if many here, so inclined, follow suit to their representatives and senators. Keith, please let me know what you think; then lets get at it ! Thank you for your brilliance, sincerely....
D4N Feel free to take any of my words and spread them to the universe. THE TRUTH SHALL SET US FREE. Don’t trouble yourself with ‘credit.’ As a professor, when a student copied something, that was plagiarism! But if I ‘borrowed’ aphrease or idea from someone else, that was ‘professionalism.’
Spread the word!
Keith: There are you and a select number of folks herein that I closely identify with, as do you I've noticed. I encourage you to work with them - good natured banter style, to hone that speech to repeated as a memorized 'mantra' for representatives who with their majority constituents are Not heard in Congress or Senate as they 'should be'. Let us compare notes; I for one will forward the present messages, or a better revised version. When there is consensus, lets get to encouraging those of 'like minds' who care that the majority constituencies' representative 'be heard' and represented, "join us" in forwarding to their respective sympathetic representatives. That's my most earnest intention, and I feel is badly needed to encourage and fortify those representatives.
D4N Go for it. I’ll be 90 next month and intend to fire all the bullets left in my M 16 and have fun doing it. I’ve put my life on the line for the soul of my country and will fervently support you and others in the younger generation who are engaged in this fight.
Bless your little pea-pickin’ heart, Keith! Hope your cake doesn’t topple over when those candles are burning. :) Seriously, my friend, that is a milestone and I wish you only the very best for many more years.
Marlene Warm thanks for referring to my pea-picking, rather than nose-picking, heart.
Perhaps the "moderate" Republi-cons should remove McCarthy & vote one of their own in.
Though as Matt Taibbi pointed out earlier, this is really about distracting attention away from Trump's 4 trials.
As we saw with McCarthy's election shambles to (eventually) become Speaker, it's very likely that those "moderate" Republicans simply don't have the votes to install a better Speaker :(
I hope your good point elicits more discussion, regarding any plausible scenario that attempting to depose McCarthy would lead to a new Speaker who could accomplish anything. I have not seen even one speculative article about what would happen if Gaetz et al try to remove Speaker McCarthy. Seems to me that no one can see any kind of plausible scenario. Many of us will remember that scene with MTG presiding when the House was in session, trying to call the body to order. Even Members of her party were laughing and jeering at her. A persistently disorderly person calling the House to order is probably indicative of what would happen if they attempt to elect a new Speaker. It was painful enough watching McCarthy get elected. Maybe some back bench Republican't will emerge with soaring oratory to inspire us all to remember why we went to all that trouble to become a nation. (/feeble attempt at humor.)
I think that a boring Republican who is focused on the country’s real business with the democrats and a few congressmen/women supporting him will guide democracy to the ship yards from the extremist torpedo’s
The democrats should back a moderate Republican and form a coalition
Christopher, that is indeed a plausible scenario. It would be brilliant. It could provide a way forward for all of us, or most of us. Leave the crazies in the dust, wondering where they went wrong.
Default would be a huge mistake, affecting the whole world economically. With such high stakes, it would be refreshing to see a large number of Members of Congress deciding that one term is enough, so they do what is right and good and true, and show the world what we Americans can do when we work together.
The Republicans killed any hope of Democrat help when Craven McCarthy agreed to the impeachment inquiry.
I don't think so. The new Biden impeachment investigation is an irritating joke. The Democrats should jump at the chance to get the House up & running again and to neutralize the far right crazies.
I guess I wasn't clear in my post. I meant the Dems won't help McCarthy keep his job if his right-wing colleagues call a vote to unseat him. Some were considering it, but now it would be political suicide to support him now, given his move on impeachment.
The trick would be finding one.
Is their really such a thing any more? Liz Chaney a leftist agitator?
Hence the "quotes" -- I don't think the party has many people left, who have a spine and a moral compass, at this point.
Me? Oh, I'm a former Labour Party-supporting Brit who has to hold his nose to vote for Democrats -- even back in 2005, when I became a US citizen, the Republicans were already the "crazy party" in my view! :)
My father left England when he was six and eventually naturalized in the US.
That’s all it is!
Pay no attention to the organized crime behind the curtain.
Exactly. Someone let Toto loose !
Democracy needs plenty of watchdogs. All of us ideally.
As always, spot on. Thank you.
Watching the news through fingers covering my eyes.
When I taught first grade, every once in awhile one of the 6-year-olds would lose control and throw a tantrum. Reminds me of Congress, except these are supposedly mature adults and their tantrums seem to last for weeks, months, years at a time. I just don't understand why we are willing to accept this.
Yep. A cartel system that nominates and elects the 6-year-olds who never grew up, the delinquents who disrupted their classes and made them unfit places in which to learn, and then put them in charge of the entire school system...that system produces such a Congress.