“Every age faces its challenges,” Biden said. “I saw it as a young man. I see it today. But we are stronger than we think. We’re stronger together than alone. And what the people call ‘impossible’ is just an illusion. [As] Nelson Mandela taught us…: ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done.’”
“Every age faces its challenges,” Biden said. “I saw it as a young man. I see it today. But we are stronger than we think. We’re stronger together than alone. And what the people call ‘impossible’ is just an illusion. [As] Nelson Mandela taught us…: ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done.’”
There were a number of excellent quotes in that speech. High on my list is:
“There will always be forces that pull our countries apart and the world apart: aggression, extremism, chaos, and cynicism, a desire to retreat from the world and go it alone,” Biden said. “Our task, our test, is to make sure that the forces holding us together are stronger than those that are pulling us apart, that the principles of partnership that we came here each year to uphold can withstand the challenges, that the center holds once again.”
It was a fitting final speech for a successful, long serving, public servant. I echo Michael Corthell, thank you Joe!
No need to imagine. Walk down Memory Lane. Start with fighting over inaugural crowd size, embarrassment at the CIA, embarrassment at the UN, stark raving mad at NATO… daily tweets which the msm followed like dogs on the trail instead of reporting the news. How can any thinking American want that again? Chaos,confusion sheer nastiness. 💩😥🤮😱
Yesterday afternoon Nancy Pelosi was on Jake Tapper on CNN. Tapper played a clip of Trump calling Harris "cognitively impaired" - Nancy went after Tapper asking him why he played such nonsensical dribble and then went all out about Trump - I hope she appears more and more - she brought the fire and the truth. I like Tapper - and he then (rather sheepishly) told her he'd played the clip because he wanted to see her reaction. Well he got that big time!
His reaction says it all. The media does not ( or do they?) think thro the implications of every word they say. Good for her to challenge Tapper and, as a result, the rest of them.
I used to like Tapper - he has surrendered his journalistic license for sound bites, his morality for popularity. The fact he even played that sound bite only reminds me of my disappoinment in his debate non performance.
Dr. Bandy Lee's forensic psychiatrist group & other mental health experts present an all-day Conference 9/27/24 at the National Press Club, titled "The More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump". Questions & Answers in the afternoon. Dinner served.
Laurie, it is sad so many of our "broadcasters" feel they have to show Trump's crap to see what their' "victim's" reaction will be. That is insulting! Pumping out Trump nonsense to see what a true leader and patriot like Nancy Pelosi thinks of it is ridiculous. It is like asking Harris about Trump's stupid lie about Harris not always being Black. Her response that it was the same old playbook was a good one, but she should never have been asked. There were so many other topics that could have been discussed, such a question is an insult and a waste of time, but they get "likes" or something, so they will continue. Someone will blurt out that people should respond to Trump. I think they should just say something like, Trump has no idea what he is talking about and needs no response beyond this!"
The less Trump rants are repeated the better. That kind of free advertising is what helps him. It carried 2016. Watch now for the "Communist" counterattacks. Stay on these new people. Keep them on the right track.
Jake Tapper didn’t need to play a clip of Trump’s drivel to bait Nancy Pelosi. This is CNN’s formula—try to get a rise out of the guest. I’m glad to hear that she called him out for it. Nancy can cut through a “journalist’s” BS very quickly and correct
them with the truth. She is concerned for our democracy and knows that there is little time until the election.
Good. I hope he gets more of it from more people. Trump is a mental midget with the emotional skills of a seventh-grader. He never got past that stage and he needs to go and take his minions with him.
I don't understand Gigi. He said he would surround himself with "the best people." You know, like Paul Mannafort, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn. But he saved them by pardoning them as well as 143 other convicts on his last day in office.
One thing that has gone virtually unreported is Convicted Felon Donald Trump pardoned or commuted sentences of 10 convicted felons who STOLE a combined $2 billion plus from Medicare and Medicaid.
Any thinking person! No one who loves this country would support someone who has denigrated those who have served and died to protect this democracy. TFG is so despicable it is hard not to feel sorry and anger toward those who support him. But we will forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
I think many of his supporters know what they are doing...and many of them only watch Fox, Newsmax, Breitbart, etc. and have very little knowledge of his crimes, his insane rants and word salads, his bullying and insults.
Harvey, I disagree as Ann W and others also posted. Many know exactly what they are doing.....which is supporting the kind of person they are. I do not forgive them either.
That walk down memory lane (unless one watches Fox and has no clue) is a nightmare of epic proportions. Sadly, it is our recent history, and the propaganda has created deliberate confusion for some. Our MSM has failed to sort and report the facts. Alternative facts should never be a thing. That concept is the most deliberately divisive ploy of republicans. Division over policy is a whole different animal.
First, America, then the world have been deeply alienated over the past 35 years by the tide of Virtual Reality.
Like Russia and China... Africa, too, the sheer size of America is so great that, even without this, there's a grave danger of taking one's land for the whole world, the only one that matters...
When I first came to the US in 1994, I couldn't for the life of me understand why it felt like I'd landed on another planet... something never felt in Asia or on the high plains under Kilimanjaro.
Only in Time Square did I get the clue.
Virtual Reality has upset our world more than any invasion of extraterrestrial aliens.
A slurring, dripping,stinking,farting, accordian hands flailing..straggling orange hair died Donable Lector would be watching the entire UN council racing for the exit doors.........
He reads from the teleprompter awkwardly, with pauses at the wrong places. You can tell it’s a tangent when it’s not halting. Rubbish scripted, rubbish off the cuff.
Biden has given several speeches in his 4 years as President that are among the G.O.A.T.
HCR has met with him several times as have others like Jon Meachem. They are not only excellent writers, but they are good storytellers and know so many great quotes that illustrate their points.
There have been other Presidents that have consistently delivered great speeches, but Joe is definitely the best of my lifetime.
Picture TFG giving a speech like that. I am hopeful that enough people will come to their senses and reject the most unfit, unqualified, undeserving, uninformed, uninspiring, unlikable, uneducable, wannabe dictator.
Little t is not only senile but also as you all know criminally insane. I’m noticing fewer t signs and more & more Harris-Walz plus our dem candidates here as I mosey around, which gives me hope & relief.
With thanks to HCR for her detailed coverage of one of our greatest presidents ever addressing the UN.
Trump's deterioration is unreported. MSM is transfixed by polling, which is usually wrong. Treat polling as big news when it's actually mostly op ed material. Oblivious to motivation, and especially, new voters, wh do not meet the definition as "likely" voters.
RCP Average today Harris 51.4 Trump 46.9
Even the bookies have no handle on "new" registrations. In Florida, numbers will be disclosed by the state 29 days prior to election day, but a sense of them can be obtained through the DNC Voter Analysis Tool (VAT), an online resource that offers data re changes in voter registration, moves and more, offers email delivery of lists to volunteers, has colorful graphic voter registration and VBM progress charts, and generates slate cards for texting or emailing.
We still have time to make it a blue tsunami via new registrations. FT 6 has texted millions in Florida alone. At least 13 million in swing states. Especially need follow up via phone banking.
Voters, tRump said; you tell them and they will believe you. If you are someone who is so ignorant to believe any of the tsunami of lies and pure BS that you would support the likes of a tRump we feel sorry for you and when the time comes we will forgive you for you do not know what you are doing.
Gary, the cynicism that Biden refers to often leads to greed and cruelty. As Bernie Moreno has shown us in his not understanding why postmenopausal women would be concerned about abortion, a lack of empathy leads to making selfish choices that are less than optimal for a country and the world.
These men, who suggest death and near death experiences from being denied reproductive health are made up, who say women should stay in abusive relationships, who want to take away women's right to vote can burn in hell.
Mary, I agree with your comment, but it got me thinking about the difference between skepticism and cynicism. To be skeptical is to be curious. They are two sides of the same “wisdom” coin.
To be very skeptical is to be a lot more skeptical and a lot less curious (aka "conservative"). To be cynical is to cross the line from a little bit to not at all curious. And that is why being cynical is being naïve. They are two sides of the same “unconstrained ignorance” coin (aka Mitch McConnell).
So, what is wisdom? No matter how much an individual knows, there is a whole lot more that the individual does not know, and so we are all ignorant to some extent. Wisdom is a curiosity that is informed by the willingness to acknowledge and constrain one's own ignorance.
I'm trying to be really careful how I say this. Last time someone thought my intent was to insult and I got blocked. My intent is to warn that we all need to be careful not to cross that line because when we do, then they have attracted us to join their side.
James, very good points. To me, cynicism is the opposite of Mr. Rogers’ belief that there will always be helpers; it assumes that everyone is only out for themselves and that every interaction has a zero sum result (if I help them, there is less for me). That is why Moreno assumes that anyone who believes that they (not their partner or relative) might need an abortion will care and everyone else won’t.
A phase that became somewhat popular in the 1980s was "I'm a realist, not an idealist". It seemed to me to be a cynical false duality, rationalizing rejecting responsibility. Idealism in concert with realism got us out of the caves, and is the creative engine of progress.
The Constitution is an example. It lays out a "blueprint" for a just government, along with a specific plan of means by which to accomplish this. It foresaw the need for vigilance and action against unacceptable human behavior, and also included a means for it's own update and correction.
MLK's "dream" is not impossible, just very difficult. We have made some steps in that direction, but not without fierce resistance. The insistence on discounting everything that is good is every bit as naive, and at least as dangerous, as ignoring everything in life that is harmful.
. To be skeptical is to be curious. They are two sides of the same “wisdom” coin.
Exactly, and wisdom is different from clever. Cleverness can help, but isn't essential. "Wisdom" seems to be a difficult concept to nail down. After all, what do we know? I think it "sees" the forest AND the trees, bit since there so much more to process that is remotely possible, it involves the ability to pick out what is fruitful to attend to. What most matters? In some ways that's highly, personally subjective and in other way not. It is my belief that we as a society don't think and talk nearly enough about wisdom, and that it would be wise to do so. Wisdom invites us to examine our own values as well as our own understanding.
You’re preaching to the choir. To that I will add that wisdom is hard to define because it’s so many things, but it seems to me that wisdom and maturity are just different words expressing the same meaning. And I think a mature individual is someone who cares about the people who are influenced by the individual’s behavior. If you tell an individual their behavior is having a unnecessarily negative impact on others, and the individual doesn’t appear to care, then the individual is insufficiently mature, aka lacks wisdom. But the individual would then have improved their odds of winning a Republican primary.
Yes. Emotional maturity. The teen-aged Greta Thunberg vs then President Trump. We have to learn to care for others as well as to take care of ourselves.
Exactly. Excessively selfish choices, bereft of enlightened self-interest and genuine empathy, can bring about the downfall of the narcissist as well as the human race; but that's what the former "Party of Lincoln" is now all about. It is no longer a party but an irrational cult, the like of which we have seen before in history, created with by those with accumulated wealth on a scale of some nations, such as Leo and Musk. Follow the money.
I thought his quote from Yeats was so to the point. That's exactly where the world was headed in the late 30s, though years before Yeats wrote that famous poem. Eastern Europe and Russia was beset with revolutionary and ethnic strife. Since then, despite huge tensions, the world has not seen another descent into international war. Fortunately the imperial aggressors of Japan and German were thoroughly defeated, mainly due to the arsenal and economy might of the US.
WWII could only be won by the massive international effort. The Allies couldn't have won without the US but the US couldn't have won without the allies. The US alone could not have achieved the Allied landing on the Normandy beaches June 6. 1944 which stopped the impending German invasion of Great Britain. It took sacrifices in many countries, including the USSR to defeat Germany, Italy and Japan.
We Americans kind of hate to hear about the Soviet contribution to defeating Hitler. Their military deaths estimated 8 to 10 million, ours less than 500,000. Their combined military and civilian deaths 24 million.
As tourists in Ukraine and Moscow nearly twenty years ago, several times we saw brides in wedding gowns with the whole wedding party, laying flowers at war memorials. Everyone has lost a relative in war, so you honor them in this wedding custom.
Putin has been mostly successful at keeping Russians from knowing how many have been killed or wounded attacking Ukraine. Recently when towns inside Russia were taken by Ukrainian soldiers, people felt shocked and betrayed that Russian soldiers had not protected them. Putin had promised it would be a very short “military operation,” with little impact on Russian people.
The Soviet Union indeed was the main objective of the Germans. Leibenstraum or living space. Huge swaths of people, among them Ukrainians, were to be literally exterminated, esp by starvation, so Germans could colonize. Slavs in general were considered "subhuman"... Jews too of course.
LEBENSRAUM, Frank... LEIB=body and TRAUM= dream...
And yes, it would maybe be as well if Americans could realize that the Soviets were both the main victors and the main victims of WW2.
My naval officer dad served escorting convoys round North Cape to supply the Soviets. And later, on the planning of the Normandy invasion. Detailed to take part in the final assault on Japan. As a Brit, deeply aware of islanders' mentality, he expected to die in that invasion...
But even here, Americans are mistaken in believing the final defeat of Japan was entirely due to the A-bomb.
Even before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese Emperor was concerned to surrender to America, anything to avoid a Soviet invasion.
I'd recommend your watching a series called Factories at War. Without the material aid from the US, neither Britain nor the USSR would likely have withstood the German onslaught, or at least been able to launch a successful counter-invasion. But you're right, this also was a team effort.
The allies knew from the beginning that it had to be a team effort. They just wondered why it took Pearl Harbour to convince the US. Trump wants to take America back to the good old days of American splendid isolation. Would it take another direct attack on the United States to change that again? One more reason to vote blue.
There were huge isolationist forces in the USA then, and Britain was seen more as the world's largest imperial power than a democracy as such. It was Germany ie Hitler himself which declared war on the US following Japan's surprise attack. Even the Japanese knew that once the US mobilized itself economically for war, it would just be a matter of time before the military might of the US would overwhelm them. The Germans had a similar problem, and when the war against Russia bogged down, and with Americans now shipping war material into Russia, by 43 the Germans found themself outnumbered and outgunned. Within another year, the Russians were overrunning the Germans. It was oversized production of tanks et al from the US which allowed the British reverse the tide in north Africa. Sorry, i'm not trying up brag US military might, but that was the main factor behind Allied victory in WW2. Mind you, once the Russians got going, initially with American help, they also could outproduce the Germans. I think something like that happened in Great Britain as well.
Correction, Frank. Yeats was rather more far-sighted than that. The Second Coming was first published in 1919. The poet had understood that what began in August 1914 was only Act One.
And I doubt if what we are now seeing worldwide is the epilogue.
No need, Frank. You're right here, as in another item where I've just made a correction. You've seen what many are blind to, you've identified something correctly but... a little out of focus.
And it helped a great deal to help these former enemies regain prosperity and dignity, Had we just left them to struggle or attempted to subjugate them, I think that tensions would have grown. That mistake in WWI helped empower Hitler.
Yes, you're so right, Yeats put his finger on just what had been and was happening. He had some exotic beliefs about The Second Coming which provided some of the motif for the poem, "And what rough beast, its hour come around at least, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born". This is one of the few poems I've memorized in my life at one time or another.
President Biden is my age and we have seen human stupidity at its finest. It is hard to believe just how stupid people and countries can be. Willing to go to the brink stupidly. Somehow “ our better angels” save us. To stay sane we have to believe the unbelievable can happen. Two kind, loving men: Nelson Mandela and Joe Biden.
1: Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
2: The probability that a person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person. Education, wealth or status have nothing to do with it.
3: A stupid person is someone who causes losses to other people while himself deriving no gain.
4: Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid people and keep forgetting that to deal with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
5: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person, even more dangerous than a bandit.
Commonplace stupidity is relatively innocuous as far as individuals are concerned. Most stupid people can't do much harm to anyone but themselves, precisely because their stupidity is such a limiting factor. Only collectively do suchlike become problematic. But there are superior levels of stupidity and the highest and most hubristic is open only to the highly intelligent.
These are often moral idiots, like Stalin or Karl Rove, but gifted in so many other respects; in whom intelligence is accompanied by a cast-iron belief in their own superiority.
Perhaps it has above all to do with separation, the illusion of apartness, the excessive sense of separate identity which intelligence can exacerbate. I see myself as an exception, and thus I come to separate myself more and more from ‘the common herd’. Only, in so doing, I become less human. Or simply, I am diminished. Add to that, macho behaviour patterns induced by one’s family conditioning and the hyper-development of defense mechanisms, and you get a rather nasty kind of narcissism. When all goes wrong in my life, I can always lord it over my own farmyard, crow and peck twice as much at all the hens and get into more fights with other roosters... Whatever may be wrong has nothing to do with me - Co-Co-Ri-CO!!!!!
This kind of handicap comes with wealth, but when Jesus speaks of how hard it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom, we understand his words only in terms of material wealth. Intellectual wealth can also separate one from humanity and above all from one’s own humanity.
* * *
I guess one of the major differences between the sexes is that fewer women attain ultra-stupidity. But that pattern, too, is changing.
Umberto Eco (Italian writer), has a take on this. "Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community. Then they were quickly silenced, but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots."
Basically social media has elevated bullschittery to all our lives, no matter where it originates. Definite down side
Art, I once beat my husband at chess. He was a very good chess player; I was the village idiot at chess (couldn’t figure out each pieces moves). I won by shear stupidity and a long time. He was so frustrated that my idiocy was driving him into mistakes. I had just a few pieces left but check mated him. He was so upset that he said he would never play a game with me again! I hate games so I was delighted. So sometimes being stupid succeeds. Isn’t that terrifying?
President Biden delivered a valedictory address to the UN General Assembly that made a compelling case for US leadership in global affairs. It was the speech of a committed internationalist, refuting the transactional Trumpian view of international relations. Let's look forward to President Harris addressing the General Assembly in September 2025. The alternative does not bear thinking about.
It's unsurprising that it was under-reported by commercial media. Just another boring speech at the UN, I suppose. Can't get many clicks out of that. Just bla bla bla about ideals and principles. Who reads that stuff? Can't make a tic tok out of it. What's the point?
MSNBC commentators focused on how unlikely UN attendees will heed Biden's words because he's a lame duck. Maybe someone raised the quality of the analysis, but I turned it off in disgust before such a mythical creature emerged from the dung heap that news analysts have become.
I agree on the quality of the analysis. The other UN Members recognize that Biden's speech will provide the framework for the foreign policy of the Harris Administration.
Yes this quote. I know it is meant to inspire but should also be a cautionary tale. At the age of 60, THIS is how I view the overturning of Roe V Wade, THIS is why I am working so hard in the Swing States to get out the vote. Because "It always seems impossible until it's done" goes both ways.
Left out of his speech: admission that in their desperation to get campaign donations BOTH parties (including middle-aged Biden) deregulated banking. Bringing on Great Recession, no jail for crooked bankers AND, ultimately, Trump.
Why is election close given huge negatives for Trump? It’s the real, lousy lived economy for the bulk of those who say they’ll vote for Trump. They hear words of “things are bad” and agree. They remember things FINALLY inching up better under Trump until Covid hit.
As president, Biden DID the right things. Harris doing OK. Neither have broken from the banking-fed money machine or admitted the real reason things got so bad.
I wish Dr. Richardson would widen her view. She cites the stock market growth as good indicator. Utterly irrelevant for most, who have no stocks, cannot retire and are struggling to have enough income to marry or raise children
Deregulation, trickled down economics, and Citizens United has caused the decline of the middle class. Not one President alone, but an army of Oligarchs peddling lies to a Republican party who has served as willing soldiers.
We can outbid the oligarchs (AND the not so rich but rich enough to contribute) with a reasonable federal program of campaign finance vouchers (AKA Democracy Dollars). So everyone can be a donor AND a voter.
Check out my Substack on the topic (michaelfoxworth.substack.com). Citizens United could, arguably, be considered valid, IF we had vouchers. The 2022 House had a vouchers version in a bill (HR1) that passed but got filibustered in the Senate. Almost no one noticed because the democrats did not shout about it. All elected politicians are too embarrassed to admit out loud their CURRENT and ONGOING role in this game. "All" is a strong word, but I know of no exceptions. Even those who do talk and have big donor bases (such as Sanders and Warren) tend to point to the other party instead of acknowledging the hell their own party members find themselves in.
I wish you wouldn't generalize with the "most" in the utterly irrelevant.
I would also mention that in my own circle of family and close friends, and with more minor neighbors, I have personally witnessed persons complain about costs do the most foolish wasting of funds. Everyone "deserves" to have the occasional treat, but I have seen a segment of the population which seems to have absolutely no common consumer sense. I have stood in back of a customer in a grocery store line, listened to the haranguing of the cashier over the prices of whatever--and then watched the same person stop at the lottery machine, hit the button on the $30 or even $50 scratch ticket, quickly scan the bar code to see if it is a winner--and then walk away, or worse, dump in another bill or two and repeat. I am not joking about this, I have seen this multiple times.
That man has false hope, imagining what he will do with all his winnings...that is why I have only had one lottery ticket; I actually started imagining.......also why I only was in a casino one time (Trump Casino, Atlantic City, a comp. from Ivana) I played the $20 I was gifted when I came in and realized I didn't want to leave the machine because the next person might get "my" winnings.
Well, you could be touching on part of the problem. Nevertheless, while I have not seen any study on the personal financial behavior of Trump supporters, I'm deeply suspicious of your thesis.
Much of the public is feeling financial pressure. Inflation is a real issue even though it is not currently that high. They see little on the horizon that makes them feel good. The basic truth is that it will be difficult (read: expensive!) to deal with climate change and if we don't, we doom our children. Given that, there is plenty of room for not-utterly-foolish. financially-pressured people to combine the devastating effect of 2008, their 2017-2019 financial experience with skepticism about party promises and come up with "try Trump again." Hence betting shows too-close-to-call in several big states.
Dumb behavior is widely encouraged by commercial practices. I was not low income, but we carried modest levels of credit card debt for many years until we took Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace" course (image of me hitting my head with the palm of my head). I'm told many high schools now require all students to take personal finance.
Missing from the Harris campaign (so far) that keeps it close? Truth about the role of campaign finance in 2008 or now nor any PRACTICAL way to change this continuing danger.
True to some extent. But there are limits to both. Most people and most countries can safely afford to have some debt. Less than 70% of GDP seems to be a reasonable limit for nations. Mortgage debt (and no other debt) that results in housing cost (including interest) less than 20% of income is a common recommendation.
Japan has been crushed by debt over 300%. China is heading that same way. US is at 100% and increasing rapidly. Much of Eurozone is reeling from the increasing cost of fossil fuel tied to war in Ukraine.
A detailed, reasonable (if a bit conservative) plan to deal with growing US debt is the following. But I have not found anything comparable in depth and detail from several liberal sites (some of which cite aspects that should be included). Unfortunately, both parties have refused to seriously engage on the topic. Both are giving in to more tax-cutting promises.
Many people I know spend money they don’t have and whine, whine, whine. I expect many to lose the homes that were way overpriced and beyond their means. One little blip and crisis. Serious economic trouble and another 2008. What are people thinking with chump on the agenda.
As has been the case for so many, humility is an acquired taste. President Biden has shown that. The death of his belovèd Beau and the slide into the HELL of addiction of his belovèd Hunter have made him a sadder but far wiser man. The agency of humility acquired by facing and suffering through very human, very personal tragedy -- like the traffic accident that killed his belovèd wife and baby over half a century ago -- has made him a great and effective President. G-D bless this great man.
Remember in the following that I voted for Biden and supported his reelection.
He is a hypocrite to speak of peace in the middle east when the US provides Israel with offensive weapons and fails to effectively curtail Zionist expansionism.
He is weak in his curtailment of support for Ukraine, pursuing a policy that costs both Ukrainian and Russian lives by extending the war and inhibiting a Ukrainian victory. Is this an act of spite? (How dare the Ukrainians succeed when our esteemed national security establishment said they would fall in days! How dare they demonstrate over and over again the fallacy of Putin's so-called red lines!)
While you certainly have the right to criticize Biden's foreign policy, it’s important to acknowledge the complexity of these global conflicts. Supporting Israel while advocating for peace reflects the difficult balancing act required in U.S. diplomacy. The U.S. provides Israel with defense funding due to deep historical ties and regional stability concerns, yet Biden has pushed for a two-state solution and condemned expansionism in the West Bank. He has called for de-escalation, highlighting the need for a peaceful and just solution for Palestinians as well.
As for Ukraine, Biden has shown strong, unwavering support. The military aid provided by the U.S. has been instrumental in Ukraine’s ability to defend itself and make significant gains, challenging Putin's aggression and helping preserve global democratic order. A sudden withdrawal or reduction of support would give Russia the upper hand, potentially resulting in a catastrophic Ukrainian defeat and emboldening authoritarian regimes worldwide. Biden’s approach is focused on a careful, strategic balance—providing enough support to help Ukraine win while avoiding the war’s escalation into a broader conflict involving NATO, which could spiral into a global catastrophe.
Far from being an act of spite, Biden's decisions are aimed at maintaining long-term global security while defending Ukrainian sovereignty, which also counters Putin’s dangerous imperial ambitions. Both situations—Israel and Ukraine—are delicate and far from simple, requiring nuanced strategies rather than blunt force approaches that could worsen the suffering of millions.
I trust Biden. I don't have all the facts and information. Even if I did, I probably wouldn't know what to do. I HATE what is happening with Israel. I have never liked or trusted Netanyahu. I believe Biden is making the best decisions he can for VERY complicated situations.
Unfortunately your narrative on Ukraine reflects a failure to recognize the influence of Russian disinformation on US policy and public opinion. Were the US policy as stated, why have we not provided sufficient numbers of air defense systems and fighter aircraft to achieve air superiority to prevent Russian air attacks on Ukrainian cities, schools, hospitals, energy infrastructure and military defensive positions?
US military aid to Israel has enabled them to bomb hospitals, schools, UN facilities, and aid organizations. No significant measures have been taken to stop expansion of Israeli settlements or the murder of Palestinians in the West Bank or Gaza.
We sure do have. This "talk" about a Two State Solution.....what? There are two States: Gaza (an open air concentration camp) and the West Bank, having been settled by armed Brown Shirts and as we speak, Palestinian farms being bulldozed for more. Since Oct 7 there have been 6? 8? 12? new settlements built.
There is no solution except complete extermination of every last Palestinian.
- Pulled Quote -
“Every age faces its challenges,” Biden said. “I saw it as a young man. I see it today. But we are stronger than we think. We’re stronger together than alone. And what the people call ‘impossible’ is just an illusion. [As] Nelson Mandela taught us…: ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done.’”
Thank you Joe. 💗
There were a number of excellent quotes in that speech. High on my list is:
“There will always be forces that pull our countries apart and the world apart: aggression, extremism, chaos, and cynicism, a desire to retreat from the world and go it alone,” Biden said. “Our task, our test, is to make sure that the forces holding us together are stronger than those that are pulling us apart, that the principles of partnership that we came here each year to uphold can withstand the challenges, that the center holds once again.”
It was a fitting final speech for a successful, long serving, public servant. I echo Michael Corthell, thank you Joe!
This was the guy whose supposed to be senile, right?
Can you imagine what would have spewed out if trump had made a speech?
No, sorry, don't. . .
No need to imagine. Walk down Memory Lane. Start with fighting over inaugural crowd size, embarrassment at the CIA, embarrassment at the UN, stark raving mad at NATO… daily tweets which the msm followed like dogs on the trail instead of reporting the news. How can any thinking American want that again? Chaos,confusion sheer nastiness. 💩😥🤮😱
Yesterday afternoon Nancy Pelosi was on Jake Tapper on CNN. Tapper played a clip of Trump calling Harris "cognitively impaired" - Nancy went after Tapper asking him why he played such nonsensical dribble and then went all out about Trump - I hope she appears more and more - she brought the fire and the truth. I like Tapper - and he then (rather sheepishly) told her he'd played the clip because he wanted to see her reaction. Well he got that big time!
And THAT stupid comment by Tapper nutshells what’s wrong in MSM. Reporting on reactions and clickbait.
His reaction says it all. The media does not ( or do they?) think thro the implications of every word they say. Good for her to challenge Tapper and, as a result, the rest of them.
Unbelievable! no wonder Nancy called him out.
I used to like Tapper - he has surrendered his journalistic license for sound bites, his morality for popularity. The fact he even played that sound bite only reminds me of my disappoinment in his debate non performance.
IHIPNEWS and Meidastouch are all you need at this point in history.
The rest of the trash heap is not worth changing an orange depends diaper for.
Dr. Bandy Lee's forensic psychiatrist group & other mental health experts present an all-day Conference 9/27/24 at the National Press Club, titled "The More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump". Questions & Answers in the afternoon. Dinner served.
Laurie, it is sad so many of our "broadcasters" feel they have to show Trump's crap to see what their' "victim's" reaction will be. That is insulting! Pumping out Trump nonsense to see what a true leader and patriot like Nancy Pelosi thinks of it is ridiculous. It is like asking Harris about Trump's stupid lie about Harris not always being Black. Her response that it was the same old playbook was a good one, but she should never have been asked. There were so many other topics that could have been discussed, such a question is an insult and a waste of time, but they get "likes" or something, so they will continue. Someone will blurt out that people should respond to Trump. I think they should just say something like, Trump has no idea what he is talking about and needs no response beyond this!"
The less Trump rants are repeated the better. That kind of free advertising is what helps him. It carried 2016. Watch now for the "Communist" counterattacks. Stay on these new people. Keep them on the right track.
Jake Tapper didn’t need to play a clip of Trump’s drivel to bait Nancy Pelosi. This is CNN’s formula—try to get a rise out of the guest. I’m glad to hear that she called him out for it. Nancy can cut through a “journalist’s” BS very quickly and correct
them with the truth. She is concerned for our democracy and knows that there is little time until the election.
Good. I hope he gets more of it from more people. Trump is a mental midget with the emotional skills of a seventh-grader. He never got past that stage and he needs to go and take his minions with him.
I don't understand Gigi. He said he would surround himself with "the best people." You know, like Paul Mannafort, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn. But he saved them by pardoning them as well as 143 other convicts on his last day in office.
One thing that has gone virtually unreported is Convicted Felon Donald Trump pardoned or commuted sentences of 10 convicted felons who STOLE a combined $2 billion plus from Medicare and Medicaid.
Did HCR ever report on those that CFDT pardoned?
I really wish every voting senior knew about that.
Any thinking person! No one who loves this country would support someone who has denigrated those who have served and died to protect this democracy. TFG is so despicable it is hard not to feel sorry and anger toward those who support him. But we will forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
"they do not know what they are doing"
They know what they are doing. Many are the cultural descendants of people who thought lynchings were public entertainment.
I think many of his supporters know what they are doing...and many of them only watch Fox, Newsmax, Breitbart, etc. and have very little knowledge of his crimes, his insane rants and word salads, his bullying and insults.
Harvey, I disagree as Ann W and others also posted. Many know exactly what they are doing.....which is supporting the kind of person they are. I do not forgive them either.
Not until they do get it. Most are cult nuts, unrepentant
That walk down memory lane (unless one watches Fox and has no clue) is a nightmare of epic proportions. Sadly, it is our recent history, and the propaganda has created deliberate confusion for some. Our MSM has failed to sort and report the facts. Alternative facts should never be a thing. That concept is the most deliberately divisive ploy of republicans. Division over policy is a whole different animal.
Not just MAGA Republicans.
First, America, then the world have been deeply alienated over the past 35 years by the tide of Virtual Reality.
Like Russia and China... Africa, too, the sheer size of America is so great that, even without this, there's a grave danger of taking one's land for the whole world, the only one that matters...
When I first came to the US in 1994, I couldn't for the life of me understand why it felt like I'd landed on another planet... something never felt in Asia or on the high plains under Kilimanjaro.
Only in Time Square did I get the clue.
Virtual Reality has upset our world more than any invasion of extraterrestrial aliens.
Chaos spiked with venom and hubris. His unchanging recipe (just more of each).
DJT is the only issue in this election. Everything else is a distraction.
Don't even want to think about it, and that i'm sure was the largest elephant in the room.
It would be crude, indignant, self-congratulatory, and all about him. Just fill in the blanks.
Lady, gag emoji.
True, the Orange Menace is only able to utter word salad and to go off on irrelevant tangents.
A slurring, dripping,stinking,farting, accordian hands flailing..straggling orange hair died Donable Lector would be watching the entire UN council racing for the exit doors.........
He reads from the teleprompter awkwardly, with pauses at the wrong places. You can tell it’s a tangent when it’s not halting. Rubbish scripted, rubbish off the cuff.
Biden has given several speeches in his 4 years as President that are among the G.O.A.T.
HCR has met with him several times as have others like Jon Meachem. They are not only excellent writers, but they are good storytellers and know so many great quotes that illustrate their points.
There have been other Presidents that have consistently delivered great speeches, but Joe is definitely the best of my lifetime.
Picture TFG giving a speech like that. I am hopeful that enough people will come to their senses and reject the most unfit, unqualified, undeserving, uninformed, uninspiring, unlikable, uneducable, wannabe dictator.
Yes. Yes JL Graham.
Little t is not only senile but also as you all know criminally insane. I’m noticing fewer t signs and more & more Harris-Walz plus our dem candidates here as I mosey around, which gives me hope & relief.
With thanks to HCR for her detailed coverage of one of our greatest presidents ever addressing the UN.
Thanks to the MSM, and republican toads, yes.
Trump's deterioration is unreported. MSM is transfixed by polling, which is usually wrong. Treat polling as big news when it's actually mostly op ed material. Oblivious to motivation, and especially, new voters, wh do not meet the definition as "likely" voters.
RCP Average today Harris 51.4 Trump 46.9
Even the bookies have no handle on "new" registrations. In Florida, numbers will be disclosed by the state 29 days prior to election day, but a sense of them can be obtained through the DNC Voter Analysis Tool (VAT), an online resource that offers data re changes in voter registration, moves and more, offers email delivery of lists to volunteers, has colorful graphic voter registration and VBM progress charts, and generates slate cards for texting or emailing.
We still have time to make it a blue tsunami via new registrations. FT 6 has texted millions in Florida alone. At least 13 million in swing states. Especially need follow up via phone banking.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/all-volunteer-ops/volunteer
What is RCP, please?
https://www.realclearpolling.com/betting-odds/2024/president
RCP = Real Clear Politics, a right-leaning outfit that averages polls w/o attention to sample size or methodology.
Voters, tRump said; you tell them and they will believe you. If you are someone who is so ignorant to believe any of the tsunami of lies and pure BS that you would support the likes of a tRump we feel sorry for you and when the time comes we will forgive you for you do not know what you are doing.
We are mere mortals who do not have the power to grant total absolution.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=wQa5u-1ih1c
Exactly. He is incredible. A prime example of In Service For the People NOT in service to self!
From the beginning of the speech, I thought well this man has it all together mind, spirit And love of country and family.
And the other guy is the one "saved by angels." Some people will believe anything.
What kind of "angels"? Working for whom?
P
Gary, the cynicism that Biden refers to often leads to greed and cruelty. As Bernie Moreno has shown us in his not understanding why postmenopausal women would be concerned about abortion, a lack of empathy leads to making selfish choices that are less than optimal for a country and the world.
These men, who suggest death and near death experiences from being denied reproductive health are made up, who say women should stay in abusive relationships, who want to take away women's right to vote can burn in hell.
And if there was a hell, they would
The only heaven or hell anyone will know is the one(s) you make for yourself.
Mary, I agree with your comment, but it got me thinking about the difference between skepticism and cynicism. To be skeptical is to be curious. They are two sides of the same “wisdom” coin.
To be very skeptical is to be a lot more skeptical and a lot less curious (aka "conservative"). To be cynical is to cross the line from a little bit to not at all curious. And that is why being cynical is being naïve. They are two sides of the same “unconstrained ignorance” coin (aka Mitch McConnell).
So, what is wisdom? No matter how much an individual knows, there is a whole lot more that the individual does not know, and so we are all ignorant to some extent. Wisdom is a curiosity that is informed by the willingness to acknowledge and constrain one's own ignorance.
I'm trying to be really careful how I say this. Last time someone thought my intent was to insult and I got blocked. My intent is to warn that we all need to be careful not to cross that line because when we do, then they have attracted us to join their side.
James, very good points. To me, cynicism is the opposite of Mr. Rogers’ belief that there will always be helpers; it assumes that everyone is only out for themselves and that every interaction has a zero sum result (if I help them, there is less for me). That is why Moreno assumes that anyone who believes that they (not their partner or relative) might need an abortion will care and everyone else won’t.
A phase that became somewhat popular in the 1980s was "I'm a realist, not an idealist". It seemed to me to be a cynical false duality, rationalizing rejecting responsibility. Idealism in concert with realism got us out of the caves, and is the creative engine of progress.
The Constitution is an example. It lays out a "blueprint" for a just government, along with a specific plan of means by which to accomplish this. It foresaw the need for vigilance and action against unacceptable human behavior, and also included a means for it's own update and correction.
MLK's "dream" is not impossible, just very difficult. We have made some steps in that direction, but not without fierce resistance. The insistence on discounting everything that is good is every bit as naive, and at least as dangerous, as ignoring everything in life that is harmful.
. To be skeptical is to be curious. They are two sides of the same “wisdom” coin.
Exactly, and wisdom is different from clever. Cleverness can help, but isn't essential. "Wisdom" seems to be a difficult concept to nail down. After all, what do we know? I think it "sees" the forest AND the trees, bit since there so much more to process that is remotely possible, it involves the ability to pick out what is fruitful to attend to. What most matters? In some ways that's highly, personally subjective and in other way not. It is my belief that we as a society don't think and talk nearly enough about wisdom, and that it would be wise to do so. Wisdom invites us to examine our own values as well as our own understanding.
You’re preaching to the choir. To that I will add that wisdom is hard to define because it’s so many things, but it seems to me that wisdom and maturity are just different words expressing the same meaning. And I think a mature individual is someone who cares about the people who are influenced by the individual’s behavior. If you tell an individual their behavior is having a unnecessarily negative impact on others, and the individual doesn’t appear to care, then the individual is insufficiently mature, aka lacks wisdom. But the individual would then have improved their odds of winning a Republican primary.
Yes. Emotional maturity. The teen-aged Greta Thunberg vs then President Trump. We have to learn to care for others as well as to take care of ourselves.
Good points
Exactly. Excessively selfish choices, bereft of enlightened self-interest and genuine empathy, can bring about the downfall of the narcissist as well as the human race; but that's what the former "Party of Lincoln" is now all about. It is no longer a party but an irrational cult, the like of which we have seen before in history, created with by those with accumulated wealth on a scale of some nations, such as Leo and Musk. Follow the money.
I thought his quote from Yeats was so to the point. That's exactly where the world was headed in the late 30s, though years before Yeats wrote that famous poem. Eastern Europe and Russia was beset with revolutionary and ethnic strife. Since then, despite huge tensions, the world has not seen another descent into international war. Fortunately the imperial aggressors of Japan and German were thoroughly defeated, mainly due to the arsenal and economy might of the US.
It was an excellent tie in to Yeats! May the center always hold.
WWII could only be won by the massive international effort. The Allies couldn't have won without the US but the US couldn't have won without the allies. The US alone could not have achieved the Allied landing on the Normandy beaches June 6. 1944 which stopped the impending German invasion of Great Britain. It took sacrifices in many countries, including the USSR to defeat Germany, Italy and Japan.
We Americans kind of hate to hear about the Soviet contribution to defeating Hitler. Their military deaths estimated 8 to 10 million, ours less than 500,000. Their combined military and civilian deaths 24 million.
As tourists in Ukraine and Moscow nearly twenty years ago, several times we saw brides in wedding gowns with the whole wedding party, laying flowers at war memorials. Everyone has lost a relative in war, so you honor them in this wedding custom.
Putin has been mostly successful at keeping Russians from knowing how many have been killed or wounded attacking Ukraine. Recently when towns inside Russia were taken by Ukrainian soldiers, people felt shocked and betrayed that Russian soldiers had not protected them. Putin had promised it would be a very short “military operation,” with little impact on Russian people.
The Soviet Union indeed was the main objective of the Germans. Leibenstraum or living space. Huge swaths of people, among them Ukrainians, were to be literally exterminated, esp by starvation, so Germans could colonize. Slavs in general were considered "subhuman"... Jews too of course.
LEBENSRAUM, Frank... LEIB=body and TRAUM= dream...
And yes, it would maybe be as well if Americans could realize that the Soviets were both the main victors and the main victims of WW2.
My naval officer dad served escorting convoys round North Cape to supply the Soviets. And later, on the planning of the Normandy invasion. Detailed to take part in the final assault on Japan. As a Brit, deeply aware of islanders' mentality, he expected to die in that invasion...
But even here, Americans are mistaken in believing the final defeat of Japan was entirely due to the A-bomb.
Even before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese Emperor was concerned to surrender to America, anything to avoid a Soviet invasion.
I'd recommend your watching a series called Factories at War. Without the material aid from the US, neither Britain nor the USSR would likely have withstood the German onslaught, or at least been able to launch a successful counter-invasion. But you're right, this also was a team effort.
The allies knew from the beginning that it had to be a team effort. They just wondered why it took Pearl Harbour to convince the US. Trump wants to take America back to the good old days of American splendid isolation. Would it take another direct attack on the United States to change that again? One more reason to vote blue.
There were huge isolationist forces in the USA then, and Britain was seen more as the world's largest imperial power than a democracy as such. It was Germany ie Hitler himself which declared war on the US following Japan's surprise attack. Even the Japanese knew that once the US mobilized itself economically for war, it would just be a matter of time before the military might of the US would overwhelm them. The Germans had a similar problem, and when the war against Russia bogged down, and with Americans now shipping war material into Russia, by 43 the Germans found themself outnumbered and outgunned. Within another year, the Russians were overrunning the Germans. It was oversized production of tanks et al from the US which allowed the British reverse the tide in north Africa. Sorry, i'm not trying up brag US military might, but that was the main factor behind Allied victory in WW2. Mind you, once the Russians got going, initially with American help, they also could outproduce the Germans. I think something like that happened in Great Britain as well.
Correction, Frank. Yeats was rather more far-sighted than that. The Second Coming was first published in 1919. The poet had understood that what began in August 1914 was only Act One.
And I doubt if what we are now seeing worldwide is the epilogue.
Thanks Peter, sorry abt the dating.
No need, Frank. You're right here, as in another item where I've just made a correction. You've seen what many are blind to, you've identified something correctly but... a little out of focus.
And we all know who the rough beasts slouching towards us are.
I love that poem. It’s one of my favorites.
And it helped a great deal to help these former enemies regain prosperity and dignity, Had we just left them to struggle or attempted to subjugate them, I think that tensions would have grown. That mistake in WWI helped empower Hitler.
In the current circumstances, the words that stand out to me in The Second Coming are the following:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
In the face of the clear and present danger posed by Trump and his enablers to democracy, there must be no lack of conviction.
Yes, you're so right, Yeats put his finger on just what had been and was happening. He had some exotic beliefs about The Second Coming which provided some of the motif for the poem, "And what rough beast, its hour come around at least, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born". This is one of the few poems I've memorized in my life at one time or another.
President Biden is my age and we have seen human stupidity at its finest. It is hard to believe just how stupid people and countries can be. Willing to go to the brink stupidly. Somehow “ our better angels” save us. To stay sane we have to believe the unbelievable can happen. Two kind, loving men: Nelson Mandela and Joe Biden.
Some time ago, I came across the 5 laws of stupidity, originally a tongue in cheek piece written for friends by Prof. Carlo Cipolla in 1976.
He defined 4 categories of people and that there are 5 laws of stupidity (below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=3O9FFrLpinQ
1: Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
2: The probability that a person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person. Education, wealth or status have nothing to do with it.
3: A stupid person is someone who causes losses to other people while himself deriving no gain.
4: Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid people and keep forgetting that to deal with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
5: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person, even more dangerous than a bandit.
Ignorance can be educated, stupidity cannot. Love that you shared this with us…
Very succinct way of saying it!
But love your elaboration
I found this 2005 piece among my notes:
TRANSCENDENTAL STUPIDITY
I have a pet theory about this.
Commonplace stupidity is relatively innocuous as far as individuals are concerned. Most stupid people can't do much harm to anyone but themselves, precisely because their stupidity is such a limiting factor. Only collectively do suchlike become problematic. But there are superior levels of stupidity and the highest and most hubristic is open only to the highly intelligent.
These are often moral idiots, like Stalin or Karl Rove, but gifted in so many other respects; in whom intelligence is accompanied by a cast-iron belief in their own superiority.
Perhaps it has above all to do with separation, the illusion of apartness, the excessive sense of separate identity which intelligence can exacerbate. I see myself as an exception, and thus I come to separate myself more and more from ‘the common herd’. Only, in so doing, I become less human. Or simply, I am diminished. Add to that, macho behaviour patterns induced by one’s family conditioning and the hyper-development of defense mechanisms, and you get a rather nasty kind of narcissism. When all goes wrong in my life, I can always lord it over my own farmyard, crow and peck twice as much at all the hens and get into more fights with other roosters... Whatever may be wrong has nothing to do with me - Co-Co-Ri-CO!!!!!
This kind of handicap comes with wealth, but when Jesus speaks of how hard it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom, we understand his words only in terms of material wealth. Intellectual wealth can also separate one from humanity and above all from one’s own humanity.
* * *
I guess one of the major differences between the sexes is that fewer women attain ultra-stupidity. But that pattern, too, is changing.
27/12/2005
Umberto Eco (Italian writer), has a take on this. "Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community. Then they were quickly silenced, but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots."
Basically social media has elevated bullschittery to all our lives, no matter where it originates. Definite down side
What a great observation!
Thanks for offering it.
It was offered to me somewhere along the way and it sure hit home. Proof that social media seeps into all our lives
Not for lack of trying
Till now, I didn't get your meaning!
Sure, MTG etc. can keep trying, but to be ultra-stupid you need a high IQ...
Observing the MAGAMedusas, you could write a playbook: 1001 Ways of Making a Fool of Yourself...
A variation on the old song:
Anything dumb you do
I can do better...
Stupidity can be a way of life.
Love your playbook. Every day I think they will run out of ways…or be called on the weaponized imbecility
So many great insights Peter, Especially regarding rich men and the eye of the needle and less stupidity manifesting in women
Greatly appreciated!
Moral idiots, and so proud of it.
Art, I once beat my husband at chess. He was a very good chess player; I was the village idiot at chess (couldn’t figure out each pieces moves). I won by shear stupidity and a long time. He was so frustrated that my idiocy was driving him into mistakes. I had just a few pieces left but check mated him. He was so upset that he said he would never play a game with me again! I hate games so I was delighted. So sometimes being stupid succeeds. Isn’t that terrifying?
What a great story Molly! It is terrifying, especially when so much can be gained by flaunting it these days.
Best laugh yet. My husband tried to teach me, but I hate games and he gave up.
President Biden delivered a valedictory address to the UN General Assembly that made a compelling case for US leadership in global affairs. It was the speech of a committed internationalist, refuting the transactional Trumpian view of international relations. Let's look forward to President Harris addressing the General Assembly in September 2025. The alternative does not bear thinking about.
It's unsurprising that it was under-reported by commercial media. Just another boring speech at the UN, I suppose. Can't get many clicks out of that. Just bla bla bla about ideals and principles. Who reads that stuff? Can't make a tic tok out of it. What's the point?
MSNBC commentators focused on how unlikely UN attendees will heed Biden's words because he's a lame duck. Maybe someone raised the quality of the analysis, but I turned it off in disgust before such a mythical creature emerged from the dung heap that news analysts have become.
I agree on the quality of the analysis. The other UN Members recognize that Biden's speech will provide the framework for the foreign policy of the Harris Administration.
😂😝😜🤪😉
Ignorance
Apropos! Great men are visionary.
Yes this quote. I know it is meant to inspire but should also be a cautionary tale. At the age of 60, THIS is how I view the overturning of Roe V Wade, THIS is why I am working so hard in the Swing States to get out the vote. Because "It always seems impossible until it's done" goes both ways.
Left out of his speech: admission that in their desperation to get campaign donations BOTH parties (including middle-aged Biden) deregulated banking. Bringing on Great Recession, no jail for crooked bankers AND, ultimately, Trump.
Why is election close given huge negatives for Trump? It’s the real, lousy lived economy for the bulk of those who say they’ll vote for Trump. They hear words of “things are bad” and agree. They remember things FINALLY inching up better under Trump until Covid hit.
As president, Biden DID the right things. Harris doing OK. Neither have broken from the banking-fed money machine or admitted the real reason things got so bad.
I wish Dr. Richardson would widen her view. She cites the stock market growth as good indicator. Utterly irrelevant for most, who have no stocks, cannot retire and are struggling to have enough income to marry or raise children
Deregulation, trickled down economics, and Citizens United has caused the decline of the middle class. Not one President alone, but an army of Oligarchs peddling lies to a Republican party who has served as willing soldiers.
We can outbid the oligarchs (AND the not so rich but rich enough to contribute) with a reasonable federal program of campaign finance vouchers (AKA Democracy Dollars). So everyone can be a donor AND a voter.
Check out my Substack on the topic (michaelfoxworth.substack.com). Citizens United could, arguably, be considered valid, IF we had vouchers. The 2022 House had a vouchers version in a bill (HR1) that passed but got filibustered in the Senate. Almost no one noticed because the democrats did not shout about it. All elected politicians are too embarrassed to admit out loud their CURRENT and ONGOING role in this game. "All" is a strong word, but I know of no exceptions. Even those who do talk and have big donor bases (such as Sanders and Warren) tend to point to the other party instead of acknowledging the hell their own party members find themselves in.
Great idea
I wish you wouldn't generalize with the "most" in the utterly irrelevant.
I would also mention that in my own circle of family and close friends, and with more minor neighbors, I have personally witnessed persons complain about costs do the most foolish wasting of funds. Everyone "deserves" to have the occasional treat, but I have seen a segment of the population which seems to have absolutely no common consumer sense. I have stood in back of a customer in a grocery store line, listened to the haranguing of the cashier over the prices of whatever--and then watched the same person stop at the lottery machine, hit the button on the $30 or even $50 scratch ticket, quickly scan the bar code to see if it is a winner--and then walk away, or worse, dump in another bill or two and repeat. I am not joking about this, I have seen this multiple times.
That man has false hope, imagining what he will do with all his winnings...that is why I have only had one lottery ticket; I actually started imagining.......also why I only was in a casino one time (Trump Casino, Atlantic City, a comp. from Ivana) I played the $20 I was gifted when I came in and realized I didn't want to leave the machine because the next person might get "my" winnings.
False hope is for losers.
Well, you could be touching on part of the problem. Nevertheless, while I have not seen any study on the personal financial behavior of Trump supporters, I'm deeply suspicious of your thesis.
Much of the public is feeling financial pressure. Inflation is a real issue even though it is not currently that high. They see little on the horizon that makes them feel good. The basic truth is that it will be difficult (read: expensive!) to deal with climate change and if we don't, we doom our children. Given that, there is plenty of room for not-utterly-foolish. financially-pressured people to combine the devastating effect of 2008, their 2017-2019 financial experience with skepticism about party promises and come up with "try Trump again." Hence betting shows too-close-to-call in several big states.
Dumb behavior is widely encouraged by commercial practices. I was not low income, but we carried modest levels of credit card debt for many years until we took Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace" course (image of me hitting my head with the palm of my head). I'm told many high schools now require all students to take personal finance.
Missing from the Harris campaign (so far) that keeps it close? Truth about the role of campaign finance in 2008 or now nor any PRACTICAL way to change this continuing danger.
The ignorance on economics is a big part of the orange turds appeal.
Economists are from the most privileged of the privileged classes( higher proportion have parents with advanced degrees than any other PhD ).
They will tend "conservative" in general, and cheerlead for the wealth inequality we see today.
Let's start with the national debt is not the same as household debt, shall we?
"National debt is not the same as household debt"
True to some extent. But there are limits to both. Most people and most countries can safely afford to have some debt. Less than 70% of GDP seems to be a reasonable limit for nations. Mortgage debt (and no other debt) that results in housing cost (including interest) less than 20% of income is a common recommendation.
Japan has been crushed by debt over 300%. China is heading that same way. US is at 100% and increasing rapidly. Much of Eurozone is reeling from the increasing cost of fossil fuel tied to war in Ukraine.
A detailed, reasonable (if a bit conservative) plan to deal with growing US debt is the following. But I have not found anything comparable in depth and detail from several liberal sites (some of which cite aspects that should be included). Unfortunately, both parties have refused to seriously engage on the topic. Both are giving in to more tax-cutting promises.
https://manhattan.institute/article/a-comprehensive-federal-budget-plan-to-avert-a-debt-crisis-2024
Many people I know spend money they don’t have and whine, whine, whine. I expect many to lose the homes that were way overpriced and beyond their means. One little blip and crisis. Serious economic trouble and another 2008. What are people thinking with chump on the agenda.
President Biden's speech is about twenty-five minutes long. G-D bless this good man.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5134083/user-clip-president-bidens-final-address-united-nations
As has been the case for so many, humility is an acquired taste. President Biden has shown that. The death of his belovèd Beau and the slide into the HELL of addiction of his belovèd Hunter have made him a sadder but far wiser man. The agency of humility acquired by facing and suffering through very human, very personal tragedy -- like the traffic accident that killed his belovèd wife and baby over half a century ago -- has made him a great and effective President. G-D bless this great man.
Brought tears to my eyes.
Yes🌎
Remember in the following that I voted for Biden and supported his reelection.
He is a hypocrite to speak of peace in the middle east when the US provides Israel with offensive weapons and fails to effectively curtail Zionist expansionism.
He is weak in his curtailment of support for Ukraine, pursuing a policy that costs both Ukrainian and Russian lives by extending the war and inhibiting a Ukrainian victory. Is this an act of spite? (How dare the Ukrainians succeed when our esteemed national security establishment said they would fall in days! How dare they demonstrate over and over again the fallacy of Putin's so-called red lines!)
While you certainly have the right to criticize Biden's foreign policy, it’s important to acknowledge the complexity of these global conflicts. Supporting Israel while advocating for peace reflects the difficult balancing act required in U.S. diplomacy. The U.S. provides Israel with defense funding due to deep historical ties and regional stability concerns, yet Biden has pushed for a two-state solution and condemned expansionism in the West Bank. He has called for de-escalation, highlighting the need for a peaceful and just solution for Palestinians as well.
As for Ukraine, Biden has shown strong, unwavering support. The military aid provided by the U.S. has been instrumental in Ukraine’s ability to defend itself and make significant gains, challenging Putin's aggression and helping preserve global democratic order. A sudden withdrawal or reduction of support would give Russia the upper hand, potentially resulting in a catastrophic Ukrainian defeat and emboldening authoritarian regimes worldwide. Biden’s approach is focused on a careful, strategic balance—providing enough support to help Ukraine win while avoiding the war’s escalation into a broader conflict involving NATO, which could spiral into a global catastrophe.
Far from being an act of spite, Biden's decisions are aimed at maintaining long-term global security while defending Ukrainian sovereignty, which also counters Putin’s dangerous imperial ambitions. Both situations—Israel and Ukraine—are delicate and far from simple, requiring nuanced strategies rather than blunt force approaches that could worsen the suffering of millions.
One of the first things I discovered as President of the United States was that no decision that landed on my desk had an easy, tidy answer. Obama
I trust Biden. I don't have all the facts and information. Even if I did, I probably wouldn't know what to do. I HATE what is happening with Israel. I have never liked or trusted Netanyahu. I believe Biden is making the best decisions he can for VERY complicated situations.
Unfortunately your narrative on Ukraine reflects a failure to recognize the influence of Russian disinformation on US policy and public opinion. Were the US policy as stated, why have we not provided sufficient numbers of air defense systems and fighter aircraft to achieve air superiority to prevent Russian air attacks on Ukrainian cities, schools, hospitals, energy infrastructure and military defensive positions?
US military aid to Israel has enabled them to bomb hospitals, schools, UN facilities, and aid organizations. No significant measures have been taken to stop expansion of Israeli settlements or the murder of Palestinians in the West Bank or Gaza.
We have a lot of blood on our hands.
We sure do have. This "talk" about a Two State Solution.....what? There are two States: Gaza (an open air concentration camp) and the West Bank, having been settled by armed Brown Shirts and as we speak, Palestinian farms being bulldozed for more. Since Oct 7 there have been 6? 8? 12? new settlements built.
There is no solution except complete extermination of every last Palestinian.
You forget the foes he has in our own government