A headline in the New York Times today read: “Factory Jobs Are Booming Like It’s the 1970s.” The story explained that more money in the hands of consumers thanks to federal stimulus spending, along with a new skepticism of stretched supply lines, has created a rebound in American manufacturing.
“in fact it never showed signs of increasing economic growth. What it did was to move wealth dramatically upward. It also made the measure of the economy the health of Wall Street rather than Main Street.”
It is also a fact that more Chinese businessman have become millionaires and billionaires than in the US since 1980 by a huge margin. It also lifted a billion Chinese out of poverty. Thank Nixon for ‘opening’ China. For his business donors. At the expense of the ever shrinking US middle class. “These jobs are going boys, and they ain’t coming back.”-Bruce Springsteen. “Capital is like water, it seeks its own level”- AOL Time Warner CEO said something like that mid 2000’s.
Now, after 42 years of concentrating so much wealth upward and Citizen’s United to keep it that way, and no Fairness Doctrine thus keeping masses ignorant of these facts. Do we have a chance of a more perfect Union based on equality of opportunity, of access to quality education, clean air and water, and the pursuit of happiness? Our only chance is to vote BLUE!
Ted, While reading your comment, I was reminded, just yesterday, when Kevin McCarthy unveiled the GOP “Commitment to America” policy goals, he announced that the very first bill would be to fire 87,000 IRS agents. McCarthy stated, “We want to work for you, not go after you.” Expectedly, he neglected to mention that more than one-quarter of unpaid taxes come from the wealthiest Americans, who owe $163 billion in taxes annually. I imagine one reason an understaffed IRS would let the top 1% avoid taxes is because they would lack the personnel to process the requisite sophisticated tax filings. Indeed, I would expect, were we to do a deep dive into most, if not all, of the GOP’s “Commitment to America” policy goals, we would find they’re designed to meet the needs of the ruling class, not to make the lives of everyday people materially better, more stabilized, and more dignified. Hence, I would contend that Democratic leadership is obligated to unpack the GOP agenda.
Jeri, Your observation is spot-on. Still, I would note the one difference is that Congressional Representatives, six weeks before the 1994 Congressional election, were more forthcoming, specifying the plan’s provisions that included “reducing the size of government, cutting taxes, and both tort reform and welfare reform.”
Ted, In my view, what we are witnessing is substantially more malevolent than “pandering.” I see a party ruthlessly pursuing power for their own purposes and to meet their own needs instead of the needs of the people.
A sea change in what America is supposed to mean. A place where the rich get what they want and the others accept the crumbs. Sounds like what people fled from in the beginning. Sorry, Founding Fathers, we are in danger of losing what you gave us…
Jeri, In my view, your comment misrepresents what our founders sought to establish, namely structures of government whose powers were balanced in a way that expectedly would protect the country from the excesses of any one branch. Were Republicans to attain control of both Chambers of Congress and win the White House in 2024, said events conceivably would precipitate both a fatal weakening of America’s civic institutions and also a Presidency eager and able to consolidate power, wherein the rule of law could be subjugated to an individual.
Thanks, Barbara! Yes! Unpack the GOP 's agenda! Most of us don't know what's really tbehind their promises and slogans -- as is always the problem. And the Dems need to tell it in some detail to make it hit home. Even sow pictures and graphs. ( I'm not kidding either.) Don't they have anyone who does graphics. People grasp them much quicker than words. Please, Dems, show us some graphics.
I've just emailed the WH asking them to flood the airwaves with graphics showing the accomplishments of this administration. https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Maybe others of you would consider doing this also. If their email box is full of this suggestion, maybe it will have an effect.
One problem might be that there has been a revolving door for director of communications
Mary, I greatly appreciate your affirming response, which has bolstered my confidence regarding letters I am preparing to send both to the White House and to Democratic leadership.
Great! Barbara, if you create graphics or know someone who does, perhaps your letter or email could include an example or use the one Prof. R. provides here. It's VERY surprising to me that these are lacking in ordinary press conferences, speeches by the president, guest appearances on Sunday talk shows and others -- all places where graphics say so much more than words. Maybe they need a teacher in the director's office. : )
Mary, Perhaps you noted that T L Mills, who is part of this thread, rightly noted that California Representative Katie Porter is particularly adept at producing high quality graphs and charts to amplify issues and clarify concepts.
We need to also say very clearly how wealth moved, not just upward, but outward, as in out of this country, to China, enriching them with one of the worlds most concentrated millionaire and billionaire classes in the history of the planet. That wealth could have been new schools, college educations, bridges and roads, renewal both urban and rural, a countrywide Wi-Fi network, investments in green energy, and proper V.A. Services and funding to care for veterans. But we didn’t get any of that. Instead the Chinese did.
I’m not blaming the Chinese. I’m blaming Nixon for starting it. I’m blaming Regan for sustaining it. I’m blaming the GOP for outsourcing the American Dream to a country, China, where elections do not take place, no worker protections exists, and the wealth stolen from our middle class has in fact cemented 1 party rule that is enriching theit communist party and their crony’s in an effort to keep it that way forever. We were sold that sending factory jobs to China would lift billions out of poverty and capitalism would transform China into a democracy. No democracy has developed. It was all a lie. The opposite has happened in human rights and freedoms, and China remains hostile to Its pacific neighbors. Then theirs their occupation of Tibet, racial discrimination, and human rights dispersion and abuses.
The hard truth is that sending jobs there just hides real inflation, consumers pay less for a while, so employers can pay them less and less. All the while defunding education here. The net effect is that Unions are broken by stock holders and backed up by the GOP. Then workers have less and less organization and $ to lobby for their rights. which has privileged stock holders over workers. If it continues another 40 years, will an American middle class even exists?
Save some blame for Milton Friedman and his "shareholder value trumps all" world view. I suspect that sans that shift in our economic play book, companies wouldn't have been quite so quick to pull up stakes and move off-shore. It probably would have happened eventually, but that philosophy sure lit a fire under it.
Before going off-shore, the Rust Belt manufacturing moved to the "right to work" South, where they could avoid those pesky unions. ("Right to work"= right to starve)
Everything you reference in your first paragraph is what the MAGA Republicans are working to achieve right here in the USA, When they proudly wear there 'Make America Great Again' ball caps the "again" means back to the days of child labor, sweat shops, non-unionization, and when women were not allowed to vote. Not my idea of "great" at all.
Yup. Offshoring only works when two criteria are met imho.
1. We only export to democracy's, thus we strengthen them and not 1 Party State/authoritarian state that is hostile to our allies and interests ( in China case... Japan/SK/Taiwan/Asian emerging countries)
2. We plan ahead to invest in education to keep families and communities strong with new technologies etc. This way we keep our country resilient, preventing grievance politics and increasing vulnerability to the opioid crisis. ( remember...counties that flipped Obama to Drumf also are the counties with the worst unemployment & highest addiction rates.
This way we aren't abandoning our own people to needlessly suffer economic shock and trauma, here and abroad.
Okay, but my recollection is that those white men cooked their own goose when they voted for Reagan, even after he busted their unions. Why? My guess is that most of them voted R because they believed Republicans would help them keep black people out of what was left of their unions.
Sadly, amen. I get so sick of the republicans Lying their way into office. They literally have no concern for the citizens of this country. Only what they can get away with and put in their pockets.
Christine, I have thought of you since learning that Ian would hit Florida. To you, family, friends … your entire family of Floridians wishing you safety and good care.
Re: The 2020 RAND Corp report on US income inequality: $50T worth of US wealth transferred from 90% of the population to 1% from 1975 to 2018. Prior to that, income was tied to the GDP. If that were the case today, there would be an extra $2.5 T in American pockets every year. So much for supply side, trickle down economics.
I have never met a businessman who, in the face of heavy demand for his product, says, "Yeah, I know I could sell the hell outta this stuff, but then I'd make money and have to pay taxes, so, nebbermind."
The sheer non-logic of the supply side argument always made my head spin.
Interesting Nixon greases the skids for the exodus of jobs out of our country and Reagan’s gop cabal open the banking floodgates for looted $$$$ by burgeoning Russian oligarchs when the Soviet Union dissolved!
Curious how these two political milestones in US history eventually eroded our own human right’s .conditions in this country.
I’m so glad we finally had the chance to prove “bottom up and out” is the best way to grow the economy and benefit the middle class. President Biden is going a great job and can do even more if we can get him a better majority.
The most startling and heartening statistics aren't the number of new manufacturing jobs, which is indeed impressive, but these: "the real net worth of the bottom 50% of U.S. households has climbed 60% since Biden took office, now reaching $67,524."
But how many Americans in this group realize what they've reaped under Biden? Unfortunately, Inflation skews so many perceptions. Then again, I don't recall Republicans proposing anything that would help keep the economy rolling on. Meanwhile, Biden and the Democrats keep proving that good things happen when government is focused on improving lives rather than fomenting hate and division.
Major changes have been made in our government by the Biden administration. The following are a few highlights featured in today’s Letter, but they are not all Biden and his team have accomplished in less than 2 years.
- Biden has made it clear that he is working to overturn 40 years of “supply side” economics, ushered in by President Ronald Reagan.
- he is building the economy “from the bottom up and the middle out,” he, along with the Democrats in Congress, bolstered domestic manufacturing with measures like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act
- National Economic Council director Brian Deese told the reporters, “One of the most striking things that we are seeing now …. —U.S. companies and global companies—that are committing to build and expand their manufacturing footprint in the United States and doing so based on their view that not only did the pandemic highlight the need for more resilience in their supply chains, but that the United States is creating a policy environment that makes long-term investment here in the United States more attractive.”
- Meanwhile, the real net worth of the bottom 50% of U.S. households has climbed 60% since Biden took office, now reaching $67,524.
- “Factory Jobs Are Booming Like It’s the 1970s.”
- American manufacturers have not only regained all the jobs lost during the pandemic, but they have also added about 67,000 more.
It is fair to ask if this country is as divided as it is because of the economic policies of the Republican Party beginning with Reaganomics.
‘This system was designed to free up capital at the top of the economy through tax cuts and deregulation in the belief that putting capital in the hands of the wealthy—the “supply side”— would lead them to invest more in the economy, thus making it grow more quickly and providing more jobs. While Republicans came to embrace that ideology wholeheartedly, in fact it never showed signs of increasing economic growth. What it did was to move wealth dramatically upward. It also made the measure of the economy the health of Wall Street rather than Main Street.’ (Letter)
Let me put it another way: it is time to hold The Republican Party responsible for transferring the wealth of working Americans to the ultra-wealthy.
AND
It’s time for Biden and the Democratic party to let everyone know how they are returning that money to the American people, making our lives better and more economically secure as the country grows anew.
How do we all do this Fern? There needs to be advertising by the DNC that powerfully hits these points. There needs to be a way to get through to the trumpbotomized. How do we do this?
Gailee, I'm just winging it, but we are loaded with terrific writers, documentarians, performers... there need to be teams put together for social media, radio, cable, broadcasting, print, online... most artists are in the battle for democracy and when has there been more verified corruption and propaganda created by the Republican party and their cast of devils?
Indeed! steady incremental and consistent messaging by the deeper and more intelligent half of the nation must flood this opportunity for the people side to finally be re-established.
We must avoid relishing the squalor of the MAGA wreckage and ensure the highest values of the past are firmly established.
But those tasks are up to each and everyone of us.
Gailee, we are being distracted by criminals who are working day and night to steal our country. Recycling is still going on but doesn’t rip our heart out like other activities. Caring for our physical planet is still so very important to many of us all over the world.
Look at the starving of the poor in Africa…I am dying a little bit everyday when I absorb so much need and want to help.
My daughter is finishing a book study on climate change. She encouraged us to look more deeply at local need so I am going to get involved with my local Sierra Club.
I support a young man in Bangladesh and for a child to attend school in Haiti. These are really small things and as I give I am also trusting someone else to actually care for these children I can not be with but yet want to help in some way.
All I can say is one by one, day by day we can do something .
Media is too focused on blathering republicans liars. Where are our bull horns that have wider reach than substacks. MSNBC tries but Fox lies rule. MSM focuses their news efforts on money making brouhaha rather than public service.
Doesn't seem that Biden has taken off his gloves and clenched his fists to finally give the gop maggots the old "One-Two" right in their dusty parched kisser! Hopefully all other Democrats will boisterously join his brave urgings to repeatedly reveal the gop deceptions, lies, and hypocrisies.
We should all carefully consider our Democratic resurgence success plan, Eh!?
Finally some fresh thought provoking urging to actually solve the problem GOP Maggot debacles.
Thank you!
Love your comment as opposed to others wasting our time with ridiculously long comment blathering plagiarizing of all that we have already studied in great detail
Well the wonderful pleasures we ALL enjoy here in our comments is sharing our opinions about how to solve the OBVIOUS problems that our American democracy is being bombarded by the gop maggots.
I am sorry you find some slight disagreement with a small part of my opinion. Isn't it wonderful we all see things a bit differently from each other. That is how aw all learn form each other. Eh!?
Fern, everything you say here is true, IMHO, but I'm wondering if we aren't all missing the big picture, which is that rapid, sustained economic growth, whether one subscribes to the GOP's Reaganoid trickle-down theory, or feels enthusiastic about Biden's Rooseveltian plan to put more money in the pockets of the poor and normal working stiffs, is - with overpopulation - the main driver of climate change.
I think there is an argument to be made for finding ways to meet everyone's needs while limiting GDP growth and trying to save ourselves from the worst climate disasters that our scientists have been predicting for many decades. The graphs of world economic growth and the increase of people-produced CO2 in the atmosphere are pretty similar and still rapidly rising (by historical standards, if I am not mistaken, which I may be. I'll google it)
I realize this is a can of worms and not explicitly today's LFAA topic (basically, Biden is doing a good job, while the GOP is trying to destroy all we hold dear!), so if anyone wishes to respond to this post, please do not feel hijacked. Have a nice day!
David, the technology to reach net zero, even negative, CO2 emissions exists now. What is lacking is the political will form a coherent plan (though there are several good ones), fund, scale-up, and implement it. This has been true for both Democrats and Republicans for decades. We need a quantitative easing type plan to save the climate - and by extension, everyone and everything, on the planet. We did this 14 years ago to save a few too large, crooked, financial institutions. Time to do the same for the planet and ALL of its inhabitents.
But David Herrick is right about overpopulation, which is going to get worse to the tune of four NY State population equivalents over the next 40 years (Census Bureau) due to US immigration policy (90% of that gain will be immigration, just 10% native increase).
I'm a left wing Democrat. My great uncle was de facto head of the Colorado Democratic Party for the first half of the last century. I've been pro-choice since I understood the issues in my early teens. I've also been concerned about overpopulation since I was 9, and so was very early in favor of birth control and family planning.
I learned about globalwaraming in a course on environmental issues in 1975 given by John Holdren, who later became President Obama's Science Advisor. It's obvious to me that the US is way overpopulated already, and an article two years ago in the NYT Mag warned that in the next couple of decades, Americans (especially in the West and Southwest) would become climate refugees. It's a frightening read.
The US is one of the worst places on the planet to put more people, as we're the major industrialized nation with the greatest per capita greenhouse emissions. (China emits significantly more, but has lower per capita emissions.)
Climate change is a huge problem and it will take all of us to do what we are able to do to help. There are so many things I need to change as a consumer to help. I am learning....I am trying to do what I can to improve. My daughters are much better and more involved than I .... I can make better choices!
Emily, your determination to learn about climate change and improve your consumer habits is admirable, of course. But, I think we have all been guilt-tripped into thinking that if we drive a smaller car, turn down the thermostat, install LED lightbulbs and make a thousand other changes large and small in how we consume stuff, that somehow the CO2 in the world's atmosphere will stop increasing, perhaps even diminish, and that this is the key to saving ourselves from ourselves.
But, most people are still just pleasure seekers of one sort or another -- I know I am -- and do not necessarily do all the right things -- even if they know they should -- or even believe that their failure to behave properly will lead to the extinction of our species in fairly short order.
Result? As a species we continue barreling down the highway to Hell as several serious and immediate consequences of climate change are beginning to regularly influence our lives in negative ways. So-called 100 and 1,000-year disasters are now showing up annually and changing the lives of millions of people, but deciding to hang out our laundry rather than throw it in the dryer is not what will save us.
If we are very lucky, and the climate stability "window" of opportunity is not already shut, our feelings of guilt will lead us to vote for politicians who will pass draconian laws requiring us all to behave as we should with respect to energy use, and this "us all" includes governments, light and heavy industries, service providers, every other sort of business, sports teams, self-employed professionals, all of us, even -- no, especially -- the privileged ultra-rich.
Incentives and excise taxes will not suffice. There will need to be laws passed, warnings, then tickets issued and arrests made for infractions both small and large.
What we do not know yet, but may soon discover, is how strong our collective death wish is. That we have not yet managed to nuke ourselves into extinction is some cause for optimism, I suppose.
There was a newspaper article published in 1928, where scientists spoke about the impact on the climate of all the coal we were burning. So our species knew that far back that fossil fuels were a problem. And recently two young climate activists were sentenced to jail time for having sabotaged the Dakota pipeline and were called domestic terrorists. Who is actually the domestic terrorist - those who want to stop petroleum extraction or those who profit from it?
David--I think you are quite right about the need for government regulations and enforcements--and also about common human psychology. My uncles who worked on farms with tobacco crops in the '30s and '40s said they all referred to cigarettes as "cancer sticks." Later on, Surgeon Generals' warnings and educational efforts barely made a dent in smoking rates until the government began taxing the products (raising the prices), regulating their sales, restricting areas where smoking was allowed, exposing the lies of the companies, etc. Persuasion and carrots can encourage change in some social and economic arenas, but it definitely takes sticks. In the case of climate change, we're all smoking whether we like it or not, so the sticks should be pretty damn big.
I have been deeply worried about climate change even before it got in the news (which really is only over the last year or two). And since then, as we also saw with the pandemic response, the USA has shown that it is incapable of quickly and effectively responding in the necessary way. All that has to happen is for Republicans to merely have enough power to exercise the filibuster. The only way we as a nation are to adopt enough green policies quickly enough is if those policies outcompete the dirty policies we have in place now. And do not tread on "Freedum". Ain't gonna happen IMO. We are a free market cowboy nation, and the free market doesn't have long term goals, and cowboys are uneducated and selfish. Our goals are short term, and we are not comfortable with change. Our government is ponderous and fractured, and moves at the speed of a glacier. Don't count on us. Count on the rest of the world, which may (or may not) drag us along. As a species, we are in huge trouble.
PS 'Fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – are by far the largest contributor to global climate change, accounting for over 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions. As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun's heat.'
Yes, Fern, and we produce them and convert them rapidly into planet-killing CO2 because politicians always promise economic growth and feel they have to deliver on their promises. You know, "more jobs, lower taxes, higher wages, more fun if you just vote for me" is the routine. Yes, Democrats do it too, unfortunately.
'big picture' David: 'official warned Wednesday. David Beasley, head of the U.N. World Food Program, said its latest analysis shows that "a record 345 million acutely hungry people are marching to the brink of starvation" — a 25% increase from 276 million at the start of 2022 before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb.Jul 7, 2022'
There are more big pictures positive and negative I could provide in answer to your 'over population' big picture, which as you may have realized is not the only way to address 'climate catastrophe' as far as I am concerned.
I agree, Fern, over-population is just an aggravating factor in climate change.
My main point was that the consumer-driven endless economic growth we all enjoy and participate in -- and cannot conceive of as somehow not necessarily good -- is not sustainable in any case. The Earth is a finite place. All politicians promise to deliver better economic growth than their adversaries, as if simply growing the economy helps everyone, but it doesn't unless the benefits of such growth are shared, if not in equal measure, at least fairly, based on the notions that no one should have to sleep on the street and no one should be able to waste his extra dough launching suborbital pleasure rockets while other folks are having to sleep on the street.
David, Does our use of LANGUAGE and framing of the CAUSES and SOLUTIONS with regard to Climate Change sometimes unnecessarily put people at odds? Do you think that the substance and framing of the issue in the following report by The Union of Concerned Scientist useful in this regard?
From: The Union of Concerned Scientists
REPORTS & MULTIMEDIA / EXPLAINER
CLIMATE CHANGE and POPULATION
Published Nov 9, 2021 Updated Jul 5, 2022
'We’re sometimes asked “Isn’t population growth driving climate change?” But that’s the wrong question—and it can lead to dangerous answers.'
'We frequently receive questions about population growth and its relationship to climate change. It’s an old idea with a troubling history. In the context of solving the climate crisis, it's distracting at best, and at worst, has the potential to do great harm to the climate and to people around the world.'
'Here are the facts: climate change is caused by the heat-trapping emissions produced when we burn coal, oil, and gas, and cut down forests. Data show that these emissions are most closely connected to carbon-intensive production and consumption patterns, predominantly the carbon-intensive lifestyles of the relatively wealthy, both here in the United States and around the world. Fossil fuel companies, utilities, and their trade groups also bear significant responsibility: they have used their power, money and deceptive tactics to lock in carbon-intensive infrastructure and constrain choices individuals can make about their energy supply.'
'A misplaced focus on population growth as a key driver of past, present, and future climate change conflates a rise in emissions with an increase in people, rather than the real source of those emissions: an increase in cars, power plants, airplanes, industries, buildings, and other parts of our fossil fuel-dependent economy and lifestyles. Implicit in this faulty framing is the notion that all people contribute significantly to heat-trapping emissions. In fact, data show (PDF) that the richest 10 percent of the world’s population contributes 50 percent of annual global warming emissions.' (Unionof ConcernedScientists) See link below.
Yes, the Union of Concerned Scientists EXPLAINER about climate change and the importance of population growth is fine as far as it goes. Until quite recently, there could be no real comparison of the CO2 emissions of the world's richest country and strongest modern economy (us, of course) with the CO2 emissions of India or China, for example, where historically most people have survived on subsistence agriculture. The rich west is still responsible for most of the "extra" CO2 in our atmosphere, in part because we (still) produce much more of it on a per capita basis than the more recently industrialized nations, and in part because we've been spewing it out for far longer. A billion Chinese people couldn't come close to our annual overall levels of CO2 emission until very recently, and our per capita emissions are still much higher than theirs and (until Covid slowed things temporarily) growing, despite all apparent efforts to bring solar and wind power on line in the USA and Europe. Only a few countries are coming anywhere close to their Paris Agreement goals. I'm pretty sure we are not.
So yes, the unheard of rapid increase of CO2 levels just in the past 50 years is a product of energy-intensive, free-living western lifestyles, not population growth, though there has been plenty of that, too. Even the increased CO2 levels in China and India are arguably the result of industrial activity in the service of western markets for...well, just about everything. There is no way billions of Chinese and Indians can produce American levels of CO2 unless... unless they begin to live the way we do. But, inevitably, many, many people out there in the world can watch (in real time, via smart phone) Americans and Europeans seeming to live high on the hog driving around in sporty SUVs and pigging out on junk food and having every convenience in the world with no apparent hassles or restrictions on their personal freedom, and, well, lots of them want that. Even if high CO2 emissions are part of the deal.
So, while it is wrong and unfair to say that population growth has been and is driving CO2 emissions worldwide, I think it is not unreasonable to ask ourselves what the situation will be when even a half or a third of China's and India's people achieve our fossil fuel dependent lifestyle. Can we say to them, "No, you can't live like we do because it will lead to the end of human life on earth"? Are they making efforts to achieve their prosperity by developing large scale solar/wind energy generation capacity? How can we ask them to do this without being total hypocrites? Are we willing to help them? I mean, global warming is our fault, and we have known where our way of life was taking us at least since the first Earth Day back in ...1969? 1970?
This is reason enough why the USA should already lead the world in abandoning fossil fuels ASAP, but we are not doing it, Fern, certainly not the MAGA GOP, and I'm not sure all our Democrats in Congress can have clean consciences on this either.
I think if Congress put a draconian End-of-fossil-fuel-production-and-use bill on Joe Biden's desk, he would sign it. But I am not (yet) holding my breath.
I'm in complete agreement with your perspective on overpopulation. It's the unsustainable tyrannosaurus in Mother Earth's room. "Our" planet will survive until the sun explodes, but not in a manner that anyone alive today could recognize. The achievement of Zero Population Growth will be necessary for the long-term sustainability of homo sapiens.
Ed, I think it would be a mistake to lay this all on overpopulation. Technology has a way of correcting for that. Vertical, hydroponic farming can deal with both the soil depletion and water issues associated with feeding the world for some time to come, for example, but we should certainly address unchecked population growth for the long term. The last time I made a coast to coast flight in the USA there were vast tracts of empty land punctuated by the occasional small town and just a few large metropolitan areas surrounding the major air terminals.
I believe the much larger elephant in the room is that same force: technology, and the exponential growth thereof. Ted Keyes mentioned above the “Fairness Doctrine”, which as you know was a mandated sharing of opposing of viewpoints on the airwaves (AM radio being the most ubiquitous). It’s gone now, that wise doctrine, and AM radio has been almost totally co-opted by right wing talk radio. And where, I ask, is the stronghold of the far right? In the “heartland”, AKA, those vast tracts of space between the big blue coastal metro areas for the most part. And what has been the effect of this messaging blitzkrieg by the right (I ask again, hopefully not begging too many questions in a row:-)? A bringing together of a whole lot of people into one tent, which looks a lot like “overpopulation” in the realm of communications. Add to this the blindingly rapid expansion of social media enabled by the internet, which itself only really took off in the Reagan era, and you have the perfect storm of information saturation, polarization, aroused aggressive behavior; in short, the same kinds of things psychologists have reported for decades when studying the intentional over crowding of rat populations, but this time in a the virtual arena. And by the way, the nefarious elements in our societies are much better able to coordinate their efforts and observe the effects given these new tools.
We read all the time about simple solutions, and I mean no offense here, but “slowing down population growth” (even ZPG) or “voting Blue” (Bill Clinton was a Democrat, brought us NAFTA and it would have been more of the same under Hillary) I feel, won’t cut it. The real nut we need to crack is how to rein in the use of technology by the sociopathic bad actors among us, where for the most part that same technology is owned by the very same group, as are the politicians and, increasingly, the courts. Wish I knew the answer. Maybe it’ll take an asteroid. I'll leave you with that happy thought :-)
Does it all go back to climate change? Politics and economics won't matter if we don't tend to the pressing issue of preserving our planet from the danger of succumbing to climate changes for which its residents are responsible. If that happens, the manner in which an uninhabitable rock orbiting the Sun is governed won't matter. Can this problem be solved by democratic means, not only nationally, but for the entire planet as well? To borrow a couple of phrases, 'To be or not to be, that is the question' ... and 'Ask not for whom the bell tolls.' Somewhere out in space, another civilization might be laughing at Planet Earth, seeing us still stumbling around without one government to solve the problems of an entire planet.
Jack, perhaps there was a moment in history in the aftermath of the first uses of the BOMB when the USA might have pushed for the establishment of genuine world government that would have been democratic enough to satisfy the winners of WW2, attractive to countries emerging from their status as colonies, and believably better for the losers of WW2 than being pushed around by a sole nuclear power, us. But once the Ruskies got their bomb, and the world was again at binary war, Cold as it may have been, and Americans continued to view the rest of the world as a hellish place, we were left with the far less than democratic UN. We could have done worse, but we might have done a whole lot better. I really hate to even think it, but maybe a "tactical nuke" on Ukraine followed by a... No, better not to even think it.
Dear HCR, Fern, and all the other wonderful commenters on LFAA. Today is my last day as a subscriber to LFAA so I can like your comments but cannot argue with you. Maybe that's a good thing. I have learned so much from you. I can only afford so many paid subscriptions so at least for a while I have subscribed to The Hartmann Report. My other paid subscription is to TCfromLA. And I support the Kyiv Independent. I will probably come back to LFAA, especially if I can free up money from somewhere else. Tanya is home in Ukraine and not coming back. I hope to join her in the New Year sometime when she says it is safe. She has a small generator just in case to keep the furnace pilot light on, and the fridge and freezer running. Gas is not likely to be a problem but water could be. If everything goes south, she will close up the house, grab the pets and head for western Ukraine of Germany. We talk twice daily on WhatsApp but I miss her dreadfully and miss Lucky and the three cats too.
Thanks for giving us the update. I've always looked forward to your posts, and have been worrying about you. I hope so very much that you can soon be reunited in Ukraine.
Maybe someone savvier about these things than I am could set up a "Keep Allen Hingston on LFAA" online crowd-funding, with any leftover funds going to some worthy pro-Ukrainian charity. I'll chip in for sure. Without that, I'll certainly miss reading your comments. In any case, best of luck to you and your family, Allen
So why is this not shouted by Democrats every day? Why can I only learn about these stats by reading Heather's newsletter? The GOP are masters at dominating the news with their lies and distortions. Why are Democrats so bad at responding loudly and frequently to it?
I've been watching TV tonight and seeing many Republican ads for local races. They seem to come from a planet very different from ours, usually citing outdated conditions and lying about the participation of Democrats.
All we see is pictures of tents and testimony from a few police officers about crime. From the Ds we see them in action and mentioning in one case about voting for a large amount for the state police. The opposition ad tries to say she is for defunding the police. Then there are lots of platitudes and hazy nonsense which suggests that these people can actually do these things. One candidate, the R in the 5th Congressional District in Oregon says she is going to DC to among other things, balance the budget. Sigh, does she even understand how the federal government works.
Republican voters demonstrate that Mencken was right 98 years ago when he observed that "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
We the people set the bar for accountability; and since Nixon we have been letting it slide. Not that there was ever a time that it wasn't unevenly fudged, but modern Republicans have gone full Orwell.
Voting is a share of due-diligence responsibility for our own and our society's fate as well as a share of choice. Full and fair representation of all is crucial. We are fools not to demand and enforce higher standards. Maybe the J6th Committee is a start, if we run with the ball they are passing.
"Nip the shoots of arbitrary power * in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people." - John Adams
* "You're the president of the United States you can declassify just by saying It's declassified.' Even by thinking about it."
In the name of democracy, sounding an alarm from The States Project for Arizona!
* Rep. Diego Espinoza won his primary election for the District 22 Senate seat, then withdrew from the race without notifying the party to take a lobbying job. He was running unopposed in the general election, meaning he would have easily won in November. So this safe seat is now in danger of a flip.
* Rep. Espinoza will be the only candidate on the ballot but any votes cast for him won't count. We must mount a write-in campaign.
* Voters need to understand not to vote for Espinoza and to write in Dr. Evangeline Diaz instead.
* Dr. Diaz is a former school principal and former chair of her town’s planning and zoning commission. Our partners on the ground in Arizona have aligned behind her for this seat.
* Republicans didn't get anyone on the ballot in this district, so they will also run a write-in candidate.
* Early voting starts in AZ on October 12, so this campaign needs support to start reaching voters immediately.
* Bottom line: What we thought was a safe Democratic seat is now at risk in a chamber where flipping just one seat would shift enough power to end rightwing control and protect Arizona’s electoral votes from being stolen in 2024.
What we can do: Raise an additional $50K for Arizona in the next week.
Here are 2 States Project Giving Circles focused on raising funds specifically for Arizona. Our small donations add up to a powerful force!
If I am reading google and The Openness Project correctly, Diego Espinoza was a Republican in 2016. Sinema will be next--another Arizona wolf in sheep's clothing. Sleaze, lies, and deception is not what politics is supposed to be.
Thank you. You are such an excellent resource for so many things. Could you republish your group’s information please. I have been looking for a good postcarding group.
Contribution will be made today Ellie.! Thank you for continually focusing our efforts on solutions. Contribute, help get out the vote, vote. Rinse, repeat! Let’s help turn AZ blue!
Elle, I went to donate to Grapevine and thought I did, but at the end of the long instructions I came to something called PAC for America’s Future. What is that? I think I donated to Grapevine but was unsettled by this PAC. Can you clarify?
Will Rogers understood trickle down economics in 1932: "The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover didn't know that money trickled up.
Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow's hands."
I cannot believe that Republicans feel comfortable drawing attention to any sort of child abuse when there has been so much child sexual assault in the Republican voting church populations. We should be pointing this out and what predators the Republicans have been. It is no wonder with policies that turn women into property, which makes little girls into just toys for sick men's pleasure. I do not believe that Warren Jeffs, or the Mormon faith voted Democrat a day in his life, and now he sits in jail after having provided young wives for many of the law enforcement around him. Nor, did the Evangelicals in the Southern Baptist church who have been exposed as being sexual assaulters, groomers, child predators and much more vote Democratic.
So, I am surprised that they get away with this. Our press is shamefully lax in not putting this together for people. It is why most articles leave me disgusted with their lack of honesty or clarity.
I am glad about the news of the job increases. I hope the Feds do not destroy this. I am not clear why a specific interest rate is more important than people having jobs when it is the poorest who get hit by job loss, a low interest rate won't do them any good, and everyone who is well off can manage to pay for things regardless of what the interest rate is. I agree with this Guardian analysis on that. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/23/federal-reserve-interest-rate-hikes-are-going-to-hit-the-most-vulnerable
Trickle down has never worked, and is a flawed theory because it does not understand human behavior. Getting the common person money does. It is also healthier to be keeping everything local and better for the environment. The less one has to ship the better. As people produce what they need locally they are using less fuel to transport goods around. That will be better for the environment.
As the wealthy get Uber wealthy, they spend more and more on campaigns to secure their power. That spending is leverage over media. They plan to keep it that way. Media is their customer, and the customer is always right.
I only have a casual grasp of history, but from what I can gather wealthy aristocrats have argued over a long period of time that they are the indispensable benefactors of those who they collect income from, and that society would collapse without their naturally superior over-lording. That seemed to me more or less the political and economic argument of the "GOP" in and since the so called "Reagan Revolution".
So, it varies. The Republicans are not referring to the Catholic church, although they well could be, but given that there is an alliance between the Republican party and Opus Dei, they are not going to go there. Opus Dei is way too influential. It controls the Supreme Court that the Republican party formed and keeps running to to get their way.
In fact, since the judge Aileen Cannon has Opus Dei connections herself since it is understood that she is a Federalist Society member and has to carry out their agenda. This is why I have objected to her being the Justice involved with Trump's case. She is clearly not independent and should be investigated. Of course, if you look at Opus Dei you realize that it has long arms. I was in graduate school with a guy from Spain who was a member. He was very disapproving of a demonstration that my group did. He told me that our group was the best and I was the best, but it was immoral, therefore he could not approve. I had no idea at that point in my life what Opus Dei really was, but I knew from another friend in class that he was a member. These secret societies are just creepy and up to no good.
Demonstration as in showing how something works. We were in a linguistics class and modeling ESL lessons. We were in teams of four with a presentation that included a demonstration of an activity you would have ESL students do. This was supposed to give everyone a repertoire of ESL lessons they could use. I am sure our classmate never used our sex ed lesson on how to put on a condom. This was during the AIDS epidemic. Many people might not have used it. I know that some went to Saudi Arabia to teach ESL. However Opus Dei is anti being gay, sex outside of marriage, birth control, acknowledging STDs and anything that would give one a reason to use a condom.
TFG had a portrait of Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office. When President Biden arrived, he replaced that image with FDR's. A simple action, which set the tone for the incoming administration.
A note from an American traveling to Ireland (3 years in the planning due to pandemic induced delays). Ireland is, for anyone who has visited the country, home to many of the kindest people in the world (based on my travels to 80 countries). It is not a rich country by most standards.
So perhaps it should not have been a surprise to see a list at the front desk of my hotel displaying 4 pages of names - nearly all women and children with their Ukrainian nationality identified. The Irish government (=Irish people) are paying to host these displaced people as they fled the Russian invasion.
Such kindness shown by the Irish. Once upon a time, this would have been America - a country of immigrants (allowed in by native Americans of course). So to all Americans, a lesson perhaps in kindness from a place with far less in the way of wealth and power. Kindness!!
I haven’t felt so incredibly eager and utterly anxious about a November election since 2015. Prayers to the Universe that the results this year help to continue unraveling the results and aftershocks of that one.
And now, with all the positive economic news coming in, the Republicans want to impeach Biden. Who knows for what baseless transgression. The GOP has disappeared down the rabbit hole.
And yet focus group after focus group says that voters trust the GOP on the economy more than they do Democrats. I don’t know if this is just forty years of brainwashing or if the message isn’t getting out or what. Do the facts on the ground no longer speak for themselves?
THAT is the mistake Dems make. We think FACTS SPEAK. But they do not speak to large swaths of GOP. THAT is why they can buy into QAnon, 'Stop the Steal', Trickle down economics, and other fairy tales. I frankly do not know how to deal with people who are incapable of accepting reality. Think how delusional one must be to refuse a life saving vaccine in the middle of a pandemic that has killed 6,541,608 people with more dying daily.
Kathy, but that rage and anger and yes, violence, have been there for two hundred+ years. Look at the history we are learning from Heather. 45 released the pressure valve with his disgusting lust for power and this is where we are in 2022. He made it “ok” to shoot people, to beat up those who disagree with you, to make money off the “system” as President (one of the most shameful acts 45 did in my opinion...) and to overthrow the government....
A lot of people are just not that well educated, or sharp. They are easily swayed by being told things, and they get their news/info from poor sources. I had an aunt in Germany who read things like Bild Magazine which I consider to be a tabloid. She is the only aunt who did not go to college. In any case, we were watching television and she was telling me that there were as many studies that say that cigarettes do not cause cancer as say that they do. I was a kid at the time, but I told her that I noticed that the papers that she read had more pictures than words and that if that was her source of information I would not trust it. She actually did not have a snappy retort. She just did not say anything. She kind of twisted her mouth up. It was as if she accepted my point that her sources of information were not that good. Also, when I was in fourth grade my mom told me that she had read in the papers that teacher could just as effectively teach a class of 40 to read as 20. I had to tell her why that was ridiculous. I could observe what it took to teach by being in a class, and I don't know the research study, but it turns out I was right. More people need it pointed out to them when they get their information from bad sources which we all do from time to time. We should be saying, "if you listen to Fox News you might be entertained but you are going to get lies and misinformation."
Democracy does not only demand that people are correctly informed, they also have to take responsibility for their vote. When times get rough, or are made to seem rough, responsibility can be handed over to autocrats, or rather autocrats can safely be blamed if something goes wrong. - Feels good!
I noticed some sort of major poll back in 2019 that claimed that the one area in which a substantial majority of Americans preferred Republicans was their handling of the economy. To the degree that holds up, people are surely not paying attention. A well informed electorate is said to be essential to the successful execution to our governmental system.
This is where Public Education is failing us. After No Child Left Behind, and The Race to the Top, and remove Critical Race Theory and Sex Education and Book Banning we are missing basic Civics education. Children should be learning how to judge sources. I know that they are doing that in plenty of classes, but plenty of children are getting educated on tax payer dollars in quacky Charter schools, and religious schools that teach them all to conform, and no one questions the doctrine, and this is often true of those who are homeschooled as well.
The Regressives keep f*cking that same old supply-side chicken. It makes no sense: if you move most of the wealth upward, depriving of money those most likely to spend it and create demand, the wealthy won’t invest their excess wealth in anything that will create jobs. What would be the point? Biden’s plan has increased wealth for working people, which will increase demand, which in turn will spur job-creating investments. If the jobs are sufficiently productive it will reduce inflationary pressures, since there will be ample goods and services to meet the increased demand.
I was going to mention my speculation about why Liz Truss, the new British prime minister, and the Tories are embracing "supply-side" economics and giving a huge tax cut to the rich. There is no reason for it in terms of benefit to British society, and it has been proven not to work in the United States. And they are now prating about "trickle-down" benefits, a notion that has been in disrepute ever since it was first offered by President Reagan. No, what I think the Tories are obviously doing is reinforcing their support among the upper class, especially the wealthy upper class, rewarding them economically over the next few years, and I would think also providing them a little economic booster in case they should decide to abandon the island and move to Europe or Canada or New Zealand. They know that Brexit will lead to worse economic outcomes than would have been the case had the public voted to "remain."
White Supremacist politics do not really pay off, but it is belief in this that makes them so popular. I hope that Scotland manages to disentangle itself as well as the Commonwealth countries that want to.
I believe that is an un-discussed part of the Koch Kleptocrats' strategy... make as much money as you can now, bleed the economy, to armor up in preparation for when the effects of climate crisis bring famine and civil unrest.
Plus a lot of these Oligarchs have their secret hideouts. I heard that some have built them in New Zealand, although I could not understand it. Those will be hot spots, but their places are underground. On some level their brains are not understanding global warming assuming they can always buy their way out. They will be doing this too. Setting up wars between people so that those left are the ones who inherit the earth. They intend to be those people. Look at Putin. These are his people!
It's the predatory side of human nature, From time to time societies are repulsed by it, yet are never quite willing to give it up; declaring unalienable human rights while still conquering and slave holding. It always wears a rationalizing cover-story, but it's what evil is all about.
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy. " - Lincoln
Hoover up more money than anyone else, period. People will kill for that; even though, when in extreme, it devastates societies. We all, of necessity, pursue self-interest, but when self-interest is our only interest we are sociopaths.
I recall reading during the Brexit debate that some of the most salient, most vocal boosters of Brexit were quietly moving key operations and registrations to the EU in order to minimize impacts on their own affairs.
Steve Moore? Jeez, haven't we sent that empty-headed faux-economist wack job to the moon (or farther) yet? He has yet to be anywhere near correct on any economic question and is so unqualified I wouldn't seriously take his suggestion for where to go for lunch.
And Truss + tax cuts... <sigh> ... More supply-side voodoo on top of Brexit. The Brits are going to be digging out from under that for decades.
Putin’s smiling. Another western democracy in the shitter. Mission accomplished. He’ll come back with billions to bribe, corrupt, and make England Great Britain again.
Here in the UK, we are still reeling from what was billed as a "mini-budget" or "interim statement" which was to be so modest as to not require the analysis of the Office of Budget Responsibility, which always scrutinises a formal Budget. Our two -week old new Government under the ideologically driven Liz Truss, has adopted the attitude of "growth at all costs" without any strategy of how to fund it.
The pound has hit historic lows, interest rates are rising, all at the same time as we are in the middle of a cost of living crisis, an energy crisis and the other ills that are sweeping the globe.
Who is hit most? Those who are most vulnerable. Who profits? You won't be surprised to know that it is those at the top of the financial tree, who are toasting their new found wealth - which won't of course "trickle down"!
Every section of our society is being hit. Even food banks, with unprecedented numbers of clients, are getting fewer contributions, as those who would normally give are looking to their own finances, as well as the energy costs involved in running the food banks being prohibitive.
This is a result of a new government who want to radically change what they themselves created over 12 years of mis-management, 12 years in which Ms Truss was part of every decision...
“in fact it never showed signs of increasing economic growth. What it did was to move wealth dramatically upward. It also made the measure of the economy the health of Wall Street rather than Main Street.”
It is also a fact that more Chinese businessman have become millionaires and billionaires than in the US since 1980 by a huge margin. It also lifted a billion Chinese out of poverty. Thank Nixon for ‘opening’ China. For his business donors. At the expense of the ever shrinking US middle class. “These jobs are going boys, and they ain’t coming back.”-Bruce Springsteen. “Capital is like water, it seeks its own level”- AOL Time Warner CEO said something like that mid 2000’s.
Now, after 42 years of concentrating so much wealth upward and Citizen’s United to keep it that way, and no Fairness Doctrine thus keeping masses ignorant of these facts. Do we have a chance of a more perfect Union based on equality of opportunity, of access to quality education, clean air and water, and the pursuit of happiness? Our only chance is to vote BLUE!
Ted, While reading your comment, I was reminded, just yesterday, when Kevin McCarthy unveiled the GOP “Commitment to America” policy goals, he announced that the very first bill would be to fire 87,000 IRS agents. McCarthy stated, “We want to work for you, not go after you.” Expectedly, he neglected to mention that more than one-quarter of unpaid taxes come from the wealthiest Americans, who owe $163 billion in taxes annually. I imagine one reason an understaffed IRS would let the top 1% avoid taxes is because they would lack the personnel to process the requisite sophisticated tax filings. Indeed, I would expect, were we to do a deep dive into most, if not all, of the GOP’s “Commitment to America” policy goals, we would find they’re designed to meet the needs of the ruling class, not to make the lives of everyday people materially better, more stabilized, and more dignified. Hence, I would contend that Democratic leadership is obligated to unpack the GOP agenda.
Sort of like Newt’s “Contract on America.” How can we screw you to the point of no return.
Exactly.
Jeri, Your observation is spot-on. Still, I would note the one difference is that Congressional Representatives, six weeks before the 1994 Congressional election, were more forthcoming, specifying the plan’s provisions that included “reducing the size of government, cutting taxes, and both tort reform and welfare reform.”
I believe that’s called ‘pandering’.
Ted, In my view, what we are witnessing is substantially more malevolent than “pandering.” I see a party ruthlessly pursuing power for their own purposes and to meet their own needs instead of the needs of the people.
A sea change in what America is supposed to mean. A place where the rich get what they want and the others accept the crumbs. Sounds like what people fled from in the beginning. Sorry, Founding Fathers, we are in danger of losing what you gave us…
Without the amendments, this is very much like what we began with.
Jeri, In my view, your comment misrepresents what our founders sought to establish, namely structures of government whose powers were balanced in a way that expectedly would protect the country from the excesses of any one branch. Were Republicans to attain control of both Chambers of Congress and win the White House in 2024, said events conceivably would precipitate both a fatal weakening of America’s civic institutions and also a Presidency eager and able to consolidate power, wherein the rule of law could be subjugated to an individual.
amen Pandering would be an "improvment"
Let's call it a HEIST
Agree, Barbara!
100%
Well I have another term for that - but this is a family friendly forum.
lol
Charlie!
lol; or bologna between the bread - lipstick on the pig, etc. ?
Thanks, Barbara! Yes! Unpack the GOP 's agenda! Most of us don't know what's really tbehind their promises and slogans -- as is always the problem. And the Dems need to tell it in some detail to make it hit home. Even sow pictures and graphs. ( I'm not kidding either.) Don't they have anyone who does graphics. People grasp them much quicker than words. Please, Dems, show us some graphics.
Where's CA Rep Katie Porter? She is fabulous with graphs and charts!
I've just emailed the WH asking them to flood the airwaves with graphics showing the accomplishments of this administration. https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Maybe others of you would consider doing this also. If their email box is full of this suggestion, maybe it will have an effect.
One problem might be that there has been a revolving door for director of communications
Mary, I like the idea of graphics that can have an immediacy that words alone might not have.
Mary, I greatly appreciate your affirming response, which has bolstered my confidence regarding letters I am preparing to send both to the White House and to Democratic leadership.
Great! Barbara, if you create graphics or know someone who does, perhaps your letter or email could include an example or use the one Prof. R. provides here. It's VERY surprising to me that these are lacking in ordinary press conferences, speeches by the president, guest appearances on Sunday talk shows and others -- all places where graphics say so much more than words. Maybe they need a teacher in the director's office. : )
Mary, Perhaps you noted that T L Mills, who is part of this thread, rightly noted that California Representative Katie Porter is particularly adept at producing high quality graphs and charts to amplify issues and clarify concepts.
Thanks, Barbara. Yes, I saw Mills' remark but not knowing CA Rep. Katie Porter or her background, it didn't add anything to the discussion fo rme.
We need to also say very clearly how wealth moved, not just upward, but outward, as in out of this country, to China, enriching them with one of the worlds most concentrated millionaire and billionaire classes in the history of the planet. That wealth could have been new schools, college educations, bridges and roads, renewal both urban and rural, a countrywide Wi-Fi network, investments in green energy, and proper V.A. Services and funding to care for veterans. But we didn’t get any of that. Instead the Chinese did.
Ted, don't blame the Chinese because they invested in the opportunities we gave them.
We need to get to work ourselves "Building Back BETTER"!
I’m not blaming the Chinese. I’m blaming Nixon for starting it. I’m blaming Regan for sustaining it. I’m blaming the GOP for outsourcing the American Dream to a country, China, where elections do not take place, no worker protections exists, and the wealth stolen from our middle class has in fact cemented 1 party rule that is enriching theit communist party and their crony’s in an effort to keep it that way forever. We were sold that sending factory jobs to China would lift billions out of poverty and capitalism would transform China into a democracy. No democracy has developed. It was all a lie. The opposite has happened in human rights and freedoms, and China remains hostile to Its pacific neighbors. Then theirs their occupation of Tibet, racial discrimination, and human rights dispersion and abuses.
The hard truth is that sending jobs there just hides real inflation, consumers pay less for a while, so employers can pay them less and less. All the while defunding education here. The net effect is that Unions are broken by stock holders and backed up by the GOP. Then workers have less and less organization and $ to lobby for their rights. which has privileged stock holders over workers. If it continues another 40 years, will an American middle class even exists?
Save some blame for Milton Friedman and his "shareholder value trumps all" world view. I suspect that sans that shift in our economic play book, companies wouldn't have been quite so quick to pull up stakes and move off-shore. It probably would have happened eventually, but that philosophy sure lit a fire under it.
Before going off-shore, the Rust Belt manufacturing moved to the "right to work" South, where they could avoid those pesky unions. ("Right to work"= right to starve)
Everything you reference in your first paragraph is what the MAGA Republicans are working to achieve right here in the USA, When they proudly wear there 'Make America Great Again' ball caps the "again" means back to the days of child labor, sweat shops, non-unionization, and when women were not allowed to vote. Not my idea of "great" at all.
You mean those red caps "Made in China" and purchased for the "America First" crowd. Maximum irony, if only the MAGAs had enough wit to realize it.
Fascists always corrupt the language
Ted,
Exactly what you have written about I experienced for 40 years as an engineer in various corporations.
I graduated college in 1982 when everything was made here and there was a healthy middle class.
Today? I have watched American management outsource and offshore with the goal of commanding 100X the bonuses they were given in 1982.
A small number of white men have benefitted fantastically from this movement.
And, a very large number of white men lost their jobs.
Now, Trump has knitted all white men into a clump using hate.
Yup. Offshoring only works when two criteria are met imho.
1. We only export to democracy's, thus we strengthen them and not 1 Party State/authoritarian state that is hostile to our allies and interests ( in China case... Japan/SK/Taiwan/Asian emerging countries)
2. We plan ahead to invest in education to keep families and communities strong with new technologies etc. This way we keep our country resilient, preventing grievance politics and increasing vulnerability to the opioid crisis. ( remember...counties that flipped Obama to Drumf also are the counties with the worst unemployment & highest addiction rates.
This way we aren't abandoning our own people to needlessly suffer economic shock and trauma, here and abroad.
Okay, but my recollection is that those white men cooked their own goose when they voted for Reagan, even after he busted their unions. Why? My guess is that most of them voted R because they believed Republicans would help them keep black people out of what was left of their unions.
Sadly, amen. I get so sick of the republicans Lying their way into office. They literally have no concern for the citizens of this country. Only what they can get away with and put in their pockets.
Well said, Mr. Keyes! Excellently well said!
Ted is not blaming the Chinese. He is putting the blame squarely on US policy.
🗽
🙏 Christine. How could I wordsmith it clearer?
Hear you loud and clear.
Salud, Ted. 🗽
Christine, I have thought of you since learning that Ian would hit Florida. To you, family, friends … your entire family of Floridians wishing you safety and good care.
Thank you, Fern.
🗽
Yes, ur right we do, we are, and there’s so much to do
Re: The 2020 RAND Corp report on US income inequality: $50T worth of US wealth transferred from 90% of the population to 1% from 1975 to 2018. Prior to that, income was tied to the GDP. If that were the case today, there would be an extra $2.5 T in American pockets every year. So much for supply side, trickle down economics.
Amen!
I have never met a businessman who, in the face of heavy demand for his product, says, "Yeah, I know I could sell the hell outta this stuff, but then I'd make money and have to pay taxes, so, nebbermind."
The sheer non-logic of the supply side argument always made my head spin.
And let’s make our chances better. Greg Olear today….”Down With Putin”. Now. Not later.
https://open.substack.com/pub/gregolear/p/down-with-putin?r=l2aa7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Russian Warship….enough…go f*ck yourself with all your sycophants and fan boys and girls on board.
🗽
Interesting Nixon greases the skids for the exodus of jobs out of our country and Reagan’s gop cabal open the banking floodgates for looted $$$$ by burgeoning Russian oligarchs when the Soviet Union dissolved!
Curious how these two political milestones in US history eventually eroded our own human right’s .conditions in this country.
I’m so glad we finally had the chance to prove “bottom up and out” is the best way to grow the economy and benefit the middle class. President Biden is going a great job and can do even more if we can get him a better majority.
The most startling and heartening statistics aren't the number of new manufacturing jobs, which is indeed impressive, but these: "the real net worth of the bottom 50% of U.S. households has climbed 60% since Biden took office, now reaching $67,524."
But how many Americans in this group realize what they've reaped under Biden? Unfortunately, Inflation skews so many perceptions. Then again, I don't recall Republicans proposing anything that would help keep the economy rolling on. Meanwhile, Biden and the Democrats keep proving that good things happen when government is focused on improving lives rather than fomenting hate and division.
Major changes have been made in our government by the Biden administration. The following are a few highlights featured in today’s Letter, but they are not all Biden and his team have accomplished in less than 2 years.
- Biden has made it clear that he is working to overturn 40 years of “supply side” economics, ushered in by President Ronald Reagan.
- he is building the economy “from the bottom up and the middle out,” he, along with the Democrats in Congress, bolstered domestic manufacturing with measures like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act
- National Economic Council director Brian Deese told the reporters, “One of the most striking things that we are seeing now …. —U.S. companies and global companies—that are committing to build and expand their manufacturing footprint in the United States and doing so based on their view that not only did the pandemic highlight the need for more resilience in their supply chains, but that the United States is creating a policy environment that makes long-term investment here in the United States more attractive.”
- Meanwhile, the real net worth of the bottom 50% of U.S. households has climbed 60% since Biden took office, now reaching $67,524.
- “Factory Jobs Are Booming Like It’s the 1970s.”
- American manufacturers have not only regained all the jobs lost during the pandemic, but they have also added about 67,000 more.
It is fair to ask if this country is as divided as it is because of the economic policies of the Republican Party beginning with Reaganomics.
‘This system was designed to free up capital at the top of the economy through tax cuts and deregulation in the belief that putting capital in the hands of the wealthy—the “supply side”— would lead them to invest more in the economy, thus making it grow more quickly and providing more jobs. While Republicans came to embrace that ideology wholeheartedly, in fact it never showed signs of increasing economic growth. What it did was to move wealth dramatically upward. It also made the measure of the economy the health of Wall Street rather than Main Street.’ (Letter)
Let me put it another way: it is time to hold The Republican Party responsible for transferring the wealth of working Americans to the ultra-wealthy.
AND
It’s time for Biden and the Democratic party to let everyone know how they are returning that money to the American people, making our lives better and more economically secure as the country grows anew.
How do we all do this Fern? There needs to be advertising by the DNC that powerfully hits these points. There needs to be a way to get through to the trumpbotomized. How do we do this?
Gailee, I'm just winging it, but we are loaded with terrific writers, documentarians, performers... there need to be teams put together for social media, radio, cable, broadcasting, print, online... most artists are in the battle for democracy and when has there been more verified corruption and propaganda created by the Republican party and their cast of devils?
Republicans do this very thing for their lies and propaganda machine. Why are they so committed - money.
Indeed! steady incremental and consistent messaging by the deeper and more intelligent half of the nation must flood this opportunity for the people side to finally be re-established.
We must avoid relishing the squalor of the MAGA wreckage and ensure the highest values of the past are firmly established.
But those tasks are up to each and everyone of us.
I agree. But why is this not happening?
Gailee, we are being distracted by criminals who are working day and night to steal our country. Recycling is still going on but doesn’t rip our heart out like other activities. Caring for our physical planet is still so very important to many of us all over the world.
Look at the starving of the poor in Africa…I am dying a little bit everyday when I absorb so much need and want to help.
My daughter is finishing a book study on climate change. She encouraged us to look more deeply at local need so I am going to get involved with my local Sierra Club.
I support a young man in Bangladesh and for a child to attend school in Haiti. These are really small things and as I give I am also trusting someone else to actually care for these children I can not be with but yet want to help in some way.
All I can say is one by one, day by day we can do something .
Respectfully don't we need money to do the above Fern? I feel since the R's got that 150 billion dollar donation we are drowning over here.
Yes, Fern!!!! We need to work together using our gifts, great or small to save our country and rescue our planet.
Media is too focused on blathering republicans liars. Where are our bull horns that have wider reach than substacks. MSNBC tries but Fox lies rule. MSM focuses their news efforts on money making brouhaha rather than public service.
And tfg’s performative outrages suck all the media air out of the universe.
Jeri Chilcutt
Doesn't seem that Biden has taken off his gloves and clenched his fists to finally give the gop maggots the old "One-Two" right in their dusty parched kisser! Hopefully all other Democrats will boisterously join his brave urgings to repeatedly reveal the gop deceptions, lies, and hypocrisies.
Gailee Walker Wells
Ahhhh...
Wonderfully focused concern!
We should all carefully consider our Democratic resurgence success plan, Eh!?
Finally some fresh thought provoking urging to actually solve the problem GOP Maggot debacles.
Thank you!
Love your comment as opposed to others wasting our time with ridiculously long comment blathering plagiarizing of all that we have already studied in great detail
Last paragraph is rude, uncalled for, unnecessary, to say the least, Mr. all about Love. Hypocrisy much?
AshleyR TN
Well the wonderful pleasures we ALL enjoy here in our comments is sharing our opinions about how to solve the OBVIOUS problems that our American democracy is being bombarded by the gop maggots.
I am sorry you find some slight disagreement with a small part of my opinion. Isn't it wonderful we all see things a bit differently from each other. That is how aw all learn form each other. Eh!?
yes
This is the problem. Real Data does not seem to be absorbable by so many instead they parrot Fox News blah blah blahs
Fern, everything you say here is true, IMHO, but I'm wondering if we aren't all missing the big picture, which is that rapid, sustained economic growth, whether one subscribes to the GOP's Reaganoid trickle-down theory, or feels enthusiastic about Biden's Rooseveltian plan to put more money in the pockets of the poor and normal working stiffs, is - with overpopulation - the main driver of climate change.
I think there is an argument to be made for finding ways to meet everyone's needs while limiting GDP growth and trying to save ourselves from the worst climate disasters that our scientists have been predicting for many decades. The graphs of world economic growth and the increase of people-produced CO2 in the atmosphere are pretty similar and still rapidly rising (by historical standards, if I am not mistaken, which I may be. I'll google it)
I realize this is a can of worms and not explicitly today's LFAA topic (basically, Biden is doing a good job, while the GOP is trying to destroy all we hold dear!), so if anyone wishes to respond to this post, please do not feel hijacked. Have a nice day!
David, the technology to reach net zero, even negative, CO2 emissions exists now. What is lacking is the political will form a coherent plan (though there are several good ones), fund, scale-up, and implement it. This has been true for both Democrats and Republicans for decades. We need a quantitative easing type plan to save the climate - and by extension, everyone and everything, on the planet. We did this 14 years ago to save a few too large, crooked, financial institutions. Time to do the same for the planet and ALL of its inhabitents.
But David Herrick is right about overpopulation, which is going to get worse to the tune of four NY State population equivalents over the next 40 years (Census Bureau) due to US immigration policy (90% of that gain will be immigration, just 10% native increase).
Doesn't help to have laws that prohibit birth control, family planning, etc.
I'm a left wing Democrat. My great uncle was de facto head of the Colorado Democratic Party for the first half of the last century. I've been pro-choice since I understood the issues in my early teens. I've also been concerned about overpopulation since I was 9, and so was very early in favor of birth control and family planning.
I learned about globalwaraming in a course on environmental issues in 1975 given by John Holdren, who later became President Obama's Science Advisor. It's obvious to me that the US is way overpopulated already, and an article two years ago in the NYT Mag warned that in the next couple of decades, Americans (especially in the West and Southwest) would become climate refugees. It's a frightening read.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/15/magazine/climate-crisis-migration-america.html
The US is one of the worst places on the planet to put more people, as we're the major industrialized nation with the greatest per capita greenhouse emissions. (China emits significantly more, but has lower per capita emissions.)
Climate change is a huge problem and it will take all of us to do what we are able to do to help. There are so many things I need to change as a consumer to help. I am learning....I am trying to do what I can to improve. My daughters are much better and more involved than I .... I can make better choices!
Emily, your determination to learn about climate change and improve your consumer habits is admirable, of course. But, I think we have all been guilt-tripped into thinking that if we drive a smaller car, turn down the thermostat, install LED lightbulbs and make a thousand other changes large and small in how we consume stuff, that somehow the CO2 in the world's atmosphere will stop increasing, perhaps even diminish, and that this is the key to saving ourselves from ourselves.
But, most people are still just pleasure seekers of one sort or another -- I know I am -- and do not necessarily do all the right things -- even if they know they should -- or even believe that their failure to behave properly will lead to the extinction of our species in fairly short order.
Result? As a species we continue barreling down the highway to Hell as several serious and immediate consequences of climate change are beginning to regularly influence our lives in negative ways. So-called 100 and 1,000-year disasters are now showing up annually and changing the lives of millions of people, but deciding to hang out our laundry rather than throw it in the dryer is not what will save us.
If we are very lucky, and the climate stability "window" of opportunity is not already shut, our feelings of guilt will lead us to vote for politicians who will pass draconian laws requiring us all to behave as we should with respect to energy use, and this "us all" includes governments, light and heavy industries, service providers, every other sort of business, sports teams, self-employed professionals, all of us, even -- no, especially -- the privileged ultra-rich.
Incentives and excise taxes will not suffice. There will need to be laws passed, warnings, then tickets issued and arrests made for infractions both small and large.
What we do not know yet, but may soon discover, is how strong our collective death wish is. That we have not yet managed to nuke ourselves into extinction is some cause for optimism, I suppose.
There was a newspaper article published in 1928, where scientists spoke about the impact on the climate of all the coal we were burning. So our species knew that far back that fossil fuels were a problem. And recently two young climate activists were sentenced to jail time for having sabotaged the Dakota pipeline and were called domestic terrorists. Who is actually the domestic terrorist - those who want to stop petroleum extraction or those who profit from it?
Great question J Nol, …and notice the one with the packed purse gets to be the judge !
David--I think you are quite right about the need for government regulations and enforcements--and also about common human psychology. My uncles who worked on farms with tobacco crops in the '30s and '40s said they all referred to cigarettes as "cancer sticks." Later on, Surgeon Generals' warnings and educational efforts barely made a dent in smoking rates until the government began taxing the products (raising the prices), regulating their sales, restricting areas where smoking was allowed, exposing the lies of the companies, etc. Persuasion and carrots can encourage change in some social and economic arenas, but it definitely takes sticks. In the case of climate change, we're all smoking whether we like it or not, so the sticks should be pretty damn big.
I have been deeply worried about climate change even before it got in the news (which really is only over the last year or two). And since then, as we also saw with the pandemic response, the USA has shown that it is incapable of quickly and effectively responding in the necessary way. All that has to happen is for Republicans to merely have enough power to exercise the filibuster. The only way we as a nation are to adopt enough green policies quickly enough is if those policies outcompete the dirty policies we have in place now. And do not tread on "Freedum". Ain't gonna happen IMO. We are a free market cowboy nation, and the free market doesn't have long term goals, and cowboys are uneducated and selfish. Our goals are short term, and we are not comfortable with change. Our government is ponderous and fractured, and moves at the speed of a glacier. Don't count on us. Count on the rest of the world, which may (or may not) drag us along. As a species, we are in huge trouble.
PS 'Fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – are by far the largest contributor to global climate change, accounting for over 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions. As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun's heat.'
Yes, Fern, and we produce them and convert them rapidly into planet-killing CO2 because politicians always promise economic growth and feel they have to deliver on their promises. You know, "more jobs, lower taxes, higher wages, more fun if you just vote for me" is the routine. Yes, Democrats do it too, unfortunately.
Apparently it's not just the CO2, but all the other gases produced from burning fossil fuels that add to climate change and health problems.
I've read that just raw methane leaking out of old fracking holes is a pretty big problem, too.
'big picture' David: 'official warned Wednesday. David Beasley, head of the U.N. World Food Program, said its latest analysis shows that "a record 345 million acutely hungry people are marching to the brink of starvation" — a 25% increase from 276 million at the start of 2022 before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb.Jul 7, 2022'
There are more big pictures positive and negative I could provide in answer to your 'over population' big picture, which as you may have realized is not the only way to address 'climate catastrophe' as far as I am concerned.
I agree, Fern, over-population is just an aggravating factor in climate change.
My main point was that the consumer-driven endless economic growth we all enjoy and participate in -- and cannot conceive of as somehow not necessarily good -- is not sustainable in any case. The Earth is a finite place. All politicians promise to deliver better economic growth than their adversaries, as if simply growing the economy helps everyone, but it doesn't unless the benefits of such growth are shared, if not in equal measure, at least fairly, based on the notions that no one should have to sleep on the street and no one should be able to waste his extra dough launching suborbital pleasure rockets while other folks are having to sleep on the street.
David, Does our use of LANGUAGE and framing of the CAUSES and SOLUTIONS with regard to Climate Change sometimes unnecessarily put people at odds? Do you think that the substance and framing of the issue in the following report by The Union of Concerned Scientist useful in this regard?
From: The Union of Concerned Scientists
REPORTS & MULTIMEDIA / EXPLAINER
CLIMATE CHANGE and POPULATION
Published Nov 9, 2021 Updated Jul 5, 2022
'We’re sometimes asked “Isn’t population growth driving climate change?” But that’s the wrong question—and it can lead to dangerous answers.'
'We frequently receive questions about population growth and its relationship to climate change. It’s an old idea with a troubling history. In the context of solving the climate crisis, it's distracting at best, and at worst, has the potential to do great harm to the climate and to people around the world.'
'Here are the facts: climate change is caused by the heat-trapping emissions produced when we burn coal, oil, and gas, and cut down forests. Data show that these emissions are most closely connected to carbon-intensive production and consumption patterns, predominantly the carbon-intensive lifestyles of the relatively wealthy, both here in the United States and around the world. Fossil fuel companies, utilities, and their trade groups also bear significant responsibility: they have used their power, money and deceptive tactics to lock in carbon-intensive infrastructure and constrain choices individuals can make about their energy supply.'
'A misplaced focus on population growth as a key driver of past, present, and future climate change conflates a rise in emissions with an increase in people, rather than the real source of those emissions: an increase in cars, power plants, airplanes, industries, buildings, and other parts of our fossil fuel-dependent economy and lifestyles. Implicit in this faulty framing is the notion that all people contribute significantly to heat-trapping emissions. In fact, data show (PDF) that the richest 10 percent of the world’s population contributes 50 percent of annual global warming emissions.' (Unionof ConcernedScientists) See link below.
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/climate-change-and-population
Yes, the Union of Concerned Scientists EXPLAINER about climate change and the importance of population growth is fine as far as it goes. Until quite recently, there could be no real comparison of the CO2 emissions of the world's richest country and strongest modern economy (us, of course) with the CO2 emissions of India or China, for example, where historically most people have survived on subsistence agriculture. The rich west is still responsible for most of the "extra" CO2 in our atmosphere, in part because we (still) produce much more of it on a per capita basis than the more recently industrialized nations, and in part because we've been spewing it out for far longer. A billion Chinese people couldn't come close to our annual overall levels of CO2 emission until very recently, and our per capita emissions are still much higher than theirs and (until Covid slowed things temporarily) growing, despite all apparent efforts to bring solar and wind power on line in the USA and Europe. Only a few countries are coming anywhere close to their Paris Agreement goals. I'm pretty sure we are not.
So yes, the unheard of rapid increase of CO2 levels just in the past 50 years is a product of energy-intensive, free-living western lifestyles, not population growth, though there has been plenty of that, too. Even the increased CO2 levels in China and India are arguably the result of industrial activity in the service of western markets for...well, just about everything. There is no way billions of Chinese and Indians can produce American levels of CO2 unless... unless they begin to live the way we do. But, inevitably, many, many people out there in the world can watch (in real time, via smart phone) Americans and Europeans seeming to live high on the hog driving around in sporty SUVs and pigging out on junk food and having every convenience in the world with no apparent hassles or restrictions on their personal freedom, and, well, lots of them want that. Even if high CO2 emissions are part of the deal.
So, while it is wrong and unfair to say that population growth has been and is driving CO2 emissions worldwide, I think it is not unreasonable to ask ourselves what the situation will be when even a half or a third of China's and India's people achieve our fossil fuel dependent lifestyle. Can we say to them, "No, you can't live like we do because it will lead to the end of human life on earth"? Are they making efforts to achieve their prosperity by developing large scale solar/wind energy generation capacity? How can we ask them to do this without being total hypocrites? Are we willing to help them? I mean, global warming is our fault, and we have known where our way of life was taking us at least since the first Earth Day back in ...1969? 1970?
This is reason enough why the USA should already lead the world in abandoning fossil fuels ASAP, but we are not doing it, Fern, certainly not the MAGA GOP, and I'm not sure all our Democrats in Congress can have clean consciences on this either.
I think if Congress put a draconian End-of-fossil-fuel-production-and-use bill on Joe Biden's desk, he would sign it. But I am not (yet) holding my breath.
David,
I'm in complete agreement with your perspective on overpopulation. It's the unsustainable tyrannosaurus in Mother Earth's room. "Our" planet will survive until the sun explodes, but not in a manner that anyone alive today could recognize. The achievement of Zero Population Growth will be necessary for the long-term sustainability of homo sapiens.
Ed, I think it would be a mistake to lay this all on overpopulation. Technology has a way of correcting for that. Vertical, hydroponic farming can deal with both the soil depletion and water issues associated with feeding the world for some time to come, for example, but we should certainly address unchecked population growth for the long term. The last time I made a coast to coast flight in the USA there were vast tracts of empty land punctuated by the occasional small town and just a few large metropolitan areas surrounding the major air terminals.
I believe the much larger elephant in the room is that same force: technology, and the exponential growth thereof. Ted Keyes mentioned above the “Fairness Doctrine”, which as you know was a mandated sharing of opposing of viewpoints on the airwaves (AM radio being the most ubiquitous). It’s gone now, that wise doctrine, and AM radio has been almost totally co-opted by right wing talk radio. And where, I ask, is the stronghold of the far right? In the “heartland”, AKA, those vast tracts of space between the big blue coastal metro areas for the most part. And what has been the effect of this messaging blitzkrieg by the right (I ask again, hopefully not begging too many questions in a row:-)? A bringing together of a whole lot of people into one tent, which looks a lot like “overpopulation” in the realm of communications. Add to this the blindingly rapid expansion of social media enabled by the internet, which itself only really took off in the Reagan era, and you have the perfect storm of information saturation, polarization, aroused aggressive behavior; in short, the same kinds of things psychologists have reported for decades when studying the intentional over crowding of rat populations, but this time in a the virtual arena. And by the way, the nefarious elements in our societies are much better able to coordinate their efforts and observe the effects given these new tools.
We read all the time about simple solutions, and I mean no offense here, but “slowing down population growth” (even ZPG) or “voting Blue” (Bill Clinton was a Democrat, brought us NAFTA and it would have been more of the same under Hillary) I feel, won’t cut it. The real nut we need to crack is how to rein in the use of technology by the sociopathic bad actors among us, where for the most part that same technology is owned by the very same group, as are the politicians and, increasingly, the courts. Wish I knew the answer. Maybe it’ll take an asteroid. I'll leave you with that happy thought :-)
Does it all go back to climate change? Politics and economics won't matter if we don't tend to the pressing issue of preserving our planet from the danger of succumbing to climate changes for which its residents are responsible. If that happens, the manner in which an uninhabitable rock orbiting the Sun is governed won't matter. Can this problem be solved by democratic means, not only nationally, but for the entire planet as well? To borrow a couple of phrases, 'To be or not to be, that is the question' ... and 'Ask not for whom the bell tolls.' Somewhere out in space, another civilization might be laughing at Planet Earth, seeing us still stumbling around without one government to solve the problems of an entire planet.
Jack, perhaps there was a moment in history in the aftermath of the first uses of the BOMB when the USA might have pushed for the establishment of genuine world government that would have been democratic enough to satisfy the winners of WW2, attractive to countries emerging from their status as colonies, and believably better for the losers of WW2 than being pushed around by a sole nuclear power, us. But once the Ruskies got their bomb, and the world was again at binary war, Cold as it may have been, and Americans continued to view the rest of the world as a hellish place, we were left with the far less than democratic UN. We could have done worse, but we might have done a whole lot better. I really hate to even think it, but maybe a "tactical nuke" on Ukraine followed by a... No, better not to even think it.
Dear HCR, Fern, and all the other wonderful commenters on LFAA. Today is my last day as a subscriber to LFAA so I can like your comments but cannot argue with you. Maybe that's a good thing. I have learned so much from you. I can only afford so many paid subscriptions so at least for a while I have subscribed to The Hartmann Report. My other paid subscription is to TCfromLA. And I support the Kyiv Independent. I will probably come back to LFAA, especially if I can free up money from somewhere else. Tanya is home in Ukraine and not coming back. I hope to join her in the New Year sometime when she says it is safe. She has a small generator just in case to keep the furnace pilot light on, and the fridge and freezer running. Gas is not likely to be a problem but water could be. If everything goes south, she will close up the house, grab the pets and head for western Ukraine of Germany. We talk twice daily on WhatsApp but I miss her dreadfully and miss Lucky and the three cats too.
You can find me on TC's substack if you need me
Thanks for giving us the update. I've always looked forward to your posts, and have been worrying about you. I hope so very much that you can soon be reunited in Ukraine.
Maybe someone savvier about these things than I am could set up a "Keep Allen Hingston on LFAA" online crowd-funding, with any leftover funds going to some worthy pro-Ukrainian charity. I'll chip in for sure. Without that, I'll certainly miss reading your comments. In any case, best of luck to you and your family, Allen
I'm in David. If Allen is willing, It would give me a lift.
Appreciated but not necessary. Many thanks
Hey, It was self-help for me, dear Allen.
Happy to contribute to the critical "Keep Allen Hingston on LFAA" initiative, dearest Fern! 🕊💙💛
Thank you, Allen I will be in touch. More later. 🟦🟨
We need you to be here with us Allen, especially in your completely understandable, “missing” state. 💙💛
The question becomes, “can actions speak louder than propaganda”?
So why is this not shouted by Democrats every day? Why can I only learn about these stats by reading Heather's newsletter? The GOP are masters at dominating the news with their lies and distortions. Why are Democrats so bad at responding loudly and frequently to it?
I shout. I post. I feel like I'm a candle in the wind.
Heart won't start. Time for a coffee.
Everyone VOTE!!!
What does 40 years of supply side economics mean? Alternative. Command economy?
"...good things happen when government is focused on improving lives rather than fomenting hate and division." Hear, hear!
That is the secret side of inflation - more folks today have more money. And the best way to tackle inflation is to be discerning on how you spend it.
I've been watching TV tonight and seeing many Republican ads for local races. They seem to come from a planet very different from ours, usually citing outdated conditions and lying about the participation of Democrats.
All we see is pictures of tents and testimony from a few police officers about crime. From the Ds we see them in action and mentioning in one case about voting for a large amount for the state police. The opposition ad tries to say she is for defunding the police. Then there are lots of platitudes and hazy nonsense which suggests that these people can actually do these things. One candidate, the R in the 5th Congressional District in Oregon says she is going to DC to among other things, balance the budget. Sigh, does she even understand how the federal government works.
Republican voters demonstrate that Mencken was right 98 years ago when he observed that "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
TCinLA - "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
What H. L. Mencken actually wrote in his column in the September 19, 1926, edition of the 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘨𝘰 𝘋𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘦 was:
“𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥, 𝘴𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 — 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘮𝘦 — 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘣𝘺 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦. 𝘕𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘺.”
Which (imho) is more powerful than the paraphrase.
‘The Other Guy will take your job, kill your dog, and steal your truck/wife, (interchangeable)!
So a vote for me as your next county auditor.’
This is what they have always done.
Lies without shame are their evil "Superpower".
So true, I am gobsmacked at the gall.
The power of propaganda in a country where you can lie to the masses with no accountability
We the people set the bar for accountability; and since Nixon we have been letting it slide. Not that there was ever a time that it wasn't unevenly fudged, but modern Republicans have gone full Orwell.
Voting is a share of due-diligence responsibility for our own and our society's fate as well as a share of choice. Full and fair representation of all is crucial. We are fools not to demand and enforce higher standards. Maybe the J6th Committee is a start, if we run with the ball they are passing.
"Nip the shoots of arbitrary power * in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people." - John Adams
* "You're the president of the United States you can declassify just by saying It's declassified.' Even by thinking about it."
America is fast becoming a Country ruled by Calvin Ball
All lies in Texas
In the name of democracy, sounding an alarm from The States Project for Arizona!
* Rep. Diego Espinoza won his primary election for the District 22 Senate seat, then withdrew from the race without notifying the party to take a lobbying job. He was running unopposed in the general election, meaning he would have easily won in November. So this safe seat is now in danger of a flip.
* Rep. Espinoza will be the only candidate on the ballot but any votes cast for him won't count. We must mount a write-in campaign.
* Voters need to understand not to vote for Espinoza and to write in Dr. Evangeline Diaz instead.
* Dr. Diaz is a former school principal and former chair of her town’s planning and zoning commission. Our partners on the ground in Arizona have aligned behind her for this seat.
* Republicans didn't get anyone on the ballot in this district, so they will also run a write-in candidate.
* Early voting starts in AZ on October 12, so this campaign needs support to start reaching voters immediately.
* Bottom line: What we thought was a safe Democratic seat is now at risk in a chamber where flipping just one seat would shift enough power to end rightwing control and protect Arizona’s electoral votes from being stolen in 2024.
What we can do: Raise an additional $50K for Arizona in the next week.
Here are 2 States Project Giving Circles focused on raising funds specifically for Arizona. Our small donations add up to a powerful force!
https://www.grapevine.org/giving-circle/WXWhrLm/Arizona-Pathfinders
https://www.grapevine.org/giving-circle/adWhPkp/Coast-to-Coast-Giving-Circle
(Remember that Alaskans learned how to spell "Lisa Murkowski" when she was a write-in candidate.)
Please spread this message widely. Thank you for helping!
h/t Adele G.
If I am reading google and The Openness Project correctly, Diego Espinoza was a Republican in 2016. Sinema will be next--another Arizona wolf in sheep's clothing. Sleaze, lies, and deception is not what politics is supposed to be.
She’s Charlie Koch’s lil girl.
Arizona's Diego Espinoza has been a state representative for 14 years.
New Mexico's Diego L. Espinoza is the Republican.
https://nypost.com/2022/09/03/diego-espinoza-resigns-after-winning-senate-primary/
https://ballotpedia.org/Diego_Espinoza_(New_Mexico)
Thank you. You are such an excellent resource for so many things. Could you republish your group’s information please. I have been looking for a good postcarding group.
Now they just say "Lisa" and everyone knows who she is.
Contribution will be made today Ellie.! Thank you for continually focusing our efforts on solutions. Contribute, help get out the vote, vote. Rinse, repeat! Let’s help turn AZ blue!
Elle, I went to donate to Grapevine and thought I did, but at the end of the long instructions I came to something called PAC for America’s Future. What is that? I think I donated to Grapevine but was unsettled by this PAC. Can you clarify?
Grapevine is a platform for non-profits which Giving Circles of The States Project use . The donation goes to the TSP PAC.
So, does this go to Arizona? That was my intention.
The 2 links that Ellie posted were for Giving Circles that are specifically raising for Arizona.
Thx. So much on internet that's unreliable, although I trust Ellie - but wanted to make sure.
That black and white post of Trump and the “dark of night” quote is disgusting. And he is emphatically not the president. What a fraud.
Will Rogers understood trickle down economics in 1932: "The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover didn't know that money trickled up.
Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow's hands."
~Will Rogers
Nov. 26, 1932
100%!!!
I cannot believe that Republicans feel comfortable drawing attention to any sort of child abuse when there has been so much child sexual assault in the Republican voting church populations. We should be pointing this out and what predators the Republicans have been. It is no wonder with policies that turn women into property, which makes little girls into just toys for sick men's pleasure. I do not believe that Warren Jeffs, or the Mormon faith voted Democrat a day in his life, and now he sits in jail after having provided young wives for many of the law enforcement around him. Nor, did the Evangelicals in the Southern Baptist church who have been exposed as being sexual assaulters, groomers, child predators and much more vote Democratic.
https://www.vox.com/culture/23131530/southern-baptist-convention-sexual-abuse-scandal-guidepost
So, I am surprised that they get away with this. Our press is shamefully lax in not putting this together for people. It is why most articles leave me disgusted with their lack of honesty or clarity.
I am glad about the news of the job increases. I hope the Feds do not destroy this. I am not clear why a specific interest rate is more important than people having jobs when it is the poorest who get hit by job loss, a low interest rate won't do them any good, and everyone who is well off can manage to pay for things regardless of what the interest rate is. I agree with this Guardian analysis on that. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/23/federal-reserve-interest-rate-hikes-are-going-to-hit-the-most-vulnerable
Trickle down has never worked, and is a flawed theory because it does not understand human behavior. Getting the common person money does. It is also healthier to be keeping everything local and better for the environment. The less one has to ship the better. As people produce what they need locally they are using less fuel to transport goods around. That will be better for the environment.
As the wealthy get Uber wealthy, they spend more and more on campaigns to secure their power. That spending is leverage over media. They plan to keep it that way. Media is their customer, and the customer is always right.
I only have a casual grasp of history, but from what I can gather wealthy aristocrats have argued over a long period of time that they are the indispensable benefactors of those who they collect income from, and that society would collapse without their naturally superior over-lording. That seemed to me more or less the political and economic argument of the "GOP" in and since the so called "Reagan Revolution".
Just as an aside, many Democratic Catholics were Irish and priests and JFK followers and accused of being sexual predators.
I realize that, but at this point the Catholic church has been pushing people towards the Republican party over the issue of Abortion. Those who are devout are more likely to have voted Republican. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/08/30/most-white-americans-who-regularly-attend-worship-services-voted-for-trump-in-2020/
So, it varies. The Republicans are not referring to the Catholic church, although they well could be, but given that there is an alliance between the Republican party and Opus Dei, they are not going to go there. Opus Dei is way too influential. It controls the Supreme Court that the Republican party formed and keeps running to to get their way.
https://churchandstate.org.uk/2019/03/opus-deis-influence-on-the-u-s-judiciary/
https://churchandstate.org.uk/2022/01/an-opus-dei-supreme-court/
In fact, since the judge Aileen Cannon has Opus Dei connections herself since it is understood that she is a Federalist Society member and has to carry out their agenda. This is why I have objected to her being the Justice involved with Trump's case. She is clearly not independent and should be investigated. Of course, if you look at Opus Dei you realize that it has long arms. I was in graduate school with a guy from Spain who was a member. He was very disapproving of a demonstration that my group did. He told me that our group was the best and I was the best, but it was immoral, therefore he could not approve. I had no idea at that point in my life what Opus Dei really was, but I knew from another friend in class that he was a member. These secret societies are just creepy and up to no good.
Démonstration as in protest outside a building or demonstration as in showing how something works?
Demonstration as in showing how something works. We were in a linguistics class and modeling ESL lessons. We were in teams of four with a presentation that included a demonstration of an activity you would have ESL students do. This was supposed to give everyone a repertoire of ESL lessons they could use. I am sure our classmate never used our sex ed lesson on how to put on a condom. This was during the AIDS epidemic. Many people might not have used it. I know that some went to Saudi Arabia to teach ESL. However Opus Dei is anti being gay, sex outside of marriage, birth control, acknowledging STDs and anything that would give one a reason to use a condom.
TFG had a portrait of Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office. When President Biden arrived, he replaced that image with FDR's. A simple action, which set the tone for the incoming administration.
After the mid-terms in 2014, my husband and I took a pilgrimage to FDR’s home in Hyde Park. It renewed my faith in humankind.
Yes, Hyde Park is a moral lifting place. 😎
A note from an American traveling to Ireland (3 years in the planning due to pandemic induced delays). Ireland is, for anyone who has visited the country, home to many of the kindest people in the world (based on my travels to 80 countries). It is not a rich country by most standards.
So perhaps it should not have been a surprise to see a list at the front desk of my hotel displaying 4 pages of names - nearly all women and children with their Ukrainian nationality identified. The Irish government (=Irish people) are paying to host these displaced people as they fled the Russian invasion.
Such kindness shown by the Irish. Once upon a time, this would have been America - a country of immigrants (allowed in by native Americans of course). So to all Americans, a lesson perhaps in kindness from a place with far less in the way of wealth and power. Kindness!!
This is honestly amazing.
👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋
I haven’t felt so incredibly eager and utterly anxious about a November election since 2015. Prayers to the Universe that the results this year help to continue unraveling the results and aftershocks of that one.
This is the most important election since 1860.
“May you live in interesting times.”
Which unfortunately is not an "ancient Chinese curse," though it is certainly a modern curse. :-)
And yet here we are, to have each other to exchange and make interesting, and rally towards hope.
No doubt!
And now, with all the positive economic news coming in, the Republicans want to impeach Biden. Who knows for what baseless transgression. The GOP has disappeared down the rabbit hole.
Since the days of McCarthy, 1950s, the GOP has been sending members down one rabbit hole or another. well, maybe before.
Long before. Like since the party first got organized and depended on the votes of the Know-Nothings.
I don’t know about that:
https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/knownothingparty.htm
Because that's what despots do.
And yet focus group after focus group says that voters trust the GOP on the economy more than they do Democrats. I don’t know if this is just forty years of brainwashing or if the message isn’t getting out or what. Do the facts on the ground no longer speak for themselves?
THAT is the mistake Dems make. We think FACTS SPEAK. But they do not speak to large swaths of GOP. THAT is why they can buy into QAnon, 'Stop the Steal', Trickle down economics, and other fairy tales. I frankly do not know how to deal with people who are incapable of accepting reality. Think how delusional one must be to refuse a life saving vaccine in the middle of a pandemic that has killed 6,541,608 people with more dying daily.
The GOP have learned how to appeal to emotion. And it is powerful....especially rage and anger and now violence that has become an identity.
Kathy, but that rage and anger and yes, violence, have been there for two hundred+ years. Look at the history we are learning from Heather. 45 released the pressure valve with his disgusting lust for power and this is where we are in 2022. He made it “ok” to shoot people, to beat up those who disagree with you, to make money off the “system” as President (one of the most shameful acts 45 did in my opinion...) and to overthrow the government....
My impression is that despots manipulate our "reptile" emotions.
First threaten security. Food, shelter, love. Then threaten identity.
And Republicans spend ad money on lies while the Dems spend money on MAGA Republican candidates.
‘Fantasyland’ - Kurt Anderson
A lot of people are just not that well educated, or sharp. They are easily swayed by being told things, and they get their news/info from poor sources. I had an aunt in Germany who read things like Bild Magazine which I consider to be a tabloid. She is the only aunt who did not go to college. In any case, we were watching television and she was telling me that there were as many studies that say that cigarettes do not cause cancer as say that they do. I was a kid at the time, but I told her that I noticed that the papers that she read had more pictures than words and that if that was her source of information I would not trust it. She actually did not have a snappy retort. She just did not say anything. She kind of twisted her mouth up. It was as if she accepted my point that her sources of information were not that good. Also, when I was in fourth grade my mom told me that she had read in the papers that teacher could just as effectively teach a class of 40 to read as 20. I had to tell her why that was ridiculous. I could observe what it took to teach by being in a class, and I don't know the research study, but it turns out I was right. More people need it pointed out to them when they get their information from bad sources which we all do from time to time. We should be saying, "if you listen to Fox News you might be entertained but you are going to get lies and misinformation."
The basis is emotion.
Democracy does not only demand that people are correctly informed, they also have to take responsibility for their vote. When times get rough, or are made to seem rough, responsibility can be handed over to autocrats, or rather autocrats can safely be blamed if something goes wrong. - Feels good!
👍🏼
Well said.
I noticed some sort of major poll back in 2019 that claimed that the one area in which a substantial majority of Americans preferred Republicans was their handling of the economy. To the degree that holds up, people are surely not paying attention. A well informed electorate is said to be essential to the successful execution to our governmental system.
This is where Public Education is failing us. After No Child Left Behind, and The Race to the Top, and remove Critical Race Theory and Sex Education and Book Banning we are missing basic Civics education. Children should be learning how to judge sources. I know that they are doing that in plenty of classes, but plenty of children are getting educated on tax payer dollars in quacky Charter schools, and religious schools that teach them all to conform, and no one questions the doctrine, and this is often true of those who are homeschooled as well.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-religion/u-s-supreme-court-endorses-taxpayer-funds-for-religious-schools-idUSKBN2412FX
https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/taxes-religion-and-education-how-much-are-we-willing-pay-choice
https://ncpolicywatch.com/2014/10/07/biggest-recipient-of-taxpayer-funded-school-vouchers-greensboro-islamic-academy-in-financial-trouble/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/11/nyregion/hasidic-yeshivas-schools-new-york.html
FACTS no longer speak; feelings do.
Kathy, sometimes I think “there are no brains to ‘wash’!” Humans can be so self-defeating, regardless of the Truth or the Facts.
Ha ha ha...'I am sorry, your brain is so meager it merely needs a little spritz instead of a full washing'.
👍🏼
The Regressives keep f*cking that same old supply-side chicken. It makes no sense: if you move most of the wealth upward, depriving of money those most likely to spend it and create demand, the wealthy won’t invest their excess wealth in anything that will create jobs. What would be the point? Biden’s plan has increased wealth for working people, which will increase demand, which in turn will spur job-creating investments. If the jobs are sufficiently productive it will reduce inflationary pressures, since there will be ample goods and services to meet the increased demand.
Unless the whole point is dominating the economy and society irrespective of the surrounding consequences.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff
I was going to mention my speculation about why Liz Truss, the new British prime minister, and the Tories are embracing "supply-side" economics and giving a huge tax cut to the rich. There is no reason for it in terms of benefit to British society, and it has been proven not to work in the United States. And they are now prating about "trickle-down" benefits, a notion that has been in disrepute ever since it was first offered by President Reagan. No, what I think the Tories are obviously doing is reinforcing their support among the upper class, especially the wealthy upper class, rewarding them economically over the next few years, and I would think also providing them a little economic booster in case they should decide to abandon the island and move to Europe or Canada or New Zealand. They know that Brexit will lead to worse economic outcomes than would have been the case had the public voted to "remain."
White Supremacist politics do not really pay off, but it is belief in this that makes them so popular. I hope that Scotland manages to disentangle itself as well as the Commonwealth countries that want to.
Good point!
I believe that is an un-discussed part of the Koch Kleptocrats' strategy... make as much money as you can now, bleed the economy, to armor up in preparation for when the effects of climate crisis bring famine and civil unrest.
Plus a lot of these Oligarchs have their secret hideouts. I heard that some have built them in New Zealand, although I could not understand it. Those will be hot spots, but their places are underground. On some level their brains are not understanding global warming assuming they can always buy their way out. They will be doing this too. Setting up wars between people so that those left are the ones who inherit the earth. They intend to be those people. Look at Putin. These are his people!
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/feb/15/why-silicon-valley-billionaires-are-prepping-for-the-apocalypse-in-new-zealand
It's the predatory side of human nature, From time to time societies are repulsed by it, yet are never quite willing to give it up; declaring unalienable human rights while still conquering and slave holding. It always wears a rationalizing cover-story, but it's what evil is all about.
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy. " - Lincoln
Hoover up more money than anyone else, period. People will kill for that; even though, when in extreme, it devastates societies. We all, of necessity, pursue self-interest, but when self-interest is our only interest we are sociopaths.
I recall reading during the Brexit debate that some of the most salient, most vocal boosters of Brexit were quietly moving key operations and registrations to the EU in order to minimize impacts on their own affairs.
Yes, I agree and am aware that that is their real purpose. They are, as usual, misrepresenting their true motives.
Wow.
<sigh>
Steve Moore? Jeez, haven't we sent that empty-headed faux-economist wack job to the moon (or farther) yet? He has yet to be anywhere near correct on any economic question and is so unqualified I wouldn't seriously take his suggestion for where to go for lunch.
And Truss + tax cuts... <sigh> ... More supply-side voodoo on top of Brexit. The Brits are going to be digging out from under that for decades.
Truss has already cost me $1,000 in lost pound value for writing contracts I have with English publishers.
It's going to get much worse for the Brits (and those who do business there). First Johnson and now Truss add up to a double whammy.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/a-fine-economic-mess-in-the-united-kingdom
Did Soros short the British pound again? Oh wait, this time it’s just their stupidity!
Cut taxes and raise spending - finance pays attention.
Putin’s smiling. Another western democracy in the shitter. Mission accomplished. He’ll come back with billions to bribe, corrupt, and make England Great Britain again.
Here in the UK, we are still reeling from what was billed as a "mini-budget" or "interim statement" which was to be so modest as to not require the analysis of the Office of Budget Responsibility, which always scrutinises a formal Budget. Our two -week old new Government under the ideologically driven Liz Truss, has adopted the attitude of "growth at all costs" without any strategy of how to fund it.
The pound has hit historic lows, interest rates are rising, all at the same time as we are in the middle of a cost of living crisis, an energy crisis and the other ills that are sweeping the globe.
Who is hit most? Those who are most vulnerable. Who profits? You won't be surprised to know that it is those at the top of the financial tree, who are toasting their new found wealth - which won't of course "trickle down"!
Every section of our society is being hit. Even food banks, with unprecedented numbers of clients, are getting fewer contributions, as those who would normally give are looking to their own finances, as well as the energy costs involved in running the food banks being prohibitive.
This is a result of a new government who want to radically change what they themselves created over 12 years of mis-management, 12 years in which Ms Truss was part of every decision...
I'm rambling now. Despair is speaking.