Exactly a week ago, Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News reported that Republican House leaders were talking about moving the government funding debate away from spending levels—their original complaint—to border security.
I have to agree T L. The true waste of tax dollars is the extreme R members of the House and spineless Keystone Kev. I would love to see them fined for every day that the government is shut down. In Oregon voters passed a measure that after ten unexcused absences, pols couldn't run again in the next cycle. Of course, Rs who walked out of the Senate are taking that to court, so we will see. On the lighter side, I did see a meme yesterday where men in church were fighting to sit next to Groper Gunslinger Barbie.
Our Ballot Measure to prevent R's from running again after 10 unexcused absences passed by roughly 65% to 30%, which means about as many Republicans voted for it as Democrats and Nonaffiliated Voters. It speaks to the lunacy of our State and Local R leaders that they are choosing to defy the will of so many of their Constituents. Even in the State Supremes find fault with the kaw, it will be re-written and I predict will be passed by an even larger majority.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. It is clear to me what we voters intended which was to stop walking out to prevent legislative business from proceeding. But Rs don't seem to care what courts (unless the ruling is favorable to them) or voters say. They are so upset with people they call anarchists, but this is what they are really advocating. When that happens, they will be the strong men to straighten things out. This is why I haven't voted for any R for a long time and will never vote for one.
Didn't the republicans pass some measure that there will be no proxy voting? Was this a Congressional thing or did it apply to the Senate? I personally think it is a good idea. I watched one vote on TV, I don't think a third of the people were there. One man would be representing about 4 or 5 people. You're in the hospital-too bad. death in the family (maybe not your immediate family) too bad, send flowers. Weather is too cold-too bad. You're stuck in the Bahamas-too bad.
I think that what we have to accept at some point is that their agenda does not only not have the best interest of the citizens of the United States at heart, it also does not support the framework upon which the Constitution is built - one person, one vote, majority rule. They want a white Protestant supremacist autocracy. Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Muslims, females, immigrants, gays, atheists et al. will be deprived of equal rights. It's the American Taliban in action.
Our friend the Congress woman from Colorado of infamous Beetlejuice attendance fame. And she admitted to being eccentric which is now a synonym for vaping inside a theater, being outrageously rude, and indulging in some public sexual activity. Do you know who I am she wanted to know.
Their only agenda right now is getting Frumpy the 🍓💩🤡 back in the White House so they will have a Dictatorship, and do away with the Constitution and Democracy. That’s their agenda. After that, no government agency in city, county, state, or federal will have any authority of any kind. Including Congress, and the Supreme Court! All will be under the authority of the Dictator, Donald J. Trump. All will answer to him, and him alone.
This bunch of Republicans that are “following” him like a herd of sheep 🐑 have no idea what he’s doing, what his plans are, or how he’s going to involve them afterward.
I somewhat disagree. The major portion of traitorous republicans know exactly what they have and they are OK with it. As long as their fearless leader destroys those that they hate. They also seem to despise that pesky constitution we have had since 1887.
Even "Americans" can be like this??....makes one loose faith in the human race....Waiting for the day we are an endangered species....after we have killed off nearly all the others....except cockroaches, who are here to stay.
I don't read science fiction; I think we are living it.
Big purge of all WH staff and retribution against any one who has opposed him such as Millie. The Ukraine will fall, and Putin will happily pick up small countries to add to his collection. Then WWIII because NATO will be involved. This is what the trumpers and rep are not looking ahead to. It will be the Democrats' fault some how.
Their wealthy donors would be more than happy to make up the difference.
I really don’t understand the turmoil over congressional salaries. I made consistently more than that selling mass spectrometers, and their true income is hardly their congressional salary.
The threats to the military leaders income, however, is stupid and of course just grandstanding. What a pitiful bunch of losers these MAGgots are.
I think that those kind of $$ to sell spectrometers speaks to the failure of capitalism where the riskiest, and hardest physical labor is awarded the least worth then it does to the amount of pay to legislators
It's nice to think so, but apart from the Senate (where "cloture" rules give a minority the institutional ability to stop any legislation from coming up for passage by a majority), the fact is that it's not gerrymandering but voters who give the Rs a majority in the present incarnation of the House: in 2022, R House candidates collectively got 54.5 million votes, Ds only 51.5 million. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections As nauseating as it is to recognize, as of 11/22 the Rs WERE the majority among those who turned out to vote.
Because they are owned by the billionaires conglomerates/monopolies. WE have laws on the books "Anti-Trust" to regulate consolidation giving one group too much power but we don't use it.
Lina Kahn is doing her damnedest. I have followed Matt Stoller, an anti-monopoly economist and excellent reporter since the mid oughts. From my hammered middle class seat, Kahn may have been the Biden Administration's best appointment.
Still, Kahn has a gargantuan job. While she's getting press for her Amazon suit, her work to rein in private equity is the big, complex story that most people will glaze over while listening to.
The basic reason is hate. Most of that is "trumped up" hate. All it has to be is a little different and they can hate and they vote their hate. I have been amazed at homopobic folks that come to know some gays or find they have gay family member and change their views.
I really agree, I am a member of an Episcopal Church in a very conservative area and this is where I have seen the direct impact of several gay couples on how some very conservative folks have changed their view. All of a sudden they realize that these are very real hard working and caring couples. Community matters.
I have mixed feelings always about seeing Marjorie Taylor Greene's name in the news. The imprint of watching her clad in white fur heckle the President Biden's State of the Union speech won't go away, yet she carries the district in Georgia where I grew up, and a friend tells me she's still solidly popular. I cringed when McCarthy said, "I need this woman," but of course he does, and she needs Fox and all the rest of the right wing media. The mainstream media don't pay much attention to NW Georgia, so she puts them on the map. I noticed in a review about Cassidy Hutchinson's new book that the author speaks of being in Rome, GA, shortly before the 2020 election and thinking how misled people there were about Donald Trump. But I think it's more complex.
MTG is infotainment. She sells, she's the bread and butter for outlets like Daily Kos, HuffPost. Every day there's a leading piece on her and her X posts, and if it isn't her, it's Lauren Boebert. Instead of writing about issues and legislation, it's groping in a playhouse, menorahs for Yom Kippur, and lifting weights in a gym.
Unless, of course, one of them is your representative. I blame Democrats for letting MTG succeed. They seem to have no idea who might successfully oppose her; her new opponent, like the last one, is a Black retired military man. The district does not have a huge Black population, but it does have plenty of racial prejudice.
...but I remember reading that MTG's challenger, Marcus Flowers, was not as enormously popular as we would have expected because he is married to a blonde white woman...
Back then, as soon as I saw Flowers was the Democrats' candidate I said, "Mistake!" In THAT district to think that more moderate Republicans dissatisfied with Greene might join Democrats in defeating her was a stretch. A Black guy, always sporting a cowboy hat, and spouting very progressive ideas that screamed "Atlanta politics" had about as much chance succeeding there as a snowball's chance in hell. I lived in Rome for 4 years and saw what was around there. I think it will take a more centrist/moderate Democrat candidate that might appeal to both sides who would have the best chance to mount a serious campaign to unseat Greene. I also really hate to admit that it'd probably be best if that person were White. The northern third of Georgia, I'm sorry to say, still is home to a majority of conservative White voters who are going to most readily associate a person of color with extreme liberal politics of the Atlanta variety. It doesn't always go down well in those/these parts. Bitch about it and rail against it all you want, but it is still the reality. Change comes very slowly here, but progress can be made, albeit with baby steps. Do what it takes to unseat Greene first, then take it from there.
That, too. MTG was going to run against Lucy McBath closer to Atlanta, but Republicans tipped her off that the other district was less diverse, so why can't Democrats see that?
A good question. Meanwhile, we have News for Dummies. People go for the click bait and it gets fed to them by news outlets desperate to stay in business. They peddle gossip and other crap, and it's because many Americans never learned critical thinking skills. This means the stage is set for fascism. The people who do still read news are being told that it's "fake news" and that the "lamestream media" is lying to them. This is one trope the right, namely MAGA, depends on to spread its message - that Trump is the only one telling the truth, even if Trump is so delusional that he's literally babbling incoherently. The media, thinking they need to give equal credence to "both sides," lets Republican lies go unchallenged as those lies are launched against President Biden even though he's been a great president.
It is a ratings race and truth in journalism , falls by the wayside. Trump was described by Ruth Ben Ghiat ( NYU professor and author) as the most brilliant propagandist in the 21st. Century. The basic rule is constant repetition of the disinformation until it becomes the truth.
And TFG can get his message out on a device that he can keep on a shelf near the toilet paper. Within seconds a million or more people can read his trash. Every media outlet offers him room on their platform or lose viewers or listeners. The Dems need an attack message and repeat it and keep on repeating it. This election will be a propaganda war, loaded with emotion. Forget the issues.
Michael Beschloss is right. TFG used social media, irresponsible cable outlets and radio to advance his messages loaded with propaganda. We never had mass communication available via a device that can fit in your pocket. They were brainwashed, just as you said.
Jack, depressingly he had lots of help from Putin, and fascists provocateurs in our own country. With the new AI and China jumping on board with Putin tactics it sure feels like a mountain to big to scale. ☹️ plus people don’t seem to want to talk about it. So grateful to Beschloss and thank you for reading and commenting 🙏
The media covers "this" as normal government and politics because our normal government and politics is mostly about money and doing anything to hold onto power. [Those Founding Fathers were concerned with ideas and principles...and so was Lincoln and then Grant. And FDR. And, even Eisenhower. And, of course, more recent Democrats. How far we've fallen! but we are way down in a hole of our own making.]
It is not illegal for them to act on insider information, so many of them already make more than their Congressional salaries trading in ways the rest of us can't. Plus there seem to be a lot of billionaires willing to buy their votes with lavish gifts and trips. Just donate to their PACs and no one can follow the money.
How is it possible for so many of them to become millionaires when their annual salary is under $200K?
It's illegal when they get caught. Elizabeth Warren introduced legislation banning Congress members from stock trading, which went over like a lead balloon, naturally.
It’s so frustrating for the rest of us when we know that many financial institutions and media companies in the industry prohibit their employees from trading in any equities except for mutual funds that they do not have any form of ownership or control. Yet elected officials that have insider information and make legislation are free to fleece.
Congressman Stephen Buyer and Congressman Chris Collins were both prosecuted for insider trading. But if nobody knows about it, nobody gets prosecuted. I suspect that Warren's bill wouldn't really change anything.
True but I got the sense that they were exceedingly sloppy. Insider to me is when they have a third party doing the trading. It’s very difficult to nail these unethical people who are shooting fish in a barrel. This is from the September 13, 2022 NYT:
At least 97 current members of Congress bought or sold stock, bonds or other financial assets that intersected with their congressional work or reported similar transactions by their spouse or a dependent child, an analysis by The New York Times has found.
U.S. lawmakers are not banned from investing in any company, including those that could be affected by their decisions. But the trading patterns uncovered by the Times analysis underscore longstanding concerns about the potential for conflicts of interest or use of inside information by members of Congress, government ethics experts say.
Times reporters analyzed transactions between 2019 and 2021 using a database of members’ financial filings called Capitol Trades created by 2iQ Research. They matched the trades against relevant committee assignments and the dates of hearings and congressional investigations.
When contacted, many of the lawmakers said the trades they reported had been carried out independently by a spouse or a broker with no input from them. Some have since sold all their stocks or moved them into blind trusts. Two said the trades were accidental.
Insider trading is defined as buying or selling stock based on information not made public, which gives the stock trader an unfair and illegal advantage. Smh
I have to say, Gary, that "under $200K" is one hell of a lot more than most every-day, ordinary people make. Having been a single mother who never made more than $35K in all the years I was employed - and I had a good job working in an office, own my own home, raised 2 kids to adulthood who are decent, empathic & good human beings.
The idea that these yahoos are being paid well over $150K & griping because someone who has had the misfortune to possibly lose their job or become overwhelmed with medical bills, etc. and is on disability or "welfare" - has to prove to these entitled yahoos who are getting paid (BY US, I might add) for running off at the mouth in front of any camera or microphone that turns up, that they deserve enough to survive on!
Sorry for the rant but honestly enough is enough. This is why I dont watch the "news"!
I understand. My daughter works as a pharmacy tech and a couple of times a year she has unexpected expenses that makes her stress out. Maybe we're bad parents but we end up helping her out a couple of times a year. One time was after she was still a shift lead and was assaulted at Walgreen's. It took her a couple of months to recover and return to work.
Walgreen's made her use up her PTO before they would start her disability. She didn't receive any money from Walgreen's for six weeks. And it took 18 months before the Walgreen's worker's comp paid her medical bills.
The Republicans in the House remind me of Walgreen's management. They could care less if Federal employees go without a paycheck for weeks on end. They are all heartless jerks.
I get it - I've helped both my kids out when they needed it - in my mind, theres nothing wrong with doing what we can for our children. That had to be so scary when your daughter was hurt - you do what you can - it doesnt matter how old they are - still your kids.
Its about time these corporations got some oversight in how their employees are treated.
Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of Congress from taking effect until after the next election of the House of Representatives has occurred. It is the most recently adopted amendment but was one of the first proposed. The 1st Congress submitted the amendment to the states for ratification on September 25, 1789, along with 11 other proposed amendments. Wikipedia
However, the USSC found that Congress could be awarded an annual COLA to their salaries.
Better yet, if they shut down the government, effectively they are out of a job - right?
Send them packing without a paycheck - anyone who wants to keep the job can fill in on a volunteer basis until they can come up with a working budget (doing the job they were elected to do.)
Excellent question, Evelyn! These extremists are wasting the taxpayers time and money. They don't care about governing; they just want to stay in power and get attention. Well, there is only one solution to deal with them, and that is to deny them power. I hope the activists who live in their districts are busy recruiting great candidates to oppose them, and doing everything they can to register voters and get people to the polls to vote the extremists out of office. Yes, gerrymandering is a problem, but eventually even the extremists' supporters may get tired of their ignoring real problems while they posture. Right now, get on the phones and let these people know their unwillingness to do their jobs is going to cost them in 2024.
My Congressman Dr. Ami Bera introduced and helped pass the 'No Budget, No pay' legislation, it is still in effect if they shur the government down they will get 0 pay during each day of the shut down. Unfortunately this applies to the party forcing the shutdown and the party trying to prevent the shutdown. McCarthy is the one who refuses to bring the Senate compromise to the floor for fear of losing his job, boo hoo!
Republicans cannot govern and McCarthy cannot lead. McCarthy won't keep his promise. It's fairly pathetic to watch them and yes, the public will blame them.
If we don’t get out and vote, and get everyone we know out to vote, we are going to lose in ‘24. There’s no telling how the GQP-Trumpublicans are going to try to win this next election. But, no matter. We have to overpower their schemes. We can’t slack up like we did at midterms. We screwed the pooch allowing them to take the gavel in the House of Representatives, and win some key states in the legislative and governors races. We must fight back and get people to the polls to vote these morons out of office at the local, state and federal levels.
Daniel, hopefully the states with gerrymandered maps having cases before the Supreme Court will be forced to redraw in plenty of time to run Democrats for those seats. So much depends on having a substantial majority in both houses. McCarthy has shown just how skilled Pelosi is—she showed what could be accomplished with a small majority.
Pelosi ran that House with a firm gavel. I remember numerous times even she wanted something done, and it needed to be done, she let it be known that there wasn’t anyone leaving until everything was done. Several times they were there all weekend without leaving.
Mary Hardt, according to a new law passed here in NC the Repugnants are “redistricting” (gerrymandering) the maps WITHOUT HAVING TO MAKE THEM PUBLIC and there’s not a thing we can do about it. I volunteer, canvass and do all I can along with a lot of very concerned Dems. It is horrible.
Wishing you good luck. Having lived 10 years in Chapel Hill when Graham was the revered name and the state was a sane purple, I grieve for the current politics there.
It makes me very sad. UNC-CH is the oldest public university in America. Attacked by Art Pope, friend of Kochs, (see “Starving the Beast”), it is no longer the academic giant it once was. The failure to give tenure to the writer of the 1619 Project, still hurts this alum.
Yes, Virginia, I lived for 20 years in the Raleigh area - moved to Mexico in retirement. It was purple then and I was hopeful. Still trying to stay hopeful.
Until I hear the venom and the lies (just heard Bob Goode (R-VA) with Andrea Davis on MSNBC), I too am hopeful. Just keep writing GOTV postcards and getting as much exercise as I can take at 89.
The NC Repugnants seem to be perfectly OK with some forms of dirty politics out in the bright light of day. Last week Rep. Terence Everitt (D) received notice from House Speaker Tim Moore that his legislative office had been MOVED TO A BASEMENT CLOSET. While he was waiting to vote on the new budget, someone boxed up his things in his old office. Everitt said it was likely due to a retaliation by Moore because of his request to the Wake County District Attorney to investigate Moore over a salary increase given to a state employee with whom he was having an affair. Disgusting people.
Forgive my outsider view. I'm a native Californian who spent 40 years in Maine before semi-retiring in my hometown.
NC politics cannot be that "horrible" if there's a bill introduced in your legislature calling for Ranked-Choice-Voting. Find the legislator who introduced it and learn how to help. Lately, it seems RCV is our last hope.
Your NC House bill is called H851, "Improving our Democracy." RCV is something to work for, especially since most people regardless of party, once they understand it, appreciate its logic and its inherent ability to avoid the Hold-Your-Nose-And-Vote, or Spoiled-By-One-Kook election experience of the last four and a half decades. Maine had the latter for two gubernatorial elections in a row and have had RCV ever since.
Every comparable nation on earth uses RCV or some version of it.
Fingers crossed North Carolina can join the list of states using it.
I appreciate your attempt to help NC and that sounds like a great idea, but wonder if you understand the extent of the Republican super-majority chokehold on the NC General Assembly and bought-and-paid-for NC Supreme Court? They control everything will not consider passing anything that might threaten their power. I do volunteer and intend to keep trying to fight this.
Having never lived in the South, I’m sure I have zero idea of what you’re up against. Still, I’d be curious to know what the sponsor of the RCV bill has to say about it.
If you don’t call to ask, my own nosiness may get the best of me – not that I can do more than spread the RCV love. ☺️
My experience is that RCV is under the radar enough that once people who ever thought of themselves as moderate or centrist understand the concept, they climb aboard, regardless of party.
That means that they can gerrymander in a way that districts won’t have to be connected or continuous. They want to rid the state of the few Dems left in the legislature.
Yes. It is all about turnout. There are way more of us than the MAGA maniacs. Especially when you survey younger people. They are angry about women's rights, the climate calamity and the gun crisis. We have the numbers on the above issues! Recent special elections confirm this.
We can whine all day about McCarthy and his crazy crew. The pain they are about to cause millions of Americans with their insane shutdown of the government will ripple through the nation. It will be awful. And it will be a campaign gift of epic proportions. We will be hard pressed not to know someone who will be needlessly hurt.
It will also be a campaign gift that will keep on giving for more than just this election cycle. It will add speed to the spiral dive of a political party that is terrified of its rapidly evolving irrelevance. The GQP is committing mass suicide.
All that really matters is getting people to vote. And are they going to vote for a party that wants to control a woman's body, exacerbate the flooding, wild fires and destruction of the oceans? Are they going to vote for a party that sends out Holiday cards with the candidate holding an assault rifle?
Of course we should work on gerrymandering if it's an issue in our state. But we can't fix GQP government shutdowns and we can't get the Trumps in jail fast enough.
However we can vote and we can get nonvoters motivated. I am optimistic that the GQP and their mentality disintegrating cult boss are setting themselves up for defeat. Who goes to a non union shop and talks to them as if they were union members?
Also, as I drink my optimistic coffee today, I recall with elation the fact that the judge in NY is effectively shutting down the Trump Mafia in that state. And big fines ahead! There is good news all around us and much more to come. Vote Blue!
I seem to recall one of Professor Timothy Snyder's rules about avoiding tyranny is "Do not obey in advance". Keep up the optimism, the hard work, and fight the good fight.
Bill, you have said a mouthful. You bet, this shutdown fear has already rippled across this country. The antics this Supreme Court has pulled will never be forgotten, especially since 5 of them were appointed by the 🍓💩🤡!!! We will never forget how they have moved women’s rights back to pre-Civil War, women’s reproductive rights are back even further. Gerrymandering the voting precincts, or trying to. All this is burned into our minds. Now, we have to vote, vote, vote. These next 4 or 6 elections and all special ejections in between. Blue 🧢🧢🧢🧢 is the new color of the decade!
Agree but it will be extremely difficult because so much is being done to screw up the economy; e.g. shutdown and oil prices which are up over $4 a barrel in past two days. If the trend continues there will be a heavy recession by October 2024.
Most voters have only a myopic view of the economy and their future using the prices at the pump and in the grocery store. They don’t have the time or energy to research and study causes and manipulations of what effects their everyday lives.
You are very correct, Rally Guy. This is why we need to make sure that they know that this bunch of Republicans has caused this. They’re fight against President Biden, and his economic plan has slowed this economy return. If you recall, the plan he submitted to Congress was cut drastically by the Republicans. Even though we had a slight majority at the time in both chambers, there were not enough votes to get the full thing passed without giving concessions (cuts to portions of the plan). So, here we sit, with things easing back up, as they always do just prior to the holidays, and upcoming election year. This has been going on as long as I can remember. Every year, in the Fall the prices start upward, the holiday advertising hits the airwaves, and gas prices start back up. Never fails.
We may have already had our last real election. Note the states that have passed voter suppression laws, and given states the right to overturn voter choices. Republicans have been busy.
Yes, they have! But we have Marc Elias and Democracy Docket. They are fighting back in many states, and often winning. I support them with a monthly donation and believe supporting them is an important tool in saving free and fair elections. It is something we can do in addition to voting.
Not to mention Putin with his hackers, and Xi with his. Then there’s always North Korea. Trump is in bed with that bastard too! If it’s a Communist country then the 🍓💩🤡 is buddy, buddy with them. Including Saudi Arabia!!!
As much as we are out trying to “get everyone we know to vote”, we are being undermined by gop support of new voter suppression tactics, both technological (with voter roll algorithmic searches allowing auto challenge paperwork to be filled out and timed to show up for review 10 before an election) and grassroots ( ex: a group in NY “accused of impersonating election officials and going door-to-door in 13 counties where they confronted voters regarding their registration status and incorrectly accused voters of committing a crime”) more on this effort in : Domeocracy Docket article. https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/the-rights-dangerous-and-unreliable-alternative-to-eric/
Well, I will not dispute the need to get people to the polls so I write postcards to voters.
However, I have no faith whatsoever that the fascists will acknowledge the outcome if it doesn’t go their way. They have already demonstrated their determination in that regard.
Brian, it’s become an expected thing. We know the loser will not concede, if they’re Republican. If the loser is Democrat, then it’s a sure thing that they will do what’s required and be the “adult in the room”, so to speak.
Absolutely. But that will involve lengthy legal battles, I expect. Case in point. Look at Florida and Alabama. They still arguing with the Supreme Court about their redistricting maps.
"It's fairly pathetic to watch them and yes, the public will blame them."
Patricia, there is a famous phrase: "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people", attributed to H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) .
I am not so sure the "American People's" critical thinking apparatus is up to the task of discerning the reality around Trump and the Republicans. Not only that, huge numbers of those Americans are watching news feeds and websites that are feeding what they DO want to believe (that Democrats are evil and Republicans will save them from that communist government in DC).
HCR has a large readership here, but, that is still a TINY fraction of the "American People".
Based on an assumed large 2 million readership here at substack, about 99.4% of Americans are NOT reading HCR.
So, while I HOPE Americans are discerning reality, even my own daughter is tired of migrants spitting on her in New York and recently texted me to say "she is thinking of becoming a Republican", like that would matter and Republicans can stop world migration patterns.
"I am not so sure the 'American People's' critical thinking apparatus is up to the task of discerning the reality around Trump and the Republicans." Absolutely, Michael. It leads me to believe that Shawn Fain is not quite correct when he says that 45 doesn't get it. I think he very much gets it and is leading his followers down the path he wants them to go.
Shawn Fain IS plugged into a reality that I became aware when I first read the GLOWING review of Jack Welch in the Harvard Business Journal in roughly 1988 in the University of Texas Library.
That reality? Republicans (and Harvard) have supported the destruction of the American workforce and given even half a chance, will continue to do that. Unfortunately, Democrats were well on board with that strategy with Bill Clinton and NAFTA even though Ross Perot made the consequences of NAFTA clear to everyone ("That sucking sound you hear will be American jobs going to MEXICO"). Perot, a guy everyone made fun of but me, was right (yes, I voted for him).
So, the UAW is highly unlikely to buy the BS that Trump is handing out AND
TRUMP DID NOT EVEN VISIT WORKERS WHO ARE UNION MEMBERS.
He visited non union members and spewed some nonsensical stuff to them and left.
And not one of the mainstream newsreaders made mention that Trump visited a NON-UNION machine shop which employed at most, about 150 people. Most of the people there and holding signs were NOT union members, they were Trump supporters bussed in for the event. Staged theater, as usual.
Your grasp of this history is strong, Michael! My comment was intended to highlight that IMO 45 was speaking to his base who will back whatever he says and spread his lies.
Yes, I hope my comment was on topic? I thought I understood your point but, hey, its early!
My grasp of history is extremely poor. I was always interested in history, but, I pursued engineering in college and a Phd in Engineering and, honestly, have enjoyed a high energy career in technology mostly never having learned ANYTHING about history. Zero.
So, now I am trying to catch up.
At UT Austin, (five years of PhD work), I would read the Harvard Business Review every time it came out because another grad student, who had worked for a while, got me interested in the stock market.
No, I never bought GE stock. That was a good thing too. Jack Welch made a lot of money for himself destroying that company and the stock has languished since. NOBODY ever reports that fact though.
Just how great he was (at getting huge bonuses on poor performance I guess). The American way. A heist.
Yes, Lynell(VA by way of MD&DC), trump is using optics. Reagan’s presidency was the first I remember really understanding that the substance/truth doesn’t matter. The optics are ALL. trump in MI with auto workers, with a woman with a “Union Workers for Trump” sign (or what ever nonsense it says) is what the watch sees and makes the unthinking leap. Eeazy-Peezy. We spend ink and keyboard clicks pointing out the rouse, but he achieved what he wanted. Visual manipulation.
A voting story: My dear friend Mary had sent a text, and asked if I turned in my ballot yet. I had not received one, and after I finished the task I was working on started to look (we are bad about picking up our mail.) I had been unaware of a special election. She texted a bit later and said that perhaps it was because it was a (stupid, grandstanding) recall election against one of our staunchest union supporting Democratic State Representatives, and perhaps he was not my Representative. That was it (even though we only live about a mile apart, we are in different districts at both the state and county level; oddly, not for the city...)
Morning, Ally! Remind me, is Oregon a state where you automatically receive ballots by mail? This year, I have been receiving "invites" to vote by mail...a first for VA...even from the Republican camp who tells me "If you don't vote, Virginia Democrats win"! I'm tempted not to vote, LOL!
Yes, Oregon is a vote by mail state, and registers people as they get their drivers' license. We've had that on the books for about 20 years, and if I recall, our "fraudulent" voter rate is .043%.
Oregon was the first State to Vote By Mail for every election!
We started experimenting with universal vote by mail for special elections in 1981 and went totally vote by mail after Measure 60 passed in 1998. Oregon's voter turnout is usually the highest in the nation and as you pointed out, election fraud is all but nonexistent. In fact the last time it happened it was done by a republican.
My daughter works for JP Morgan in NY City. She leaves work around 9:30pm and arrives around 7:00 am six days a week.
The hotel where the migrants are housed is right across the street. The migrants are always outside milling around all over the street. My daughter walks home to her apartment and walks back. It is her exercise. Sometimes she phones my wife and I while walking.
One evening she phoned me and said she is sick of being spit on by migrants because they hate folks who are dressed nice and spit on them and she had just been spit on.
I explained that migrant entry has DECLINED since Trump and Republicans did NOT stop migration. But, hey, the Republicans talk a good party about stopping migration and the Democrats are more muted.
Anyway, yes, she has been spit on multiple times as she walks away from the area. I tell her to take a cab but the cabbies are avoiding pickups in that area.
So sorry to hear of your daughter's difficult experience. I am hopeful an effort to allow migrants to work will get them out of hotels and allow them something else to do. We hosted an exchange student from Venezuela and keep in contact with her family. Conditions there are really dreadful so people are leaving by the trainload. Ideal would be to improve things in that country, but otherwise immigration reform here to revitalize the process might be accomplished if we had a congress that could get something done.
It would be an interesting thought experiment to ask her what she would do if the situation was reversed. She was the migrant (with the associated life experience/mental baggage) housed outside one of the greatest examples of power-mongering in the USA (JP MorganChase), and someone well dressed ignores you as they walk by. You would feel like the world’s trash. This is not saying your daughter is not understandably upset by being spit on. The migrants would not like to be spit on either. Yet the are, in a way, each day, being spit on by a world unwilling to recognize its role in their plight. JP Morgan has some pretty powerful people in its NYC offices that could put pressure on gop legislators (especially the ones they own) to work with the Dems to pass comprehensive immigration reform. I wonder if Mayor Adams put this immigrant housing exactly there for that reason.
Do they use their words at all to express their anger or just their spit? I would like to know what they are expressing. Poor choice of who to be frustrated with. Wonder who’s brainwashing them.
Agree Patricia; that exactly how I read the tea leaves. McCarthy is 'not' a leader and will not keep any promises in conflict with his hold on speakership; all so sadly farcical.
These twenty or so members of the 'Freedom Caucus' not only put 'party over country,' they put their 'caucus over party.' They are as great a threat to our representative democracy as were Tories in 1776, Sessessionists in 1861, and American supporters of the Nazis during the Second World War. That they were legitimately elected to Congress identifies the problem, the ignorance of a large segment of the American people. To work effectively, democracy requires a level of knowlege too many Americans lack.
All of what your write is true, but most German people and the politicians they elected thought Hitler and his followers were buffoons and it was probably pathetic to watch them in the early days.
Sounds like exactly what most people here and the politicians they elected thought of #45. If I had a dollar for every time I saw or heard someone say he is a buffoon, I would be a millionaire
If I'm Biden, I make the point that, as the great ultra-conservative John Wayne has said...."A man's word is his bond, and his handshake is a sacred symbol of that bond, and I [Biden] try to avoid dealing with people whose word is no good. He's broken his word already, so why would I believe he will not break it again. I find it very disappointing...Kevin sought to be Speaker of the House, and has wound up being Speaker of the GOP Liar's Club...and nothing more."
I was thinking the same as this when I read it this morning. Why would President Biden or anyone else believe Kevin McCarthy. His word is not his bond.
Keith, I just finished reading Sidney Andrews "The South Since the War", abridged by none other than Heather Cox Richardson herself.
Our library list said the original book by Sidney Andrews was in the stacks of the Reference section but a thorough search revealed someone had stolen it at some point since it was acquired. Too bad.
Truly a description of a fascinating trip through Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina immediately following the Civil war. The accounts of the various state conventions where the state constitutions were amended to outlaw slavery was fascinating.
Andrews account of the hard hearts toward the black folks is tough to read. I cannot imagine how difficult those times were for black Americans in the south as the the south reorganized to continue to exploit them without them being called slaves.
The south now is a bit different than when Grant met Lee at Appomattox, although I think I understand your point is that it might seem that McCarthy is crawling to Biden's feet.
One of the great random chances of my life is to have come across HCR's writings here and this community. That coupled with my intermittent consultant engineering job tasks enables me to actually read some history.
McCarthy, IF he meets with Biden, will not FEEL like Lee felt when he was received by Grant. He will feel MUCH more fear and trepidation.......because McCarthy's existence is much more fleeting than Lee's was.
Feeling silly today. But, like Lee, I hope McCarthy comes to meet with President Biden, attired in his best Congressional uniform, to cede his symbolic sword, for he certainly can't lead his bedraggled legion to any victory absent total destruction in it's wake. Conditions of his surrender, as the face of his disunited force for freedom and chaos, should include, at least his resignation from all forms political and return to civilian life somewhere south of decency or Miami, which ever is best. A second condition, would be appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate and determine indictments against those caucus members who would be complicit in shutting down the government which they clearly do not lead nor for which they have pledged allegiance but behaved in violations of their oaths to the nation and the people they are supposed to represent. Finally, Mr Biden should hand Mr McCarthy a signed copy of the agreement his party made and inform them that he will not sign any bill that is neither in the spirit of nor the letter of agreement with such. Publicly, Mr Biden and Mr McCarthy should be photographed in front of the full Press Corp recording this magnanimous conclusion to an unsuccessful war against this Nation and send Mr C back to his former followers for their disposal. Like I said, I am feeling silly 'cause nothing serious is going to help me remain sane.
Steve Lee never thought he was Grant. Lee was distinguished in the American-Mexican War 1846-1848 where he had no remembrance of Grant. When Lee was offered the leadership of the Union army, Grant was a mustered out ex-army officer with poor career opportunities.
When Lee was getting defeated at Gettysburg, Grant was capturing Vicksburg. In a final slug fest, Grant pummeled a smaller and smaller Lee army. Even at Appomattox, Lee was resplendent in his general’s uniform while Grant was in combat garb. Grant’s surrender terms were gracious.
Too bad Jeffries doesn't find six Republicans who like not to be hung out to dry by the Fweedumbasses, get a Discharge Petition for the Senate CR, vote it into law and tell the Confederate traitors to go pound sand. And send the world's dumbest Okiefornian back to Bakersfield.
TC, the discharge petition takes too much time to prevent a shutdown at this time. Notice the phrase “after several legislative days”.
“Once a discharge petition reaches 218 members, after several legislative days, the House considers the motion to discharge the legislation and takes a vote after 20 minutes of debate. If the vote passes (by all those who signed the petition in the first place), then the House will take up the measure.”
Lisa, in theory, that area of California was populated by people from the plains (specifically Oklahoma) fleeing the dust bowl in the 1930's. TC is not the only person I have heard refer to Bakersfield as "Okie-Fornia" (the first was my former Sergeant, who is from Bakersfield, and said that he left to escape the "Oakies" that were there. Of course, now he is one of the loudest fpotus supporters on my FB feed.) There are sane people in and from Oklahoma, and they often take offense at that sobriquet.
**Side bar: I can understand, a little, how they feel. We have a certain percentage of 2A gun humpers that have decals on their vehicles announcing they are "Oregunians." SMH.
My wife was born in Oklahoma in the late 1950's, but her family moved to CA in 1959. Her mother's family all moved from OK to the Santa Barbara area during the 1930's. And you are right about the Okies in rural CA. The dust bowl years in OK were a living hell and CA was Nirvana in comparison.
Funny I never think of OR that way, but I'm aware of the history and also the Okies. Just couldn't find specifics on Kevie's family. Of course The Grapes of Wrath is a beautiful book about them. Back then the poor had the good sense not to support the party that only represents the ultra rich. Woody Guthrie spoke for them. Disparaging the original Okies is not right. But I suppose many of their descendants may have now been suckered by the orange stain. Luckily I'm in Sonoma County where I've never had to see a MAGAt hat.
We were slack in the midterms and we caused this. If we let up in ‘24, we’ll be under a dictatorship. It’s just that simple. It’s getting very serious now, and these GQP-Trumpublicans are showing us exactly how they intend to govern.
Daniel, their actions have long shown they have no interest in being any part of democratic governing; they seek to "rule" and lord over all domains, including women and anyone 'different' and anyone with the unmitigated gall to differ with their dictates.
How would they govern? They wouldn't because they can't, literally can't. They are incapable at the very basic level of being able to reason, to observe reality without their overlay, and certainly not to control their emotions. Very few of them seem to understand how the government actually runs, forget their knowing what should be a moderate amount of history of this country. I do wonder about the quality of the clerks and aides who work for them; are they feeding the boss Reps real information which then gets twisted, Etc
Robin, a Dictatorship is not governing. Trump doesn’t want to be President. He wants to become the Dictator. If he’s elected in ‘24, there will never be another election of any kind in this nation. Trump has clearly laid out his plan.
He will do away with all federal law enforcement agencies, and the DOJ. All current heads of all federal departments will be removed from positions and he will appoint his people to run all government agencies, federal and state levels. All agencies will report only to him. All states will report inky to him, and take orders from inky him. And the law enfurvenrnt of the country will be dk e by the military, at his direction.
In other words, he’ll be Putin, Jr., and thus country will be an extension of Russia, which is exactly what Putin has said all along. He will take over this country and not have to fire a shot. Trump is his patsy to get it done, if he wins this upcoming election.
I'll make a bet on that. There are several other possible outcomes. And here we are, instead of strategizing about how we can head this off (something that is entirely possible), we are predicting war based only on what we think we see. Our vision is limited here by the silo we are in. We need to get out of that silo and go back to building the alliances that made 2022 successful. We're being led by the nose by people who want us to wallow in fear and uncertainty. We do not need to allow that to happen. But to do what we need to do, we've got to stop buying into the negativity. See you later- off to our town Democratic reorganizing committee. We've tripled membership and anticipate an active team. Ha, my strategy worked!
I think that’s exactly what is planned. The wealthy donors just love to see complete nitwits doing their bidding in the RepubliQan Party. Once the GOP wins in 2024, there will be effectively no one to stop these rich guys, because nobody in the GOP is able to: as you said, they literally _cannot_ govern. The billionaires will be in complete control and free to do as they please. And you better believe Putin is wringing his hands in glee, too.
At their level or order on their organizational chart, I count them as bought and paid for 'chaos agents' and nothing more. Aides and clerks are just functionaries doing their jobs - some perhaps more and true believers; who knows.
Daniel, last time Trump was President the main thing he managed to do was get Jerome Powell to buy roughly 4 Trillion dollars in bonds issued by corporations, i.e., Corporate Bonds.
In other words, --> a heist by corporations of the Federal Reserve. Nothing more than a rip off.
So, that would be the main thing Trump would be after, another big heist that nobody notices. The ability to print money for himself and whomever he wants to give money to.
Almost nobody noticed that Jerome Powell spent more than TWO YEARS purchasing corporate bonds with printed money, all day, every day. But, that was the main delivery by Trump.
Yes, EASILY steal from the American people without them voting for it or even knowing about it, although, the Wall Street Journal (amazingly) reported on the activity fairly frequently.
The mainstream press? Not one report of the heist in progress.
I need more information on this, Mike. Aren't bonds considered akin to (or actually) loans? Don't the corporations receiving that money have to repay it at some point? If so, how is it stealing? I am asking a real question not pushing back on you.
Mike S: Thanks. I did not know about Powell purchasing bonds. If it weren’t for the Substack writers (starting with HCR) and the commenters such as yourself I wouldn’t know 1/2 of what I have learned about our country in these last few years. Here again is a new piece of info which is proving what I suspect is happening. That is, corporate power is setting the agenda. Our local, state and federal law makers are, I think, unwittingly and stupidly, no longer legislating on behalf of their human constituents but are protecting corporate power. They just think they are still making the laws. They will say they are protecting jobs. It is pathetic. And news reporting is also corporatized so I am getting no help there. All I have left is Substack and my library to discover what is happening and help me make sense of things. Oh and the League of Women Voters. Can’t forget how much I have learned through my involvement with the League. Even so, I am pretty discouraged. Especially if the government shuts down.
We need to eliminate this Republican Party as it is now. This bunch of clowns have no interest in governing anything. They, and Trump want a dictatorship, with h as the dictator.
I recommend a return to education. Humanities, civics and world history would do for a start. However, I am afraid the country might need a HARD reset such as a GOP election victory and riots in the street.
Joanne, it’s going to take a lot of work by everyone, over the next 4 election cycles at least, and all in between. Nit inky on the federal level, but the state and local levels as well. Trump, and his enablers have managed to get their oriole in office at all levels. They’ve all got to be voted out. But first, we have got to find find Democrats to get in their places. Then, they can eliminate the MAGA-GQP from their Republican Party and start over.
I'm always surprised that news reports don't mention what is painfully obvious if you can force yourself to watch MAGAs talk. They LOVE the idea of a government shutdown. They see "the government" as their enemy. These House idiots aren't going to lose supporters on this.
It makes you wonder why they wanted to be in Government to begin with. Perhaps that was the motive all along. Destruction is always so much easier and more fun than Creation. Kids knocking down each other’s sandcastles on the beach. At the same time as I was trying to find something witty to say, I feel devastated by all these political disasters: the horrible Republican debate tonight. A group of people with no dignity and self respect. The fact that an autocrat is hovering. The fact that our media is in dereliction of its traditional duty by focusing on only drama, and will only rarely support the President.
You only have to look back at their professor, none other than Newt Gingrich; the serial gop guerilla warfare specialist and his teacher from Watergate fame.
Annie, I'm right there with you. As much as this forum is a godsend and a true tribe- so many smart, engaged people!! - I have to take breaks often because it is so incredibly demoralizing to read these comprehensive lists of the cascading disasters. I'm really lucky to have family, work that I love, history that I can bury myself in for long hours— but these are really terrifying times. I hope you're taking care of yourself, because we all have to keep sane and strong for this fight. Thanks for being so honest.
I am also having a hard time with trying to balance being informed of what is happening now, learning about our history (all the things I never knew!), taking action to help and not becoming completely demoralized. I agree - “terrifying times”. We need to find balance. I really miss the late night comedy!
Modern Republicans persistently talk out of "both sides of their mouths" saying one thing when it suits them and the polar opposite when it suits them so long as the incurious can mistake it for a justification of what they actually do. "Hating" "government" is obvious BS since they spend all there time and treachery attempting to absolute control of government. The true target has always been democracy, equal protection under law, and the common weal, that hinders their plutocratic patrons from total domination. Governance is just the rules; which equally can be wise and just or predatory and dictatorial.
The Media business IS a business; it no longer carries any shine of being a “public watchdog” defending the principles of the Constitution. I stopped watching network and cable sources and now look to Substack for information based on journalistic sources like Propublica
The question is how long will the chaos caucus in the House be allowed to hang up funding the government. I think that this will eventually turn on their taking down McCarthy as Speaker for not being sufficiently hard ass and it will then take a handful of the most vulnerable Republicans in the House to cross the aisle to elect a Speaker who will not bow to the chaotics demands. That may take a long long time...
Georgia, I don’t believe the republicans in the House have anyone A. qualified, or B. that want the gavel. Maybe with the exception of MTG, or Matt Gaetz. And if either of them get it, or any of the other GQP-Trumpublicans, nothing will get done just like it is now. Those are the ones running McFarty like a puppet on a string.
The chaotics are following Trump's direct instructions, but at some point likely long long into the future enough vulnerable Republicans will realize that they have no shot at being re-elected unless they take a stand against the chaos. That requires the chaotics putting up their own candidate for Speaker.
And why, oh why is the broadcast inc., not calling out obvious questions about tfg's mental fitness ? As he becomes more desperate about the prospect of being accountable and 'proven' to be the fraud he's always been, the media focus is like a play on some equivalency between Biden's age vs tfg's anger and resentment stirring deflections, as though it 'looks' like some kind of strength and competence ? His antics make me wonder if he doesn't already have some form of dementia with anger syndromes; I've seen it before. And, oh btw, his defense counsel may in fact try to peddle just that in his defense.
D4N, have you watched “Morning Joe” on MSNBC? I watch it about every morning during the week. Joe Scarborough has been lighting up Frumpy and all the other stupid antics this bunch of Trumpublicans are pulling. He’s a ‘no hole’s barred’ type of guy. You know he used to be a Republican. He often remarks about his ‘old party’ he used to belong to, back when he was in Congress.
Daniel Regarding replacing McCarthy, I recall that, when Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker, there was not a rush by anyone to ‘seize control’ of the German government.
I wonder. No knes mentioned that it took 15 votes to get McFarty the gavel. If Gaetz is successful at getting him voted out of leadership, who the hell is the Republicans going to nominate to take his place? Jordan, Greene, Gaetz? Or maybe one of the other half dozen Frumpstets that suck his hind section nightly?
What a mess! How the hell did we ever allow this to happen?
"This is Shelby Connor from Parrish, Alabama. We've had 260 box car loads of dog gone shit sittin' at our rail yard for months. It stinks.”
"That's a state matter. Did you call the Alabama Department of Environmental Management?"
"What ya'll mean? These trainloads of shit have come down from New York. It's a federal inter-sate matter."
"Sir, please be respectful. It's human waste.”
"I don't care what you call it. It's stinkin' up our town. We can't even go to a Little League baseball game ‘cause the boxcars are right across the tracks. How would you like to drive to church on Sunday and take a whiff of it while praying to the Lord?”
"Did Trump send this stench down here because we didn't elect Roy Moore? Let me speak with your director."
“Sir, Mr. Pruitt isn't available. And he no longer reviews environmental issues. Our new mandate from the president is to help companies get rid of waste the cheapest way possible. They probably picked Alabama because your dumping rates are so low. You'll have to call the West Virginia office to file a complaint. They handle waste disposal. Oh wait, that office has been closed down, too."
"I wanna know why New York and New Jersey’s shit is sittin’ in our little town. Git the stuff outta here."
“Shelby, shouting into the phone won't get you anywhere. I'm trying to help. Here, let me give you the Denver office. They have experience handling bio solids. Oops, sorry, that office was recently closed, too. Mr. Connor, we're not going to be around much longer as an agency. The EPA is shutting down. Haven't you heard?"
"I voted for Donald Trump. And now he's turning his backside on us."
"The president is doing a great job getting rid of regulations so more jobs can be created. Do you know how many people you could employ shoveling that sludge into a dump? Your residents could have more work for generations. I suggest that you could turn this waste into fertilizer-rich compost and grow organic vegetables."
"You got a point there. That’s why we voted for him. I need a second job, too. How can we git more New York bio waste?"
On Trump’s bid for union support (in a non-union venue, no less!), it should be remembered that virtually every right to work state has a Republican legislature. They are implacably hostile to collective bargaining.
And the minimum wage in most of those states is equal to the Federal Minimum wage. Even a teenager living with mom and dad would have trouble saving anything at $7.25 an hour.
Fortunately, most of the Blue states have minimum wages much higher than the Federal minimum wage.
This is nothing new. My idiot representative Rob Whitman proposes this each year. Whitman took over parts of Spanberger’s district when the Virginia voting maps changed. The legislation will go nowhere.
Virginia is a right to work state. Even when Dems held all three branches we couldn’t garner enough votes to change this. Our elections this year will be pivotal. Help!
Here are 5 ways to help us win in Virginia—WHICH WILL YOU DO??
Donate money to the 31st Street Swing Left’s slate of candidates here. (Or Jess’s VA Giving Circle here)
Write letters to Virginia voters with Working America here or with Vote Forward here. (Vote Forward has letter kits for people who can’t afford stamps! Apply here.)
Write postcards with Postcards4VA here.
Phone bank on Tuesdays with Silver Spring Progressive Action here, or Wednesdays and Saturdays with Sister District here.
For those of you in DC, VA or MD, you can door-knock with 31st Street on Saturdays here.
The crowd was totally hand picked by the Trump campaign as Heather subtly points out in today's letter.
He can't stand to have anyone heckle him during his hours long rants.
He needs to attend more Big10 and Big12 football games and try to interact with the student body. A large percentage of students won't hesitate to boo him and flip him off as evidence by the students at my alma mater Iowa State. I'm so proud of them. They are much braver than their parents and grandparents.
“There will be no heavy duties,” (Nobel Prize winner) Wolfgang Pauli told the physicist who was to serve as his assistant. “Your job is, every time I say something, contradict me with the strongest arguments.”
- quoted in Barbara Lovett Cline's "Mad About Physics: Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities"
I hope that McConnell does not succeed in distinguishing and distancing Republicans in the Senate from their crazy brethren in the House. Considering that the vast majority of Republicans in the Senate refused to vote to convict Trump on his two impeachments, I don't see how he can make the case that there is ANY difference in kind.
How many times were some of us calling these nut cases fascists dismissed? Many saw the Tea Party movement for what it was and where it was heading when it rose it ugly head, but they were told they were over reacting.
As a retired public educator who had to live under the continued attack of conservatives, they worked to ruin the public education system. That set the stage for where we are now.
Wealthy conservatives ran the strategies put forth in the Lewis Powell Memo which was basically about gain power through taking over the informal power structures of society while working to fill government positions with "believers" of their "free, unregulated capitalism". What ever commonsense conservatives had, they have now acquiesced their responsibility if leadership to the extremists.
Under regulate business while over regulating the agency responsible for oversight, then make sure that the oversight agency is underfunded and then blame them for their failures. This happened in Texas with public education. It is now omnipresent is how the conservative faction is now governing. You can pull up the 1980 Libertarian platform and draw a line to this extreme group that is not calling the shots.
Historians of democracies and authoritarian have shown that it does not take but a few well placed people to being down a democracy. America is not immune. Let's hope that Churchill's faith in the American people is true "Americans will do the right thing, but only after trying everything else."
Then Trump can say anything and it flies. Anything at all.
Dunning/Kruger is my favourite. That one is about how it is impossible to know how stupid you are if you lack the intellect to comprehend your own stupidity.
Sad to say, my stellar U.S. Rep, Jennifer Wexton, will not be seeking re-election in 2024. She has been a shero for Democrats in an otherwise red district in Virginia.
Here is her letter (excerpted): "By now, some of you will have seen the news about my plans for 2024. I wanted to take a couple of minutes to reach out to all of you who have been a part of Team Wexton – to share my endless gratitude, explain my decision, and reflect upon my time in Congress.
Back in April, I shared that I had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. At the time, I made the decision to carry on with my Congressional work and political activity. My doctors believed that my condition would not stop me from performing my duties in Congress, and my goal was to stay in office for years to come.
"During the months that followed, as my symptoms worsened, I sought additional medical opinions and was given an updated diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). It is a rare neurological disorder that is often mistaken for Parkinson’s in its early stages– but while both are progressive degenerative diseases, PSP develops far more rapidly.
"After some difficult and honest conversations with my family and doctors, I’ve concluded that juggling the realities of a re-election campaign in a tough district while managing the symptoms of my PSP is not feasible for me. It’s with a heavy heart – yet also a deep appreciation for the privilege I’ve been granted by the people of Virginia’s 10th District – that I will be retiring from Congress at the end of my current term.
"I wish that I could serve longer. But being able to serve at all has been the highest honor of my life. And it was people like you that made it all the more worth it.
To my family, to my staff, and to all my supporters: thank you for everything.
Trump is nothing but smoke and mirrors, optics, the power of suggestion. Remember his "Bible" stunt? It wasn't a Bible, and he was holding it backward.
Themon, you are spot on. Trump is all lies. If he speaks, it’s a lie. I also thought that him having his “rally” at a non-union plant was odd. Plus the people in the “crowd” holding union signs weren’t associated with the union at all. Just common Trumpster 🐑!
I think it was probably a real Bible but it was not Trump's Bible, it was supplied to him as a prop. That's probably as close as he ever got to one. Asked to name his favorite Bible verse, he retorted "that's private". Wasn't there something in there about hiding light under a bushel? I suspect Trump's bushel if very dark indeed.
And hecfudbt have the decency to home it up the correct way! It was upside down! He couldn’t name a Bible verse because he doesn’t know any. He’s most likely never been inside any type of church, or to a religious function of any kind.
Why not reduce their pay to a dollar a year?
I’m game to the reduction of the Republican representatives salary to $1.00 per year. They don’t do anything to deserve that anyway.
That would be over payment for their worth!
I agree; in fact, I think those whackedadoodle Fweedumb Kawkuss GOPpers owe US money! My tax dollars are underwriting their stupidities, damn it.
I have to agree T L. The true waste of tax dollars is the extreme R members of the House and spineless Keystone Kev. I would love to see them fined for every day that the government is shut down. In Oregon voters passed a measure that after ten unexcused absences, pols couldn't run again in the next cycle. Of course, Rs who walked out of the Senate are taking that to court, so we will see. On the lighter side, I did see a meme yesterday where men in church were fighting to sit next to Groper Gunslinger Barbie.
Our Ballot Measure to prevent R's from running again after 10 unexcused absences passed by roughly 65% to 30%, which means about as many Republicans voted for it as Democrats and Nonaffiliated Voters. It speaks to the lunacy of our State and Local R leaders that they are choosing to defy the will of so many of their Constituents. Even in the State Supremes find fault with the kaw, it will be re-written and I predict will be passed by an even larger majority.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. It is clear to me what we voters intended which was to stop walking out to prevent legislative business from proceeding. But Rs don't seem to care what courts (unless the ruling is favorable to them) or voters say. They are so upset with people they call anarchists, but this is what they are really advocating. When that happens, they will be the strong men to straighten things out. This is why I haven't voted for any R for a long time and will never vote for one.
Didn't the republicans pass some measure that there will be no proxy voting? Was this a Congressional thing or did it apply to the Senate? I personally think it is a good idea. I watched one vote on TV, I don't think a third of the people were there. One man would be representing about 4 or 5 people. You're in the hospital-too bad. death in the family (maybe not your immediate family) too bad, send flowers. Weather is too cold-too bad. You're stuck in the Bahamas-too bad.
I think that what we have to accept at some point is that their agenda does not only not have the best interest of the citizens of the United States at heart, it also does not support the framework upon which the Constitution is built - one person, one vote, majority rule. They want a white Protestant supremacist autocracy. Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Muslims, females, immigrants, gays, atheists et al. will be deprived of equal rights. It's the American Taliban in action.
Agreed.
Oho...that made me laugh! Thank you!
Looks like their prayers may have been answered.. Maybe she'll drop her Bible and they can rush to pick it up.
who in tarnation is GGB?
Our friend the Congress woman from Colorado of infamous Beetlejuice attendance fame. And she admitted to being eccentric which is now a synonym for vaping inside a theater, being outrageously rude, and indulging in some public sexual activity. Do you know who I am she wanted to know.
I gotta remember this… “ whackedadoodle Fweedumb Kawkuss GOPpers”!
What a description, TL!
You'd probably love TCinLA's substack, "That's Another Fine Mess." He comes up with a lot of this stuff, and he's quite a character.
I do. Read it all the time. Fantastic stuff!
I subscribe to TC's substack and I cribbed his "Fweedumb Kawkus" bit...the rest (which was supposed to be whackadoodle but I 'whacked' it) is my own.
Great point Daniel. I’d like to ask the people who put them in place if they’re proud of their vote.
“Short on specifics” and “doesn’t get it” succinctly sums it up , huh!
Great writing Heather, thanks 🫶🫶
They're traitors. They don't care how much damage they do to the country, if it will make Biden loose a few votes.
Their only agenda right now is getting Frumpy the 🍓💩🤡 back in the White House so they will have a Dictatorship, and do away with the Constitution and Democracy. That’s their agenda. After that, no government agency in city, county, state, or federal will have any authority of any kind. Including Congress, and the Supreme Court! All will be under the authority of the Dictator, Donald J. Trump. All will answer to him, and him alone.
This bunch of Republicans that are “following” him like a herd of sheep 🐑 have no idea what he’s doing, what his plans are, or how he’s going to involve them afterward.
I somewhat disagree. The major portion of traitorous republicans know exactly what they have and they are OK with it. As long as their fearless leader destroys those that they hate. They also seem to despise that pesky constitution we have had since 1887.
That’s their goal, Jack. What Trump has laid out l, that he fully intends to ‘implement’ when he’s re-elected, is nothing short of a Dictatorship.
Were they Russian imports?
Even "Americans" can be like this??....makes one loose faith in the human race....Waiting for the day we are an endangered species....after we have killed off nearly all the others....except cockroaches, who are here to stay.
I don't read science fiction; I think we are living it.
Big purge of all WH staff and retribution against any one who has opposed him such as Millie. The Ukraine will fall, and Putin will happily pick up small countries to add to his collection. Then WWIII because NATO will be involved. This is what the trumpers and rep are not looking ahead to. It will be the Democrats' fault some how.
I would estimate a dollar yearly to split amongst themselves would be an over-payment.
D4N, great comment! Divide the dollar among all those dolts. Less than a penny for their thoughts.....
Elisabeth,
too funny.
I wish they had thoughts. All they are are a bunch of hissing reptilian primitive brains.
Is that called recession?
The ensuing infighting would be GREAT entertainment, though. And we could put it on pay-per-view to raise money to reduce the national debt.
Lol... I like the way you think Lex; turnabout is 'fair play' as far as I'm concerned. Make a nickel or so for our cause for a change.
Better yet - make them pay to show up!
Their wealthy donors would be more than happy to make up the difference.
I really don’t understand the turmoil over congressional salaries. I made consistently more than that selling mass spectrometers, and their true income is hardly their congressional salary.
The threats to the military leaders income, however, is stupid and of course just grandstanding. What a pitiful bunch of losers these MAGgots are.
One of the reasons MTG made that ridiculous comment is obvious, General Austin is Afro American.
I think that those kind of $$ to sell spectrometers speaks to the failure of capitalism where the riskiest, and hardest physical labor is awarded the least worth then it does to the amount of pay to legislators
I’d be ok with that too!
Who votes for these people? Why does the media cover this as normal government and politics?
Many districts are gerrymandered. We are experiencing government by the minority. (the ultra religious minority)
Oh, yes, and which religion do the loud and dumb trio represent?
It is part of the mystique of a dictator to be the infallible leader, all wise, all knowing and nobody can ever touch him.
Religion? Well, we did have a golden statue of trump at a conference a while back.
It's nice to think so, but apart from the Senate (where "cloture" rules give a minority the institutional ability to stop any legislation from coming up for passage by a majority), the fact is that it's not gerrymandering but voters who give the Rs a majority in the present incarnation of the House: in 2022, R House candidates collectively got 54.5 million votes, Ds only 51.5 million. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections As nauseating as it is to recognize, as of 11/22 the Rs WERE the majority among those who turned out to vote.
The fault is not in the stars but in ourselves.
Why, indeed? Ask the media that question. I haven’t had a letter in NYT in a while, but I think I’ll borrow your question for one.
Because they are owned by the billionaires conglomerates/monopolies. WE have laws on the books "Anti-Trust" to regulate consolidation giving one group too much power but we don't use it.
Lina Kahn is doing her damnedest. I have followed Matt Stoller, an anti-monopoly economist and excellent reporter since the mid oughts. From my hammered middle class seat, Kahn may have been the Biden Administration's best appointment.
Still, Kahn has a gargantuan job. While she's getting press for her Amazon suit, her work to rein in private equity is the big, complex story that most people will glaze over while listening to.
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/cha-ching-lina-khan-attacks-private?r=lvns&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thank you for the link--I also admire Matt Stoller.
I admire both of you.
The basic reason is hate. Most of that is "trumped up" hate. All it has to be is a little different and they can hate and they vote their hate. I have been amazed at homopobic folks that come to know some gays or find they have gay family member and change their views.
I really agree, I am a member of an Episcopal Church in a very conservative area and this is where I have seen the direct impact of several gay couples on how some very conservative folks have changed their view. All of a sudden they realize that these are very real hard working and caring couples. Community matters.
I have mixed feelings always about seeing Marjorie Taylor Greene's name in the news. The imprint of watching her clad in white fur heckle the President Biden's State of the Union speech won't go away, yet she carries the district in Georgia where I grew up, and a friend tells me she's still solidly popular. I cringed when McCarthy said, "I need this woman," but of course he does, and she needs Fox and all the rest of the right wing media. The mainstream media don't pay much attention to NW Georgia, so she puts them on the map. I noticed in a review about Cassidy Hutchinson's new book that the author speaks of being in Rome, GA, shortly before the 2020 election and thinking how misled people there were about Donald Trump. But I think it's more complex.
MTG is infotainment. She sells, she's the bread and butter for outlets like Daily Kos, HuffPost. Every day there's a leading piece on her and her X posts, and if it isn't her, it's Lauren Boebert. Instead of writing about issues and legislation, it's groping in a playhouse, menorahs for Yom Kippur, and lifting weights in a gym.
Unless, of course, one of them is your representative. I blame Democrats for letting MTG succeed. They seem to have no idea who might successfully oppose her; her new opponent, like the last one, is a Black retired military man. The district does not have a huge Black population, but it does have plenty of racial prejudice.
...but I remember reading that MTG's challenger, Marcus Flowers, was not as enormously popular as we would have expected because he is married to a blonde white woman...
Back then, as soon as I saw Flowers was the Democrats' candidate I said, "Mistake!" In THAT district to think that more moderate Republicans dissatisfied with Greene might join Democrats in defeating her was a stretch. A Black guy, always sporting a cowboy hat, and spouting very progressive ideas that screamed "Atlanta politics" had about as much chance succeeding there as a snowball's chance in hell. I lived in Rome for 4 years and saw what was around there. I think it will take a more centrist/moderate Democrat candidate that might appeal to both sides who would have the best chance to mount a serious campaign to unseat Greene. I also really hate to admit that it'd probably be best if that person were White. The northern third of Georgia, I'm sorry to say, still is home to a majority of conservative White voters who are going to most readily associate a person of color with extreme liberal politics of the Atlanta variety. It doesn't always go down well in those/these parts. Bitch about it and rail against it all you want, but it is still the reality. Change comes very slowly here, but progress can be made, albeit with baby steps. Do what it takes to unseat Greene first, then take it from there.
That, too. MTG was going to run against Lucy McBath closer to Atlanta, but Republicans tipped her off that the other district was less diverse, so why can't Democrats see that?
Maggot G T is not even toilet paper for toilets. What if the whole world suddenly got a grip and ignored idiocy?
A good question. Meanwhile, we have News for Dummies. People go for the click bait and it gets fed to them by news outlets desperate to stay in business. They peddle gossip and other crap, and it's because many Americans never learned critical thinking skills. This means the stage is set for fascism. The people who do still read news are being told that it's "fake news" and that the "lamestream media" is lying to them. This is one trope the right, namely MAGA, depends on to spread its message - that Trump is the only one telling the truth, even if Trump is so delusional that he's literally babbling incoherently. The media, thinking they need to give equal credence to "both sides," lets Republican lies go unchallenged as those lies are launched against President Biden even though he's been a great president.
It is a ratings race and truth in journalism , falls by the wayside. Trump was described by Ruth Ben Ghiat ( NYU professor and author) as the most brilliant propagandist in the 21st. Century. The basic rule is constant repetition of the disinformation until it becomes the truth.
And TFG can get his message out on a device that he can keep on a shelf near the toilet paper. Within seconds a million or more people can read his trash. Every media outlet offers him room on their platform or lose viewers or listeners. The Dems need an attack message and repeat it and keep on repeating it. This election will be a propaganda war, loaded with emotion. Forget the issues.
I understand she used to "weight lift" some of the trainers.
I don't understand what you mean. I certainly hope you're not resorting to slut-shaming.
Now that I read it, maybe. I was just referring to the fact that she had 2 affairs with personal trainers. Greene is just nuts.
The brain washed. The Historian Michael Beschloss nails it at 24:52. I wish more people could hear this.
https://nbcnews.simplecastaudio.com/d41147e2-9082-47cd-909a-165d88b1e209/episodes/3add54a2-20cc-4a0e-8c9c-f6fb6f51e250/audio/128/default.mp3/default.mp3_ywr3ahjkcgo_1db6995cf429b22b612ac523197a9079_36773842.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=d41147e2-9082-47cd-909a-165d88b1e209&awEpisodeId=3add54a2-20cc-4a0e-8c9c-f6fb6f51e250&feed=TA5rXVG0&hash_redirect=1&x-total-bytes=36773842&x-ais-classified=streaming&listeningSessionID=0CD_382_270__efd074cc07db52a5cc20217441ba91875cb92021
Michael Beschloss is right. TFG used social media, irresponsible cable outlets and radio to advance his messages loaded with propaganda. We never had mass communication available via a device that can fit in your pocket. They were brainwashed, just as you said.
Jack, depressingly he had lots of help from Putin, and fascists provocateurs in our own country. With the new AI and China jumping on board with Putin tactics it sure feels like a mountain to big to scale. ☹️ plus people don’t seem to want to talk about it. So grateful to Beschloss and thank you for reading and commenting 🙏
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/coming-age-ai-powered-propaganda?check_logged_in=1
Fight fire with fire
The media covers "this" as normal government and politics because our normal government and politics is mostly about money and doing anything to hold onto power. [Those Founding Fathers were concerned with ideas and principles...and so was Lincoln and then Grant. And FDR. And, even Eisenhower. And, of course, more recent Democrats. How far we've fallen! but we are way down in a hole of our own making.]
advertising dollars
It is not illegal for them to act on insider information, so many of them already make more than their Congressional salaries trading in ways the rest of us can't. Plus there seem to be a lot of billionaires willing to buy their votes with lavish gifts and trips. Just donate to their PACs and no one can follow the money.
How is it possible for so many of them to become millionaires when their annual salary is under $200K?
It's illegal when they get caught. Elizabeth Warren introduced legislation banning Congress members from stock trading, which went over like a lead balloon, naturally.
It’s so frustrating for the rest of us when we know that many financial institutions and media companies in the industry prohibit their employees from trading in any equities except for mutual funds that they do not have any form of ownership or control. Yet elected officials that have insider information and make legislation are free to fleece.
Congressman Stephen Buyer and Congressman Chris Collins were both prosecuted for insider trading. But if nobody knows about it, nobody gets prosecuted. I suspect that Warren's bill wouldn't really change anything.
I think you meant Stephen Beyer. Beware autocorrect.
True but I got the sense that they were exceedingly sloppy. Insider to me is when they have a third party doing the trading. It’s very difficult to nail these unethical people who are shooting fish in a barrel. This is from the September 13, 2022 NYT:
At least 97 current members of Congress bought or sold stock, bonds or other financial assets that intersected with their congressional work or reported similar transactions by their spouse or a dependent child, an analysis by The New York Times has found.
U.S. lawmakers are not banned from investing in any company, including those that could be affected by their decisions. But the trading patterns uncovered by the Times analysis underscore longstanding concerns about the potential for conflicts of interest or use of inside information by members of Congress, government ethics experts say.
Times reporters analyzed transactions between 2019 and 2021 using a database of members’ financial filings called Capitol Trades created by 2iQ Research. They matched the trades against relevant committee assignments and the dates of hearings and congressional investigations.
When contacted, many of the lawmakers said the trades they reported had been carried out independently by a spouse or a broker with no input from them. Some have since sold all their stocks or moved them into blind trusts. Two said the trades were accidental.
Insider trading is defined as buying or selling stock based on information not made public, which gives the stock trader an unfair and illegal advantage. Smh
I have to say, Gary, that "under $200K" is one hell of a lot more than most every-day, ordinary people make. Having been a single mother who never made more than $35K in all the years I was employed - and I had a good job working in an office, own my own home, raised 2 kids to adulthood who are decent, empathic & good human beings.
The idea that these yahoos are being paid well over $150K & griping because someone who has had the misfortune to possibly lose their job or become overwhelmed with medical bills, etc. and is on disability or "welfare" - has to prove to these entitled yahoos who are getting paid (BY US, I might add) for running off at the mouth in front of any camera or microphone that turns up, that they deserve enough to survive on!
Sorry for the rant but honestly enough is enough. This is why I dont watch the "news"!
I understand. My daughter works as a pharmacy tech and a couple of times a year she has unexpected expenses that makes her stress out. Maybe we're bad parents but we end up helping her out a couple of times a year. One time was after she was still a shift lead and was assaulted at Walgreen's. It took her a couple of months to recover and return to work.
Walgreen's made her use up her PTO before they would start her disability. She didn't receive any money from Walgreen's for six weeks. And it took 18 months before the Walgreen's worker's comp paid her medical bills.
The Republicans in the House remind me of Walgreen's management. They could care less if Federal employees go without a paycheck for weeks on end. They are all heartless jerks.
I get it - I've helped both my kids out when they needed it - in my mind, theres nothing wrong with doing what we can for our children. That had to be so scary when your daughter was hurt - you do what you can - it doesnt matter how old they are - still your kids.
Its about time these corporations got some oversight in how their employees are treated.
Yet another ongoing issue!!
It is, in fact, illegal for anyone, including politicians, to act on insider information.
Sadly I believe their salaries are guaranteed by the constitution. I wonder though if all their aides will continue to collect?
Yes, this is true. The shutdown does not impact them, so they don't care
Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of Congress from taking effect until after the next election of the House of Representatives has occurred. It is the most recently adopted amendment but was one of the first proposed. The 1st Congress submitted the amendment to the states for ratification on September 25, 1789, along with 11 other proposed amendments. Wikipedia
However, the USSC found that Congress could be awarded an annual COLA to their salaries.
With .1 percenters for BFFs I doubt the public's paycheck is their top concern.
Better yet, if they shut down the government, effectively they are out of a job - right?
Send them packing without a paycheck - anyone who wants to keep the job can fill in on a volunteer basis until they can come up with a working budget (doing the job they were elected to do.)
They don’t care about their salary. It doesn’t do a damn thing to threaten it.
Yes Jen, I see from HulitC that their salaries are guaranteed by the Constitution ... what a rigged game this is!
And tax it at 90%!
Excellent question, Evelyn! These extremists are wasting the taxpayers time and money. They don't care about governing; they just want to stay in power and get attention. Well, there is only one solution to deal with them, and that is to deny them power. I hope the activists who live in their districts are busy recruiting great candidates to oppose them, and doing everything they can to register voters and get people to the polls to vote the extremists out of office. Yes, gerrymandering is a problem, but eventually even the extremists' supporters may get tired of their ignoring real problems while they posture. Right now, get on the phones and let these people know their unwillingness to do their jobs is going to cost them in 2024.
"Ignoring real problems while they posture." Indeed!
Great idea Evelyn Spiess!
My Congressman Dr. Ami Bera introduced and helped pass the 'No Budget, No pay' legislation, it is still in effect if they shur the government down they will get 0 pay during each day of the shut down. Unfortunately this applies to the party forcing the shutdown and the party trying to prevent the shutdown. McCarthy is the one who refuses to bring the Senate compromise to the floor for fear of losing his job, boo hoo!
They’ll still be over paid.
Let's make it a federal ballot measure! I wish that could be done lol.
GOP MAGA members should donate their salaries to the federal deficit that they voted to blow-up under the Trump years.
Brilliant!
Brillant!
Republicans cannot govern and McCarthy cannot lead. McCarthy won't keep his promise. It's fairly pathetic to watch them and yes, the public will blame them.
If we don’t get out and vote, and get everyone we know out to vote, we are going to lose in ‘24. There’s no telling how the GQP-Trumpublicans are going to try to win this next election. But, no matter. We have to overpower their schemes. We can’t slack up like we did at midterms. We screwed the pooch allowing them to take the gavel in the House of Representatives, and win some key states in the legislative and governors races. We must fight back and get people to the polls to vote these morons out of office at the local, state and federal levels.
Daniel, hopefully the states with gerrymandered maps having cases before the Supreme Court will be forced to redraw in plenty of time to run Democrats for those seats. So much depends on having a substantial majority in both houses. McCarthy has shown just how skilled Pelosi is—she showed what could be accomplished with a small majority.
Pelosi ran that House with a firm gavel. I remember numerous times even she wanted something done, and it needed to be done, she let it be known that there wasn’t anyone leaving until everything was done. Several times they were there all weekend without leaving.
Pelosi used her mother of five voice.
Mary Hardt, according to a new law passed here in NC the Repugnants are “redistricting” (gerrymandering) the maps WITHOUT HAVING TO MAKE THEM PUBLIC and there’s not a thing we can do about it. I volunteer, canvass and do all I can along with a lot of very concerned Dems. It is horrible.
Contact the ACLU to make sure that they’re on top of this. I’ll bet that they can bring suit to make them public.
Wishing you good luck. Having lived 10 years in Chapel Hill when Graham was the revered name and the state was a sane purple, I grieve for the current politics there.
Thank you Virginia. We moved here from CA four years ago. It’s been downhill ever since - really dirty politics. No shame.
It makes me very sad. UNC-CH is the oldest public university in America. Attacked by Art Pope, friend of Kochs, (see “Starving the Beast”), it is no longer the academic giant it once was. The failure to give tenure to the writer of the 1619 Project, still hurts this alum.
Yes, Virginia, I lived for 20 years in the Raleigh area - moved to Mexico in retirement. It was purple then and I was hopeful. Still trying to stay hopeful.
Until I hear the venom and the lies (just heard Bob Goode (R-VA) with Andrea Davis on MSNBC), I too am hopeful. Just keep writing GOTV postcards and getting as much exercise as I can take at 89.
Damn, I thought they were proud of their machinations.
The NC Repugnants seem to be perfectly OK with some forms of dirty politics out in the bright light of day. Last week Rep. Terence Everitt (D) received notice from House Speaker Tim Moore that his legislative office had been MOVED TO A BASEMENT CLOSET. While he was waiting to vote on the new budget, someone boxed up his things in his old office. Everitt said it was likely due to a retaliation by Moore because of his request to the Wake County District Attorney to investigate Moore over a salary increase given to a state employee with whom he was having an affair. Disgusting people.
Oh, for Pete's sake.
And the sake of all the Petes.
Betcha they are sitting on the front row pew every Sunday. Such Pharisees and hypocrites
Forgive my outsider view. I'm a native Californian who spent 40 years in Maine before semi-retiring in my hometown.
NC politics cannot be that "horrible" if there's a bill introduced in your legislature calling for Ranked-Choice-Voting. Find the legislator who introduced it and learn how to help. Lately, it seems RCV is our last hope.
Your NC House bill is called H851, "Improving our Democracy." RCV is something to work for, especially since most people regardless of party, once they understand it, appreciate its logic and its inherent ability to avoid the Hold-Your-Nose-And-Vote, or Spoiled-By-One-Kook election experience of the last four and a half decades. Maine had the latter for two gubernatorial elections in a row and have had RCV ever since.
Every comparable nation on earth uses RCV or some version of it.
Fingers crossed North Carolina can join the list of states using it.
https://ballotpedia.org/Ranked-choice_voting_(RCV)#State_legislation
I appreciate your attempt to help NC and that sounds like a great idea, but wonder if you understand the extent of the Republican super-majority chokehold on the NC General Assembly and bought-and-paid-for NC Supreme Court? They control everything will not consider passing anything that might threaten their power. I do volunteer and intend to keep trying to fight this.
Having never lived in the South, I’m sure I have zero idea of what you’re up against. Still, I’d be curious to know what the sponsor of the RCV bill has to say about it.
If you don’t call to ask, my own nosiness may get the best of me – not that I can do more than spread the RCV love. ☺️
My experience is that RCV is under the radar enough that once people who ever thought of themselves as moderate or centrist understand the concept, they climb aboard, regardless of party.
That means that they can gerrymander in a way that districts won’t have to be connected or continuous. They want to rid the state of the few Dems left in the legislature.
Yes
She didnt have a lunatic asylum to deal with
That is true.
lol
Yes. It is all about turnout. There are way more of us than the MAGA maniacs. Especially when you survey younger people. They are angry about women's rights, the climate calamity and the gun crisis. We have the numbers on the above issues! Recent special elections confirm this.
We can whine all day about McCarthy and his crazy crew. The pain they are about to cause millions of Americans with their insane shutdown of the government will ripple through the nation. It will be awful. And it will be a campaign gift of epic proportions. We will be hard pressed not to know someone who will be needlessly hurt.
It will also be a campaign gift that will keep on giving for more than just this election cycle. It will add speed to the spiral dive of a political party that is terrified of its rapidly evolving irrelevance. The GQP is committing mass suicide.
All that really matters is getting people to vote. And are they going to vote for a party that wants to control a woman's body, exacerbate the flooding, wild fires and destruction of the oceans? Are they going to vote for a party that sends out Holiday cards with the candidate holding an assault rifle?
Of course we should work on gerrymandering if it's an issue in our state. But we can't fix GQP government shutdowns and we can't get the Trumps in jail fast enough.
However we can vote and we can get nonvoters motivated. I am optimistic that the GQP and their mentality disintegrating cult boss are setting themselves up for defeat. Who goes to a non union shop and talks to them as if they were union members?
Also, as I drink my optimistic coffee today, I recall with elation the fact that the judge in NY is effectively shutting down the Trump Mafia in that state. And big fines ahead! There is good news all around us and much more to come. Vote Blue!
On optimism
Abraham Lincoln once said, “I am an optimist because I don’t see the point in being anything else.”
Winston Churchill agreed, “I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.”
We gave to be optimistic because if we succumb to pessimism, we won't do anything to help change the situation. And if that happens, they win!
I seem to recall one of Professor Timothy Snyder's rules about avoiding tyranny is "Do not obey in advance". Keep up the optimism, the hard work, and fight the good fight.
Amen!!
When the opponent controls your happiness, he has already won.
👏👍
OK, the five or six of you just gave me my pep talk for the day. Optimism wins.
Bill, you have said a mouthful. You bet, this shutdown fear has already rippled across this country. The antics this Supreme Court has pulled will never be forgotten, especially since 5 of them were appointed by the 🍓💩🤡!!! We will never forget how they have moved women’s rights back to pre-Civil War, women’s reproductive rights are back even further. Gerrymandering the voting precincts, or trying to. All this is burned into our minds. Now, we have to vote, vote, vote. These next 4 or 6 elections and all special ejections in between. Blue 🧢🧢🧢🧢 is the new color of the decade!
Agree but it will be extremely difficult because so much is being done to screw up the economy; e.g. shutdown and oil prices which are up over $4 a barrel in past two days. If the trend continues there will be a heavy recession by October 2024.
Most voters have only a myopic view of the economy and their future using the prices at the pump and in the grocery store. They don’t have the time or energy to research and study causes and manipulations of what effects their everyday lives.
And they listen to and watch crap. Including at church
You are very correct, Rally Guy. This is why we need to make sure that they know that this bunch of Republicans has caused this. They’re fight against President Biden, and his economic plan has slowed this economy return. If you recall, the plan he submitted to Congress was cut drastically by the Republicans. Even though we had a slight majority at the time in both chambers, there were not enough votes to get the full thing passed without giving concessions (cuts to portions of the plan). So, here we sit, with things easing back up, as they always do just prior to the holidays, and upcoming election year. This has been going on as long as I can remember. Every year, in the Fall the prices start upward, the holiday advertising hits the airwaves, and gas prices start back up. Never fails.
They also rely on the propaganda they are fed.
We may have already had our last real election. Note the states that have passed voter suppression laws, and given states the right to overturn voter choices. Republicans have been busy.
Yes, they have! But we have Marc Elias and Democracy Docket. They are fighting back in many states, and often winning. I support them with a monthly donation and believe supporting them is an important tool in saving free and fair elections. It is something we can do in addition to voting.
I can if my civil service check doesn't disappear
You said it! We have a lot, a LOT of work ahead of us!
Absolutely Daniel.
We have to remember the gerrymandering that will screw up the vote too!
Not to mention Putin with his hackers, and Xi with his. Then there’s always North Korea. Trump is in bed with that bastard too! If it’s a Communist country then the 🍓💩🤡 is buddy, buddy with them. Including Saudi Arabia!!!
As much as we are out trying to “get everyone we know to vote”, we are being undermined by gop support of new voter suppression tactics, both technological (with voter roll algorithmic searches allowing auto challenge paperwork to be filled out and timed to show up for review 10 before an election) and grassroots ( ex: a group in NY “accused of impersonating election officials and going door-to-door in 13 counties where they confronted voters regarding their registration status and incorrectly accused voters of committing a crime”) more on this effort in : Domeocracy Docket article. https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/the-rights-dangerous-and-unreliable-alternative-to-eric/
Well, I will not dispute the need to get people to the polls so I write postcards to voters.
However, I have no faith whatsoever that the fascists will acknowledge the outcome if it doesn’t go their way. They have already demonstrated their determination in that regard.
Brian, it’s become an expected thing. We know the loser will not concede, if they’re Republican. If the loser is Democrat, then it’s a sure thing that they will do what’s required and be the “adult in the room”, so to speak.
Maybe there can be some progress on redistricting to help swing the balance....plus all other efforts of course.
Absolutely. But that will involve lengthy legal battles, I expect. Case in point. Look at Florida and Alabama. They still arguing with the Supreme Court about their redistricting maps.
Alabama lost their case in SCOTUS
AGAIN!!!
👏👏👏
"It's fairly pathetic to watch them and yes, the public will blame them."
Patricia, there is a famous phrase: "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people", attributed to H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) .
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nobody_ever_went_broke_underestimating_the_intelligence_of_the_American_people
I am not so sure the "American People's" critical thinking apparatus is up to the task of discerning the reality around Trump and the Republicans. Not only that, huge numbers of those Americans are watching news feeds and websites that are feeding what they DO want to believe (that Democrats are evil and Republicans will save them from that communist government in DC).
HCR has a large readership here, but, that is still a TINY fraction of the "American People".
Based on an assumed large 2 million readership here at substack, about 99.4% of Americans are NOT reading HCR.
So, while I HOPE Americans are discerning reality, even my own daughter is tired of migrants spitting on her in New York and recently texted me to say "she is thinking of becoming a Republican", like that would matter and Republicans can stop world migration patterns.
Anyway, I applaud optimism. Including yours.
"I am not so sure the 'American People's' critical thinking apparatus is up to the task of discerning the reality around Trump and the Republicans." Absolutely, Michael. It leads me to believe that Shawn Fain is not quite correct when he says that 45 doesn't get it. I think he very much gets it and is leading his followers down the path he wants them to go.
Vote, everybody!
Shawn Fain IS plugged into a reality that I became aware when I first read the GLOWING review of Jack Welch in the Harvard Business Journal in roughly 1988 in the University of Texas Library.
That reality? Republicans (and Harvard) have supported the destruction of the American workforce and given even half a chance, will continue to do that. Unfortunately, Democrats were well on board with that strategy with Bill Clinton and NAFTA even though Ross Perot made the consequences of NAFTA clear to everyone ("That sucking sound you hear will be American jobs going to MEXICO"). Perot, a guy everyone made fun of but me, was right (yes, I voted for him).
So, the UAW is highly unlikely to buy the BS that Trump is handing out AND
TRUMP DID NOT EVEN VISIT WORKERS WHO ARE UNION MEMBERS.
He visited non union members and spewed some nonsensical stuff to them and left.
I worked for Jack Welch back in the 80s and 90s. He single-handedly destroyed GE. Him and his hand-picked successor, Jeff Immelt.
Those of us who were there back then are still bitter about it. Not for nothing was he known as Neutron Jack.
And not one of the mainstream newsreaders made mention that Trump visited a NON-UNION machine shop which employed at most, about 150 people. Most of the people there and holding signs were NOT union members, they were Trump supporters bussed in for the event. Staged theater, as usual.
Your grasp of this history is strong, Michael! My comment was intended to highlight that IMO 45 was speaking to his base who will back whatever he says and spread his lies.
Yes, I hope my comment was on topic? I thought I understood your point but, hey, its early!
My grasp of history is extremely poor. I was always interested in history, but, I pursued engineering in college and a Phd in Engineering and, honestly, have enjoyed a high energy career in technology mostly never having learned ANYTHING about history. Zero.
So, now I am trying to catch up.
At UT Austin, (five years of PhD work), I would read the Harvard Business Review every time it came out because another grad student, who had worked for a while, got me interested in the stock market.
No, I never bought GE stock. That was a good thing too. Jack Welch made a lot of money for himself destroying that company and the stock has languished since. NOBODY ever reports that fact though.
Just how great he was (at getting huge bonuses on poor performance I guess). The American way. A heist.
Welch was proud of his evil deeds. You have him pegged right
Yes, Lynell(VA by way of MD&DC), trump is using optics. Reagan’s presidency was the first I remember really understanding that the substance/truth doesn’t matter. The optics are ALL. trump in MI with auto workers, with a woman with a “Union Workers for Trump” sign (or what ever nonsense it says) is what the watch sees and makes the unthinking leap. Eeazy-Peezy. We spend ink and keyboard clicks pointing out the rouse, but he achieved what he wanted. Visual manipulation.
You lay it out very clearly, ML. Optics!
Perot was a spoiler, just like all third parties under our current system.
Chump does get it. It’s another film flam and his have worked his whole life.
Morning, Lynell. Your assessment is spot on.
A voting story: My dear friend Mary had sent a text, and asked if I turned in my ballot yet. I had not received one, and after I finished the task I was working on started to look (we are bad about picking up our mail.) I had been unaware of a special election. She texted a bit later and said that perhaps it was because it was a (stupid, grandstanding) recall election against one of our staunchest union supporting Democratic State Representatives, and perhaps he was not my Representative. That was it (even though we only live about a mile apart, we are in different districts at both the state and county level; oddly, not for the city...)
Morning, Ally! Remind me, is Oregon a state where you automatically receive ballots by mail? This year, I have been receiving "invites" to vote by mail...a first for VA...even from the Republican camp who tells me "If you don't vote, Virginia Democrats win"! I'm tempted not to vote, LOL!
Yes, Oregon is a vote by mail state, and registers people as they get their drivers' license. We've had that on the books for about 20 years, and if I recall, our "fraudulent" voter rate is .043%.
Edit: Just looked it up. Rate is .00006%
Oregon was the first State to Vote By Mail for every election!
We started experimenting with universal vote by mail for special elections in 1981 and went totally vote by mail after Measure 60 passed in 1998. Oregon's voter turnout is usually the highest in the nation and as you pointed out, election fraud is all but nonexistent. In fact the last time it happened it was done by a republican.
I’m hoping your daughter was being frustratedly facetious
Hate is the Republican mantra, immigration is the albatross that repubs hang around Dems neck. They will never agree to immigration reform.
Migrant’s literally spit on her?
Yes, Lisa.
My daughter works for JP Morgan in NY City. She leaves work around 9:30pm and arrives around 7:00 am six days a week.
The hotel where the migrants are housed is right across the street. The migrants are always outside milling around all over the street. My daughter walks home to her apartment and walks back. It is her exercise. Sometimes she phones my wife and I while walking.
One evening she phoned me and said she is sick of being spit on by migrants because they hate folks who are dressed nice and spit on them and she had just been spit on.
I explained that migrant entry has DECLINED since Trump and Republicans did NOT stop migration. But, hey, the Republicans talk a good party about stopping migration and the Democrats are more muted.
Anyway, yes, she has been spit on multiple times as she walks away from the area. I tell her to take a cab but the cabbies are avoiding pickups in that area.
So sorry to hear of your daughter's difficult experience. I am hopeful an effort to allow migrants to work will get them out of hotels and allow them something else to do. We hosted an exchange student from Venezuela and keep in contact with her family. Conditions there are really dreadful so people are leaving by the trainload. Ideal would be to improve things in that country, but otherwise immigration reform here to revitalize the process might be accomplished if we had a congress that could get something done.
It would be an interesting thought experiment to ask her what she would do if the situation was reversed. She was the migrant (with the associated life experience/mental baggage) housed outside one of the greatest examples of power-mongering in the USA (JP MorganChase), and someone well dressed ignores you as they walk by. You would feel like the world’s trash. This is not saying your daughter is not understandably upset by being spit on. The migrants would not like to be spit on either. Yet the are, in a way, each day, being spit on by a world unwilling to recognize its role in their plight. JP Morgan has some pretty powerful people in its NYC offices that could put pressure on gop legislators (especially the ones they own) to work with the Dems to pass comprehensive immigration reform. I wonder if Mayor Adams put this immigrant housing exactly there for that reason.
I’m sorry your daughter is having to experience that. Too bad such behavior doesn’t earn them the boot.
Ewww. 🤢 she has my sympathies.
Do they use their words at all to express their anger or just their spit? I would like to know what they are expressing. Poor choice of who to be frustrated with. Wonder who’s brainwashing them.
Sounds like it’s time she get ‘southern’ with them. Spit back!
Agree Patricia; that exactly how I read the tea leaves. McCarthy is 'not' a leader and will not keep any promises in conflict with his hold on speakership; all so sadly farcical.
I hope the public will blame them and that they don’t succeed is shifting blame.
Shine enough light and rats and roaches scurry.
These twenty or so members of the 'Freedom Caucus' not only put 'party over country,' they put their 'caucus over party.' They are as great a threat to our representative democracy as were Tories in 1776, Sessessionists in 1861, and American supporters of the Nazis during the Second World War. That they were legitimately elected to Congress identifies the problem, the ignorance of a large segment of the American people. To work effectively, democracy requires a level of knowlege too many Americans lack.
Great assessment, Jack.
All of what your write is true, but most German people and the politicians they elected thought Hitler and his followers were buffoons and it was probably pathetic to watch them in the early days.
Sounds like exactly what most people here and the politicians they elected thought of #45. If I had a dollar for every time I saw or heard someone say he is a buffoon, I would be a millionaire
And they deserve the blame!!
I recently saw a poll where the results indicated that the Democrats would be held responsible for the government shutdown.
Patricia Jaeger: What public will blame them?
So McCarthy wants to meet with Biden!
If I'm Biden, I make the point that, as the great ultra-conservative John Wayne has said...."A man's word is his bond, and his handshake is a sacred symbol of that bond, and I [Biden] try to avoid dealing with people whose word is no good. He's broken his word already, so why would I believe he will not break it again. I find it very disappointing...Kevin sought to be Speaker of the House, and has wound up being Speaker of the GOP Liar's Club...and nothing more."
I was thinking the same as this when I read it this morning. Why would President Biden or anyone else believe Kevin McCarthy. His word is not his bond.
Biden needs to meet with McCarthy ON A PUBLIC STAGE with tv cameras and review the already agreed upon terms in place.
I would gladly watch that!
Yes, yes, yes!
If Biden met McCarthy, it would only be akin to Grant receiving Lee at Appomattox.
Keith, I just finished reading Sidney Andrews "The South Since the War", abridged by none other than Heather Cox Richardson herself.
Our library list said the original book by Sidney Andrews was in the stacks of the Reference section but a thorough search revealed someone had stolen it at some point since it was acquired. Too bad.
Truly a description of a fascinating trip through Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina immediately following the Civil war. The accounts of the various state conventions where the state constitutions were amended to outlaw slavery was fascinating.
Andrews account of the hard hearts toward the black folks is tough to read. I cannot imagine how difficult those times were for black Americans in the south as the the south reorganized to continue to exploit them without them being called slaves.
The south now is a bit different than when Grant met Lee at Appomattox, although I think I understand your point is that it might seem that McCarthy is crawling to Biden's feet.
One of the great random chances of my life is to have come across HCR's writings here and this community. That coupled with my intermittent consultant engineering job tasks enables me to actually read some history.
McCarthy, IF he meets with Biden, will not FEEL like Lee felt when he was received by Grant. He will feel MUCH more fear and trepidation.......because McCarthy's existence is much more fleeting than Lee's was.
Feeling silly today. But, like Lee, I hope McCarthy comes to meet with President Biden, attired in his best Congressional uniform, to cede his symbolic sword, for he certainly can't lead his bedraggled legion to any victory absent total destruction in it's wake. Conditions of his surrender, as the face of his disunited force for freedom and chaos, should include, at least his resignation from all forms political and return to civilian life somewhere south of decency or Miami, which ever is best. A second condition, would be appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate and determine indictments against those caucus members who would be complicit in shutting down the government which they clearly do not lead nor for which they have pledged allegiance but behaved in violations of their oaths to the nation and the people they are supposed to represent. Finally, Mr Biden should hand Mr McCarthy a signed copy of the agreement his party made and inform them that he will not sign any bill that is neither in the spirit of nor the letter of agreement with such. Publicly, Mr Biden and Mr McCarthy should be photographed in front of the full Press Corp recording this magnanimous conclusion to an unsuccessful war against this Nation and send Mr C back to his former followers for their disposal. Like I said, I am feeling silly 'cause nothing serious is going to help me remain sane.
Fred.McCarthy is such a shit, if he came to meet President Biden I hope that he would be wearing diapers.
Depends. Be assured. 😊
Except at Appomattox, Lee did not think he was Grant, and John Wilkes Booth was not calling the shots.
Exactly
Steve Lee never thought he was Grant. Lee was distinguished in the American-Mexican War 1846-1848 where he had no remembrance of Grant. When Lee was offered the leadership of the Union army, Grant was a mustered out ex-army officer with poor career opportunities.
When Lee was getting defeated at Gettysburg, Grant was capturing Vicksburg. In a final slug fest, Grant pummeled a smaller and smaller Lee army. Even at Appomattox, Lee was resplendent in his general’s uniform while Grant was in combat garb. Grant’s surrender terms were gracious.
Truth = Treason for the "GOP".
Too bad Jeffries doesn't find six Republicans who like not to be hung out to dry by the Fweedumbasses, get a Discharge Petition for the Senate CR, vote it into law and tell the Confederate traitors to go pound sand. And send the world's dumbest Okiefornian back to Bakersfield.
Doesn’t he still need McCarthy’s approval to bring anything to a vote?
If he had a discharge petition with 218 signatures the bill is passed and McCarthy can go sit on his thumb.
TC, the discharge petition takes too much time to prevent a shutdown at this time. Notice the phrase “after several legislative days”.
“Once a discharge petition reaches 218 members, after several legislative days, the House considers the motion to discharge the legislation and takes a vote after 20 minutes of debate. If the vote passes (by all those who signed the petition in the first place), then the House will take up the measure.”
https://indivisible.org/resource/legislative-process-101-discharge-petitions
I don't really "like" this.
MaryPat, unfortunately, those are the rules. To change them, we need a strong majority.
Working on it here in Michigan!!
A shorter shutdown with a predictable end looks preferable to what is happening right now.
Cameron, true.
Thanks for that clarification, TCinLA! I appreciate it!
😂👍😂
I think, if a Representative makes a motion, and its second’ by another Representative, it has to come to a vote. The Speaker has to recognize it.
I believe that is how it’s SUPPOSED to be done.
No, it's a Discharge Petition, signed by 218 members (a majority). The Speaker can then go to hell. Or Bakersfield, same difference.
Tom With all the s++t in the Republican House, I would think that a Discharge Petition would be an easy flow.
And we expect the citizens to understand all this???
The GOP morons in the House sure wouldn't.
😵💫🤐😵💫🤐😵💫
What's kevie's connection to OK?
Lisa, in theory, that area of California was populated by people from the plains (specifically Oklahoma) fleeing the dust bowl in the 1930's. TC is not the only person I have heard refer to Bakersfield as "Okie-Fornia" (the first was my former Sergeant, who is from Bakersfield, and said that he left to escape the "Oakies" that were there. Of course, now he is one of the loudest fpotus supporters on my FB feed.) There are sane people in and from Oklahoma, and they often take offense at that sobriquet.
**Side bar: I can understand, a little, how they feel. We have a certain percentage of 2A gun humpers that have decals on their vehicles announcing they are "Oregunians." SMH.
My wife was born in Oklahoma in the late 1950's, but her family moved to CA in 1959. Her mother's family all moved from OK to the Santa Barbara area during the 1930's. And you are right about the Okies in rural CA. The dust bowl years in OK were a living hell and CA was Nirvana in comparison.
Funny I never think of OR that way, but I'm aware of the history and also the Okies. Just couldn't find specifics on Kevie's family. Of course The Grapes of Wrath is a beautiful book about them. Back then the poor had the good sense not to support the party that only represents the ultra rich. Woody Guthrie spoke for them. Disparaging the original Okies is not right. But I suppose many of their descendants may have now been suckered by the orange stain. Luckily I'm in Sonoma County where I've never had to see a MAGAt hat.
Todays Redumblican party… completely tone deaf, dumb and blind…. Coming to a race near you! For the love of Pete, get out the Vote!!!
We were slack in the midterms and we caused this. If we let up in ‘24, we’ll be under a dictatorship. It’s just that simple. It’s getting very serious now, and these GQP-Trumpublicans are showing us exactly how they intend to govern.
They have no intention of governing.
Daniel, their actions have long shown they have no interest in being any part of democratic governing; they seek to "rule" and lord over all domains, including women and anyone 'different' and anyone with the unmitigated gall to differ with their dictates.
How would they govern? They wouldn't because they can't, literally can't. They are incapable at the very basic level of being able to reason, to observe reality without their overlay, and certainly not to control their emotions. Very few of them seem to understand how the government actually runs, forget their knowing what should be a moderate amount of history of this country. I do wonder about the quality of the clerks and aides who work for them; are they feeding the boss Reps real information which then gets twisted, Etc
Robin, a Dictatorship is not governing. Trump doesn’t want to be President. He wants to become the Dictator. If he’s elected in ‘24, there will never be another election of any kind in this nation. Trump has clearly laid out his plan.
He will do away with all federal law enforcement agencies, and the DOJ. All current heads of all federal departments will be removed from positions and he will appoint his people to run all government agencies, federal and state levels. All agencies will report only to him. All states will report inky to him, and take orders from inky him. And the law enfurvenrnt of the country will be dk e by the military, at his direction.
In other words, he’ll be Putin, Jr., and thus country will be an extension of Russia, which is exactly what Putin has said all along. He will take over this country and not have to fire a shot. Trump is his patsy to get it done, if he wins this upcoming election.
and that would be the day war starts in America No way would the other half of America allow that
Chump would hand us over in a NY minute. Putin is waiting…
I'll make a bet on that. There are several other possible outcomes. And here we are, instead of strategizing about how we can head this off (something that is entirely possible), we are predicting war based only on what we think we see. Our vision is limited here by the silo we are in. We need to get out of that silo and go back to building the alliances that made 2022 successful. We're being led by the nose by people who want us to wallow in fear and uncertainty. We do not need to allow that to happen. But to do what we need to do, we've got to stop buying into the negativity. See you later- off to our town Democratic reorganizing committee. We've tripled membership and anticipate an active team. Ha, my strategy worked!
I think that’s exactly what is planned. The wealthy donors just love to see complete nitwits doing their bidding in the RepubliQan Party. Once the GOP wins in 2024, there will be effectively no one to stop these rich guys, because nobody in the GOP is able to: as you said, they literally _cannot_ govern. The billionaires will be in complete control and free to do as they please. And you better believe Putin is wringing his hands in glee, too.
At their level or order on their organizational chart, I count them as bought and paid for 'chaos agents' and nothing more. Aides and clerks are just functionaries doing their jobs - some perhaps more and true believers; who knows.
Bannon promised to deconstruct the administrative state. They were well on their way and some of the destruction was/is so deep that it persists.
Absolutely correct, D4N!
Daniel, last time Trump was President the main thing he managed to do was get Jerome Powell to buy roughly 4 Trillion dollars in bonds issued by corporations, i.e., Corporate Bonds.
In other words, --> a heist by corporations of the Federal Reserve. Nothing more than a rip off.
So, that would be the main thing Trump would be after, another big heist that nobody notices. The ability to print money for himself and whomever he wants to give money to.
Almost nobody noticed that Jerome Powell spent more than TWO YEARS purchasing corporate bonds with printed money, all day, every day. But, that was the main delivery by Trump.
I leaned something tonight, Mike. Thanks for this information! It’s appreciated.
Daniel, no problem and thank you for the feedback. Maybe this compensates for some of my bad posts?
or maybe not. :-)
Nah, you don’t do “bad” posts.
😈
No "bad" posts. Just some devilishness on display occasionally.
Ally, we ALL have “devilishness” in us, sometimes. It’s what keeps this all so interesting!
What bad post? There’s. I such thing, Mike!
“Quantitative; Easily”
Yes, EASILY steal from the American people without them voting for it or even knowing about it, although, the Wall Street Journal (amazingly) reported on the activity fairly frequently.
The mainstream press? Not one report of the heist in progress.
The Mainstream press knows which side its bread is being buttered on, “clicks and likes”
I think we need an update on the Dr Suess “Butter Battle Book” or at least some adult highbrow Rocky and Bullwinkle sarcasm
... Bartholemew and the Oobleck!!
I need more information on this, Mike. Aren't bonds considered akin to (or actually) loans? Don't the corporations receiving that money have to repay it at some point? If so, how is it stealing? I am asking a real question not pushing back on you.
Mike S: Thanks. I did not know about Powell purchasing bonds. If it weren’t for the Substack writers (starting with HCR) and the commenters such as yourself I wouldn’t know 1/2 of what I have learned about our country in these last few years. Here again is a new piece of info which is proving what I suspect is happening. That is, corporate power is setting the agenda. Our local, state and federal law makers are, I think, unwittingly and stupidly, no longer legislating on behalf of their human constituents but are protecting corporate power. They just think they are still making the laws. They will say they are protecting jobs. It is pathetic. And news reporting is also corporatized so I am getting no help there. All I have left is Substack and my library to discover what is happening and help me make sense of things. Oh and the League of Women Voters. Can’t forget how much I have learned through my involvement with the League. Even so, I am pretty discouraged. Especially if the government shuts down.
🤯🧐
Holy Schitt, that may rank right up there with revenge. Did chump have the brains to think of that???
It depends on what one calls governing. The have every intention on dominating. They fear democracy.
"They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again,” - JDT
We need to eliminate this Republican Party as it is now. This bunch of clowns have no interest in governing anything. They, and Trump want a dictatorship, with h as the dictator.
Daniel I voted for President Eisenhower. Sixteen years later I was on the Nixon White House Enemies List. What ‘Republican’ party?
Congratulations Keith. An accomplishment to be sustainably proud of!
How the hell did you accomplish that? If I may ask?
Daniel I maintained my integrity and voluntarily put my life on the line for my country. That made me an Ike Republican—an extinct species today.
Daniel Cooper: What steps need to be taken to "eliminate this Republican Party . . ."?
I recommend a return to education. Humanities, civics and world history would do for a start. However, I am afraid the country might need a HARD reset such as a GOP election victory and riots in the street.
Joanne, it’s going to take a lot of work by everyone, over the next 4 election cycles at least, and all in between. Nit inky on the federal level, but the state and local levels as well. Trump, and his enablers have managed to get their oriole in office at all levels. They’ve all got to be voted out. But first, we have got to find find Democrats to get in their places. Then, they can eliminate the MAGA-GQP from their Republican Party and start over.
Revenge priority over all
I'm always surprised that news reports don't mention what is painfully obvious if you can force yourself to watch MAGAs talk. They LOVE the idea of a government shutdown. They see "the government" as their enemy. These House idiots aren't going to lose supporters on this.
It makes you wonder why they wanted to be in Government to begin with. Perhaps that was the motive all along. Destruction is always so much easier and more fun than Creation. Kids knocking down each other’s sandcastles on the beach. At the same time as I was trying to find something witty to say, I feel devastated by all these political disasters: the horrible Republican debate tonight. A group of people with no dignity and self respect. The fact that an autocrat is hovering. The fact that our media is in dereliction of its traditional duty by focusing on only drama, and will only rarely support the President.
You only have to look back at their professor, none other than Newt Gingrich; the serial gop guerilla warfare specialist and his teacher from Watergate fame.
SO true. D4N. That monster has a lot to answer for. Another reason I'd like to believe in hell.
Annie, I'm right there with you. As much as this forum is a godsend and a true tribe- so many smart, engaged people!! - I have to take breaks often because it is so incredibly demoralizing to read these comprehensive lists of the cascading disasters. I'm really lucky to have family, work that I love, history that I can bury myself in for long hours— but these are really terrifying times. I hope you're taking care of yourself, because we all have to keep sane and strong for this fight. Thanks for being so honest.
I am also having a hard time with trying to balance being informed of what is happening now, learning about our history (all the things I never knew!), taking action to help and not becoming completely demoralized. I agree - “terrifying times”. We need to find balance. I really miss the late night comedy!
It returns OCTOBER 2!
Modern Republicans persistently talk out of "both sides of their mouths" saying one thing when it suits them and the polar opposite when it suits them so long as the incurious can mistake it for a justification of what they actually do. "Hating" "government" is obvious BS since they spend all there time and treachery attempting to absolute control of government. The true target has always been democracy, equal protection under law, and the common weal, that hinders their plutocratic patrons from total domination. Governance is just the rules; which equally can be wise and just or predatory and dictatorial.
The Media business IS a business; it no longer carries any shine of being a “public watchdog” defending the principles of the Constitution. I stopped watching network and cable sources and now look to Substack for information based on journalistic sources like Propublica
They become millionaires via the contributions and bribes.
Annie Weeks: They wanted to be in government to begin with in order to gain money and power. "Governing" was never part of their plan.
Power, chaos and publicity platform would be my guess as to their motivation.
The question is how long will the chaos caucus in the House be allowed to hang up funding the government. I think that this will eventually turn on their taking down McCarthy as Speaker for not being sufficiently hard ass and it will then take a handful of the most vulnerable Republicans in the House to cross the aisle to elect a Speaker who will not bow to the chaotics demands. That may take a long long time...
Georgia, I don’t believe the republicans in the House have anyone A. qualified, or B. that want the gavel. Maybe with the exception of MTG, or Matt Gaetz. And if either of them get it, or any of the other GQP-Trumpublicans, nothing will get done just like it is now. Those are the ones running McFarty like a puppet on a string.
Man does that present some really bad visuals for me; that is mtg or frat boy gaetz with a gavel. Animal House comes to mind...
Of Animal Farm.
"Two legs good--four legs better!"
"Toga! Toga!"
Lol !
G! I’m LMAO right now!😂😂😂
The chaotics are following Trump's direct instructions, but at some point likely long long into the future enough vulnerable Republicans will realize that they have no shot at being re-elected unless they take a stand against the chaos. That requires the chaotics putting up their own candidate for Speaker.
And why, oh why is the broadcast inc., not calling out obvious questions about tfg's mental fitness ? As he becomes more desperate about the prospect of being accountable and 'proven' to be the fraud he's always been, the media focus is like a play on some equivalency between Biden's age vs tfg's anger and resentment stirring deflections, as though it 'looks' like some kind of strength and competence ? His antics make me wonder if he doesn't already have some form of dementia with anger syndromes; I've seen it before. And, oh btw, his defense counsel may in fact try to peddle just that in his defense.
The Sidney Powell Defense: If you believe anything I say, you are the one with the problem.
D4N, have you watched “Morning Joe” on MSNBC? I watch it about every morning during the week. Joe Scarborough has been lighting up Frumpy and all the other stupid antics this bunch of Trumpublicans are pulling. He’s a ‘no hole’s barred’ type of guy. You know he used to be a Republican. He often remarks about his ‘old party’ he used to belong to, back when he was in Congress.
Daniel Cooper! Also, no "holds" barred!
Ah yes, it could become his defense. BUT, did he have such affliction 2-1/2 years ago and counting, before the attacks at the capitol?
I believe by then it will be too late. This bunch has shown no interest in governing anything all year.
Daniel Regarding replacing McCarthy, I recall that, when Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker, there was not a rush by anyone to ‘seize control’ of the German government.
No, there wasn’t, was there. This could be a repeat of history.
Daniel After McCarthy even more House Raucous Caucus chaos?
I wonder. No knes mentioned that it took 15 votes to get McFarty the gavel. If Gaetz is successful at getting him voted out of leadership, who the hell is the Republicans going to nominate to take his place? Jordan, Greene, Gaetz? Or maybe one of the other half dozen Frumpstets that suck his hind section nightly?
What a mess! How the hell did we ever allow this to happen?
Environmental Protection Agency
"Hello, EPA, may I help you?"
"This is Shelby Connor from Parrish, Alabama. We've had 260 box car loads of dog gone shit sittin' at our rail yard for months. It stinks.”
"That's a state matter. Did you call the Alabama Department of Environmental Management?"
"What ya'll mean? These trainloads of shit have come down from New York. It's a federal inter-sate matter."
"Sir, please be respectful. It's human waste.”
"I don't care what you call it. It's stinkin' up our town. We can't even go to a Little League baseball game ‘cause the boxcars are right across the tracks. How would you like to drive to church on Sunday and take a whiff of it while praying to the Lord?”
"Did Trump send this stench down here because we didn't elect Roy Moore? Let me speak with your director."
“Sir, Mr. Pruitt isn't available. And he no longer reviews environmental issues. Our new mandate from the president is to help companies get rid of waste the cheapest way possible. They probably picked Alabama because your dumping rates are so low. You'll have to call the West Virginia office to file a complaint. They handle waste disposal. Oh wait, that office has been closed down, too."
"I wanna know why New York and New Jersey’s shit is sittin’ in our little town. Git the stuff outta here."
“Shelby, shouting into the phone won't get you anywhere. I'm trying to help. Here, let me give you the Denver office. They have experience handling bio solids. Oops, sorry, that office was recently closed, too. Mr. Connor, we're not going to be around much longer as an agency. The EPA is shutting down. Haven't you heard?"
"I voted for Donald Trump. And now he's turning his backside on us."
"The president is doing a great job getting rid of regulations so more jobs can be created. Do you know how many people you could employ shoveling that sludge into a dump? Your residents could have more work for generations. I suggest that you could turn this waste into fertilizer-rich compost and grow organic vegetables."
"You got a point there. That’s why we voted for him. I need a second job, too. How can we git more New York bio waste?"
(From "Donald's Vanity Tantrums")
There is a “No Pay for Congress During Default or Shutdown Act” that would withhold Congress member’s salaries during a shutdown. I believe it has languished in some committee. See: https://spanberger.house.gov/posts/spanberger-fitzpatrick-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-block-congressional-pay-during-defaults-or-shutdowns
On Trump’s bid for union support (in a non-union venue, no less!), it should be remembered that virtually every right to work state has a Republican legislature. They are implacably hostile to collective bargaining.
And the minimum wage in most of those states is equal to the Federal Minimum wage. Even a teenager living with mom and dad would have trouble saving anything at $7.25 an hour.
Fortunately, most of the Blue states have minimum wages much higher than the Federal minimum wage.
Higher wages = more Federal taxes.
Bluchek Mark--Thanks so much for the link--great info!
This is nothing new. My idiot representative Rob Whitman proposes this each year. Whitman took over parts of Spanberger’s district when the Virginia voting maps changed. The legislation will go nowhere.
Virginia is a right to work state. Even when Dems held all three branches we couldn’t garner enough votes to change this. Our elections this year will be pivotal. Help!
Here are 5 ways to help us win in Virginia—WHICH WILL YOU DO??
Donate money to the 31st Street Swing Left’s slate of candidates here. (Or Jess’s VA Giving Circle here)
Write letters to Virginia voters with Working America here or with Vote Forward here. (Vote Forward has letter kits for people who can’t afford stamps! Apply here.)
Write postcards with Postcards4VA here.
Phone bank on Tuesdays with Silver Spring Progressive Action here, or Wednesdays and Saturdays with Sister District here.
For those of you in DC, VA or MD, you can door-knock with 31st Street on Saturdays here.
https://open.substack.com/pub/chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions/p/chop-wood-carry-water-926-e74?r=fqsxl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
❤️❤️❤️
Yesterday, UAW president Shawn Fain said, “I find it odd he’s going to go to a non-union business to talk to union workers. I don’t think he gets it.”
But so true to form.
The crowd was totally hand picked by the Trump campaign as Heather subtly points out in today's letter.
He can't stand to have anyone heckle him during his hours long rants.
He needs to attend more Big10 and Big12 football games and try to interact with the student body. A large percentage of students won't hesitate to boo him and flip him off as evidence by the students at my alma mater Iowa State. I'm so proud of them. They are much braver than their parents and grandparents.
“There will be no heavy duties,” (Nobel Prize winner) Wolfgang Pauli told the physicist who was to serve as his assistant. “Your job is, every time I say something, contradict me with the strongest arguments.”
- quoted in Barbara Lovett Cline's "Mad About Physics: Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities"
"Off with their heads" - The Queen of Hearts
I hope that McConnell does not succeed in distinguishing and distancing Republicans in the Senate from their crazy brethren in the House. Considering that the vast majority of Republicans in the Senate refused to vote to convict Trump on his two impeachments, I don't see how he can make the case that there is ANY difference in kind.
“I don’t think he gets it”. Sums up the GOP (insert throat clearing sound) strategy about just about everything.
How many times were some of us calling these nut cases fascists dismissed? Many saw the Tea Party movement for what it was and where it was heading when it rose it ugly head, but they were told they were over reacting.
As a retired public educator who had to live under the continued attack of conservatives, they worked to ruin the public education system. That set the stage for where we are now.
Wealthy conservatives ran the strategies put forth in the Lewis Powell Memo which was basically about gain power through taking over the informal power structures of society while working to fill government positions with "believers" of their "free, unregulated capitalism". What ever commonsense conservatives had, they have now acquiesced their responsibility if leadership to the extremists.
Under regulate business while over regulating the agency responsible for oversight, then make sure that the oversight agency is underfunded and then blame them for their failures. This happened in Texas with public education. It is now omnipresent is how the conservative faction is now governing. You can pull up the 1980 Libertarian platform and draw a line to this extreme group that is not calling the shots.
Historians of democracies and authoritarian have shown that it does not take but a few well placed people to being down a democracy. America is not immune. Let's hope that Churchill's faith in the American people is true "Americans will do the right thing, but only after trying everything else."
You’ve been paying attention
It might be "odd" but it works.
Let's combine the effects of :
- Confirmation Bias
- Illusion of Explanatory Depth
- The Dunning/Kruger effect
and - Anchoring Bias.
Then Trump can say anything and it flies. Anything at all.
Dunning/Kruger is my favourite. That one is about how it is impossible to know how stupid you are if you lack the intellect to comprehend your own stupidity.
Noted, Heather!
Sad to say, my stellar U.S. Rep, Jennifer Wexton, will not be seeking re-election in 2024. She has been a shero for Democrats in an otherwise red district in Virginia.
Here is her letter (excerpted): "By now, some of you will have seen the news about my plans for 2024. I wanted to take a couple of minutes to reach out to all of you who have been a part of Team Wexton – to share my endless gratitude, explain my decision, and reflect upon my time in Congress.
Back in April, I shared that I had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. At the time, I made the decision to carry on with my Congressional work and political activity. My doctors believed that my condition would not stop me from performing my duties in Congress, and my goal was to stay in office for years to come.
"During the months that followed, as my symptoms worsened, I sought additional medical opinions and was given an updated diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). It is a rare neurological disorder that is often mistaken for Parkinson’s in its early stages– but while both are progressive degenerative diseases, PSP develops far more rapidly.
"After some difficult and honest conversations with my family and doctors, I’ve concluded that juggling the realities of a re-election campaign in a tough district while managing the symptoms of my PSP is not feasible for me. It’s with a heavy heart – yet also a deep appreciation for the privilege I’ve been granted by the people of Virginia’s 10th District – that I will be retiring from Congress at the end of my current term.
"I wish that I could serve longer. But being able to serve at all has been the highest honor of my life. And it was people like you that made it all the more worth it.
To my family, to my staff, and to all my supporters: thank you for everything.
Sincerely, Jennifer."
So sad. Her patriotism is a blessing. May her service be honored by electing a successor cut from the same cloth.
Such sad news. Such a horrible illness.
🥲
Trump is nothing but smoke and mirrors, optics, the power of suggestion. Remember his "Bible" stunt? It wasn't a Bible, and he was holding it backward.
In his world, the world is what he says it is.
Themon, you are spot on. Trump is all lies. If he speaks, it’s a lie. I also thought that him having his “rally” at a non-union plant was odd. Plus the people in the “crowd” holding union signs weren’t associated with the union at all. Just common Trumpster 🐑!
What a Putz!
You are too kind.
Trying my best to not let the ‘old southern cop’ come out of me. I can get pretty raunchy when it comes to that 🍓💩🤡!
I think it was probably a real Bible but it was not Trump's Bible, it was supplied to him as a prop. That's probably as close as he ever got to one. Asked to name his favorite Bible verse, he retorted "that's private". Wasn't there something in there about hiding light under a bushel? I suspect Trump's bushel if very dark indeed.
And hecfudbt have the decency to home it up the correct way! It was upside down! He couldn’t name a Bible verse because he doesn’t know any. He’s most likely never been inside any type of church, or to a religious function of any kind.
A total fraud said plainly and accurately enough Themon.