Last night, at about 11:10 local time, Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida, where the state’s panhandle curves down toward the peninsula.
Project 2025 is designed to create a government that has only one interest: serving the president as king … and those who the king (sorry, I mean President) considers loyal to him. In a disaster, we can expect Trump to “throw paper towels” at the problem, because - just like with the COVID pandemic - he doesn’t care about us.
Not arguing, but I think the horror is a little broader-based than that. Project 2025 is built from religious dogmas that seek to enforce -- as law -- a large laundry-list of deep intrusions into private life, while repealing all forms of social equity across the white-male-christian/not-white-male-christian boundary.
Thanks for “not arguing”. I know Project 2025 will make life Hell for many of us. I also know Trump has a cruel streak that runs deep and will enjoy hearing about the suffering. And I know he might die and then we’ll have a POTUS Vance… a different kind of Hell.
You don't think a POTUS Vance would encourage a Voluntary Day of Prayer and Fasting, when floodwaters are rising to the upper floors and the power is off? Maybe Bill Lee had taken the Trumpian precaution of changing the trajectory of the hurricane with a sharpie.
Bill Lee is an ineffective governor, interested primarily in one thing: school vouchers. He tried last year and got so much resistance it was shelved. He’s coming at us again this year. Meantime, TN has refused federal funds for HIV, education, and Medicaid expansion. As head of the RGA, he endorsed Mark Robinson. Oh—and he’s a devout “Christian.”
I hope the people of TN are paying attention and will use their voice by voting Bill Lee out of office. We all know where this is going…. when Lee is questioned why he didn’t ask for assistance, he is going to blame it on Kamala. I sure hope the Harris/Waltz campaign call him out.
Thank you Dr. Richardson. This is the second time I’ve seen this “Day of Prayer and Fast”. The Republican Christian Cult must have sent out a nation wide message because I’m in PA and receive notification of bills before the State Senate/House. Recently, I received a notice a State Representative from the middle of the Commonwealth has also introduced a bill to make October 2nd as a “Day of Prayer and Fasting”. When I saw this, I thought what the schnitzel?? Is the coffee not working?? What happened to separation of church and state??
Being the person I am, I did some research on this State Representative who proposed the bill and she is a 29 year old mother who attended religious schools and has a bachelor in business with a minor in the Bible. Yep, that is what her bio on the Commonwealth website says.
This is why we need the Dept of Education (DOE)! While DOE is not perfect, one of their functions is to establish curriculum standards. Maybe if Bill Lee and this PA State Representative took the required Social Studies class, they would know the foundation of these United States is religious freedom ~ Mayflower, escape religious persecution, “Separation of Church and State”, the Constitution, anything ringing a bell here Bill???
Another example of the seriousness of this election.
The goal is to control curriculum. Privatization frees up public school taxpayer funds to divvy out to private schools, even though private school parents have paid tuition for decades as a choice. In two more years in Iowa, all private school vouchers will be offered at the full student expenditure rate as public schools which is $7,500 per pupil. Public schools are being starved in Iowa, especially in nearly half of the 99 counties where there is NO private school within 100 miles. It is deliberate destruction of a once emulated public education system. Gov. Kim Reynolds and her cronies have also dismantled Area Education Associations having served Iowa districts for decades with crucial special education services, social workers, school psychologists, pre-school services and media services. She justifies giving each individual district (some in very poor small towns) the “option” to contract out such services; needless to say that is an enormous burden placed on district employees, both financially and educationally. Abuse of this voucher system empower the Iowa Republican legislature to dictate curriculum, including the banning of 300 classic novels, which is being enforced as I write. Iowa will not survive even more egregious violations of their freedoms (did I mention Iowa has a 6 week abortion ban) via Project 2025. Vote Blue up and down the ticket.
"Being the person I am, I did some research on this State Representative who proposed the bill and she is a 29 year old mother who attended religious schools and has a bachelor in business with a minor in the Bible." I had to laugh when I read this about the TN Rep's bio...Sorry - a "minor in the Bible"?
They are above such concepts, Maureen, as god has told them - well who knows what. They are the perfect example of ignorance as a source of bliss. What they don't know will hurt us, and they will stand above the fray on some holy Mount Olive watching porn and killing whomever offends their delicate sensibilities.
I'm not opposed to someone having a "minor in Bible." Only wish they'd first learned how to read, think, feel, and act on the message. Love this: "The federal government’s efficient organization of responses to natural disasters illustrates that as citizens of a republic, we are part of a larger community that responds to our needs in times of crisis." Hear Springsteen, bard of our best selves: "Wherever this flag's flown, we take care of our own."
ML...of course he is a devout "Christian", one of those who does not understand the message of Jesus as found in the first three Gospels and gives religion a bad name. I am sure prayer helps people get through difficult times, but it needs to be coupled with common sense and real compassion. I am not clear why fasting would help.
It could be putting a noble spin on the absence of food and a means to prepare it. The church ladies can't possibly prepare soup for the needy when the church is flooded.
There's a story about a man who was warned about a flood and was told to lave. After several people came to rescue him, he always responded that God would take care of him. His last conversation is with God and he asked why God didn't take care him? God replied I did and you refused my help. (stupid idiot-that's me)
On Judgment Day, the Lord will simply say to these agents of the devil...."I never knew you." During the dark days of 1940, when England was standing alone, Churchill called for a Day of Prayer. That is reality.
The Satanic maggat DoP+F is the day they will not wolf down Big Macs, Whoppers and buckets of KFC.....they must lay off watching porn and trying to lure underage girls.
Be wise and give up on church. It can be a great place for socializing but there are many equally great places. Find them and realize how ridiculous church membership is. Save yourself now|!
Anne-Louise, nicely put. With Project 2025 the rest of us would be lucky to have a sharpie or anything else, but will have an intrusion into private life and no help for a large community problem. I read about the hurricane before it came and one woman, who was in an evacuation zone was not leaving because she had her supplies and she was "prayed up". So if she needs rescuing, let God come and get her.
A man is sitting on his roof during a major flood. A rowboat comes by and offers to take the man off the roof. Man says, I have prayed and have faith God will save me. A while later a police launch comes by and trys to get the man on the roof. Same response. I have prayed and have faith God will save me. The flood waters are rising rapidly. A search and rescue helicopter comes along to pick him up. Same response. At last the house is carried away and the man drowns. At the Pearly Gates he accosts God and says I prayed and had faith you would save me, yet you let me drown. God replies, I sent a rowboat, a motor boat, and a helicopter. Whate more could you ask for?
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
Anne-Louise: I thought it was rich to note that the governor of Tennessee, whose state was affected, called for divine intervention by way of "prayers and fasting", while Project 2025 calls for the elimination of a governmental office charged with hurricane tracking because it leads to further talk of climate change. Neither direction provides a sane response to a problem.
NH observed Fast Day -- an official paid holiday for state employees since 1681, when it was called to save the life of a wealthy Portsmouth merchant. It didn't work -- he died -- but it remained on the books until 1991 when our frugal legislature changed the name and date to Civil Rights Day, and eventually acquiesced and called it MLK Day.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
I'm going to challenge that frequently restated claim. I don't think cruelty is the point. I think their cruelty is merely a means to an end, and the end the point. The key to understanding cruelty is that it’s about power and control. Likewise, the key to understanding the gaslighting, the lies, the rare occasions when they tell the truth, all the women Donald Trump has sexually assaulted, etc., is that MAGA is exactly the point, and MAGA is all about a small group of people having the power to control everyone else.
That confuses me a bit, James. There are ways to enact the policy you desire (i.e. deportation of brown people from south of the US Border) without putting them in cages and seperating children from their parents. There are other components that are cruel (criminalizing abortion and punishing women for needing one, or refusing all transgender care and insisting that an individual's very real experience of being trapped in the wrong body is immoral. Both of these are amplified by the glee with which many proponents exhort these; they love the ability to crush others.
I took great pleasure in Muhammad Ali’s victories despite not being a fan of boxing. It seemed like the good guys finally stopped bringing a knife to a gun fight. I can speculate as to what made me think of Ali as one of the good guys, but I knew I was right when I heard his daughter say the following in the Ken Burn documentary (Round Four episode): “One of my father’s favorite sayings was, ‘Rivers, lakes, and streams all have different names but they all contain water. So do religions have different names, but they all contain truth.’ He always taught me that there’s only one true religion, and that’s ‘the religion of the heart’ he would say, ‘and as long as you do right, and you treat people right, I believe you’ll go to heaven no matter what you call your religion.’”
There is joy when “we” win regardless of who “we” includes and excludes. Ali was one of the good guys because, for him, “we” included without excluding. The bad guys exclude. MAGA excludes.
The only thing harder than not excluding is living with the long-term consequences of excluding.
When I was a child, my Dad used to say, "Jimmy, this is going to hurt me a lot more than it's going to hurt you." And I would think, "Yeah, easy for you to say." But it's true. In the short term, it's a lot harder to be mature and a lot easier to be immature. As the Jimmy Duggan character said in "A League of Their Own" (movie): “The ‘hard’ is what makes it great.”
This just in Steve, the Vance-Trump -K.Roberts Troika have revised P25. In the 1st 200 days all 'childless-cat-women' will be herded up & incarcerated in a rapidly built prison named the 'Ozzie & Harriet Maximum Security Facility" in Springville, Ohio. Mandatory prayer on Sundays to the other Troika: The Father, The Son & The Holy Ghost.
MAGAs will never know what hit them if Project 2025’s wet dreams are realized.
It’ll devastate the lives and aspirations of all us. Deliberate ignorance, blind belief and single-issue voting will fail them, but they’ll likely persist in blaming libs, George Soros and darker-skinned people till their (hastened) dying day.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
But, I can’t help but wonder if trump is a little concerned about loosing. This week I have received 2 texts from trump, one from vance and 2 from cruz asking for money. I respond by not only NO but Hell NO. I am a Democrat all in for Harris and Cruz, hit send and then follow up with STOP.
I don’t know if it’s a scam but how the hell did they get my number???
I'm willing to characterize my thoughts as an argument, although I agree with you, Steve Brant. I also agree with Themon the Bard that P25 is not only about Trump's reign; it is a philosophy of government that is hellish for all but a few, because it is based on the idea that only a few are fit to decide what's right, and the rest of us are cattle to be herded into their pen. If Themon is correct that it's steeped in religious dogma, then we can look at how the church drove us into the dark ages. I believe it's an amalgam of religion and politics, along the lines of a King by divine right. Power by fiat. Either way, once in power the leader will do whatever he wants, and it will be "right" by definition. In the case of Trump, they're willing to let the lunatic run the asylum so they can establish their form of government. Ack and yuck and Hell No!
Not arguing with you Steve or Themon, but expanding upon your comments.
Project 2025 is a well funded, well organized, plan to help abusive people abuse.
Trump is only the face & head Influencer in the USA branch of what appears to be a global con in a “New World Order” game I think of as Billionaire’s Chess, with moves and counter moves.
I’ve posted this before and I will include it here since it applies.
“A ‘better world’ bought by atrocities will be rotten at the core.” (Ilona Andrews)
America’s core is rotten because the greedy and needy moved in to colonize and steal land from indigenous peoples with lies, cheats, and violence, and then build upon it with slave labor as well as legal but abusive labor practices.
The same mentality behind America’s ugly origin is at the core of America today. The Republicans are the representatives of those who are the genetic and ideological offspring of those profiteers. They have a brutish ideology that “might makes right” and who have the audacity to claim they represent moral Christians.
When I look at the current Republican Party, I see a party of abusers who attract other abusers.
-Liars, cheaters, con artists, &
White-collar criminals
Abusive law enforcement
Bullies
Abusive patriarchists
Toxic masculinists
Public Abusers (internet trolls and toxic media personalities such as Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, & Tucker Carlson)
-Domestic Abusers
-Rapists & other sex-related non-consensual behaviors
-Sexual harassers & stalkers
-Pedophiles
-Self-appointed morals police, Big Religion profiteers, and Bible thumpers (who attack abortion clinics and LGBTQIA+ members - particularly Transgender people)
-Misogynists & sexists
-White Nationalists
-Racists/racism, anti-[brown] immigrant groups
-Anti-government groups
-Well-armed fringe militant & outlaw groups
-Cultists
Most of all, I see such amoral, selfish, dangerous greed from wealthy & corporate donors who want to cut taxes for the wealthy and dump them on the rest of the country who can barely afford make ends meet.
They also want to deregulate so they can be free to take advantage of workers, consumers, and environment/planet, and not be held accountable for harms they cause. They don’t care at all that they’re responsible for destroying American Democracy, our planet, nature, the environment, and human health & lives.
Note: No matter which party, no politician’s hands are clean. The Democrats aren’t perfect, but they’re driving the train that’s heading closer to where the majority want and need to go in order for us all to have at least some say in our government and to keep control over our own bodies & lives from continuing to shrink.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
What is at the core of “the American experiment” is a discussion worth having. I believe well-meaning people can do bad things not because they are bad but because they don’t know any better. It’s called an “error of omission”. When you do something bad on purpose, that’s an “error of commission”.
My personal opinion is the first people here were so blown away by who the Native Americans were that they classified them as “savages” (denying their humanity) and treated them as the “smart animals” that term implies.
I also think they lived in a world in which seeing women as partners (therefore deserving the right to vote) was totally foreign. Sure, there were bad men (I’m thinking of the Salem witch trials as an example), but I do not think all men were bad… not that all men are bad today.
Our economy incentivizes / rewards bad behavior because Wall Street has no morality. But Wall Street is a human invention. It need not be a permanent fixture of human society (see Buckminster Fuller).
I continue to have hope that a sociological transformation is possible. The benefits just need to be “sold” to the public at large.
“calls for slashing FEMA’s budget and returning disaster responses to states and localities.”
The states impacted by this hurricane voted for Trump. They have been red for a while. They also bear the brunt of hurricanes. Project 2025 will decimate those states if they do not get aid from feds. Another example of people do drunk on koolaid that they vote against their own best interests.
Indeed just when you think it cannot be worse, it can. But most interesting for all the Christian faith push JD is married to a woman who’s faith is Hindu.
Let's make certain these cruel and self-serving individuals do not gain power again. It is the least we can do for our country, our world, and the other- than- human beings we share it with. I'm fed up with this nonsense. Don't take your eyes off the ball on this even for a second. Imagine a better world and leave the nasty ones in the dust.
Would behoove us to pay attention to how nature responds to what we do. Never before have we been able to wreak havoc to the extent that 7-8 billion humans can. Especially if some of those humans deny any “havoc” and continue with their selfish quest for dominance.
Just because the Republicans want to claim climate change isn’t real does not mean the natural disasters aren’t real. I live on the southeastern NC coast, (not on the beach.) In 2018 a hurricane severely damaged my house, which is not in a flood plain. In 2019, tornadoes imbedded in a hurricane roared through my area damaging houses, uprooting trees, downing power lines, etc. That was all VERY, VERY REAL.
We looked into moving to the middle of the state, but couldn’t decide where to move. But as Hurricane Helene demonstrates storms don’t hit just the coastal areas. Western NC has experienced devastation. It takes a really long time to recover from a natural disaster, in some cases years, and cost astronomical amounts of money. How do you live in the meantime?
Jenn ~ thank you for sharing your story. A very dear friend of mine retired to Asheville, NC from NYC. She did her “climate” research and that is how she landed in Asheville. She has no power, her home is flooded and I haven’t been able to reach her for since yesterday. Climate change is REAL!!
Yes, the horror is broader, but the issues are too numerous for one post. Maybe 900 pages of push back, or some notice by MSM. Maybe now is the time to publicize the FEMA plans in P2025. Thank you HCR
Here is Kevin Roberts (President of Heritage Foundation) at this weeks NYT (Climate Event) arguing with moderator about the science that Project 2025 doesn’t believe in:
Kevin D. Roberts, Ph.D. | The Project 2025 Climate Agenda
Remember the sarcastic meaning of the college degrees:
B.S. Bull S***
M.S. More of the Same
P.H.D. Piled Higher and Deeper
"Roberts earned his PhD in American History from the University of Texas."
Of course this means he is an expert in American History and therefore qualified to make judgements on climate science. /s
His next paper on American History should be "Climate disasters since 1776 to the present in America with emphasis of CO2 levels and damage assessments"
He is more fond of the slavery period when such as he ruled all. Or maybe the Articles of Confederation would be his go to. He is an expert on greed and power when all is said and done. And BTW, I have known and know of more than a few educated imbeciles, who use any intelligence they have to weaponize what they have learned against the “lessers.” Bill Buckley comes to mind.
Thank you Kathleen for both links! In the interview of Roberts I think the interviewer missed an opportunity. Electric bills are higher because many utility companies are private. In fact government regulation of utilities has been weakened because of the constant push since Reagan to privatize everything. It is not policy causing inflation when it comes to utilities but lack of policy you might say. I think the people Roberts represents are looking for money making opportunities. Of course they will point to government being the cause of the inflation but that’s a dodge, a distraction. Climate change is also limiting the opportunities to make $ so let’s pretend it is overblown and not as dire so we have our chance to cash in first. Then there is the religious overlay of Project 2025–the needed crowd control mechanism to keep people distracted while the plundering continues. I would not have seen this interview had you not posted it. Also I have subscribed to Friedmann’s Substack. Lots of good information there. Thank you again for both.
Started listening to Kevin Roberts. Gave up. God and blue voters save us all from Project 2025. I was a sceptic for a long time but wehen you can look out your window and watch it happening, it is impossible to deny. When I moved to Ukraine in 2007, winters were cold (-10C as low as -20C once in a while) with snow. When we left, two years ago, winter temeratures were so mild that there were ticks all year round, no snow pack for more than a few days before it melted again. In Saskatchewan the winters have been mild without the usual 6 week cold snap of -30C to-40C on occassion. Now it is much shorter. The hottest days and hottest months globally have all been withing the past ten years. to quote The Monkeys, "I'm a believer".
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
Of course this agenda must be stopped. But for all the good Biden has done, he sat on his hands concerning the massive influx of illegals flooding across the border for almost 3 years. Now Harris is paying for it. I predicted this would happen and it’s happening today. It’s clearly a toss-up of who will win. If Trump wins, the country goes to hell.
Massive influx?? Seriously! Sat on his hands? Trump sand bagged a viable border bill developed by red state right wing senators which representatives of President Biden also had input of the bill! Nay! The signing pen was swallowed by chump!
Bill, so Trump's unfulfilled promise to add 15000 additional border patrol and customs agents and we ended up only 14600 short of that goal when he left office, is Biden's fault? You're drinking the Republican kool-aid.
And his POS border wall that any 12 year old with a saws-all could breach is again, Biden's fault. He promised over 1000 miles of new wall and we got 49 or about 5% of what he promised. And the wall is still being breached up to 150 times a day because, it is a POS wall with a terrible design.
If DonOLD had actually done anything to secure the border besides claim that "Mexico would pay for the big beautiful wall" then maybe I would be a little more willing to blame Biden for people coming across the southern border.
Did you know that we also have a northern border where it is estimated that 3 times as many undocumented people cross as the southern border? I have crossed into Canada in several places and I know for a fact that if I wanted to sneak into Canada or the US, I could be dropped off within a mile or so and be across the border in less than an hour--undetected.
And how does securing the "open" southern border prevent the students graduating college from overstaying their visas?
Is it my responsibility to check the papers of each of the workers that I have hired to work on my property? I know for a fact, that I have hired illegal Canadian workers that will never get arrested because they are white and speak English, eh?
Here is my answer which is a story from "Donald's Vanity Tantrums."
What Some Ancient Rulers Have in Common with Trump
During ancient Egyptian dynasties, monarchs often defaced or destroyed statues representing the previous ruler to erase the reputation and deeds of the former ruler. Sometimes damage was limited to facial disfigurement as with Pharaoh Senwosrett III (1878-1840 BC) whose nose was broken off because ancients believed that the life force emanates through the nose.
Trump shares this goal when renegotiating and tearing up Clinton and Obama-era treaties.
NAFTA is one such remake that removes Clinton’s name from the global trade agreement. As Politico writer Adam Behsudi quotes Lori Wallace, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch said, “For those who trusted Trump’s pledge to make NAFTA ‘much better’ for working people, it’s a punch in the face because the proposal describes TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) or any other same-old, same-old trade deal.” There are no improvements -- only the removal of the Obama legacy and any other former president’s name.
This symbolic effigy-smashing of Obama extends to the Iran Nuclear Deal, to recertify to Congress every 90 days that the Iranians are complying with the rules; the Paris Climate Agreement; The Affordable Healthcare Act and all other agreements that Obama successfully negotiated regarding the environment and human rights.
In the land that I call home, tens of millions of Americans who couldn’t tell the difference between shit and Shinola, resulting in the election of a malevolent quasi-life form that makes George W. seem like Jesus, Moses, and George Washington rolled into one. Maybe our next president, if we are still electing presidents that is, will take cues from Trump and the ancients as well. A good start would be to remove any future White House portrait of him that might eventually be installed.
What difference does it make? Is it because magas tend to use illegals and we can’t use the same word as them? Is this the reason because if it is, it’s not a good enough reason. These folks took advantage of our broken system. No country I repeat no country on the planet allows this kind of uncontrolled migration short of countries that are falling apart in war and in my opinion, Venezuela is the closest. And an expeditionary force should be organized to overthrow the rogue government.
Because other people use it makes no difference to me. As I started in my first comment, the word is dehumanizing. By using that word it associates entire groups of people with a negative word or phrase, thereby making it easier to engage aggressively and violently against them. They are people. People deserve to be treated and described as such. Dehumanization is literally a technique used by genocidal leaders to make it easier to eliminate the targeted group. I'm not saying you have to support what undocumented immigrants did to enter the country, that's a completely different conversation. I'm simply asking you to recognize their humanity.
Both sides of my family, my grandparents, ca e her legally through Ellis Island. There is a right way dot do things and a wrong way. Further, this issue is a deal breaker in the political arena. You want open borders then get used to saying Hiel El Presidente Trump. And be sure to bow your head in subservience.
Bill, I think this is an easy but harsh swipe at Biden/Harris's administration. Ponder for a second how little the Repubs were ever willing to lean in to help and how often they thought pillorying Secretary Mayorkas in their star chamber hearings was the nation's best use of the Secretary's time. I think my view isn't mine alone.
We assume "the massive influx of illegals flooding across the border for almost 3 years is " bad". There is little truthful evidence that this is correct. Credible statistics say otherwise.
An old saying: "Assume" can make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me' ".
And an observation about donkeys and elephants: The ass of an elephant is bigger than the entire donkey.
So, here's what I want to know: how is the 'influx of illegal immigrants' even measured? All I can find are the govt stats about 'encounters', which include apprehensions and expulsions, but certainly not folks who actually end up living here...?????
P.S. Whether anybody answers this or not, I LOVE that there's a place that I can even ASK these kinds of questions and have these discussions! Community, indeed!
I have had dozens of Spanish speaking workers that have reroofed houses in FL, ME and NE or did landscaping or other construction work, etc. If they didn't do good work and worked hard, I wouldn't have used them. And who hires them? Usually a white American who has no responsibility for their immigration status. And I'm certainly not going to check their papers when I know that no one else is available to do the work.
This is the fault of Republicans for not updating our immigration laws. Every time a bi-partisan bill is hammered out, the Republicans turn it down.
And putting razor wire in the water in the Rio Grande is just plain cruel, but I expect no less from the TX Republicans.
Oh really? Ask New York City how they are coping and any other cities where these migrants have flooded in. And besides, you and others miss a valid point. It’s a public relations disaster that may culminate in electing you know who.
Reality Check! Trump told the flock to kill the Immigration Bill so he could run on it in the Fall. It was a very good piece of legislation that would have stemmed the tide and calmed tempers on this side. BUT NO! Trump had to hijack it.
Heather has made a few points over the while, stats I've read myself for some time. Immigrants have lower crime rates than native Americans, despite this "flood" US economy has been moving for some time towards full employment, over the past year average wages have increased, cutting into some of those 3 years of pandemic induced inflation. On that part immigrants have worked low-income jobs esp agriculture which others have charged as being "slave labour", another heated debate.
Bill Katz is the replacement for John Schmeeckle who was driven to threads. His expertise is Illegal immigrants which in Amerispeak means black and brown people, docummented or otherwise. Schroedingers immigrants: They steal your jobs and live on welfare
Unvarnished view of the recent past. I think every administration should include one adviser who is a contrarian to offer another point of view. Politicians probably wouldn’t agree but I happen to think it’s healthy to include all points of view.
The Biden administration deported more people than Trump ever did, without separating parents from children and using cages. Additionally, how about those 4 months of bipartisan work that came up with a plan that was then thwarted by the Republican led House?
The governor of Florida just signed a law that excludes sex education at all grade levels. Instead, new books will be sent to the schools, that teach abstaining from sexual intimacy. They will no longer educate students with regard to birth control, prevention of STD’s, or discussion of LGBTQ. I’m going to be 79 next month. We had sex education in my high school. Granted, it was a different time, so most girls did not have sex before marriage, however, it was ok for the boys. So, the old double standard, still thriving, is officially back.
We had sex education. The girls had it in either 5th or 6th grade, and it was a big deal because all the girls attended by the boys could not, and the girls could not talk about what went on in that room.
We boys got our sex education in 7th grade, in the gym, from a "Coach," and it was entirely about VD.
I worked in a school district for a while where recycling cans or paper and using the back side of paper were not allowed. I wasn’t there very long.
It seems that the ultra Nationalists Christians believe that we must use up all of the resources of the earth in order for the kingdom to come! Recycling, conserving the earth will prevent this from happening. Slowing the climate crisis is against God. So making a lot of money and ‘drill baby drill’ is God’s work. Fits into 2025. God help us.
We have seen the Taliban take religious beliefs to the extreme, Any religious group that thinks it is OK to enforce their beliefs on other is just a power grabbing cult,
Again, agree — totally. The agenda will fragment the country, as well, and who knows if the “center will even hold. Perhaps there IS an underlying desire to split pieces off, to create “countries” that codify theocracies and atavistic aristocracies impossible under our Constitution, but who knows what they are thinking … I feel dopey even putting such ideas into words, but the Project 2025 agenda IS isane.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
Yes , I agree. Project 2025 is barbaric and inhumane to the American people. We must not allow Trump nor his mega Republicans in Congress to win in November. Republicans don't believe in climate change unfortunately the hurricane that has affected several states recently has impacted many people and several have lost their life's. We can't afford to have any of these policies strip away in a disaster like this. The hell with Project 2025, Harris must win in November.
A moment of levity: I read your comment, and as a dyslexic speed reader, sometimes words get a bit messed up. I read "rapture" as "rupture". I'd like to know what THAT evangelical event would look like.
Dyslexic speed reader, never knew there was such a thing. You’re a magician. I think either term would do. Sometimes I feel like we’re in the middle of the “great rupture” in the fabric of the universe. Saw a “science” show where some “scientists” were trying to prove that the moon landing really happened. People are constantly trying to prove how stupid humans are…
It's one thing to believe in "the rapture" as personal consolation, it's another entirely, as you say, to use it as a basis for yielding political power, taking upon yourself to wield the judgment of God. That's where these psychos keep going wrong, not believing in God, thinking they are God.
You nailed it. I had a b-I-l who worried about being “left behind.” He was what I considered a true Christian. He gave up on repubs with W/Dickie. The cretins today would malign his kind, gentle soul.
That is what prompted my comment, a kind, gentle, intelligent friend that believes in the story of the rapture. They know damn well their religion is being corrupted & used as the worst possible weapon but are holding to what they believe are the true principles. I don't have to believe all the stories to respect the power of honest faith, holding principles in "good faith". I am angry that the good principles are corrupted for power. I can only imagine what it would be like to have something so important & central to my identity twisted the way that it is.
In an increasingly Complex World, the Project 2025 Siths, and the Wanna Be Orange King, want to undo the Progress made in the 20th Century... A.I. won't go away, Climate Change will still progress... Look at the Damage Hurricane Helene has just done... Imagine dealing with the aftermath of Helene with 19th Century Methods, and Resources... The Siths forget that the Average American Life Expectancy was less than 50years... Future Pandemics, Wild-Fires, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Earthquakes will happen... There is an Old Saying.. 'Man Proposes, God Disposes'... The Dark Siths are still Human....
Feudal Society... Supreme Religious Dogma... Ultimate Wealth Disparity... Sounds too much like the Middle-East Autocracies... OBW: How is that part of the World doing?
J L Graham, and do want violence ---- mental/emotion, sexual, physical. Their egos crave it. Confirms their "superiority", feeds their desire to harm others and create conflict, etc.
A bit upstream, folks were discussing whether "the cruelty is the point" statement regarding MAGAts was accurate. I think you just hit the nail on the head here, M Tree.
Cruelty is a demonstration of Absolute Power, power which is presumed to escape any balance, redress, or defense. No need for a devil when you get to that point.
The most frightening thing about Project 2025 is the authors know exactly what they are doing! The question is WHY. Their reasoning is faulty. It's a plan to concentrate wealth and power among an elite group of individuals by suppresseing and weakening the rest of humanity. They believe that their wealth and power will protect them. But natural disasters and worldwide pandemics don't really discriminate between rich and poor. We all breathe the same air, drink the same water, eat the food grown in the same soil and live on the same planet.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
There were corporations before the was an America, and even then they wanted to govern. A corporation is a sort of business license, and corporations can be a single person. The trouble comes when anyone gains antidemocratic levels of control and is permitted to act with impunity.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
This HCR Letter was an excellent summary of the decades long work in the crafting of useful disaster response and the recognition that significant responses cannot be handled locally. The final two paragraphs of the letter, dealing with the Project 2025 dismantling of FEMA, should strike fear in the heart of any caring American.
The reality is that multiple state and local governments CANNOT all be equipped to handle significant disaster response. The lunacy embedded in that line of thinking is astounding.
Thanks to Dr. Richardson for highlighting yet another Project 2025 disaster in the making.
All around me, a letter writer here (DFW area) just went ballistic about chump saying that he didn’t know much about P2025. Like the lying bastard has ever admitted to knowing anything except how to tell the biggest whopper. MAGAts actually believe him and are so “superior.”
I thought the mayor of Tallahassee? made great points in indicating how thanks to regional if not cross country support networks, they were prepared in advance as much as possible for Helene. FEMA of course got heavily involved. 64? deaths, wow, this was a killer by today's standards.
Pretending emergency response should be a state or local responsibility would be laughable if it did not contain the probability of human suffering. Cross country support? Bring it on!
I agree. I learned a lot ---lived through most of that time, but it is good to look back and see the historical perspective. As to Project 2025 --I think it should be publicized more so that those who are tending to vote Republican can understand what might happen besides the horror of Trump being President and Vance being Vice President.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
It is clear where the current "conservative" party would like the rest of us to go. Straight to Hell. All except those with generational wealth, or newly gotten gains on the markets... They are allowed to use their wealth to weather any storm, no matter what the cost This country has labored long and hard to keep life going for people in dire straits. Hurricanes, broken levies, 100 year storms. Without the coordination of literally hundreds of regional associations, aid would be erratic at best. Why do these "conservatives" want to burn the whole construction down?
Craig, big money donors don't want to pay taxes. As climate change threats and damage rapidly increase, much more money will be needed to fund Fema and other diaster response efforts and prevention efforts too. They want to avoid gov't demanding that they pay their fair share in taxes. How? Eliminate agencies that they personally, being absurdly wealthy, do not need. It illustrates how deeply unconnected they feel to people, to their fellow citizens.
Kathleen Fernandez, true, but they don't need to look to gov't agencies for assistance. They have unlimited resources leading up to and in an emergency situation. They have the ability to hire any help they need. And because they have unlimited money and power, they automatically go to the front of the line. Sure they will take gov't assistance, but it's not a necessity to them, with the exception of such things as restoring power and roads they travel. It is flawed thinking on their part, that they don't think they need gov't at all.
No, they don’t, though some will take it when needed. I flooded with Irma. Finding contractors to work with insurance was tough. The wealthy just came in with cash and hired the workers as most self insure. No mortgage means no insurance requirement, or the ability to not file a claim.
Well that's mighty interesting, considering its "big money" ie higher income individuals to pay for 98% or so of income taxes. The lower half of income earners have been pretty much taken out of that equation. That leaves them with sales taxes, social security deductions. Social security is co-payed by business.
Frank Loomer, PS, what percentage do they actually pay after all the swiss cheese of loopholes? Compare that to other taxpayers' percentages. Not your misleading deflection statement.
check your income statistics, M, that's the net even with loopholes, developed by governments of all stripes, to support the primary wealth generators of America. Kamala is doing more of the same for new small businesses. Did you know btw that about 90% of new businesses fail, matter of factly? The lure of wealth!
Frank Loomers, that they actually pay. Individuals and corporations., I highly doubt it. But it doesn't matter. Your point is moot. They do not pay their fair share compared to everyone else.
Exactly so, JD. I made an argument on Fleecebook that we'd tried the "states rights" things before, with the Articles of Confederation and with the south's premise for the Civil War. Crickets.
What an idiotic proposal to get rid of federal response to emergencies. I’d like to rub the face of the Heritage Foundation in the vista of the gritty brown sand that was my favorite sugary white sand beach on the Gulf Coast. And hoping they trip on an aluminum handrail sticking out of the sand that used to guide one into the depths of a swimming pool.
Project 2025 is an insulated cocoon of white supremacy and damned if I will call it by any other name. They’ve got their hoods in their pockets and their leash ready for women.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
One slight edit: The one interest is not only serving the president and those loyal to him (hopefully "her" in January.) but also the big money, individuals and corporate, which is the root of most of our problems, eg. guns, climate change, et al.
I've put together a collection of concept maps (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
The only way it could be stop is to have Vice-President Harris win this election in November. Trump is incompetent and cares only for his self centered interests first. If people haven't learned this by now then their idiots. Another example, look what happened in Texas when the grid went out and several people froze to death. Senator Ted Cruz was caught by the media leaving to Hawaii until he was pressured to come back and deal with the horrific situation in Texas.
This is the mentality thinking of the mega Republicans. They just don't give a damn about the American people.
Wow, Heather, again demonstrating that there is no topic, no angle regarding American history and the relevance to our current politics that you cannot enlighten us about.
What Heather is demonstrating is what Martin Luther King wrote in his letter from Birmingham City Jail: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” I think he and Heather would agree that the word “we” includes both history and the latest news.
JSC, agreed! Heather continues to amaze me with the breadth of her knowledge.
The Heritage Foundation’s stance on NOAA bears similarities to someone refusing a parachute because they have to sign a paper acknowledging what happens if you don’t pull the ripcord.
FEMA and NOAA exemplify the benefits of a federal Republic. The Heritage Foundation wants to get rid of NOAA because its data gathering proves that climate change is happening, and they don't give a $@#! about the impact, except on their profit margins! We must vote for Kamala Harris.
Yes, they think they're smarter the entire world's science community on climate change or global warming, for which they began warning when i was maybe 10 years old. I remember reading an article from 1958 international geophysical year sketching out the problem as America was putting out gas guzzlers at the time. Needless to say things have moved MUCH further on since then. Roberts in part argued it wasn't "democratic" to leave out Heritage's "experts" on the matter. Like it wouldnt be democratic to omit them from the nuclear physics science community in the search for the Higgs bosun. etc
"...Heritage Foundation initially developed and supported in "Assuring Affordable Health Care for All Americans", a study the foundation released on October 1, 1989.[36] The mandate proposed in the Heritage Foundation study previously had been incorporated into Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's health care plan for Massachusetts in 2006, commonly referred to as Romneycare.[37] The Heritage Foundation opposed the Affordable Care Act.[6]..."
They would support it if they got the credit for it but tear it to shreds/gaslight the daylights out of it when they don't get the credit for it.
Is it just me, or is Kevin Roberts the most extreme weaponizer of Heritage in their history?
Louise, it is said “it takes a village”…..well, IMHO, our country is one large village joining hands to help sustain our neighbors…..if that’s what is called the Fed Gov’t, so be it….we step in where the help is needed. I am verklempt with concern by those affected by this disaster. We, the globe, need to seriously, intently, urgently, deal with the emerging climate change challenges….I know, I know, like herding cats….but we still have to try!
Views on climate change, and what people propose to do about it at every single level where we elect people to anything, need to be shared quite specifically, not letting anybody get away with vague sentences and promises.
Ever since Trump, as President, decided he could change the trajectory of a hurricane path with a sharpie and it didn't work, he's had it out for NOAA. This is part of Trump's vendetta list, just as he's never gotten over Obama teasing Trump at a Press Gallery dinner. Trump can't stand empirical facts because they don't care about his feelings so he want's to "get even" with NOAA because their facts made him look ridiculous.
Trump is the Heritage Foundation's useful idiot. One has depth and discipline. The other has the moxie and the blindly stupid, unquestioned ability to generate media coverage. Each side believes it has the control. The combination is noxious.
and the private interests who own Accuweather and other such operations don't like the public sector competition. They'd rather have an even more profitable monopoly. So if NOAA were wound up, and its assets sold to them, that would suit them just fine.
No doubt some of the unprofitable long-term studies of climate would have to be scrapped, for the benefit of the bottom line, but who really cares beyond the next couple of weekend forecasts, right?
I block AccuWeather on all of my devices all they want to do is track me and sell that information to whoever wants to buy it, when I told them no they didn’t have my permission to do that they stopped providing any weather info. I get my weather from Apple now, they need to know where I am to tell me the weather conditions, but have no interest in selling that info, they get it from NOAA just like AccuWeather.
But it is a self deceiving illusion. The chaos that will ensue in the heels of Project 2025 will destroy our economy, our transportation, and their profits...there won't even be any margins. CHAOS has infected the Republican party....with a promise that will not be fulfilled.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
As I read tonight's Letter, I anticipated the punchline about the GOP-Trump/Vance-Project 2025 plans to dismantle NOAA (final two paragraphs). I can't imagine anything so short-sighted in undermining our nation's ability to deal with the effects of Climate Change. A truly medieval disregard & disdain for science. I can't wait for Project 2025 and all of its architects and enablers to become a minor footnote to our era.
And a disregard for the general population. As Scrooge said, “If they are to die, then let them get on with doing so… and decrease the surplus population.”
From what i just read, he aggressively reduced interest rates to help cushion declines in the stock market. Then, there is this.... "In 2009, Robert Reich wrote that "Greenspan's worst move was to contribute to the giant housing bubble and the worst worldwide crash since the Great Depression. In 2004 he lowered interest rates to 1%, enabling banks to borrow money for free, adjusted for inflation.
crude Malthus thinking, that idea definitely circulated then, and likely still does. Wait til climate change comes with greater vengeance, so how much America reverts to "Fortress America"... in fact there's already de facto some of that across a lot of the OECD. Look at the European immigration reactions!
Climate science is not as naïve as many human driven climate change deniers would have us believe. Even the earliest models have proven remarkably skillful (the term of art meaning accurate) in what they projected.
Your apparently dismissive view ( in earlier post) seemingly betrays an anti scientific perspective, with a whiff of a “The perfect is the enemy if the good” gambit.
The science is not perfect, no empirical science can or does claim to be, but the science of climate is based on strong empirical and theoretical foundations.
Here’s a link to what real climate scientists have to say about climate and climate science.
I agree on your comments about the state of climate science. I didn't mean to sound "dismissive". Perhaps I didn't put it strongly enough, but we're nonetheless in the early stages of the current climate crisis. What we're getting now is likely just the "appetizer" for what's coming. If things go badly, swathes of already warm climates may be headed for being unlivable. I suspect we've missed our chances for holding onto 1.5C global rise, we're practically already there. Even if we hold our current carbon emissions levels (which we wont) that alone promises ongoing heating of the planet.
I would go beyond short-sighted as a descriptor, I would go with criminal intent, which It is. These brain dead soul dead
beings give themselves away with every breath. Let us not minimize them at all along with their completely harmful and ridiculous plans that are trying to fulfill some incredibly sick fantasy about grabbing power that they don't deserve and never will. The only language they understand is one where they get completely rejected. They're always going to be a problem so let's not give our energies in that direction - reminding me of how I thought I could change the partner in my marriage. Yeah right.
"The only language they understand is one where they get completely rejected." -- We are working more than ever before (letter writing, political contributions) for the complete rejection... The GOP will need to go down in flames before there is the slightest hope that they will ever re-emerge (under a new name?) as a decent party to serve in opposition in a 2-party system.
There has been some talk about reconstituting the Republican Party with an election disaster being the trigger. But who expected Trump to crawl back out of the bomb crater he made for himself? Mind you, it didn't take long!
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
As we grapple with the devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene, it’s impossible to ignore the dire consequences of Project 2025—the GOP's blueprint for the next administration. This plan, endorsed by Trump and J.D. Vance, would dismantle FEMA, gut NOAA, and leave disaster-stricken communities to fend for themselves. Tim Snyder, a leading scholar on fascism, warned that authoritarian regimes often thrive when public services crumble and the state abandons its people in moments of crisis. Project 2025 is the embodiment of this warning. It promises cruelty masked as "freedom," pushing the burdens of climate disasters, healthcare, and economic inequality onto states with fewer resources, all while shuffling more power into the hands of a corrupt few.
This is not just an attack on science and disaster response; it’s an assault on the very fabric of democracy. Voting for the GOP in this election would accelerate the shift toward authoritarian rule, leaving our communities vulnerable in ways that can’t be undone. We must resist, not only for the future of our planet but for the survival of a just society
It's a general attack on secular advances as well, in more ways than once, so this is a reactionary pushback by one of the most influential conservative think tank organizations, and they are going all out.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
I have been in DC all week doing research in museums and the Library of Congress. Yesterday I was surprised to find a fantastic vegetable garden on the SW corner of the Madison building. These are recreations of WW1 victory gardens and are maintained by the Architect of the Capitol (see aoc.gov).
I am trying to point out the positive things that our government does right to my overly cynical 35 year old daughter. She and many like her are so wrapped up in how Harris et al are complicit in Gaza and other disasters that they all lose sight of any good etc. if they base their votes on this cynicism and vote 3rd party or simply don’t vote, this will result in disaster.
But will people who chose that path take any responsibility for the results? I know people who voted for Nader who seem to bristle at their complicity when I ask them “how did that work out for you? Not so well I see…).
This cynicism of the youth needs to be confronted head on. A trip to the Capitol especially into the Rubenstein Treasures Gallery in the Jefferson Wing of the Library of Congress was for me a powerful experience. I was there to gather data on one exhibit - the glass flute owned by President Madison. The curator of the flute vault said to check out the rest of the exhibit and I did. In moments I, a 69 year old bloke, was immediately moved to tears by the intense history and humanity reflected by these treasures.
Perhaps teaching Civics in schools needs more emphasis. Instead Trump and Project 2025 wants to get rid of the Department of Education. The cynicism that I observe in today’s younger generations unfortunately becomes part of the MAGA playbook.
Harris is campaigning on a platform of Hope. How do we get under this callus of cynicism that has been growing since Bush vs. Gore?
I for one am worn out with this cynicism. Our government does some pretty cool things and reminds us how we got here in ways that touch the heart - if one bothers to look.
“One of the nation’s largest Muslim political groups endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday despite fierce opposition to her Middle East policy, saying that stopping former President Donald Trump is paramount.”
Amen on that! They are caught between what they consider the lesser of evils. If most American muslims are sunni, they can't feel totally bad about the pounding Hezbollah has just taken from the Israelis, likely with american subsidized bombs. (55% sunni, 16% shiite dont know about the rest thanks Google)
last night an interview of Secretary Clinton asked her greatest fear after teaching at Columbia, and her answer is directly related to your daughter's response. She said young people reacting to the Israeli response to 10/7 need to have a much better understanding of the historical context of the situation. They need to see the bigger picture of how we got here, including all the attempts and failures of people trying to 'solve' the bigger situation of Israel and it's neighbors. (check out Firing Line with Margaret Hoover on PBS)
Yes, knowledge of history, or lack thereof, can strongly shape attitudes on current affairs.
Those obsessed with the heinous attacks on Jews on October 7, 2023, by Hamas appear unaware why Palestinians might be a bit scratchy about their treatment in Gaza (which is part of the nation state of Israel) by Netanyahu’s government. For example, how many know… “In the 1948 Palestine war, more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs – about half of Mandatory Palestine's predominantly Arab population – were expelled or fled from their homes, at first by Zionist paramilitaries,[a] and after the establishment of Israel, by its military.[b]”?
I saw one that made me want to kick in the TV. My lifelong repub sister saw no problem. Thankfully, she hates chump and just voted a straight Dem ticket in VA
I was always leery but have seen Margaret evolve from her early days from seeming to have conservative leanings you'd expect from Herbert Hoover (her grandfather, whom I have a better appreciation of from my brother's classmate a year ahead of me).
He impressed me more than any other student, especially with his creative, diplomatic, and effective refereeing in the seniors vs faculty Basketball game when tempers flared., though his demeanor made me think of what Calvin Coolidge. As I seem to recall he whistled as you would a foul, but when asked what the foul was, said he didn't know, just that they had to stop playing the way they were. George Harlan Nash Jr. spent 20 years since 1975 living in Iowa working at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Lbrary Association a described at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._Nash
"...From 1975 to 1995, he lived in Iowa to work at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, where he wrote three volumes of a definitive, scholarly biography, ending in 1918, commissioned by the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association. He did research in hundreds of manuscript collections and archival sources in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Nash published numerous essays on Hoover...
...In mid-2019, Nash evaluated the Trump presidency:
Nash argues that Trump has shattered the fusionist consensus within conservatism. On every front, Nash claims, Trump has challenged or subverted the conservative orthodoxy. He has abandoned the doctrine of free trade in favor of protectionism. He pays lip service to traditionalist concerns, and he pursues pro-life policies, but his past positions and personal conduct clash with social-conservative sensibilities. He has called into question the merits of the NATO alliance, sounding, when he does, like an isolationist. For Nash, Trump is in many ways an aberration from, rather than a fulfilment of, the ideas of the conservative intellectual movement..."
Point is Margaret has a way of giving smart sounding "conservatives" plenty of rope to explain their logic, but can trigger the trapdoor at the end. They seem to think she agrees with everything they say, until she skewers them. I used to watch William F. Buckley Jr for the guests, whom I usually agreed more with than with him, it's the opposite quite often with her talking to "conservatives."
The interview with Kevin Hassett is the best example of skewering I can imagine if you can stand to watch it to the very end,
"Top Trump White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett discusses this week's presidential debate, defends the former president's economic agenda — including new tariffs — and critiques Vice President Kamala Harris' economic plans."
Margaret Hoover has never disappointed me and seemed to have a really meaningful point made in every episode I watched. The Hillary interview had an abundance of them in their exchange.
Casey Burns, thanks for trying to make a difference by offering some challenges to your daughter's thinking. Keep it up, please. You may be getting through more than you think.
Seems there is a lot of activity on TikTok in that age group and that some of it is getting very good in terms of youth looking ahead at what they will need and what they understand better, can look it up I suppose.
can't answer that, but remember politics has become very tribal, with attitudes often locked in cement. The polls may well suggest the possibility of victory of Harris and the Dems, even downvote, but it only takes say 5% switch overall among among persuadable voters to change out Congress. tba.
I loved much about Nader - before his ego took over and “how it worked out” was disasterous. I would never vote for a spoiler, and it was obvious in his case and others.
Brilliant men have egos to match. Stephenson was a brilliant man too. But brains don’t always impress the voters, or the money. Our slate of past presidents is proof
And that's what scares me about Trump. He's a moron according to dozens of people that worked with him and yet the Neanderthal masses think he's brilliant.
Message from Fox since 1996, W, Senate idiots, Yes Mitt, and chump. All genuses. When Reagan dictated that they should never criticize another Repub, they heard "never tell the truth about them."
Cynisism is also part of growing up. Pushing away from our parents and building the muscles to stand independently.
My reminder to youth is that it is easier to criticise than it is to develope new, better and realistic solutions. Yes, lead the way forward, we need your input. You have to do the hard work of creating better.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
I am thankful that my 35 year old nephew is more pragmatic than your daughter. He bristles at so much of what the Democratic Party stands for (I suspect his voter registration lists him as a Communist); he always votes with an eye on the ultimate victory and not just his ideological preference.
Project 2025 wants to toss FEMA overboard and let states fend for themselves in disasters, as if hurricanes respect state lines. And gutting NOAA’s hurricane warnings? Bold move—who needs life-saving data when we can just cross our fingers? This isn’t streamlining, it’s a crash course in disaster roulette.
I had to laugh about Tennessee proudly refusing aid for what, practically a whole day? I remember when the national drinking age was increased from 18 to 21 by Ronald Reagan in 1984.The State of Wyoming refused to raise the drinking age, and received reduced Federal Highway funds as a result, for several years before the State Legislature bowed to reality in 1988, after a couple catastrophic winter storms- there are many things individual States, particularly the smaller, rural, poorer states simply cannot afford to do on their own. I hope to see "Hurricane Relief and Assistance, brought to you by the Biden/Harris administration" signs everywhere in all those southern States. I would hope Harris makes a point if visiting each of those States and does a lot of photo ops with appropriate people. In Tennessee, the sign should include, in parentheses " (in spite of your local Republican Party!)" Don't mean to be making light of a horrible situation. Climate change is happening in spite of hopes, prayers, and laws to the contrary. The 2025 project is so astoundingly short sighted and divorced from reality, it like it was written by a bunch of uneducated individuals with delusional disorder. That said, I have to admit that the idea of spending so much money to rebuild in low-lying marginal areas that will be underwater in a few years is troubling. Anywhere hit by the storm surge should probably be declared coastal protection barrier land and planted with suitable vegetation, rather than being rebuilt with houses that have no business being there in the first place.
Weather related or whether related the main point exists , Project 2025 is BIG but just a name , ‘ SAME GAME’…inflation,health crisis, conspiracy theories, authoritarian move, rich vs poor,immigration. Major players conspiring with 80+ % of the population engaged at some level albeit most unwittingly and useful tactics/happenings to consume them conveniently used.
Bravo ‘Notes..’ solutions…marvelous !
💙💙🇺🇸VOTE BLUE.END THIS COUP.UP TO ALL THE YOUS🇺🇸💙💙
As someone who has printed a program proclaiming that we would play "Angles We Have Heard on High" I now tread very carefully with both angels and angles.
And also highlights the value of public servants, folks who work for the myriad agencies that have been activated to assist the people of multiple states during this catastrophe in ways large and small. Republicans have reliably denigrated public service for decades.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
Going "back" to states' rights...Didn't we fight a Civil War over this? Thank you Heather for your terrific history review to remind us. Diminish the FEDERAL govt is the goal of "the south will rise again." 50 squabbling states with 50 different laws on education, safety, voting, environment...(add yours) as Lincoln said..."a house divided cannot stand." PEOPLE UNITE...VOTE FOR SEVERAL ELECTION CYCLES!
Wouldn't it be nice for Trump and Vance to jump in a plane after a catastrophic hurricane and fly to the various disaster locations and throw paper towels at people. Meanwhile, with no FEMA, they could just sit back and blame the Democrats for the Hurricanes and do nothing like W. tried to do after Katrina.
There are several sites I visit daily for vital information. Living in Alaska for the past 48 years I have depended on NOAA weather information. NPR for (mostly unbiased) news and for the past few years LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN has provided me with contextualised news. Honest information has a very high value and I am grateful to HCR, NPR and NOAA.
Republicans are either totally crackers or have had their skulls scraped out by decades of self service, meanness, misery and fear of everyone. They’re nuts! They give humans a bad name. Honestly, sometimes I’m made totally breathless by their bizarre behaviours and declarations. They’re completely indubitably, nuts!!
This is a time for the vaunted mainstream of the media to speak the fuck up, in fact way way past time. The elephant in the room has got to be replaced with some other moniker, because elephants don't deserve bad press. Monster? Monstrosities? And then there is MEFHB=
Miserable Excuses For Human Beings. Okay, done my bit.
The strategy of the GOP for years has been to support an anti-government narrative by underfunding or willful incompetence in order to prove their own anarchistic ideology (disguised as libertarianism) that there should be no government regulation or assistance for anything, period. It's pretty insane, given the Constitution talks about promoting the general welfare, and up until Trump threatened to abrogate it they were pretty big fans of our founding document. Disaster relief - like health care or unemployment insurance - is surely a part of promoting the general welfare.
But no, now to promote the general welfare makes you a communist. Good grief these people and half the electorate are just plain crazy, mean, and stupid. And that is not name calling: that is just observable empirical fact, by any human measure.
''Bill Lee, a Republican, did not ask for such a declaration until this evening, instead proclaiming September 27 a “voluntary Day of Prayer and Fasting.” Observers pointed out that with people stuck on a hospital roof in the midst of catastrophic flooding in his state, maybe an emergency declaration would be more on point.''
More 'thoughts and prayers'? God works through people. Vote.
Trump and vice presidential candidate Ohio senator J.D. Vance, calls for slashing FEMA’s budget and returning disaster responses to states and localities.
Project 2025 also calls for dismantling the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and either eliminating its functions, sending them to other agencies, privatizing them, or putting them under the control of states and territories. It complains that NOAA, whose duties include issuing hurricane warnings, is “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.”
Michael, the Project 2025 mandate of calling for the dismantling of NOAA is like being threatened by a stake through my heart. As a lifelong cherished hobby non-professional Climatologist and weather researcher, i rely on NOAA data for my ongoing research with the aid of the data from their websites on a daily basis. The DTP, (Domestic Terrorist Party) and their lame excuses and pure ignorance is appalling to the extreme. I do remember well when their God, Donald TUMP suggested the utterly dumb and stupid idea of detonating an atomic or hydrogen bomb to dissipate a hurricane. TUMP and his minions belong in an institution for the mentally deranged for the rest of their despicable lives! There is no way they should even be considered to be leaders in our Federal Government.
John, my Dad was a WWII USAAC SSgt Meteorologist Technician. He was able to work as a civilian with the Weather Bureau, later NOAA. He was in the first cadre of employees trained in using Doppler Radar in the 1970's. I share your love for hobby, non-professional weather watching (no research for me!) and I shudder to think of the impact that defunding NOAA would have.
Let us not forget that the timing of the successful D-day landings by the Allies at Normandy was delayed at the last minute from June 5, to June 6 by an Allied meteorologist who indicated there would be a break in the bad weather on that day.
Faulty German weather predictions failed to detect a break in the storm on June 6, which (mis)led General Erwin Rommel to think he could safely slip away from coastal France to attend his wife’s birthday in Germany on June 6, 1942, and thus was not available when the Allies landed. And the rest, they say, is history.
When I spotted one of the most respected Senior Weather Equipment Techs, CMSgt Fred Aletta (supposedly assigned to the FMS in Japan), in Saigon, I was in the Field Maintenance Shop. He and the other techs with him said, "You never saw us here, we were never here, got it?" Years later I found they were there with the predecessor to the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, highly classified at the time. They covered a leak with a story and picture of 7th AF Commander, Gen Momyer, with a picture from the lower resolution civilian weather satellite. DMSP didn't get declassified until Hurricane Camille hit Mississippi and they found the DMSP pictures and forecasts were more accurate (but weren't cleared for release according to one of the instructors at the tech school), than even the 53rd (WRS) Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (Hurricane Hunters), flying out of Ramey AFB Puerto Rico at the time (before moving to Kessler AFB Mississippi in 1973).
A perpetual problem was congress wanted us to use just the civilian system though DMSP was so much better at identifying high altitude conditions that prevented wasting limited film on areas that wouldn't show up on film well enough. The primary customers were satellites and SR-71s that we also wouldn't want to risk on missions where higher altitude weather that wouldn't bother the highest flying civilian aircraft but would impair what the SR-71s needed to be able to record.
It's alarming to see proposals like the Project 2025 mandate threatening institutions as crucial as NOAA, especially for people like you who deeply value climate research. NOAA is a lifeline for understanding weather patterns, climate change, and safeguarding our environment. Dismantling it would be reckless, especially when the world faces escalating climate crises that demand more data, not less.
As for Trump's infamous suggestion about nuking hurricanes, it’s a stark reminder of the ignorance that some people in power wield when it comes to science. It wasn’t just scientifically absurd—it exemplified a dangerous level of detachment from reality. The thought that these individuals could steer federal policy, endangering crucial scientific research and ignoring the existential threats we face, is disturbing.
The fact that they continue to garner support reveals a broader problem of disinformation and disregard for expertise. NOAA, and agencies like it, are essential for informed decision-making, and the thought of dismantling such a critical entity is as absurd as it is terrifying.
We need to amplify the importance of institutions like NOAA, whose data drives climate policy, disaster preparedness, and research that benefits us all. Keep up your work in climate research—it's voices like yours that will help counteract the rising tide of ignorance.
I want to thank you, Michael for your very intelligent and eye opening reply. I do appreciate it very much. It is beyond my comprehension that an ignorant deranged monster like Donald TUMP is being allowed to even think about running for the highest office in the nation. He is a convicted felon and a horrifying excuse for a human being. Please tell me why so many people are obsessed with him? Although i don't believe in fairy tales and nonsense like that, it seems he has cast a spell over ignorant and gullible people. It also seems like so many adults are still children than have never grown up. Back when i was a child, we would wear things from imaginary figures like, Superman, the incredible Hulk, Frankenstein and other personalities that weren't real. Most of us grew up and forgot about that nonsense, but there are so many adults now that have the need to have a, ''so-called hero'' and i suppose TUMP is their hero. Everyday on TV i see attorneys, football coaches, salespersons that alter their appearances to look like Donald TUMP, and that nutcase JD Vance by dying their hair orange or grow dark beards like those two monsters.
I have thousands of dollars tied up in weather equipment and instruments at my home, and have kept weather and climate data for decades and some people think i am nuts for doing this. I just ignore ignorant people like that.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
IOW, it is not only a nuclear war that would send those of us who survive back to living in caves and scrabbling in the ground for food—re-electing Trump would do it, too, and probably faster.
Major autocrats outside the USA are watching. Divide and conquer is an ancient strategy.
The natural existence of an autocracy depends on continued material growth to feed the growing number of selfish individuals in the leadership structure and the inefficiency of the pyramid control structure.
Remember, they have no humanities -- no context for the human, no capacity to connect to other perspectives. And the money & power which they crave totally dismisses conscience of all kinds. Witness the orange felon, his fellow vulgar Vance, and then all their cohort in their mixture of lies and self-absorbed fantasyland.
It strikes me as odd that religion, which has given us shame, is proclaimed far and wide from the rooftops, including those of hospitals, by those who name themselves Christians but who have no shame when it comes to committing any and all of the seven deadly sins.
But let's recall not only do they not have any humanities but, in place of that, they have reduced life to nothing more than units.
Education becomes for them unit acquisition. (They call it information.) Standardized testing refines this vulgarity by stressing the logic of categories to which all info fits (or a-b-c-d doesn't). Categories means groups -- packages.
So we have the status quo over which our schools preside.
Wonder why dictators, demagogues, oligarchs, Clarence courts, standardized testers, corporate textbook packagers, and all the other vulgar rule?
Plus, of course, the orange felon, rapist, racist, criminally convicted grifter.
Good old Governor Lee; he precisely described what folks have to do without any assistance while perched on their roofs awaiting the rescue rafts. Sadly, he forgot to mobilize the assistance that would enable the rafts to deploy. They are heading back to the days of the bucket-brigades down there. At the accelerating rate of super-storms in the southern and Gulf states, the prudent long term strategy might be to just abandon the coastlines altogether and move to higher ground many miles away. Just don't move to Oregon, please. Oklahoma is probably far enough. If you want to return all form of government to the states, prepare to tough it out each time Nature comes knocking.
I'm in Eugene; I used to get up that way regularly when my niece was attending CWU; not so much these days. I have some friends (now all sergeants) with Multnomah Co SO. The good ones.
Yes - paying for disaster after disaster will prove bankrupting. Transition to a green economy should have started decades ago. But Reagan removed the solar panels Carter installed on the White House . . . it started even then, with Ronald "you've seen one tree you've seen them all" Reagan, and James Watt telling people to use up resources because the Apocalypse was at hand (yeah, they were really nuts from the get-go back in '80). Thus did anti-environmentalism become a cornerstone of GOP identity.
Climate change does seem to resonate with young voters. If it increases their turnout substantially, that alone could swing the election. Can’t count on it, but it’s a favorable factor.
Climate change is a voting issue among the young. I'm wondering whether those who have been displaced by Helene will be able to vote in just slightly over a month?
I was just thinking that all those folks affected by this storm may have difficulty voting on November 5. Some areas, especially Florida, may not have electricity for weeks or months. And more hurricanes are lining up at this moment.
Now might be a good time for democratic campaign ads and the Lincoln Project to blanket the public about republican intentions to eliminate FEMA, NOAA, and other important federal agencies and rub salt in the gaping wound that Project 2025 would cause.
But if there's no electricity, where can they put the ads so that people will see them? I know that some groups are using billboards, but those are more limited. If the ads are geared to people who have electricity, and they're MAGA supporters, will they think that natural disasters could happen to them? I'm guessing not.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
Did trump really botch the economy? Seems to me, a non investor, that the stock market went up during the Trump years. Seems that's all that matters to the "chosen" ones.
When Trump left office, he gave us the highest deficit, by far in US history.
The economy lost 2.7 million jobs. During his 4 years, unemployment rate increased by 1.7 percentage points to 6.4%. There was a dramatic collapse in GDP during Covid as many businesses shut.
The international trade deficit Trump promised to reduce went up. The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services in 2020 was the highest since 2008 and increased 36.3% from 2016.
The number of people lacking health insurance rose by 3 million.
The federal debt held by the public went up, from $14.4 trillion to $21.6 trillion.
Home prices rose 27.5%, and the homeownership rate increased 2.1 percentage points to 65.8%.
Illegal immigration increased. Apprehensions at the Southwest border rose 14.7% last year compared with 2016.
The stock market is setting records daily under Biden.
I don't disagree with all you say. But my observation is that the wealthy supporters of Trump care little about the facts you cite. All they care about is whether their personal wealth (and power in the highest percentile segment) increased. These are people who let professionals manage their investments. They are beyond consumption of goods and services and care only about the game of controlling others.
Project 2025 is designed to create a government that has only one interest: serving the president as king … and those who the king (sorry, I mean President) considers loyal to him. In a disaster, we can expect Trump to “throw paper towels” at the problem, because - just like with the COVID pandemic - he doesn’t care about us.
This agenda must be stopped!
Not arguing, but I think the horror is a little broader-based than that. Project 2025 is built from religious dogmas that seek to enforce -- as law -- a large laundry-list of deep intrusions into private life, while repealing all forms of social equity across the white-male-christian/not-white-male-christian boundary.
YES. This agenda MUST BE STOPPED!
Thanks for “not arguing”. I know Project 2025 will make life Hell for many of us. I also know Trump has a cruel streak that runs deep and will enjoy hearing about the suffering. And I know he might die and then we’ll have a POTUS Vance… a different kind of Hell.
You don't think a POTUS Vance would encourage a Voluntary Day of Prayer and Fasting, when floodwaters are rising to the upper floors and the power is off? Maybe Bill Lee had taken the Trumpian precaution of changing the trajectory of the hurricane with a sharpie.
Bill Lee is an ineffective governor, interested primarily in one thing: school vouchers. He tried last year and got so much resistance it was shelved. He’s coming at us again this year. Meantime, TN has refused federal funds for HIV, education, and Medicaid expansion. As head of the RGA, he endorsed Mark Robinson. Oh—and he’s a devout “Christian.”
I hope the people of TN are paying attention and will use their voice by voting Bill Lee out of office. We all know where this is going…. when Lee is questioned why he didn’t ask for assistance, he is going to blame it on Kamala. I sure hope the Harris/Waltz campaign call him out.
Thank you Dr. Richardson. This is the second time I’ve seen this “Day of Prayer and Fast”. The Republican Christian Cult must have sent out a nation wide message because I’m in PA and receive notification of bills before the State Senate/House. Recently, I received a notice a State Representative from the middle of the Commonwealth has also introduced a bill to make October 2nd as a “Day of Prayer and Fasting”. When I saw this, I thought what the schnitzel?? Is the coffee not working?? What happened to separation of church and state??
Being the person I am, I did some research on this State Representative who proposed the bill and she is a 29 year old mother who attended religious schools and has a bachelor in business with a minor in the Bible. Yep, that is what her bio on the Commonwealth website says.
This is why we need the Dept of Education (DOE)! While DOE is not perfect, one of their functions is to establish curriculum standards. Maybe if Bill Lee and this PA State Representative took the required Social Studies class, they would know the foundation of these United States is religious freedom ~ Mayflower, escape religious persecution, “Separation of Church and State”, the Constitution, anything ringing a bell here Bill???
Another example of the seriousness of this election.
The goal is to control curriculum. Privatization frees up public school taxpayer funds to divvy out to private schools, even though private school parents have paid tuition for decades as a choice. In two more years in Iowa, all private school vouchers will be offered at the full student expenditure rate as public schools which is $7,500 per pupil. Public schools are being starved in Iowa, especially in nearly half of the 99 counties where there is NO private school within 100 miles. It is deliberate destruction of a once emulated public education system. Gov. Kim Reynolds and her cronies have also dismantled Area Education Associations having served Iowa districts for decades with crucial special education services, social workers, school psychologists, pre-school services and media services. She justifies giving each individual district (some in very poor small towns) the “option” to contract out such services; needless to say that is an enormous burden placed on district employees, both financially and educationally. Abuse of this voucher system empower the Iowa Republican legislature to dictate curriculum, including the banning of 300 classic novels, which is being enforced as I write. Iowa will not survive even more egregious violations of their freedoms (did I mention Iowa has a 6 week abortion ban) via Project 2025. Vote Blue up and down the ticket.
Bill Lee will be term-limited after his current term. That just means his Republican sycophants are falling all over themselves trying to replace him.
"Being the person I am, I did some research on this State Representative who proposed the bill and she is a 29 year old mother who attended religious schools and has a bachelor in business with a minor in the Bible." I had to laugh when I read this about the TN Rep's bio...Sorry - a "minor in the Bible"?
Excellent information. Thank you.
They are above such concepts, Maureen, as god has told them - well who knows what. They are the perfect example of ignorance as a source of bliss. What they don't know will hurt us, and they will stand above the fray on some holy Mount Olive watching porn and killing whomever offends their delicate sensibilities.
he can combine government and religion in one book-the trump Bible!
I'm not opposed to someone having a "minor in Bible." Only wish they'd first learned how to read, think, feel, and act on the message. Love this: "The federal government’s efficient organization of responses to natural disasters illustrates that as citizens of a republic, we are part of a larger community that responds to our needs in times of crisis." Hear Springsteen, bard of our best selves: "Wherever this flag's flown, we take care of our own."
Kinda like the KKK was back in the day!
ML...of course he is a devout "Christian", one of those who does not understand the message of Jesus as found in the first three Gospels and gives religion a bad name. I am sure prayer helps people get through difficult times, but it needs to be coupled with common sense and real compassion. I am not clear why fasting would help.
I think he’s in favor of fasting because his head is so far up his ass he’s full and no longer hungry.
He may be a devote Christian, but is not christian.
It could be putting a noble spin on the absence of food and a means to prepare it. The church ladies can't possibly prepare soup for the needy when the church is flooded.
There's a story about a man who was warned about a flood and was told to lave. After several people came to rescue him, he always responded that God would take care of him. His last conversation is with God and he asked why God didn't take care him? God replied I did and you refused my help. (stupid idiot-that's me)
Fasting feeds your sense of moral superiority. And you can brag about it at church.
On Judgment Day, the Lord will simply say to these agents of the devil...."I never knew you." During the dark days of 1940, when England was standing alone, Churchill called for a Day of Prayer. That is reality.
The Satanic maggat DoP+F is the day they will not wolf down Big Macs, Whoppers and buckets of KFC.....they must lay off watching porn and trying to lure underage girls.
And yet…Tennessee MAGA elects him
Is it the moonshine?
As said: I like your Jesus but I don’t like your Christians.
He may be a devote Chistian, but he is not christian.
More like a devoid Christian, mais non?
Be wise and give up on church. It can be a great place for socializing but there are many equally great places. Find them and realize how ridiculous church membership is. Save yourself now|!
Anne-Louise, nicely put. With Project 2025 the rest of us would be lucky to have a sharpie or anything else, but will have an intrusion into private life and no help for a large community problem. I read about the hurricane before it came and one woman, who was in an evacuation zone was not leaving because she had her supplies and she was "prayed up". So if she needs rescuing, let God come and get her.
A man is sitting on his roof during a major flood. A rowboat comes by and offers to take the man off the roof. Man says, I have prayed and have faith God will save me. A while later a police launch comes by and trys to get the man on the roof. Same response. I have prayed and have faith God will save me. The flood waters are rising rapidly. A search and rescue helicopter comes along to pick him up. Same response. At last the house is carried away and the man drowns. At the Pearly Gates he accosts God and says I prayed and had faith you would save me, yet you let me drown. God replies, I sent a rowboat, a motor boat, and a helicopter. Whate more could you ask for?
My favorite story! So glad you posted this.
I like this one, Allen.
I was thinking of that exact story when I read about the prayed up woman... good on you, Allen, for posting it.
So many are prayed up with the human claimants of Godly power. Ignorance and/or stupidity can’t tell the difference
Probably both....blind faith.
Lunacy
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
Anne-Louise: I thought it was rich to note that the governor of Tennessee, whose state was affected, called for divine intervention by way of "prayers and fasting", while Project 2025 calls for the elimination of a governmental office charged with hurricane tracking because it leads to further talk of climate change. Neither direction provides a sane response to a problem.
NH observed Fast Day -- an official paid holiday for state employees since 1681, when it was called to save the life of a wealthy Portsmouth merchant. It didn't work -- he died -- but it remained on the books until 1991 when our frugal legislature changed the name and date to Civil Rights Day, and eventually acquiesced and called it MLK Day.
Fascinating!! Didn’t know!
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
Very interesting. Thanks!
Do I detect sarcasm here?
Just seeing the words "POTUS Vance" makes me wince.
(Ugly, isn't it!)
Is that like the "thoughts and Prayers" we give to dead children and their families?
I think you meant "massacred." Sorry, I have a thing these days about Words. And the passive voice. I agree with your comment.
It is Exactly the same.
For Republicans, the cruelty is exactly the point.
I'm going to challenge that frequently restated claim. I don't think cruelty is the point. I think their cruelty is merely a means to an end, and the end the point. The key to understanding cruelty is that it’s about power and control. Likewise, the key to understanding the gaslighting, the lies, the rare occasions when they tell the truth, all the women Donald Trump has sexually assaulted, etc., is that MAGA is exactly the point, and MAGA is all about a small group of people having the power to control everyone else.
That confuses me a bit, James. There are ways to enact the policy you desire (i.e. deportation of brown people from south of the US Border) without putting them in cages and seperating children from their parents. There are other components that are cruel (criminalizing abortion and punishing women for needing one, or refusing all transgender care and insisting that an individual's very real experience of being trapped in the wrong body is immoral. Both of these are amplified by the glee with which many proponents exhort these; they love the ability to crush others.
I took great pleasure in Muhammad Ali’s victories despite not being a fan of boxing. It seemed like the good guys finally stopped bringing a knife to a gun fight. I can speculate as to what made me think of Ali as one of the good guys, but I knew I was right when I heard his daughter say the following in the Ken Burn documentary (Round Four episode): “One of my father’s favorite sayings was, ‘Rivers, lakes, and streams all have different names but they all contain water. So do religions have different names, but they all contain truth.’ He always taught me that there’s only one true religion, and that’s ‘the religion of the heart’ he would say, ‘and as long as you do right, and you treat people right, I believe you’ll go to heaven no matter what you call your religion.’”
There is joy when “we” win regardless of who “we” includes and excludes. Ali was one of the good guys because, for him, “we” included without excluding. The bad guys exclude. MAGA excludes.
The only thing harder than not excluding is living with the long-term consequences of excluding.
Hope that helps explain my comment.
"the glee"
The definition of cruelty from my perch
Fair enough. I'm just wondering if there's a common understanding of the definition.
I think you're right about the power and control, James. Making people suffer is just the cherry on top.
James, i agree, but some cruelty in this mix is so much fun.
Michele, have fun, but be careful.
When I was a child, my Dad used to say, "Jimmy, this is going to hurt me a lot more than it's going to hurt you." And I would think, "Yeah, easy for you to say." But it's true. In the short term, it's a lot harder to be mature and a lot easier to be immature. As the Jimmy Duggan character said in "A League of Their Own" (movie): “The ‘hard’ is what makes it great.”
I wonder about the often used phrase 'cruelty is the point' too.
Never forget it!
And even for the MAGAts, of which there are many in this destruction zone…
Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and go fuck yourself should be their motto.
Yikes; My gut tells me that could be worse.
Your gut is spot on, D4N
Vance....who also enjoys cruelty
The man who would be king... God help us and I'm a non-theist.
This just in Steve, the Vance-Trump -K.Roberts Troika have revised P25. In the 1st 200 days all 'childless-cat-women' will be herded up & incarcerated in a rapidly built prison named the 'Ozzie & Harriet Maximum Security Facility" in Springville, Ohio. Mandatory prayer on Sundays to the other Troika: The Father, The Son & The Holy Ghost.
🎶 I went back to Ohio but my City was gone.
A,o. way to go Ohio🎶
By a government that has no pride
MAGAs will never know what hit them if Project 2025’s wet dreams are realized.
It’ll devastate the lives and aspirations of all us. Deliberate ignorance, blind belief and single-issue voting will fail them, but they’ll likely persist in blaming libs, George Soros and darker-skinned people till their (hastened) dying day.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
It’s all too much to think about.
But, I can’t help but wonder if trump is a little concerned about loosing. This week I have received 2 texts from trump, one from vance and 2 from cruz asking for money. I respond by not only NO but Hell NO. I am a Democrat all in for Harris and Cruz, hit send and then follow up with STOP.
I don’t know if it’s a scam but how the hell did they get my number???
You better check your voter's registration to make sure it is still Democrat --maybe someone changed it to Republican!
I'm willing to characterize my thoughts as an argument, although I agree with you, Steve Brant. I also agree with Themon the Bard that P25 is not only about Trump's reign; it is a philosophy of government that is hellish for all but a few, because it is based on the idea that only a few are fit to decide what's right, and the rest of us are cattle to be herded into their pen. If Themon is correct that it's steeped in religious dogma, then we can look at how the church drove us into the dark ages. I believe it's an amalgam of religion and politics, along the lines of a King by divine right. Power by fiat. Either way, once in power the leader will do whatever he wants, and it will be "right" by definition. In the case of Trump, they're willing to let the lunatic run the asylum so they can establish their form of government. Ack and yuck and Hell No!
You are just adding additional information. That’s how I see your comment. Thank you.
Not arguing with you Steve or Themon, but expanding upon your comments.
Project 2025 is a well funded, well organized, plan to help abusive people abuse.
Trump is only the face & head Influencer in the USA branch of what appears to be a global con in a “New World Order” game I think of as Billionaire’s Chess, with moves and counter moves.
I’ve posted this before and I will include it here since it applies.
“A ‘better world’ bought by atrocities will be rotten at the core.” (Ilona Andrews)
America’s core is rotten because the greedy and needy moved in to colonize and steal land from indigenous peoples with lies, cheats, and violence, and then build upon it with slave labor as well as legal but abusive labor practices.
The same mentality behind America’s ugly origin is at the core of America today. The Republicans are the representatives of those who are the genetic and ideological offspring of those profiteers. They have a brutish ideology that “might makes right” and who have the audacity to claim they represent moral Christians.
When I look at the current Republican Party, I see a party of abusers who attract other abusers.
-Liars, cheaters, con artists, &
White-collar criminals
Abusive law enforcement
Bullies
Abusive patriarchists
Toxic masculinists
Public Abusers (internet trolls and toxic media personalities such as Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, & Tucker Carlson)
-Domestic Abusers
-Rapists & other sex-related non-consensual behaviors
-Sexual harassers & stalkers
-Pedophiles
-Self-appointed morals police, Big Religion profiteers, and Bible thumpers (who attack abortion clinics and LGBTQIA+ members - particularly Transgender people)
-Misogynists & sexists
-White Nationalists
-Racists/racism, anti-[brown] immigrant groups
-Anti-government groups
-Well-armed fringe militant & outlaw groups
-Cultists
Most of all, I see such amoral, selfish, dangerous greed from wealthy & corporate donors who want to cut taxes for the wealthy and dump them on the rest of the country who can barely afford make ends meet.
They also want to deregulate so they can be free to take advantage of workers, consumers, and environment/planet, and not be held accountable for harms they cause. They don’t care at all that they’re responsible for destroying American Democracy, our planet, nature, the environment, and human health & lives.
Note: No matter which party, no politician’s hands are clean. The Democrats aren’t perfect, but they’re driving the train that’s heading closer to where the majority want and need to go in order for us all to have at least some say in our government and to keep control over our own bodies & lives from continuing to shrink.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
Wow
What is at the core of “the American experiment” is a discussion worth having. I believe well-meaning people can do bad things not because they are bad but because they don’t know any better. It’s called an “error of omission”. When you do something bad on purpose, that’s an “error of commission”.
My personal opinion is the first people here were so blown away by who the Native Americans were that they classified them as “savages” (denying their humanity) and treated them as the “smart animals” that term implies.
I also think they lived in a world in which seeing women as partners (therefore deserving the right to vote) was totally foreign. Sure, there were bad men (I’m thinking of the Salem witch trials as an example), but I do not think all men were bad… not that all men are bad today.
Our economy incentivizes / rewards bad behavior because Wall Street has no morality. But Wall Street is a human invention. It need not be a permanent fixture of human society (see Buckminster Fuller).
I continue to have hope that a sociological transformation is possible. The benefits just need to be “sold” to the public at large.
Yes. The Dumb and Dumber ticket. Aren't they a wonderful pair? 😏
“calls for slashing FEMA’s budget and returning disaster responses to states and localities.”
The states impacted by this hurricane voted for Trump. They have been red for a while. They also bear the brunt of hurricanes. Project 2025 will decimate those states if they do not get aid from feds. Another example of people do drunk on koolaid that they vote against their own best interests.
Project 2025 won't exist because Harris will this election.
Indeed just when you think it cannot be worse, it can. But most interesting for all the Christian faith push JD is married to a woman who’s faith is Hindu.
Let's make certain these cruel and self-serving individuals do not gain power again. It is the least we can do for our country, our world, and the other- than- human beings we share it with. I'm fed up with this nonsense. Don't take your eyes off the ball on this even for a second. Imagine a better world and leave the nasty ones in the dust.
I don't agree that DJT is cruel. He is a selfish, narcissistic, misogynist. There is a much shorter term that applies, only four letters.
A snippet from my upcoming post on science and law: ". . .when the laws of man and those of Nature are in conflict, Nature always wins."
Would behoove us to pay attention to how nature responds to what we do. Never before have we been able to wreak havoc to the extent that 7-8 billion humans can. Especially if some of those humans deny any “havoc” and continue with their selfish quest for dominance.
Just because the Republicans want to claim climate change isn’t real does not mean the natural disasters aren’t real. I live on the southeastern NC coast, (not on the beach.) In 2018 a hurricane severely damaged my house, which is not in a flood plain. In 2019, tornadoes imbedded in a hurricane roared through my area damaging houses, uprooting trees, downing power lines, etc. That was all VERY, VERY REAL.
We looked into moving to the middle of the state, but couldn’t decide where to move. But as Hurricane Helene demonstrates storms don’t hit just the coastal areas. Western NC has experienced devastation. It takes a really long time to recover from a natural disaster, in some cases years, and cost astronomical amounts of money. How do you live in the meantime?
Jenn ~ thank you for sharing your story. A very dear friend of mine retired to Asheville, NC from NYC. She did her “climate” research and that is how she landed in Asheville. She has no power, her home is flooded and I haven’t been able to reach her for since yesterday. Climate change is REAL!!
With fear and constant stress.
It is foolish to think otherwise...
Always.
Yes, the horror is broader, but the issues are too numerous for one post. Maybe 900 pages of push back, or some notice by MSM. Maybe now is the time to publicize the FEMA plans in P2025. Thank you HCR
Here is Kevin Roberts (President of Heritage Foundation) at this weeks NYT (Climate Event) arguing with moderator about the science that Project 2025 doesn’t believe in:
Kevin D. Roberts, Ph.D. | The Project 2025 Climate Agenda
https://youtu.be/ZFeLC_6WnMI?si=Z2u81vFU6qtAxzZj
and
Here - is Julio Friedmann’s substack he dropped recently that shows complex visuals for his report on carbon removal:
Julio Friedmann Substack ‘The Hard Stuff’
https://open.substack.com/pub/carbonwrangler/p/the-hard-stuff?r=kxzps&utm_medium=ios
Give 'em a blue tsunami.
https://www.mobilize.us/ft6/
Yikes! Who gave Robert’s a PHD?
Remember the sarcastic meaning of the college degrees:
B.S. Bull S***
M.S. More of the Same
P.H.D. Piled Higher and Deeper
"Roberts earned his PhD in American History from the University of Texas."
Of course this means he is an expert in American History and therefore qualified to make judgements on climate science. /s
His next paper on American History should be "Climate disasters since 1776 to the present in America with emphasis of CO2 levels and damage assessments"
He is more fond of the slavery period when such as he ruled all. Or maybe the Articles of Confederation would be his go to. He is an expert on greed and power when all is said and done. And BTW, I have known and know of more than a few educated imbeciles, who use any intelligence they have to weaponize what they have learned against the “lessers.” Bill Buckley comes to mind.
Louis Giglio, Cracker Jacks.
What was the head of the Heritage Foundation doing at NYT’s climate change event? Did they invite him in the name of being fair and balanced? JFC
Thank you Kathleen for both links! In the interview of Roberts I think the interviewer missed an opportunity. Electric bills are higher because many utility companies are private. In fact government regulation of utilities has been weakened because of the constant push since Reagan to privatize everything. It is not policy causing inflation when it comes to utilities but lack of policy you might say. I think the people Roberts represents are looking for money making opportunities. Of course they will point to government being the cause of the inflation but that’s a dodge, a distraction. Climate change is also limiting the opportunities to make $ so let’s pretend it is overblown and not as dire so we have our chance to cash in first. Then there is the religious overlay of Project 2025–the needed crowd control mechanism to keep people distracted while the plundering continues. I would not have seen this interview had you not posted it. Also I have subscribed to Friedmann’s Substack. Lots of good information there. Thank you again for both.
One thing about this interview with Robert’s strikes me…..the fact that he paraphrased most answers by saying he means no disrespect.~~
Started listening to Kevin Roberts. Gave up. God and blue voters save us all from Project 2025. I was a sceptic for a long time but wehen you can look out your window and watch it happening, it is impossible to deny. When I moved to Ukraine in 2007, winters were cold (-10C as low as -20C once in a while) with snow. When we left, two years ago, winter temeratures were so mild that there were ticks all year round, no snow pack for more than a few days before it melted again. In Saskatchewan the winters have been mild without the usual 6 week cold snap of -30C to-40C on occassion. Now it is much shorter. The hottest days and hottest months globally have all been withing the past ten years. to quote The Monkeys, "I'm a believer".
And a bit south of you, Arizona has had a string of over 113 consecutive days over 100 degrees that ended on September 15 this year.
Interesting listening to that asshole in light of Helene. “Let ‘em eat cake”
He’s a scary dude!
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
Julio Friedmann's post is eye opening - a realistic view of what needs to be done regarding achieving a low carbon economy. Thanks for the link.
Of course this agenda must be stopped. But for all the good Biden has done, he sat on his hands concerning the massive influx of illegals flooding across the border for almost 3 years. Now Harris is paying for it. I predicted this would happen and it’s happening today. It’s clearly a toss-up of who will win. If Trump wins, the country goes to hell.
'Sitting on his hands' disregards the rather strict border bill that Trump and the House Magas scotched.
Massive influx?? Seriously! Sat on his hands? Trump sand bagged a viable border bill developed by red state right wing senators which representatives of President Biden also had input of the bill! Nay! The signing pen was swallowed by chump!
They are illegals and they did flood across the border. And if Trump should win, you have Biden to thank for it.
Bill, so Trump's unfulfilled promise to add 15000 additional border patrol and customs agents and we ended up only 14600 short of that goal when he left office, is Biden's fault? You're drinking the Republican kool-aid.
And his POS border wall that any 12 year old with a saws-all could breach is again, Biden's fault. He promised over 1000 miles of new wall and we got 49 or about 5% of what he promised. And the wall is still being breached up to 150 times a day because, it is a POS wall with a terrible design.
If DonOLD had actually done anything to secure the border besides claim that "Mexico would pay for the big beautiful wall" then maybe I would be a little more willing to blame Biden for people coming across the southern border.
Did you know that we also have a northern border where it is estimated that 3 times as many undocumented people cross as the southern border? I have crossed into Canada in several places and I know for a fact that if I wanted to sneak into Canada or the US, I could be dropped off within a mile or so and be across the border in less than an hour--undetected.
And how does securing the "open" southern border prevent the students graduating college from overstaying their visas?
Is it my responsibility to check the papers of each of the workers that I have hired to work on my property? I know for a fact, that I have hired illegal Canadian workers that will never get arrested because they are white and speak English, eh?
According to a man who knew a thing or two, “Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.” George S. Patton
Here is my answer which is a story from "Donald's Vanity Tantrums."
What Some Ancient Rulers Have in Common with Trump
During ancient Egyptian dynasties, monarchs often defaced or destroyed statues representing the previous ruler to erase the reputation and deeds of the former ruler. Sometimes damage was limited to facial disfigurement as with Pharaoh Senwosrett III (1878-1840 BC) whose nose was broken off because ancients believed that the life force emanates through the nose.
Trump shares this goal when renegotiating and tearing up Clinton and Obama-era treaties.
NAFTA is one such remake that removes Clinton’s name from the global trade agreement. As Politico writer Adam Behsudi quotes Lori Wallace, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch said, “For those who trusted Trump’s pledge to make NAFTA ‘much better’ for working people, it’s a punch in the face because the proposal describes TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) or any other same-old, same-old trade deal.” There are no improvements -- only the removal of the Obama legacy and any other former president’s name.
This symbolic effigy-smashing of Obama extends to the Iran Nuclear Deal, to recertify to Congress every 90 days that the Iranians are complying with the rules; the Paris Climate Agreement; The Affordable Healthcare Act and all other agreements that Obama successfully negotiated regarding the environment and human rights.
In the land that I call home, tens of millions of Americans who couldn’t tell the difference between shit and Shinola, resulting in the election of a malevolent quasi-life form that makes George W. seem like Jesus, Moses, and George Washington rolled into one. Maybe our next president, if we are still electing presidents that is, will take cues from Trump and the ancients as well. A good start would be to remove any future White House portrait of him that might eventually be installed.
Thank you, Gary! No one cares about the Canadian border. They only want to keep the brown people out.
I'm going to request that we use the phrase "undocumented immigrants" instead of "illegals" as the latter is dehumanizing.
You beat me to it! Thank you for saying this.
What difference does it make? Is it because magas tend to use illegals and we can’t use the same word as them? Is this the reason because if it is, it’s not a good enough reason. These folks took advantage of our broken system. No country I repeat no country on the planet allows this kind of uncontrolled migration short of countries that are falling apart in war and in my opinion, Venezuela is the closest. And an expeditionary force should be organized to overthrow the rogue government.
Because other people use it makes no difference to me. As I started in my first comment, the word is dehumanizing. By using that word it associates entire groups of people with a negative word or phrase, thereby making it easier to engage aggressively and violently against them. They are people. People deserve to be treated and described as such. Dehumanization is literally a technique used by genocidal leaders to make it easier to eliminate the targeted group. I'm not saying you have to support what undocumented immigrants did to enter the country, that's a completely different conversation. I'm simply asking you to recognize their humanity.
Both sides of my family, my grandparents, ca e her legally through Ellis Island. There is a right way dot do things and a wrong way. Further, this issue is a deal breaker in the political arena. You want open borders then get used to saying Hiel El Presidente Trump. And be sure to bow your head in subservience.
Bill, I think this is an easy but harsh swipe at Biden/Harris's administration. Ponder for a second how little the Repubs were ever willing to lean in to help and how often they thought pillorying Secretary Mayorkas in their star chamber hearings was the nation's best use of the Secretary's time. I think my view isn't mine alone.
Please don’t get me started on Mayorkas.
We assume "the massive influx of illegals flooding across the border for almost 3 years is " bad". There is little truthful evidence that this is correct. Credible statistics say otherwise.
An old saying: "Assume" can make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me' ".
And an observation about donkeys and elephants: The ass of an elephant is bigger than the entire donkey.
So, here's what I want to know: how is the 'influx of illegal immigrants' even measured? All I can find are the govt stats about 'encounters', which include apprehensions and expulsions, but certainly not folks who actually end up living here...?????
P.S. Whether anybody answers this or not, I LOVE that there's a place that I can even ASK these kinds of questions and have these discussions! Community, indeed!
Isn't it wonderful?!?
I have had dozens of Spanish speaking workers that have reroofed houses in FL, ME and NE or did landscaping or other construction work, etc. If they didn't do good work and worked hard, I wouldn't have used them. And who hires them? Usually a white American who has no responsibility for their immigration status. And I'm certainly not going to check their papers when I know that no one else is available to do the work.
This is the fault of Republicans for not updating our immigration laws. Every time a bi-partisan bill is hammered out, the Republicans turn it down.
And putting razor wire in the water in the Rio Grande is just plain cruel, but I expect no less from the TX Republicans.
Oh really? Ask New York City how they are coping and any other cities where these migrants have flooded in. And besides, you and others miss a valid point. It’s a public relations disaster that may culminate in electing you know who.
Like Springfield, OH? I do need cites.
Reality Check! Trump told the flock to kill the Immigration Bill so he could run on it in the Fall. It was a very good piece of legislation that would have stemmed the tide and calmed tempers on this side. BUT NO! Trump had to hijack it.
And what did Biden do for 3 years leading up to Trump ordering his minions to kill the bill? Excuses.
I suspect your single-minded attack mode is a gross over simplification . Here's a BBC summary https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65574725
Heather has made a few points over the while, stats I've read myself for some time. Immigrants have lower crime rates than native Americans, despite this "flood" US economy has been moving for some time towards full employment, over the past year average wages have increased, cutting into some of those 3 years of pandemic induced inflation. On that part immigrants have worked low-income jobs esp agriculture which others have charged as being "slave labour", another heated debate.
Bill Katz is the replacement for John Schmeeckle who was driven to threads. His expertise is Illegal immigrants which in Amerispeak means black and brown people, docummented or otherwise. Schroedingers immigrants: They steal your jobs and live on welfare
synic
Unvarnished view of the recent past. I think every administration should include one adviser who is a contrarian to offer another point of view. Politicians probably wouldn’t agree but I happen to think it’s healthy to include all points of view.
The Biden administration deported more people than Trump ever did, without separating parents from children and using cages. Additionally, how about those 4 months of bipartisan work that came up with a plan that was then thwarted by the Republican led House?
*of* immigrants
The governor of Florida just signed a law that excludes sex education at all grade levels. Instead, new books will be sent to the schools, that teach abstaining from sexual intimacy. They will no longer educate students with regard to birth control, prevention of STD’s, or discussion of LGBTQ. I’m going to be 79 next month. We had sex education in my high school. Granted, it was a different time, so most girls did not have sex before marriage, however, it was ok for the boys. So, the old double standard, still thriving, is officially back.
We had sex education. The girls had it in either 5th or 6th grade, and it was a big deal because all the girls attended by the boys could not, and the girls could not talk about what went on in that room.
We boys got our sex education in 7th grade, in the gym, from a "Coach," and it was entirely about VD.
I worked in a school district for a while where recycling cans or paper and using the back side of paper were not allowed. I wasn’t there very long.
It seems that the ultra Nationalists Christians believe that we must use up all of the resources of the earth in order for the kingdom to come! Recycling, conserving the earth will prevent this from happening. Slowing the climate crisis is against God. So making a lot of money and ‘drill baby drill’ is God’s work. Fits into 2025. God help us.
We have seen the Taliban take religious beliefs to the extreme, Any religious group that thinks it is OK to enforce their beliefs on other is just a power grabbing cult,
Wasn't this the point of the Civil War?
Again, agree — totally. The agenda will fragment the country, as well, and who knows if the “center will even hold. Perhaps there IS an underlying desire to split pieces off, to create “countries” that codify theocracies and atavistic aristocracies impossible under our Constitution, but who knows what they are thinking … I feel dopey even putting such ideas into words, but the Project 2025 agenda IS isane.
I think that is part of the intent.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
You are both right. Corporate oligarchs and religious demons joined forces with political parties to destroy U.S. liberty and livelihoods.
Yes , I agree. Project 2025 is barbaric and inhumane to the American people. We must not allow Trump nor his mega Republicans in Congress to win in November. Republicans don't believe in climate change unfortunately the hurricane that has affected several states recently has impacted many people and several have lost their life's. We can't afford to have any of these policies strip away in a disaster like this. The hell with Project 2025, Harris must win in November.
I gave your comment a like. But “ white-male-Christian “ ? Come on
This is the danger, beyond Trump, of giving political power to people who believe that rapture is around the bend.
Better hurry rapture, I am sick of the cretins and need to see them disappear pronto…
To quote Elvis Costello “. . . Hurry down doomsday, the bugs are takin’ over . . “
We’re insulting bugs…
A moment of levity: I read your comment, and as a dyslexic speed reader, sometimes words get a bit messed up. I read "rapture" as "rupture". I'd like to know what THAT evangelical event would look like.
<junior high brain leaves the chat>
Dyslexic speed reader, never knew there was such a thing. You’re a magician. I think either term would do. Sometimes I feel like we’re in the middle of the “great rupture” in the fabric of the universe. Saw a “science” show where some “scientists” were trying to prove that the moon landing really happened. People are constantly trying to prove how stupid humans are…
Alley House - you don’t really want to know.
KSC, and they must cruelly punish all "unbelievers" and convert all by the tip of the sword.
No kidding! Trouble is, more than one president has taken office with that attitude in mind.
It's one thing to believe in "the rapture" as personal consolation, it's another entirely, as you say, to use it as a basis for yielding political power, taking upon yourself to wield the judgment of God. That's where these psychos keep going wrong, not believing in God, thinking they are God.
You nailed it. I had a b-I-l who worried about being “left behind.” He was what I considered a true Christian. He gave up on repubs with W/Dickie. The cretins today would malign his kind, gentle soul.
That is what prompted my comment, a kind, gentle, intelligent friend that believes in the story of the rapture. They know damn well their religion is being corrupted & used as the worst possible weapon but are holding to what they believe are the true principles. I don't have to believe all the stories to respect the power of honest faith, holding principles in "good faith". I am angry that the good principles are corrupted for power. I can only imagine what it would be like to have something so important & central to my identity twisted the way that it is.
It hurt him but he didn’t follow so many who joined the tea party crap. He abandoned repubs, not his faith.
I'm not Christian. But I am convinced that there is an antichrist or several!
Maybe a herd, a pride, a congress (salamanders) or a troop. I pray that they are not a majority…
In an increasingly Complex World, the Project 2025 Siths, and the Wanna Be Orange King, want to undo the Progress made in the 20th Century... A.I. won't go away, Climate Change will still progress... Look at the Damage Hurricane Helene has just done... Imagine dealing with the aftermath of Helene with 19th Century Methods, and Resources... The Siths forget that the Average American Life Expectancy was less than 50years... Future Pandemics, Wild-Fires, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Earthquakes will happen... There is an Old Saying.. 'Man Proposes, God Disposes'... The Dark Siths are still Human....
They yeanr for a self-enclosed feudalistic society.
Feudal Society... Supreme Religious Dogma... Ultimate Wealth Disparity... Sounds too much like the Middle-East Autocracies... OBW: How is that part of the World doing?
Still there, which is perhaps something.
Still There, but a lot of UnHappy People hoping to make it to the next Day...
And not much hope in sight.
What they don't want is democracy.
J L Graham, and do want violence ---- mental/emotion, sexual, physical. Their egos crave it. Confirms their "superiority", feeds their desire to harm others and create conflict, etc.
A bit upstream, folks were discussing whether "the cruelty is the point" statement regarding MAGAts was accurate. I think you just hit the nail on the head here, M Tree.
Cruelty is a demonstration of Absolute Power, power which is presumed to escape any balance, redress, or defense. No need for a devil when you get to that point.
The most frightening thing about Project 2025 is the authors know exactly what they are doing! The question is WHY. Their reasoning is faulty. It's a plan to concentrate wealth and power among an elite group of individuals by suppresseing and weakening the rest of humanity. They believe that their wealth and power will protect them. But natural disasters and worldwide pandemics don't really discriminate between rich and poor. We all breathe the same air, drink the same water, eat the food grown in the same soil and live on the same planet.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
It's like saying corporate america should go back to being "the corner store"....
There were corporations before the was an America, and even then they wanted to govern. A corporation is a sort of business license, and corporations can be a single person. The trouble comes when anyone gains antidemocratic levels of control and is permitted to act with impunity.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
Thank you for putting this Project 2025 explainer together! I will share it!
Great! The more eyes on this the better.
In the ultimate service of Billionaire;, or so they think.
My oh my, they sure know how to arrange things.
The Eagles, "Lyin' Eyes" <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PTEqZURh4o>.
CHW. It’s interesting that you put the song on as last night on YouTube a pop up was on 6 ways to know someone is lying. Eyes are a couple of them!
This HCR Letter was an excellent summary of the decades long work in the crafting of useful disaster response and the recognition that significant responses cannot be handled locally. The final two paragraphs of the letter, dealing with the Project 2025 dismantling of FEMA, should strike fear in the heart of any caring American.
The reality is that multiple state and local governments CANNOT all be equipped to handle significant disaster response. The lunacy embedded in that line of thinking is astounding.
Thanks to Dr. Richardson for highlighting yet another Project 2025 disaster in the making.
All around me, a letter writer here (DFW area) just went ballistic about chump saying that he didn’t know much about P2025. Like the lying bastard has ever admitted to knowing anything except how to tell the biggest whopper. MAGAts actually believe him and are so “superior.”
Re Mark Robinson: “I don’t know much about it.”
If NC votes for him, it will be because of cheating. They are purple, despite the lies of McCrory for the past 15+ years
Yeah, I get that from my MAGAt friends. "He said he doesn't know about it" when his freaking name is in it...
In 2005, chump was quoted as saying that he would never admit to doing anything wrong. My momma should have gotten hold of him.
If MAGATs had the patience and diligence to search through Project 2025, they’d understand why so many of us are concerned.
Never happen, the very thought of being confronted with real facts is terrifying beyond words. No problem with Fox
I thought the mayor of Tallahassee? made great points in indicating how thanks to regional if not cross country support networks, they were prepared in advance as much as possible for Helene. FEMA of course got heavily involved. 64? deaths, wow, this was a killer by today's standards.
Pretending emergency response should be a state or local responsibility would be laughable if it did not contain the probability of human suffering. Cross country support? Bring it on!
I agree. I learned a lot ---lived through most of that time, but it is good to look back and see the historical perspective. As to Project 2025 --I think it should be publicized more so that those who are tending to vote Republican can understand what might happen besides the horror of Trump being President and Vance being Vice President.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
It is clear where the current "conservative" party would like the rest of us to go. Straight to Hell. All except those with generational wealth, or newly gotten gains on the markets... They are allowed to use their wealth to weather any storm, no matter what the cost This country has labored long and hard to keep life going for people in dire straits. Hurricanes, broken levies, 100 year storms. Without the coordination of literally hundreds of regional associations, aid would be erratic at best. Why do these "conservatives" want to burn the whole construction down?
Craig, big money donors don't want to pay taxes. As climate change threats and damage rapidly increase, much more money will be needed to fund Fema and other diaster response efforts and prevention efforts too. They want to avoid gov't demanding that they pay their fair share in taxes. How? Eliminate agencies that they personally, being absurdly wealthy, do not need. It illustrates how deeply unconnected they feel to people, to their fellow citizens.
But even the wealthy need help when disaster strikes.
Kathleen Fernandez, true, but they don't need to look to gov't agencies for assistance. They have unlimited resources leading up to and in an emergency situation. They have the ability to hire any help they need. And because they have unlimited money and power, they automatically go to the front of the line. Sure they will take gov't assistance, but it's not a necessity to them, with the exception of such things as restoring power and roads they travel. It is flawed thinking on their part, that they don't think they need gov't at all.
No, they don’t, though some will take it when needed. I flooded with Irma. Finding contractors to work with insurance was tough. The wealthy just came in with cash and hired the workers as most self insure. No mortgage means no insurance requirement, or the ability to not file a claim.
Well that's mighty interesting, considering its "big money" ie higher income individuals to pay for 98% or so of income taxes. The lower half of income earners have been pretty much taken out of that equation. That leaves them with sales taxes, social security deductions. Social security is co-payed by business.
Frank Loomer, PS, what percentage do they actually pay after all the swiss cheese of loopholes? Compare that to other taxpayers' percentages. Not your misleading deflection statement.
check your income statistics, M, that's the net even with loopholes, developed by governments of all stripes, to support the primary wealth generators of America. Kamala is doing more of the same for new small businesses. Did you know btw that about 90% of new businesses fail, matter of factly? The lure of wealth!
Frank Loomers, that they actually pay. Individuals and corporations., I highly doubt it. But it doesn't matter. Your point is moot. They do not pay their fair share compared to everyone else.
Frank Loomer, haha you're a comedian, I see.
lol, feel free to fact correct me on the stats.
They wanna return everything to the states, just as they feel they've accomplished with abortion.
Back to the Articles of Confederation, which the founders ditched. Live and learn not learn a damned thing.
Exactly so, JD. I made an argument on Fleecebook that we'd tried the "states rights" things before, with the Articles of Confederation and with the south's premise for the Civil War. Crickets.
The founders had the sense to ditch that Schitt. TCinLA was right, we are the United States of Amnesia
They should want to keep a few servants, and they will. Never fear
What an idiotic proposal to get rid of federal response to emergencies. I’d like to rub the face of the Heritage Foundation in the vista of the gritty brown sand that was my favorite sugary white sand beach on the Gulf Coast. And hoping they trip on an aluminum handrail sticking out of the sand that used to guide one into the depths of a swimming pool.
Project 2025 is an insulated cocoon of white supremacy and damned if I will call it by any other name. They’ve got their hoods in their pockets and their leash ready for women.
No thank you.
All be safe.
Salud!
🗽💜
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
Actually they are more interested in protecting wealth and power than retaining a monarchical dictator.
One slight edit: The one interest is not only serving the president and those loyal to him (hopefully "her" in January.) but also the big money, individuals and corporate, which is the root of most of our problems, eg. guns, climate change, et al.
I've put together a collection of concept maps (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
To Steve - and once and for all 🙏🇺🇸🗽🕊️💙
No need to apologize, Steve. Concerning Trump and his sycophants, you had it right the first time.
These “like” emojis are odd, but we know they mean agree … Totally
The only way it could be stop is to have Vice-President Harris win this election in November. Trump is incompetent and cares only for his self centered interests first. If people haven't learned this by now then their idiots. Another example, look what happened in Texas when the grid went out and several people froze to death. Senator Ted Cruz was caught by the media leaving to Hawaii until he was pressured to come back and deal with the horrific situation in Texas.
This is the mentality thinking of the mega Republicans. They just don't give a damn about the American people.
Wow, Heather, again demonstrating that there is no topic, no angle regarding American history and the relevance to our current politics that you cannot enlighten us about.
And we all benefit from clarity of her understanding and the breadth of her view. Thank you Heather!
Good writer, too.
What Heather is demonstrating is what Martin Luther King wrote in his letter from Birmingham City Jail: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” I think he and Heather would agree that the word “we” includes both history and the latest news.
JSC, agreed! Heather continues to amaze me with the breadth of her knowledge.
The Heritage Foundation’s stance on NOAA bears similarities to someone refusing a parachute because they have to sign a paper acknowledging what happens if you don’t pull the ripcord.
FEMA and NOAA exemplify the benefits of a federal Republic. The Heritage Foundation wants to get rid of NOAA because its data gathering proves that climate change is happening, and they don't give a $@#! about the impact, except on their profit margins! We must vote for Kamala Harris.
The Heritage Foundation is a collection of professional gaslighters.
gangsters
Just like "the supremes"
Domestic terrorists hell bent on murdering democracy.
Yes, they think they're smarter the entire world's science community on climate change or global warming, for which they began warning when i was maybe 10 years old. I remember reading an article from 1958 international geophysical year sketching out the problem as America was putting out gas guzzlers at the time. Needless to say things have moved MUCH further on since then. Roberts in part argued it wasn't "democratic" to leave out Heritage's "experts" on the matter. Like it wouldnt be democratic to omit them from the nuclear physics science community in the search for the Higgs bosun. etc
Exactly, and deliberately
An example is their promotion of Romneycare but opposition to Obamacare as described at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heritage_Foundation
"...Heritage Foundation initially developed and supported in "Assuring Affordable Health Care for All Americans", a study the foundation released on October 1, 1989.[36] The mandate proposed in the Heritage Foundation study previously had been incorporated into Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's health care plan for Massachusetts in 2006, commonly referred to as Romneycare.[37] The Heritage Foundation opposed the Affordable Care Act.[6]..."
They would support it if they got the credit for it but tear it to shreds/gaslight the daylights out of it when they don't get the credit for it.
Is it just me, or is Kevin Roberts the most extreme weaponizer of Heritage in their history?
Louise, it is said “it takes a village”…..well, IMHO, our country is one large village joining hands to help sustain our neighbors…..if that’s what is called the Fed Gov’t, so be it….we step in where the help is needed. I am verklempt with concern by those affected by this disaster. We, the globe, need to seriously, intently, urgently, deal with the emerging climate change challenges….I know, I know, like herding cats….but we still have to try!
Views on climate change, and what people propose to do about it at every single level where we elect people to anything, need to be shared quite specifically, not letting anybody get away with vague sentences and promises.
Having two cats that don’t get along, I feel the strain on several levels
Uh-oh, JD, discord in the ‘hood… not good!🐈⬛
The construction in the apartment made them worse than usual. Hopefully that is about done. I need peace in the cat house
Ever since Trump, as President, decided he could change the trajectory of a hurricane path with a sharpie and it didn't work, he's had it out for NOAA. This is part of Trump's vendetta list, just as he's never gotten over Obama teasing Trump at a Press Gallery dinner. Trump can't stand empirical facts because they don't care about his feelings so he want's to "get even" with NOAA because their facts made him look ridiculous.
That's a Heritage Foundation concept, not Trump's sharpie, though god i cringed with embarrassment apart from regaled with laughter by that episode.
Trump is the Heritage Foundation's useful idiot. One has depth and discipline. The other has the moxie and the blindly stupid, unquestioned ability to generate media coverage. Each side believes it has the control. The combination is noxious.
and the private interests who own Accuweather and other such operations don't like the public sector competition. They'd rather have an even more profitable monopoly. So if NOAA were wound up, and its assets sold to them, that would suit them just fine.
No doubt some of the unprofitable long-term studies of climate would have to be scrapped, for the benefit of the bottom line, but who really cares beyond the next couple of weekend forecasts, right?
I block AccuWeather on all of my devices all they want to do is track me and sell that information to whoever wants to buy it, when I told them no they didn’t have my permission to do that they stopped providing any weather info. I get my weather from Apple now, they need to know where I am to tell me the weather conditions, but have no interest in selling that info, they get it from NOAA just like AccuWeather.
Interesting... don't they depend on NOAA and other government weather agencies? That's how it works in Canada.
But it is a self deceiving illusion. The chaos that will ensue in the heels of Project 2025 will destroy our economy, our transportation, and their profits...there won't even be any margins. CHAOS has infected the Republican party....with a promise that will not be fulfilled.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
Triple amen!
As I read tonight's Letter, I anticipated the punchline about the GOP-Trump/Vance-Project 2025 plans to dismantle NOAA (final two paragraphs). I can't imagine anything so short-sighted in undermining our nation's ability to deal with the effects of Climate Change. A truly medieval disregard & disdain for science. I can't wait for Project 2025 and all of its architects and enablers to become a minor footnote to our era.
And a disregard for the general population. As Scrooge said, “If they are to die, then let them get on with doing so… and decrease the surplus population.”
Scooge was talking about Republicans, I hope.
Ayn Rand
lol wow, Greenberg's favourite social philosopher!
Sick puppy for sure.
From what i just read, he aggressively reduced interest rates to help cushion declines in the stock market. Then, there is this.... "In 2009, Robert Reich wrote that "Greenspan's worst move was to contribute to the giant housing bubble and the worst worldwide crash since the Great Depression. In 2004 he lowered interest rates to 1%, enabling banks to borrow money for free, adjusted for inflation.
crude Malthus thinking, that idea definitely circulated then, and likely still does. Wait til climate change comes with greater vengeance, so how much America reverts to "Fortress America"... in fact there's already de facto some of that across a lot of the OECD. Look at the European immigration reactions!
Greater vengeance? /s
We're only seeing the early stages of a long term trend, and no one knows just how severe the outcome will be.
Climate science is not as naïve as many human driven climate change deniers would have us believe. Even the earliest models have proven remarkably skillful (the term of art meaning accurate) in what they projected.
https://www.science.org/content/article/even-50-year-old-climate-models-correctly-predicted-global-warming
Your apparently dismissive view ( in earlier post) seemingly betrays an anti scientific perspective, with a whiff of a “The perfect is the enemy if the good” gambit.
The science is not perfect, no empirical science can or does claim to be, but the science of climate is based on strong empirical and theoretical foundations.
Here’s a link to what real climate scientists have to say about climate and climate science.
https://www.realclimate.org/
I agree on your comments about the state of climate science. I didn't mean to sound "dismissive". Perhaps I didn't put it strongly enough, but we're nonetheless in the early stages of the current climate crisis. What we're getting now is likely just the "appetizer" for what's coming. If things go badly, swathes of already warm climates may be headed for being unlivable. I suspect we've missed our chances for holding onto 1.5C global rise, we're practically already there. Even if we hold our current carbon emissions levels (which we wont) that alone promises ongoing heating of the planet.
I would go beyond short-sighted as a descriptor, I would go with criminal intent, which It is. These brain dead soul dead
beings give themselves away with every breath. Let us not minimize them at all along with their completely harmful and ridiculous plans that are trying to fulfill some incredibly sick fantasy about grabbing power that they don't deserve and never will. The only language they understand is one where they get completely rejected. They're always going to be a problem so let's not give our energies in that direction - reminding me of how I thought I could change the partner in my marriage. Yeah right.
"The only language they understand is one where they get completely rejected." -- We are working more than ever before (letter writing, political contributions) for the complete rejection... The GOP will need to go down in flames before there is the slightest hope that they will ever re-emerge (under a new name?) as a decent party to serve in opposition in a 2-party system.
There has been some talk about reconstituting the Republican Party with an election disaster being the trigger. But who expected Trump to crawl back out of the bomb crater he made for himself? Mind you, it didn't take long!
One learns, hopefully
Truly medieval indeed.
Or to be swept away by the furies of climate change!
Shooting the messenger makes the problem go away, right? 🙁
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
As we grapple with the devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene, it’s impossible to ignore the dire consequences of Project 2025—the GOP's blueprint for the next administration. This plan, endorsed by Trump and J.D. Vance, would dismantle FEMA, gut NOAA, and leave disaster-stricken communities to fend for themselves. Tim Snyder, a leading scholar on fascism, warned that authoritarian regimes often thrive when public services crumble and the state abandons its people in moments of crisis. Project 2025 is the embodiment of this warning. It promises cruelty masked as "freedom," pushing the burdens of climate disasters, healthcare, and economic inequality onto states with fewer resources, all while shuffling more power into the hands of a corrupt few.
This is not just an attack on science and disaster response; it’s an assault on the very fabric of democracy. Voting for the GOP in this election would accelerate the shift toward authoritarian rule, leaving our communities vulnerable in ways that can’t be undone. We must resist, not only for the future of our planet but for the survival of a just society
The devastation of P2025 would make the devastation of Helene look minor.
It's a general attack on secular advances as well, in more ways than once, so this is a reactionary pushback by one of the most influential conservative think tank organizations, and they are going all out.
Yes, the crowd collectively known as conservatives are perhaps better described as reactionaries.
It is definitely clear that they are not conservative in anyway.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
I have been in DC all week doing research in museums and the Library of Congress. Yesterday I was surprised to find a fantastic vegetable garden on the SW corner of the Madison building. These are recreations of WW1 victory gardens and are maintained by the Architect of the Capitol (see aoc.gov).
I am trying to point out the positive things that our government does right to my overly cynical 35 year old daughter. She and many like her are so wrapped up in how Harris et al are complicit in Gaza and other disasters that they all lose sight of any good etc. if they base their votes on this cynicism and vote 3rd party or simply don’t vote, this will result in disaster.
But will people who chose that path take any responsibility for the results? I know people who voted for Nader who seem to bristle at their complicity when I ask them “how did that work out for you? Not so well I see…).
This cynicism of the youth needs to be confronted head on. A trip to the Capitol especially into the Rubenstein Treasures Gallery in the Jefferson Wing of the Library of Congress was for me a powerful experience. I was there to gather data on one exhibit - the glass flute owned by President Madison. The curator of the flute vault said to check out the rest of the exhibit and I did. In moments I, a 69 year old bloke, was immediately moved to tears by the intense history and humanity reflected by these treasures.
Perhaps teaching Civics in schools needs more emphasis. Instead Trump and Project 2025 wants to get rid of the Department of Education. The cynicism that I observe in today’s younger generations unfortunately becomes part of the MAGA playbook.
Harris is campaigning on a platform of Hope. How do we get under this callus of cynicism that has been growing since Bush vs. Gore?
I for one am worn out with this cynicism. Our government does some pretty cool things and reminds us how we got here in ways that touch the heart - if one bothers to look.
“One of the nation’s largest Muslim political groups endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday despite fierce opposition to her Middle East policy, saying that stopping former President Donald Trump is paramount.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/muslim-group-endorses-harris-opposition-gaza-policy-rcna172670
Amen on that! They are caught between what they consider the lesser of evils. If most American muslims are sunni, they can't feel totally bad about the pounding Hezbollah has just taken from the Israelis, likely with american subsidized bombs. (55% sunni, 16% shiite dont know about the rest thanks Google)
last night an interview of Secretary Clinton asked her greatest fear after teaching at Columbia, and her answer is directly related to your daughter's response. She said young people reacting to the Israeli response to 10/7 need to have a much better understanding of the historical context of the situation. They need to see the bigger picture of how we got here, including all the attempts and failures of people trying to 'solve' the bigger situation of Israel and it's neighbors. (check out Firing Line with Margaret Hoover on PBS)
Yes, knowledge of history, or lack thereof, can strongly shape attitudes on current affairs.
Those obsessed with the heinous attacks on Jews on October 7, 2023, by Hamas appear unaware why Palestinians might be a bit scratchy about their treatment in Gaza (which is part of the nation state of Israel) by Netanyahu’s government. For example, how many know… “In the 1948 Palestine war, more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs – about half of Mandatory Palestine's predominantly Arab population – were expelled or fled from their homes, at first by Zionist paramilitaries,[a] and after the establishment of Israel, by its military.[b]”?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestinian_expulsion_and_flight
Has Margaret had a sane moment. Not when I watched, but it’s been a while
I agree, it's not always a show I like.
I saw one that made me want to kick in the TV. My lifelong repub sister saw no problem. Thankfully, she hates chump and just voted a straight Dem ticket in VA
I was always leery but have seen Margaret evolve from her early days from seeming to have conservative leanings you'd expect from Herbert Hoover (her grandfather, whom I have a better appreciation of from my brother's classmate a year ahead of me).
He impressed me more than any other student, especially with his creative, diplomatic, and effective refereeing in the seniors vs faculty Basketball game when tempers flared., though his demeanor made me think of what Calvin Coolidge. As I seem to recall he whistled as you would a foul, but when asked what the foul was, said he didn't know, just that they had to stop playing the way they were. George Harlan Nash Jr. spent 20 years since 1975 living in Iowa working at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Lbrary Association a described at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._Nash
"...From 1975 to 1995, he lived in Iowa to work at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, where he wrote three volumes of a definitive, scholarly biography, ending in 1918, commissioned by the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association. He did research in hundreds of manuscript collections and archival sources in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Nash published numerous essays on Hoover...
...In mid-2019, Nash evaluated the Trump presidency:
Nash argues that Trump has shattered the fusionist consensus within conservatism. On every front, Nash claims, Trump has challenged or subverted the conservative orthodoxy. He has abandoned the doctrine of free trade in favor of protectionism. He pays lip service to traditionalist concerns, and he pursues pro-life policies, but his past positions and personal conduct clash with social-conservative sensibilities. He has called into question the merits of the NATO alliance, sounding, when he does, like an isolationist. For Nash, Trump is in many ways an aberration from, rather than a fulfilment of, the ideas of the conservative intellectual movement..."
Point is Margaret has a way of giving smart sounding "conservatives" plenty of rope to explain their logic, but can trigger the trapdoor at the end. They seem to think she agrees with everything they say, until she skewers them. I used to watch William F. Buckley Jr for the guests, whom I usually agreed more with than with him, it's the opposite quite often with her talking to "conservatives."
The interview with Kevin Hassett is the best example of skewering I can imagine if you can stand to watch it to the very end,
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODX-0t3t3K4
"Top Trump White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett discusses this week's presidential debate, defends the former president's economic agenda — including new tariffs — and critiques Vice President Kamala Harris' economic plans."
Margaret Hoover has never disappointed me and seemed to have a really meaningful point made in every episode I watched. The Hillary interview had an abundance of them in their exchange.
Casey Burns, thanks for trying to make a difference by offering some challenges to your daughter's thinking. Keep it up, please. You may be getting through more than you think.
Just think of chump and Bibi being the Bobbsey twins.
JD Chilcutt, running from the law.
Love to see that
JD Chilcutt, literally, me too!
We need to see consequences. It’s been a long stretch of the bullies winning. Enough already…
Seems there is a lot of activity on TikTok in that age group and that some of it is getting very good in terms of youth looking ahead at what they will need and what they understand better, can look it up I suppose.
can't answer that, but remember politics has become very tribal, with attitudes often locked in cement. The polls may well suggest the possibility of victory of Harris and the Dems, even downvote, but it only takes say 5% switch overall among among persuadable voters to change out Congress. tba.
I loved much about Nader - before his ego took over and “how it worked out” was disasterous. I would never vote for a spoiler, and it was obvious in his case and others.
I voted for Nader. But I voted in NE at the time, so my vote was simply a protest vote.
He is a brilliant man, among the smartest man ever to run for President of the US.
Both the Dems and Cons refused to let him debate even though he had enough support.
Brilliant men have egos to match. Stephenson was a brilliant man too. But brains don’t always impress the voters, or the money. Our slate of past presidents is proof
And that's what scares me about Trump. He's a moron according to dozens of people that worked with him and yet the Neanderthal masses think he's brilliant.
Message from Fox since 1996, W, Senate idiots, Yes Mitt, and chump. All genuses. When Reagan dictated that they should never criticize another Repub, they heard "never tell the truth about them."
Cynisism is also part of growing up. Pushing away from our parents and building the muscles to stand independently.
My reminder to youth is that it is easier to criticise than it is to develope new, better and realistic solutions. Yes, lead the way forward, we need your input. You have to do the hard work of creating better.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
I am thankful that my 35 year old nephew is more pragmatic than your daughter. He bristles at so much of what the Democratic Party stands for (I suspect his voter registration lists him as a Communist); he always votes with an eye on the ultimate victory and not just his ideological preference.
Some I know well bristle at the equality thing. Racism/fear is a root of so much
Project 2025 wants to toss FEMA overboard and let states fend for themselves in disasters, as if hurricanes respect state lines. And gutting NOAA’s hurricane warnings? Bold move—who needs life-saving data when we can just cross our fingers? This isn’t streamlining, it’s a crash course in disaster roulette.
I had to laugh about Tennessee proudly refusing aid for what, practically a whole day? I remember when the national drinking age was increased from 18 to 21 by Ronald Reagan in 1984.The State of Wyoming refused to raise the drinking age, and received reduced Federal Highway funds as a result, for several years before the State Legislature bowed to reality in 1988, after a couple catastrophic winter storms- there are many things individual States, particularly the smaller, rural, poorer states simply cannot afford to do on their own. I hope to see "Hurricane Relief and Assistance, brought to you by the Biden/Harris administration" signs everywhere in all those southern States. I would hope Harris makes a point if visiting each of those States and does a lot of photo ops with appropriate people. In Tennessee, the sign should include, in parentheses " (in spite of your local Republican Party!)" Don't mean to be making light of a horrible situation. Climate change is happening in spite of hopes, prayers, and laws to the contrary. The 2025 project is so astoundingly short sighted and divorced from reality, it like it was written by a bunch of uneducated individuals with delusional disorder. That said, I have to admit that the idea of spending so much money to rebuild in low-lying marginal areas that will be underwater in a few years is troubling. Anywhere hit by the storm surge should probably be declared coastal protection barrier land and planted with suitable vegetation, rather than being rebuilt with houses that have no business being there in the first place.
Weather related or whether related the main point exists , Project 2025 is BIG but just a name , ‘ SAME GAME’…inflation,health crisis, conspiracy theories, authoritarian move, rich vs poor,immigration. Major players conspiring with 80+ % of the population engaged at some level albeit most unwittingly and useful tactics/happenings to consume them conveniently used.
Bravo ‘Notes..’ solutions…marvelous !
💙💙🇺🇸VOTE BLUE.END THIS COUP.UP TO ALL THE YOUS🇺🇸💙💙
Oh forgot to mention 🤦♀️ religious angles well weathered!
Right, oblique, or obtuse?
As someone who has printed a program proclaiming that we would play "Angles We Have Heard on High" I now tread very carefully with both angels and angles.
That’s a riot, Ally and on point!
I have seen zero signs in construction areas crediting Dems. But treasonous Texas trio love the bucks.
Yes, because their dogma is that government should be small, that it should not do anything for people, only for businesses.
And also highlights the value of public servants, folks who work for the myriad agencies that have been activated to assist the people of multiple states during this catastrophe in ways large and small. Republicans have reliably denigrated public service for decades.
Ocean can’t encroach or Mar-a-lardo soon enough!
Subtle is the humor I so love, you all are a joys ,laughter, and wit.
I’m in Tallahassee FL and we just dodged Hurricane Helene!
One word and one link: Galveston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhKZLhxFFUY
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
Going "back" to states' rights...Didn't we fight a Civil War over this? Thank you Heather for your terrific history review to remind us. Diminish the FEDERAL govt is the goal of "the south will rise again." 50 squabbling states with 50 different laws on education, safety, voting, environment...(add yours) as Lincoln said..."a house divided cannot stand." PEOPLE UNITE...VOTE FOR SEVERAL ELECTION CYCLES!
Wouldn't it be nice for Trump and Vance to jump in a plane after a catastrophic hurricane and fly to the various disaster locations and throw paper towels at people. Meanwhile, with no FEMA, they could just sit back and blame the Democrats for the Hurricanes and do nothing like W. tried to do after Katrina.
They learned nothing from “you’re doing a heck of a job Brownie.”
There are several sites I visit daily for vital information. Living in Alaska for the past 48 years I have depended on NOAA weather information. NPR for (mostly unbiased) news and for the past few years LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN has provided me with contextualised news. Honest information has a very high value and I am grateful to HCR, NPR and NOAA.
Charles, my Dad would thank you. 35 years with the Weather Bureau, then NOAA after his time as a MetTech in the USAAC during WWII.
I strongly concur, Charles.
Former 13-year Alaska resident here - Right on!
Republicans are either totally crackers or have had their skulls scraped out by decades of self service, meanness, misery and fear of everyone. They’re nuts! They give humans a bad name. Honestly, sometimes I’m made totally breathless by their bizarre behaviours and declarations. They’re completely indubitably, nuts!!
Yes, both. But they are also committed, unhesitating, and vicious. And, they have assault rifles.
This is a time for the vaunted mainstream of the media to speak the fuck up, in fact way way past time. The elephant in the room has got to be replaced with some other moniker, because elephants don't deserve bad press. Monster? Monstrosities? And then there is MEFHB=
Miserable Excuses For Human Beings. Okay, done my bit.
The strategy of the GOP for years has been to support an anti-government narrative by underfunding or willful incompetence in order to prove their own anarchistic ideology (disguised as libertarianism) that there should be no government regulation or assistance for anything, period. It's pretty insane, given the Constitution talks about promoting the general welfare, and up until Trump threatened to abrogate it they were pretty big fans of our founding document. Disaster relief - like health care or unemployment insurance - is surely a part of promoting the general welfare.
But no, now to promote the general welfare makes you a communist. Good grief these people and half the electorate are just plain crazy, mean, and stupid. And that is not name calling: that is just observable empirical fact, by any human measure.
- Pulled Quote -
''Bill Lee, a Republican, did not ask for such a declaration until this evening, instead proclaiming September 27 a “voluntary Day of Prayer and Fasting.” Observers pointed out that with people stuck on a hospital roof in the midst of catastrophic flooding in his state, maybe an emergency declaration would be more on point.''
More 'thoughts and prayers'? God works through people. Vote.
Trump and vice presidential candidate Ohio senator J.D. Vance, calls for slashing FEMA’s budget and returning disaster responses to states and localities.
Project 2025 also calls for dismantling the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and either eliminating its functions, sending them to other agencies, privatizing them, or putting them under the control of states and territories. It complains that NOAA, whose duties include issuing hurricane warnings, is “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.”
Michael, the Project 2025 mandate of calling for the dismantling of NOAA is like being threatened by a stake through my heart. As a lifelong cherished hobby non-professional Climatologist and weather researcher, i rely on NOAA data for my ongoing research with the aid of the data from their websites on a daily basis. The DTP, (Domestic Terrorist Party) and their lame excuses and pure ignorance is appalling to the extreme. I do remember well when their God, Donald TUMP suggested the utterly dumb and stupid idea of detonating an atomic or hydrogen bomb to dissipate a hurricane. TUMP and his minions belong in an institution for the mentally deranged for the rest of their despicable lives! There is no way they should even be considered to be leaders in our Federal Government.
John, my Dad was a WWII USAAC SSgt Meteorologist Technician. He was able to work as a civilian with the Weather Bureau, later NOAA. He was in the first cadre of employees trained in using Doppler Radar in the 1970's. I share your love for hobby, non-professional weather watching (no research for me!) and I shudder to think of the impact that defunding NOAA would have.
Let us not forget that the timing of the successful D-day landings by the Allies at Normandy was delayed at the last minute from June 5, to June 6 by an Allied meteorologist who indicated there would be a break in the bad weather on that day.
Faulty German weather predictions failed to detect a break in the storm on June 6, which (mis)led General Erwin Rommel to think he could safely slip away from coastal France to attend his wife’s birthday in Germany on June 6, 1942, and thus was not available when the Allies landed. And the rest, they say, is history.
When I spotted one of the most respected Senior Weather Equipment Techs, CMSgt Fred Aletta (supposedly assigned to the FMS in Japan), in Saigon, I was in the Field Maintenance Shop. He and the other techs with him said, "You never saw us here, we were never here, got it?" Years later I found they were there with the predecessor to the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, highly classified at the time. They covered a leak with a story and picture of 7th AF Commander, Gen Momyer, with a picture from the lower resolution civilian weather satellite. DMSP didn't get declassified until Hurricane Camille hit Mississippi and they found the DMSP pictures and forecasts were more accurate (but weren't cleared for release according to one of the instructors at the tech school), than even the 53rd (WRS) Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (Hurricane Hunters), flying out of Ramey AFB Puerto Rico at the time (before moving to Kessler AFB Mississippi in 1973).
A perpetual problem was congress wanted us to use just the civilian system though DMSP was so much better at identifying high altitude conditions that prevented wasting limited film on areas that wouldn't show up on film well enough. The primary customers were satellites and SR-71s that we also wouldn't want to risk on missions where higher altitude weather that wouldn't bother the highest flying civilian aircraft but would impair what the SR-71s needed to be able to record.
.
It's alarming to see proposals like the Project 2025 mandate threatening institutions as crucial as NOAA, especially for people like you who deeply value climate research. NOAA is a lifeline for understanding weather patterns, climate change, and safeguarding our environment. Dismantling it would be reckless, especially when the world faces escalating climate crises that demand more data, not less.
As for Trump's infamous suggestion about nuking hurricanes, it’s a stark reminder of the ignorance that some people in power wield when it comes to science. It wasn’t just scientifically absurd—it exemplified a dangerous level of detachment from reality. The thought that these individuals could steer federal policy, endangering crucial scientific research and ignoring the existential threats we face, is disturbing.
The fact that they continue to garner support reveals a broader problem of disinformation and disregard for expertise. NOAA, and agencies like it, are essential for informed decision-making, and the thought of dismantling such a critical entity is as absurd as it is terrifying.
We need to amplify the importance of institutions like NOAA, whose data drives climate policy, disaster preparedness, and research that benefits us all. Keep up your work in climate research—it's voices like yours that will help counteract the rising tide of ignorance.
Any area of science will be a target. Health care was and still is. No area of science is safe
I want to thank you, Michael for your very intelligent and eye opening reply. I do appreciate it very much. It is beyond my comprehension that an ignorant deranged monster like Donald TUMP is being allowed to even think about running for the highest office in the nation. He is a convicted felon and a horrifying excuse for a human being. Please tell me why so many people are obsessed with him? Although i don't believe in fairy tales and nonsense like that, it seems he has cast a spell over ignorant and gullible people. It also seems like so many adults are still children than have never grown up. Back when i was a child, we would wear things from imaginary figures like, Superman, the incredible Hulk, Frankenstein and other personalities that weren't real. Most of us grew up and forgot about that nonsense, but there are so many adults now that have the need to have a, ''so-called hero'' and i suppose TUMP is their hero. Everyday on TV i see attorneys, football coaches, salespersons that alter their appearances to look like Donald TUMP, and that nutcase JD Vance by dying their hair orange or grow dark beards like those two monsters.
I have thousands of dollars tied up in weather equipment and instruments at my home, and have kept weather and climate data for decades and some people think i am nuts for doing this. I just ignore ignorant people like that.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
You read my mind
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
IOW, it is not only a nuclear war that would send those of us who survive back to living in caves and scrabbling in the ground for food—re-electing Trump would do it, too, and probably faster.
Major autocrats outside the USA are watching. Divide and conquer is an ancient strategy.
The natural existence of an autocracy depends on continued material growth to feed the growing number of selfish individuals in the leadership structure and the inefficiency of the pyramid control structure.
Oh lord, is there nothing these people won’t do to eliminate any agency of help and care in our country?
No. Nothing. They are ruthless. And shameless.
Shameless, Rex?
Remember, they have no humanities -- no context for the human, no capacity to connect to other perspectives. And the money & power which they crave totally dismisses conscience of all kinds. Witness the orange felon, his fellow vulgar Vance, and then all their cohort in their mixture of lies and self-absorbed fantasyland.
It strikes me as odd that religion, which has given us shame, is proclaimed far and wide from the rooftops, including those of hospitals, by those who name themselves Christians but who have no shame when it comes to committing any and all of the seven deadly sins.
Sure, Becky.
But let's recall not only do they not have any humanities but, in place of that, they have reduced life to nothing more than units.
Education becomes for them unit acquisition. (They call it information.) Standardized testing refines this vulgarity by stressing the logic of categories to which all info fits (or a-b-c-d doesn't). Categories means groups -- packages.
So we have the status quo over which our schools preside.
Wonder why dictators, demagogues, oligarchs, Clarence courts, standardized testers, corporate textbook packagers, and all the other vulgar rule?
Plus, of course, the orange felon, rapist, racist, criminally convicted grifter.
Betsy, i call people like that Governor of Tennessee, a crazed Religious fanatic.
And stupid.
Good old Governor Lee; he precisely described what folks have to do without any assistance while perched on their roofs awaiting the rescue rafts. Sadly, he forgot to mobilize the assistance that would enable the rafts to deploy. They are heading back to the days of the bucket-brigades down there. At the accelerating rate of super-storms in the southern and Gulf states, the prudent long term strategy might be to just abandon the coastlines altogether and move to higher ground many miles away. Just don't move to Oregon, please. Oklahoma is probably far enough. If you want to return all form of government to the states, prepare to tough it out each time Nature comes knocking.
Howdy, neighbor. What part of Oregon are you in?
I live at the bitter edge of Multnomah county, Congressional District 5, where liberal and conservative clash at the county's edge.
I'm in Eugene; I used to get up that way regularly when my niece was attending CWU; not so much these days. I have some friends (now all sergeants) with Multnomah Co SO. The good ones.
Climate change is not much of a voting issue, it seems. “The Economy” is. Which seems to mean paying prices that we like, regardless of true costs.
Global warming continues whether or not NOAA is able to tell us about it.
Yes - paying for disaster after disaster will prove bankrupting. Transition to a green economy should have started decades ago. But Reagan removed the solar panels Carter installed on the White House . . . it started even then, with Ronald "you've seen one tree you've seen them all" Reagan, and James Watt telling people to use up resources because the Apocalypse was at hand (yeah, they were really nuts from the get-go back in '80). Thus did anti-environmentalism become a cornerstone of GOP identity.
Climate change does seem to resonate with young voters. If it increases their turnout substantially, that alone could swing the election. Can’t count on it, but it’s a favorable factor.
Climate change is a voting issue among the young. I'm wondering whether those who have been displaced by Helene will be able to vote in just slightly over a month?
I was just thinking that all those folks affected by this storm may have difficulty voting on November 5. Some areas, especially Florida, may not have electricity for weeks or months. And more hurricanes are lining up at this moment.
Now might be a good time for democratic campaign ads and the Lincoln Project to blanket the public about republican intentions to eliminate FEMA, NOAA, and other important federal agencies and rub salt in the gaping wound that Project 2025 would cause.
But if there's no electricity, where can they put the ads so that people will see them? I know that some groups are using billboards, but those are more limited. If the ads are geared to people who have electricity, and they're MAGA supporters, will they think that natural disasters could happen to them? I'm guessing not.
I've put together a collection of concept maps on Project 2025 (with page #s!) to help people understand the magnitude of damage MAGA wants to do and be able to bring the receipts in their discussions with other voters. I'd like this to get in front of as many people as possible. Please share the web link with everyone in your network and ask them to share with everyone in their network. Here's my post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149586096?r=11kr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web and here's the link directly to the web page: https://fidlnfree.com/rwb.html. Thanks!
Of course.
To MAGATs the "economy" is a pretext for racism.
Ironically, Trump botched the economy, too.
For patriotic Americans, Jan 6 disqualifies all MAGATs.
Did trump really botch the economy? Seems to me, a non investor, that the stock market went up during the Trump years. Seems that's all that matters to the "chosen" ones.
When Trump left office, he gave us the highest deficit, by far in US history.
The economy lost 2.7 million jobs. During his 4 years, unemployment rate increased by 1.7 percentage points to 6.4%. There was a dramatic collapse in GDP during Covid as many businesses shut.
The international trade deficit Trump promised to reduce went up. The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services in 2020 was the highest since 2008 and increased 36.3% from 2016.
The number of people lacking health insurance rose by 3 million.
The federal debt held by the public went up, from $14.4 trillion to $21.6 trillion.
Home prices rose 27.5%, and the homeownership rate increased 2.1 percentage points to 65.8%.
Illegal immigration increased. Apprehensions at the Southwest border rose 14.7% last year compared with 2016.
The stock market is setting records daily under Biden.
I don't disagree with all you say. But my observation is that the wealthy supporters of Trump care little about the facts you cite. All they care about is whether their personal wealth (and power in the highest percentile segment) increased. These are people who let professionals manage their investments. They are beyond consumption of goods and services and care only about the game of controlling others.
Some. Not all. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kamala-harris-endorsed-by-business-leaders/
In 2020 people who were transfixed by their 401 Ks supported Trump. No more.
Many of Trump's supporters do so for "insurance," i/e. fear that he can retaliate against him.