I’d like to point out how companies like Walmart are being subsidized by our taxes. They don’t pay a living wage so what they do is instruct new employees how to file for food stamps etc.
Walmart is no mom and pop company. They are on the Fortune Five Hundred list. By not paying their workers a living wage they are forcing their employees to have to get government subsidies to make ends meet. Who pays for those benefits? It’s certainly not the 1% who enjoy trumps tax cuts and plenty of loopholes.
I have no problem with feeding the needy but I resent subsidizing rich corporations like Walmart. Not only are they cheating taxpayers they are also denying their employees of the dignity of supporting their families.
Not only does Walmart not pay a living wage, it keeps the hours of most low level employees below 30 hours per week. That means they are not eligible for health benefits and other benefits that full time employees receive.
Koolkankat, then they have all kinds of programs at WalMart to tap into workers' enthusiasm for the company. The rah rah is supposed to make up for the lousy wages. My sister worked there for a couple of years, earning little, but still, years later, finds herself loyal to the WalMart Corporation. Republicans don't want to acknowledge that one of their big donors is cheating the government and tax-payers. They don't mind because they have found ways to cheat on their own taxes, so they aren't paying for WalMart and their ilk anyway. It is a neat little package that should be torn open so the American people can really see what is going on, not just the "woke" people who are following what is happening in our nation.
Sandra, thank you so much. It means a lot to me that people on this thread like what I write. I certainly do appreciate what the other participants on the thread contribute. It is a great conversation every day. Ruth
What the world needs is an economy based on corporations that are owned by their workers but compete in the open market with each other. Neither capitalists nor labor unions are in favor of this arrangement because both would become redundant.
Alden: A question. Although I generally agree with you about worker ownership, in a competition, would the same tendency to achieve monopoly, that drives corporations today, still be operating and effective? It is a reasonable response to competition (which no corporation, no matter how owned, actually desires). It is partly what makes capitalism an unstable system but would worker ownership change it? I have written a book which goes beyond worker ownership to true democratic control of all politics, called Parasites Lost, available at gettingtozerowaste.com, which I think answers this question.
Do as I do....refuse to enter their stores. Don't online shop with them. Support all your local businesses, even if it cost a couple bucks more. In the long run, it's worth it for everyone. If you don't hit them in the pocketbook, they just laugh at us.
IMHO, boycotting Walmart to address the low wages they pay their employees will hurt the employees much more than corporate Walmart. The company will simply fire workers and/or close stores in response to reduced business. The workers are worse off. They will NOT increase wages in response to less business! A better solution is to press governments to raise the minimum wage enough to force the Walmart to pay their employees a living wage.
Patronizing other stores that pay a living wage, such as Costco and Target, where possible will only help. It will shift jobs, however incrementally, to better paying jobs.
And, most certainly be an activist working to elect pro labor, pro fairness, people, people who will #ProtectOurFreedoms.
Did not know that Costco and Target paid a living wage. I thought all the big box stores paid about the same slave wages. Thanks for the info! Neither are nearby in my rural area, but I will consider Target for online purchases vice Walmart/Amazon in the future.
It is a classic comparison of a sweat shop (Walmart) to a unionized business that values its employees (Costco). Costco proves that you don't have to treat your employees like slaves to be successful.
If you evaluate the members of the Republican party on an individual basis you will find a number of them are very qualified politicians. However, a few of them challenge the mind as to how in the hell they ever got elected in the first place. Either Marijuana has been in use longer than it's been legal in their states or the Oracle of Delphi has a new location, including the gaseous vapors that entranced the young virgins as they predicted the future. That party has been infiltrated by a number of mentally impaired individuals whose presents in our governmental chambers are doing neither party any good. In addition to the children who have no business being where they currently are the Republicans are being barraged by candidates running for various positions throughout the country that live by the 5 fake crises Robert has just explained. They possess no real qualities that would afford them a real possibility of being elected so they attack their Democratic opponents with lies. One heck of a way to gain respect among your constituents. When all you have to go on are lies the only thing you have to lose is your self-respect.
Agree that changing the national minimum wage is a real challenge, but some local and state governments have had success raising the minimum wage in their jurisdictions.
Like THAT will ever happen! Our politicians are forced to do Corporate bidding because advertising on our corporate owned TV and radio stations is so expensive that our politicians, even the honest few there are, have to spend three days out of five dialing for dollars just to keep their jobs. Then a "friendly" corporation shows up and offers them millions, with the understanding that the politician will do the corporation's bidding or lose that funding before the next election. Looks like a rigged system to anyone with two eyes (or even one).
Tim: You are right, I think. It is necessary to think of future consequences, in a deep way, not just the first thought to pop into your mind. That is what drives Zero Waste Theory in my formulation. Design all products for future reuse, again and again, instead of just throwing them out for consumption, basically designed for discard, which will necessarily send them to the dump or into the environment after a single use (think of those Slurpee cups everyone carries around).
Mega-box stores like Walmart are so huge..have such a large share of consumers that no boycott will be effective. Walmart became massive by closing down all surrounding "mom, pop" stores. They have no real competition and that is our problem in America today. These huge companies like Amazon & Walmart can freely screw both their workers and their customers & their CEOs laugh all the way to the bank.
Walmart has gotten, and earned, the reputation of a second or third rate shopping experience in my area; a joke, mostly. Shop Target or Costco instead. I won’t go near any Walmart.
There has to be a better way. I read an interesting book called Viking Economics which at least presents functional alternatives to our present system.
I live in Vacaville CA, a shopper's paradise with endless small stores, but I end up buying from Amazon repeatedly. I buy a lot of technical products which I can't even imagine getting at a local store. Left hand threaded bolts, for example. 5000 grit polishing compound. Easy on Amazon. Impossible otherwise.
And that is because as someone has already said, Walmart ran all the small retailers out with the cheap made inching merchandise they sell. Sam Walton was a good man but his offspring are just greedy snots who want more and more.
We lost Target, Kmart, Shopko, grocery store/fuel station, several auto parts stores, and the last mid-level department store at the now abandoned Mall, over a period of four years, when Walmart expanded to groceries. We've added an Aldi's and several nation-wide bank branches. Coffee huts have cropped up around the county seat. We were walmarted. It's still happening.
I shop a lot in Canada at Dollarama. You can buy their shares on the Canadian stock market. When they started business in Canada, they relied on buying non-saleable end runs and such from other stores. They have become a real alternative now. I just spent $30 on garden supplies from them that would have cost me twice that elsewhere for similar quality. Most of their items are produced and packaged under their own labels. As always, the management and sales staff are the foundation of the business. The Dollarama closest to where I live has the best staff and management, so they'll get my business for a long time to come.
Yes, one of those moved into our empty shopping mall, but they were here before the "crash". Another thing I didn't mention is that Walmart is on the other side of the highway where they don't have to charge city or county taxes. It's the outer edge of the next county over. Nobody in this town gets any benefit from Walmart's location.
I have entered a Walmart store only once in my life. That was to buy a Journey CD that was unavailable anywhere else. I went in to buy my CD & got out as quickly as possible.
You're lucky! Where I live, you have no choice for many needed items. When I was young and went shopping with my mother, everything was local "mom and pop" stores. She dealt with the shop owners. They knew her, and she knew them. They were friends and neighbors. Shopping was a pleasant experience. Walmart and other large corporations destroyed this. Shopping at Walmart is a grind!
That’s an interesting point. Shopping is a social activity. Making it only about deals and transactions misses some intangible but inherently human piece that people need. There may be a market for that need just now, both in politics and in economics.
Yep. It is all about the plan to cause us all to be as separated as possible from one another. Common occurrences of connecting with neighbors in small shops keeps humans connected. while disconnection breeds a whole different attitude and one that does not offer the intangible things that humans need so much such as neighborly care and concern.
When Walmart wanted to move into our town, there was lots of resistance by the locals. They moved in, anyway, but their business here has been quite anemic. I've never shopped there.
I think it was 2009. The album I bought was a double album with half greatest hits & half new material. Can't remember what it's called, but virtually all Journey albums have similar 1 word titles & similar album covers featuring an eagle like symbol.
Yes. I'm surprised but happy about the comeback by vinyl, but overall it's getting harder to find albums of any kind in the stores.
My favorite band is probably the Moody Blues, & they really had impressive artwork on their albums (by the same artist). It fit the magnificence of their music.
I would love to do this and I've done this when we lived in Bklyn, NY where you can get to a store by subway or bus. But how do you do this here in Tucson, AZ???? You have to have a car!! which we do not. And cars are destroying the Earth...We simply cannot win..
I totally agree with what you are saying. As a former social worker,I had several employees of Walmart in my caseload. The company would schedule them with just enough hours to work that would make them eligible for programs like Medicaid and Snap(food stamps). I had one client, a single-mother who was a supervisor at one of the stores. She was always embarrassed to come into the office when her review was due. Walmart knows exactly what it is doing and taxpayers are footing the bill.Shame on them.
I know. It's not overtly seditious. They just want to make sure things remain status-quo - by any means necessary. It's business as usual having gained all their business acumen waging the Cold War.
Yes and if you mention the word UNION in a WalMart you will be gone. They brought "union busting "to a whole new level which is being followed by the other big companies like Target, Starbucks, Amazon, Tesla and most other corporations in America !
Daniel: In ranking presidents, George Bush ranks as the worst. No other president conspired to bring down three buildings housing three thousand Americans, with explosives, while pretending some Muslims did the deed, just so that he could invade and destroy two other countries with popular support. Of course he didn't carry it off by himself, but he was the titular head.
Whoooosh. That was the sweep of the Great Wand in the Sky granting your wish, Susan Gorman Gerke. Magically, now Walmart pays a living wage and your taxes are lowered accordingly. So are Walmart shareholders' revenues reduced too? Get serious! The 1% *never* pay, they just compromise quality and raise prices. No matter what the route to their pockets, Walmart employees' decent pay is going to come out of your own, not Walmart profits.
We keep going 'round 'n 'round this mulberry bush in discussion after discussion. You're right, of course. The snag is developing the political support the Democrats are failing to get, and then wielding that power "turncoat free!" The option is voting Republican, 3rd party, or abstention - and >any of that< inevitably leads to more of what we'll get when Republicans >own< all 3 branches of government! What needs done if there's ever a credible Democratic, Social Democratic, or even Socialist party in charge is >first< bust the big money like the big money has successfully busted the unions - and the Democratic friggin' party! (That's a tip of my hat to the person out here who already obliquely referenced how Ronald McReagan managed to bust the air traffic controllers in the '80s.)
I'm open to term limiting SCOTUS justices, particularly the chief justice. I'm thinking whoever wins the WH should select a chief justice from the currently sitting justices. I could also be interested in some scheme whereby the number of justices from each political orientation - right or left, conservative or liberal, or such like - be balanced. However, that would require some scheme be put in place to break deadlocked decisions - perhaps throw that decision over to the Senate judiciary committee to argue the merits of opposing views and cast a final vote, or somethin' like that. But that's just me a'spit-ballin'. (God forbid a RTG-type be seated on such a committee - for instance!) That'd take erudite legal scholars to figure out how to work. (And I >certainly< wouldn't be one of 'em! LOL!)
If Biden created two new justice positions, we could find balance. It would still be comprised of one more justice for the wacko side than for the sane people, so how could the wacko's complain? Then we'd impeach Thomas and replace him with a Lakota woman, or similar.
BTW: I failed to mention I've come to agree with you concerning the Electoral College. That and the SCOTUS are structural/functional issues. However, Citizens United is purely a purely political ruling that should be overturned at the first possible opportunity - if a possible opportunity should ever present itself, but that could be a generation away. I doubt I'll live to see it.
We need to stop thinking of welfare as mostly serving people in need as opposed to wealthy interests that enjoy record low tax rates, subsidies, cost plus contracts, etc.
May I applaud you for your narrative, and if I could suggest one more "false crisis" I see repeated all too frequently: Failing schools. I am an educator, and it pains me to hear this refrain. Can schools do better? Of course. But to label schools as "failing" is an inaccurate over-reach.
And the reason that schools are “failing” in any sense of the word? Yet again, it’s due to the GOP & their efforts to dismantle public education- along with anything else that actually benefits the American people. Can’t have an ignorant & obedient base if people actually learn facts & truths
I can’t speak for other states but here in FL, Governor DeSatan has made it his personal goal to destroy our public educational system, especially in the bigger cities. (the most bang for his buck) His interest, touted as protecting children extends even to influence school board elections such that the next generations will be indoctrinated just as were the “Hitler Youth” and the “Young Chinese Youth Party”. Scapegoats and banned books ought to be red flags!
If my kids were school age, I’d be doing everything in my power to get out of the state. I’m hoping there’ll be a backlash against all this nazi bs in the next gubernatorial election, but it is Florida so I’m not exactly holding my breath
Carol Ann, you are certainly right about the DeSantis. He is supposedly "brilliant" or that is what I heard, but he is ignorant in so many ways that count. He does know, though that public schools are the backbone of this nation, not the "exclusive private schools" that so many Republican leaders at all levels attended, which explains his targeting of public schools. I understand he attended public schools, so I am wondering what happened to him that he has such a vendetta against them. Those "exclusive" private schools either teach selfishness and manipulation of others or just attract those people to their hallowed halls. We need more people to stand up for public schools and make sure they are funded sufficiently.
While it is difficult to govern independent thinkers, or well educated people, it is easy to rule poor thinkers, and the poorly educated. Does that clear up why the GOP are attacking public schools, or are seeking to undermine teachers, librarians, and public schools and libraries?
One does wonder if DeSantan was bullied. To have such a vendetta against all who are ‘different’ certainly appears as if there was something in his past that derailed his view of the World. I do think he is brilliant and very dangerous. fortunately his charisma is lacking which makes it more difficult for him to slyly gather a nation-wide following.
Carol Anne, it is clear there is something not quite right about DeSantis. I heard someone in media say that DeSantis was able to speak excitedly and articulately, with emotion, but I think the person was making that up to make DeSantis seem more human, more of a worthy candidate for president, something our media just loves to do with inept people like Trump and DeSantis. His affect is all wrong and what he says is pretty much irrelevant. He speaks in talking points, just as Trump does, but DeSantis's don't seem to reach many people, unless those people are already primed to like the harm DeSantis is causing the vulnerable populations of Florida. I can't help but wonder what he is holding over the Florida Legislature. With his "nearly photographic memory," has he seen or read things that he can stamp into his pathetic brain and use a little blackmail to get them to do the outrageous things they have been doing to the people of Florida? Do those mostly white male legislators even care what they have done and the ramifications? I suspect DeSantis's "brilliance" has enabled him to read the whiny white people representing the state and pushing just the right buttons to feed into their "inborn Southern" racism, misogyny, homo/transphobia, xenophobia. I suspect he has pushed them by telling them just how great they are and how on the cutting edge they are. He forgot to tell them that it was the cutting edge of Nazism and fascism in general they were on.
Ruth: I haven't been to Florida for many decades, but as I hear about the crazy politics, I have to wonder what happened to all those "liberal" New Yorkers that used to retire down there. Are they really a small minority? Or really not so liberal?
Only I would rather hear the term, "public education" than "public schools." We need to abandon the classroom in favor of the village learning environment. End child apartheid. Keep all the teachers, but change their job descriptions. Set up a system where kids learn a lot more about what is truly interesting to them.
If we keep allowing porn in classrooms there will be no children left in public schools. They will be shuttered and only private schools will remain. No parent wants kids reading that smut at school.
Thank you, Craig. As a retired public high school English teacher, I always said this and couldn’t agree with you more. I helped thousands of people think more critically, read more deeply and write more clear and cohesively during my 31 years of public service. And let me add that I did this despite levy failures and a 5-year salary freeze after the 2009 financial crisis. The only failure was the public support, and Ohio’s state legislators attempt to destroy collective bargaining for teachers.
I hate ignorant people trashing teachers. I’m glad you didn’t give up teaching. It can be one of the most rewarding careers out there, especially if you have some support behind you.
Craig, I totally agree. As a recently retired public school teacher and current school volunteer tutor, I am so tired of Republicans, media, and others reporting on "failing schools," implying it is the teachers' fault, or the parents' lack of caring for their children, or some other crap they grab onto so Republicans and other conservatives can undermine public schools. This came to a head during and after COVID. The distraction, whine about "failing schools" then do nothing to help those schools meet the needs of their students. I can't help but wonder how many of those Republican whiners attended public schools that, at the time, were lacking in resources. I doubt none of them because that would have given them a bit of empathy for what is really causing schools and their students to struggle. They might actually want more funding for schools if they had.
I remember them mocking the First Lady for her work promoting community colleges. They’re great for those who can’t afford four full years of elite schools at Ivy League prices, or don’t want that, period. It’s odd how many of the MAGA loudmouths went to Yale.
I wonder what Yale is like. My idealized picture of the Ivies is REALLY wrong. I figured that out after the indictment of rich parents paying their way in.
Jude: You take note of how many of the MAGA loudmouths went to Yale. I went to Yale, as a grad student in Science. Let me report something that may surprise you. Even though I went to a good college and had lots of smart friends, I never before knew the kind of intellectual brilliance I encountered at Yale. That "Ivy League" reputation is well-earned. That's what carries the Yale reputation, not the sleazy lines of future politicians and backward thinking, smarmy conservatives that seem to congregate there.
Thank you for pointing that out, that they are the anomalies, not the norm. As usual, the loudmouths get all the attention, even mine. I still find it interesting, though.
You took the words out of my mouth. There are a surprisingly large number of very narrow minded bigoted people who have recently grabbed the MAGAphone who are Yale graduates. What creepy hypocrites. Junior Colleges have some terrific teachers and they are sadly under appreciated. The MAGA crowd is all about ignorance because that fuels their base.
I read the Network For Public Education, and also the Diane Ravitch blog, that offer the facts on the ongoing war on public education.
An ignorant citizenry is the goal, not merely enriching the many people and corporations that thrive on providing material s and services that have nothing to do with learning
In some states, like Idaho, legislators ensure that "failing schools" are by refusing to fund them--for building repairs and updates, teacher salaries, supplies, etc. In fact, after promising to deliver over $300 M for our schools, we now find that Gov. Little will NOT be delivering over $115M. No wonder Idaho ranks 51st in the nation for it's education!
As a retired educator, I saw the constant belittlement of teachers and educators as a plot to create a private school system leading to a more unequal society to protect White Supremacy. Vouchers are part of that playbook.
Yes Craig, you have, in your teaching career, failed to do what the republicans wanted you to do; you were supposed to pretend to educate your students, not actually educate them. :-))
Oh ok, so now it’s “the damage woke people have done” lmfao?? C’mon, you’re a bot right? Please, do tell- what does “woke” mean exactly? Because if it’s about grooming & an obsession with children’s genitalia, you’re looking for the GOP
Lady I don’t even know wtf you’re talking about- I seriously suggest you stop watching Fox & similar crap. You also might wanna take a look at the real problems facing this country, as opposed to the pathetic lies & distractions that GOP hypocrites in this country like to feed their fearful constituents. Still waiting to hear what “woke” is exactly- aside from being a dog whistle for riling up bigots & uneducated clowns, of course
There’s this new fangled thing called Google, where you can ask questions you don’t know the answer to? Or you could even go old school & bust out an actual dictionary! Transgender is an adjective, relating to someone whose gender identity doesn’t correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth
Ms. Paulson, perhaps the word 'transition' would fit the space better in your sentence than 'transgender' as described in other responses. Transition is made difficult by the fact that it can be both a noun and a verb, the use that I infer from your post.
People are putting their children in religious schools so they don't get indoctrinated? I don't know what to say about that. Religious schools are one of the main places people get indoctrinated into falsehoods of all kinds. I know I went to a religious school when I was young. At 14 I put away those childish things that was taught and went on with my real life.
What does this word "woke" mean, Patricia Paulson? It's never been used by anybody I know. Do you really expect us to expose outselves to routine right wing cruelty so we can find out?
“ Religious schools is because they do not want their children indoctrinated.” Seriously? Religion is nothing BUT indoctrination. And the last thing that education would engender is a broad worldview. Also, ya know, boys like pink, girls like blue, they both like rainbows unless you’ve shamed the crap out of them.
About Pat Paulson's posts: I think it is amusing that almost all of the posts on this BB are well written, well thought out and fairly easily comprehended. Then a right winger comes on and suddenly the level of writing decreases, references don't make sense, strange and uninterpretable language appears and Trump gets praised. It is reminding me that Pat Paulson was a comedian who bought a winery up near Cloverdale CA and put jokes on the labels. Is he still pulling our legs?
State university cost increased year after year, because there was less money coming from the state legislature. This was a plan during the early Reagan rush to privatize nearly everything in the country. It was a travesty, and some excellent state universities around the country have hit the skids. They've been unable to make up the gap by promoting the Alumni Associations and asking for money, but I watched them try to do it. This happened when I had a career in university administration. I watched the whole tragedy unfold during my 22 years employed.
Without any crisis to point to, Republicans would have nothing to talk about at all. They’ve done nothing for the middle class for a quarter century. That’s because their secret mantra, “Move all the money to us!” requires redirecting any revenue they can towards tax cuts for their rich donors.
But that’s only one arrow in their quiver. The others are deregulation, underfunding the IRS so they only have manpower to go after the tiny fish, and keeping all the subsidies to multinationals intact.
From this point forward I will refer to the Republican Party as the FreeDumb Party!
(You have the freedom to be dumb)
They portray themselves as the party of Freedom as they slowly take our Freedoms away. First they overturned a 50 year precedent, Roe v Wade. Once a woman becomes pregnant the state government decides the outcome!
If you are a member of the LBGTQ they want to control who you can love and who you can marry. That should be none of their business!
They continue to hold the country hostage by not agreeing to raise the debt ceiling that of which they created the majority of the debt. They are playing with people’s lives!
The meanest thing to me is the fact that there is never a single word uttered about any debt ceiling while Republicans have the WH - it only emerges as a 'problem' when there is a Democrat in the WH ! Yet nobody ever mentions that in any discussions & the Dems never ask the Repubs why they ignore it during those times - MAKE THEM EXPLAIN THAT !!!
vcragain, the problem, no one holds Republican "leaders" accountable for anything, even our media can't manage to hold them to account. They don't have to answer for allowing insurrectionists to serve in office. They don't have to answer about their donor unethical behavior or their lying, their dismissal of the needs of workers for their donor corporations who pay lousy wages and their workers need government support to just get by. Republicans don't get asked about why they aren't paying taxes on all their income, why they create loopholes that help themselves and their donors, why their donors should have any say in their governing, why Republicans can't or won't govern let alone govern fairly. I could go on, but the point is clear. Today's Republicans are moochers off the American people. They cheat, lie, and bring in funds they should report but don't, then blame Democrats and everyone else for the harms Republicans themselves have caused, like the debt ceiling which should not even exist because it is against the 14th amendment. Disgusting!
The "Republican" nest has been feathered over the years by their efforts to stack the courts, notably, the ' Supreme Court' and results like Citizen's United make bribery totally legal, along with rules that allow some billionaires to pay zero taxes? Loopholes, subsidies and tax breaks for people with billions! This should be illegal! We should be able to have a remedy to being bilked! I'm still working part time in my 70's. In order to get by. Tfg bragged in 2017 when he paid less in taxes than I paid for working half time . He paid $750 in taxes that year! Said because he is smart, and it was legal. And he is right! Yet he always complains of "unfairness'! Then the R's talk about "Welfare Queens"! Yeah, $6 per day to eat! Livin large!?
Laurie, yet Republicans still claim it is poor people who are wrecking our economy. That is one their big lies that other rich white people just love to cling to. If they believe the lie, they can console themselves, if they even think about it at all, that they are "helping those couch potato losers." It is true human beings can convince ourselves of nearly anything, even when we see that we are wrong. We usually have counted on the media, the good journalists to help keep the truth front and center. It does work sometimes, but right now, TRUTH is certainly teetering on the edge of a cliff from which Republicans are soooo ready to push it off.
Ruth, today's "mainstream" non-news media is controlled solely by ultra wealthy corporations. They want a fascist government so why should they hold their benefactors accountable? The Republicans are giving them their dream world.
Fay, yes, the media is following their masters. What I don't understand is how the "mainstream" media don't know that should the fascists take over, they will be expendable. The fascists will want only the media they have carefully groomed, like Fox and OANN to continue existing, not the ones who tried to go along with the BS Republicans and their fascist owners were pushing. I don't know how to get the American people to stand up to this crippling undermining of the truth before we are all drowned by it. Democrats don't seem to mind too much because they allow themselves to be caught up in the 5+ misdirections that Prof. Reich has identified today and over the past weeks, or get shut down by Republican insults, whining, and blaming, and their own party members who regularly undermine programs that actually help the American people or desert the party like Manchin, Sinema, and the North Carolina legislator I can't remember the name of who betrayed the women of the state by switching parties while claiming to be "pro-choice" (what she really meant was pro-choice to go with the Republicans who pay better).
The total take over of all formerly mainstream news media is ongoing, they will fit right in with the propagandists. This is what the Republicans have been aiming for since 1973. I don't know when Powell's memo first became public knowledge. I had never heard of it until I joined Substack last year. But I blame the Democratic politicians for "looking the other way" as the Republican thugs slowly, but methodically took over the small State Legislatures, then the entire Federal Court system. Were we all so involved in "Rights" civil, women's, religious, that we failed to see the forest for the trees?
They rigged voting so bad it's difficult to vote them out because they are hurting the 99% and stealing us blind. BTW-ever wonder why Republicans are so interested in other people's sex lives?
Sex sells! It's a big distraction, especially when paired with the 'bondsge and discipline' of pedophilia! Reasonably, most folks would be against that. It certainly gets attention. Ifit was real, it should! But is it ? Where is real evidence?
Keith, you are right about Republicans having nothing to offer anyone but their rich donors. They have done NOTHING to help the American people for at least 45 years and are working hard to undermine the positive things they help to do before that, like the EPA and Title IX. That proves they really didn't want those positives in the first place. They certainly got a lot of money for the very rich and for themselves and they now have a lot of power they don't deserve, but they still want more. They are totally addicted to money and power and will cheat, lie, steal, undermine, and more to get their hit. They don't want anyone taking their drugs away from them. Their war on drugs is killing people and so is their addiction to money and power at everyone else's expense. I hope we can find a way to get them some "tough love" soon, or at least treatment for their addiction. We all pay the longer they are permitted to go after their drugs of choice with impunity.
Has anyone stopped going ,"Oh gee", and taken the long look at this? The republicans are engaged in taking down this government because in order to function in it you need to be a liberal thinker, and they have no understanding of liberalism. (It is actually a governing philosophy and by the historians of the world, the USA is called, "a liberal democracy.") I'm getting tired of all the outraged democrats who can't find form in this picture. There's a method in what appears to be their madness. Saying it again: There's a long-standing plan to bring down the government. One said he wanted to see it get so small we'll be able to drown it in the toilet. They're doing this by shrinking it, overspending from its budget then refusing to pay the debt. It all started with Reagan saying, "The government IS the problem." Not just a few republicans have been taking this as far as they can. They plan to get the government into bankruptcy, but all we ever say is, "Why are they doing this?" as though Republicans are stupid. They aren't stupid. Trump is not stupid. Ask Bernie. Stupid is Trump's schtick.
We, the Republicans conservative will protégé the children, from abortion (abortion =killing). From being indoctrinated by perverted, you can what you want, but don't don't abuse the children.
I guess that’s why y’all are desperate to protect your guns too, because you’re so concerned about children’s lives? Take your hypocritical & extremist horseshit somewhere people actually buy it, sunshine
The level of hate given the written word on any newsletter, any topic, is escalating as the next election looms in the nearer future. We did not survive the Covid pandemic 😷; we went into lockdown with too much spare time to think, moan and groan about the plight of our daily lives. And the pot of discontent just boiled over and continues to be stirred with the “manufactured crises” that ignore the elephant in the room, CLIMATE CHANGE, which will wipe out civilization soon enough, simply because we cannot agree on anything. We’ve been separated into warring factions by the MSM and various platforms on the internet that benefit from plotting us against one another to.....feed the wealthy predators that seek to divide and conquer. So the educated and mindful (like yourself) look back in time to see where we went wrong hoping to steer us toward a society that care about one another again. Juggling all the crises and words, phrases invented to describe the issues at hand using acronyms because we can’t afford the time to use real words from our lexicon is utterly exhausting. I understand our problems are longstanding and SEVERE, have risen too stealthily to be given the attention they deserved, that our educators in lives past have tried to focus attention where it was due on history, politics, economics. That gun violence is the number one killer of our children while our representatives in Congress wear assault weapon designed lapel pins should tell us that we are doomed. I literally get nauseous at photos of families all armed with assault weapons to defend themselves against each other presented at Christmas as a greeting. We have a precious asset in Joe Biden as president who thankfully has the strength of character and the desire to steer this wreckage of a country to better times but it only takes a few obstructionists, looking after their self interests to derail forward movement. And so the wealthiest of the fossil fuel barons will take us to what appears to be our destiny of fire 🔥, extreme weather of all types, starvation in poorer countries sooner rather than later, desertification, and loss of drinking water 💦 within 7 short years. How very self centered these idiots are.
And how very sad for the children of this nation left with a once green thriving planet turning dead and brown. I grieve beyond what my soul can bear and remain thankful that I personally have no children for whom to cry. But I remain a citizen of the world 🌎 who began with such high ideals some 75 years ago now gone in the dust above. I’m going back to hide under the blankets again because my own physical disabilities are too severe to be useful to do anything about these cascading events but wait to die with my broken heart 💔 for the world I thought I understood in the innocence of my youth, long gone.
The saddest part of all is that there are educated & informed government officials, elected & otherwise, who continue to downplay the realities of climate change & rapid global warming & feed the less informed members of their base lies & distractions. When you combine corporate-owned politicians with what’s becoming their version of state media, the result is predictably ugly & dangerous. But I have three amazing millennials & I feel so awful about handing off this shitshow to their generation that I can’t crawl under the covers & wait for the end just yet- as much as I’d like to join you there some days :(
I'm so sorry to read that you are so discouraged. I know what you're saying, I'm of your generation and I remember when the sky was blue on the horizon. If you can, google a recent Nova program on this subject. (Can't recall the title, but it's about climate change and I saw it just this week. I'm sure you can find it online.) It's not a message that says, "it's all OK" but it's a message that says, "We can beat this, if we'll hurry up and do it." It's still possible to change course. It might make you feel better to watch it. I've saved it for a while so I can cheer people up.
I’m definitely going to check that out & truly appreciate the suggestion; it’s so damn hard not to get discouraged when you look around at the state of the world most days & anything that gives you a sense of hope & inspiration is a precious thing imo :)
I read that guns are the number one killer of children in the United States. Sadly, it is not hard to believe. Maria, stop using children as an excuse to grab for power and get away from them, you sick person. Your obstructing their healthy development and wellbeing.
As usual you twist everything, but it was expected. The guns are for defense, so the kids are protected. Move to a socialist, marxist country, you will the lesson about not having gun, I know it , I lived though it.
Only in America do people think they all need an AK47 to 'protect' themselves from the rest of the population, and who is the main problem to be protected from - the other people with guns !!! It's a self reinforcing situation, you are all completely mad ! In the whole of Europe there are barely any guns, and guess where there are barely any shootings of school kids or people in theatres too ? You gun mad Repubs are all sick in the head, wannabee-cowboys !
Yeah, you’re doing a bang up job “protecting” kids with your big guns lmfao! I’m not the one twisting things pumpkin, & you’re the magat trolling this thread, so again it’s YOU who needs to “keep your BS”. I wish folks like yourself had the brains to understand the hypocrisy of your sad, un-American beliefs, but ofc you vote for utter morons & fascists like Donnie Dumbass & Ronnie DeathSantis so obviously waiting on any shred of intelligence from you is just that- wishful thinking
The two year old boy, shot and killed by his own father yesterday in Tampa was in your mind “protected” by his father’s gun?! Wake up and smell the gunpowder!
Before or after the next school massacre? Patriotism is not just waving a flag and claiming to be more 'American'! Actions speak louder than words. You definitely have drunk the Kool aid on the Second amendment interpretation! The 'well regulated militia' is key.
OMG Maria, you could not have lived it if you brought the autocratic BS here. It seems you or your avatar have bought the BS about guns. Only scared people need guns and guns kill kids, so I am guessing you like guns more than kids. It is a lie that guns keep kids safe, of course. Also, get over the abortion thing. Women should have the right to decide what happens to their own body, not a bunch of whiny white men who just want to control women. Their anti-abortion nonsense has nothing to do with saving the lives of fetuses. That is nonsense, of course. It is about power over women, and whoever white men are scared might just take some of their power. It is impossible that if you actually lived what you imply, you wouldn't know that. You would have figured that out before you came here. Stop trying to bring the BS from abroad to infect us here. We have enough crazies right here born and bred.
My statement is an absolute fact. I can absolutely stand by that statement because it is true. Absolutely. The only curbing of absolutism I would want to curb is the kind like Elon Musk's "free speech absolutism" which is BS!
Maria? Aborting education for children after they’re birthed into the world to give them a fundamental understanding of how to succeed throughout their LIFE, aborting sexual education to help protect innocent children from being sexually molested by perverted priests, evangelical sicko pastors, clergy, funny uncles, stepfathers, control freak RAPISTS, fathers(incest), and more pregnancies that result in INNOCENT LIFE OUTSIDE THE WOMB, and those who just use irresponsible sex ( (no protection and without parenting skills) as feel good recreation without a thought to the little innocent life they’re bringing into this world and the future of the INNOCENT CHILD, (innocent life doesn’t have a choice of who or what they’re born into) aborting jobs and aborting decent living wages and any benefits to promote and provide and aid families, aborting social programs that promote/provide food security, decent housing, adequate health care for those who can’t afford it, aborting voting rights for minorities or ethnicities that may threaten a fascist agenda, aborting human rights (guns are more important than lives), you know Maria? Aborting the right to live peacefully because selling and promoting guns for profit outrank human life, aborting science because science offers and provides (facts) (truth) over medieval generationally learned robotic cult religions , aborting separation of church and state that protects all Americans from religion and gives all Americans the right to worship however or whatever religion they choose, Maria? Aborting democracy, the last and greatest force on earth to promote and protect HUMAN RIGHTS! Am I getting through to you Maria? Ding 🛎️ Ding???? Aborting LAWS that protect HUMAN LIVES LIVING and BREATHING OUTSIDE THE WOMB, against the MINORITY with MONEY and POWER to rule against the MAJORITY! Aborting women’s rights to live in this world without father-ism dictating the rights of women. So you see Maria? The word ABORTION CAN and DOES APPLY TO TOO MANY ATROCITIES COMMITTED AGAINST HUMANITY Maria! Don’t call me or anybody on this site demonkkrat because I don’t care if I tell you to go straight to hell and take with you whatever twisted religious beliefs that define you.
Rebekha, my apologies for misspelling your name earlier. I just now caught my error. Again thank you for your comment and for supporting what I had to say and share. I appreciate it.
OK Maria, I am not sure what you are sniffing, but it is keeping you from knowing the truth, if you even care. I am guessing a computer-generated fool, but who knows? Real people can make themselves whine the kinds of crap computer trolls can pump out. So, I am not sure which you are, but honestly don't care.
About Maria: Why is it that as soon as we spot a conservative writer, defending the right wing nonsense, they invariably claim the truth while spouting lies, and the grammar and meaning of their sentences goes down the drain. Their ignorance manifests itself in broken English. This should tell us who buys in to the propaganda of the right.
“All five of these so-called crises have been manufactured by the GOP. They’re entirely made up.
“Why? To deflect attention from the near record share of the nation’s income and wealth now going to the richest Americans.”
There’s another reason for these crises, and it’s at least as old as politics. We saw it in the late 1940s and ‘50s with McCarthyism, and today with the above, plus immigration: declare a fake crisis and then claim to be the only ones with the wisdom, the morality, the strength to solve the crisis. “Just give us the power,” they say. “Give us the power and we will make the nation whole and good and pure. Just give us the power.”
And what do they do when handed that power? Their first order of business is to limit the rights of anyone they think might threaten that power, and the second is to cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations, who then respond in kind by, in the short term, pouring contributions into the politicians’ campaign coffers, and, in the long term, when they retire, handing out lucrative consultancies, lobbying jobs, seats on corporate boards and deals with conservative publishers to write books no one will ever read.
So, it’s certainly not about principle, or even party but MONEY. Always money. Just give us the power.
Money & power. You got it, Avie! And what they have done with that money & power has been to destroy the national fabric by dividing the nation with these manufactured crises. It's a vicious circle.
Jaime Ramirez ; And now we have people running for office who are criminals like tfg and DeathSantis, who are promising to pardon those who attacked the Capitol as their campaign speech! DeathSantis even wants to pardon his opponent and the mastermind of all this crime! To think that I was taught that the pardon power was only to be used rarely, for special cases, to free unfairly convicted people in untenable circumstances! It's a get out of jail free card for some of the United State's worst enemies within and dangers to Democracy and the rule of law. They threaten freedom and self rule for the humans!
Avi, yep, it is power and money that are the current drugs of the Republican party and they are using them with abandon right now. Our media is helping out quite a lot by providing them with regular hits and calling it "balanced" reporting. That is enabling, but I guess only chemical drugs are considered bad. Those harm smaller numbers of people than the Republican power-money addiction.
Thoughts on your “Five fake crises” piece, Professor Reich:
1) “Woke” - (glad to know I’m not the only one who still cannot understand the meaning/symbolism of this expression.)
2) “Trans People” - There are no indications that there is any iota of “danger” from gay/Tran individuals. They seemingly “live and let live!”
3) “Critical Race Theory” must be taught in order to not only make the folks who go out and harm others simply because of the color of their skin or their foreign accent but to protect the individuals who are singled out by the bigoted… plain and simple.
4) “Couch Potatoes.” - one word: R I D I C U L O U S - - - UNLESS it’s clearly a scammer who is lazy has somehow infiltrated the system. The rich need to pay taxes to assist the incredibly poor, plain and simple.
5) “Out of control Government spending” — on this I know you are correct and there is nothing for me to add since methinks much of this challenge began when the more forthright and admired Republican Party of yore turned into the travesty it is today.
Your words hit the mark; you have voiced so many of our similar thoughts, and for this I thank you, Sir.
Thank You Mr. Reich for the Memorial Day rehash of all the despicable attempts by our FPOTUS to turn his lickspittle poltroons against the true Patriots of the U.S. And I listened to you intently when you were on the Mehdi Hasan Show = excellent!
Memorial Day is the day each and every year when we remember those who gave their lives to protect our Country and our Democracy.
It was the perfect time to reiterate Trump’s futile efforts to prevaricate daily to the American people in hopes of becoming An American Dictator!
Well said, Prof. Reich. I had thought when saw your drawing, that it revealed what my grandmother called the "gobbledy-gook" language that was designed to confuse readers or listeners so they might think they were being told something real. I think she saw what some of these loud voices are trying use, to drown out or hide the real, important stuff. Thank you for your clear words, and humorous observations to help us see and understand what's really happening in our nation. You may be through teaching formal classes, but you are continuing to do very important work, showing and speaking out important truths.
These manufactured crises divert the public's attention from real, debilitating, destabilizing crises that Republicans, corporations & billionaires are largely responsible for: climate chaos/environmental destruction/ecosystem collapse/mass extinction, wealth & power disparity/economic injustice, inadequate & costly healthcare; the rise of corporatism & fascism & concomitant loss of democracy...
Jaime, I would add to your excellent list, undermining public education k-12 and public universities, health care disparities and removal of bodily autonomy, the large unhoused population due primarily to landlord rent gouging that Republican administrations (and some Democrats) just can't seem to do anything about, so blame the unhousedd population. All of these are if not fully Republican-created, heavily Republican supported.
However, until corporate media starts broadcasting the excellent points you've detailed, the two party duopoly-especially republicans-will continue their lies and scapegoating and very loud silences.
While Biden does occasionally address the nation, he does so far too infrequently. When was the last time he held a press conference?
The Democrats must address the issues you've raised often and forcefully because corporate media won't and republicans are running roughshod, especially in red states.
While these made-up crises make our blood boil, in order to make any changes to the current system, we need to understand the voting public...you know, the ones that voted for these scumbags in the first place. I was talking to a friend who doesn't agree with the direction that the Republican lawmakers have been taking, and yet she voted for Republicans. She agrees that our social safetynet needs to be beefed up and protected. And yet, she tells me that she does not agree to raising minimum wage. The reason, she says, is simple. She worked hard to be where she is now (minimum wage + some), and she doesn't want others that didn't work hard to earn what she earns before putting in their time. She knows what she says is not "politically correct," but that's why she will vote Republican. There are many societal problems that we need to work on, and I think we agree that we need to have big ideas and big changes to solve those problems. What we lack, and this is what Republicans have seized on, is knowing how to communicate to a voter...an everyday American that gets up in the morning, grabs coffee, puts in 10-12 hours of work if lucky enough to have a "full" time job, comes home tired...just to put food on the table. We need to communicate better. We need to let them understand that we're on their side.
The History channel had a series about FDR last night. He took bold action in the Depression FOR the people who gave him their confidence. He had a heart for Americans who were struggling and used his power wisely.
He also got on the radio as often as possible, and people would run home to listen to what he was going to say next. We need to ask archivists to revive this. The real FDR for today's problems. Yes. Let's get a radio station to play old Roosevelt tapes. It would be so good for all of us.
Some of us are recognizing the dots as they pass us by on their way to the bonfires. The ones who are serving time over the failed coup are likening themselves to Hitler's experiencing jail. That was the perfect gift to fascism. Hitler suddenly had free rent and food, and enough free time to write his now important book. We have to realize today's misled group of people are determined to prevail. Hitler's speeches and writings can be seen as a guide book for bringing down the government and taking over the stolen power. When we imagine what that looks like we become skeptical. "That would never happen," we argue. Now you must study history. It's times like this when history is very important. I acknowledge ahead of time, that this statement is over the top. Nobody likes this kind of warning. Say what you will. My mother wouldn't stop talking about The War, and FDR, for many years. Now I can see that she had a shock related to PTSD because of WWII and she was actually obsessed about her experience of it and compulsive to put words to what had happened across the world. Luckily, my father had tendencies toward those of a college professor, about history. This was the most important thing that linked them together. I'm very fortunate to have grown up with parents who loved history. But, I do go on. And on.
Please do. I agree with everything you’ve written. The day after T. Was elected in 2016, I was in the grocery store, the muzak was playing and everything looked the same, but I knew it was all different now. Please share any time.
Does she have children? Does she not want a better life for those children via a living wage? I know parents who want that, but then bitch when the kids do have it ‘easier’, for crying out loud. “I walked six miles uphill both ways in a blizzard to get to school.”
Absolutely, she is. What I was trying to convey was that each of us has weaknesses and biases. Somehow, these Republican talkers seem to do a better job at exploiting those weaknesses and biases. So the question is how we can do a better job at talking the language of the voters. Bernie actually did an exceptional job at this, but the Democratic Party demolished him...time after time. I think the first thing we need to do is to reunite the Dems, so we speak with one voice. That, unfortunately, is next to impossible given the interest from corporate lobbying and selfish donors.
Right on target, Robert Reich! It was heartening to hear Ali Velshi point out to new MSNBC commentator former Ohio Governor, John Kasich, that the "inflation" Mr. Kasich was going on about was caused by the very wealthy minority's inflated profits accompanied by tax breaks and subsidies. John Kasich was aggressively interrupting and talking over the program host,; at one point throwing up his hands and exclaiming that Ali Velshi was repeating talking points often made by a Democrat former labor secretary! (He who must not be named?). Of course, anybody who knows anything, knows exactly who may have pointed out these inconvenient facts! To think that this clueless mope had been previously pushed as an antidote to tfg, because he was so moderate and 'safe', as a Republican alternative ! Mr. Kasich also said that the rich are paying 40% of their income in taxes! It seems like many billionaires don't pay much ; and some pay nothing!
Kasich never saw a living wage he didn't like. He's a Reagan clone without that smile-grin. I saw Ali Velshi challenge his ideas, too, and was pleased that Ali wasn't buying. Kasich won't be trying to sell his tainted, tawdry goods there anymore. Both Sen. Klobuchar and Doris Kearns Goodwin have very recently called for Campaign Finance Reform (CFR). Interesting!
An amendment: "Kasich never saw a living wage he LIKED." As a former gov. he bears considerably responsibility for Ohio now being a backward state. Kasich is a neoliberal capitalist who parades himself as being open to current ideas; he is not. He is articulate while being myopic and vacuous; he's a man who has enough education to be dangerous. Two years working in a factory on a production line may be his only viable cure. Alas, if only it could be so! The best that can be said for him is that he is anti-Yellow Hair, an extremely low bar. Now that election season is afoot, we can expect his visibility to increase considerably.
Sadly those of us who are aware of what the Republicons are doing, toil on trying desperately to keep this ship upright. It is the younger ones in school who face the real challenge as their knowledge is being retarded by what they are allowed to learn. How are they supposed to know about our history?
When the term "woke" started to be bandied about, I mentally defined it to be "newly awoken awareness." To be White in America and to _finally_ recognize just how awfully American Whites have treated every other race for _centuries_. To recognize that despite decades of Affirmative Action, racism was **still** alive and kicking and reemerging from the shadows where it lingered for a decade or so. In short, to _finally_ recognize that America is NOT as perfect as advertised. Nor that it was ever as great as the MAGA crowd seem to think it was. Naturally, being "woke" means that you've had a peek behind the curtain to see just how badly We The People have been manipulated for practically forever -- which makes woke-ness a direct threat to the manipulators and their minions in Congress. And if there is one thing the GOP has mastered, it is to twist and warp language to best further their cause. [Remember how the Affordable Care Act meant that Healthcare would be administered by "death panels"? That was GOP-speak for "We don't like this new fangled idea."]
I mean you've got to be kidding. A Roman Catholic supreme Court of America Justice John Roberts says there is no discrimination in America. Judge Thomas agrees. He feels very undiscriminated against.
I remember back in the 1960s and '70s we referred to blacks like Clarence Thomas as being "Oreos": black on the outside, but white on the inside. He certainly has tapped into the GOP's Good Ol' Boys network of graft and corruption. [I wonder if he counted as an Affirmative Action hire to be the token black for The Powers That Be.]
How about a red baseball cap that reads MARGA - Make America Reel Good Agin; especially at spelling and grammar. Or perhaps MAOKA - Make America OKay Again. We're so down in the dumps that just making us okay would require a herculean effort in and of itself. :-)
HEY THERE, EVERYONE!!! ARE YOU CLAPPING FOR MR. REICH'S SHARING THE OUTRAGEOUS NOISE THE GOP HAS BEEN MANUFACTURING ( MEANING LIES), SO THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE REST OF US JUST COUNT THE DAYS BETWEEN RECEIVING OUR SOCIAL SECURITY CHECKS OR DESPERATELY TOO SMALL PAYCHECKS. WE POOR TYPE PEOPLE TRYING TO SAVE EVEN $50-$100 EVERY MONTH TO BUILD A SMALL AMOUNT OF $$$ FOR UNANTICIPATED NEEDS IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE. THANK YOU, MR. REICH. BUT... JUST ABOUT WHOMEVER ONE VOTES FOR THESE DAYS IS ALWAYS A DICEY CHOICE. THE RICH GET RICHER. AND THE REST OF US ONLY HEAR LIES.
I APOLOGIZE FOR NOT RESPONDING TO YOUR INQUIRY (MAY 3O, 2023) SOONER. EVERYONE SUPPOSEDLY RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IS A LOW-LIFE. I AM NOT SURE WHO I MIGHT VOTE FOR OR IF I EVEN VOTE IN 2024. I AM SO DISGUSTED WITH ALL THE LIES AND GRAND-STANDING. I E BEEN A LIFE-LONG REPUBLICAN, BUT... WHO IS ONE TI BELIEVE AND/OR SUPPORT? THEY ARE ALL CROOKS AND LIARS!!!
I’d like to point out how companies like Walmart are being subsidized by our taxes. They don’t pay a living wage so what they do is instruct new employees how to file for food stamps etc.
Walmart is no mom and pop company. They are on the Fortune Five Hundred list. By not paying their workers a living wage they are forcing their employees to have to get government subsidies to make ends meet. Who pays for those benefits? It’s certainly not the 1% who enjoy trumps tax cuts and plenty of loopholes.
I have no problem with feeding the needy but I resent subsidizing rich corporations like Walmart. Not only are they cheating taxpayers they are also denying their employees of the dignity of supporting their families.
Not only does Walmart not pay a living wage, it keeps the hours of most low level employees below 30 hours per week. That means they are not eligible for health benefits and other benefits that full time employees receive.
Koolkankat, then they have all kinds of programs at WalMart to tap into workers' enthusiasm for the company. The rah rah is supposed to make up for the lousy wages. My sister worked there for a couple of years, earning little, but still, years later, finds herself loyal to the WalMart Corporation. Republicans don't want to acknowledge that one of their big donors is cheating the government and tax-payers. They don't mind because they have found ways to cheat on their own taxes, so they aren't paying for WalMart and their ilk anyway. It is a neat little package that should be torn open so the American people can really see what is going on, not just the "woke" people who are following what is happening in our nation.
That’s quite a story. The right wing invented the story that it’s patriotic to cheat on your taxes. We have a lot of rethinking to do in this country.
Keep writing, Ruth! I love your stuff!
Sandra, thank you so much. It means a lot to me that people on this thread like what I write. I certainly do appreciate what the other participants on the thread contribute. It is a great conversation every day. Ruth
Didn't know Walmart was donating money to the Republican party.
There has to be a better way to do business. Why this endless beggar thy neighbor bs from the 1percent? It’s as pathetic as it is revolting.
What the world needs is an economy based on corporations that are owned by their workers but compete in the open market with each other. Neither capitalists nor labor unions are in favor of this arrangement because both would become redundant.
Alden: A question. Although I generally agree with you about worker ownership, in a competition, would the same tendency to achieve monopoly, that drives corporations today, still be operating and effective? It is a reasonable response to competition (which no corporation, no matter how owned, actually desires). It is partly what makes capitalism an unstable system but would worker ownership change it? I have written a book which goes beyond worker ownership to true democratic control of all politics, called Parasites Lost, available at gettingtozerowaste.com, which I think answers this question.
I like the title of your book.
Do as I do....refuse to enter their stores. Don't online shop with them. Support all your local businesses, even if it cost a couple bucks more. In the long run, it's worth it for everyone. If you don't hit them in the pocketbook, they just laugh at us.
IMHO, boycotting Walmart to address the low wages they pay their employees will hurt the employees much more than corporate Walmart. The company will simply fire workers and/or close stores in response to reduced business. The workers are worse off. They will NOT increase wages in response to less business! A better solution is to press governments to raise the minimum wage enough to force the Walmart to pay their employees a living wage.
Patronizing other stores that pay a living wage, such as Costco and Target, where possible will only help. It will shift jobs, however incrementally, to better paying jobs.
And, most certainly be an activist working to elect pro labor, pro fairness, people, people who will #ProtectOurFreedoms.
Did not know that Costco and Target paid a living wage. I thought all the big box stores paid about the same slave wages. Thanks for the info! Neither are nearby in my rural area, but I will consider Target for online purchases vice Walmart/Amazon in the future.
It is a classic comparison of a sweat shop (Walmart) to a unionized business that values its employees (Costco). Costco proves that you don't have to treat your employees like slaves to be successful.
YW.
Lowes is much preferred over Home Depot as well.
If you evaluate the members of the Republican party on an individual basis you will find a number of them are very qualified politicians. However, a few of them challenge the mind as to how in the hell they ever got elected in the first place. Either Marijuana has been in use longer than it's been legal in their states or the Oracle of Delphi has a new location, including the gaseous vapors that entranced the young virgins as they predicted the future. That party has been infiltrated by a number of mentally impaired individuals whose presents in our governmental chambers are doing neither party any good. In addition to the children who have no business being where they currently are the Republicans are being barraged by candidates running for various positions throughout the country that live by the 5 fake crises Robert has just explained. They possess no real qualities that would afford them a real possibility of being elected so they attack their Democratic opponents with lies. One heck of a way to gain respect among your constituents. When all you have to go on are lies the only thing you have to lose is your self-respect.
I like your reference to the Oracle at Delphi.
As if they ever had any...
Great point, but it will require a Dem majority in both House and Senate. And it still won't get ME to walk thru their doors.
Agree that changing the national minimum wage is a real challenge, but some local and state governments have had success raising the minimum wage in their jurisdictions.
'Cept that Ohio is trying its DAMNEDEST to catch up with Floriduh and Texass, so......
Yes. I call my home state of Ohio Ohiossippi because it is trying to vie with several Draconian states that are in the south.
Like THAT will ever happen! Our politicians are forced to do Corporate bidding because advertising on our corporate owned TV and radio stations is so expensive that our politicians, even the honest few there are, have to spend three days out of five dialing for dollars just to keep their jobs. Then a "friendly" corporation shows up and offers them millions, with the understanding that the politician will do the corporation's bidding or lose that funding before the next election. Looks like a rigged system to anyone with two eyes (or even one).
Tim: You are right, I think. It is necessary to think of future consequences, in a deep way, not just the first thought to pop into your mind. That is what drives Zero Waste Theory in my formulation. Design all products for future reuse, again and again, instead of just throwing them out for consumption, basically designed for discard, which will necessarily send them to the dump or into the environment after a single use (think of those Slurpee cups everyone carries around).
Mega-box stores like Walmart are so huge..have such a large share of consumers that no boycott will be effective. Walmart became massive by closing down all surrounding "mom, pop" stores. They have no real competition and that is our problem in America today. These huge companies like Amazon & Walmart can freely screw both their workers and their customers & their CEOs laugh all the way to the bank.
Shop at Costco instead.
I guess I'm lucky, Andrea. Where I live, we still have a decent selection of Mom & Pop's to support.
Walmart has gotten, and earned, the reputation of a second or third rate shopping experience in my area; a joke, mostly. Shop Target or Costco instead. I won’t go near any Walmart.
There has to be a better way. I read an interesting book called Viking Economics which at least presents functional alternatives to our present system.
I don't know where you live, but if it's in rural America, you probably don't have much choice but to shop in Walmart's.
I'm fortunate to live just east of Cleveland, Ohio, and we still have quite a few Mom & Pop's that we can support.
I live in Vacaville CA, a shopper's paradise with endless small stores, but I end up buying from Amazon repeatedly. I buy a lot of technical products which I can't even imagine getting at a local store. Left hand threaded bolts, for example. 5000 grit polishing compound. Easy on Amazon. Impossible otherwise.
As a woodworker, I can relate. But I'll always try the locals before I go online!
And that is because as someone has already said, Walmart ran all the small retailers out with the cheap made inching merchandise they sell. Sam Walton was a good man but his offspring are just greedy snots who want more and more.
We lost Target, Kmart, Shopko, grocery store/fuel station, several auto parts stores, and the last mid-level department store at the now abandoned Mall, over a period of four years, when Walmart expanded to groceries. We've added an Aldi's and several nation-wide bank branches. Coffee huts have cropped up around the county seat. We were walmarted. It's still happening.
How about Dollar Stores? They and their variations seem to pop up everywhere people are struggling.
I shop a lot in Canada at Dollarama. You can buy their shares on the Canadian stock market. When they started business in Canada, they relied on buying non-saleable end runs and such from other stores. They have become a real alternative now. I just spent $30 on garden supplies from them that would have cost me twice that elsewhere for similar quality. Most of their items are produced and packaged under their own labels. As always, the management and sales staff are the foundation of the business. The Dollarama closest to where I live has the best staff and management, so they'll get my business for a long time to come.
Yes, one of those moved into our empty shopping mall, but they were here before the "crash". Another thing I didn't mention is that Walmart is on the other side of the highway where they don't have to charge city or county taxes. It's the outer edge of the next county over. Nobody in this town gets any benefit from Walmart's location.
They don't even bother to be good community citizens, do they?
That’s sadly true.
We’ve crossed the country by bicycle several times and can verify that. It’s the only times we shop at Walmart.
I have entered a Walmart store only once in my life. That was to buy a Journey CD that was unavailable anywhere else. I went in to buy my CD & got out as quickly as possible.
You're lucky! Where I live, you have no choice for many needed items. When I was young and went shopping with my mother, everything was local "mom and pop" stores. She dealt with the shop owners. They knew her, and she knew them. They were friends and neighbors. Shopping was a pleasant experience. Walmart and other large corporations destroyed this. Shopping at Walmart is a grind!
That’s an interesting point. Shopping is a social activity. Making it only about deals and transactions misses some intangible but inherently human piece that people need. There may be a market for that need just now, both in politics and in economics.
Yep. It is all about the plan to cause us all to be as separated as possible from one another. Common occurrences of connecting with neighbors in small shops keeps humans connected. while disconnection breeds a whole different attitude and one that does not offer the intangible things that humans need so much such as neighborly care and concern.
Probably because neighborly care and concern are from the heart, not the wallet.
When Walmart wanted to move into our town, there was lots of resistance by the locals. They moved in, anyway, but their business here has been quite anemic. I've never shopped there.
I too avoid the stores unless there is nowhere else to purchase it. And that is rarely the case.
I think it was 2009. The album I bought was a double album with half greatest hits & half new material. Can't remember what it's called, but virtually all Journey albums have similar 1 word titles & similar album covers featuring an eagle like symbol.
Yes. I'm surprised but happy about the comeback by vinyl, but overall it's getting harder to find albums of any kind in the stores.
My favorite band is probably the Moody Blues, & they really had impressive artwork on their albums (by the same artist). It fit the magnificence of their music.
Not been to a WalMart in decades.
I’m with you Daniel Kunsman.
I try to do that as much as possible. Good strategy.🙏
I would love to do this and I've done this when we lived in Bklyn, NY where you can get to a store by subway or bus. But how do you do this here in Tucson, AZ???? You have to have a car!! which we do not. And cars are destroying the Earth...We simply cannot win..
Shop online at Costco.
I totally agree with what you are saying. As a former social worker,I had several employees of Walmart in my caseload. The company would schedule them with just enough hours to work that would make them eligible for programs like Medicaid and Snap(food stamps). I had one client, a single-mother who was a supervisor at one of the stores. She was always embarrassed to come into the office when her review was due. Walmart knows exactly what it is doing and taxpayers are footing the bill.Shame on them.
That is especially sad to use a single mother hostage like that.
We have a lot of collective rethinking to do.
Walmart and its ilk aren't job creators. They are slave creators.
Here's an item I posted late yesterday that supports your position, for anyone who missed it:
For those who are not aware of this:
- CHAIRMAN WHITEHOUSE BREAKS DOWN HOW TAXPAYERS ARE SUBSIDIZING FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY'S BOTTOM LINE:
https://youtu.be/1iptJrA9hJE
I know. It's not overtly seditious. They just want to make sure things remain status-quo - by any means necessary. It's business as usual having gained all their business acumen waging the Cold War.
Yes and if you mention the word UNION in a WalMart you will be gone. They brought "union busting "to a whole new level which is being followed by the other big companies like Target, Starbucks, Amazon, Tesla and most other corporations in America !
Yep. And the second worst president in modern American history got THAT ball rolling when he busted the Air Traffic Controllers Union.
The second worst president has dropped to third place.
Why, did you slip one of the Bush's in there?
Yes. I had George junior in mind.
Daniel: In ranking presidents, George Bush ranks as the worst. No other president conspired to bring down three buildings housing three thousand Americans, with explosives, while pretending some Muslims did the deed, just so that he could invade and destroy two other countries with popular support. Of course he didn't carry it off by himself, but he was the titular head.
Don't forget weapons of mass destruction concocted to invade Iraq !
Whoooosh. That was the sweep of the Great Wand in the Sky granting your wish, Susan Gorman Gerke. Magically, now Walmart pays a living wage and your taxes are lowered accordingly. So are Walmart shareholders' revenues reduced too? Get serious! The 1% *never* pay, they just compromise quality and raise prices. No matter what the route to their pockets, Walmart employees' decent pay is going to come out of your own, not Walmart profits.
We keep going 'round 'n 'round this mulberry bush in discussion after discussion. You're right, of course. The snag is developing the political support the Democrats are failing to get, and then wielding that power "turncoat free!" The option is voting Republican, 3rd party, or abstention - and >any of that< inevitably leads to more of what we'll get when Republicans >own< all 3 branches of government! What needs done if there's ever a credible Democratic, Social Democratic, or even Socialist party in charge is >first< bust the big money like the big money has successfully busted the unions - and the Democratic friggin' party! (That's a tip of my hat to the person out here who already obliquely referenced how Ronald McReagan managed to bust the air traffic controllers in the '80s.)
Well, yes to all that, DZK, and dump the Electoral College and Citizens United and the malignant parts of SCotUS.
I'm open to term limiting SCOTUS justices, particularly the chief justice. I'm thinking whoever wins the WH should select a chief justice from the currently sitting justices. I could also be interested in some scheme whereby the number of justices from each political orientation - right or left, conservative or liberal, or such like - be balanced. However, that would require some scheme be put in place to break deadlocked decisions - perhaps throw that decision over to the Senate judiciary committee to argue the merits of opposing views and cast a final vote, or somethin' like that. But that's just me a'spit-ballin'. (God forbid a RTG-type be seated on such a committee - for instance!) That'd take erudite legal scholars to figure out how to work. (And I >certainly< wouldn't be one of 'em! LOL!)
If Biden created two new justice positions, we could find balance. It would still be comprised of one more justice for the wacko side than for the sane people, so how could the wacko's complain? Then we'd impeach Thomas and replace him with a Lakota woman, or similar.
BTW: I failed to mention I've come to agree with you concerning the Electoral College. That and the SCOTUS are structural/functional issues. However, Citizens United is purely a purely political ruling that should be overturned at the first possible opportunity - if a possible opportunity should ever present itself, but that could be a generation away. I doubt I'll live to see it.
We need to stop thinking of welfare as mostly serving people in need as opposed to wealthy interests that enjoy record low tax rates, subsidies, cost plus contracts, etc.
Does anybody know how much money in subsidies Walmart gets and why?
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/19/walmart-and-mcdonalds-among-top-employers-of-medicaid-and-food-stamp-beneficiaries.html
May I applaud you for your narrative, and if I could suggest one more "false crisis" I see repeated all too frequently: Failing schools. I am an educator, and it pains me to hear this refrain. Can schools do better? Of course. But to label schools as "failing" is an inaccurate over-reach.
And the reason that schools are “failing” in any sense of the word? Yet again, it’s due to the GOP & their efforts to dismantle public education- along with anything else that actually benefits the American people. Can’t have an ignorant & obedient base if people actually learn facts & truths
I can’t speak for other states but here in FL, Governor DeSatan has made it his personal goal to destroy our public educational system, especially in the bigger cities. (the most bang for his buck) His interest, touted as protecting children extends even to influence school board elections such that the next generations will be indoctrinated just as were the “Hitler Youth” and the “Young Chinese Youth Party”. Scapegoats and banned books ought to be red flags!
If my kids were school age, I’d be doing everything in my power to get out of the state. I’m hoping there’ll be a backlash against all this nazi bs in the next gubernatorial election, but it is Florida so I’m not exactly holding my breath
Carol Ann, you are certainly right about the DeSantis. He is supposedly "brilliant" or that is what I heard, but he is ignorant in so many ways that count. He does know, though that public schools are the backbone of this nation, not the "exclusive private schools" that so many Republican leaders at all levels attended, which explains his targeting of public schools. I understand he attended public schools, so I am wondering what happened to him that he has such a vendetta against them. Those "exclusive" private schools either teach selfishness and manipulation of others or just attract those people to their hallowed halls. We need more people to stand up for public schools and make sure they are funded sufficiently.
While it is difficult to govern independent thinkers, or well educated people, it is easy to rule poor thinkers, and the poorly educated. Does that clear up why the GOP are attacking public schools, or are seeking to undermine teachers, librarians, and public schools and libraries?
One does wonder if DeSantan was bullied. To have such a vendetta against all who are ‘different’ certainly appears as if there was something in his past that derailed his view of the World. I do think he is brilliant and very dangerous. fortunately his charisma is lacking which makes it more difficult for him to slyly gather a nation-wide following.
Carol Anne, it is clear there is something not quite right about DeSantis. I heard someone in media say that DeSantis was able to speak excitedly and articulately, with emotion, but I think the person was making that up to make DeSantis seem more human, more of a worthy candidate for president, something our media just loves to do with inept people like Trump and DeSantis. His affect is all wrong and what he says is pretty much irrelevant. He speaks in talking points, just as Trump does, but DeSantis's don't seem to reach many people, unless those people are already primed to like the harm DeSantis is causing the vulnerable populations of Florida. I can't help but wonder what he is holding over the Florida Legislature. With his "nearly photographic memory," has he seen or read things that he can stamp into his pathetic brain and use a little blackmail to get them to do the outrageous things they have been doing to the people of Florida? Do those mostly white male legislators even care what they have done and the ramifications? I suspect DeSantis's "brilliance" has enabled him to read the whiny white people representing the state and pushing just the right buttons to feed into their "inborn Southern" racism, misogyny, homo/transphobia, xenophobia. I suspect he has pushed them by telling them just how great they are and how on the cutting edge they are. He forgot to tell them that it was the cutting edge of Nazism and fascism in general they were on.
Ruth: I haven't been to Florida for many decades, but as I hear about the crazy politics, I have to wonder what happened to all those "liberal" New Yorkers that used to retire down there. Are they really a small minority? Or really not so liberal?
Only I would rather hear the term, "public education" than "public schools." We need to abandon the classroom in favor of the village learning environment. End child apartheid. Keep all the teachers, but change their job descriptions. Set up a system where kids learn a lot more about what is truly interesting to them.
If we keep allowing porn in classrooms there will be no children left in public schools. They will be shuttered and only private schools will remain. No parent wants kids reading that smut at school.
They don't call it Floriduh for nothing.
You nailed it. I’m so over the blessed base.
Thank you, Craig. As a retired public high school English teacher, I always said this and couldn’t agree with you more. I helped thousands of people think more critically, read more deeply and write more clear and cohesively during my 31 years of public service. And let me add that I did this despite levy failures and a 5-year salary freeze after the 2009 financial crisis. The only failure was the public support, and Ohio’s state legislators attempt to destroy collective bargaining for teachers.
I hate ignorant people trashing teachers. I’m glad you didn’t give up teaching. It can be one of the most rewarding careers out there, especially if you have some support behind you.
Craig, I totally agree. As a recently retired public school teacher and current school volunteer tutor, I am so tired of Republicans, media, and others reporting on "failing schools," implying it is the teachers' fault, or the parents' lack of caring for their children, or some other crap they grab onto so Republicans and other conservatives can undermine public schools. This came to a head during and after COVID. The distraction, whine about "failing schools" then do nothing to help those schools meet the needs of their students. I can't help but wonder how many of those Republican whiners attended public schools that, at the time, were lacking in resources. I doubt none of them because that would have given them a bit of empathy for what is really causing schools and their students to struggle. They might actually want more funding for schools if they had.
I remember them mocking the First Lady for her work promoting community colleges. They’re great for those who can’t afford four full years of elite schools at Ivy League prices, or don’t want that, period. It’s odd how many of the MAGA loudmouths went to Yale.
I wonder what Yale is like. My idealized picture of the Ivies is REALLY wrong. I figured that out after the indictment of rich parents paying their way in.
A visit to New Haven to examine Yale is worth the trip from anywhere if you feast on Frank Pepe's pizza while you're in town.
Yep. They are our current and future leaders and SCOTUSes whether we like it or not; Peter Principle be damned.
Jude: You take note of how many of the MAGA loudmouths went to Yale. I went to Yale, as a grad student in Science. Let me report something that may surprise you. Even though I went to a good college and had lots of smart friends, I never before knew the kind of intellectual brilliance I encountered at Yale. That "Ivy League" reputation is well-earned. That's what carries the Yale reputation, not the sleazy lines of future politicians and backward thinking, smarmy conservatives that seem to congregate there.
Thank you for pointing that out, that they are the anomalies, not the norm. As usual, the loudmouths get all the attention, even mine. I still find it interesting, though.
You took the words out of my mouth. There are a surprisingly large number of very narrow minded bigoted people who have recently grabbed the MAGAphone who are Yale graduates. What creepy hypocrites. Junior Colleges have some terrific teachers and they are sadly under appreciated. The MAGA crowd is all about ignorance because that fuels their base.
I read the Network For Public Education, and also the Diane Ravitch blog, that offer the facts on the ongoing war on public education.
An ignorant citizenry is the goal, not merely enriching the many people and corporations that thrive on providing material s and services that have nothing to do with learning
Schools in Florida are failing, under Governor DeSantis laws.
In some states, like Idaho, legislators ensure that "failing schools" are by refusing to fund them--for building repairs and updates, teacher salaries, supplies, etc. In fact, after promising to deliver over $300 M for our schools, we now find that Gov. Little will NOT be delivering over $115M. No wonder Idaho ranks 51st in the nation for it's education!
Absolute truth!
Schools are absolutely failing teachers. That’s why so many are leaving the profession.
In Michigan, I feel teachers have been failed by republican state legislators.
My daughter teaches in a relatively affluent western MI district, yet has had to use personal funds for supplies.
As a retired educator, I saw the constant belittlement of teachers and educators as a plot to create a private school system leading to a more unequal society to protect White Supremacy. Vouchers are part of that playbook.
Yes Craig, you have, in your teaching career, failed to do what the republicans wanted you to do; you were supposed to pretend to educate your students, not actually educate them. :-))
Correct. Most organizations can do better. Most people can do better. But tearing everything apart is not a viable solution in either case.
Oh ok, so now it’s “the damage woke people have done” lmfao?? C’mon, you’re a bot right? Please, do tell- what does “woke” mean exactly? Because if it’s about grooming & an obsession with children’s genitalia, you’re looking for the GOP
Lady I don’t even know wtf you’re talking about- I seriously suggest you stop watching Fox & similar crap. You also might wanna take a look at the real problems facing this country, as opposed to the pathetic lies & distractions that GOP hypocrites in this country like to feed their fearful constituents. Still waiting to hear what “woke” is exactly- aside from being a dog whistle for riling up bigots & uneducated clowns, of course
That magat lobotomy was an overwhelming success Patricia. You have my pity
Transgender isn't a verb...
It is an adjective my dear girl. Perhaps you should have paid more attention in English class in middle school.
There’s this new fangled thing called Google, where you can ask questions you don’t know the answer to? Or you could even go old school & bust out an actual dictionary! Transgender is an adjective, relating to someone whose gender identity doesn’t correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth
Ms. Paulson, perhaps the word 'transition' would fit the space better in your sentence than 'transgender' as described in other responses. Transition is made difficult by the fact that it can be both a noun and a verb, the use that I infer from your post.
People are putting their children in religious schools so they don't get indoctrinated? I don't know what to say about that. Religious schools are one of the main places people get indoctrinated into falsehoods of all kinds. I know I went to a religious school when I was young. At 14 I put away those childish things that was taught and went on with my real life.
What does this word "woke" mean, Patricia Paulson? It's never been used by anybody I know. Do you really expect us to expose outselves to routine right wing cruelty so we can find out?
“ Religious schools is because they do not want their children indoctrinated.” Seriously? Religion is nothing BUT indoctrination. And the last thing that education would engender is a broad worldview. Also, ya know, boys like pink, girls like blue, they both like rainbows unless you’ve shamed the crap out of them.
That is true. Still, as college becomes too expensive for more people that’s not where the different people are.
Quacks like a bot, etc.
About Pat Paulson's posts: I think it is amusing that almost all of the posts on this BB are well written, well thought out and fairly easily comprehended. Then a right winger comes on and suddenly the level of writing decreases, references don't make sense, strange and uninterpretable language appears and Trump gets praised. It is reminding me that Pat Paulson was a comedian who bought a winery up near Cloverdale CA and put jokes on the labels. Is he still pulling our legs?
I think maybe this is a bot, but I'll keep reading to see if I find more clues.
Would you prefer no ADA compliance? I'm happy we spend money so that all may have access to public buildings.
State university cost increased year after year, because there was less money coming from the state legislature. This was a plan during the early Reagan rush to privatize nearly everything in the country. It was a travesty, and some excellent state universities around the country have hit the skids. They've been unable to make up the gap by promoting the Alumni Associations and asking for money, but I watched them try to do it. This happened when I had a career in university administration. I watched the whole tragedy unfold during my 22 years employed.
Without any crisis to point to, Republicans would have nothing to talk about at all. They’ve done nothing for the middle class for a quarter century. That’s because their secret mantra, “Move all the money to us!” requires redirecting any revenue they can towards tax cuts for their rich donors.
But that’s only one arrow in their quiver. The others are deregulation, underfunding the IRS so they only have manpower to go after the tiny fish, and keeping all the subsidies to multinationals intact.
From this point forward I will refer to the Republican Party as the FreeDumb Party!
(You have the freedom to be dumb)
They portray themselves as the party of Freedom as they slowly take our Freedoms away. First they overturned a 50 year precedent, Roe v Wade. Once a woman becomes pregnant the state government decides the outcome!
If you are a member of the LBGTQ they want to control who you can love and who you can marry. That should be none of their business!
They continue to hold the country hostage by not agreeing to raise the debt ceiling that of which they created the majority of the debt. They are playing with people’s lives!
The meanest thing to me is the fact that there is never a single word uttered about any debt ceiling while Republicans have the WH - it only emerges as a 'problem' when there is a Democrat in the WH ! Yet nobody ever mentions that in any discussions & the Dems never ask the Repubs why they ignore it during those times - MAKE THEM EXPLAIN THAT !!!
vcragain, the problem, no one holds Republican "leaders" accountable for anything, even our media can't manage to hold them to account. They don't have to answer for allowing insurrectionists to serve in office. They don't have to answer about their donor unethical behavior or their lying, their dismissal of the needs of workers for their donor corporations who pay lousy wages and their workers need government support to just get by. Republicans don't get asked about why they aren't paying taxes on all their income, why they create loopholes that help themselves and their donors, why their donors should have any say in their governing, why Republicans can't or won't govern let alone govern fairly. I could go on, but the point is clear. Today's Republicans are moochers off the American people. They cheat, lie, and bring in funds they should report but don't, then blame Democrats and everyone else for the harms Republicans themselves have caused, like the debt ceiling which should not even exist because it is against the 14th amendment. Disgusting!
2
The "Republican" nest has been feathered over the years by their efforts to stack the courts, notably, the ' Supreme Court' and results like Citizen's United make bribery totally legal, along with rules that allow some billionaires to pay zero taxes? Loopholes, subsidies and tax breaks for people with billions! This should be illegal! We should be able to have a remedy to being bilked! I'm still working part time in my 70's. In order to get by. Tfg bragged in 2017 when he paid less in taxes than I paid for working half time . He paid $750 in taxes that year! Said because he is smart, and it was legal. And he is right! Yet he always complains of "unfairness'! Then the R's talk about "Welfare Queens"! Yeah, $6 per day to eat! Livin large!?
Laurie, yet Republicans still claim it is poor people who are wrecking our economy. That is one their big lies that other rich white people just love to cling to. If they believe the lie, they can console themselves, if they even think about it at all, that they are "helping those couch potato losers." It is true human beings can convince ourselves of nearly anything, even when we see that we are wrong. We usually have counted on the media, the good journalists to help keep the truth front and center. It does work sometimes, but right now, TRUTH is certainly teetering on the edge of a cliff from which Republicans are soooo ready to push it off.
Ruth, today's "mainstream" non-news media is controlled solely by ultra wealthy corporations. They want a fascist government so why should they hold their benefactors accountable? The Republicans are giving them their dream world.
Fay, yes, the media is following their masters. What I don't understand is how the "mainstream" media don't know that should the fascists take over, they will be expendable. The fascists will want only the media they have carefully groomed, like Fox and OANN to continue existing, not the ones who tried to go along with the BS Republicans and their fascist owners were pushing. I don't know how to get the American people to stand up to this crippling undermining of the truth before we are all drowned by it. Democrats don't seem to mind too much because they allow themselves to be caught up in the 5+ misdirections that Prof. Reich has identified today and over the past weeks, or get shut down by Republican insults, whining, and blaming, and their own party members who regularly undermine programs that actually help the American people or desert the party like Manchin, Sinema, and the North Carolina legislator I can't remember the name of who betrayed the women of the state by switching parties while claiming to be "pro-choice" (what she really meant was pro-choice to go with the Republicans who pay better).
The total take over of all formerly mainstream news media is ongoing, they will fit right in with the propagandists. This is what the Republicans have been aiming for since 1973. I don't know when Powell's memo first became public knowledge. I had never heard of it until I joined Substack last year. But I blame the Democratic politicians for "looking the other way" as the Republican thugs slowly, but methodically took over the small State Legislatures, then the entire Federal Court system. Were we all so involved in "Rights" civil, women's, religious, that we failed to see the forest for the trees?
Yes, Faye. We democrats have been contemplating our bellybuttons.
Best not to enlarge her fame by recalling her name. (It's OK if you don't remember it.)
To Ruth Sheets: Yes, the Republicans are royal moochers off of this country. I wish we could post your screed on every billboard in the country.
Matt Gaetz says they should not negotiate with a hostage! It's plain to see what they think of those across the aisle!
See what I wrote above.
They rigged voting so bad it's difficult to vote them out because they are hurting the 99% and stealing us blind. BTW-ever wonder why Republicans are so interested in other people's sex lives?
Sex sells! It's a big distraction, especially when paired with the 'bondsge and discipline' of pedophilia! Reasonably, most folks would be against that. It certainly gets attention. Ifit was real, it should! But is it ? Where is real evidence?
The republican interest in other people's sex lives is simply eugenics redux. They want to control who can procreate and who can't.
Keith, you are right about Republicans having nothing to offer anyone but their rich donors. They have done NOTHING to help the American people for at least 45 years and are working hard to undermine the positive things they help to do before that, like the EPA and Title IX. That proves they really didn't want those positives in the first place. They certainly got a lot of money for the very rich and for themselves and they now have a lot of power they don't deserve, but they still want more. They are totally addicted to money and power and will cheat, lie, steal, undermine, and more to get their hit. They don't want anyone taking their drugs away from them. Their war on drugs is killing people and so is their addiction to money and power at everyone else's expense. I hope we can find a way to get them some "tough love" soon, or at least treatment for their addiction. We all pay the longer they are permitted to go after their drugs of choice with impunity.
Has anyone stopped going ,"Oh gee", and taken the long look at this? The republicans are engaged in taking down this government because in order to function in it you need to be a liberal thinker, and they have no understanding of liberalism. (It is actually a governing philosophy and by the historians of the world, the USA is called, "a liberal democracy.") I'm getting tired of all the outraged democrats who can't find form in this picture. There's a method in what appears to be their madness. Saying it again: There's a long-standing plan to bring down the government. One said he wanted to see it get so small we'll be able to drown it in the toilet. They're doing this by shrinking it, overspending from its budget then refusing to pay the debt. It all started with Reagan saying, "The government IS the problem." Not just a few republicans have been taking this as far as they can. They plan to get the government into bankruptcy, but all we ever say is, "Why are they doing this?" as though Republicans are stupid. They aren't stupid. Trump is not stupid. Ask Bernie. Stupid is Trump's schtick.
Let’s underline DUMB.
Demonkkkrat, start by telling the truth.
We, the Republicans conservative will protégé the children, from abortion (abortion =killing). From being indoctrinated by perverted, you can what you want, but don't don't abuse the children.
I guess that’s why y’all are desperate to protect your guns too, because you’re so concerned about children’s lives? Take your hypocritical & extremist horseshit somewhere people actually buy it, sunshine
The level of hate given the written word on any newsletter, any topic, is escalating as the next election looms in the nearer future. We did not survive the Covid pandemic 😷; we went into lockdown with too much spare time to think, moan and groan about the plight of our daily lives. And the pot of discontent just boiled over and continues to be stirred with the “manufactured crises” that ignore the elephant in the room, CLIMATE CHANGE, which will wipe out civilization soon enough, simply because we cannot agree on anything. We’ve been separated into warring factions by the MSM and various platforms on the internet that benefit from plotting us against one another to.....feed the wealthy predators that seek to divide and conquer. So the educated and mindful (like yourself) look back in time to see where we went wrong hoping to steer us toward a society that care about one another again. Juggling all the crises and words, phrases invented to describe the issues at hand using acronyms because we can’t afford the time to use real words from our lexicon is utterly exhausting. I understand our problems are longstanding and SEVERE, have risen too stealthily to be given the attention they deserved, that our educators in lives past have tried to focus attention where it was due on history, politics, economics. That gun violence is the number one killer of our children while our representatives in Congress wear assault weapon designed lapel pins should tell us that we are doomed. I literally get nauseous at photos of families all armed with assault weapons to defend themselves against each other presented at Christmas as a greeting. We have a precious asset in Joe Biden as president who thankfully has the strength of character and the desire to steer this wreckage of a country to better times but it only takes a few obstructionists, looking after their self interests to derail forward movement. And so the wealthiest of the fossil fuel barons will take us to what appears to be our destiny of fire 🔥, extreme weather of all types, starvation in poorer countries sooner rather than later, desertification, and loss of drinking water 💦 within 7 short years. How very self centered these idiots are.
And how very sad for the children of this nation left with a once green thriving planet turning dead and brown. I grieve beyond what my soul can bear and remain thankful that I personally have no children for whom to cry. But I remain a citizen of the world 🌎 who began with such high ideals some 75 years ago now gone in the dust above. I’m going back to hide under the blankets again because my own physical disabilities are too severe to be useful to do anything about these cascading events but wait to die with my broken heart 💔 for the world I thought I understood in the innocence of my youth, long gone.
The saddest part of all is that there are educated & informed government officials, elected & otherwise, who continue to downplay the realities of climate change & rapid global warming & feed the less informed members of their base lies & distractions. When you combine corporate-owned politicians with what’s becoming their version of state media, the result is predictably ugly & dangerous. But I have three amazing millennials & I feel so awful about handing off this shitshow to their generation that I can’t crawl under the covers & wait for the end just yet- as much as I’d like to join you there some days :(
I'm so sorry to read that you are so discouraged. I know what you're saying, I'm of your generation and I remember when the sky was blue on the horizon. If you can, google a recent Nova program on this subject. (Can't recall the title, but it's about climate change and I saw it just this week. I'm sure you can find it online.) It's not a message that says, "it's all OK" but it's a message that says, "We can beat this, if we'll hurry up and do it." It's still possible to change course. It might make you feel better to watch it. I've saved it for a while so I can cheer people up.
I’m definitely going to check that out & truly appreciate the suggestion; it’s so damn hard not to get discouraged when you look around at the state of the world most days & anything that gives you a sense of hope & inspiration is a precious thing imo :)
I read that guns are the number one killer of children in the United States. Sadly, it is not hard to believe. Maria, stop using children as an excuse to grab for power and get away from them, you sick person. Your obstructing their healthy development and wellbeing.
I am still curious about how many children drag queens have shot.
As usual you twist everything, but it was expected. The guns are for defense, so the kids are protected. Move to a socialist, marxist country, you will the lesson about not having gun, I know it , I lived though it.
Keep your BS, sunshine 🌞
Only in America do people think they all need an AK47 to 'protect' themselves from the rest of the population, and who is the main problem to be protected from - the other people with guns !!! It's a self reinforcing situation, you are all completely mad ! In the whole of Europe there are barely any guns, and guess where there are barely any shootings of school kids or people in theatres too ? You gun mad Repubs are all sick in the head, wannabee-cowboys !
Yeah, you’re doing a bang up job “protecting” kids with your big guns lmfao! I’m not the one twisting things pumpkin, & you’re the magat trolling this thread, so again it’s YOU who needs to “keep your BS”. I wish folks like yourself had the brains to understand the hypocrisy of your sad, un-American beliefs, but ofc you vote for utter morons & fascists like Donnie Dumbass & Ronnie DeathSantis so obviously waiting on any shred of intelligence from you is just that- wishful thinking
The two year old boy, shot and killed by his own father yesterday in Tampa was in your mind “protected” by his father’s gun?! Wake up and smell the gunpowder!
You are anti-American. You don't believe the constitution and the bill of rights. #AmericaFirst
Before or after the next school massacre? Patriotism is not just waving a flag and claiming to be more 'American'! Actions speak louder than words. You definitely have drunk the Kool aid on the Second amendment interpretation! The 'well regulated militia' is key.
Right honey, you keep telling yourself that. I’m truly sorry your magat lobotomy was such a incredible success
Muskets were a different type of weapon. Read history.
Tfg thinks He is America! Wrong-0
OMG Maria, you could not have lived it if you brought the autocratic BS here. It seems you or your avatar have bought the BS about guns. Only scared people need guns and guns kill kids, so I am guessing you like guns more than kids. It is a lie that guns keep kids safe, of course. Also, get over the abortion thing. Women should have the right to decide what happens to their own body, not a bunch of whiny white men who just want to control women. Their anti-abortion nonsense has nothing to do with saving the lives of fetuses. That is nonsense, of course. It is about power over women, and whoever white men are scared might just take some of their power. It is impossible that if you actually lived what you imply, you wouldn't know that. You would have figured that out before you came here. Stop trying to bring the BS from abroad to infect us here. We have enough crazies right here born and bred.
"Maria" is a great example of Dunning Kruger effect.
Where? You sound like a foreign bot, or at least a Russian sympathizer.
@Facism -loving Maria: 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Protected, riiiiight. From whom, you might ask. From YOU.
You're still taking like a bot.
Oops! You're still TALKING like a bot.
But you'll indoctrinate them with religion which is the biggest, most dangerous hoax in all of history.
More preverts per square inch in churches and parochial schools than in public school.
An 8 celled blastocyst is not a child!
But it's dangerous to try to draw that line. We can't be absolutists ourselves when we're trying to curb absolutism.
My statement is an absolute fact. I can absolutely stand by that statement because it is true. Absolutely. The only curbing of absolutism I would want to curb is the kind like Elon Musk's "free speech absolutism" which is BS!
Republicans presently in office are mostly not conservative ; they are extremists!
Maria? Aborting education for children after they’re birthed into the world to give them a fundamental understanding of how to succeed throughout their LIFE, aborting sexual education to help protect innocent children from being sexually molested by perverted priests, evangelical sicko pastors, clergy, funny uncles, stepfathers, control freak RAPISTS, fathers(incest), and more pregnancies that result in INNOCENT LIFE OUTSIDE THE WOMB, and those who just use irresponsible sex ( (no protection and without parenting skills) as feel good recreation without a thought to the little innocent life they’re bringing into this world and the future of the INNOCENT CHILD, (innocent life doesn’t have a choice of who or what they’re born into) aborting jobs and aborting decent living wages and any benefits to promote and provide and aid families, aborting social programs that promote/provide food security, decent housing, adequate health care for those who can’t afford it, aborting voting rights for minorities or ethnicities that may threaten a fascist agenda, aborting human rights (guns are more important than lives), you know Maria? Aborting the right to live peacefully because selling and promoting guns for profit outrank human life, aborting science because science offers and provides (facts) (truth) over medieval generationally learned robotic cult religions , aborting separation of church and state that protects all Americans from religion and gives all Americans the right to worship however or whatever religion they choose, Maria? Aborting democracy, the last and greatest force on earth to promote and protect HUMAN RIGHTS! Am I getting through to you Maria? Ding 🛎️ Ding???? Aborting LAWS that protect HUMAN LIVES LIVING and BREATHING OUTSIDE THE WOMB, against the MINORITY with MONEY and POWER to rule against the MAJORITY! Aborting women’s rights to live in this world without father-ism dictating the rights of women. So you see Maria? The word ABORTION CAN and DOES APPLY TO TOO MANY ATROCITIES COMMITTED AGAINST HUMANITY Maria! Don’t call me or anybody on this site demonkkrat because I don’t care if I tell you to go straight to hell and take with you whatever twisted religious beliefs that define you.
Wonderful rant of the day. A Heartfelt thanks for the well worded well-presented Dissertation!!
Rebekha, my apologies for misspelling your name earlier. I just now caught my error. Again thank you for your comment and for supporting what I had to say and share. I appreciate it.
You’re welcome Rebecca.
Pam, I hear and see you anger. It should not be wasted on a bot. Bots take time away from our lives, and they never listen to what we're saying.
How do you protégé children? Is that a new verb?
It’s probably their new term for grooming. Which they do more of than anyone else.
I was wondering the same thing???
OK Maria, I am not sure what you are sniffing, but it is keeping you from knowing the truth, if you even care. I am guessing a computer-generated fool, but who knows? Real people can make themselves whine the kinds of crap computer trolls can pump out. So, I am not sure which you are, but honestly don't care.
What about kids being shot up in school? Love guns, especially AR-15s? 💙 it's 🥶 cold.
I think the word you meant is protect, not protégé!
@Fascist Maria: 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
If you aren't a bot, learn English.
About Maria: Why is it that as soon as we spot a conservative writer, defending the right wing nonsense, they invariably claim the truth while spouting lies, and the grammar and meaning of their sentences goes down the drain. Their ignorance manifests itself in broken English. This should tell us who buys in to the propaganda of the right.
Could poor English be a sign of a poorly assembled bot?
???
????
“All five of these so-called crises have been manufactured by the GOP. They’re entirely made up.
“Why? To deflect attention from the near record share of the nation’s income and wealth now going to the richest Americans.”
There’s another reason for these crises, and it’s at least as old as politics. We saw it in the late 1940s and ‘50s with McCarthyism, and today with the above, plus immigration: declare a fake crisis and then claim to be the only ones with the wisdom, the morality, the strength to solve the crisis. “Just give us the power,” they say. “Give us the power and we will make the nation whole and good and pure. Just give us the power.”
And what do they do when handed that power? Their first order of business is to limit the rights of anyone they think might threaten that power, and the second is to cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations, who then respond in kind by, in the short term, pouring contributions into the politicians’ campaign coffers, and, in the long term, when they retire, handing out lucrative consultancies, lobbying jobs, seats on corporate boards and deals with conservative publishers to write books no one will ever read.
So, it’s certainly not about principle, or even party but MONEY. Always money. Just give us the power.
Money & power. You got it, Avie! And what they have done with that money & power has been to destroy the national fabric by dividing the nation with these manufactured crises. It's a vicious circle.
Jaime Ramirez ; And now we have people running for office who are criminals like tfg and DeathSantis, who are promising to pardon those who attacked the Capitol as their campaign speech! DeathSantis even wants to pardon his opponent and the mastermind of all this crime! To think that I was taught that the pardon power was only to be used rarely, for special cases, to free unfairly convicted people in untenable circumstances! It's a get out of jail free card for some of the United State's worst enemies within and dangers to Democracy and the rule of law. They threaten freedom and self rule for the humans!
There should be some limits to this power to pardon, I think, Laurie.
Avi, yep, it is power and money that are the current drugs of the Republican party and they are using them with abandon right now. Our media is helping out quite a lot by providing them with regular hits and calling it "balanced" reporting. That is enabling, but I guess only chemical drugs are considered bad. Those harm smaller numbers of people than the Republican power-money addiction.
I alone can fix it.
Thoughts on your “Five fake crises” piece, Professor Reich:
1) “Woke” - (glad to know I’m not the only one who still cannot understand the meaning/symbolism of this expression.)
2) “Trans People” - There are no indications that there is any iota of “danger” from gay/Tran individuals. They seemingly “live and let live!”
3) “Critical Race Theory” must be taught in order to not only make the folks who go out and harm others simply because of the color of their skin or their foreign accent but to protect the individuals who are singled out by the bigoted… plain and simple.
4) “Couch Potatoes.” - one word: R I D I C U L O U S - - - UNLESS it’s clearly a scammer who is lazy has somehow infiltrated the system. The rich need to pay taxes to assist the incredibly poor, plain and simple.
5) “Out of control Government spending” — on this I know you are correct and there is nothing for me to add since methinks much of this challenge began when the more forthright and admired Republican Party of yore turned into the travesty it is today.
Your words hit the mark; you have voiced so many of our similar thoughts, and for this I thank you, Sir.
My best as ever,
Anne in MD 🌻🙏
Thank You Mr. Reich for the Memorial Day rehash of all the despicable attempts by our FPOTUS to turn his lickspittle poltroons against the true Patriots of the U.S. And I listened to you intently when you were on the Mehdi Hasan Show = excellent!
Memorial Day is the day each and every year when we remember those who gave their lives to protect our Country and our Democracy.
It was the perfect time to reiterate Trump’s futile efforts to prevaricate daily to the American people in hopes of becoming An American Dictator!
Well said, Prof. Reich. I had thought when saw your drawing, that it revealed what my grandmother called the "gobbledy-gook" language that was designed to confuse readers or listeners so they might think they were being told something real. I think she saw what some of these loud voices are trying use, to drown out or hide the real, important stuff. Thank you for your clear words, and humorous observations to help us see and understand what's really happening in our nation. You may be through teaching formal classes, but you are continuing to do very important work, showing and speaking out important truths.
These manufactured crises divert the public's attention from real, debilitating, destabilizing crises that Republicans, corporations & billionaires are largely responsible for: climate chaos/environmental destruction/ecosystem collapse/mass extinction, wealth & power disparity/economic injustice, inadequate & costly healthcare; the rise of corporatism & fascism & concomitant loss of democracy...
Jaime, I would add to your excellent list, undermining public education k-12 and public universities, health care disparities and removal of bodily autonomy, the large unhoused population due primarily to landlord rent gouging that Republican administrations (and some Democrats) just can't seem to do anything about, so blame the unhousedd population. All of these are if not fully Republican-created, heavily Republican supported.
And misinformation to confuse voters!
I agree with you, Dr. Reich.
However, until corporate media starts broadcasting the excellent points you've detailed, the two party duopoly-especially republicans-will continue their lies and scapegoating and very loud silences.
While Biden does occasionally address the nation, he does so far too infrequently. When was the last time he held a press conference?
The Democrats must address the issues you've raised often and forcefully because corporate media won't and republicans are running roughshod, especially in red states.
People's lives are at risk.
Where is FDR when we need him again? Biden is carrying FDR's workload, but he's not so much on the radio.
While these made-up crises make our blood boil, in order to make any changes to the current system, we need to understand the voting public...you know, the ones that voted for these scumbags in the first place. I was talking to a friend who doesn't agree with the direction that the Republican lawmakers have been taking, and yet she voted for Republicans. She agrees that our social safetynet needs to be beefed up and protected. And yet, she tells me that she does not agree to raising minimum wage. The reason, she says, is simple. She worked hard to be where she is now (minimum wage + some), and she doesn't want others that didn't work hard to earn what she earns before putting in their time. She knows what she says is not "politically correct," but that's why she will vote Republican. There are many societal problems that we need to work on, and I think we agree that we need to have big ideas and big changes to solve those problems. What we lack, and this is what Republicans have seized on, is knowing how to communicate to a voter...an everyday American that gets up in the morning, grabs coffee, puts in 10-12 hours of work if lucky enough to have a "full" time job, comes home tired...just to put food on the table. We need to communicate better. We need to let them understand that we're on their side.
The History channel had a series about FDR last night. He took bold action in the Depression FOR the people who gave him their confidence. He had a heart for Americans who were struggling and used his power wisely.
He also got on the radio as often as possible, and people would run home to listen to what he was going to say next. We need to ask archivists to revive this. The real FDR for today's problems. Yes. Let's get a radio station to play old Roosevelt tapes. It would be so good for all of us.
Yes you’re so spot on. We finished watching the series last night. How can we be one generation away from ww2 and nobody connects the dots?
Some of us are recognizing the dots as they pass us by on their way to the bonfires. The ones who are serving time over the failed coup are likening themselves to Hitler's experiencing jail. That was the perfect gift to fascism. Hitler suddenly had free rent and food, and enough free time to write his now important book. We have to realize today's misled group of people are determined to prevail. Hitler's speeches and writings can be seen as a guide book for bringing down the government and taking over the stolen power. When we imagine what that looks like we become skeptical. "That would never happen," we argue. Now you must study history. It's times like this when history is very important. I acknowledge ahead of time, that this statement is over the top. Nobody likes this kind of warning. Say what you will. My mother wouldn't stop talking about The War, and FDR, for many years. Now I can see that she had a shock related to PTSD because of WWII and she was actually obsessed about her experience of it and compulsive to put words to what had happened across the world. Luckily, my father had tendencies toward those of a college professor, about history. This was the most important thing that linked them together. I'm very fortunate to have grown up with parents who loved history. But, I do go on. And on.
Please do. I agree with everything you’ve written. The day after T. Was elected in 2016, I was in the grocery store, the muzak was playing and everything looked the same, but I knew it was all different now. Please share any time.
When next you speak with your friend, do remind her of The Golden Rule.
Does she have children? Does she not want a better life for those children via a living wage? I know parents who want that, but then bitch when the kids do have it ‘easier’, for crying out loud. “I walked six miles uphill both ways in a blizzard to get to school.”
Absolutely, she is. What I was trying to convey was that each of us has weaknesses and biases. Somehow, these Republican talkers seem to do a better job at exploiting those weaknesses and biases. So the question is how we can do a better job at talking the language of the voters. Bernie actually did an exceptional job at this, but the Democratic Party demolished him...time after time. I think the first thing we need to do is to reunite the Dems, so we speak with one voice. That, unfortunately, is next to impossible given the interest from corporate lobbying and selfish donors.
Another young person will rise to take his place.
Right on target, Robert Reich! It was heartening to hear Ali Velshi point out to new MSNBC commentator former Ohio Governor, John Kasich, that the "inflation" Mr. Kasich was going on about was caused by the very wealthy minority's inflated profits accompanied by tax breaks and subsidies. John Kasich was aggressively interrupting and talking over the program host,; at one point throwing up his hands and exclaiming that Ali Velshi was repeating talking points often made by a Democrat former labor secretary! (He who must not be named?). Of course, anybody who knows anything, knows exactly who may have pointed out these inconvenient facts! To think that this clueless mope had been previously pushed as an antidote to tfg, because he was so moderate and 'safe', as a Republican alternative ! Mr. Kasich also said that the rich are paying 40% of their income in taxes! It seems like many billionaires don't pay much ; and some pay nothing!
Kasich never saw a living wage he didn't like. He's a Reagan clone without that smile-grin. I saw Ali Velshi challenge his ideas, too, and was pleased that Ali wasn't buying. Kasich won't be trying to sell his tainted, tawdry goods there anymore. Both Sen. Klobuchar and Doris Kearns Goodwin have very recently called for Campaign Finance Reform (CFR). Interesting!
An amendment: "Kasich never saw a living wage he LIKED." As a former gov. he bears considerably responsibility for Ohio now being a backward state. Kasich is a neoliberal capitalist who parades himself as being open to current ideas; he is not. He is articulate while being myopic and vacuous; he's a man who has enough education to be dangerous. Two years working in a factory on a production line may be his only viable cure. Alas, if only it could be so! The best that can be said for him is that he is anti-Yellow Hair, an extremely low bar. Now that election season is afoot, we can expect his visibility to increase considerably.
Touché, my friend. 💙
Sadly those of us who are aware of what the Republicons are doing, toil on trying desperately to keep this ship upright. It is the younger ones in school who face the real challenge as their knowledge is being retarded by what they are allowed to learn. How are they supposed to know about our history?
DeSatan of Florida has the answer. He will teach them personally and he will have his groom on.
When the term "woke" started to be bandied about, I mentally defined it to be "newly awoken awareness." To be White in America and to _finally_ recognize just how awfully American Whites have treated every other race for _centuries_. To recognize that despite decades of Affirmative Action, racism was **still** alive and kicking and reemerging from the shadows where it lingered for a decade or so. In short, to _finally_ recognize that America is NOT as perfect as advertised. Nor that it was ever as great as the MAGA crowd seem to think it was. Naturally, being "woke" means that you've had a peek behind the curtain to see just how badly We The People have been manipulated for practically forever -- which makes woke-ness a direct threat to the manipulators and their minions in Congress. And if there is one thing the GOP has mastered, it is to twist and warp language to best further their cause. [Remember how the Affordable Care Act meant that Healthcare would be administered by "death panels"? That was GOP-speak for "We don't like this new fangled idea."]
I mean you've got to be kidding. A Roman Catholic supreme Court of America Justice John Roberts says there is no discrimination in America. Judge Thomas agrees. He feels very undiscriminated against.
I remember back in the 1960s and '70s we referred to blacks like Clarence Thomas as being "Oreos": black on the outside, but white on the inside. He certainly has tapped into the GOP's Good Ol' Boys network of graft and corruption. [I wonder if he counted as an Affirmative Action hire to be the token black for The Powers That Be.]
how about a T-shirts that reads something like this
WOKE = kind, informed, tolerant (more terms?)
WOKE is a badge of honor
WOKE means I VOTE
WOKE means I'M AWAKE
More ideas?
Thank you for your ever informative newsletter Robert Reich. From France
p.s. we could use a whole lot more education on Wokisme here in France.
How about a red baseball cap that reads MARGA - Make America Reel Good Agin; especially at spelling and grammar. Or perhaps MAOKA - Make America OKay Again. We're so down in the dumps that just making us okay would require a herculean effort in and of itself. :-)
HEY THERE, EVERYONE!!! ARE YOU CLAPPING FOR MR. REICH'S SHARING THE OUTRAGEOUS NOISE THE GOP HAS BEEN MANUFACTURING ( MEANING LIES), SO THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE REST OF US JUST COUNT THE DAYS BETWEEN RECEIVING OUR SOCIAL SECURITY CHECKS OR DESPERATELY TOO SMALL PAYCHECKS. WE POOR TYPE PEOPLE TRYING TO SAVE EVEN $50-$100 EVERY MONTH TO BUILD A SMALL AMOUNT OF $$$ FOR UNANTICIPATED NEEDS IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE. THANK YOU, MR. REICH. BUT... JUST ABOUT WHOMEVER ONE VOTES FOR THESE DAYS IS ALWAYS A DICEY CHOICE. THE RICH GET RICHER. AND THE REST OF US ONLY HEAR LIES.
BARBARA J. NEUMAYER ; Who are you voting for? Just curious.
I APOLOGIZE FOR NOT RESPONDING TO YOUR INQUIRY (MAY 3O, 2023) SOONER. EVERYONE SUPPOSEDLY RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IS A LOW-LIFE. I AM NOT SURE WHO I MIGHT VOTE FOR OR IF I EVEN VOTE IN 2024. I AM SO DISGUSTED WITH ALL THE LIES AND GRAND-STANDING. I E BEEN A LIFE-LONG REPUBLICAN, BUT... WHO IS ONE TI BELIEVE AND/OR SUPPORT? THEY ARE ALL CROOKS AND LIARS!!!