Looking through the historical lens that this is not the first, but the second Gilded Age is quite helpful. Although there are some significant differences regarding this Gilded Age and the path out of it, just knowing that we as a nation overcame the first Gilded Age is extremely important.
Our biggest enemy is any sense of negativity that we bring forward to this situation. We must maintain the mentality that we have overcome a similar situation before and we can do it again.
Robert, I believe you have made an error. Mean-spirited comments such as yours are more aligned with a platform, such as TRUTH SOCIAL and not this Substack. I would suggest you take your own advice and “go back to sleep.“ Maybe tomorrow you can add something more positive to the discussion.
I think what Rick is saying in shorthand is, (please correct me if I'm wrong, Rick) what that Musk views his wealth as an extension of his masculinity.
This garbage commentary needs to be ignored or shut down by moderators. Hitting the 3 dots on the right collapses the comment, but the clutter is making it difficult to read constructive comments. Responding is encouraging more of these nutcases who have no interest in learning or serious debate. I tend to stop reading- life is too short.
Don, you are afflicted with a serious case of being overly serious. Humor and satire are very effective methodologies at getting to the root cause or solution.
Bob, I think the shame is with you. Just because someone calls an ignorant far-too-rich toddler-man like Musk out on his bad behavior does not make that person jealous and you should know that or perhaps that is where you are at this time. Musk had a lot of money, came here was undocumented for some time, but since he was rich and white, he was welcomed and 22 years ago became a naturalized citizen. He has used and abused immigrants, paying lower wages than American workers because he could. He thinks he is untouchable even though he is supposed to be a citizen just like everyone else in a democracy. One can't help but wonder why he left South Africa to come here to cause havoc. The shame is yours!
..ther interesting par he was here on a student visa that he violated the conditions of by not enrolling for classes and then with a friendm started a business,
Robert, it is interesting that people who lie through their teeth (not necessarily you), claim to have the truth on their side. I am sure Plato was well-aware of this. Just because Republicans and their allies lie nearly incessantly does not mean that everyone else does. Musk and Trump, for example will lie any time they can if it means they will gain something. They have been right often since a lot of Americans have been bamboozled into thinking that wealth means anything more than someone is rich. It says little about character (although there is not much positive character among most of the billionaires these days). It certainly says nothing about honesty, but somehow being rich for many who are not rich makes them see money as the cure to whatever ails them, particularly if they can use it to get whatever they want as their rich heroes do. They tend to love learning about the men they would like to be, so the best they can do is vote for them and pretend those guys are not price-gouging, stealing from workers, holding workers in contempt, and laughing at them behind their backs.
Thanks for brilliant exemplar of MAGA thought. Oops. Meant behavior. STEAL!!! Try for an original or creative thought or solution? Ridiculous when it's so easy - and fun - to smash and grab. With the added bonus of unintended honesty. Yup. "the worst, most heinous, most immoral, most unethical characteristics and traits of your own team." Bravo!
Your post is disgusting. You don't even know Rick. Quit Jew-baiting. By doing that, you show yourself to be no better than the morons in white polos and khakis carrying tiki torches and chanting "Jews will not replace us". How do you know if Rick is even Jewish? He could be or he might not be. How do you know he produces nothing? You seem to be producing nothing but hate and division. All I have to go by is your hate-filled and bigoted post.
From where I sit, Rick looks like he's mocking Musk, and I'm totally down with that. Musk is an obnoxious, racist, self-entitled rich white boy from South Africa who wormed his way into the US by lying on a visa application. He produces nothing but takes the ideas and concepts of others to pass himself off as a genius.
If you are American, you, Musk, Trump, and all the MAGA idiots shoukd be ashamed of yourselves. I was raised to believe we are ALL Americans. not just a bunch of self-entitled white jerks. All races, nationalisties, all religions born or naturalised, working on their citizenship--even the "illegals" who are here picking our crops, processing our meat, whatever. They pour billions into our tax coffers getting nothing in return. As long as they do no harm I'm willing to consider them not yet Americans, but hopefully one day...
Israel is a disgrace to the Jewish religion. You would think that a group that suffered from genocide would not perpetrate it on another people. It really doesn't matter in the long-run--Israel will be destroyed by global warming just like all the other theocracies in the region. Zionism = Racism
I consider myself a DEI, CRT progressive, which believes that Israel has a right to exist. I also know that Israel is surrounded by enemies (Arab Muslims) who seek nothing less than it’s annihilation (genocide)
And have since it was founded in May 1948. You see the land of Israel is considered sacred, Muslim soil, especially the Haram al Sharif (dome of the rock) and al Aqsa mosque, it is the third holist site in Islam, and a Jewish state on sacred Muslim soil is blasphemy, and so long as there is a Jewish state there will be no peace, not the the Levant.
Muslims have 57 ethnostates. Arab Muslims have 10, Christians have the Americas, Europe, Russia, the Balkans, Jews are entitled to one, but it sits on sacred Arab soil, and cannot be allowed to exist, ever.
No infidel is permitted to visit the first two holy sites of Islam, Mecca and Medina, imagine the insult and blasphemy of a Jewish state, especially one that controls the Haram al Sharif.
Zionism is simply the quest for a Jewish homeland and they are entitled to their historic homeland.
What they are not entitled to is the actions and behavior of the right wing and orthodox settlers, who treat Arabs like animals. Those are criminals, But the truth is that so long as there is a Jewish State, in the Levant there willnever be any peace. Ishmael Haniiyeh said it: We are a nation of martyrs, and we will keep coming back again and again. Muslims don’t mourn martyrs, mothers an wives might, but they celebrate martyrdom.
From the preamble to the HAMAS covenant, which has never been repudiated:
Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).
From paragraph 7, which is also from sacred scripture, Verse 1294/1296, Book 56, hadith 139
"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).
The day of Judgement is the Islamic end times, it is presaged by the arrivalof the mahdi (messiah) and the slaughter of all Jews. On the day of Judgement Allah wil judge all, the living and the dead.
As regards the death toll in Gaza, the HAMAS ministry of health reports totals, half of which are HAMAS and Islamic Jihad fighters, and frankly they pull those numbers out of thin air. They are believed only because the UN and the feckless want to believe. There is indeed ingrained and latent anti-Semitism.
But the responsibility for the deaths lies on the heads of HAMAS who uses their people and hostages as human shields.
I ask all who are outraged at Israel’s behavior, what would they do, if someone did the same to you and your family? Remember if the terrorist had not broken through, boated around, flew over the fence and joyfully raped and murdered the Jews, there would not have been the devastation.
Acquaint yourself with the act, by watching the documentary, the will dance again, taken completely from the cell phones of the terrorists as they joyfully yelled allahu akbar, and the cell phones of the victims.
And why the silence on the ongoing genocide in Ukraine, can it be it is because the Ukrainians don’t have oil money, and thousands of students in our universities, like the Arabs, or financing our university chairs.
What about the genocide being committed in Sudan by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) ttps://www.lemonde.fr/en/le-monde-africa/article/2024/09/09/sudan-videos-prove-ethnic-crimes-committed-by-rapid-support-forces-affiliated-militias-in-darfur_6725329_124.html
Ah but they aren’t Arab Muslims are they, so that genocide doesn’t count, anymore than the genocide of Ukraine
How about the Genocide that American and Britain inflicted on Germany and Japan.
Fellow readers, please note that I am a frequent, and now an unfortunate, commenter here who shares the first name and last name initial with the poster here. You should be able to tell us apart from the content of our posts.
@Robert P. You are so full of shit, taking your cheap shots. Your list of grievances is a very Trump-like assassination of America. You like quoting your random facts, but what other country does better? What other way of life? What other form of government? What other economy. You are just full of shit with no useful critique, no constructive ideas. You're anti-American, hating both sides equally. You are some kind of motivated troll, whether you are working for Putin or not, you are doing the dictator's work by trying to tear down everything about America by selecting the worst things you can find to push into the blab-o-sphere.
Why are you wasting your own time, and the time of people who are less indoctrinated than you? No one here wants to hear your neocon talking points. Turn off Substack, and turn Fox News back on. Scream at the television.
You sound hate filled. Keep that to yourself. Thanks.
This socialist ran 16 marathons, a 30-mile training run, and a 24-hour relay on a 1/4 mile track on Staten Island in July. Our gay running team came in third, beating the NYC Police Dept. team. Two guys on our team averaged 5 minutes a mile over the 24 hours. I was second to last, averaging 6:30 a mile over the 24 hours.
Someone alleged that we beat the women's world record for a 24-hour relay--women were just starting to get into distance running at that time. Plus I am queer, asthmatic, and hypoglycemic, so I am not even supposed to be able to do such "manly" things. LOL.
I find Robert P's comment here so inappropriate and offensive I wish they had a "Report" call out for the Comments posted here on Substack. The perverse, baseless ad hominem attacks have no place in thoughtful, enlightening, and polite conversation.
Anti-trust. They should have called it anti-organized-crime. Some will rob you with a Tommy gun, some with a K St. firm. My 1950s public school American History Book had a whole chapter about monopolists and grotesque political corruptions, complete with Thomas Nast cartoons and "Teddy the Trust Buster".
And I naively thought it was all long ago and far away.
Elon Musk is building the bridge over the river Kwai, and he is using X to protect and promote his project. No one with government contracts should own a platform like that.
Robert P, your comment starting with a lot of unfounded personal attacks on Colin above betray your lack of integrity here.
And your argument about meritocracy rings hollow. No one deserves to take in billions while having the power to suppress votes, change laws and bend democracy to their greedy will. That’s not merit but corruption. You don’t seem to be able to distinguish the difference.
you may be and you may admire the entitled few, but please do not forget the vast majority of people who make perhaps smaller but still very meaningful contributions to your life and mine…the auto mechanics, the chiropractors, the farmers, the chefs, the moms, the child minders…unlike the billionaires upon whose labor most of us do not depend, and who therefore mostly evade the criticism that might make them both better and happier people.
Anne, not only will we get through this Gilded Age but like we did after the first Gilded Age, may we take a huge step forward in the reforms that come as a result of what we have learned in this second Gilded Age.
I think we also need to be realistic that Capitalism has failed. The right poisons any idea of Socialism even though they rely on it. It is not wise to keep the same system in place that fails people over and over again.
Capitalism only works when tempered by good, enforced regulation. We have had that under many Democratic administrations, but none from the Republicans since Reagan, perhaps even since Eisenhower.
…If we can reform campaign financing and prosecute bribery (despite the SCOTUS loophole you can drive a Mercedes through). Maybe then we have a chance. Til then: money talks and democracy walks (away).
I’m concerned we as Americans are not the same people we were a century ago. Of course I mean the maga voters, a third of the population. They are lazy and churlish, all they care about is being entertained. My theory is that after the WWII generation passed on, there is no memory of facism or the horrors of it. How else could a maga voter in Pennsylvania take a million dollars from Musk to greedily and happily endorse a facist for president. These people are too lazy to think critically.
Jamae, America was on the verge of being taken over by NAZI's and racist,until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
There was a very strong fascist movement, they even rented Madison Square garden for a rally, a huge banner of George Washington hung, flanked by two NAZI banners.
Google it, images.
Hitler justified his racist policies and eugenics by saying that he got them from America, and eugenics was born in America.
Everyone should read Rachel Maddows's book "PREQUEL". Also listen to her Podcast. It tells the story of American Fascism before WW2 that William is talking about. My big take away was the level of vicious hate these people had for, not only foreigners in our country, but for many of their fellow citizens.
It is a chilling story and the parallels to DT's ranting and his glassy-eyed MAGA hoards today aren't much different. Happy New year... GH
Love the Saint Ronnie reference, but now it's Saint Donnie. The former religious movement took 40 years to start to dismantle under Biden but it never really got the head of steam nor the legislative and judicial horsepower needed to fully turn things around. What Ronnie begat, Donnie will taketh to the next level. With the dumbing down of the American electorate, social media mendacity, and traditional media malpractice round two of the good fight is going to be quite an uphill slog. But we must begin the fight now.
I do believe our screens, streaming, sports, alcohol, poor work-life balance have made us poor stewards of the free time and attention available to us. My dad was WW2, he was disciplined and focused on the welfare of the country, he studied history. We have grown frivolous.
Tom, these are excellent questions to ponder. One difference between the United States and Europe is that we are comparatively a very young country and as many have stated, we are a “melting pot“ of immigrants. Our country was born out of an irrational audacity that a group of colonies with virtually no army, no money, and no armaments could successfully become its own country against the largest and most powerful military on the planet.
Due to the urgency of the situation, a constitution that is excellent in most respects had some built in fatal flaws that over 20 amendments have not been able to cure. One of those flaws was the creation of the electoral college, and secondly, a built in racism and sexism that has never been completely erased from the American psyche. Finally, the Constitution failed to create a progressive economic system, which meant a default into the very faulty system of capitalism. In other words, the original Constitution was tacitly endorsing the philosophy that greed is a necessary component of a vibrant economics system. However, now for the second time, we are faced with the dilemma of where greed based economy leads us. The original Constitution was an amazing document for its time. However, even with over 20 amendments, the constitution is not capable to bring us into our next stage of government and economic evolution.
The cure for the malady of capitalism is an economic system that is committed to seeing that all have an opportunity to gain greater purchasing power through well paying employment and at the same time has the compassion to ensure no one is left behind to live on the streets or die from lack of food or a for profit medical system in which an increasing number of citizens cannot afford. This is why I have become a proponent of a humane, economic and governance system called “Economic Democracy.” Recently on this Substack, Robert Reich indicated that Economic Democracy might be the cure for the shortcomings of our current system.
Here we go down the religious rabbit hole with what should be a secular argument. This country was created on the principle of separation of church and state so just because St. Donnie decided to put the Bill of Rights in his version of the bible let's not get distracted by the road we take. Leave Jesus out of it, he has no role here.
I have been beaten over the head with Jesus and the Bible my whole life. Keep your old fairy tales to yourself, and don't use them to make me a criminal. People are always telling me to read your Babble--WHYYYYYYY?
Look up “economic democracy“ in Wikipedia and I think that the first few paragraphs will show you It is quite a bit different than “social democracy“. You can also ask ChatGPT to write an essay on economic democracy, and you will get some good information there
Marc, a very carefully, thoughtfully crafted definition of capitalism is sorely needed.
The only reason we have attained relative freedom, a decent standard of living, all the comforts and conveniences of this civilization is because people were free and thus incentivized to invest their mental and physical labor into accumulating money and investing it into an enterprise to further improve their position
The United States would not exist, you and I would not exist, our creature comforts and technology would not exist were it not for capitalism.
In 1606 a group of men, lesser nobility and wealthy merchants, got together, the assemblage was led by the Master of the Skinners Guild. they pooled their money, formed a corporation called the London Company of Virginia, and in 1606 prevailed upon King James for a charter to explore and exploit a portion of the eastern seaboard from the location of Roanoke to Maine, which they called Virginia, for profit,namely gold and silver.
There was no name for Capitalist then, no name for middle class, nor corporation. Nor the word capitalism.
The ability to pool resources and invest in a joint venture is what has enabled us to survive and prosper in comfort. And children and people who would have otherwise died in birth, or young or because of disease and defects would not have survived.
The problem is not with capitalism, the problem is that it is not regulated or restrained. Anything to excess, unregulated, unrestrained, especially the enthusiasm, anger, of the masses is dangerous.
Everything in moderation,nothing in excess.
The problem is that money can buy influence and release restraints that moderate.
There is a human tendency, a craving?, for submission and domination,
instead of celebrating the end of serfdom, there has been an accelerating drive to neo serfdom.
The serfdom of unrestrained capitalism, unrestrained collectivism, encapsulated as authoritarianism..
It is apparent, to me, that people don't object to authoritarianism, so long as it is THEIR authoritarian version.
An example:
Free speech for me, but not for thee.
The horseshoe where the right wing meets the left wing.
It seems to me that it doesn’t matter which form of government is taken, eventually there is a smaller group, an oligarchy, that lives well while others suffer.
While that is true, and it has been since our hunter gatherer ancestors.
The question is the quality of life for the unpowerful members of the tribe, clan, nation.
Would you rather live in a less than perfect U.S of a or a NAZI Germany, a Bolshevik or Putin Russia, in a Caliphate or in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afgthanistan, Pakistan or Bangladesh.
The amendments were intended to correct flaws in the Constitution. However, if the rules of the Constitution are not enforced or outright defied, the Constitution is meaningless.
Further, the ERA needs to be PUBLISHED and the WHITE MAN MISOGYNY called out that put dates on its state by state passage!! No other US Constitution Amendment has been given this POISON PILL! White men have been dragging us backwards for too long.
Very true Vicki. But, many women are responsible for the failure of the ERA too. Phyllis Schlafly and her Eagle Forum, in St. Louis, was the main roadblock. She was an ultra-conservative Catholic and radical anti-feminist. To much to list here so everyone should look her up. She is the textbook case of how modern religious fascism works in our country.
Hi Gary, I know this phenomenon- initially described to me by South American activist who cited the effects of power include the ones who will protect the status quo at all costs to be near power. But, it is led in the US by White Men, who ran to vote for Trumpty at the polls in fear of smart and excellence in woman. It must stop. The ERA must be activated and the evil misogyny called out.
Marc, inspiring reaction, thanks. I need a bit thinking and pondering about this.
Was the legal thinking in Europe not linked to economy and more to morality? Was the American thinking more about race and violence?
And your modesty about a young country? In Europe we had the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, World War I and II, the fighting in Yougoslavia, to name some. In this light, you had a peacefull history.
There was more civil strife in Europe I would say. But maybe it is the wrong picture. I will think about it.
Someone told me that James Madison wanted arrangements in the Constitution about the relations between capital and labour. Do you think that this is correct? I did some search in the Federalist papers, but did not find it.
Marc, wealth is power, and the powerful will pound your dreams into dust. Hopefully, you will still have the Constitution to assure you of due process as you try to resolve your grievances.
If you look at the data you will find that in Europe average wages of working people are much lower and taxes paid by the middle class are much higher than in the US (the VA tax which is in most countries close to 20% and it is a regressive tax).
The EU was perplexed over the destructiveness of soccer riots, so they funded a study to determine the cause.
Apparently it is due to identity, both with a nation or team, and their manhood.
The male fans invest their identity into a team, and if that team loses there is a rapid plummet in testosterone, to rebuilt their testosterone level, they resort to aggression, in the form of violence.
That is strange, because there is no such corollary in America and I can only assume that the masculine identity is not so dependent on identification with a sports team, but is found else wheres, maybe politics, religion, race,
When, say, a sports team loses a major game like the Superbowl or the World Series,, there ego,identity is not so vested in that team, that their testosterone level plummets.
This is probably because there is a big difference between the political and social construction of Europe and America.
Yes indeed, France is making major efforts to support families with children. France is making major efforts to support families to have more children. More so than any other EU country. I have relatives who live in France and I visit frequently. But as you surely know the country is moving to the right and LePen calls the shots. There is huge dissatisfaction with the general social situation and the standard of living in general is much lower than in the US.
True enough, the middle and lower classes pay high taxes and demand performance. In the US only the upper classes and the rich pay taxes. The middle class pays nada and want government services. The only exception is Social Security and the rate of return is dismal, but it is security of last resort.
I agree that there are some important differences, including the current climate time bomb, but the motif of power tending to corrupt seems as old as history, and that division of power (such as fair and free elections) and functioning checks and balances, are vital to repelling tyranny.
The Constitution was a product of Enlightenment Era philosophies. From Wikipedia:
"The Enlightenment featured a range of social ideas centered on the value of knowledge learned by way of rationalism and of empiricism and political ideals such as natural law, liberty, and progress, toleration and fraternity, constitutional government, and the formal separation of church and state.[3][4][5]"
(...)
"Modern sociology largely originated from this movement,[46] and Hume's philosophical concepts that directly influenced James Madison (and thus the U.S. Constitution), and as popularised by Dugald Stewart was the basis of classical liberalism.[47]"
A far cry from the claims of Ouija Board "Originalists".
The motto "E Pluibus Unum" is inscribed on our most sacred tokens.
I am wondering who is going to able to buy a Tesla when the population is getting poorer. And Tesla can be replaced by any other non-essential product. And who would invest into a company that sells products nobody can afford? Of course, Musk will receive money from other, e.g. government spendings, but who is paying the taxes to permit the government to do so? Seems quite a mystery to me actually!
Lueder, I read that many parts of Musks teslas are made in China. The reason Muskie and Trumpty went off on the government funding timing was to kick out tariffs or other means which would have meant Muskie would have more regulations of his Chinese parts. Further, teslas are cheaper in Australia and China. Further, other funding streams, like organic certification program's financial support was dropped, as were many other valued 'bipartisan' initiatives. This is why the screams of the dope heads musk/ Trumpty, gang of felons must be ignored. We need to separate all the felons conflicts of interest as they gather around the tables to steal all the goodies.
Musk has so much money that he could afford to pay 44 billion for Twitter as his personal plaything and drive away customers. He's doing it with Tesla.
I am utterly surprised to receive such a reply when asking, what I consider, legitimate open-minded questions.
Actually, the period of changes to the better that you refer to in your disappointing response corresponds to the one after the so-called "Gilded Age", which indicates (at least in my opinion) that these past decades have been, perhaps not an ideal way, but at least a way to improve matters.
My concerns relate to the future when the policies of the last decades may no longer apply. Is it a sign of "typical envy, hatred, resentment and bitterness for the country" to have concerns?
As to the second question relating to "Why is it that..." I cannot help you. I am not a US citizen. I am a European with a modest background. I have always worked, even during my schooling years. I have founded my first company at the age of 19. I have studied, have various degrees and studying experiences obtained from very elite institutions (also from a famous US institution). I am engaged in various projects helping other citizens. I am co-founder of a recently established company.
Your conclusion in the last sentences tells me more about you and your open-mindedness than what, sadly, you appear to project into my open question.
And, No, I am not ashamed - I don't hate and am not envious. I do not even know why I should be envious. When I read your initial comment, on which I would like to compliment you and that I marked as "liked", I did not expect to induce such an aggressive and spiteful reaction. Obviously, I was wrong and stroke a chord. I am sorry for you that you feel that way.
Bob, yes, it is possible to quote statistics for just about any cause one can espouse. I'm sorry but you act as though poverty rates coming down is just great and on target. That is nonsense and proves you have never experienced poverty or anything close to it or, if you may have been middle class sometime, you could not imagine that this system as it is helps to maintain poverty and that wealth says nothing positive about people in itself, just that someone has money, probably inherited from family. Then there's the racism and misogyny that are and have been regularly promoted by the very wealthy. They prefer the divisions those create because it takes people's attention from the crimes those very rich are committing against the people of this nation. Amazing just how easily a few stats can warp someone's perspective.
Bob, oooooo! a bunch of statistics that may or may not be true, but they are cute listed there. I will give them to my students to look up to see if any of them are true, just for fun because it does not really matter. I was waiting for the insult and voila! You delivered, just as one would expect of someone who is challenged, particularly a man, possibly white. Well, good for you, acting just as expected!! Congratulations!
@Robert P. I know you think you are saying something about merit. But that's just a biased perspective. What you are really saying is that historically wealth has generated advantages that led to more wealth. You seem like a cocky type who thinks you "know stuff"? Try reading Thomas Pickety and/or taking a class in economics. You (maybe) would learn that while people do vary somewhat in their birth capabilities, the explanation for differences in outcomes is mostly the differences in advantages. If you can't stomach Pickety, try reading Malcolm Gladwell explaining why certain hockey players excel at the sport - it's their advantages more than their skills.
Sorry, I thought I was responding to the author of the initial thread. So, apologies for saying that I liked your comment. I like the originator's comment. I find not much likeable in your comment, sadly.
Oh, the Nazi is back. I'm so tired of you right wingers. Thinking and proposing solutions is not anti-American. I saw nothing Anti American in Leuder Behren's comment.
IMHO, ameliorate "fight" with humor, "rile up the base" with "Do one thing every day that scares you"[to prevent debilitating anxiety or insidious placebos that make anxiety disappear... only to be replaced by something insidious like out of control anger]
Power Corrupts, the energy of anger properly channeled can bring about great results. It was anger against the “Tea Tax”that provided the motivation and energy for the “Boston Tea Party that eventually sparked the American Revolution for which we must be eternally grateful.
The Boston Tea Party was an irresponsible act of vandalism. Had the British king validated the colonists' anger there would have been no revolution, and the incident would have been a footnote in history. King and Parliament brought the American revolution on themselves. They learned the lesson, and subsequently treated the colonies differently.
I studied under the leaning Colonial and Revolutionary historian of the time at Yale'--Edmund Morgan. It was recently proved that he faked some of his evidence to support his liberal vs radical point of view. I used to respect him.
Perhaps I don’t know the modern music but I wondered where the protest songs were during the first trump admin. There were many good protest songs in the 60s & 70’s.
I think the radio networks are owned and controlled by those with lots of money. The way things are headed now, the laws will most likely ban anything seriously questioning or criticizing the power/money/structure.
Marc, I strongly agree with you! Our state of mind is the most important asset that we have! The recent postings from Prof. Reich have lifted my spirits for sure. The important thing is for us all to stay engaged, focused, and strengthened by our belief in our system of government. It is rooted in process....and we must help to create the process!
I have the same sentiment and I agree, although the stakes seem to be higher, but that could be that the people are getting the information they need. Our biggest enemy, indeed, is a sense of negativity, abandonment, and victimization. That will not do.
I think the first order of business is to constitutionally repeal Citizens United. The effort is being made. Several states have signed on. We need to educate ourselves and pitch in.
I think we also have to reject both parties in their present form. Mr. Reich likes to
rail against Trump, but the Democrats, too, are beholding puppets to the oligarchy. Until he and others of the same mind except this, nothing will change.
The third thing we need to do is stop calling each other villains. We ain’t going to get anywhere so long as the rich continue to be successful at turning us against each other. Towards this end, I believe Mr. Reich needs to tone down the cultural issue wars. Everyone who disagrees with his position are not racists or transphobias or whatever. Even if some are, the bigger issue is class differences. The vast majority are united in that.
Overcoming AI misinformation and disinformation feels insurmountable. I can’t confront people at work otherwise I would be fired but more than half of the people I’ve talked to at work use the code words of QAnon and old school Reagan economic trickle down theory and fear of taxation. They talk of social services as a form of communism or socialism and people are not pulling their weight and just don’t want to work, etc. etc. etc.. I also work with a lot of Christian nationalist leaning people, one who told me that Obama‘s army is coming across the southern border because they have been given weapons. I know crazy QAnon talk. I also talked to a fellow coworker who thought that the container ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal had trafficked people trapped in the containers. I don’t know how to talk to these people - so many are anti-vaxers and called wearing masks, face diapers, and thought it was the government controlling us. It’s really scary. I don’t dare share with them that I’ve gotten every Covid-19 vaccine that I’m able to receive. I count my blessings that I never got Covid so far and I deal with approximately 700 people or more a day crammed into a metal tube screaming across the nation at 35,000+ feet . My work group consists of 20,000+ coworkers in the airline industry - anyway I feel like even saying this is giving too much information and I could get fired for sharing my negative opinions of coworkers on social media. Anything negative about my company shared on social media can get me fired.
You can send them to school, teach them to read, buy them the books and all they do is eat the covers! I don't know who came up with this comment, not me, but it is one of my favorites. My wife taught for 37 years. Poor education starts at home. Teachers have a mountain of children's problems to deal with before the actual teaching can begin. They deserve all the support they can get from us.
My husband was born in France under Nazi occupation. The 2016 election was his first as a US citizen. It started exactly like how the man with the strange mustache started his, including using similar rhetoric that my husband remembered reading from Mein Kamph which was required reading in French schools back then.
I never saw him so horribly triggered like he was during that campaign. He begged our now former friends to not go that way. Sadly they did and left us alone. We’ve moved on.
Look at what Hitler was able to accomplish with using pen, paper and radio to spread his propaganda. We have to fight against worldwide online propaganda coming at us and the majority of Americans that can’t read at a 6th grade level. 20% of Americans can only read at the level of an 8 year old.
The only way to stop this is to get to know as many people as we can and build trusting communities, and more importantly be able to identify infiltrators that want to stop us.
I think there will be an attempt to create a far-right ethno-nationalist dictatorship (fascism), it is better to be prepared for the real threat, not hold on to false hopes. Reasons=1. Global fascist movement, Russia, China, India, Hungary and so on. 2. Neoliberalism and globalisation has run out of steam. The elites know a shift to redistribution is coming for their wealth. 3. Government cannot be run on debt rather than tax breaks for the wealthy indefinitely. 4. In a two party system it matters that the Democrats have been bought out as the controlled opposition. and so on. 5. Trump & Musk are fascists. 6. Project 2025 is a sign that this time is different. 7. Popular support for democracy is in long time decline.......
Anybody here with half a brain and any decency would EVER use anyone alive today, comparing them to Nazi Germany. You don’t agree why don’t we take a trip together to Auschwitz and lie down in the ovens or stand in the gas chambers or view the 11 million skeletons of bodies or the piles of glasses and shoes from the victims. Idiots.
True today Lara. But isn't that how Hitler started. As a far-right ethno-nationalist loud mouth?
Not to pick a fight with Rick Sender, but Auschwitz was originally built in 1940 to house 945 Soviet prisoners of war. It became a killing camp in March of 1942 until November of 1945.
Hitler became Chancellor in January of 1933. It took him six years to start the war in 1939. Of course he began rounding up Jews and others in 1933. I think, if it comes true or not, the first promise DT made is to round up all the "illegals" in our country starting Jan. 20th!
He has promised to try and rescind the "birth-right" clause in our constitution and round up those folks too. These folks "really are" citizens but he doesn't care about them if it riles up his base. Just like Hitler did.
There aren't enough jails or prisons to hold them so "detention camps" may be the only solution considering most of their home countries won't take them back.
Isn't this how Hitler started? Didn't he begin by finding reasons to revoke citizenship and branding folks he didn't like as "traitors" along with arresting and deporting non-citizen foreigners?
I do agree with Rick that comparing anyone alive today, except maybe Putin, with Hitler may be a stretch. But probably most of the citizens in Germany in 1933 couldn't imagine what their "leader" would do to them and the world by 1945 either. The parallel here thinking is chilling.
Hope for the best, but keep your eyes peeled and ears open... GH
Fascism from a narrow point of view is difficult to define. Fascism emerged after the First World War in Europe. Racist-nationalism based on European colonialist ideas was an important element of this fascism. Hence the Holocaust. Modern fascism is based on ethno-nationalism, which means the chosen people belong not to a race but the majority cultural-religious identity of a country. So black people can be "real citizens" if they adopt the cultural identity of the white majority, including the idea that racism is not a problem.
New immigrants become obvious targets. Also transgender people become targets, as there is a mainstream prejudice against them. Evangelical Christainity and Israel Geopolitics has pulled Judaism into the mainstream, while Islam is a marker of the other.
When Trump-Musk creates a fascist dictatorship in America, the criteria for who is a “Real American” will narrow, as it is always an arbitrary notion, and the overall objective is to concentrate wealth further. Israel-Palestine ignoring the regional context is a good model of what this America will look like. Oppression followed by harsh punishment, and further oppression, all in a sea of propaganda. Immigrants will be put into camps and mistreated. It is unlikely their countries of origin will accept them without threats or inducements. It will be ugly. Sadopopulism as Prof Snyder terms it, the feeling of wellbeing from the suffering of others.
You’re going to have to stop using the word Hitler here. PLEASE. . It’s not tolerable. Especially whose father was born in Palestine as a Jew and whose family and whose relatives died in the gas chambers
Unless you’d like to come with me as I’ve asked other people let’s go lie down in the ovens let’s go stand in the gas chambers. Let’s go witness the skeletons and let’s see the millions of piles of glasses and boots sitting at Auschwitz. Just judge Trump on his contemporary actions. Very simple.
Any other comparison is incredibly outrageous
By the way, and I know it shocks many people here but it’s factual. Barack Obama built the first-cages to keep the “unescorted children who had come here unaccompanied?
As I understand it now there were at least 350,000 children that came in unaccompanied that are now missing that the government cannot account for their whereabouts who most people think a good number of them are probably being trafficked as we speak, which is sick
Many people here prefer using the history of the past or the crystal balls and Ouija boards of the future to determine how this next administration is going to handle its duties.
My suggestion is let us try to live in the present and judge actions in that way, and in that perspective… then it’s absolutely relative should issues arise that warrants a public outcry
Regarding the birthright clause, he’s not rescinding it. There is a short phrase in the middle of that amendment that seems to be ignored by those who wanna quote that says those born here followed by the following words “ under the laws of our jurisdiction,”. I’m quoting it broadly not exactly which indicates that if you’re illegal and came here, and you have children and came here they may be considered illegal.
But Gary from a Trump policy supporter not necessarily a Trump human being supporter. I think it’s gonna go like this.
He will start with the most egregious criminals and work his way down. He will also try to deport the 1.4 million illegals who currently have deportation actions against them and get them to leave
He will get to the next group those who have committed violent crimes or criminals in their own countries an attempt to deport them. And work his way down.
In the meantime, he will reinforce the border in any way he can be at walls or personnel or help from Mexico and Canada.
This will take a long time; a lot longer than people imagine and maybe a couple years from now when he is done what he started to do and things calm down in this country I think the rest will probably be more or less a settled argument he has also promised to keep the dreamers hopes alive
So when the long run which will be a couple of years, at least I think the rest will remain here provided They’ve not committed crimes and been actively and productively as citizens would be expected to be
Have you ever been to the Olympics Laura? Have you ever watched the international Olympics? Every single country is proud of their country. That's exactly what this American movement is about.
It's about America first then everyone else not isolationist not exclusionist but first
We could no longer afford to be the army of the world
We have hundreds of thousands of people on the streets and impoverished and we're sending billions of dollars elsewhere
Maga means make America great again and that's all it means and it's called pride and I'm sure you have pride in this country as well and it's no different. You might call it by another name but it's the same thing.
No. MAGA is not about patriotism (as suggested by Olympics), which is an affection for one’s own country. It is not even about nationalism, an exclusive obsession with the status of a country. MAGA is about far-right ethno-nationalism, which means that only some citizens are considered real, as in “Real Americans”. Trump offers to govern for “Real Americans”, without doing anything about the extreme inequality in the US, which is as high again as the early twentieth century (first “gilded age”). This is why the super-rich like Musk fund MAGA. Trump is a fascist who plans, now he has the power, to destroy all the hard won achievements of American society. Democracy, Independent Courts, Rule Of Law and even support for other Western Democracies.
Well, millions of Americans don’t agree with you, and I don’t agree with you at all …the Olympics is exactly the symbol of Pride of country. And all countries feel that way about their own country.
And you’re funny when you say ethnocentrism, when this country is made up of immigrants with all kinds of ethnic origin. It’s Not ethnocentric to love your country
Maga simply means make America great again that’s exactly what it means and nothing else that you want to seem to twist tangle or make it sound like
Unless and until many people here please put away your crystal balls and your Ouija boards you have no idea what’s gonna happen tomorrow. Unlike AOC, who knows the world is gonna end in 5 1/2 years
Maybe you should take the statement of Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC who said liberals are too histrionic about this because 80% of what they think is gonna happen never happens.
Yesterday what I saw is despicable when the speaker was being elected and he was talking about America first. Not one person from the left side of the aisle stood or acknowledged that and that is one of the reasons that you lost the election. Free to think how you think no problem but America first is what we need right now we can no longer be the world’s army. We could be the world’s leader on defense, but we can’t fund the world any longer. We have enough problems funding ourselves and the $36 trillion of deficit is proof. Our interest right now is more than our military budget as I understand it
What we should do is to take away credit cards from every single Congress person and senator and say here’s your salary for the year and now make it work. And maybe just maybe if they can’t spend more than they taken go get the message.
And lastly, if the left keeps using the words that end in ISTS, and ISM’S
Like fascist and Hitler and misogynist and xenophobic instead of talking about your own policies, you’re gonna continue to lose elections in my estimation. It did not work for Adam schiff, It did not work for Hillary Clinton. It did not work for the 51 so-called experts about hunters laptop but if you wanna keep losing elections, have at it?
Dr Steven Hassan, cult expert, will help you understand and learn how to talk to people caught up in these conspiracy theories. Hassan has podcasts on Spotify and YouTube as well as an Instagram account where he goes live to answer questions.
Eileen, believe me, I understand! Living in a sea of red is like walking on eggshells! I never know what will set them off! When they start their "crazy talk" (QAnon, etc), I listen politely while inside my head I'm screaming "Wake up! Wake up!", then I use truth backed up with resources to put my point across. I know it scares them when faced with undeniable facts because that is when they begin the insults, name-calling and decide I am a socialist! Sometimes, I get tired of it all, but then I have to tell myself to not give in or give up. Keep talking, Eileen. They are listening and when what you tell them will come to pass actually does, they will realize your truth was more powerful than the propaganda and misinformation they were being fed!
Good one, Marcella! I have never understood why MAGA and right-wing think socialism is such a bad word and use it freely thinking it is insulting. From what I have read and understand about socialism, it does not sound like the evil MAGA thinks it is. It is a theory that simply says ALL of the people should have a say. What is so wrong with that? The difference between socialism and communism is basically ownership. In socialism all citizens share equally in economic resources whereas communism, the economic resources are owned by the state. I don't think MAGA and right-wing understand the difference or understand that socialism is NOT the evil they think it is.
You're right, Midwest. It is called Oligarchy - when the small number of richy rich hold all the power that gives them the authority to rule. If we don't wrest that power back from those greedy, power hungry creeps then we will have an Oligarchy.
They/I don’t confuse it all. National Socialism WAS (is) an important wing of socialism.
The only difference was the “socialism for Germans alone, and the rest of the people can go to hell (which ends up happening to nearly everyone under socialism in any case).
Before the full horror of Nazism was exposed a lot of respectable socialists were even keen on gas chambers as a way to get rid of undesirables.
South African apartheid was a sort of socialism for Afrikaners as well.
So they think they are calling us Nazis because they don't understand the difference between the two? Maybe they need to do a little research and learn the difference!
For decades Americans have been told that socialism is state control, collectivism, loss of freedom to choose. Any American politician who calls himself a "socialist" will be marginalized and demonized. Since so few do so, the Right now uses terms such as "woke," the Marxists," "the Left," "atheists."
Oh, bollox. If Jesus had been a socialist he would have demanded that Pilate increase taxes to provide a welfare state (maybe run by Scribes and Pharisees, maybe with Zacchaeus in charge).
Must be that the rest of the world is wrong. Its American hubris that presents as Americans thinking the quality of life here is the best. We are way down the list in literacy, health, education in general with greater income disparity compared to other Western countries.
Quality of life with many needing two jobs to make it. Democratic socialism considers all individuals not just the rich.
On the other hand, Dr, if we opened our borders, we’d be probably the third most populated country in the world.
40 years ago when we had a good sense of education, we were second or third in the world and unfortunately, I hate to say since the liberal side has taken control of the education in this country we are now in the mid 30s over 90% of administrators and instructors, especially at the collegiate level now registered Democrats
Whether one or hundreds of people producing QAnon's influential lies, there is a large number of believers, including elected members of Congress and the people who voted them in.
I almost forgot to mention my favorite: back in 2016 Hillary Clinton and others were keeping girls prisoner for sex trafficking in the back of a DC pizzeria. One sucker for that story armed himself, went into that pizzeria, and shot the lock off a door to rescue the girls. Fortunately, nobody was injured. The owner and staff received death threats. QAnon made a big deal of it in 2020. No, nobody I know has expressed belief in their fantasies and lies, but there are plenty out there who do believe. Look up Pizzagate.
Qanon made a big deal of it where? I don’t have to look up pizza gate will it really was was pimple Gate it was nothing.
Just like the story of her 33,000 emails, the bleach bit phone in the computer in the in the bathroom closet in Denver or somewhere in Colorado. Oh sorry, never mind that was true. lol.
And I love when you guys bring up ancient history. Was Moses around with this happened? This is 2025. Let’s try to keep it that way.
Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a video in 2017 praising Q as a "patriot," won a Congressional runoff in Georgia in 2020, and is still in office. Loren Boebert upset a 5-term Colorado incumbent in 2020. She moved to a new district in Colorado for 2024 and was reelected. Jo Rae Perkins ran for Senate from Oregon in 2020 and 2022 but lost both races. There unfortunately are more. Those who voted for them knew they believe.
The stress you face must be unbearable! As a retired professional I’m able to choose to avoid social situations with anyone who supports Trump, Musk, and the corruption and propaganda. I live in Southeast Florida, a staunchly pro-Trump state.
Home prices and rents are unaffordable for anyone but the very wealthy and wages are ridiculously low. Multiple families and individuals live together in small studio apartments. We’ve been in our home since 2000, when homes were still affordable, but our rural community (we have 2 acres), is being bought up by wealthy young people, demanding expensive amenities and our POA and property taxes are increasing to a point where our retirement income will not suffice. Our problems are nothing compared to those living paycheck to paycheck and unable to afford rent, utilities, and groceries. Nothing will change until it becomes so bad and so unbearable that the working class realizes that the ultra wealthy and corporations are the enemy.
Come to California we’re homes are ridiculously expensive and the minimum wage is $20 and families are living together to make ends meet under this administration
You do realize that that state was dominantly Democrat for a long time and only recently has turned red and for the first time EVER turned red in Dade County
Thank you for sharing, though. I live in a rather solitary bubble of like-minded friends , so I had no idea that your industry had this amount of disinformation flying around.
Eileen, I hear you loud and clear and support the noble work you do as a flight attendant hurtling through the skies in a pressurized cigar tube with a plane load of of unhappy passengers.
A close friend of mine was a senior flight attendant on Finnair airlines, and had to quit her job because she found that almost every day that she was driving to work her eyes were full of tears due to the pressures that lie ahead on her upcoming overseas flight assignments. She changed careers and became a kindergarten teacher, but that was in Finland, where teachers are well paid and highly respected.
So I know secondhand what kinds of pressures you face and when I do have to fly, I am always grateful for the professionalism and courtesy of the flight attendants understanding the pressures that they work under.
It's good to point out that once that "metal tube" you've boarded goes onto its own air system, the cabin air becomes as free of viruses and cleaner than an operating room.
One type of person I enjoy encountering is the "flat-earther."
PS: Here's something that might be worth trying if you have a co-worker you know well enough to know if they have kids of reading age. Get a copy of David Pakman's 2022 book: "Think Like a Detective: A Kid's Guide to Critical Thinking." When I hear someone making a complaint similar to "schools today aren't teaching kids how to think," that person becomes an ideal candidate to mention (or show) the book to.
Thanks Eileen. The same people who scream socialism is terrible partake of the child tax deductions, home mortgage deductions, public schools, police, fire and EMT services, road repairs, public water and sewers systems, libraries, FEMA disaster help, national defense, etc, etc. We already live in, define it how you want, a form of socialism in our country and we are better off for it.
During DT's last presidency I was in our local post office, maybe another form of socialism, and heard a guy going on about how taxes were way to high in our town. His main beef was that his business license fee had gone up. I asked him if he wanted lower taxes which city services was he willing to give up.
As I ticked off many of the above mentioned things he said no, he wanted to keep all those things. I told him he could move to a number of surrounding smaller towns in our area, have lower taxes, and not nearly as many services.
And, being an older man, when he or his wife had a heart attack in the middle of the night they could wait a couple of hours for an ambulance instead of the 5-10 minute response time we get in our town. At this point he was red in the face and said nothing, but stormed out, teeth clenched. One of the postal clerks just shook her head and said he was in there a couple times a week ranting the same story.
A few days later I told my friend, who was our city clerk, this story. He said our town doesn't even require a business license. If you start a business, just send a letter to the clerks office and describe the business, location and if there will be any hazardous materials stored at the location so the emergency responders will be aware. Simple.
I never get in an argument or raise my voice with these folks. Just ask them what they are willing to give up for lower taxes. Usually not much. Can't fix stupid.
Eileen, I am so sorry you have to constantly be around people who choose ignorance and sensation over truth. Obviously they are missing something important in their lives, possibly a good education, thoughtful people, a quality media source that centered on communicating the truth. Those folks like belonging to a little exclusive club that has all sorts of inside information and little that you would say could matter. They cling to their conspiracies because that is all they have. It's a kind of hope that will probably stay with them until they pass on or until something dramatic happens to them and it does not go along with the conspiracies, like their child getting polio or measles becoming seriously disabled because of it. That is a tragedy, but I don't see anything less than a tragedy even getting through the protective shell they have created for themselves and their strange thinking.
You have my sympathy, Eileen. I think that these people are so angry at the establishment that they are willing to believe in anything that is anti-establishment. Trump has played them skillfully. Reality will not be kind to them.
I also can't talk to even family members without their insane reactions. This misinformation and cult-following behavior has been carried too far. Does the left need a new 'mantra'?
Professor Reich: several things leap out at me after reading this piece of yours. First, we must ALWAYS be wary of the rich and especially the ultra-wealthy. they didn't get obscenely wealthy without exploiting and denying a bunch of someone elses of the rightfully deserved fruits of their own labor. Second, the value of a strong education in history -- not memorizing lists of names and dates as what i had to do, but REAL LIVING HISTORY, as i later was exposed to by a brilliant history teacher -- could help us safeguard ourselves, our livelihoods and our nation's future.
I'd like to make a motion that history be dropped completely from course curriculums. Why? because nothing appears to be learned from it. Or at least, whatever is learned has no visible impact on people's behavior particularly in organizations.
Or maybe history needs to be newly taught in ways that really get stored emotionally. History as a lived experience. Watching Schindler's List adds something words on a page can not for most people. Maybe being interned in a camp for a few hours.
A great teacher makes a difference but those are a bit too rare.
steve: according to your logic, we should also drop mathematics from course curriculums because nothing appears to be learned from studying it.
but because i LOVE mathematics, i won't go there.
of course, we could also drop a dozen other subjects for the same reason. except that would wipe out the entire educational curriculum, reducing teachers to poorly paid babysitters and jail wardens for a herd of unruly and bored teenage brats.
But unstead of FDR we may have an Insurrectionist-in-Chief whose cabinet is stacked with billionaires and takes advice from Musk. We also have a Democratic party that is tone deaf, where is the constant updating of the American people about what the Republicans are doing to wreck our economy, their mass deportation plans, Project 2025? Dead silence. What about their vote to elect a 74-year old esophageal cancer patient over Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez for the Oversight Committee on Accountability? She served successfully under Congressman Jamie Raskin and should have been the next in line (former Speaker Pelosi whipped the votes against her). Congresswoman Cortez, to me, embodied the working class, populist, position that her constituents relate to and, given a larger platform, so would the rest of America. The Democrats demoted a future leader, instead. The Democrats should give daily or weekly updates that point out to the American people how the Republican policies are designed to further undermine our working class and that they are the party that will support and uplifting them. Again, dead silence. They have learned nothing from their defeat and I see no sign that this second Gilded Age, like the first, will come to an end.
George Manos : Tell your Democrat representative, (if you have one) not to certify tRump's "win". Not only did he cheat like hell, but he is disqualified to hold any office. The Electoral College votes are for an imposter who disabled himself by inciting insurrection and attacking the Capitol : He violated the oath of office made in 2016, to uphold the Constitution. Why allow him to do it again? Ditto for Congress, the election deniers are all disabled. The 14th amendment section 3 disqualification clause is in our Constitution. They all violated it, and are disqualified to serve in Our government, and should be OUT!
George, your analysis points to the incurable insufficiencies of relying on a two party system, as well as the fallacy of believing that somehow the Dems might save us. Faced with the failure of their current approach and platform, they have clearly been unable to get a cohesive vision for the future together. Their own Achilles heel is a false belief that they must pander to their wealthy donors in order to even exist. This has left the Democratic Party machinery in a state of impotence. If we want to solve our current political dilemma, we have to look towards restructuring, our political and economic system, and not a weak hope that somehow the next Teddy Roosevelt will arise out of the currently impotent Democrats and save us.
When Obama won the presidential election, The Republican party famously declared itself “The Party of NO!” In contrast with Trump being elected president, it would seem that the Democratic party has declared itself the party of no vision and no action. It is no wonder that a significant number of participants on this Substack have expressed such despair over the future. The root problem of that despair can in part partially be blamed on a hope that somehow the Democratic party will rise again and save us. No one will save us! As a collective, we must pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and demand an economy and system of governance that is by its nature, humane and not greed and lust for power driven.
There is a global far-right ethno-nationalist wave of which Trump-Musk is a part. Agree Democrats will do nothing, they have become the controlled opposition, and this is what they have left to sell. Americans need to use the free space left to them to shout loudly and in ever greater numbers, at every creep towards deconstructing American Democracy. "They shall not dicate." "Ellos no dictarán." Modernize the spirit of the Spanish Republicans? Colorful, loud, and this time totally inclusive.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, on Lawrence O'Donnell's show last night, said he has been saying this to the Democratic establishment for years, and they don't listen. He said that the right wing has built up a structure of as many as a hundred dark money front groups upon front groups whose funding sources can't be easily determined, that can relentlessly pump out disinformation including negatives about Democrats. Democrats have done nothing to combat this. He calls for the Democratic Party to have an "offensive coordinator" to call out these dark money groups and inform the public about what is going on, and how they are harming our country.
My observation: The Democratic Party Establishment is an exclusive little clique that sits around patting themselves on the backs about how virtuous they are, while the dark money groups and their Republican lackeys overrun the country. When Democrats enact beneficial legislation, they don't go out and vociferously promote it. Instead, they sit back and expect the public to somehow recognize their good works and reward them at the ballot box. The Republicans and their dark money puppet masters, in contrast, launch disinformation campaigns to turn the Democrats' beneficial policies into negatives in the public's eyes.
Every project that received money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), should have a sign in front of it that says “Thanks Joe”. Then people would know where the money was coming from.
I live in a blue city in a red state. We never see our Democratic rep and I’ve never heard him extol the work of the Biden admin. He has been the rep for many years and no new people are ever offered by the Democratic Party.
(Let me borrow Jimmy Carter’s sweater as I speak of malaise)
Agree with you Carolyn. The DEMs need to start bragging about their accomplishments, past and present. The GOP has done nothing good for the American workers for the last 100 years but have done a very good job lying about what the DEMs have done. Happy New Year... GH
Makes me feel better because I’ve been saying this for years at my level. Whitehouse will need to make this happen himself by bringing in the right strategists. Maybe some military types in part.Recent article in Politico where he talks to this shortfall. He has been kind of busy doing other things.
You echo my thoughts. I might also add, the people who are suffering right now, are the very people who are voting to continue the second Gilded Era. There is much poverty in the area I live —and yet those are the people whose yards are plastered with Trump signs, enormous flags, and banners (even now, weeks after the election). If FDR was to rise from the grave and run for president, the maga-ites would continue to vote for anyone who was not a Democrat.
TR and FDR were exceptional men. So was Teddy Kennedy, but nobody is perfect, and the Chappaquiddick tragedy put him out of the running for the presidency. It was a major loss to the country. Obama was another extraordinary man, but the country's racism limited his possibilities. Individuals matter, but unfortunately, the individuals who matter now are Trump and Musk. I see Wes Moore as another individual who could make a huge difference to our country, but, like Obama, he will face the racist wall.
This is why the Orange Felon won - he was able to get a (sick) message out that unfortunately resonates with many working people! During the Democratic National Convention, most of the speakers were college educated, under 35, and too much emphasis on buying a new house. No message for the millions approaching retirement age having to work into their late 70s, threats to Social Security and Medicare, the Post Office, the ACA, voting rights and the rights of workers to organize.
The bottom 90% need to form a UNION and take our country back from the robber barons! Their kryptonite has always been people who form unions against their greed. The bottom 90% made them rich and this is how they repay us! It’s time to take a stand against this greed and anti Jesus teachings’ nonsense! One saying that really matters is “we will all do better when we all do better”.
I'll never buy a Tesla and I don't use PayPal. The latter is Theil's business. That's the Theil who says that women getting the vote was a regressive step and led to Social care and it's costs. He supports Vance, who I think is a weirdo. He looks like one of those Nazis from Hollywood films, and he seems to have similar views.
Thiel sounds like a strange dude. I read he has a thing about death and wants to live forever so gets blood infusions from blood of young people. Made it scary when I read he had adopted children!
Apache, you hit the nail on the head! Economic Boycotts would definitely be the best tool to fight these richy rich; however, if we don't have an enormous amount of Americans willing to do this, it will not work. Your question is the one that needs to be answered. How do we Organize this? I sincerely hope someone can come up with a workable answer and solution!
Difficult to do when monopolies are so widespread. I remember resolving to never buy products from Koch industries. When I researched all they owned, I saw it was impossible unless one lived as a hermit, needing no consumer goods.
That's true, Yespat! I had to sit down and give a hard look at what I absolutely had to have to survive and what I could actually do without. I work hard at only shopping at Farmer's markets, u-pick fields, vegetable and produce stands, thrift stores and local mom and pop places. Yes, sometimes I do have to go to a corporation store but I am trying my best to avoid them! I guess it is a crystal clear snapshot of how bad things have become!
You organize by focusing on issues and being passionate about it. Here is an issue I feel passionate about (besides climate change): maternal and child health. Focus on improving peoples' lives and others are likely to join you.
The bottom 90% each has a “say”, “vote” every time we click digitally. Be deliberate each time you click. Our clicks in support of fact-based information are being measured.
Also, the bottom 90% each has an affect on advertisers in our capitalist marketplace. Be deliberate each time you make a purchase. Advertisers are desperate for our clicks and our dollars. Our clicks and our dollars are being measured closely.
We must refuse to participate in a corrupt economic system. Identify and boycott worst offenders. Cancel subscriptions. Organize blackout days for everything digital. Put an antenna on your TV, watch CSPAN, get a landline, visit library, disable GPS on your car, get a dumb phone for emergencies, buy local produce, stockpile beans, rice, and canned goods, or learn to can. Visit local coffee shops and meet neighbors.
Keith, we need to admit the failure of Capitalism. Strong unions can help lead us out. Our Empire is in quite a decline. The right is clueless about this. I hope this is a change to make steep changes to our way of life. And we must prepare for a more equitable society. Removal of the right wing monopoly on our media must happen or we will not convince enough people. And we must NEVER forget how looking the other way while the right bulldozed this nation with christian nationalism & lies must never happen again. So much work to do.
@RobertReich: Please write about Curtis Yarvin and TESCREALism, as it's the philosophy and worldview that drive The Apartheid Doughboy (TAD) and all the other tech billionaires who have taken over our government. In fact, TAD has stated that he is a proud TESCREAList. Additionally, JD Vance reads Yarvin's work and has spoken positively about what he (Yarvin) recommends. For example, Yarvin recommends "ignore the courts." TESCREAL stands for transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, and longtermism. Yarvin is on Substack: Gray Mirror.
You forgot to mention that Teddy became President by accident (VP, politically appointed - mostly to get rid of him in New York by the Republican political machine). He became president after McKinley"s assassination. Do you really think he would have been allowed direct election to the presidency by the politicos of his time?
Thank you, Lawrence, I just signed the motion and have joined movetoamend! I will be sharing this link with family and friends! I appreciate the information!
My fear is that the new robber barons are not dumb. Trump and screaming mob from the GOP that carry his train are, but they are just tools of the those barons. The new ones are smart, very smart, and they know this history, too.
The first robber barons were not dumb. Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, et al, built their wealth from the ground up. They didn’t just inherit it from Daddy, like some of the current bunch - Drumpf, Musk, etc. And I wouldn’t assume they know this history. At least half of them are immigrants who came here after public school age. I doubt the First Gilded Age is taught in South African history classes. Drumpf of course has already proven he knows nothing of history. And what gives me the most hope is the fact that, like the first robber barons, these guys (and notice how they’re all men?) are driven by greed and outsized egos. They believe they are Masters of the Universe and smarter than everyone else. But they don’t understand the first and most important fact that history teaches us - there are more of us than there are of them and when the mob wakes up, it turns on them first.
Didn't say the first ones were dumb. The most dangerous of the current crop aren't even on most people's radar. Musk is an exception. And it's a mistake to think coming here "after public school age" means they aren't educated or don't know the history. The president-elect was elected by that public school educated mob.
I have little doubt that eventually the tide will turn against this force. Eventually. What will be left when/if that happens will likely be unrecognizable.
At least we got some museums and libraries from the first robber barons. Some of them did have a sense of responsibility to society. Unlike the current bunch.
I am increasingly not seeing a collective way out of this crisis. Throw in out of control climate change, and nuclear war mongering. The Gilded Oligarchs are a part of the problem for sure but at least most of the planet is still inhabitable even with the massive 95% loss of biological diversity that is predicted by the end of the century. Only until the sky is full of nuclear missiles headed all over the hemisphere!
At that point we cannot redistrict our way out of a radioactive wasteland or cope with rapidly rising seas that cover where most people choose to live by reversing the personhoods of corporations, or deposing Justice Thomas finally. These actions will become as effective as setting up a recycle bin in one's office, or lowering the thermostat a few degrees.
What is worrisome with Trump and his ship of fools is that they will bring us closer and closer to that last few seconds before midnight. Putin, running out of options, is almost there and is itching to use a Tactical Nuke. Remember that Trump once asked "We have all of these Nukes. Why can't we use them?"
Vedic Rhonda Swampy may decide that humans are too stupid to make split second military decisions as to whether or not to launch or not launch and use AI instead. I am sure that will work out well as it is fortified against hacking as is the Treasury Department.
Recently the NYT had an article about the new AI server farms in Central and Eastern Washington and Oregon sucking up all the hydropower-generated electricity and how everyone in the Pacific NW should expect brownouts.
We are now getting energy alerts around Seattle almost daily. Everyone, please turn off your lights so that United Healthcare can use its Artificial Intelligence Platform to better deny 95% or more of our medical claims. After all, there is nothing more worth protecting than Shareholder Value. Look at that! Another Billionaire just made a killing on Bitcoin.
The generals are currently reviewing the attack plan - currently underway - that was written by ChatGPT with illustrations by Dall-E.
We will certainly win our wars against Greenland and Panama, and bring our Drone Boys back home! Go America!
Many are making a killing by "Shorting America" - that is, profiting betting that everything will collapse. They do this entirely with borrowed money. Dr. Reich could explain how this works better than anyone I bet. I am not talking about his physical height, but about his amazing intellect. To get the point across, he uses his Stature and what better topic than Shorting America!
I recently heard on Ukraine: the Latest podcast that Putin has banned mining cryptocurrency in many areas of Russia. It looks like their infrastructure cannot handle it.
I really enjoyed this post, Professor Reich! You are so right and our message should be very clear. We must unite together and shout out to every American that this gilded age is coming to a screeching halt. "We the People" want guardrails back in place to keep the wealthy and powerful in their place! They can hoard their money all they want, I don't care. What I do care about is when their greed for more, more, more takes away from the rest of us. We need to sing out about workers, (who, by the way, are the foundation and backbone that keeps these corporations going!) need to be able to organize and form unions to protect them in the workplace. We need to belt out with gusto that those programs, our social safety nets, like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid must never be threatened as they are lifelines for millions of Americans. Not only that, WE the people are the ones who paid into them when we worked our whole lives! Those programs belong to the American people and they were not put in place for Congress to "dip into" when their "rich" puppet masters told them to! The government must pay back every single penny they "borrowed" from our programs! That money is the American people's money! If we don't send this message loud and clear to the orange man and his motley crew, our future will not be bright. We must end this so-called gilded age crap and return our country to its former glory when the middle class was the biggest and the best the world has ever seen! The 'silent majority' needs to speak out loudly now, more than ever! Those that 'went to sleep' during this last election need to be awakened. No one that cares about our country and our future can continue to bury their head in the sand waiting for it to "blow over"! All of us must speak up! C'mon America - stand up and be counted!
Great post Peggy- I feel the same way and so do millions of baby boomers. The great middle class was most alive under Eisenhower. If we look at the tax rates for the wealthy at that time it makes sense. The top tier tax rate was 90%. Reagan started the 2nd gilded age by slashing tax rates in the 80s. He closed thousands of mental health hospitals pushing millions into homelessness and promoted employee paid medical plans with pre existing condition clauses to help for profit healthcare expand. Trump started the 3rd gilded age by slashing the tax rates for the wealthy even more in 2018. The boat is gonna sink unless he finds more money to steal to keep those taxcuts in place as they are set to expire in 2025. The only big $$$ to steal from are: defense, social security, Medicare/ Medicaid and ACA.
Unfortunately NO ONE brought up these points in the Democratic campaign. Whoever runs for 2028 will need to be brutally honest - maybe even exaggerating what will happen to get the point across.
Thanks, Susan. You are right, it is all about the messaging. We must find someone who can make these points so clearly and concisely that everyone can fully understand. If the orange man targets our defense, social security, Medicare/Medicaid and ACA, 'We the People' need to protest and scream loudly that he is stealing what is ours for his wealthy friends. We have to have better messaging!
100% agree, Virginia! He has never backed down from MAGA and right-wing nutters! He speaks concisely and truthfully and has the evidence and proof to back up what he says!
I love Robert's positive thoughts about how we survived the first Gilded Age. This time though the Barron's have control of the media/internet. Can we over come the lies on podcasts, troll sites, Fox, Newsmax, etc....? The press back in the 1920's was local. People in New York could not spread lies to people in North Carolina as fast and easy as today. The national press mostly reported facts back then, not opinions and lies like Fox does today. We have been divided into two groups by the Barron's of "for profit media and technology." One group is fact-based, and the other group believes only what they want to believe whether it is true information or not.
Figuratively at first, literally, if necessary (see: Thompson, Brian), these “malefactors of great wealth,” as Theodore Roosevelt called them, must be picked off, one by one, until they come to understand that for their undermining of American democracy and its middle class, they, their families and heirs will pay a penalty so terrible that merely being stripped of their wealth to sleep on subway gratings for warmth will seem the lightest of punishments.
They must also be made to understand that The People know who they are, but they do not know who The People are — an unavoidable consequence of their not caring who The People are — beyond viewing them as interchangeable and eminently replaceable workers in the businesses they own and invest in, and consumers of their products and services — so they can surround themselves with expensive private armies and hunker down in their mansions, prisoners of their own disdain for the average American leading his and her life of quiet desperation, largely as a consequence of that disdain.
It all may sound very cold, but just desserts are the coldest dish of all.
We do know who many of them are- many articles circulate on BlueSky. Some person or group must build a simple table of names, corporations, products, services. Then post it daily on BlueSky until everyone sees it. I've done some of this. Next step- stop feeding the beast with our money.
You are brave and kind to share this information with us. I appreciate the risk you took to do so. Not many others would. Fear is what is paralyzing the ones whose brains have not been washed with foolishness and conspiracies. I want to thank you for taking this step of bravery. It’s going to take people like you to save our democracy one person at a time. Thank you.
Fulbrook has shown how ordinary Germans were drawn into “processes of complicity”. Under Nazism, standing by as state-sponsored acts of collective violence were perpetrated gradually became the required norm. The personal risks of doing otherwise were very real. “What might be a morally laudable stance in a liberal, democratic regime,” Fulbrook writes, “may be, in other circumstances, both ineffective and potentially suicidal.”
If someone in the UK in 2024 judges German bystanders to Nazi crimes as “guilty” for not standing up for victims, they do so according to the moral obligations of a liberal democracy. **Hitler’s ascension to power in 1933, however, had marked the end of German democracy. The Third Reich was a brutal police state. People were encouraged to denounce opponents to the regime. Defiance ran the risk of arrest, imprisonment or political “re-education” in a concentration camp under Schutzhaft (“protective custody”).**
Both in Germany and across the international community, everyone had to understand the violence enacted under Nazism on their own terms. Even the words “genocide” and “Holocaust”, by which the era has since been defined, were not yet in people’s vocabulary.
The term “genocide” was coined by the Polish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, in 1944 to describe the Nazis’ programme of Jewish destruction. “Holocaust”, a comparatively older word, only came to be widely used to formally describe the genocide perpetrated under Nazism against Jews from the late 1950s.
Further, racial segregation was also practised in other liberal democracies at the time. Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation across the southern US states. The notion of racial hierarchy underpinned the British and other European empires.
Engaging with contemporary non-victims’ perspectives can help us to understand the violence perpetrated during the Holocaust as an effect of social systems. American literature and Holocaust studies scholar Michael Rothberg has argued for an approach to historical violence that considers the perspectives of “implicated subjects”.
Rothberg suggests the categories of heroes and villains, victims and perpetrators are inadequate in accounting for the harms done. Moving beyond them can also elucidate the destructive social dynamics of our own period."
January 6 Should Be "Disqualification Day" For Adjudicated Insurrectionist Trump. But Will It Be?
Structural violence theory is not just a concept, but a crucial understanding for all of us. It's a form of violence wherein some social structure or social institution may harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs or rights. This understanding is urgent, especially in the context of the U.S. healthcare system and its impact on society.
Johan Vincent Galtung, a Norwegian sociologist, proposed the theory and founded the Peace Research Institute Oslo. The U.S. for-profit healthcare system is a stark example of structural violence. The 'solutions' to increased healthcare costs, such as 'payviders,' where the insurer becomes the provider and vice versa, echo the lack of transparency created by 'innovative financial instruments' such as mortgage bundling, derivatives and other under-regulated ways of extracting wealth from the mortgage industry before the crash of 2008. This comparison is not just a theoretical exercise, but a stark reality that we must confront.
More than 30% of rural hospitals are near bankruptcy. Private equity is to hospital systems what corporate raiders were to U.S. industry in the 1980s.
Thank you, Gloria ...Fully agree with complicity in embedding 'structural violence' and all the more reason why Congress needs to be reminded of the consequences of certifying the presidency as things stand...Nazi Germany 1933-1945 was an unforgettable and shameful moment in humanity's history on all fronts and may be repeated unless Congress - regardless of political leanings- understands what really is at stake for themselves, family and the community- - US and world! . Hitler surrounded himself with people like himself - deja vu!) -- power hungry, ruthless and shameless (inhuman) - with millions of innocent lives / future generations lost . Lessons have not been learned and impact is now much greater given existential risks ...(glueddeke@aol.com)
And yet even though it is seen by all what is happening between the rich and the average, half of voters vote for the political party that wants it to continue.
Same type voters that believed Reagan when he said it will Trickle Down.
Looking through the historical lens that this is not the first, but the second Gilded Age is quite helpful. Although there are some significant differences regarding this Gilded Age and the path out of it, just knowing that we as a nation overcame the first Gilded Age is extremely important.
Our biggest enemy is any sense of negativity that we bring forward to this situation. We must maintain the mentality that we have overcome a similar situation before and we can do it again.
I hope you are right Marc. I would love to see Musk put in his place. His companies must be broken up, and he should pay massive taxes.
Tesla and Testicle go hand in hand 🤣
Dr. Reich should create a cartoon that illustrates that "caption"
https://t.co/cpdK1PYYj4
Money, Power, Viagra, Domineering, consulting Taliban, ruthlessness and impotent laws, Quantity meaning more than Quality bring us to presence.
This is neither negativity nor skepticism, this is reality of 2025.
🤣🤣
Not to forget the altruistic donations to IVF centers.
Robert, I believe you have made an error. Mean-spirited comments such as yours are more aligned with a platform, such as TRUTH SOCIAL and not this Substack. I would suggest you take your own advice and “go back to sleep.“ Maybe tomorrow you can add something more positive to the discussion.
I think what Rick is saying in shorthand is, (please correct me if I'm wrong, Rick) what that Musk views his wealth as an extension of his masculinity.
Lights, you lit up my consciousness with a worthy interpretation!
This garbage commentary needs to be ignored or shut down by moderators. Hitting the 3 dots on the right collapses the comment, but the clutter is making it difficult to read constructive comments. Responding is encouraging more of these nutcases who have no interest in learning or serious debate. I tend to stop reading- life is too short.
Don, you are afflicted with a serious case of being overly serious. Humor and satire are very effective methodologies at getting to the root cause or solution.
I vehemently disagree!!!
I vehementl disagree with Don Mcintyre!
Bob, I think the shame is with you. Just because someone calls an ignorant far-too-rich toddler-man like Musk out on his bad behavior does not make that person jealous and you should know that or perhaps that is where you are at this time. Musk had a lot of money, came here was undocumented for some time, but since he was rich and white, he was welcomed and 22 years ago became a naturalized citizen. He has used and abused immigrants, paying lower wages than American workers because he could. He thinks he is untouchable even though he is supposed to be a citizen just like everyone else in a democracy. One can't help but wonder why he left South Africa to come here to cause havoc. The shame is yours!
..ther interesting par he was here on a student visa that he violated the conditions of by not enrolling for classes and then with a friendm started a business,
He was an "undocumented immigrant".
Robert, it is interesting that people who lie through their teeth (not necessarily you), claim to have the truth on their side. I am sure Plato was well-aware of this. Just because Republicans and their allies lie nearly incessantly does not mean that everyone else does. Musk and Trump, for example will lie any time they can if it means they will gain something. They have been right often since a lot of Americans have been bamboozled into thinking that wealth means anything more than someone is rich. It says little about character (although there is not much positive character among most of the billionaires these days). It certainly says nothing about honesty, but somehow being rich for many who are not rich makes them see money as the cure to whatever ails them, particularly if they can use it to get whatever they want as their rich heroes do. They tend to love learning about the men they would like to be, so the best they can do is vote for them and pretend those guys are not price-gouging, stealing from workers, holding workers in contempt, and laughing at them behind their backs.
Plato also said, "The price of apathy is to be ruled by evil men." He was correct."
Thanks for brilliant exemplar of MAGA thought. Oops. Meant behavior. STEAL!!! Try for an original or creative thought or solution? Ridiculous when it's so easy - and fun - to smash and grab. With the added bonus of unintended honesty. Yup. "the worst, most heinous, most immoral, most unethical characteristics and traits of your own team." Bravo!
Your post is disgusting. You don't even know Rick. Quit Jew-baiting. By doing that, you show yourself to be no better than the morons in white polos and khakis carrying tiki torches and chanting "Jews will not replace us". How do you know if Rick is even Jewish? He could be or he might not be. How do you know he produces nothing? You seem to be producing nothing but hate and division. All I have to go by is your hate-filled and bigoted post.
From where I sit, Rick looks like he's mocking Musk, and I'm totally down with that. Musk is an obnoxious, racist, self-entitled rich white boy from South Africa who wormed his way into the US by lying on a visa application. He produces nothing but takes the ideas and concepts of others to pass himself off as a genius.
If you are American, you, Musk, Trump, and all the MAGA idiots shoukd be ashamed of yourselves. I was raised to believe we are ALL Americans. not just a bunch of self-entitled white jerks. All races, nationalisties, all religions born or naturalised, working on their citizenship--even the "illegals" who are here picking our crops, processing our meat, whatever. They pour billions into our tax coffers getting nothing in return. As long as they do no harm I'm willing to consider them not yet Americans, but hopefully one day...
Now do us all a favour and go back to sleep!
They also pay SS taxes but never collect benefits.
They most certainly do! Sorry to have omitted that.
Who unlocked the basement room?
This what idiots say when the have little to offer. Go back to the closet?
Israel is a disgrace to the Jewish religion. You would think that a group that suffered from genocide would not perpetrate it on another people. It really doesn't matter in the long-run--Israel will be destroyed by global warming just like all the other theocracies in the region. Zionism = Racism
Agree 100%! The Holocaust does not justify the genocide by the Israeli government.
I consider myself a DEI, CRT progressive, which believes that Israel has a right to exist. I also know that Israel is surrounded by enemies (Arab Muslims) who seek nothing less than it’s annihilation (genocide)
And have since it was founded in May 1948. You see the land of Israel is considered sacred, Muslim soil, especially the Haram al Sharif (dome of the rock) and al Aqsa mosque, it is the third holist site in Islam, and a Jewish state on sacred Muslim soil is blasphemy, and so long as there is a Jewish state there will be no peace, not the the Levant.
Muslims have 57 ethnostates. Arab Muslims have 10, Christians have the Americas, Europe, Russia, the Balkans, Jews are entitled to one, but it sits on sacred Arab soil, and cannot be allowed to exist, ever.
No infidel is permitted to visit the first two holy sites of Islam, Mecca and Medina, imagine the insult and blasphemy of a Jewish state, especially one that controls the Haram al Sharif.
Zionism is simply the quest for a Jewish homeland and they are entitled to their historic homeland.
What they are not entitled to is the actions and behavior of the right wing and orthodox settlers, who treat Arabs like animals. Those are criminals, But the truth is that so long as there is a Jewish State, in the Levant there willnever be any peace. Ishmael Haniiyeh said it: We are a nation of martyrs, and we will keep coming back again and again. Muslims don’t mourn martyrs, mothers an wives might, but they celebrate martyrdom.
From the preamble to the HAMAS covenant, which has never been repudiated:
Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).
From paragraph 7, which is also from sacred scripture, Verse 1294/1296, Book 56, hadith 139
"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).
The day of Judgement is the Islamic end times, it is presaged by the arrivalof the mahdi (messiah) and the slaughter of all Jews. On the day of Judgement Allah wil judge all, the living and the dead.
As regards the death toll in Gaza, the HAMAS ministry of health reports totals, half of which are HAMAS and Islamic Jihad fighters, and frankly they pull those numbers out of thin air. They are believed only because the UN and the feckless want to believe. There is indeed ingrained and latent anti-Semitism.
But the responsibility for the deaths lies on the heads of HAMAS who uses their people and hostages as human shields.
I ask all who are outraged at Israel’s behavior, what would they do, if someone did the same to you and your family? Remember if the terrorist had not broken through, boated around, flew over the fence and joyfully raped and murdered the Jews, there would not have been the devastation.
Acquaint yourself with the act, by watching the documentary, the will dance again, taken completely from the cell phones of the terrorists as they joyfully yelled allahu akbar, and the cell phones of the victims.
And why the silence on the ongoing genocide in Ukraine, can it be it is because the Ukrainians don’t have oil money, and thousands of students in our universities, like the Arabs, or financing our university chairs.
What about the genocide being committed in Sudan by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) ttps://www.lemonde.fr/en/le-monde-africa/article/2024/09/09/sudan-videos-prove-ethnic-crimes-committed-by-rapid-support-forces-affiliated-militias-in-darfur_6725329_124.html
Ah but they aren’t Arab Muslims are they, so that genocide doesn’t count, anymore than the genocide of Ukraine
How about the Genocide that American and Britain inflicted on Germany and Japan.
I am married to a Jew--58 years together on Oct. 31.
Its not about growth, its about death!
Fellow readers, please note that I am a frequent, and now an unfortunate, commenter here who shares the first name and last name initial with the poster here. You should be able to tell us apart from the content of our posts.
@Robert P. You are so full of shit, taking your cheap shots. Your list of grievances is a very Trump-like assassination of America. You like quoting your random facts, but what other country does better? What other way of life? What other form of government? What other economy. You are just full of shit with no useful critique, no constructive ideas. You're anti-American, hating both sides equally. You are some kind of motivated troll, whether you are working for Putin or not, you are doing the dictator's work by trying to tear down everything about America by selecting the worst things you can find to push into the blab-o-sphere.
Nor any of those things but is some one pulling back the covers to expose some someone like you
Robert P., how are your comments helpful -- in any way?
Why are you wasting your own time, and the time of people who are less indoctrinated than you? No one here wants to hear your neocon talking points. Turn off Substack, and turn Fox News back on. Scream at the television.
You sound hate filled. Keep that to yourself. Thanks.
Robert P. I take it from your posts that you believe that progressive males are not so bright emasculated and feminized.
Correct me if I am wrong.
Thanks for your attention.
This socialist ran 16 marathons, a 30-mile training run, and a 24-hour relay on a 1/4 mile track on Staten Island in July. Our gay running team came in third, beating the NYC Police Dept. team. Two guys on our team averaged 5 minutes a mile over the 24 hours. I was second to last, averaging 6:30 a mile over the 24 hours.
Someone alleged that we beat the women's world record for a 24-hour relay--women were just starting to get into distance running at that time. Plus I am queer, asthmatic, and hypoglycemic, so I am not even supposed to be able to do such "manly" things. LOL.
So, what has that got to do with the price of rice in china Ronald.
I find Robert P's comment here so inappropriate and offensive I wish they had a "Report" call out for the Comments posted here on Substack. The perverse, baseless ad hominem attacks have no place in thoughtful, enlightening, and polite conversation.
Anti-trust. They should have called it anti-organized-crime. Some will rob you with a Tommy gun, some with a K St. firm. My 1950s public school American History Book had a whole chapter about monopolists and grotesque political corruptions, complete with Thomas Nast cartoons and "Teddy the Trust Buster".
And I naively thought it was all long ago and far away.
Put Musk on a rocket to Mars.
Yes, with one caveat, he has to take trump with him.
One-way, please.
Elon Musk is building the bridge over the river Kwai, and he is using X to protect and promote his project. No one with government contracts should own a platform like that.
Robert P, your comment starting with a lot of unfounded personal attacks on Colin above betray your lack of integrity here.
And your argument about meritocracy rings hollow. No one deserves to take in billions while having the power to suppress votes, change laws and bend democracy to their greedy will. That’s not merit but corruption. You don’t seem to be able to distinguish the difference.
Robert,
you may be and you may admire the entitled few, but please do not forget the vast majority of people who make perhaps smaller but still very meaningful contributions to your life and mine…the auto mechanics, the chiropractors, the farmers, the chefs, the moms, the child minders…unlike the billionaires upon whose labor most of us do not depend, and who therefore mostly evade the criticism that might make them both better and happier people.
Shalom, namaste, peace.
@ Robert P. Look in the mirror re: "pumping out".
You betray understanding by going into woke awareness, Trailer Trash
Touché, Marc N.
I like your positivity, and couldn’t have said this better myself.
We shall get through this second Gilded Age.
🌻💙🙏
Anne, not only will we get through this Gilded Age but like we did after the first Gilded Age, may we take a huge step forward in the reforms that come as a result of what we have learned in this second Gilded Age.
I think we also need to be realistic that Capitalism has failed. The right poisons any idea of Socialism even though they rely on it. It is not wise to keep the same system in place that fails people over and over again.
Capitalism only works when tempered by good, enforced regulation. We have had that under many Democratic administrations, but none from the Republicans since Reagan, perhaps even since Eisenhower.
…If we can reform campaign financing and prosecute bribery (despite the SCOTUS loophole you can drive a Mercedes through). Maybe then we have a chance. Til then: money talks and democracy walks (away).
No to Citizens United, No to Electoral college. Vox populi!
YES!!❤️
👏
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
I’m concerned we as Americans are not the same people we were a century ago. Of course I mean the maga voters, a third of the population. They are lazy and churlish, all they care about is being entertained. My theory is that after the WWII generation passed on, there is no memory of facism or the horrors of it. How else could a maga voter in Pennsylvania take a million dollars from Musk to greedily and happily endorse a facist for president. These people are too lazy to think critically.
Jamae, America was on the verge of being taken over by NAZI's and racist,until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
There was a very strong fascist movement, they even rented Madison Square garden for a rally, a huge banner of George Washington hung, flanked by two NAZI banners.
Google it, images.
Hitler justified his racist policies and eugenics by saying that he got them from America, and eugenics was born in America.
Everyone should read Rachel Maddows's book "PREQUEL". Also listen to her Podcast. It tells the story of American Fascism before WW2 that William is talking about. My big take away was the level of vicious hate these people had for, not only foreigners in our country, but for many of their fellow citizens.
It is a chilling story and the parallels to DT's ranting and his glassy-eyed MAGA hoards today aren't much different. Happy New year... GH
Critical thinking left our education system with St. Ronnie and has been getting steadily worse 😢
Love the Saint Ronnie reference, but now it's Saint Donnie. The former religious movement took 40 years to start to dismantle under Biden but it never really got the head of steam nor the legislative and judicial horsepower needed to fully turn things around. What Ronnie begat, Donnie will taketh to the next level. With the dumbing down of the American electorate, social media mendacity, and traditional media malpractice round two of the good fight is going to be quite an uphill slog. But we must begin the fight now.
I do believe our screens, streaming, sports, alcohol, poor work-life balance have made us poor stewards of the free time and attention available to us. My dad was WW2, he was disciplined and focused on the welfare of the country, he studied history. We have grown frivolous.
Marc, I could'nt agree more.
But two remarks: how is the US compaired with Europe? The tendencies are the same, but the extremism is different.
The second: why is this? Is it the protection of the former slave owners, built in the Constitution, is it the cultivated Red Scare?
Tom, these are excellent questions to ponder. One difference between the United States and Europe is that we are comparatively a very young country and as many have stated, we are a “melting pot“ of immigrants. Our country was born out of an irrational audacity that a group of colonies with virtually no army, no money, and no armaments could successfully become its own country against the largest and most powerful military on the planet.
Due to the urgency of the situation, a constitution that is excellent in most respects had some built in fatal flaws that over 20 amendments have not been able to cure. One of those flaws was the creation of the electoral college, and secondly, a built in racism and sexism that has never been completely erased from the American psyche. Finally, the Constitution failed to create a progressive economic system, which meant a default into the very faulty system of capitalism. In other words, the original Constitution was tacitly endorsing the philosophy that greed is a necessary component of a vibrant economics system. However, now for the second time, we are faced with the dilemma of where greed based economy leads us. The original Constitution was an amazing document for its time. However, even with over 20 amendments, the constitution is not capable to bring us into our next stage of government and economic evolution.
The cure for the malady of capitalism is an economic system that is committed to seeing that all have an opportunity to gain greater purchasing power through well paying employment and at the same time has the compassion to ensure no one is left behind to live on the streets or die from lack of food or a for profit medical system in which an increasing number of citizens cannot afford. This is why I have become a proponent of a humane, economic and governance system called “Economic Democracy.” Recently on this Substack, Robert Reich indicated that Economic Democracy might be the cure for the shortcomings of our current system.
The term “economic democracy” is in essence Social Democracy, but America is allergic to that word.
America should get over its ignorance and selfishness. What would Jesus have done had he existed?
Here we go down the religious rabbit hole with what should be a secular argument. This country was created on the principle of separation of church and state so just because St. Donnie decided to put the Bill of Rights in his version of the bible let's not get distracted by the road we take. Leave Jesus out of it, he has no role here.
Ronald Kirchem ; what do you care, and why do you ask if he never existed?
I have been beaten over the head with Jesus and the Bible my whole life. Keep your old fairy tales to yourself, and don't use them to make me a criminal. People are always telling me to read your Babble--WHYYYYYYY?
I am a professionally trained historian and I can tell you that there is ZERO contemporary evidence for the existence of Jesus.
Look up “economic democracy“ in Wikipedia and I think that the first few paragraphs will show you It is quite a bit different than “social democracy“. You can also ask ChatGPT to write an essay on economic democracy, and you will get some good information there
Hey, I'm American and I'm not allrgic to the concept.
Marc, a very carefully, thoughtfully crafted definition of capitalism is sorely needed.
The only reason we have attained relative freedom, a decent standard of living, all the comforts and conveniences of this civilization is because people were free and thus incentivized to invest their mental and physical labor into accumulating money and investing it into an enterprise to further improve their position
The United States would not exist, you and I would not exist, our creature comforts and technology would not exist were it not for capitalism.
In 1606 a group of men, lesser nobility and wealthy merchants, got together, the assemblage was led by the Master of the Skinners Guild. they pooled their money, formed a corporation called the London Company of Virginia, and in 1606 prevailed upon King James for a charter to explore and exploit a portion of the eastern seaboard from the location of Roanoke to Maine, which they called Virginia, for profit,namely gold and silver.
There was no name for Capitalist then, no name for middle class, nor corporation. Nor the word capitalism.
The ability to pool resources and invest in a joint venture is what has enabled us to survive and prosper in comfort. And children and people who would have otherwise died in birth, or young or because of disease and defects would not have survived.
The problem is not with capitalism, the problem is that it is not regulated or restrained. Anything to excess, unregulated, unrestrained, especially the enthusiasm, anger, of the masses is dangerous.
Everything in moderation,nothing in excess.
The problem is that money can buy influence and release restraints that moderate.
There is a human tendency, a craving?, for submission and domination,
instead of celebrating the end of serfdom, there has been an accelerating drive to neo serfdom.
The serfdom of unrestrained capitalism, unrestrained collectivism, encapsulated as authoritarianism..
It is apparent, to me, that people don't object to authoritarianism, so long as it is THEIR authoritarian version.
An example:
Free speech for me, but not for thee.
The horseshoe where the right wing meets the left wing.
It seems to me that it doesn’t matter which form of government is taken, eventually there is a smaller group, an oligarchy, that lives well while others suffer.
While that is true, and it has been since our hunter gatherer ancestors.
The question is the quality of life for the unpowerful members of the tribe, clan, nation.
Would you rather live in a less than perfect U.S of a or a NAZI Germany, a Bolshevik or Putin Russia, in a Caliphate or in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afgthanistan, Pakistan or Bangladesh.
In other words it matters greatly.
I'd rather live in Paris, France, where I do live.
They will not suffer if they succeed in organizing.
The amendments were intended to correct flaws in the Constitution. However, if the rules of the Constitution are not enforced or outright defied, the Constitution is meaningless.
Further, the ERA needs to be PUBLISHED and the WHITE MAN MISOGYNY called out that put dates on its state by state passage!! No other US Constitution Amendment has been given this POISON PILL! White men have been dragging us backwards for too long.
Very true Vicki. But, many women are responsible for the failure of the ERA too. Phyllis Schlafly and her Eagle Forum, in St. Louis, was the main roadblock. She was an ultra-conservative Catholic and radical anti-feminist. To much to list here so everyone should look her up. She is the textbook case of how modern religious fascism works in our country.
All the best to everyone in 2025... GH
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Fererie sp?
Hi Gary, I know this phenomenon- initially described to me by South American activist who cited the effects of power include the ones who will protect the status quo at all costs to be near power. But, it is led in the US by White Men, who ran to vote for Trumpty at the polls in fear of smart and excellence in woman. It must stop. The ERA must be activated and the evil misogyny called out.
She also had a gay son--LOL.
True, and this is why we have a judicial branch, and this is why the fascists have taken over SCOTUS.
Marc, inspiring reaction, thanks. I need a bit thinking and pondering about this.
Was the legal thinking in Europe not linked to economy and more to morality? Was the American thinking more about race and violence?
And your modesty about a young country? In Europe we had the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, World War I and II, the fighting in Yougoslavia, to name some. In this light, you had a peacefull history.
There was more civil strife in Europe I would say. But maybe it is the wrong picture. I will think about it.
Someone told me that James Madison wanted arrangements in the Constitution about the relations between capital and labour. Do you think that this is correct? I did some search in the Federalist papers, but did not find it.
🙏 AMEN!
💯💯💯💯💯💯👏👏👏👏👏👏
Marc, wealth is power, and the powerful will pound your dreams into dust. Hopefully, you will still have the Constitution to assure you of due process as you try to resolve your grievances.
How long?
We won't have it much longer. I have many relatives who were in the military services, and I am proud of them. My birth father was on Guadacanal.
If you look at the data you will find that in Europe average wages of working people are much lower and taxes paid by the middle class are much higher than in the US (the VA tax which is in most countries close to 20% and it is a regressive tax).
But for their taxes they are getting much more in return than here in the US.
I live in Paris, France, where we have great medical care and a superb educational system. Even small children are polite and respectful.
Yeh, but you have your destructive Soccer (football) riots.
Ha! Good point William but lets face it, rich or poor country, there are knuckleheads everywhere!!! Cheers... GH
The EU was perplexed over the destructiveness of soccer riots, so they funded a study to determine the cause.
Apparently it is due to identity, both with a nation or team, and their manhood.
The male fans invest their identity into a team, and if that team loses there is a rapid plummet in testosterone, to rebuilt their testosterone level, they resort to aggression, in the form of violence.
That is strange, because there is no such corollary in America and I can only assume that the masculine identity is not so dependent on identification with a sports team, but is found else wheres, maybe politics, religion, race,
When, say, a sports team loses a major game like the Superbowl or the World Series,, there ego,identity is not so vested in that team, that their testosterone level plummets.
This is probably because there is a big difference between the political and social construction of Europe and America.
Yes indeed, France is making major efforts to support families with children. France is making major efforts to support families to have more children. More so than any other EU country. I have relatives who live in France and I visit frequently. But as you surely know the country is moving to the right and LePen calls the shots. There is huge dissatisfaction with the general social situation and the standard of living in general is much lower than in the US.
But yet they did not elect LePen and we did elect Trump which proves there is more of a semblance of intelligence in France.
The people get something for their taxes!
True enough, the middle and lower classes pay high taxes and demand performance. In the US only the upper classes and the rich pay taxes. The middle class pays nada and want government services. The only exception is Social Security and the rate of return is dismal, but it is security of last resort.
We are protected by 2 oceans, and have not experienced an invasion of our homeland - we are overconfident, and the threats have changed.
I agree that there are some important differences, including the current climate time bomb, but the motif of power tending to corrupt seems as old as history, and that division of power (such as fair and free elections) and functioning checks and balances, are vital to repelling tyranny.
The US Constitution sets the rules of the game, and it states, quite explicitly, that its purpose is to further the common good.
The Constitution was a product of Enlightenment Era philosophies. From Wikipedia:
"The Enlightenment featured a range of social ideas centered on the value of knowledge learned by way of rationalism and of empiricism and political ideals such as natural law, liberty, and progress, toleration and fraternity, constitutional government, and the formal separation of church and state.[3][4][5]"
(...)
"Modern sociology largely originated from this movement,[46] and Hume's philosophical concepts that directly influenced James Madison (and thus the U.S. Constitution), and as popularised by Dugald Stewart was the basis of classical liberalism.[47]"
A far cry from the claims of Ouija Board "Originalists".
The motto "E Pluibus Unum" is inscribed on our most sacred tokens.
I am wondering who is going to able to buy a Tesla when the population is getting poorer. And Tesla can be replaced by any other non-essential product. And who would invest into a company that sells products nobody can afford? Of course, Musk will receive money from other, e.g. government spendings, but who is paying the taxes to permit the government to do so? Seems quite a mystery to me actually!
Lueder, I read that many parts of Musks teslas are made in China. The reason Muskie and Trumpty went off on the government funding timing was to kick out tariffs or other means which would have meant Muskie would have more regulations of his Chinese parts. Further, teslas are cheaper in Australia and China. Further, other funding streams, like organic certification program's financial support was dropped, as were many other valued 'bipartisan' initiatives. This is why the screams of the dope heads musk/ Trumpty, gang of felons must be ignored. We need to separate all the felons conflicts of interest as they gather around the tables to steal all the goodies.
Musk has so much money that he could afford to pay 44 billion for Twitter as his personal plaything and drive away customers. He's doing it with Tesla.
I’ve read that Musk is pushing a Tesla robotaxi. Idk who he plans to sell those to. Maybe cities, since he’s keen on sucking up taxpayer money.
I am utterly surprised to receive such a reply when asking, what I consider, legitimate open-minded questions.
Actually, the period of changes to the better that you refer to in your disappointing response corresponds to the one after the so-called "Gilded Age", which indicates (at least in my opinion) that these past decades have been, perhaps not an ideal way, but at least a way to improve matters.
My concerns relate to the future when the policies of the last decades may no longer apply. Is it a sign of "typical envy, hatred, resentment and bitterness for the country" to have concerns?
As to the second question relating to "Why is it that..." I cannot help you. I am not a US citizen. I am a European with a modest background. I have always worked, even during my schooling years. I have founded my first company at the age of 19. I have studied, have various degrees and studying experiences obtained from very elite institutions (also from a famous US institution). I am engaged in various projects helping other citizens. I am co-founder of a recently established company.
Your conclusion in the last sentences tells me more about you and your open-mindedness than what, sadly, you appear to project into my open question.
And, No, I am not ashamed - I don't hate and am not envious. I do not even know why I should be envious. When I read your initial comment, on which I would like to compliment you and that I marked as "liked", I did not expect to induce such an aggressive and spiteful reaction. Obviously, I was wrong and stroke a chord. I am sorry for you that you feel that way.
Bob, yes, it is possible to quote statistics for just about any cause one can espouse. I'm sorry but you act as though poverty rates coming down is just great and on target. That is nonsense and proves you have never experienced poverty or anything close to it or, if you may have been middle class sometime, you could not imagine that this system as it is helps to maintain poverty and that wealth says nothing positive about people in itself, just that someone has money, probably inherited from family. Then there's the racism and misogyny that are and have been regularly promoted by the very wealthy. They prefer the divisions those create because it takes people's attention from the crimes those very rich are committing against the people of this nation. Amazing just how easily a few stats can warp someone's perspective.
Bob, oooooo! a bunch of statistics that may or may not be true, but they are cute listed there. I will give them to my students to look up to see if any of them are true, just for fun because it does not really matter. I was waiting for the insult and voila! You delivered, just as one would expect of someone who is challenged, particularly a man, possibly white. Well, good for you, acting just as expected!! Congratulations!
@ Robert P. Subtle? You hit with a hammer, even though your nail is bent...
@Robert P. I know you think you are saying something about merit. But that's just a biased perspective. What you are really saying is that historically wealth has generated advantages that led to more wealth. You seem like a cocky type who thinks you "know stuff"? Try reading Thomas Pickety and/or taking a class in economics. You (maybe) would learn that while people do vary somewhat in their birth capabilities, the explanation for differences in outcomes is mostly the differences in advantages. If you can't stomach Pickety, try reading Malcolm Gladwell explaining why certain hockey players excel at the sport - it's their advantages more than their skills.
Sorry, I thought I was responding to the author of the initial thread. So, apologies for saying that I liked your comment. I like the originator's comment. I find not much likeable in your comment, sadly.
But what a funny little man you are!
Your ad hominem attacks on commenters are out of control.
You are living proof that testosterone is a dangerous drug.
yawnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
Yawnnnnnnnn. I am a now-retired working class American and sick of you idiots proposing to speak for the rest of us.
Oh, the Nazi is back. I'm so tired of you right wingers. Thinking and proposing solutions is not anti-American. I saw nothing Anti American in Leuder Behren's comment.
Go to your basement room and stay there.
Excellent point, Marc!
Who will be our Mark Twain? Our Thomas Nast?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nast#/media/File:Thomas_Nast_self-portrait_cph.3a00742.jpg
IMHO, ameliorate "fight" with humor, "rile up the base" with "Do one thing every day that scares you"[to prevent debilitating anxiety or insidious placebos that make anxiety disappear... only to be replaced by something insidious like out of control anger]
Power Corrupts, the energy of anger properly channeled can bring about great results. It was anger against the “Tea Tax”that provided the motivation and energy for the “Boston Tea Party that eventually sparked the American Revolution for which we must be eternally grateful.
The Boston Tea Party was an irresponsible act of vandalism. Had the British king validated the colonists' anger there would have been no revolution, and the incident would have been a footnote in history. King and Parliament brought the American revolution on themselves. They learned the lesson, and subsequently treated the colonies differently.
I studied under the leaning Colonial and Revolutionary historian of the time at Yale'--Edmund Morgan. It was recently proved that he faked some of his evidence to support his liberal vs radical point of view. I used to respect him.
Sounds like there was much to admire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Morgan_(historian)
Power Corrupts : Who will be our Bob Dylan?
Perhaps I don’t know the modern music but I wondered where the protest songs were during the first trump admin. There were many good protest songs in the 60s & 70’s.
I think the radio networks are owned and controlled by those with lots of money. The way things are headed now, the laws will most likely ban anything seriously questioning or criticizing the power/money/structure.
Who will be our Bob Dylan? Ans Bob Dylan.
Daniel , Of course ; There is no other.
The born-again version? Retroactive abortion is a good idea for some people.
Marc, I strongly agree with you! Our state of mind is the most important asset that we have! The recent postings from Prof. Reich have lifted my spirits for sure. The important thing is for us all to stay engaged, focused, and strengthened by our belief in our system of government. It is rooted in process....and we must help to create the process!
Unless Biden stands up, we friggin' lost the cold war. Whether it will look like the Nazis won, we'll soon find out.
I have the same sentiment and I agree, although the stakes seem to be higher, but that could be that the people are getting the information they need. Our biggest enemy, indeed, is a sense of negativity, abandonment, and victimization. That will not do.
I think the first order of business is to constitutionally repeal Citizens United. The effort is being made. Several states have signed on. We need to educate ourselves and pitch in.
I think we also have to reject both parties in their present form. Mr. Reich likes to
rail against Trump, but the Democrats, too, are beholding puppets to the oligarchy. Until he and others of the same mind except this, nothing will change.
The third thing we need to do is stop calling each other villains. We ain’t going to get anywhere so long as the rich continue to be successful at turning us against each other. Towards this end, I believe Mr. Reich needs to tone down the cultural issue wars. Everyone who disagrees with his position are not racists or transphobias or whatever. Even if some are, the bigger issue is class differences. The vast majority are united in that.
Well said. Thank you.
Is it negativity or just enumerating what the challenges are? Excessive positivity produces a response that is too weak, to face the real enemy.
Overcoming AI misinformation and disinformation feels insurmountable. I can’t confront people at work otherwise I would be fired but more than half of the people I’ve talked to at work use the code words of QAnon and old school Reagan economic trickle down theory and fear of taxation. They talk of social services as a form of communism or socialism and people are not pulling their weight and just don’t want to work, etc. etc. etc.. I also work with a lot of Christian nationalist leaning people, one who told me that Obama‘s army is coming across the southern border because they have been given weapons. I know crazy QAnon talk. I also talked to a fellow coworker who thought that the container ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal had trafficked people trapped in the containers. I don’t know how to talk to these people - so many are anti-vaxers and called wearing masks, face diapers, and thought it was the government controlling us. It’s really scary. I don’t dare share with them that I’ve gotten every Covid-19 vaccine that I’m able to receive. I count my blessings that I never got Covid so far and I deal with approximately 700 people or more a day crammed into a metal tube screaming across the nation at 35,000+ feet . My work group consists of 20,000+ coworkers in the airline industry - anyway I feel like even saying this is giving too much information and I could get fired for sharing my negative opinions of coworkers on social media. Anything negative about my company shared on social media can get me fired.
And therein lies the problem.intimidation,retribution.millions of poorly educated Americans.
Fanning the flames of the culture wars to keep folks distracted from the the economic exploitation.
You can send them to school, teach them to read, buy them the books and all they do is eat the covers! I don't know who came up with this comment, not me, but it is one of my favorites. My wife taught for 37 years. Poor education starts at home. Teachers have a mountain of children's problems to deal with before the actual teaching can begin. They deserve all the support they can get from us.
All the best to everyone in 2025... GH
TFG and the oligarchs love the poorly educated.
Easier to take all their money and blame it on the Dems and immigrants
Maybe Dems should love the uneducated more.
Howard Tanenbaum,MD,FRCS(C ; Yes, the bullies want to keep US down.
Eileen, keep safe and thanks for expressing your concerns.
Sounds more like Nazi Germany than America. Really disturbing post.
My husband was born in France under Nazi occupation. The 2016 election was his first as a US citizen. It started exactly like how the man with the strange mustache started his, including using similar rhetoric that my husband remembered reading from Mein Kamph which was required reading in French schools back then.
I never saw him so horribly triggered like he was during that campaign. He begged our now former friends to not go that way. Sadly they did and left us alone. We’ve moved on.
Look at what Hitler was able to accomplish with using pen, paper and radio to spread his propaganda. We have to fight against worldwide online propaganda coming at us and the majority of Americans that can’t read at a 6th grade level. 20% of Americans can only read at the level of an 8 year old.
The only way to stop this is to get to know as many people as we can and build trusting communities, and more importantly be able to identify infiltrators that want to stop us.
I think there will be an attempt to create a far-right ethno-nationalist dictatorship (fascism), it is better to be prepared for the real threat, not hold on to false hopes. Reasons=1. Global fascist movement, Russia, China, India, Hungary and so on. 2. Neoliberalism and globalisation has run out of steam. The elites know a shift to redistribution is coming for their wealth. 3. Government cannot be run on debt rather than tax breaks for the wealthy indefinitely. 4. In a two party system it matters that the Democrats have been bought out as the controlled opposition. and so on. 5. Trump & Musk are fascists. 6. Project 2025 is a sign that this time is different. 7. Popular support for democracy is in long time decline.......
Anybody here with half a brain and any decency would EVER use anyone alive today, comparing them to Nazi Germany. You don’t agree why don’t we take a trip together to Auschwitz and lie down in the ovens or stand in the gas chambers or view the 11 million skeletons of bodies or the piles of glasses and shoes from the victims. Idiots.
the nature of fascism changes with time, Trump-Musk is not Nazism but it is far-right ethno-nationalism.
True today Lara. But isn't that how Hitler started. As a far-right ethno-nationalist loud mouth?
Not to pick a fight with Rick Sender, but Auschwitz was originally built in 1940 to house 945 Soviet prisoners of war. It became a killing camp in March of 1942 until November of 1945.
Hitler became Chancellor in January of 1933. It took him six years to start the war in 1939. Of course he began rounding up Jews and others in 1933. I think, if it comes true or not, the first promise DT made is to round up all the "illegals" in our country starting Jan. 20th!
He has promised to try and rescind the "birth-right" clause in our constitution and round up those folks too. These folks "really are" citizens but he doesn't care about them if it riles up his base. Just like Hitler did.
There aren't enough jails or prisons to hold them so "detention camps" may be the only solution considering most of their home countries won't take them back.
Isn't this how Hitler started? Didn't he begin by finding reasons to revoke citizenship and branding folks he didn't like as "traitors" along with arresting and deporting non-citizen foreigners?
I do agree with Rick that comparing anyone alive today, except maybe Putin, with Hitler may be a stretch. But probably most of the citizens in Germany in 1933 couldn't imagine what their "leader" would do to them and the world by 1945 either. The parallel here thinking is chilling.
Hope for the best, but keep your eyes peeled and ears open... GH
Fascism from a narrow point of view is difficult to define. Fascism emerged after the First World War in Europe. Racist-nationalism based on European colonialist ideas was an important element of this fascism. Hence the Holocaust. Modern fascism is based on ethno-nationalism, which means the chosen people belong not to a race but the majority cultural-religious identity of a country. So black people can be "real citizens" if they adopt the cultural identity of the white majority, including the idea that racism is not a problem.
New immigrants become obvious targets. Also transgender people become targets, as there is a mainstream prejudice against them. Evangelical Christainity and Israel Geopolitics has pulled Judaism into the mainstream, while Islam is a marker of the other.
When Trump-Musk creates a fascist dictatorship in America, the criteria for who is a “Real American” will narrow, as it is always an arbitrary notion, and the overall objective is to concentrate wealth further. Israel-Palestine ignoring the regional context is a good model of what this America will look like. Oppression followed by harsh punishment, and further oppression, all in a sea of propaganda. Immigrants will be put into camps and mistreated. It is unlikely their countries of origin will accept them without threats or inducements. It will be ugly. Sadopopulism as Prof Snyder terms it, the feeling of wellbeing from the suffering of others.
You’re going to have to stop using the word Hitler here. PLEASE. . It’s not tolerable. Especially whose father was born in Palestine as a Jew and whose family and whose relatives died in the gas chambers
Unless you’d like to come with me as I’ve asked other people let’s go lie down in the ovens let’s go stand in the gas chambers. Let’s go witness the skeletons and let’s see the millions of piles of glasses and boots sitting at Auschwitz. Just judge Trump on his contemporary actions. Very simple.
Any other comparison is incredibly outrageous
By the way, and I know it shocks many people here but it’s factual. Barack Obama built the first-cages to keep the “unescorted children who had come here unaccompanied?
As I understand it now there were at least 350,000 children that came in unaccompanied that are now missing that the government cannot account for their whereabouts who most people think a good number of them are probably being trafficked as we speak, which is sick
Many people here prefer using the history of the past or the crystal balls and Ouija boards of the future to determine how this next administration is going to handle its duties.
My suggestion is let us try to live in the present and judge actions in that way, and in that perspective… then it’s absolutely relative should issues arise that warrants a public outcry
Regarding the birthright clause, he’s not rescinding it. There is a short phrase in the middle of that amendment that seems to be ignored by those who wanna quote that says those born here followed by the following words “ under the laws of our jurisdiction,”. I’m quoting it broadly not exactly which indicates that if you’re illegal and came here, and you have children and came here they may be considered illegal.
But Gary from a Trump policy supporter not necessarily a Trump human being supporter. I think it’s gonna go like this.
He will start with the most egregious criminals and work his way down. He will also try to deport the 1.4 million illegals who currently have deportation actions against them and get them to leave
He will get to the next group those who have committed violent crimes or criminals in their own countries an attempt to deport them. And work his way down.
In the meantime, he will reinforce the border in any way he can be at walls or personnel or help from Mexico and Canada.
This will take a long time; a lot longer than people imagine and maybe a couple years from now when he is done what he started to do and things calm down in this country I think the rest will probably be more or less a settled argument he has also promised to keep the dreamers hopes alive
So when the long run which will be a couple of years, at least I think the rest will remain here provided They’ve not committed crimes and been actively and productively as citizens would be expected to be
Have you ever been to the Olympics Laura? Have you ever watched the international Olympics? Every single country is proud of their country. That's exactly what this American movement is about.
It's about America first then everyone else not isolationist not exclusionist but first
We could no longer afford to be the army of the world
We have hundreds of thousands of people on the streets and impoverished and we're sending billions of dollars elsewhere
Maga means make America great again and that's all it means and it's called pride and I'm sure you have pride in this country as well and it's no different. You might call it by another name but it's the same thing.
No. MAGA is not about patriotism (as suggested by Olympics), which is an affection for one’s own country. It is not even about nationalism, an exclusive obsession with the status of a country. MAGA is about far-right ethno-nationalism, which means that only some citizens are considered real, as in “Real Americans”. Trump offers to govern for “Real Americans”, without doing anything about the extreme inequality in the US, which is as high again as the early twentieth century (first “gilded age”). This is why the super-rich like Musk fund MAGA. Trump is a fascist who plans, now he has the power, to destroy all the hard won achievements of American society. Democracy, Independent Courts, Rule Of Law and even support for other Western Democracies.
Well, millions of Americans don’t agree with you, and I don’t agree with you at all …the Olympics is exactly the symbol of Pride of country. And all countries feel that way about their own country.
And you’re funny when you say ethnocentrism, when this country is made up of immigrants with all kinds of ethnic origin. It’s Not ethnocentric to love your country
Maga simply means make America great again that’s exactly what it means and nothing else that you want to seem to twist tangle or make it sound like
Unless and until many people here please put away your crystal balls and your Ouija boards you have no idea what’s gonna happen tomorrow. Unlike AOC, who knows the world is gonna end in 5 1/2 years
Maybe you should take the statement of Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC who said liberals are too histrionic about this because 80% of what they think is gonna happen never happens.
Yesterday what I saw is despicable when the speaker was being elected and he was talking about America first. Not one person from the left side of the aisle stood or acknowledged that and that is one of the reasons that you lost the election. Free to think how you think no problem but America first is what we need right now we can no longer be the world’s army. We could be the world’s leader on defense, but we can’t fund the world any longer. We have enough problems funding ourselves and the $36 trillion of deficit is proof. Our interest right now is more than our military budget as I understand it
What we should do is to take away credit cards from every single Congress person and senator and say here’s your salary for the year and now make it work. And maybe just maybe if they can’t spend more than they taken go get the message.
And lastly, if the left keeps using the words that end in ISTS, and ISM’S
Like fascist and Hitler and misogynist and xenophobic instead of talking about your own policies, you’re gonna continue to lose elections in my estimation. It did not work for Adam schiff, It did not work for Hillary Clinton. It did not work for the 51 so-called experts about hunters laptop but if you wanna keep losing elections, have at it?
Dr Steven Hassan, cult expert, will help you understand and learn how to talk to people caught up in these conspiracy theories. Hassan has podcasts on Spotify and YouTube as well as an Instagram account where he goes live to answer questions.
Eileen, believe me, I understand! Living in a sea of red is like walking on eggshells! I never know what will set them off! When they start their "crazy talk" (QAnon, etc), I listen politely while inside my head I'm screaming "Wake up! Wake up!", then I use truth backed up with resources to put my point across. I know it scares them when faced with undeniable facts because that is when they begin the insults, name-calling and decide I am a socialist! Sometimes, I get tired of it all, but then I have to tell myself to not give in or give up. Keep talking, Eileen. They are listening and when what you tell them will come to pass actually does, they will realize your truth was more powerful than the propaganda and misinformation they were being fed!
When I am accused of being a socialist I just tell them that Jesus was a socialist and some say a communist and try to prove me wrong. They can’t. 😂
Good one, Marcella! I have never understood why MAGA and right-wing think socialism is such a bad word and use it freely thinking it is insulting. From what I have read and understand about socialism, it does not sound like the evil MAGA thinks it is. It is a theory that simply says ALL of the people should have a say. What is so wrong with that? The difference between socialism and communism is basically ownership. In socialism all citizens share equally in economic resources whereas communism, the economic resources are owned by the state. I don't think MAGA and right-wing understand the difference or understand that socialism is NOT the evil they think it is.
Agreed. Socialism is not a dirty word, but zealous capitalists have made it so.
What is the opposite of socialism when a few rich men own everything? That’s where we are quickly arriving.
You're right, Midwest. It is called Oligarchy - when the small number of richy rich hold all the power that gives them the authority to rule. If we don't wrest that power back from those greedy, power hungry creeps then we will have an Oligarchy.
Socialism ALWAYS implies rule by oligarchy. There’s even a special word for socialist oligarchy - номенклатура
They also confuse National Socialism with Socialism.
They/I don’t confuse it all. National Socialism WAS (is) an important wing of socialism.
The only difference was the “socialism for Germans alone, and the rest of the people can go to hell (which ends up happening to nearly everyone under socialism in any case).
Before the full horror of Nazism was exposed a lot of respectable socialists were even keen on gas chambers as a way to get rid of undesirables.
South African apartheid was a sort of socialism for Afrikaners as well.
"National Socialism WAS (is) an important wing of socialism."
WHO determines that? You?
North Korea calls itself a "people's democratic republic." Is NK an important wing of democratic republics?
So they think they are calling us Nazis because they don't understand the difference between the two? Maybe they need to do a little research and learn the difference!
Trust me, Peggy nobody is calling you Nazis. Don’t know where you ever heard that but it’s the farthest thing from the Truth.
Speak for yourself. “They” understand the difference very well. “You” don’t.
Do some research yourself and see the commonalities.
Shirley you jest.
For decades Americans have been told that socialism is state control, collectivism, loss of freedom to choose. Any American politician who calls himself a "socialist" will be marginalized and demonized. Since so few do so, the Right now uses terms such as "woke," the Marxists," "the Left," "atheists."
Victor, why don’t we compare socialism and capitalism and see what the difference is? How’s that work for you?
Then we can discuss the word woke and find out what happens when people get too woke like Budweiser for example
Rick, what do you mean by "too woke"?
Oh, bollox. If Jesus had been a socialist he would have demanded that Pilate increase taxes to provide a welfare state (maybe run by Scribes and Pharisees, maybe with Zacchaeus in charge).
Must be that the rest of the world is wrong. Its American hubris that presents as Americans thinking the quality of life here is the best. We are way down the list in literacy, health, education in general with greater income disparity compared to other Western countries.
Quality of life with many needing two jobs to make it. Democratic socialism considers all individuals not just the rich.
On the other hand, Dr, if we opened our borders, we’d be probably the third most populated country in the world.
40 years ago when we had a good sense of education, we were second or third in the world and unfortunately, I hate to say since the liberal side has taken control of the education in this country we are now in the mid 30s over 90% of administrators and instructors, especially at the collegiate level now registered Democrats
Just an observation.
Robert - Jesus taught a way of life that was socialist in nature, he was not a political activist.
No, he wasn’t, despite attempts to paint him as one.
And if he wasn’t a political activist, there’s no way he could have been a socialist. Try the parable of the talents.
I have been a Socialist since the 1960s.
There was some excuse for socialism a hundred years ago. None now.
Qanon doesn’t exist. It’s 12 people in a hole somewhere so stop the nonsense
Whether one or hundreds of people producing QAnon's influential lies, there is a large number of believers, including elected members of Congress and the people who voted them in.
I don’t know any that’s all I can tell you not a single one.
I almost forgot to mention my favorite: back in 2016 Hillary Clinton and others were keeping girls prisoner for sex trafficking in the back of a DC pizzeria. One sucker for that story armed himself, went into that pizzeria, and shot the lock off a door to rescue the girls. Fortunately, nobody was injured. The owner and staff received death threats. QAnon made a big deal of it in 2020. No, nobody I know has expressed belief in their fantasies and lies, but there are plenty out there who do believe. Look up Pizzagate.
Qanon made a big deal of it where? I don’t have to look up pizza gate will it really was was pimple Gate it was nothing.
Just like the story of her 33,000 emails, the bleach bit phone in the computer in the in the bathroom closet in Denver or somewhere in Colorado. Oh sorry, never mind that was true. lol.
And I love when you guys bring up ancient history. Was Moses around with this happened? This is 2025. Let’s try to keep it that way.
Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a video in 2017 praising Q as a "patriot," won a Congressional runoff in Georgia in 2020, and is still in office. Loren Boebert upset a 5-term Colorado incumbent in 2020. She moved to a new district in Colorado for 2024 and was reelected. Jo Rae Perkins ran for Senate from Oregon in 2020 and 2022 but lost both races. There unfortunately are more. Those who voted for them knew they believe.
The stress you face must be unbearable! As a retired professional I’m able to choose to avoid social situations with anyone who supports Trump, Musk, and the corruption and propaganda. I live in Southeast Florida, a staunchly pro-Trump state.
Home prices and rents are unaffordable for anyone but the very wealthy and wages are ridiculously low. Multiple families and individuals live together in small studio apartments. We’ve been in our home since 2000, when homes were still affordable, but our rural community (we have 2 acres), is being bought up by wealthy young people, demanding expensive amenities and our POA and property taxes are increasing to a point where our retirement income will not suffice. Our problems are nothing compared to those living paycheck to paycheck and unable to afford rent, utilities, and groceries. Nothing will change until it becomes so bad and so unbearable that the working class realizes that the ultra wealthy and corporations are the enemy.
Come to California we’re homes are ridiculously expensive and the minimum wage is $20 and families are living together to make ends meet under this administration
You do realize that that state was dominantly Democrat for a long time and only recently has turned red and for the first time EVER turned red in Dade County
Most populated area in the state
Thank you for sharing, though. I live in a rather solitary bubble of like-minded friends , so I had no idea that your industry had this amount of disinformation flying around.
Eileen, I hear you loud and clear and support the noble work you do as a flight attendant hurtling through the skies in a pressurized cigar tube with a plane load of of unhappy passengers.
A close friend of mine was a senior flight attendant on Finnair airlines, and had to quit her job because she found that almost every day that she was driving to work her eyes were full of tears due to the pressures that lie ahead on her upcoming overseas flight assignments. She changed careers and became a kindergarten teacher, but that was in Finland, where teachers are well paid and highly respected.
So I know secondhand what kinds of pressures you face and when I do have to fly, I am always grateful for the professionalism and courtesy of the flight attendants understanding the pressures that they work under.
It's good to point out that once that "metal tube" you've boarded goes onto its own air system, the cabin air becomes as free of viruses and cleaner than an operating room.
One type of person I enjoy encountering is the "flat-earther."
PS: Here's something that might be worth trying if you have a co-worker you know well enough to know if they have kids of reading age. Get a copy of David Pakman's 2022 book: "Think Like a Detective: A Kid's Guide to Critical Thinking." When I hear someone making a complaint similar to "schools today aren't teaching kids how to think," that person becomes an ideal candidate to mention (or show) the book to.
WoW! so that is where the Maga are concentrated.
Not only MAGA unfortunately.
Thanks Eileen. The same people who scream socialism is terrible partake of the child tax deductions, home mortgage deductions, public schools, police, fire and EMT services, road repairs, public water and sewers systems, libraries, FEMA disaster help, national defense, etc, etc. We already live in, define it how you want, a form of socialism in our country and we are better off for it.
During DT's last presidency I was in our local post office, maybe another form of socialism, and heard a guy going on about how taxes were way to high in our town. His main beef was that his business license fee had gone up. I asked him if he wanted lower taxes which city services was he willing to give up.
As I ticked off many of the above mentioned things he said no, he wanted to keep all those things. I told him he could move to a number of surrounding smaller towns in our area, have lower taxes, and not nearly as many services.
And, being an older man, when he or his wife had a heart attack in the middle of the night they could wait a couple of hours for an ambulance instead of the 5-10 minute response time we get in our town. At this point he was red in the face and said nothing, but stormed out, teeth clenched. One of the postal clerks just shook her head and said he was in there a couple times a week ranting the same story.
A few days later I told my friend, who was our city clerk, this story. He said our town doesn't even require a business license. If you start a business, just send a letter to the clerks office and describe the business, location and if there will be any hazardous materials stored at the location so the emergency responders will be aware. Simple.
I never get in an argument or raise my voice with these folks. Just ask them what they are willing to give up for lower taxes. Usually not much. Can't fix stupid.
Thanks for your story. All the best in 2025... GH
Eileen, I am so sorry you have to constantly be around people who choose ignorance and sensation over truth. Obviously they are missing something important in their lives, possibly a good education, thoughtful people, a quality media source that centered on communicating the truth. Those folks like belonging to a little exclusive club that has all sorts of inside information and little that you would say could matter. They cling to their conspiracies because that is all they have. It's a kind of hope that will probably stay with them until they pass on or until something dramatic happens to them and it does not go along with the conspiracies, like their child getting polio or measles becoming seriously disabled because of it. That is a tragedy, but I don't see anything less than a tragedy even getting through the protective shell they have created for themselves and their strange thinking.
Eileen G ; thanks for sharing. "without freedom of speech, we might be in the swamp." Bob Dylan.
You have my sympathy, Eileen. I think that these people are so angry at the establishment that they are willing to believe in anything that is anti-establishment. Trump has played them skillfully. Reality will not be kind to them.
I also can't talk to even family members without their insane reactions. This misinformation and cult-following behavior has been carried too far. Does the left need a new 'mantra'?
Wanda : what's coming will speak for itself. I have a feeling that those who are asleep will be jarred awake.
so much for free speech.
Professor Reich: several things leap out at me after reading this piece of yours. First, we must ALWAYS be wary of the rich and especially the ultra-wealthy. they didn't get obscenely wealthy without exploiting and denying a bunch of someone elses of the rightfully deserved fruits of their own labor. Second, the value of a strong education in history -- not memorizing lists of names and dates as what i had to do, but REAL LIVING HISTORY, as i later was exposed to by a brilliant history teacher -- could help us safeguard ourselves, our livelihoods and our nation's future.
Well said, GrrlScientist! 100% agree!
I'd like to make a motion that history be dropped completely from course curriculums. Why? because nothing appears to be learned from it. Or at least, whatever is learned has no visible impact on people's behavior particularly in organizations.
Or maybe history needs to be newly taught in ways that really get stored emotionally. History as a lived experience. Watching Schindler's List adds something words on a page can not for most people. Maybe being interned in a camp for a few hours.
A great teacher makes a difference but those are a bit too rare.
of course, learning how to read in the first place is a start.
Lis avec moi
steve: according to your logic, we should also drop mathematics from course curriculums because nothing appears to be learned from studying it.
but because i LOVE mathematics, i won't go there.
of course, we could also drop a dozen other subjects for the same reason. except that would wipe out the entire educational curriculum, reducing teachers to poorly paid babysitters and jail wardens for a herd of unruly and bored teenage brats.
I studied under a number of the top American historians of the 20th century at Yale Grad School. I was not impressed.
Probably because they got to be "top" historians by publishing, not teaching.
How RIGHT you are.
Well said!❤️🤍💙
But unstead of FDR we may have an Insurrectionist-in-Chief whose cabinet is stacked with billionaires and takes advice from Musk. We also have a Democratic party that is tone deaf, where is the constant updating of the American people about what the Republicans are doing to wreck our economy, their mass deportation plans, Project 2025? Dead silence. What about their vote to elect a 74-year old esophageal cancer patient over Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez for the Oversight Committee on Accountability? She served successfully under Congressman Jamie Raskin and should have been the next in line (former Speaker Pelosi whipped the votes against her). Congresswoman Cortez, to me, embodied the working class, populist, position that her constituents relate to and, given a larger platform, so would the rest of America. The Democrats demoted a future leader, instead. The Democrats should give daily or weekly updates that point out to the American people how the Republican policies are designed to further undermine our working class and that they are the party that will support and uplifting them. Again, dead silence. They have learned nothing from their defeat and I see no sign that this second Gilded Age, like the first, will come to an end.
George Manos : Tell your Democrat representative, (if you have one) not to certify tRump's "win". Not only did he cheat like hell, but he is disqualified to hold any office. The Electoral College votes are for an imposter who disabled himself by inciting insurrection and attacking the Capitol : He violated the oath of office made in 2016, to uphold the Constitution. Why allow him to do it again? Ditto for Congress, the election deniers are all disabled. The 14th amendment section 3 disqualification clause is in our Constitution. They all violated it, and are disqualified to serve in Our government, and should be OUT!
George, your analysis points to the incurable insufficiencies of relying on a two party system, as well as the fallacy of believing that somehow the Dems might save us. Faced with the failure of their current approach and platform, they have clearly been unable to get a cohesive vision for the future together. Their own Achilles heel is a false belief that they must pander to their wealthy donors in order to even exist. This has left the Democratic Party machinery in a state of impotence. If we want to solve our current political dilemma, we have to look towards restructuring, our political and economic system, and not a weak hope that somehow the next Teddy Roosevelt will arise out of the currently impotent Democrats and save us.
When Obama won the presidential election, The Republican party famously declared itself “The Party of NO!” In contrast with Trump being elected president, it would seem that the Democratic party has declared itself the party of no vision and no action. It is no wonder that a significant number of participants on this Substack have expressed such despair over the future. The root problem of that despair can in part partially be blamed on a hope that somehow the Democratic party will rise again and save us. No one will save us! As a collective, we must pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and demand an economy and system of governance that is by its nature, humane and not greed and lust for power driven.
You can blame SCOTUS and Citizens United.
There is a global far-right ethno-nationalist wave of which Trump-Musk is a part. Agree Democrats will do nothing, they have become the controlled opposition, and this is what they have left to sell. Americans need to use the free space left to them to shout loudly and in ever greater numbers, at every creep towards deconstructing American Democracy. "They shall not dicate." "Ellos no dictarán." Modernize the spirit of the Spanish Republicans? Colorful, loud, and this time totally inclusive.
The silence of Dem leaders is frightful- they appear to be intimidated. Can we afford to wait 2 years to organize ourselves effectively?
Well said!
Marc, you are denying the vision and action embodied by the legislation Biden enacted. Instead you are peddling a worthless distraction.
Excellent points.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, on Lawrence O'Donnell's show last night, said he has been saying this to the Democratic establishment for years, and they don't listen. He said that the right wing has built up a structure of as many as a hundred dark money front groups upon front groups whose funding sources can't be easily determined, that can relentlessly pump out disinformation including negatives about Democrats. Democrats have done nothing to combat this. He calls for the Democratic Party to have an "offensive coordinator" to call out these dark money groups and inform the public about what is going on, and how they are harming our country.
My observation: The Democratic Party Establishment is an exclusive little clique that sits around patting themselves on the backs about how virtuous they are, while the dark money groups and their Republican lackeys overrun the country. When Democrats enact beneficial legislation, they don't go out and vociferously promote it. Instead, they sit back and expect the public to somehow recognize their good works and reward them at the ballot box. The Republicans and their dark money puppet masters, in contrast, launch disinformation campaigns to turn the Democrats' beneficial policies into negatives in the public's eyes.
Every project that received money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), should have a sign in front of it that says “Thanks Joe”. Then people would know where the money was coming from.
I live in a blue city in a red state. We never see our Democratic rep and I’ve never heard him extol the work of the Biden admin. He has been the rep for many years and no new people are ever offered by the Democratic Party.
(Let me borrow Jimmy Carter’s sweater as I speak of malaise)
Agree with you Carolyn. The DEMs need to start bragging about their accomplishments, past and present. The GOP has done nothing good for the American workers for the last 100 years but have done a very good job lying about what the DEMs have done. Happy New Year... GH
Yes, Carolyn, they do this by playing the race card.
Makes me feel better because I’ve been saying this for years at my level. Whitehouse will need to make this happen himself by bringing in the right strategists. Maybe some military types in part.Recent article in Politico where he talks to this shortfall. He has been kind of busy doing other things.
You echo my thoughts. I might also add, the people who are suffering right now, are the very people who are voting to continue the second Gilded Era. There is much poverty in the area I live —and yet those are the people whose yards are plastered with Trump signs, enormous flags, and banners (even now, weeks after the election). If FDR was to rise from the grave and run for president, the maga-ites would continue to vote for anyone who was not a Democrat.
Fox is in your way.
TR and FDR were exceptional men. So was Teddy Kennedy, but nobody is perfect, and the Chappaquiddick tragedy put him out of the running for the presidency. It was a major loss to the country. Obama was another extraordinary man, but the country's racism limited his possibilities. Individuals matter, but unfortunately, the individuals who matter now are Trump and Musk. I see Wes Moore as another individual who could make a huge difference to our country, but, like Obama, he will face the racist wall.
This is why the Orange Felon won - he was able to get a (sick) message out that unfortunately resonates with many working people! During the Democratic National Convention, most of the speakers were college educated, under 35, and too much emphasis on buying a new house. No message for the millions approaching retirement age having to work into their late 70s, threats to Social Security and Medicare, the Post Office, the ACA, voting rights and the rights of workers to organize.
💯💯💯
The bottom 90% need to form a UNION and take our country back from the robber barons! Their kryptonite has always been people who form unions against their greed. The bottom 90% made them rich and this is how they repay us! It’s time to take a stand against this greed and anti Jesus teachings’ nonsense! One saying that really matters is “we will all do better when we all do better”.
Economic Boycotts are probably our Best Tool... But how to Organize? Start by not buying a Tesla... There are probably other Pressure Points...
I'll never buy a Tesla and I don't use PayPal. The latter is Theil's business. That's the Theil who says that women getting the vote was a regressive step and led to Social care and it's costs. He supports Vance, who I think is a weirdo. He looks like one of those Nazis from Hollywood films, and he seems to have similar views.
Unfortunately, Colin, I discovered that PayPal bought out Venmo and now I am trying to avoid any of those money transfer options. Hard to do nowadays.
Seems Robert's comments on monopolies is correct.
Thiel sounds like a strange dude. I read he has a thing about death and wants to live forever so gets blood infusions from blood of young people. Made it scary when I read he had adopted children!
Is Thiel really a 'Blood-Sucking Vampire'?
Apache, you hit the nail on the head! Economic Boycotts would definitely be the best tool to fight these richy rich; however, if we don't have an enormous amount of Americans willing to do this, it will not work. Your question is the one that needs to be answered. How do we Organize this? I sincerely hope someone can come up with a workable answer and solution!
Difficult to do when monopolies are so widespread. I remember resolving to never buy products from Koch industries. When I researched all they owned, I saw it was impossible unless one lived as a hermit, needing no consumer goods.
That's true, Yespat! I had to sit down and give a hard look at what I absolutely had to have to survive and what I could actually do without. I work hard at only shopping at Farmer's markets, u-pick fields, vegetable and produce stands, thrift stores and local mom and pop places. Yes, sometimes I do have to go to a corporation store but I am trying my best to avoid them! I guess it is a crystal clear snapshot of how bad things have become!
How about a national strike by Democrats and all fair-minded Americans?
Yes, Rosemary, it's a powerful weapon.
There are too few of them to count.
You organize by focusing on issues and being passionate about it. Here is an issue I feel passionate about (besides climate change): maternal and child health. Focus on improving peoples' lives and others are likely to join you.
The bottom 90% each has a “say”, “vote” every time we click digitally. Be deliberate each time you click. Our clicks in support of fact-based information are being measured.
Also, the bottom 90% each has an affect on advertisers in our capitalist marketplace. Be deliberate each time you make a purchase. Advertisers are desperate for our clicks and our dollars. Our clicks and our dollars are being measured closely.
Stock divestments help too!
We must refuse to participate in a corrupt economic system. Identify and boycott worst offenders. Cancel subscriptions. Organize blackout days for everything digital. Put an antenna on your TV, watch CSPAN, get a landline, visit library, disable GPS on your car, get a dumb phone for emergencies, buy local produce, stockpile beans, rice, and canned goods, or learn to can. Visit local coffee shops and meet neighbors.
I have been thinking the same thing, Apache. We could boycott Amazon too. We hold a lot of power when we act together!
Another ad hominem attack by Robert P.
We are not all Christians. Opposition to greed does occur in other faiths.
Yes, it does!
Keith, we need to admit the failure of Capitalism. Strong unions can help lead us out. Our Empire is in quite a decline. The right is clueless about this. I hope this is a change to make steep changes to our way of life. And we must prepare for a more equitable society. Removal of the right wing monopoly on our media must happen or we will not convince enough people. And we must NEVER forget how looking the other way while the right bulldozed this nation with christian nationalism & lies must never happen again. So much work to do.
A rising tide lifts all boats
Love this, Keith!
Prof. Reich should give some data that underlying his arguments. He never does.
@RobertReich: Please write about Curtis Yarvin and TESCREALism, as it's the philosophy and worldview that drive The Apartheid Doughboy (TAD) and all the other tech billionaires who have taken over our government. In fact, TAD has stated that he is a proud TESCREAList. Additionally, JD Vance reads Yarvin's work and has spoken positively about what he (Yarvin) recommends. For example, Yarvin recommends "ignore the courts." TESCREAL stands for transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, and longtermism. Yarvin is on Substack: Gray Mirror.
You forgot to mention that Teddy became President by accident (VP, politically appointed - mostly to get rid of him in New York by the Republican political machine). He became president after McKinley"s assassination. Do you really think he would have been allowed direct election to the presidency by the politicos of his time?
Well, he did run for president and won the 1904 election.
So let’s end corporate rule, already! movetoamend.org/motion because corporations aren’t people and money isn’t speech. Please sign on.
Thank you, Lawrence, I just signed the motion and have joined movetoamend! I will be sharing this link with family and friends! I appreciate the information!
The link you provided did not work.
I signed it
My fear is that the new robber barons are not dumb. Trump and screaming mob from the GOP that carry his train are, but they are just tools of the those barons. The new ones are smart, very smart, and they know this history, too.
The first robber barons were not dumb. Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, et al, built their wealth from the ground up. They didn’t just inherit it from Daddy, like some of the current bunch - Drumpf, Musk, etc. And I wouldn’t assume they know this history. At least half of them are immigrants who came here after public school age. I doubt the First Gilded Age is taught in South African history classes. Drumpf of course has already proven he knows nothing of history. And what gives me the most hope is the fact that, like the first robber barons, these guys (and notice how they’re all men?) are driven by greed and outsized egos. They believe they are Masters of the Universe and smarter than everyone else. But they don’t understand the first and most important fact that history teaches us - there are more of us than there are of them and when the mob wakes up, it turns on them first.
Didn't say the first ones were dumb. The most dangerous of the current crop aren't even on most people's radar. Musk is an exception. And it's a mistake to think coming here "after public school age" means they aren't educated or don't know the history. The president-elect was elected by that public school educated mob.
I have little doubt that eventually the tide will turn against this force. Eventually. What will be left when/if that happens will likely be unrecognizable.
I went to public school in the 1960s when students actually got taught to think!
Excellent!
At least we got some museums and libraries from the first robber barons. Some of them did have a sense of responsibility to society. Unlike the current bunch.
I am increasingly not seeing a collective way out of this crisis. Throw in out of control climate change, and nuclear war mongering. The Gilded Oligarchs are a part of the problem for sure but at least most of the planet is still inhabitable even with the massive 95% loss of biological diversity that is predicted by the end of the century. Only until the sky is full of nuclear missiles headed all over the hemisphere!
At that point we cannot redistrict our way out of a radioactive wasteland or cope with rapidly rising seas that cover where most people choose to live by reversing the personhoods of corporations, or deposing Justice Thomas finally. These actions will become as effective as setting up a recycle bin in one's office, or lowering the thermostat a few degrees.
What is worrisome with Trump and his ship of fools is that they will bring us closer and closer to that last few seconds before midnight. Putin, running out of options, is almost there and is itching to use a Tactical Nuke. Remember that Trump once asked "We have all of these Nukes. Why can't we use them?"
Vedic Rhonda Swampy may decide that humans are too stupid to make split second military decisions as to whether or not to launch or not launch and use AI instead. I am sure that will work out well as it is fortified against hacking as is the Treasury Department.
Recently the NYT had an article about the new AI server farms in Central and Eastern Washington and Oregon sucking up all the hydropower-generated electricity and how everyone in the Pacific NW should expect brownouts.
We are now getting energy alerts around Seattle almost daily. Everyone, please turn off your lights so that United Healthcare can use its Artificial Intelligence Platform to better deny 95% or more of our medical claims. After all, there is nothing more worth protecting than Shareholder Value. Look at that! Another Billionaire just made a killing on Bitcoin.
The generals are currently reviewing the attack plan - currently underway - that was written by ChatGPT with illustrations by Dall-E.
We will certainly win our wars against Greenland and Panama, and bring our Drone Boys back home! Go America!
Many are making a killing by "Shorting America" - that is, profiting betting that everything will collapse. They do this entirely with borrowed money. Dr. Reich could explain how this works better than anyone I bet. I am not talking about his physical height, but about his amazing intellect. To get the point across, he uses his Stature and what better topic than Shorting America!
I know Casey Burns it's hard to realize things are this bad!
troll
I recently heard on Ukraine: the Latest podcast that Putin has banned mining cryptocurrency in many areas of Russia. It looks like their infrastructure cannot handle it.
Yesseree!
I really enjoyed this post, Professor Reich! You are so right and our message should be very clear. We must unite together and shout out to every American that this gilded age is coming to a screeching halt. "We the People" want guardrails back in place to keep the wealthy and powerful in their place! They can hoard their money all they want, I don't care. What I do care about is when their greed for more, more, more takes away from the rest of us. We need to sing out about workers, (who, by the way, are the foundation and backbone that keeps these corporations going!) need to be able to organize and form unions to protect them in the workplace. We need to belt out with gusto that those programs, our social safety nets, like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid must never be threatened as they are lifelines for millions of Americans. Not only that, WE the people are the ones who paid into them when we worked our whole lives! Those programs belong to the American people and they were not put in place for Congress to "dip into" when their "rich" puppet masters told them to! The government must pay back every single penny they "borrowed" from our programs! That money is the American people's money! If we don't send this message loud and clear to the orange man and his motley crew, our future will not be bright. We must end this so-called gilded age crap and return our country to its former glory when the middle class was the biggest and the best the world has ever seen! The 'silent majority' needs to speak out loudly now, more than ever! Those that 'went to sleep' during this last election need to be awakened. No one that cares about our country and our future can continue to bury their head in the sand waiting for it to "blow over"! All of us must speak up! C'mon America - stand up and be counted!
Great post Peggy- I feel the same way and so do millions of baby boomers. The great middle class was most alive under Eisenhower. If we look at the tax rates for the wealthy at that time it makes sense. The top tier tax rate was 90%. Reagan started the 2nd gilded age by slashing tax rates in the 80s. He closed thousands of mental health hospitals pushing millions into homelessness and promoted employee paid medical plans with pre existing condition clauses to help for profit healthcare expand. Trump started the 3rd gilded age by slashing the tax rates for the wealthy even more in 2018. The boat is gonna sink unless he finds more money to steal to keep those taxcuts in place as they are set to expire in 2025. The only big $$$ to steal from are: defense, social security, Medicare/ Medicaid and ACA.
Unfortunately NO ONE brought up these points in the Democratic campaign. Whoever runs for 2028 will need to be brutally honest - maybe even exaggerating what will happen to get the point across.
Thanks, Susan. You are right, it is all about the messaging. We must find someone who can make these points so clearly and concisely that everyone can fully understand. If the orange man targets our defense, social security, Medicare/Medicaid and ACA, 'We the People' need to protest and scream loudly that he is stealing what is ours for his wealthy friends. We have to have better messaging!
Pete Buttigieg is best communicator we have
100% agree, Virginia! He has never backed down from MAGA and right-wing nutters! He speaks concisely and truthfully and has the evidence and proof to back up what he says!
I love Robert's positive thoughts about how we survived the first Gilded Age. This time though the Barron's have control of the media/internet. Can we over come the lies on podcasts, troll sites, Fox, Newsmax, etc....? The press back in the 1920's was local. People in New York could not spread lies to people in North Carolina as fast and easy as today. The national press mostly reported facts back then, not opinions and lies like Fox does today. We have been divided into two groups by the Barron's of "for profit media and technology." One group is fact-based, and the other group believes only what they want to believe whether it is true information or not.
Figuratively at first, literally, if necessary (see: Thompson, Brian), these “malefactors of great wealth,” as Theodore Roosevelt called them, must be picked off, one by one, until they come to understand that for their undermining of American democracy and its middle class, they, their families and heirs will pay a penalty so terrible that merely being stripped of their wealth to sleep on subway gratings for warmth will seem the lightest of punishments.
They must also be made to understand that The People know who they are, but they do not know who The People are — an unavoidable consequence of their not caring who The People are — beyond viewing them as interchangeable and eminently replaceable workers in the businesses they own and invest in, and consumers of their products and services — so they can surround themselves with expensive private armies and hunker down in their mansions, prisoners of their own disdain for the average American leading his and her life of quiet desperation, largely as a consequence of that disdain.
It all may sound very cold, but just desserts are the coldest dish of all.
Well said, Avie.
We do know who many of them are- many articles circulate on BlueSky. Some person or group must build a simple table of names, corporations, products, services. Then post it daily on BlueSky until everyone sees it. I've done some of this. Next step- stop feeding the beast with our money.
"being stripped of their wealth to sleep on subway gratings"
Rudy G: "You rang?"
Fantastic, Avie! It doesn't sound cold, it sounds like consequences!
You are brave and kind to share this information with us. I appreciate the risk you took to do so. Not many others would. Fear is what is paralyzing the ones whose brains have not been washed with foolishness and conspiracies. I want to thank you for taking this step of bravery. It’s going to take people like you to save our democracy one person at a time. Thank you.
Wake-up Call?
From 'How the social structures of Nazi Germany created a bystander society'
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/bystander-society-9780197691717?cc=gb&lang=en&
****
" A bystander society
Fulbrook has shown how ordinary Germans were drawn into “processes of complicity”. Under Nazism, standing by as state-sponsored acts of collective violence were perpetrated gradually became the required norm. The personal risks of doing otherwise were very real. “What might be a morally laudable stance in a liberal, democratic regime,” Fulbrook writes, “may be, in other circumstances, both ineffective and potentially suicidal.”
If someone in the UK in 2024 judges German bystanders to Nazi crimes as “guilty” for not standing up for victims, they do so according to the moral obligations of a liberal democracy. **Hitler’s ascension to power in 1933, however, had marked the end of German democracy. The Third Reich was a brutal police state. People were encouraged to denounce opponents to the regime. Defiance ran the risk of arrest, imprisonment or political “re-education” in a concentration camp under Schutzhaft (“protective custody”).**
Both in Germany and across the international community, everyone had to understand the violence enacted under Nazism on their own terms. Even the words “genocide” and “Holocaust”, by which the era has since been defined, were not yet in people’s vocabulary.
The term “genocide” was coined by the Polish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, in 1944 to describe the Nazis’ programme of Jewish destruction. “Holocaust”, a comparatively older word, only came to be widely used to formally describe the genocide perpetrated under Nazism against Jews from the late 1950s.
Further, racial segregation was also practised in other liberal democracies at the time. Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation across the southern US states. The notion of racial hierarchy underpinned the British and other European empires.
Engaging with contemporary non-victims’ perspectives can help us to understand the violence perpetrated during the Holocaust as an effect of social systems. American literature and Holocaust studies scholar Michael Rothberg has argued for an approach to historical violence that considers the perspectives of “implicated subjects”.
Rothberg suggests the categories of heroes and villains, victims and perpetrators are inadequate in accounting for the harms done. Moving beyond them can also elucidate the destructive social dynamics of our own period."
January 6 Should Be "Disqualification Day" For Adjudicated Insurrectionist Trump. But Will It Be?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OCN-OvYsW0
Structural violence theory is not just a concept, but a crucial understanding for all of us. It's a form of violence wherein some social structure or social institution may harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs or rights. This understanding is urgent, especially in the context of the U.S. healthcare system and its impact on society.
Johan Vincent Galtung, a Norwegian sociologist, proposed the theory and founded the Peace Research Institute Oslo. The U.S. for-profit healthcare system is a stark example of structural violence. The 'solutions' to increased healthcare costs, such as 'payviders,' where the insurer becomes the provider and vice versa, echo the lack of transparency created by 'innovative financial instruments' such as mortgage bundling, derivatives and other under-regulated ways of extracting wealth from the mortgage industry before the crash of 2008. This comparison is not just a theoretical exercise, but a stark reality that we must confront.
More than 30% of rural hospitals are near bankruptcy. Private equity is to hospital systems what corporate raiders were to U.S. industry in the 1980s.
Thank you, Gloria ...Fully agree with complicity in embedding 'structural violence' and all the more reason why Congress needs to be reminded of the consequences of certifying the presidency as things stand...Nazi Germany 1933-1945 was an unforgettable and shameful moment in humanity's history on all fronts and may be repeated unless Congress - regardless of political leanings- understands what really is at stake for themselves, family and the community- - US and world! . Hitler surrounded himself with people like himself - deja vu!) -- power hungry, ruthless and shameless (inhuman) - with millions of innocent lives / future generations lost . Lessons have not been learned and impact is now much greater given existential risks ...(glueddeke@aol.com)
Gloria, thank you for this valuable information.
And yet even though it is seen by all what is happening between the rich and the average, half of voters vote for the political party that wants it to continue.
Same type voters that believed Reagan when he said it will Trickle Down.