119 Comments
Jul 29, 2023Liked by Heather Lofthouse

Speak TO them, not DOWN to them.

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And help them to understand what it means to be an adult... challenge them with curiosity and with purpose. Teach them how to become confident adults who savor empathy and kindness before anything else.

Teach them how to learn from their mistakes and ours as a nation.

More than anything teach them how to find the diamonds ( truth) in the sand(propaganda).

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I disagree.. Despite what was said, satire works. Trump is a master. Consider Trump as Bluto in Popeye cartoons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEAGQn4PXlw

MAGATs are primarily motivated by peer pressure. Individually most vote against their own economic and physical health.

They are in a culture war. Archetypal villains. De Santis (per Trump De Sanctimonious) as the Grinch. McConnell as Oscar the Grouch. Melania as Natasha (think Bullwinkle).

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Love the characterizations!

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"Melania as Natasha". Aw c'mon Dan. That's not fair to Natasha or Bullwinkle.

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I love your comparison to Bluto, Daniel, that fits Trump to perfection.

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Hence the death of the Trumplican party.

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It's also important to simultaneously stop the DNC from fouling up their prospects in other areas like they did with Hillary:

- DEMOCRATS WON'T BACK THEIR OWN CANDIDATE:

https://youtu.be/zCLjayPlWXI

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Well said Bill Horne. Presentations on large scales are tough to pull off effectively. Here's hoping it can appear to be speaking 'with' them about stuff Bob and Heather know and can back up with facts in evidence, as opposed to appearing like an opinion share or dictation.

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Once again all of above. This is the group we need to reach as we boomers drop off. They are young and numerous and we need to appeal to them.

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The Democratic Party Can Work With Influencers In a Way That Actually Relates to Young People https://www.teenvogue.com/story/influencers-politics-democratic-party

How Democrats Are Using Social Media Influencers to Get Out the Vote

https://time.com/6227149/democrats-tiktok-influencers-midterms-2022/

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If we don't as boomers, history will not be kind to us. We will be a reviled generation.

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Living in Florida, which is part of the Caribbean Cultural region, not the USA’s South, language is EVERYTHING. I understand that your question was about rhetoric, not language.

MAGA Republicans distribute disinformation in Spanish throughout Florida. This is the primary reason why Floridiots (I can use this word because I am one), vote for the republicans. And there is deeper nuance to this. If you have a political think tank, read to make Florida solid blue, I can lend guidance.

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Dadas todas las revelaciones, incluida la admisión de Giuliani, cada entrevista con un político republicano debería ser si todavía cree en la gran mentira.

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Every potential candidate should be asked the same question, over and over again, ad nauseam.

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Dear Robert and Heather, Thanks for all you do to cultivate empathy, the soul of democracy and human rights, among young voters. Pro-empathy freedom voters in and out of office are the solution.

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Jul 29, 2023Liked by Heather Lofthouse

Bob Reich ! Your 'buy line' for this article made my heart flutter, skipping several beats as I read it, "Heather and I debut before a live audience" ! Reading further, I find that "the Heather" is not 'my' Heather, Heather Cox Richardson. Oh, and please no offense whatever towards who I now know to be 'Heather Lofthouse', for if you guest her, she must have something of substance to add, and I will read, watch, and learn what she shares. So... a hello to Heather Lofthouse !

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Jul 29, 2023Liked by Heather Lofthouse

More and more, especially in my work advocating for caregivers, I see we have to employ several specific actions, simultaneously, and on multiple fronts. This is also true for startegies in reaching young people. What do you all think?

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Jul 29, 2023Liked by Heather Lofthouse

That was great . Could you do a chat about IA and how it will affect workers please

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All of the above.

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I'm 87, and I get most of my news by reading. I read newspapers online, I get emails about politics, and I'm on two social media platforms. I also like the videos you produce on economics and politics, and I leave the sound on. The sound of your voice and the sound effects are important to me. If young people get their news differently, you're right to accommodate them. They're going to make a big difference in the next election, and will continue to be important for many years.

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Yes, Art, sound on! What's the point of viewing if you're using your own imagination to interpret what you see?

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Art,

I wish you all good things! I hope I will be as positive when I reach 87... 🤗🎶🤗

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The "monopolies" that are most dangerous are the food industry, the water industry, the health industry, the housing industry, and the energy industry. I believe I maybe using words in a way unique to myself, but these are fundamental to everyone's life. We see it in extremely poor neighborhoods and in extremely rich neighborhoods. The people with wealth create neighborhoods that don't have healthy food distribution centers in poor neighborhoods by driving up prices. I saw it especially as a young woman when wealthy people learned that some of the foods poor people ate were not only healthy but tasty. The pseudo-governmental and governmental agencies, who control who gets potable water and in what quantities, control the health of the people under their power. Also of great importance are investors, who do not seem to care if there are adequate water resources and entice people to move into a region only to find water is a problem. This has been true of the States between the Mississippi River and the mountain ranges in the States lining the western seaboard since the 1890's when government surveys were issuing warnings about the stewardship of the available water. The health industry, driven by profit not standards of care, failed all of us during the pandemic by their use of just-in-time supply chains and destroyed the soul of our healthcare workers at the same time. They continue to break the hearts of our healthcare workers when healthcare workers know they could reduce suffering either through preventative care or routine healthcare and the industry instead allows the emergency care systems to be overwhelmed by cases the industry denied diagnostic procedures and the resulting appropriate standard of care when it really mattered. The housing industry is entirely focused on providing housing that returns very large profits, making affordable housing a myth. They're even carrying this desire for greater profits into rental housing which was never really supported for people whose wages are close to or below the minimum wage. The inability to recognize the affect of personal crisis on people who are unable to acquire adequate wealth and to empathize to the extent of providing help rather than turning people out on the street is leading to leading to the breakdown of not only communities but of our government. When energy resources don't reach where a person lives, they can die. Ensuring the electrical infrastructure is capable of supplying the needs of all Americans, at a price they can afford and by a mechanism that doesn't cause extremes in weather that can increase demand and result in catastrophic failures, is a matter of life and death. All of these industries determine who lives and who dies. They require close attention. Close attention by everyone.

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I agree, Paula, the housing industry is out of whack, as are the food and water. I live in a County that has owned its own utility district since 1923, our energy is mostly from renewable sources and our rates are low. Potable water throughout the Country is a disgrace, primarily because most are privately owned and therefore out for maximum profit not maximum safety.

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Another comment I have to make (and I thought you both gave a brilliant presentation) is that I disagree that Biden has done a good job. He’s miles better than Trump, but he is following many extremely bad policies that our country is notorious for. To. name just a few: unquestioning support of Israel, which right from the beginning has been carrying out what amounts to a genocide of the Palestinians; meddling in the politics of other countries, unseating good, democratically elected leaders and replacing them with despots who will let US corporations profit obscenely from their land and people; implementing unjust and cruel oppression of immigrants; trying to privatize all of Medicare and Medicaid (none of Medicare or Medicaid should be privatized at all)..

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Amen, Carol. 👍🥰🤗👏🏻

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Why does The Federal Reserve keep raising interest rates when it hurts the Average citizen?

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Because when you see every problem through the lense of the rich, you believe it's the availability of money that controls the economy. This is based on the false assumption that the people who are causing the problem can postpone their activity thereby reducing "the heat if available money fueling the inflation of prices". In other words, the don't view 5% unemployment as a problem or the availability of money through high interest credit as anything other than a win. Bidenomics recognizes that accepted economic theory is flawed. Biden's policies are focused to help the greater numbers of Americans not the few who have the resources to buy their way through this "rough patch". Vote for your own best interests.

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My guess? It helps the billionaires.

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If you have cash deposits and get high interest rates, you do nothing. When price deflation sets in due to evaporated demand among the middle class, your investment in cash buys more with less if you're a billionaire while the majority can buy only less.

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As usual, my reply would be “all of the above”. 🙂

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I believe all of the above are important - I know the question asks for MOST important but they are all equally important in my view.

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As always, a wonderful and thought-provoking podcast. Thank you!

As someone who is visually impaired, I have always enjoyed the opportunity to listen to your podcasts, and sometimes your online "courses," all of which I find very worthwhile. However, recently, the number of your podcasts have been reduced, thus requiring me to try to read your online opinion pieces, which, given my low vision, is difficult and has often resulted in me missing your valuable "lessons" of the day.

Accordingly, I respectfully request that you go back to presenting your daily opinions as podcasts that one can easily listen to sometime during the day. As a low vision person, that would be most helpful and very much appreciated.

In the meantime, keep on helping everyone to better understand what's happening in the world and how we can make things better. Thank you!

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I chose "other" for "all of the above." All young people aren't alike, just like we old people aren't all alike.

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