Almost everything the Republicans are complaining about don't have any reflection on the current administration. The problems we face as a nation are world issues with no easy solutions. To blame Biden is asinine. Trump reminds me of a toddler whose mother just gave birth to the family's second child and now Donnie Boy is having a problem dealing with the new arrival. Attention deprivation would best describe the downturn in Trump's overall attitude concerning the upcoming election. He feels left out. Trump is in over his head because he has no defense against someone as smart as Kamala Harris. Considering Trump's VP pick he has good reason to worry. Vance is a socially regressive Southern religious nut job who is in dire need of finding Julie Newmar. Trump's fixation over crowd sizes gives a glimpse into the childish thinking of a man whose mental facilities are seriously in decline. When listening to him, if you can stomach the event, everything the man states is all about him. He has no policy to affect any positive change in this country. Trump's desire for reelection is nothing more than a sick power trip initiated to feed his insane ego. Face it, Trump isn't smart enough to be president of this country, ever.
Lynn, you are right about Trump's motivations. Isn't it ironic that the Republican Party, once the law and order party wants to elect a convicted criminal to our highest office so he won't have to face the consequences of his criminal behavior! And he whines about immigrants committing crimes they haven't committed! He did commit the crimes he was indicted for and convicted of, and adjudicated for. Amazing!
And the corruption within the courts... they formed laws and decisions in order to guard THEMSELVES as ell as Trump. These decisions only harmed others, there was no harm reduction during those years. These fact sheets are so vital in the struggle to raise a better, smarter, kinder generation with access to education and opportunity. Collaboration is often better than competition.
As a former Asst DA in Manhattan, I could not be prouder of the work that my old Office has done, especially indicting and convicting the sociopath Trump. His struggle to retake the WH is about one thing only, as HB points out: to stay out of jail. Well, as the tee shirts I had made 4 years ago say: TRUMP - INDICT CONVICT IMPRISON
When the evidence is in plain sight everyone with a brain can see a criminal when the crime is so public. Defending a blatant criminal such as tRump a defense attorney needs to rely on a rigged court to get his client off. Such as a claim of immunity- immunity my a...
Ironically enough, he is too much of a "fucking moron" to realize no president has power over STATES. Georgia and/or his own New York could absolutely send their police force to DC to snag him if he were to steal a second election.
Didn't factor THAT into your dreams of dicktatorship, eh fatty? [sic]
He and Netanyahu both need to regain/keep their government positions to stay out of jail. My question is: Would we, as US citizens, want our allies to be loyal to us if a re-elected Trump decided to engage in genocidal attacks on Mexico or arab nations?
Plwase don't abuse and misuse he word genocide, you reduce it to nothing, when everything is a genocide, then there is no genocide.
Genocide is an intent to obliterate a race. In part or in whole. There needs to be proof of genocide,and it is an insult to intelligence to suggest that Mexicans and Arabs can be genocided. We are talking of obliterating millions and billions of people.
By your lights every war, every armed conflict is a genocide, If that be so then there is no such thing as war, struggle, conflict and we should just call everything genocide, and the word thus becomes useless.
The MAGA cult is dedicated to obliteration of all but the white race. I'm afraid I don't have a word that encompasses such mass murder for eliminating so many humans. I'm thinking that the white race has lead to the extinction of so many species of plants & animals that is proceeding on its course of planet destruction by the ancient art of war in all forms.
That is a Eurocentric attitude Catherine.. All races, all ethnicities have wiped out not only species, but other cultures, the Mongols wiped out whole cultures, Africans were not and are not peaceful agrarians. anthropologists though that they Mayans were peaceful agrarians,
The Romans, though white, were not Caucasians, and they wiped out whole species in their demand for slaughter and games in the Coliseum and other arenas'.
Whole species are endangered in Africa because of the demand for bush meat , rhino horns and tusks., Rhino horns are prized in China because they believe the are aphrodisiacs.
Mankind's demand for fossil fuels, is causing a slow specicide, and there is no need to worry about extinction of life,man is going that just fine, to himself and other species and it is all done without war.
That which is doing more damage than wars and slaughter is technology and the insatiable hunger of humans for more, for comfort and for sexual intercourse, we are killing ourselves and other mammalian life,on this planet
And the meek shall inherit the earth, meek being insects and other critters, which men call pests.
And he can raise money which he worships and desparately needs. Such a failure as a person, history will surely try to analyze his rise. Seen objectively it would seem impossible that someone like tRump could gain a following. A person with not one redeeming quality, not one!!
Lynn, it’s also about money. Trump used the presidency to extort money from (we now know)
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc. In addition, he leveraged his status as president to make business deals in other countries benefiting the Trump Organization.
“It’s no secret that Trump was struggling financially before he announced his run for office. His tax returns show that the presidency was great for his bank account. Congressional Republicans may have halted their inquiry into Trump’s finances, but there is still much to discover about the extent to which he truly abused the presidency for his own personal profit.”
“The full extent to which Trump’s foreign business ties influenced his decision making as president may never be known, but there is plenty of evidence that Trump’s actions in the White House were influenced–if not guided–by his financial interests, subverting the national interests for his own.”
Bingo. You perfectly nailed it. And after January, if not before, the legal walls will start to close in on him again. He is a desperate man right now, which is why I don't think he'll leave anything unturned to fight even the most legitimate vote counts.
Trump may be on a power trip, but he's a small man, and a small part of the problem. The MAGA movement is an unholy alliance between the Christian Nationalists and the oligarchs in this country. Trump can be (must be) trounced in November. But the MAGA's unholy alliance is going to require a sustained, long-term strategy.
The White Christian Nationalists movement is a direct threat to our democracy, make no mistake they have a network of wealthy oligarchs and religious leaders working under the radar. to garner votes for trump. He is a trapped dangerous man riddled with lies and criminality. Thus, he is trying to repeat what he has done. before. - back committed election deniers to refuse to accept the election results. He is encouraging them to break the law, a law that is taking away legitimate votes from our side. Democrats we must fight this!
Dunning – Kruger effect is on full display the Republican party at the moment. They are like a seven-year-old dismantling the motherboard of their Dad's sophisticated workstation computer because they had fun watching a game boy over at their friend's house.
Longer term, Christian nationalism will suffer from the fact the fewer young people are turning to religion. I am skeptical that the movement can find another Trump.
This why there is so much effort by the Project 2025 people to destroy public education, starting with the "eradication" of the Dept. of Education. (It 's the word they use.) We have to be vigilant and oppose this.
Thomas, being vigilant is not enough. Kamala Harris must put education as a top priority. She must define herself as the education candidate and denounce Trump's and Project 2025 call for the abolition of the Department of Education. The future of the country depends to a large extent on a strong, unified system of education. Today, education is more important than ever, and it must be affordable to everyone.
Yes, and fewer young people are turning to "religion" due to White Christian Nationalism. I am a member of "Christians Against White Christian Nationalism".
The strategy works. In 2022, Field Team 6 reached out to 5M unregistered voters and delivered 1.57M new pro-democracy voter registrations. A total of 41.8% of those newly registered voters turned out in November 2022, providing the margin of victory in crucial swing state races in Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada.
Texting is fast, easy, and anonymous. Field Team 6 will provide the training if you’re new to texting or if you haven’t texted in a while.
Texting is on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. PDT (2 p.m. to 4 p.m. EDT). Check out the schedule and sign up. Get some friends to sign up and host a texting party in your home!
yes, but if we don't fix the economic situation and the seasonal Florida economy - the wave will wash back out to sea with us in it.
There is a local restaurant that uses all J1s instead of Americans. The manager's excuse was well they work 14 hours a day here and then go back home to their country. It's a lot of money for them!
The AP wire yesterday said colleges were slashing majors because of the small families and there isn't enough enrollment. SO - what do we have? Population increase or decrease?
William Bill Black, PhD, lawyer, former bank regulator - The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One. Watch TheCon.tv - it's free to watch.
In my market, there are houses for sale. There are huge open house signs. I understand each part of the country can be different. My analysis is this - housing is not affordable and in Florida you would be shocked how the most of the entire coast line is rows of empty houses. We have poor land use laws (blame the republicans). There are plenty of empty vacation rentals that could be long term housing. So clearly, there is no shortages. And, in Florida many families are bunking up together and storages units are being built as fast as possible.
If the population is decreasing (I have another book - but I'll have to find it for you later today), then why the "lack of housing"? Both can't be true??
Agreed. And that's exactly what wall street did leading up to 2008. It was essentially no different than the gambling with the communities money towards the 1930s depression
The overall population isn't decreasing, but the birth rate in the US (and multiple other "advanced economy" countries) is falling. If you look at the statistics and analysis, it's mostly because it's too expensive to raise children in the Us today, where people are working 2, 3, even 4 jobs and still struggling to make ends meet. We still have plenty of immigration though, and even though the alt-right just loves to rail against immigration and foster protectionist and xenophobic policies, they cannot stop immigration completely, for multiple reasons.
Also, reading that article, and you know the one thing I see missing? Cuts to administration and upper "leadership." Plenty of screwing over students and teachers, but then again, colleges have been doing that for years, haven't they? Maybe we can push either this administration or the next one to force policies that require those "earning" millions of dollars to take cuts before they can do layoffs or cut programs...
Yes, agreed. And thank you. I have been sharing it everywhere. I don't think they have an adverting budget for it and main stream media doesn't want it shared.
It is a reference to a movie To Wong Fu, Thanks for everything, Julie Newmar. A story of drag queens traveling to compete in Miss Drag Queen America in Hollywood. They travel with a picture of the iconic Julie Newmar and she makes a brief appearance at the end of the movie to present the award. Great movie!
Oh. I am about as "unwoke" as anyone can get and much prefer to stay that way. The reason I quit listening to NPR. I just want to go back to the 1960s when things were much more SANE and all the crazies had yet to come out of the woodwork! Drag queens . . . ugh! And no, I do not have an open mind!
That's rather "forward thinking" of you but I'll tell you what. As one of millions of Black, American citizens who have served in the US military, we do NOT want to go back to the 60's.
Perhaps you should find a nice christian nationalist forum and be right at home.
Perhaps you should go eff yourself. It's not my problem you were stupid enough to put yourself up as so much cannon fodder. I am about as UNCHRISTIAN and IRRELIGIOUS AS ANYONE CAN GET, YING-YANG!
P.S. There's no comma between the words "Black" and "American". You are a Black American, period.
Someone else said she appeared in a Hollywood movie about drag queens! So are you saying Julie Newmar was a real actress and that was her real name? Just wondering. I've had my nose in writing and books my whole life -- not very up on popular culture!
Well, you’re reading the wrong books. I suggest you go to a drag show and see what they really are. A celebration of life and a whole lot of men and women expressing themselves in a positive way. And also, NEVER suggest to somebody that they should kill themselves. That is pure evil.
Oh, I'm "reading the wrong books"? How the hell would YOU know what I am reading??? I have NO interest in drag shows, gay pride crap, the idea of drag queens reading to children in libraries . . . ugh to all of that! Gays should just act like normal people and try to blend in with the rest of society instead of flaunting themselves all over the place. Who the hell did I suggest to that they should go "kill themselves," lady? What hallucenogenics are you on today?? Better go see a shrink -- you have a wild imagination!
Donald. you are so right about this. I was upset, again this morning when even NPR again tried to normalize Trump-Vance because Trump talked about something last night for two hours with Elon Musk. The chunks they played were pathetic and if those were the best, which is what I suspect, that does not say much for Trump's abilities and thinking these days. The interviewer, someone I used to admire said that Trump "laid out his policies" in that "discussion." If that is so, why didn't NPR play that policy outline. There was no outline or anything else meaningful related to the needs of this nation or NPR would have included it in its sound bites. They know Trump has no ideas beyond going after his opponents, insulting people, and making up incidents that never happened. Really pathetic!
NPR is trying to do that thing of respecting both sides of a story, but there’s a limit to that. If NPR really wants to serve and protect the public, they need to point to the truth. That “the emperor has no clothes.”
Elizabeth, I agree and feel it is time NPR be more forcefully called out on its terrible coverage of Trump and Kump. It is almost as though they were being paid big bucks to keep Trump looking pretty good even though he is imploding and that dementia is encroaching on his already poor ability to reason. They may not have to call it dementia because as far as we know, no official psychologist or psychiatrist has made that diagnosis, but they could more readily point out the lies and call them lies and the dis information and call it that. I don't really see it happening any time soon because it has been going on for more than 9 years and I guess has brought in the money the rest of us who support our local stations can't cover. Plus, I understand there are ultra conservative guys in charge there.
No easy solution??? It's all very simple. You just shut off the 900 bases around the world and cut 2/3 of the Pentagon stupid huge budget, plus the loopholes for the big dogs. With that spared fortune, anyone could save the country.
Alas José, there are no easy answers when it comes to military issues. If there were, we would have appropriately answered them decades ago. Brilliant people have been trying hard to fix this. As long as men want to kill one another to establish their courage and manhood, wars will not stop. I think we need a drug or set of drugs If possible that can be sprayed in the direction of men about to start or go into a war situation that would turn off the testosterone and whatever other hormones that drive them to the insanity of war. Maybe when women gain sufficient power in this world, we will get such drugs or men will no longer see the need to destroy everything for power they can hold always in the fear of someone else trying to take it. One can hope!
My dear Ruth, sorry I disagree with you and all the while I recognize you are somewhat right. It's true men attack men forever. But You reduce everything to psycological dimension which I understand but I see these issues as politics, as a class war being waged at all of us. I mean the American dream of domination of the whole world. You'd find it natural that more and more countries feel the need of being free of westen domination, colonization. I stand with them, for sure and your hope is dear to me.
The alternative to western civilization, which you characterize as dominationandcolonialization, is authoritarianism, prime examples are the theocratic Islam regimes of the mid east, north Africa, the Caucas, and Central Asia.Or the Theocratic Orthodox Regimes of Serbia and Russia, or the secular regime of China.
Perhaps you wish to live in one of them, but I don't.
Western civilization is far from perfect, and has infinite problems, but when it comes to freedom of the mind, the body, of society there is no choice when comparing it to Islam, Serbia, Russia, China or any of the undeveloped countries of Africa, Asia.
Our problem Jose is that we are headed in that dystopian future if Trump is elected, Project 2015 is their blueprint for the kind of nation that you seek.
Western Civilization is a mental construct. The reality is very complex. Presently, White supremacists claim to be defenders of "western civilization." The Catholic Church helped preserve civilization in western Europe, and for many Catholics Western Civilization is hard to conceive without the Church. Perhaps this is why JD Vance converted to Catholicism.
Mental construct or not Victor, it is the culture that I am living in, as oppsed to say an authoritarian culture like Islam or Russia or China, .
The Catholic church is an an authoritarian, patriarchal culture, from which western culture evolved, violently, over 300 centuries.
All labels are mental constructs Victor, they enable us to navigagte in reality and communicate with others.
To me western civilization is living free from oppression and forced conformity, by a group or society,something which the Catholics and evangelicals want to take away and force us into a cultural communism,, like that which exists in the Mideeast, Iran North Africa, Central Asia, the Caucasus's,India, China and indeed most of the world,.
Western civilization is the only culture that permits free expression and equal rights, but that will die on Nov 6th if Trump is elected
I so love the mental construct called WesternCiviliization and Boko Haram, Al Qeda, ISIS, and yes the mullahcacy of Iran and the Kingdoms and Emirates of the peninsula hate it, except for the ruling class.
Wow! José, that was a slap in the face, I certainly didn't expect that, but should have. Why would you assume I am not in support of the anti-colonialist actions of so many countries? Hmmm! However, what is going on in so many of those countries is not a move for anyone's freedom and is a power-grab by men who are using murders and other weapons to keep other people as far down as any colonial powers did. I admit they may have learned a lot of that from the colonizers, but it has been years now and there are a lot of other options for them, yet they do not choose them. Oh by the way, I am actually pretty much more than "bright," and proud of it!
I definetely never thought of slaping anyone in the face, least of all you, cause I really appreciate the care and calm you reveal in this issue. Sorry if I assumed a few of your thoughts that I shouldn't but it's a long habit, you know. About the need of freedom, we have to notice that it's natural that people prefer to be dominated by some local war lord than by a foreign one. Don't you think, dear Ruth?
Here is the problem with shutting down military bases. The U.S. is a guest in everyone of them, our bases exist because a status of forces agreement, If the host country tires of us, they can expel us, in fact Niger has done that in the last month. SOFA establishes ground rules, including which authority the troops report to when they break local laws.
These countries that have SOFA wants us because we provide protection, against hostile neighbors.
They are in our interest as well, because democracy and freedom does have it's enemies, Russia, China, North Korea and Iran are an example, ISIS, Al Qaeda, DAESH as well.
The enemies of the free world (such as it is) are making inroads into the lesser developed countries like those in Africa and Asia. Either through mercenaries like the Wagner group, or by offering, but not delivering, development., or through Islamic terrorists like Boko Haram, and other groups that are harassing the govenments of Africa, even Syria.
Do you honestly think that if we withdrew into our turtle shell, that all would be right in the world, that peace would reign, do you? If so you have been exposed to too much of Amy Goodman and her Marxist clap trap. I use to donate to Democracy Now, until they sided with Putin, not overtly but inadvertently. I guess they have a nostalgia for Russia when it was communist.
Here is what would happen in isolationist, closed off America. Russia would sweep through Europe with minimal resistance, China sweep through Asia withminimal resistance,while America, disarmed, sat on its ass.
Without access to needed resources, especially those needed for tech, and in the 21st Century, and without global markets to sell and buy from, America would be a sitting duck, a plum to pick from a tree by the more vigrous nations and religions. And eventually the country itself would revert to an agrarian society, with hostile nations and religions fighting over it's bones.
no Navy, no bombers, no air craft carriers, no submarines, no tanks, no satellites, no computers and chips other than the existing ones, long obsolete.
We would be a formerly developed country right and ripe for the picking by those that detest freedom, democracy and secularism.
Sorry but I disagree with you in various issues. I think that those who detest democracy are also on this side. A country like America where piles of money buys senators and congressmen, votes are restricted, spends 1 trilion on arms to feel safe, but feels unsafe, force thousands to live out in the streets and even dares to try to teach democracy to others, cannot be a true democracy. Is Germany a free country with 220 american bases and facilities on its soil? Yes you criticize China but it was China, not the USA that created the basic principles of pacific coexistence and not meddling with the internal affairs of other peoples. And yes the Iraqui parliament decided to get rid of american troops but someone doesn't want to comply. That is obviously imperialism. More and more countries are feeling the need to do away with it. Can't criticise them.
I could be wrong but my research shows that today the US has just over 40 bases in Germany with just over 35,000 active-duty American military personnel stationed there. As of May 2024 the Germans have 180,215 active-duty military personnel. The German population is 83.8 million (2022). It would probably be best to ask the German people if they would rather have our American soldiers there or the Russians who were there for for 50 years. Just saying. The idea that China created the principal of co-existence with it's neighbors is totally bogus. Throughout it's history Vietnam has suffered 23 invasions from China. The first invasion was in 111 BC. The Vietnamese forces finally threw the Chinese out in 939 AD. The last invasion from China was in 1979. Do your research. Cheers... GH
That is what makes WesternCivilization so great, you can disagree with someone, without going to prison or forfeiting your life, unlke your exampe of China. Or Russia, or Saudi Arabia, or Iran or Iraq,or Afghanistan or Pakistan,or, or,or.
Iraq itself is torn as to whether Americans should go or stay, the Iranian influenced cleric want America to go, the politicalleadersknow that if America leaves Iranwill gobble them up.
If the government says go, then America will go, just llike it has happened in Niger.
China;s policy of notmmeddling is strategic, they are engaged in a slow genocide against the Uyghers, an unassimilable Muslim and racial ethnicty in NW China on the edge o fhe Tarim basin.
They are sore pissed at others interfering in their internal program of slow genocide,and thus their program of non interference, but they are imperialistic, gobbled up HongKong, and tamped down democracy and spechand demand the same for Taiwan, which has never, ever been under the conrol of the PRC.
Now it is claiming all of the South China sea,including islands that belong to Vietnam, and the Philipinnes or have you missed he fight over he St Tohmas Shoals,
Yeh, we have a wasteful Military Indusrial complex, becausemilitary production provides jobs, and jobs provide votes. And people like jobs,they feed their families, clothe,house, educate and transport them.
The MIC fills human needs, needs that would not e filled without them. I tis a conundrum for sure. but the solution is untenable.
The Pentagon said that it doesn't want a next generation fighter or bomber, thati \doesn't need any more aircraft carriers,and Congress said tough,you are gettingt hem, because they are built in districts where important congress men live.
That i \s not the MIC,it is the Congresscritters forcing unwanted and obsolete wea[pms onto the Departmentof Defense.
How about the Congressional Corporation complex,not the MIC.
i was a team leader of a special ops unit, and hate to fight the congressional cororation complex,to get the specialized gear that I wanted, and needed,it was not in the supply chain, but on the civilian market, which was outside of the control of the congressional, corporation complex.
It is too bad that a phrase uttered by Ike in is farewell address has been given life by people who do not appreciate what these faults and failings have given them,that sit on a high horse spouting judgment and bullshit because that is the crap that has been fed them.
There is indeed a lot wrong with this country,which needs fixing and remediation, but the disfunctional, simplistic criticism I hear all of the time only aids and abbets the enemies of freedom and liberty.
There is nothing more Putin,XI, Un, DAESh,the despots of Iran, Afghanistan would like is to see us neutered, disarmed, weak and vulnerable then they can have their authoritarian way with the world, and with us.
Vance can easily find Julie Newmar. She's a young ninety, all over the web. I seriously doubt that he could negotiate a face-to-face with her. He is more dangerous than Trump, because he has a "cause", whereas Trump has none other than his own interests. Look out for nut jobs with a perceived righteous cause, a la Jim Jones. But Vance is meaner and nastier.
Steve, I am guessing Vance's cause is the same as Trump's non-cause; himself. He is quite content to pick up the cause of the moment as long as it will do harm to people he resents, is angry with, is afraid of, or just plain hates, and I suspect there are a lot of people and "causes" that would fit those criteria, and Vance claims to be christian! What a joke! It's also a joke that Trump claims he has had some kind of religious conversion with the "assassination attempt." I have heard some of his speeches since the event and heard nothing positive that might lead one to think a religious experience happened. It is just another ploy to capture the gullible who want to protect their Baby Donnie, to keep them on board Trump's crazy train.
and his only four FAILED years prove this fact. He TANKED President Obama's miracle economy after Obama fixed Dubbya's CRASHED econom-I sense a pattern here. Huh.
Facts - there is NO lack of housing. In fact, the opposite. It's data. On the AP wire yesterday morning the universities were cutting program majors because families are having less kids and the enrollment is down. SO are we having a population increase or decrease?
THE FACTS are that 2008 isn't gone it got buried. I love Dr. Reich's blogs but I have a serious disagreement on this one. References - William Bill Black, PhD, Lawyer, former bank regulator. It's de-regulation and de criminalization. The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One watch TheCon.tv
VANESSA: See my response above, private equity funds and hedge funds are buying up homes, and renting them at exorbitant rates, which drives up the cost of homes beyond the ability of first time buyers.
The housing problem is that hedge funds and private equity are scooping up homes as they come on the market, and turning them into rentals and charging outrageous rents.
Consider all we know about tRump, and millions want him to be president. Proof there is something seriously wrong with most of his supporters. Those with wealth that support him have a monied interest in his being elected and their interests are not ours, i.e. the vast majority of Americans.
Almost everything the Republicans complain about is their own fault and due, largely, to their incompetence in passing legislation (thanks to Newt Gingrich's turn to name-calling, being cruel and insulting instead of making policies) and their stubbornness about doing things ONLY with their members, refusing to compromise with democrats (as if that was a crime, itself). Yes, the Democrats are not perfect either. but for the last eight years, the GOP has grabbed the "let's be really stupid" ball and run with it to touchdown after touchdown of doing nothing.
Donald, while your exegesis is, in my 'USA outsider's' view, reasonably enough 'on the money' further to the analytical opinions you have opined within it, as members of the 'liberal' (as you term it in your country) class, 'we' need to remember that we're addressing fellow liberals with our own versions of 'reality' when making such or similar comments, while what you say here is of course also largely anathema to many average Republican voters outside the MAGA faction. Although many of the problems the USA faces are common to my country (Australia) and the rest of the world, there are nevertheless 'problems' that are peculiarly especial to the USA, and which arguably have their antecedents in its history, given its dual 18th century Enlightenment and Puritan heritage conditioning, while one may argue that many of the world's 'issues' were caused by the US (e.g. Reagan's neoliberalism forms, and interventions into other nations) with these thereafter being directly or indirectly exported to the rest of the world (e.g. refugees and mass displaced migration, and climate change response failure). 'Biden' is merely a 'projection' (as in the psychological definition) for many Republican's inability to understand their situation, with Trump being the instrument for their expression etc., with them being able to overlook his toilet training failures and later resultant dysfunction and criminality further to their dislocation. Suffice to say that whatever real and incontestable foibles Trump truly has, these are secondary considerations further to the ontological dislocation that so many US voters have experienced post the social moral bankruptcy that Bill Clinton evolved and presided over - sorry Sec. Reich! - while their 'irrational belief' in the strong leader (and one which parallels the support that the German lower middle-class gave to Hitler in the 1930's) ought be a serious watch word for any complacency that may occur following Kamala's recent 'showtime' efforts. Indeed, after having heard Trump online with the Musk rat today, what was disturbing for me was how 'credible' he can sound to these dislocated voters, while I was reminded of some of the You Tuber postings that feature Hitler talking normally in conversation further to his bellowing's. Beware America!! With best wishes to you and all in the USA, while also, we in Australia have compulsory voting!
Hi there Marcus. Two points. Sure Bill Clinton didn't do us working folks any favors but the real mess started with Nixon & Kissinger "opening up" China in 1972. This gave the green light for GOP businessmen to start sending our best paying middle class jobs, union or not to China. Reagan ramped this up with his union busting and further encouragement for GOP businessmen to send even more jobs there. The DEMs and unions surely didn't send the jobs there or agree to it. Put the blame where it belongs. Greedy businessmen and the Wall Street thugs who only care how much money they can put in their bank accounts.... damn the rest of us. Second point. I had a good chuckle about the name Musk rat. I talked this over with the Muskrats that live in my lake and they aren't amused. They are hard working rodents who take good care of their families and don't bother their neighbors either. Sometimes we all need to step back and have a good laugh about something!
All the best to you and our friends in the Great Country of Australia.
Thanks for challenging me on the Clinton reference, Gary, even if I'd respectfully contend that the fuller moral rot sunk in with Clinton as it did with Blair in the UK further to Thatcher's neoliberal inductions. Ironically, it's left wing leaders who are responsible for bringing the neoliberal juggernaut to my country and nearby New Zealand, while although Bob Hawke and Paul Keating (who is in trouble with 'your' Nancy Pelosi further to his recent comments regarding Taiwan being "Chinese real estate") gave rein to NL ideology in the 1980's, PM, John Howard then solidified it, while as with the US, all of Australia's manufacturing jobs went offshore to China etc.
That said, Nixon may have assisted with this at the 'economic' level re: NL's initial founding's, even if I'd further contend that NL is now much more pervasive than just being an economic shaping force further to it having become a socially altering one.
As for 'ratty Elon' (who I note has made some typically inane comments this morning regarding potential civil war in the UK!), he insults musk rats, while given his evolving self righteous ego spectre, he may well prove to be a far more threatening long term 'noise' (another thing that musk rats do not indulge in!) than Trump, and especially if Harris and Walz knock him off in Nov. (God willing); this despite the then aftermath.
Marcus I think that I would like your comment, if I could have read it. The problem with it and so many others is that you have a long paragraph with too many thoughts (subjects) for one paragraph.
You are, I assume, too young to have been a beatnik. I am not,I was one. Kerouac wrote "On the Road", many pages, one paragraph and the only way to read it was to be stoned.
am sincerely interest in what you have to say, but I can't follow so many thoughts in a paragraph.
Perhaps if you broke it down into many paragraphs, each one containing one thought.,
I suggest the example set by Mssr Reich, better yet Heather Cox Richardson or ThomHartmann.
My apologies for the verbosity herein displayed, William, and too, my atomisation concerning paragraphing further to one being somehow unaware that this format is permissible. I'll herein abide by your recommendations from hereon! P.S. BTW, your name is almost identical with that of the father of wheat in Australia, William Farrer.
William Farrer and I share a common ancestor, It was spelled Ferror in the 16th century, a ferror was a man who made crucible steel.
I have a number of very distant cousins who live in Ausralia and New Zealand.
William is a very popular name in the Farrer, Ferrar,Farrar, Pharo, Fairer, line I am the 8th of 11 in my line, Henry was also popular;ar, as well as John,and Thomas after 1682.
Ichecked on William Farrer he was born in Cumbria, England, a friend of mine, also a distant cousin, name of Stephen Farrer, he dies about 5 years ago, was also from Cumbria, no doubt he and Wllliam were distant cousins.
William... thanks for the history of your name. Correct me if I'm wrong but the term "ferrous" metals must have come from him! Iron, steel and other associated alloys that are magnetic unlike brass or aluminum fall in this group. Cheers... GH
Etymology of ferror is indeed Latin for iron, from ferrum.
Often confused with farrier one who works with iron,. A smith or blacksmith at the time was one who actually smelts ore and makes iron, and a ferror made crucible steel.
When your next in Australia, you'll have to check out the William Farrer Hotel in Wagga, Wagga - one of Australia's biggest inland cities. Meet you there for a beer etc! Best, M.A.
I am 85, and only be able to visit downunder as a ghost, which I don't believe in,but thanks for invite and knowledge. I gave up my favorite beverage in 1989, and all alcohol beverages, killing my liver and got me in three DUI's,, third time was a charm.
“The dire need of finding Julie Newmar “ . I love that. If I were Trump with Vance as my next in line, I would sleep with one eye open and triple my secret service agents.
No one factor describes Trump’s supporters. But an array of factors – many of them reflecting five major social psychological phenomena that form the tinder and the spark - can help to account for this extraordinary political event.
These social psychological factors are not unique to the United States. They are each discussed in this paper: authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, prejudice, relative deprivation, and intergroup contact.
All of the suggestions in this article are appropriate and good. But I would urge you to add another one: reforming the tax code toward making it a progressive one again. This would not have to be as strongly progressive as the one the US had in the 1950s but it should go partway back there. Bernie and Joe Biden feel that and have argued for it. Why shouldn't the Harris-Walz administration push for this? A lot of America's sickness as a society reflects its astonishing economic equalities. Let's try to reduce them and make the USA a far better place for its people.
Yes, last night on the PBS News Hour, we went over the Social Security is running out of money story again. It's frustrating to hear people interviewed who still can't embrace the notion of taxing upper level earners and think people should retire later. And then there are the young people who feel sure they can finance their retirement without needing SS. A friend just returned from a sabbatical in Austria, and he confessed what a relief it was to be in a place where no one worried about being able to afford medical care or sending their children to college. This is our chance to fix that in the United States.
Agreed, those who think running a country like the US on anything but a rock-solid tax-based footing and that upper-level earners shouldn’t pay more is unrealistic. On working later, nonsense and hen’s teeth, name one person in later life who agrees they wished they could have worked longer to get an SS pension over 65 or 67. Young people with college and or master’s degrees may, with a grain of salt, be able to finance their retirements, but for most high school equivalent workers, it would be incorrect to think that without social security, they will have much to sustain them in retirement. Millions of US citizens over time have been fortunate to go abroad and see social democracy in action and have come back accepting that, albeit different and not like the US, social welfare derived from all classes of working people and the paying of taxes to support society, in general, is not Communist/Marxist, Vermon oppression but is instead the sensible work of government and voters alike ensuring that citizens are not marginalized from cradle to grave. You are right we have a chance to start to fix things on November 5th or in early voting. Encouraging all to vote NO to DJT/JD Vance and both directly and indirectly to the Mandate for Leadership, The Conservative Promise 2025 plans to systematically destroy the imperfect Union and create a society that would be at par with Orwell’s 1984.
Sure work longer even though giant corporations lay you off at 60 with no healthcare. Where are the skilled, valuable people supposed to "work longer", Walmart?
I like the politics of joy....which is what Harris is selling. Turn that frown upside down.
Target pleasure only to people who are persuadable. “Vote for me because I’ll expand Social Security — while the other guy will gut it,” is a variation on the same theme Democrats have been using since Reagan. It only works on certain people. MAGATs don't believe it. Gen Z don't identify with it.
MAGATs are visceral. Most vote contrary to their economic and even physical well being. It. the culture, stupid! Take veterans and military families. 4 million active duty military members. 12.5 million people on Facebook are family members of a veteran or an active duty member. 242 million people on Facebook are friends with one or more veterans or active duty members. The magic words "not suckers or losers" are flipping many who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqCoCRmNUuA
Likewise, "Trump hates dogs" or Trump stole from kids with cancer" hits them in the gut. https://rvat.org/
We want to register more Harris voters, get more volunteers. .. team building. Gen Z don't identify with Social Security. Old folks with elimination of student loans. Everyone wants sanity.
Peer pressure works. Those surrogates, (like me) do well with their own demographic. Gen X for Harris. Boomers (doo wop) for Harris. Etc.
Trump is a guy who is not fit to stand trial, let alone run an organization. It's therapeutic for everyone, especially his codependents, that he get adequate treatment. How about Thorazine?
As surrogates, terms like "Batshit crazy" constantly repeated works on some groups. I use "Nutsy koo koo" or "bonkers" depending on the audience.
Hi, yes, Progwoman, thanks for your support on this. When I was a teenager, I became aware that many European countries had a much stronger social safety net and wondered why the US could not have the same, especially since it had a reasonably progressive tax system. And I think that the answer then (this was in the '50s) fear of "socialism", which was absurd. As I now approach 80, I still think that the US needs a far better social safety net and that the country could provide a much better one if it got its tax system in order and had the rich pay higher percentages of their income rather than lower ones, as they do now.
Yes. A Republican cousin said she's sticking with their plan, because she "doesn't want socialism." But she has plenty of money, which I suspect is clouding her judgment.
The problem with America is the Horatio alger myth, the myth, that everyone can rise up and be a millionaire. The average American believes that they are a temporarily disadvantaged millionaire, and that their time will come.
Well milliionaires maybe, with inflation. I'm lving comfortably on a pension and social security, my wife is on PERS, Our property which cost us $240,000 in 2001 is now taxed at $700,000 (mortgage free as well) so I am almost a milionaire, but only because of inflation, billionaires are the new millionaires.
By the time youth discovers that they have been hoodwinked, lied to, misled, it will be too late, and all they can do,if they haven't died young from disease, injury and disability, is bitch and moan about the system that they helped create.
I wondered if anyone would mention taxes. I know Biden promised his rich donors they wouldn't have to worry. Thank Citizens United. The last time our income distribution was this bad was during the Great Depression. You can literally create any income distribution you want with progressivee income taxes. We fixed the problem after WW II with a 90% top marginal tax rate and corporate taxes that were 6 times higher than now. If we were redistributing $40,000 per year from the top 10% to every household in the bottom 90% instead of the other way around most of our other problems would go away. Might actually balance the budget at the same time.
I am very much in accordance with your suggestion. In the past, I have suggested that we legislate a return to the federal tax rates of 1954, with the provision that when the debt reaches zero, it would revert to the pre-Reagan rate.
I like this specific idea very much. But for the tax system in the US to be reformed along such lines, a long prior period of public education on taxes and why they are necessary and why they should be progressive (in the old sense, that people with more wealth pay higher percentages) will be necessary. I do, however, think that such education and ultimately change of the tax code in this direction is actually possible.
Absolutely! Dr. Bloxom, I really did not know that hedge funds and private equity firms were doing this! I guess I just wasn't paying attention. I feel Congress should make this illegal. No wonder kids are staying at home! Housing should be for people to live in, not for Wall Street and the like to make money! Once again, it all boils down to greed, greed, greed!
It's been going on for years, Peggy, ever since Obama took Tim Geithner's bad advice and bailed out the banks. Ever since the subprime mortgage mess. I guess you didn't know anyone who got caught up in that HUGE MESS of losing half the value of the homes they'd purchased under those conditions, no credit checks required, etc. Home loans were being handed out like lollipops to so many who couldn't pay but the interest on them. People were buying more than one home under those conditions, thinking they could flip them and make a quick killing. Banks doing those types of loans were going under, as well as other types of rogue lenders. Can't believe you missed all that. Bank of America got into big trouble over it. Just about destroyed their reputation.
We should have been like Iceland, but Obama didn’t have the balls to do it….all those bankers in jail then would have alleviated a lot of our problems now. When he bailed them out they became emboldened and doubled down on greed.
Susan D and Kearney K — Obama’s mistake was not, imho, bailing out banks, because had the TBTF banks been allowed to fail we would very likely have had a longer and deeper worldwide depression (which we have politely called “the Great Recession” ) which still managed to cost jobs and increase homelessness, and which led directly to the private equity firms scooping up real estate at bargain prices.
I think it would have been karmic justice if the “banksters” whose risky bets on derivatives and liar loans to people with shaky credit got the economy in trouble had been prosecuted. But there is no law against stupidity, and taking risks is what they are paid for, the problem being that they were never held to account for their failures.
I voted for and liked Obama. His problem was color: green. And I remember his acknowledgment of that. I wonder how things would be today if Joe Biden were elected in 2008 or if he ran in 2016.
And sadly, Tony West, who is Harris' brother in law, and working for free for her campaign, was the man who screwed up the implementation of Obama's negotiated settlements with the banks for their mortgage fraud... I'm worried about big trouble ahead!
In my country these private equity funds are a problem in housing too: the rents are to high, the landlords not social, only looking for profit.
The money for pensions are hoarded by some institute you don't know and can't influence. Maybe a good combination: reserves for old age pension, invested in your own rental home?
No wonder seniors are living in their cars and on the streets!! My rent is 40% of my income….in order for me to qualify, in a lottery for 64 apartments out of 1000 applicants, for senior housing, I would have to quit my part time job. The expectation that you have to be destitute before you can any help at all is ridiculous
Not only are they buying homes already built, but they are also building neighborhoods, called "Homes to rent", of homes that will only be rental houses.
We turned off working class mortgage access after the 2007 crash despite that being caused by the mortgage securities themselves, not lending to working class people. This resulted in a big drop in new housing supply, which helped lead to today's housing crisis.
"The suffocation of entry level mortgage lending meant the suffocation of entry level construction. Before 2006, more than half a million new homes were regularly sold each year for less than $200,000. By 2011, barely 100,000 were sold at that price point, and that market has never rebounded."
Eventually, private equity looked at the high prices and profits and decided to fund the building of much needed new housing supply. If we don't turn on working class mortgage access again and simply ban private equity ownership, there goes another needed source of new housing supply....
We need to claw back the Wall Street bought housing for rentals through eminent domain or to pay us back for bailing them out soooo many times. The screws need to be reversed right now. And, no more Wall Street products where they rape infrastructure like hospitals, nursing homes and sell that back to us packaged as pensions investments. These were our, US tax incentives, tax payer funded projects which are raped and sold back to us!! Suck! Sick ! Sick!!
It's important to consider all the costs of housing, including homeowner's insurance and property taxes. In our case, we have a modest home, yet we're paying over $5000 per year, most of which goes to the school district. While I don't mind contributing to the education of our community's children, it's disheartening to see that only 80% graduate. This steady rate of non-graduation is a direct result of how we pay for education in Illinois-half from the state and the other half from local property taxes. This system, which is particularly unfair to those in the suburbs and city, needs to be addressed.
We badly need a wealth tax in this country and a Federal tax that supports education. The way we are paying for education perpetuates poverty by providing unequal education according to where we live. Small rural and wealthy school districts graduate nearly 100%. I don't understand why the burden of property taxes and unequal education aren't widely protested. But then our unequal healthcare that causes premature deaths and bankruptcy is somehow not in the spotlight either
The wealthy need to pay their fair share. I'm counting on Harris/Walz to make long-overdue changes.
Me too, Gloria! I am old enough to remember when the lottery first started. Back then it was sold to the residents of my state as an "additional" fund for education. It would enhance what the schools already were getting. That quickly went by the wayside and to be honest, I never saw where lottery funds were enhancing education. To this day, I do not really know where lottery money is going and for what purpose. I know that billions are being made from the lottery, but where is it being spent?
Much of the lottery money is going into the pockets of the company that runs the lottery. I believe it is another case of a monopoly. But the lottery is symptomatic of the not-unjustified belief that the only way of getting ahead is gambling. I believe the lottery is one of the most regressive forms of taxation available.
Education has suffered because of the commercialization of TV, the Internet, and now social media. There is no way way teachers can compete with this! These wonderful technologies must be repurposed for educational goals, and this requires a strong federal educational program, not outsourcing education to religious schools.
Why say all the things Harris “should “ do when the campaign is doing so well. IMO we ought to keep our suggestions for after she wins and for now not be saying anything that might be divisive. The list of “Shoulds” here will lead to the other side calling her a radical commie and it will give them a target.
So I say to the campaign, keep doing what you’re winning with and don’t listen to those with agendas, even good ones.
Except listen to me and focus on how dangerous and unAmerican the entire GOP is. This election isn’t about the promises you make, it’s about how unfit the other guy is. Period.
My concern re waiting: Big Money (example, Reid Hoffman, Netflix CEO) is lobbying, and giving money to, Kamala Harris to get rid of Lina Kahn and stop prosecuting monopolies. Meanwhile Harris is putting together HER platform (not Joe Biden's). IMO If we wait and her platform gets rid of Lina Kahn, Big Money will have permission to do what they have been doing since the 1980's - consolidating, making deals and $$$$$ at the expense of the Middle Class. I think RR is spot on with this letter and recommendations. Our voices need to be heard now, not once Harris is in office. The question is how to make our voices heard on this topic. It will take more than just voting.
First Reid Hoffman is with LinkedIn, not Netflix. Second, Lina Khan name is spelled Khan not Kahn.
Now, as you think of what Harris “should” do, put yourself in the shoes of the opposition. How would you respond to these actions and will that get any traction and will the result broaden the Harris appeal or shrink it? Why give the opposition anything to latch on to when things are going so well?
One of the main reasons kids succeed in school is parental involvement. I happen to know a young family in Illinois and the mom is all over the education schedule-- those kids catch a break in summer, when they go on field trips!
The importance of unionization cannot be overstressed. Unions are not inflationary. Of course , corporations always seek to blame unions for price increases. But as you have shown, the bottom line is gigantic profits for oligarchies which of course end up being passed down even into small businesses who end up victims as well. Redistribution of wealth from the unearned (rentier capitalism) to the earned ( job wages) is fundamental to actually improving the lives of the 90 percent plus.
I have belonged to a union almost all of my working life; since 1968. While it is true that a union often protects the least deserving of its members and is prone to the same internal abuses of power as other hierarchies, they are absolutely essential as a check and balance on laissez-faire capitalism.
Great that KH will attempt to break up monopolies in general. The Farm Action chart shows mostly raw material goods other than Pork and Poultry. It still looks monopolistic; however, processing raw material into finished consumer products involves quite a bit of processing and involves and employs thousands of people across the US. Love it or hate it, turning crude oil into consumer products involves huge amounts of industrial production, etc. Many feel that if the country is ever going to change from fossil fuel to renewable energy, it’s going to take the federal government and industry to achieve that; hopefully, the Harris/Walz team and the legislative and judicial bodies at the federal and state levels understand that and that it takes time to implement that (as in years and years). On item three, Godspeed the plough! Generally, many feel this Substack has provided adequate information to show that post the FDR era from people like Lewis F. Powell, from every president and congress since the seventies, all three branches of government have played rather fast and loose to stop corporate greed that has led to inequality, Government resentment by citizens, and rather unnecessary hardship on the working class. Many in America can understand the truth (no matter how bad it is) and likewise know BS when they hear it. One can hope that in the convention next week and beyond that to election day, the Harris/Walz ticket can convey to the US that we didn’t get to where we are overnight by accident, that there is plenty of blame to go around to all of us, and that time, truth, and reconciliation are needed to move this country away from the precipice towards a better union.
Exactly. Which is why we need pragmatic policies with the goal of making capitalism work for the many not the few ... to steal a line from Robert Reich!
Main theme: bust up monopolies! I wonder what the "squealing like stuck pigs" contra-propaganda will squeal like? I'm a Boomer whose parents fell for the "vote for this merger, your rates will be lower" flim-flam over and over, decade to decade. They never failed to blame ever-higher rates on Democrats! It's like a magic spell! It doesn't matter what the Harris campaign says. The Repub's. will squeal Inflation! No drilling! Diseased criminal invaders welcomed with leis! And a lot of our fellow citizens will dutifully vote against themselves, like always.
It is pathetic but true, Mmerose! If these fellow citizens would actually listen and use common sense, they would see and understand how these oligarchs and monopolies operate! The orange man screaming how Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will increase taxes, raise prices, etc. and his cult will lap it up! It is insane how these people keep voting in the very ones the oligarchs and monopolies have in their back pockets!! Ludicrous!
Once, just once, I wanna hear a Democrat speak truth to the voters, as in..."The truth is, we Democrats come in after a Republican has wrecked our economy and we fix it. Obama got blamed for George W. Bush's disaster, but he fixed it. So, Trump gets elected lying about emails, because the economy is not an issue. He destroys the economy. Joe gets elected, fixes it, but gets blamed for Trump's economy. Inflation after the mismanaged Covid pandemic was global, not just American. Biden did better than any other world leader in reducing it. It takes time to make change. Wise up, people! And stop electing the wrong people."
As long as we are a Capitalist society with a Republican House of Representatives, a corrupt Supreme Court, and the Electoral College, the massive power over economics wielded by corporations and the billionaires will continue unabated. With Harris and Walz in the White House, we could hope for our civil rights to be protected/restored, environmental protections, possible gun restrictions, and certainly a more stable Democracy. But economic changes such as higher wages and taxation of the rich will never happen. Capitalism equals greed. And greed is the basis for corruption.
"...a more stable Democracy." The recent communist, one-party style leadership transition from Biden to Harris should put to rest any thought that the Democrat Party believes in democracy. Maybe you are hoping for a more stable Autocracy.
I do support anti-monopoly action. And I agree greed is a basis for corruption, such as enrichment of the Clintons, Obamas, and Bidens, with millions flowing in from Billionaires and foreign governments. Hunter Biden, "the smartest man I know" per his father is an expert at graft and money laundering. Don't be so smug about your own Party.
Of course I agree with all your proposals for KH, but I find it very meaning that you never mention the most high obstacle to all those policies. I'm refering to the skyrocketing budgets for the Pentagon and "defense" reaching something near 1 Trilion. These obscene spending in arms should be redirected to social and infrastcture and environment. And Kamala never puts these items as she should. Why is it so? The answer ios obvious.
Hahahaha, I rec'd an email from Vance, to donate. For fun, I clicked the big red, 'DONATE NOW' button, only to get the message, I'm not authorized and have been blocked! Boo-Hoo! Feels pretty good.
...and I also found DJTs .com and tried there too. Unable! Felt even better. Both fellas can sure stop by my house, and I would meet them with a big sign, 'DONATE NOW', then kick them off my property.
I think you are absolutely right Robert, but it seems to me, from this side of the pond (France) that many, many Americans exist in such fear of those horrifying labels, "socialism" and "communism", that your proposals would be condemned as unrealistic, too expensive, unworkable and all the other first-responses from Republicans, business leaders and the 1%. That might mean that many items on your wishlist wouldn't get past first base.
May I suggest for the Dems to work more closely with the European Union, because many, if not most of your wishlist is already in legislation and is policy in the EU, often from years ago, and have therefore been incorporated into the laws of each of the member countries. Bearing in mind the complex drafting, labyrinthine negotiations and detailed amendments they always require, you may find that the EU can help shortcut some of your as-yet-unknown issues with ready-made solutions.
That brings an added bonus - the Dems can say that this or that policy is already working in Europe. They can quote statistics, benefits, costs, successes, problems overcome..... They can present the proposals to the public on the basis that "these people already enjoy this benefit, this protection, this right. Wouldn't you like to as-well?"
They can scupper the usual bleats from Reps that such a thing is impossible, or unaffordable, or 'communist' because the Dems will have the facts and numbers, and the Reps will only have their opinions.
I am absolutely sure the EU would be delighted to work closely with the Dem party, and it opens up other possibilities for engagement, such as Dem policymakers and politicians studying and observing alternative systems working in the EU, and talking with EU-based corporations, lawmakers and the public for alternative opinions.
In particular, it means talking to American owned corporations operating in Europe under European legislation and still making profits for shareholders!
It might also make the Dems feel a little less lonely in this World!
Az, I like this suggestion! And especially the possibly to scuttle some of the push-back from at least some of the US corporations: "In particular, it means talking to American owned corporations operating in Europe under European legislation and still making profits for shareholders!
The writings of Heather Cox Richardson have provided detailed context for the apparent American aversion to socialism and communism. What is sad is that so few Americans know anything at all about the difference between Marxist/Leninism and social democracy. Most soviet-modeled communist governments ended up turning into kleptocracies scarcely distinguishable from junta-led banana republics. Compare that with European parliamentary democracies with strong social components in their make up. They are among the best places to live that have ever been created for the average citizen.
I agree that governments that are truly, 'for the people, by the people' are far more pleasant to live in. Safer, less stressful, less needlessly competitive, and people are kinder to each other. Which is why I retired to France!
Regarding communism, I don't actually think it has ever been tried, certainly as Marx envisaged it. Marx thought the internal contradictions of Capitalism, where the rich ended up owning and controlling more and more, and everyone else fell into poverty and destitution, would trigger a revolution as the masses overthrew the 1%, seized control of the wealth and means of production (ownership of companies and factories and farms), and then managed then for the benefit of everyone.
Communism simply means to live in a community, self governing and in control of its own means of production. Hard to argue with that.
None of the so-called communist states have ever really gone through the collapse of capitalism. In fact I have long thought that the most likely candidate for the collapse of Capitalist state, the overturning of the richest 1% and the creation of a true Marxist Communist state is America!
(Which is probably why there is such fear of even the mention of the word!)
Communism as envisioned by Marx is Utopian, and does not truly account for human nature. His analysis of Capitalism is spot on. His analysis of humanity is wide of the mark.
The genius of the American "Founding Fathers" lies in their recognition of humanity's weaknesses and failings. They tried to create a structure that took those elements into account. That they themselves had to compromise in order even to create their new nation, and that they could not envision the problems that would threaten that creation 250 in the future, are not reasons to condemn them and their achievements, but rather reasons to recognize their own limitations as human beings.
"Originalism" is lazy. It presumes that a group of pre-industrial merchants, lawyers, and landowners, largely under the age of 50, could craft a concept of governance so perfect and so impervious to any and all changing conditions as to render its status as ABSOLUTE, irrespective of changes in the world's economic and social functioning, that it should never be changed under any and all circumstances.
I do agree. I've long considered that studying Marx should be followed by Orwell's 'Animal Farm' for a more complete picture!
Human greed, selfishness, ego and ambition are as fundamental as breathing, eating and sex, in my view. Even in community projects I've been involved with, a diverse group will quickly settle into roles based on personalities and self-interests. Usually two or three will want to take leadership, will compete for it with the others, and then go on to try to hijack the project for their own aims. Politicians in the making. Or, as a friend commented, scum floating to the surface!
The French constitution has been rewritten 5 times since the original in 1789, the last time by De Gaulle in 1958, so France is now on its '5th Republique'. And even since then, it has been amended 25 times to keep it updated. But its core values have remained; the separation of church and State, social welfare, democracy, and indivisibility.
Note that social welfare is a fundamental - in other words, the State, corporations and private enterprises only exist for the benefit of the people. That, I think, underpins everything on a day to day basis.
Sadly, America has abandoned that principle and the people have become a resource for the corporations and private interests. This means people have value to corporations (and hence value to the country) only in terms of their roles as labor, management, customers or investors. Everyone who is not one of those things, like old or retired people, or poor people, or unemployed, or disabled, or even children, is deemed useless and even parasitic on society. This is very dangerous, but has become a core Republican belief system. Perhaps it has also become an accepted reality for the majority of American people?
I also agree with your comments about times of change. America is far more vulnerable to future events, from climate catastrophes and climate migration, to Peak Oil/fossil energy, to debt collapse, not least because it has the highest per capita consumption in the World (several times that of Germany, at similar wealth levels). America's bi-polar politics means an inability to agree on such fundamentals as rewriting and updating the Constitution (by comparison, the last French rewrite took 18months, start to finish!).
So to cut to the chase, America might well be the first country to suffer a Marxist collapse of Capitalism. But it would also be the last country to become an idealistic Marxist nirvana of cooperation and social wellbeing. I would personally envisage something more akin to medieval Italy and its independently governed city-states, in constant alliances and wars. But with more guns!
Maybe it's a good time to dig out the handbook for such times - Machiavelli's 'The Prince'! (And buy an AK47, just in case!)
Let’s win the election before we celebrate being radical liberal leftists. We need to get broaden the group that comes out to vote Blue. We already have the liberal leftists, now let’s get the others who want to make history and not give them reasons to analyze economic issues and take the side they’ve been taught their whole lives to fear. Progress is achieved in incremental steps. Step one is to win president and congress, state legislature, step two is to change the courts, step three is policy. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves with “controversial “ economic ideas for what the campaign ought to run on.
Almost everything the Republicans are complaining about don't have any reflection on the current administration. The problems we face as a nation are world issues with no easy solutions. To blame Biden is asinine. Trump reminds me of a toddler whose mother just gave birth to the family's second child and now Donnie Boy is having a problem dealing with the new arrival. Attention deprivation would best describe the downturn in Trump's overall attitude concerning the upcoming election. He feels left out. Trump is in over his head because he has no defense against someone as smart as Kamala Harris. Considering Trump's VP pick he has good reason to worry. Vance is a socially regressive Southern religious nut job who is in dire need of finding Julie Newmar. Trump's fixation over crowd sizes gives a glimpse into the childish thinking of a man whose mental facilities are seriously in decline. When listening to him, if you can stomach the event, everything the man states is all about him. He has no policy to affect any positive change in this country. Trump's desire for reelection is nothing more than a sick power trip initiated to feed his insane ego. Face it, Trump isn't smart enough to be president of this country, ever.
His desire for reelection is about two things: his ego, yes, but more importantly, it stops him from going directly to jail.
Lynn, you are right about Trump's motivations. Isn't it ironic that the Republican Party, once the law and order party wants to elect a convicted criminal to our highest office so he won't have to face the consequences of his criminal behavior! And he whines about immigrants committing crimes they haven't committed! He did commit the crimes he was indicted for and convicted of, and adjudicated for. Amazing!
And the corruption within the courts... they formed laws and decisions in order to guard THEMSELVES as ell as Trump. These decisions only harmed others, there was no harm reduction during those years. These fact sheets are so vital in the struggle to raise a better, smarter, kinder generation with access to education and opportunity. Collaboration is often better than competition.
As a former Asst DA in Manhattan, I could not be prouder of the work that my old Office has done, especially indicting and convicting the sociopath Trump. His struggle to retake the WH is about one thing only, as HB points out: to stay out of jail. Well, as the tee shirts I had made 4 years ago say: TRUMP - INDICT CONVICT IMPRISON
Where do we get the tee, William?, given it looks like eBay doesn't list them! Best, M.
It’s reassuring that as an ADA you believed in the presumption of innocence.
When the evidence is in plain sight everyone with a brain can see a criminal when the crime is so public. Defending a blatant criminal such as tRump a defense attorney needs to rely on a rigged court to get his client off. Such as a claim of immunity- immunity my a...
Says the Trump Humper
Lume-- would do Trump no good. The man just stinks.
Ironically enough, he is too much of a "fucking moron" to realize no president has power over STATES. Georgia and/or his own New York could absolutely send their police force to DC to snag him if he were to steal a second election.
Didn't factor THAT into your dreams of dicktatorship, eh fatty? [sic]
He and Netanyahu both need to regain/keep their government positions to stay out of jail. My question is: Would we, as US citizens, want our allies to be loyal to us if a re-elected Trump decided to engage in genocidal attacks on Mexico or arab nations?
Plwase don't abuse and misuse he word genocide, you reduce it to nothing, when everything is a genocide, then there is no genocide.
Genocide is an intent to obliterate a race. In part or in whole. There needs to be proof of genocide,and it is an insult to intelligence to suggest that Mexicans and Arabs can be genocided. We are talking of obliterating millions and billions of people.
By your lights every war, every armed conflict is a genocide, If that be so then there is no such thing as war, struggle, conflict and we should just call everything genocide, and the word thus becomes useless.
The MAGA cult is dedicated to obliteration of all but the white race. I'm afraid I don't have a word that encompasses such mass murder for eliminating so many humans. I'm thinking that the white race has lead to the extinction of so many species of plants & animals that is proceeding on its course of planet destruction by the ancient art of war in all forms.
That is a Eurocentric attitude Catherine.. All races, all ethnicities have wiped out not only species, but other cultures, the Mongols wiped out whole cultures, Africans were not and are not peaceful agrarians. anthropologists though that they Mayans were peaceful agrarians,
The Romans, though white, were not Caucasians, and they wiped out whole species in their demand for slaughter and games in the Coliseum and other arenas'.
Whole species are endangered in Africa because of the demand for bush meat , rhino horns and tusks., Rhino horns are prized in China because they believe the are aphrodisiacs.
Mankind's demand for fossil fuels, is causing a slow specicide, and there is no need to worry about extinction of life,man is going that just fine, to himself and other species and it is all done without war.
That which is doing more damage than wars and slaughter is technology and the insatiable hunger of humans for more, for comfort and for sexual intercourse, we are killing ourselves and other mammalian life,on this planet
And the meek shall inherit the earth, meek being insects and other critters, which men call pests.
And he can raise money which he worships and desparately needs. Such a failure as a person, history will surely try to analyze his rise. Seen objectively it would seem impossible that someone like tRump could gain a following. A person with not one redeeming quality, not one!!
Lynn, it’s also about money. Trump used the presidency to extort money from (we now know)
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc. In addition, he leveraged his status as president to make business deals in other countries benefiting the Trump Organization.
“It’s no secret that Trump was struggling financially before he announced his run for office. His tax returns show that the presidency was great for his bank account. Congressional Republicans may have halted their inquiry into Trump’s finances, but there is still much to discover about the extent to which he truly abused the presidency for his own personal profit.”
“The full extent to which Trump’s foreign business ties influenced his decision making as president may never be known, but there is plenty of evidence that Trump’s actions in the White House were influenced–if not guided–by his financial interests, subverting the national interests for his own.”
(CREW, 4/13/23–updated 8/15/23, R. Jacobs & R.
Maguire)
And vengeance
Bingo. You perfectly nailed it. And after January, if not before, the legal walls will start to close in on him again. He is a desperate man right now, which is why I don't think he'll leave anything unturned to fight even the most legitimate vote counts.
Trump may be on a power trip, but he's a small man, and a small part of the problem. The MAGA movement is an unholy alliance between the Christian Nationalists and the oligarchs in this country. Trump can be (must be) trounced in November. But the MAGA's unholy alliance is going to require a sustained, long-term strategy.
The White Christian Nationalists movement is a direct threat to our democracy, make no mistake they have a network of wealthy oligarchs and religious leaders working under the radar. to garner votes for trump. He is a trapped dangerous man riddled with lies and criminality. Thus, he is trying to repeat what he has done. before. - back committed election deniers to refuse to accept the election results. He is encouraging them to break the law, a law that is taking away legitimate votes from our side. Democrats we must fight this!
Dunning – Kruger effect is on full display the Republican party at the moment. They are like a seven-year-old dismantling the motherboard of their Dad's sophisticated workstation computer because they had fun watching a game boy over at their friend's house.
At least we’ll have the freedom to worship their God.
Longer term, Christian nationalism will suffer from the fact the fewer young people are turning to religion. I am skeptical that the movement can find another Trump.
There’s always another phony religious leader waiting in the wings. Remember the movie “Elmer Gantry”?
This why there is so much effort by the Project 2025 people to destroy public education, starting with the "eradication" of the Dept. of Education. (It 's the word they use.) We have to be vigilant and oppose this.
Thomas, being vigilant is not enough. Kamala Harris must put education as a top priority. She must define herself as the education candidate and denounce Trump's and Project 2025 call for the abolition of the Department of Education. The future of the country depends to a large extent on a strong, unified system of education. Today, education is more important than ever, and it must be affordable to everyone.
Where did I EVER imply that being vigilant is enough? Vigilance is like a smoke detector. It's NOT a fire extinguisher. It's NOT the fire department.
I request you to PLEASE refrain from responding to me if you're going to misconstrue what I write -- or if you're just going to be dumb.
Yes, and fewer young people are turning to "religion" due to White Christian Nationalism. I am a member of "Christians Against White Christian Nationalism".
I hope that you are right!!!
I hope you are correct.
Turn the blue wave into the blue tsunami. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
From my Volunteer Blue email today:⬇️
These Texts Work
The strategy works. In 2022, Field Team 6 reached out to 5M unregistered voters and delivered 1.57M new pro-democracy voter registrations. A total of 41.8% of those newly registered voters turned out in November 2022, providing the margin of victory in crucial swing state races in Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada.
Texting is fast, easy, and anonymous. Field Team 6 will provide the training if you’re new to texting or if you haven’t texted in a while.
Texting is on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. PDT (2 p.m. to 4 p.m. EDT). Check out the schedule and sign up. Get some friends to sign up and host a texting party in your home!
Yeah-- Field Team 6 has lots of volunteer options--
https://www.fieldteam6.org/actions
yes, but if we don't fix the economic situation and the seasonal Florida economy - the wave will wash back out to sea with us in it.
There is a local restaurant that uses all J1s instead of Americans. The manager's excuse was well they work 14 hours a day here and then go back home to their country. It's a lot of money for them!
The AP wire yesterday said colleges were slashing majors because of the small families and there isn't enough enrollment. SO - what do we have? Population increase or decrease?
William Bill Black, PhD, lawyer, former bank regulator - The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One. Watch TheCon.tv - it's free to watch.
Cheers ~
TheCon.tv is powerful and important to understand it is ongoing.
I saw your reply but I can't get back to it. This is a link to the AP news wire story
https://apnews.com/article/college-degree-programs-cuts-music-f0c271f6d61a13404f93688fcc6c589b
In my market, there are houses for sale. There are huge open house signs. I understand each part of the country can be different. My analysis is this - housing is not affordable and in Florida you would be shocked how the most of the entire coast line is rows of empty houses. We have poor land use laws (blame the republicans). There are plenty of empty vacation rentals that could be long term housing. So clearly, there is no shortages. And, in Florida many families are bunking up together and storages units are being built as fast as possible.
If the population is decreasing (I have another book - but I'll have to find it for you later today), then why the "lack of housing"? Both can't be true??
Housing is a basic necessity. We should not allow private equities and hedge funds speculate with it.
Agreed. And that's exactly what wall street did leading up to 2008. It was essentially no different than the gambling with the communities money towards the 1930s depression
The overall population isn't decreasing, but the birth rate in the US (and multiple other "advanced economy" countries) is falling. If you look at the statistics and analysis, it's mostly because it's too expensive to raise children in the Us today, where people are working 2, 3, even 4 jobs and still struggling to make ends meet. We still have plenty of immigration though, and even though the alt-right just loves to rail against immigration and foster protectionist and xenophobic policies, they cannot stop immigration completely, for multiple reasons.
Also, reading that article, and you know the one thing I see missing? Cuts to administration and upper "leadership." Plenty of screwing over students and teachers, but then again, colleges have been doing that for years, haven't they? Maybe we can push either this administration or the next one to force policies that require those "earning" millions of dollars to take cuts before they can do layoffs or cut programs...
Yes, they are not treating students well. There are many issues with that article and the reporter didn't cover many angles - that's for sure
But the population data is saying something different.
Smaller Cities in a Shrinking World Learning to Thrive without Growth by Alan Mallach
Yes, agreed. And thank you. I have been sharing it everywhere. I don't think they have an adverting budget for it and main stream media doesn't want it shared.
Here's the book Smaller Cities in a Shrinking World : Learning to Thrive without Growth by Alan Mallach
You said it in a nutshell, Donald! I laughed out loud about Vance being in dire need of finding Julie Newmar! Priceless!
Who is Julie Newmar? A TV character, some character from a work of fiction. . . who?
It is a reference to a movie To Wong Fu, Thanks for everything, Julie Newmar. A story of drag queens traveling to compete in Miss Drag Queen America in Hollywood. They travel with a picture of the iconic Julie Newmar and she makes a brief appearance at the end of the movie to present the award. Great movie!
Oh. I am about as "unwoke" as anyone can get and much prefer to stay that way. The reason I quit listening to NPR. I just want to go back to the 1960s when things were much more SANE and all the crazies had yet to come out of the woodwork! Drag queens . . . ugh! And no, I do not have an open mind!
That's rather "forward thinking" of you but I'll tell you what. As one of millions of Black, American citizens who have served in the US military, we do NOT want to go back to the 60's.
Perhaps you should find a nice christian nationalist forum and be right at home.
Perhaps you should go eff yourself. It's not my problem you were stupid enough to put yourself up as so much cannon fodder. I am about as UNCHRISTIAN and IRRELIGIOUS AS ANYONE CAN GET, YING-YANG!
P.S. There's no comma between the words "Black" and "American". You are a Black American, period.
No problem, Klare! I enjoyed the movie and Donald made a great reference to it. Enjoy your day! Vote blue, America!
Klare--She was the original "Cat Woman" in the Batman series. Someone Mr. Vance needs to meet.
Someone else said she appeared in a Hollywood movie about drag queens! So are you saying Julie Newmar was a real actress and that was her real name? Just wondering. I've had my nose in writing and books my whole life -- not very up on popular culture!
Well, you’re reading the wrong books. I suggest you go to a drag show and see what they really are. A celebration of life and a whole lot of men and women expressing themselves in a positive way. And also, NEVER suggest to somebody that they should kill themselves. That is pure evil.
Oh, I'm "reading the wrong books"? How the hell would YOU know what I am reading??? I have NO interest in drag shows, gay pride crap, the idea of drag queens reading to children in libraries . . . ugh to all of that! Gays should just act like normal people and try to blend in with the rest of society instead of flaunting themselves all over the place. Who the hell did I suggest to that they should go "kill themselves," lady? What hallucenogenics are you on today?? Better go see a shrink -- you have a wild imagination!
Try Google.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Newmar
https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0628325/
She played Cat Woman on the 1960s TV Show “Batman.”
Perhaps 'Newmar' is set to replace 'Karen' as the latest pejorative attack phrase?
Please, no! It should be a compliment and not a pejorative.
I heartily agree Douglas, while that would be a vile insult to the still very much alive and 80 something plus Ms Newmar!
At last a reason to use Google.
She played “Catwoman“ in the 1960s Batman. She was a real bombshell.
Donald. you are so right about this. I was upset, again this morning when even NPR again tried to normalize Trump-Vance because Trump talked about something last night for two hours with Elon Musk. The chunks they played were pathetic and if those were the best, which is what I suspect, that does not say much for Trump's abilities and thinking these days. The interviewer, someone I used to admire said that Trump "laid out his policies" in that "discussion." If that is so, why didn't NPR play that policy outline. There was no outline or anything else meaningful related to the needs of this nation or NPR would have included it in its sound bites. They know Trump has no ideas beyond going after his opponents, insulting people, and making up incidents that never happened. Really pathetic!
NPR is trying to do that thing of respecting both sides of a story, but there’s a limit to that. If NPR really wants to serve and protect the public, they need to point to the truth. That “the emperor has no clothes.”
Elizabeth, I agree and feel it is time NPR be more forcefully called out on its terrible coverage of Trump and Kump. It is almost as though they were being paid big bucks to keep Trump looking pretty good even though he is imploding and that dementia is encroaching on his already poor ability to reason. They may not have to call it dementia because as far as we know, no official psychologist or psychiatrist has made that diagnosis, but they could more readily point out the lies and call them lies and the dis information and call it that. I don't really see it happening any time soon because it has been going on for more than 9 years and I guess has brought in the money the rest of us who support our local stations can't cover. Plus, I understand there are ultra conservative guys in charge there.
No easy solution??? It's all very simple. You just shut off the 900 bases around the world and cut 2/3 of the Pentagon stupid huge budget, plus the loopholes for the big dogs. With that spared fortune, anyone could save the country.
Alas José, there are no easy answers when it comes to military issues. If there were, we would have appropriately answered them decades ago. Brilliant people have been trying hard to fix this. As long as men want to kill one another to establish their courage and manhood, wars will not stop. I think we need a drug or set of drugs If possible that can be sprayed in the direction of men about to start or go into a war situation that would turn off the testosterone and whatever other hormones that drive them to the insanity of war. Maybe when women gain sufficient power in this world, we will get such drugs or men will no longer see the need to destroy everything for power they can hold always in the fear of someone else trying to take it. One can hope!
My dear Ruth, sorry I disagree with you and all the while I recognize you are somewhat right. It's true men attack men forever. But You reduce everything to psycological dimension which I understand but I see these issues as politics, as a class war being waged at all of us. I mean the American dream of domination of the whole world. You'd find it natural that more and more countries feel the need of being free of westen domination, colonization. I stand with them, for sure and your hope is dear to me.
The alternative to western civilization, which you characterize as dominationandcolonialization, is authoritarianism, prime examples are the theocratic Islam regimes of the mid east, north Africa, the Caucas, and Central Asia.Or the Theocratic Orthodox Regimes of Serbia and Russia, or the secular regime of China.
Perhaps you wish to live in one of them, but I don't.
Western civilization is far from perfect, and has infinite problems, but when it comes to freedom of the mind, the body, of society there is no choice when comparing it to Islam, Serbia, Russia, China or any of the undeveloped countries of Africa, Asia.
Our problem Jose is that we are headed in that dystopian future if Trump is elected, Project 2015 is their blueprint for the kind of nation that you seek.
Western Civilization is a mental construct. The reality is very complex. Presently, White supremacists claim to be defenders of "western civilization." The Catholic Church helped preserve civilization in western Europe, and for many Catholics Western Civilization is hard to conceive without the Church. Perhaps this is why JD Vance converted to Catholicism.
Mental construct or not Victor, it is the culture that I am living in, as oppsed to say an authoritarian culture like Islam or Russia or China, .
The Catholic church is an an authoritarian, patriarchal culture, from which western culture evolved, violently, over 300 centuries.
All labels are mental constructs Victor, they enable us to navigagte in reality and communicate with others.
To me western civilization is living free from oppression and forced conformity, by a group or society,something which the Catholics and evangelicals want to take away and force us into a cultural communism,, like that which exists in the Mideeast, Iran North Africa, Central Asia, the Caucasus's,India, China and indeed most of the world,.
Western civilization is the only culture that permits free expression and equal rights, but that will die on Nov 6th if Trump is elected
I so love the mental construct called WesternCiviliization and Boko Haram, Al Qeda, ISIS, and yes the mullahcacy of Iran and the Kingdoms and Emirates of the peninsula hate it, except for the ruling class.
Wow! José, that was a slap in the face, I certainly didn't expect that, but should have. Why would you assume I am not in support of the anti-colonialist actions of so many countries? Hmmm! However, what is going on in so many of those countries is not a move for anyone's freedom and is a power-grab by men who are using murders and other weapons to keep other people as far down as any colonial powers did. I admit they may have learned a lot of that from the colonizers, but it has been years now and there are a lot of other options for them, yet they do not choose them. Oh by the way, I am actually pretty much more than "bright," and proud of it!
I definetely never thought of slaping anyone in the face, least of all you, cause I really appreciate the care and calm you reveal in this issue. Sorry if I assumed a few of your thoughts that I shouldn't but it's a long habit, you know. About the need of freedom, we have to notice that it's natural that people prefer to be dominated by some local war lord than by a foreign one. Don't you think, dear Ruth?
Here is the problem with shutting down military bases. The U.S. is a guest in everyone of them, our bases exist because a status of forces agreement, If the host country tires of us, they can expel us, in fact Niger has done that in the last month. SOFA establishes ground rules, including which authority the troops report to when they break local laws.
These countries that have SOFA wants us because we provide protection, against hostile neighbors.
They are in our interest as well, because democracy and freedom does have it's enemies, Russia, China, North Korea and Iran are an example, ISIS, Al Qaeda, DAESH as well.
The enemies of the free world (such as it is) are making inroads into the lesser developed countries like those in Africa and Asia. Either through mercenaries like the Wagner group, or by offering, but not delivering, development., or through Islamic terrorists like Boko Haram, and other groups that are harassing the govenments of Africa, even Syria.
Do you honestly think that if we withdrew into our turtle shell, that all would be right in the world, that peace would reign, do you? If so you have been exposed to too much of Amy Goodman and her Marxist clap trap. I use to donate to Democracy Now, until they sided with Putin, not overtly but inadvertently. I guess they have a nostalgia for Russia when it was communist.
Here is what would happen in isolationist, closed off America. Russia would sweep through Europe with minimal resistance, China sweep through Asia withminimal resistance,while America, disarmed, sat on its ass.
Without access to needed resources, especially those needed for tech, and in the 21st Century, and without global markets to sell and buy from, America would be a sitting duck, a plum to pick from a tree by the more vigrous nations and religions. And eventually the country itself would revert to an agrarian society, with hostile nations and religions fighting over it's bones.
no Navy, no bombers, no air craft carriers, no submarines, no tanks, no satellites, no computers and chips other than the existing ones, long obsolete.
We would be a formerly developed country right and ripe for the picking by those that detest freedom, democracy and secularism.
Sorry but I disagree with you in various issues. I think that those who detest democracy are also on this side. A country like America where piles of money buys senators and congressmen, votes are restricted, spends 1 trilion on arms to feel safe, but feels unsafe, force thousands to live out in the streets and even dares to try to teach democracy to others, cannot be a true democracy. Is Germany a free country with 220 american bases and facilities on its soil? Yes you criticize China but it was China, not the USA that created the basic principles of pacific coexistence and not meddling with the internal affairs of other peoples. And yes the Iraqui parliament decided to get rid of american troops but someone doesn't want to comply. That is obviously imperialism. More and more countries are feeling the need to do away with it. Can't criticise them.
I could be wrong but my research shows that today the US has just over 40 bases in Germany with just over 35,000 active-duty American military personnel stationed there. As of May 2024 the Germans have 180,215 active-duty military personnel. The German population is 83.8 million (2022). It would probably be best to ask the German people if they would rather have our American soldiers there or the Russians who were there for for 50 years. Just saying. The idea that China created the principal of co-existence with it's neighbors is totally bogus. Throughout it's history Vietnam has suffered 23 invasions from China. The first invasion was in 111 BC. The Vietnamese forces finally threw the Chinese out in 939 AD. The last invasion from China was in 1979. Do your research. Cheers... GH
That is what makes WesternCivilization so great, you can disagree with someone, without going to prison or forfeiting your life, unlke your exampe of China. Or Russia, or Saudi Arabia, or Iran or Iraq,or Afghanistan or Pakistan,or, or,or.
Iraq itself is torn as to whether Americans should go or stay, the Iranian influenced cleric want America to go, the politicalleadersknow that if America leaves Iranwill gobble them up.
If the government says go, then America will go, just llike it has happened in Niger.
China;s policy of notmmeddling is strategic, they are engaged in a slow genocide against the Uyghers, an unassimilable Muslim and racial ethnicty in NW China on the edge o fhe Tarim basin.
They are sore pissed at others interfering in their internal program of slow genocide,and thus their program of non interference, but they are imperialistic, gobbled up HongKong, and tamped down democracy and spechand demand the same for Taiwan, which has never, ever been under the conrol of the PRC.
Now it is claiming all of the South China sea,including islands that belong to Vietnam, and the Philipinnes or have you missed he fight over he St Tohmas Shoals,
Yeh, we have a wasteful Military Indusrial complex, becausemilitary production provides jobs, and jobs provide votes. And people like jobs,they feed their families, clothe,house, educate and transport them.
The MIC fills human needs, needs that would not e filled without them. I tis a conundrum for sure. but the solution is untenable.
The Pentagon said that it doesn't want a next generation fighter or bomber, thati \doesn't need any more aircraft carriers,and Congress said tough,you are gettingt hem, because they are built in districts where important congress men live.
That i \s not the MIC,it is the Congresscritters forcing unwanted and obsolete wea[pms onto the Departmentof Defense.
How about the Congressional Corporation complex,not the MIC.
i was a team leader of a special ops unit, and hate to fight the congressional cororation complex,to get the specialized gear that I wanted, and needed,it was not in the supply chain, but on the civilian market, which was outside of the control of the congressional, corporation complex.
It is too bad that a phrase uttered by Ike in is farewell address has been given life by people who do not appreciate what these faults and failings have given them,that sit on a high horse spouting judgment and bullshit because that is the crap that has been fed them.
There is indeed a lot wrong with this country,which needs fixing and remediation, but the disfunctional, simplistic criticism I hear all of the time only aids and abbets the enemies of freedom and liberty.
There is nothing more Putin,XI, Un, DAESh,the despots of Iran, Afghanistan would like is to see us neutered, disarmed, weak and vulnerable then they can have their authoritarian way with the world, and with us.
Vance can easily find Julie Newmar. She's a young ninety, all over the web. I seriously doubt that he could negotiate a face-to-face with her. He is more dangerous than Trump, because he has a "cause", whereas Trump has none other than his own interests. Look out for nut jobs with a perceived righteous cause, a la Jim Jones. But Vance is meaner and nastier.
Steve, I am guessing Vance's cause is the same as Trump's non-cause; himself. He is quite content to pick up the cause of the moment as long as it will do harm to people he resents, is angry with, is afraid of, or just plain hates, and I suspect there are a lot of people and "causes" that would fit those criteria, and Vance claims to be christian! What a joke! It's also a joke that Trump claims he has had some kind of religious conversion with the "assassination attempt." I have heard some of his speeches since the event and heard nothing positive that might lead one to think a religious experience happened. It is just another ploy to capture the gullible who want to protect their Baby Donnie, to keep them on board Trump's crazy train.
and his only four FAILED years prove this fact. He TANKED President Obama's miracle economy after Obama fixed Dubbya's CRASHED econom-I sense a pattern here. Huh.
Facts - there is NO lack of housing. In fact, the opposite. It's data. On the AP wire yesterday morning the universities were cutting program majors because families are having less kids and the enrollment is down. SO are we having a population increase or decrease?
THE FACTS are that 2008 isn't gone it got buried. I love Dr. Reich's blogs but I have a serious disagreement on this one. References - William Bill Black, PhD, Lawyer, former bank regulator. It's de-regulation and de criminalization. The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One watch TheCon.tv
Would you expand on what you said about there being NO lack of housing?
And I know some colleges are cutting majors because they are adopting a corporate model—to their disgrace as far as I’m concerned.
VANESSA: See my response above, private equity funds and hedge funds are buying up homes, and renting them at exorbitant rates, which drives up the cost of homes beyond the ability of first time buyers.
The housing problem is that hedge funds and private equity are scooping up homes as they come on the market, and turning them into rentals and charging outrageous rents.
And this has driven the price of homes up.
Consider all we know about tRump, and millions want him to be president. Proof there is something seriously wrong with most of his supporters. Those with wealth that support him have a monied interest in his being elected and their interests are not ours, i.e. the vast majority of Americans.
Harvey--If we knew what ailed them maybe then we could find a cure. It's almost as if they enjoy being ignorant.
Almost everything the Republicans complain about is their own fault and due, largely, to their incompetence in passing legislation (thanks to Newt Gingrich's turn to name-calling, being cruel and insulting instead of making policies) and their stubbornness about doing things ONLY with their members, refusing to compromise with democrats (as if that was a crime, itself). Yes, the Democrats are not perfect either. but for the last eight years, the GOP has grabbed the "let's be really stupid" ball and run with it to touchdown after touchdown of doing nothing.
Donald, while your exegesis is, in my 'USA outsider's' view, reasonably enough 'on the money' further to the analytical opinions you have opined within it, as members of the 'liberal' (as you term it in your country) class, 'we' need to remember that we're addressing fellow liberals with our own versions of 'reality' when making such or similar comments, while what you say here is of course also largely anathema to many average Republican voters outside the MAGA faction. Although many of the problems the USA faces are common to my country (Australia) and the rest of the world, there are nevertheless 'problems' that are peculiarly especial to the USA, and which arguably have their antecedents in its history, given its dual 18th century Enlightenment and Puritan heritage conditioning, while one may argue that many of the world's 'issues' were caused by the US (e.g. Reagan's neoliberalism forms, and interventions into other nations) with these thereafter being directly or indirectly exported to the rest of the world (e.g. refugees and mass displaced migration, and climate change response failure). 'Biden' is merely a 'projection' (as in the psychological definition) for many Republican's inability to understand their situation, with Trump being the instrument for their expression etc., with them being able to overlook his toilet training failures and later resultant dysfunction and criminality further to their dislocation. Suffice to say that whatever real and incontestable foibles Trump truly has, these are secondary considerations further to the ontological dislocation that so many US voters have experienced post the social moral bankruptcy that Bill Clinton evolved and presided over - sorry Sec. Reich! - while their 'irrational belief' in the strong leader (and one which parallels the support that the German lower middle-class gave to Hitler in the 1930's) ought be a serious watch word for any complacency that may occur following Kamala's recent 'showtime' efforts. Indeed, after having heard Trump online with the Musk rat today, what was disturbing for me was how 'credible' he can sound to these dislocated voters, while I was reminded of some of the You Tuber postings that feature Hitler talking normally in conversation further to his bellowing's. Beware America!! With best wishes to you and all in the USA, while also, we in Australia have compulsory voting!
Hi there Marcus. Two points. Sure Bill Clinton didn't do us working folks any favors but the real mess started with Nixon & Kissinger "opening up" China in 1972. This gave the green light for GOP businessmen to start sending our best paying middle class jobs, union or not to China. Reagan ramped this up with his union busting and further encouragement for GOP businessmen to send even more jobs there. The DEMs and unions surely didn't send the jobs there or agree to it. Put the blame where it belongs. Greedy businessmen and the Wall Street thugs who only care how much money they can put in their bank accounts.... damn the rest of us. Second point. I had a good chuckle about the name Musk rat. I talked this over with the Muskrats that live in my lake and they aren't amused. They are hard working rodents who take good care of their families and don't bother their neighbors either. Sometimes we all need to step back and have a good laugh about something!
All the best to you and our friends in the Great Country of Australia.
Cheers... GH
Thanks for challenging me on the Clinton reference, Gary, even if I'd respectfully contend that the fuller moral rot sunk in with Clinton as it did with Blair in the UK further to Thatcher's neoliberal inductions. Ironically, it's left wing leaders who are responsible for bringing the neoliberal juggernaut to my country and nearby New Zealand, while although Bob Hawke and Paul Keating (who is in trouble with 'your' Nancy Pelosi further to his recent comments regarding Taiwan being "Chinese real estate") gave rein to NL ideology in the 1980's, PM, John Howard then solidified it, while as with the US, all of Australia's manufacturing jobs went offshore to China etc.
That said, Nixon may have assisted with this at the 'economic' level re: NL's initial founding's, even if I'd further contend that NL is now much more pervasive than just being an economic shaping force further to it having become a socially altering one.
As for 'ratty Elon' (who I note has made some typically inane comments this morning regarding potential civil war in the UK!), he insults musk rats, while given his evolving self righteous ego spectre, he may well prove to be a far more threatening long term 'noise' (another thing that musk rats do not indulge in!) than Trump, and especially if Harris and Walz knock him off in Nov. (God willing); this despite the then aftermath.
Marcus I think that I would like your comment, if I could have read it. The problem with it and so many others is that you have a long paragraph with too many thoughts (subjects) for one paragraph.
You are, I assume, too young to have been a beatnik. I am not,I was one. Kerouac wrote "On the Road", many pages, one paragraph and the only way to read it was to be stoned.
am sincerely interest in what you have to say, but I can't follow so many thoughts in a paragraph.
Perhaps if you broke it down into many paragraphs, each one containing one thought.,
I suggest the example set by Mssr Reich, better yet Heather Cox Richardson or ThomHartmann.
Here is the latest example of Heather Cox Richardson: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-11-2024
My apologies for the verbosity herein displayed, William, and too, my atomisation concerning paragraphing further to one being somehow unaware that this format is permissible. I'll herein abide by your recommendations from hereon! P.S. BTW, your name is almost identical with that of the father of wheat in Australia, William Farrer.
William Farrer and I share a common ancestor, It was spelled Ferror in the 16th century, a ferror was a man who made crucible steel.
I have a number of very distant cousins who live in Ausralia and New Zealand.
William is a very popular name in the Farrer, Ferrar,Farrar, Pharo, Fairer, line I am the 8th of 11 in my line, Henry was also popular;ar, as well as John,and Thomas after 1682.
Ichecked on William Farrer he was born in Cumbria, England, a friend of mine, also a distant cousin, name of Stephen Farrer, he dies about 5 years ago, was also from Cumbria, no doubt he and Wllliam were distant cousins.
William... thanks for the history of your name. Correct me if I'm wrong but the term "ferrous" metals must have come from him! Iron, steel and other associated alloys that are magnetic unlike brass or aluminum fall in this group. Cheers... GH
Etymology of ferror is indeed Latin for iron, from ferrum.
Often confused with farrier one who works with iron,. A smith or blacksmith at the time was one who actually smelts ore and makes iron, and a ferror made crucible steel.
When your next in Australia, you'll have to check out the William Farrer Hotel in Wagga, Wagga - one of Australia's biggest inland cities. Meet you there for a beer etc! Best, M.A.
I am 85, and only be able to visit downunder as a ghost, which I don't believe in,but thanks for invite and knowledge. I gave up my favorite beverage in 1989, and all alcohol beverages, killing my liver and got me in three DUI's,, third time was a charm.
“The dire need of finding Julie Newmar “ . I love that. If I were Trump with Vance as my next in line, I would sleep with one eye open and triple my secret service agents.
This says it all.
Love it
No one factor describes Trump’s supporters. But an array of factors – many of them reflecting five major social psychological phenomena that form the tinder and the spark - can help to account for this extraordinary political event.
These social psychological factors are not unique to the United States. They are each discussed in this paper: authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, prejudice, relative deprivation, and intergroup contact.
https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/4993/4993.html
All of the suggestions in this article are appropriate and good. But I would urge you to add another one: reforming the tax code toward making it a progressive one again. This would not have to be as strongly progressive as the one the US had in the 1950s but it should go partway back there. Bernie and Joe Biden feel that and have argued for it. Why shouldn't the Harris-Walz administration push for this? A lot of America's sickness as a society reflects its astonishing economic equalities. Let's try to reduce them and make the USA a far better place for its people.
Yes, last night on the PBS News Hour, we went over the Social Security is running out of money story again. It's frustrating to hear people interviewed who still can't embrace the notion of taxing upper level earners and think people should retire later. And then there are the young people who feel sure they can finance their retirement without needing SS. A friend just returned from a sabbatical in Austria, and he confessed what a relief it was to be in a place where no one worried about being able to afford medical care or sending their children to college. This is our chance to fix that in the United States.
Agreed, those who think running a country like the US on anything but a rock-solid tax-based footing and that upper-level earners shouldn’t pay more is unrealistic. On working later, nonsense and hen’s teeth, name one person in later life who agrees they wished they could have worked longer to get an SS pension over 65 or 67. Young people with college and or master’s degrees may, with a grain of salt, be able to finance their retirements, but for most high school equivalent workers, it would be incorrect to think that without social security, they will have much to sustain them in retirement. Millions of US citizens over time have been fortunate to go abroad and see social democracy in action and have come back accepting that, albeit different and not like the US, social welfare derived from all classes of working people and the paying of taxes to support society, in general, is not Communist/Marxist, Vermon oppression but is instead the sensible work of government and voters alike ensuring that citizens are not marginalized from cradle to grave. You are right we have a chance to start to fix things on November 5th or in early voting. Encouraging all to vote NO to DJT/JD Vance and both directly and indirectly to the Mandate for Leadership, The Conservative Promise 2025 plans to systematically destroy the imperfect Union and create a society that would be at par with Orwell’s 1984.
Sure work longer even though giant corporations lay you off at 60 with no healthcare. Where are the skilled, valuable people supposed to "work longer", Walmart?
Plus, companies don't want to hire older people. Ageism is real. Been there. 68 now and on SS.
I like the politics of joy....which is what Harris is selling. Turn that frown upside down.
Target pleasure only to people who are persuadable. “Vote for me because I’ll expand Social Security — while the other guy will gut it,” is a variation on the same theme Democrats have been using since Reagan. It only works on certain people. MAGATs don't believe it. Gen Z don't identify with it.
MAGATs are visceral. Most vote contrary to their economic and even physical well being. It. the culture, stupid! Take veterans and military families. 4 million active duty military members. 12.5 million people on Facebook are family members of a veteran or an active duty member. 242 million people on Facebook are friends with one or more veterans or active duty members. The magic words "not suckers or losers" are flipping many who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqCoCRmNUuA
Likewise, "Trump hates dogs" or Trump stole from kids with cancer" hits them in the gut. https://rvat.org/
We want to register more Harris voters, get more volunteers. .. team building. Gen Z don't identify with Social Security. Old folks with elimination of student loans. Everyone wants sanity.
Peer pressure works. Those surrogates, (like me) do well with their own demographic. Gen X for Harris. Boomers (doo wop) for Harris. Etc.
Trump is a guy who is not fit to stand trial, let alone run an organization. It's therapeutic for everyone, especially his codependents, that he get adequate treatment. How about Thorazine?
As surrogates, terms like "Batshit crazy" constantly repeated works on some groups. I use "Nutsy koo koo" or "bonkers" depending on the audience.
"Donald, what's wrong with you?" Kamala.
Soloman, right on every point, especially peer pressure. This country, big as it is, turns on a dime when an idea catches fire. As we are now seeing!
Daniel, another well-informed. Well said post.
Hi, yes, Progwoman, thanks for your support on this. When I was a teenager, I became aware that many European countries had a much stronger social safety net and wondered why the US could not have the same, especially since it had a reasonably progressive tax system. And I think that the answer then (this was in the '50s) fear of "socialism", which was absurd. As I now approach 80, I still think that the US needs a far better social safety net and that the country could provide a much better one if it got its tax system in order and had the rich pay higher percentages of their income rather than lower ones, as they do now.
Yes. A Republican cousin said she's sticking with their plan, because she "doesn't want socialism." But she has plenty of money, which I suspect is clouding her judgment.
WHAT'S TAKING SO LONG TO SCRAP THE CAP!😡😡😡😡
Yes!
The problem with America is the Horatio alger myth, the myth, that everyone can rise up and be a millionaire. The average American believes that they are a temporarily disadvantaged millionaire, and that their time will come.
Well milliionaires maybe, with inflation. I'm lving comfortably on a pension and social security, my wife is on PERS, Our property which cost us $240,000 in 2001 is now taxed at $700,000 (mortgage free as well) so I am almost a milionaire, but only because of inflation, billionaires are the new millionaires.
By the time youth discovers that they have been hoodwinked, lied to, misled, it will be too late, and all they can do,if they haven't died young from disease, injury and disability, is bitch and moan about the system that they helped create.
I wondered if anyone would mention taxes. I know Biden promised his rich donors they wouldn't have to worry. Thank Citizens United. The last time our income distribution was this bad was during the Great Depression. You can literally create any income distribution you want with progressivee income taxes. We fixed the problem after WW II with a 90% top marginal tax rate and corporate taxes that were 6 times higher than now. If we were redistributing $40,000 per year from the top 10% to every household in the bottom 90% instead of the other way around most of our other problems would go away. Might actually balance the budget at the same time.
Some reform has to happen: to start, how about making the wealthy PAY their fair share of taxes?
It's about time that working people paid less than the wealthy
I am very much in accordance with your suggestion. In the past, I have suggested that we legislate a return to the federal tax rates of 1954, with the provision that when the debt reaches zero, it would revert to the pre-Reagan rate.
Hi Douglas,
I like this specific idea very much. But for the tax system in the US to be reformed along such lines, a long prior period of public education on taxes and why they are necessary and why they should be progressive (in the old sense, that people with more wealth pay higher percentages) will be necessary. I do, however, think that such education and ultimately change of the tax code in this direction is actually possible.
Ain't gonna happen Adam, while to bring this off you'd have to totally rid DC of its lobby class!
Adam, don't you mean "inequalities:?
Hi Klare, yes, I did mean "inequalities", that was a typo or my Spellcheck misbehaving. Thanks for catching this.
You are welcome.
To ban hedge funds and private equity firms from buying or owning single-family homes is an appealing concept to me.
Germany is doing something like that. I read that they aren't allowing corporations to buy housing as some from the US did.
Man, that’s a GREAT idea!
Absolutely! Dr. Bloxom, I really did not know that hedge funds and private equity firms were doing this! I guess I just wasn't paying attention. I feel Congress should make this illegal. No wonder kids are staying at home! Housing should be for people to live in, not for Wall Street and the like to make money! Once again, it all boils down to greed, greed, greed!
Yes and I would suggest it be a high economic/social priority for the Harris administration.
Agreed!
It's been going on for years, Peggy, ever since Obama took Tim Geithner's bad advice and bailed out the banks. Ever since the subprime mortgage mess. I guess you didn't know anyone who got caught up in that HUGE MESS of losing half the value of the homes they'd purchased under those conditions, no credit checks required, etc. Home loans were being handed out like lollipops to so many who couldn't pay but the interest on them. People were buying more than one home under those conditions, thinking they could flip them and make a quick killing. Banks doing those types of loans were going under, as well as other types of rogue lenders. Can't believe you missed all that. Bank of America got into big trouble over it. Just about destroyed their reputation.
We should have been like Iceland, but Obama didn’t have the balls to do it….all those bankers in jail then would have alleviated a lot of our problems now. When he bailed them out they became emboldened and doubled down on greed.
Susan D and Kearney K — Obama’s mistake was not, imho, bailing out banks, because had the TBTF banks been allowed to fail we would very likely have had a longer and deeper worldwide depression (which we have politely called “the Great Recession” ) which still managed to cost jobs and increase homelessness, and which led directly to the private equity firms scooping up real estate at bargain prices.
I think it would have been karmic justice if the “banksters” whose risky bets on derivatives and liar loans to people with shaky credit got the economy in trouble had been prosecuted. But there is no law against stupidity, and taking risks is what they are paid for, the problem being that they were never held to account for their failures.
I voted for and liked Obama. His problem was color: green. And I remember his acknowledgment of that. I wonder how things would be today if Joe Biden were elected in 2008 or if he ran in 2016.
And sadly, Tony West, who is Harris' brother in law, and working for free for her campaign, was the man who screwed up the implementation of Obama's negotiated settlements with the banks for their mortgage fraud... I'm worried about big trouble ahead!
In my country these private equity funds are a problem in housing too: the rents are to high, the landlords not social, only looking for profit.
The money for pensions are hoarded by some institute you don't know and can't influence. Maybe a good combination: reserves for old age pension, invested in your own rental home?
No wonder seniors are living in their cars and on the streets!! My rent is 40% of my income….in order for me to qualify, in a lottery for 64 apartments out of 1000 applicants, for senior housing, I would have to quit my part time job. The expectation that you have to be destitute before you can any help at all is ridiculous
https://www.kcur.org/podcast/up-to-date/2024-08-09/kc-tenants-helps-launch-a-national-effort-for-tenant-protections
Not only are they buying homes already built, but they are also building neighborhoods, called "Homes to rent", of homes that will only be rental houses.
Private equity owning homes is a symptom, not a cause: https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-vicious-cycle-of-american-housing
We turned off working class mortgage access after the 2007 crash despite that being caused by the mortgage securities themselves, not lending to working class people. This resulted in a big drop in new housing supply, which helped lead to today's housing crisis.
"The suffocation of entry level mortgage lending meant the suffocation of entry level construction. Before 2006, more than half a million new homes were regularly sold each year for less than $200,000. By 2011, barely 100,000 were sold at that price point, and that market has never rebounded."
Eventually, private equity looked at the high prices and profits and decided to fund the building of much needed new housing supply. If we don't turn on working class mortgage access again and simply ban private equity ownership, there goes another needed source of new housing supply....
Me too! Married 30 years and we could never afford a house! Now the rent is getting impossible
Add Wall Street Public companies in the housing speculation business.
We need to claw back the Wall Street bought housing for rentals through eminent domain or to pay us back for bailing them out soooo many times. The screws need to be reversed right now. And, no more Wall Street products where they rape infrastructure like hospitals, nursing homes and sell that back to us packaged as pensions investments. These were our, US tax incentives, tax payer funded projects which are raped and sold back to us!! Suck! Sick ! Sick!!
It's important to consider all the costs of housing, including homeowner's insurance and property taxes. In our case, we have a modest home, yet we're paying over $5000 per year, most of which goes to the school district. While I don't mind contributing to the education of our community's children, it's disheartening to see that only 80% graduate. This steady rate of non-graduation is a direct result of how we pay for education in Illinois-half from the state and the other half from local property taxes. This system, which is particularly unfair to those in the suburbs and city, needs to be addressed.
We badly need a wealth tax in this country and a Federal tax that supports education. The way we are paying for education perpetuates poverty by providing unequal education according to where we live. Small rural and wealthy school districts graduate nearly 100%. I don't understand why the burden of property taxes and unequal education aren't widely protested. But then our unequal healthcare that causes premature deaths and bankruptcy is somehow not in the spotlight either
The wealthy need to pay their fair share. I'm counting on Harris/Walz to make long-overdue changes.
Me too, Gloria! I am old enough to remember when the lottery first started. Back then it was sold to the residents of my state as an "additional" fund for education. It would enhance what the schools already were getting. That quickly went by the wayside and to be honest, I never saw where lottery funds were enhancing education. To this day, I do not really know where lottery money is going and for what purpose. I know that billions are being made from the lottery, but where is it being spent?
Much of the lottery money is going into the pockets of the company that runs the lottery. I believe it is another case of a monopoly. But the lottery is symptomatic of the not-unjustified belief that the only way of getting ahead is gambling. I believe the lottery is one of the most regressive forms of taxation available.
Great question, Peggy. Maybe Robert will tackle the lottery [and overall gaming|gambling industry] soon?
That would be a great read!
Education has suffered because of the commercialization of TV, the Internet, and now social media. There is no way way teachers can compete with this! These wonderful technologies must be repurposed for educational goals, and this requires a strong federal educational program, not outsourcing education to religious schools.
Absolutely!
Good question 🤔
All these things can wait till they win.
Why say all the things Harris “should “ do when the campaign is doing so well. IMO we ought to keep our suggestions for after she wins and for now not be saying anything that might be divisive. The list of “Shoulds” here will lead to the other side calling her a radical commie and it will give them a target.
So I say to the campaign, keep doing what you’re winning with and don’t listen to those with agendas, even good ones.
Except listen to me and focus on how dangerous and unAmerican the entire GOP is. This election isn’t about the promises you make, it’s about how unfit the other guy is. Period.
My concern re waiting: Big Money (example, Reid Hoffman, Netflix CEO) is lobbying, and giving money to, Kamala Harris to get rid of Lina Kahn and stop prosecuting monopolies. Meanwhile Harris is putting together HER platform (not Joe Biden's). IMO If we wait and her platform gets rid of Lina Kahn, Big Money will have permission to do what they have been doing since the 1980's - consolidating, making deals and $$$$$ at the expense of the Middle Class. I think RR is spot on with this letter and recommendations. Our voices need to be heard now, not once Harris is in office. The question is how to make our voices heard on this topic. It will take more than just voting.
First Reid Hoffman is with LinkedIn, not Netflix. Second, Lina Khan name is spelled Khan not Kahn.
Now, as you think of what Harris “should” do, put yourself in the shoes of the opposition. How would you respond to these actions and will that get any traction and will the result broaden the Harris appeal or shrink it? Why give the opposition anything to latch on to when things are going so well?
Omg this is a terrible take lol
For a brief period, courts added "wealth" as a suspect criterion under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.
Please explain. Sounds fascinating, but I need to understand how wealth was used.
https://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment14/annotation08.html
One of the main reasons kids succeed in school is parental involvement. I happen to know a young family in Illinois and the mom is all over the education schedule-- those kids catch a break in summer, when they go on field trips!
The importance of unionization cannot be overstressed. Unions are not inflationary. Of course , corporations always seek to blame unions for price increases. But as you have shown, the bottom line is gigantic profits for oligarchies which of course end up being passed down even into small businesses who end up victims as well. Redistribution of wealth from the unearned (rentier capitalism) to the earned ( job wages) is fundamental to actually improving the lives of the 90 percent plus.
https://www.kcur.org/podcast/up-to-date/2024-08-09/kc-tenants-helps-launch-a-national-effort-for-tenant-protections
I have belonged to a union almost all of my working life; since 1968. While it is true that a union often protects the least deserving of its members and is prone to the same internal abuses of power as other hierarchies, they are absolutely essential as a check and balance on laissez-faire capitalism.
Great that KH will attempt to break up monopolies in general. The Farm Action chart shows mostly raw material goods other than Pork and Poultry. It still looks monopolistic; however, processing raw material into finished consumer products involves quite a bit of processing and involves and employs thousands of people across the US. Love it or hate it, turning crude oil into consumer products involves huge amounts of industrial production, etc. Many feel that if the country is ever going to change from fossil fuel to renewable energy, it’s going to take the federal government and industry to achieve that; hopefully, the Harris/Walz team and the legislative and judicial bodies at the federal and state levels understand that and that it takes time to implement that (as in years and years). On item three, Godspeed the plough! Generally, many feel this Substack has provided adequate information to show that post the FDR era from people like Lewis F. Powell, from every president and congress since the seventies, all three branches of government have played rather fast and loose to stop corporate greed that has led to inequality, Government resentment by citizens, and rather unnecessary hardship on the working class. Many in America can understand the truth (no matter how bad it is) and likewise know BS when they hear it. One can hope that in the convention next week and beyond that to election day, the Harris/Walz ticket can convey to the US that we didn’t get to where we are overnight by accident, that there is plenty of blame to go around to all of us, and that time, truth, and reconciliation are needed to move this country away from the precipice towards a better union.
Exactly. Which is why we need pragmatic policies with the goal of making capitalism work for the many not the few ... to steal a line from Robert Reich!
Well said, Henry!
Well said.
“Rent is skyrocketing and homebuying is out of reach for millions partly because of Wall Street.”
You neglected to mention Harris’s proposed tax credit for renters who spend more than 30% of their income on housing plus utilities.
I like that idea!
Main theme: bust up monopolies! I wonder what the "squealing like stuck pigs" contra-propaganda will squeal like? I'm a Boomer whose parents fell for the "vote for this merger, your rates will be lower" flim-flam over and over, decade to decade. They never failed to blame ever-higher rates on Democrats! It's like a magic spell! It doesn't matter what the Harris campaign says. The Repub's. will squeal Inflation! No drilling! Diseased criminal invaders welcomed with leis! And a lot of our fellow citizens will dutifully vote against themselves, like always.
It is pathetic but true, Mmerose! If these fellow citizens would actually listen and use common sense, they would see and understand how these oligarchs and monopolies operate! The orange man screaming how Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will increase taxes, raise prices, etc. and his cult will lap it up! It is insane how these people keep voting in the very ones the oligarchs and monopolies have in their back pockets!! Ludicrous!
Peggy, what you say is all true, but saddest of all may be that they DO vote, at much higher percentages than we do.
And hurt the rest of us
Once, just once, I wanna hear a Democrat speak truth to the voters, as in..."The truth is, we Democrats come in after a Republican has wrecked our economy and we fix it. Obama got blamed for George W. Bush's disaster, but he fixed it. So, Trump gets elected lying about emails, because the economy is not an issue. He destroys the economy. Joe gets elected, fixes it, but gets blamed for Trump's economy. Inflation after the mismanaged Covid pandemic was global, not just American. Biden did better than any other world leader in reducing it. It takes time to make change. Wise up, people! And stop electing the wrong people."
Isn’t it great? Harris/Walz A.K.A. The Cult Crushers
My comment is this: Make sure the incoming Harris administration is aware of these very important points .
Eva Foreman
As long as we are a Capitalist society with a Republican House of Representatives, a corrupt Supreme Court, and the Electoral College, the massive power over economics wielded by corporations and the billionaires will continue unabated. With Harris and Walz in the White House, we could hope for our civil rights to be protected/restored, environmental protections, possible gun restrictions, and certainly a more stable Democracy. But economic changes such as higher wages and taxation of the rich will never happen. Capitalism equals greed. And greed is the basis for corruption.
"...a more stable Democracy." The recent communist, one-party style leadership transition from Biden to Harris should put to rest any thought that the Democrat Party believes in democracy. Maybe you are hoping for a more stable Autocracy.
I do support anti-monopoly action. And I agree greed is a basis for corruption, such as enrichment of the Clintons, Obamas, and Bidens, with millions flowing in from Billionaires and foreign governments. Hunter Biden, "the smartest man I know" per his father is an expert at graft and money laundering. Don't be so smug about your own Party.
Of course I agree with all your proposals for KH, but I find it very meaning that you never mention the most high obstacle to all those policies. I'm refering to the skyrocketing budgets for the Pentagon and "defense" reaching something near 1 Trilion. These obscene spending in arms should be redirected to social and infrastcture and environment. And Kamala never puts these items as she should. Why is it so? The answer ios obvious.
Hahahaha, I rec'd an email from Vance, to donate. For fun, I clicked the big red, 'DONATE NOW' button, only to get the message, I'm not authorized and have been blocked! Boo-Hoo! Feels pretty good.
...and I also found DJTs .com and tried there too. Unable! Felt even better. Both fellas can sure stop by my house, and I would meet them with a big sign, 'DONATE NOW', then kick them off my property.
I think you are absolutely right Robert, but it seems to me, from this side of the pond (France) that many, many Americans exist in such fear of those horrifying labels, "socialism" and "communism", that your proposals would be condemned as unrealistic, too expensive, unworkable and all the other first-responses from Republicans, business leaders and the 1%. That might mean that many items on your wishlist wouldn't get past first base.
May I suggest for the Dems to work more closely with the European Union, because many, if not most of your wishlist is already in legislation and is policy in the EU, often from years ago, and have therefore been incorporated into the laws of each of the member countries. Bearing in mind the complex drafting, labyrinthine negotiations and detailed amendments they always require, you may find that the EU can help shortcut some of your as-yet-unknown issues with ready-made solutions.
That brings an added bonus - the Dems can say that this or that policy is already working in Europe. They can quote statistics, benefits, costs, successes, problems overcome..... They can present the proposals to the public on the basis that "these people already enjoy this benefit, this protection, this right. Wouldn't you like to as-well?"
They can scupper the usual bleats from Reps that such a thing is impossible, or unaffordable, or 'communist' because the Dems will have the facts and numbers, and the Reps will only have their opinions.
I am absolutely sure the EU would be delighted to work closely with the Dem party, and it opens up other possibilities for engagement, such as Dem policymakers and politicians studying and observing alternative systems working in the EU, and talking with EU-based corporations, lawmakers and the public for alternative opinions.
In particular, it means talking to American owned corporations operating in Europe under European legislation and still making profits for shareholders!
It might also make the Dems feel a little less lonely in this World!
Az, I like this suggestion! And especially the possibly to scuttle some of the push-back from at least some of the US corporations: "In particular, it means talking to American owned corporations operating in Europe under European legislation and still making profits for shareholders!
The writings of Heather Cox Richardson have provided detailed context for the apparent American aversion to socialism and communism. What is sad is that so few Americans know anything at all about the difference between Marxist/Leninism and social democracy. Most soviet-modeled communist governments ended up turning into kleptocracies scarcely distinguishable from junta-led banana republics. Compare that with European parliamentary democracies with strong social components in their make up. They are among the best places to live that have ever been created for the average citizen.
I agree that governments that are truly, 'for the people, by the people' are far more pleasant to live in. Safer, less stressful, less needlessly competitive, and people are kinder to each other. Which is why I retired to France!
Regarding communism, I don't actually think it has ever been tried, certainly as Marx envisaged it. Marx thought the internal contradictions of Capitalism, where the rich ended up owning and controlling more and more, and everyone else fell into poverty and destitution, would trigger a revolution as the masses overthrew the 1%, seized control of the wealth and means of production (ownership of companies and factories and farms), and then managed then for the benefit of everyone.
Communism simply means to live in a community, self governing and in control of its own means of production. Hard to argue with that.
None of the so-called communist states have ever really gone through the collapse of capitalism. In fact I have long thought that the most likely candidate for the collapse of Capitalist state, the overturning of the richest 1% and the creation of a true Marxist Communist state is America!
(Which is probably why there is such fear of even the mention of the word!)
Communism as envisioned by Marx is Utopian, and does not truly account for human nature. His analysis of Capitalism is spot on. His analysis of humanity is wide of the mark.
The genius of the American "Founding Fathers" lies in their recognition of humanity's weaknesses and failings. They tried to create a structure that took those elements into account. That they themselves had to compromise in order even to create their new nation, and that they could not envision the problems that would threaten that creation 250 in the future, are not reasons to condemn them and their achievements, but rather reasons to recognize their own limitations as human beings.
"Originalism" is lazy. It presumes that a group of pre-industrial merchants, lawyers, and landowners, largely under the age of 50, could craft a concept of governance so perfect and so impervious to any and all changing conditions as to render its status as ABSOLUTE, irrespective of changes in the world's economic and social functioning, that it should never be changed under any and all circumstances.
I do agree. I've long considered that studying Marx should be followed by Orwell's 'Animal Farm' for a more complete picture!
Human greed, selfishness, ego and ambition are as fundamental as breathing, eating and sex, in my view. Even in community projects I've been involved with, a diverse group will quickly settle into roles based on personalities and self-interests. Usually two or three will want to take leadership, will compete for it with the others, and then go on to try to hijack the project for their own aims. Politicians in the making. Or, as a friend commented, scum floating to the surface!
The French constitution has been rewritten 5 times since the original in 1789, the last time by De Gaulle in 1958, so France is now on its '5th Republique'. And even since then, it has been amended 25 times to keep it updated. But its core values have remained; the separation of church and State, social welfare, democracy, and indivisibility.
Note that social welfare is a fundamental - in other words, the State, corporations and private enterprises only exist for the benefit of the people. That, I think, underpins everything on a day to day basis.
Sadly, America has abandoned that principle and the people have become a resource for the corporations and private interests. This means people have value to corporations (and hence value to the country) only in terms of their roles as labor, management, customers or investors. Everyone who is not one of those things, like old or retired people, or poor people, or unemployed, or disabled, or even children, is deemed useless and even parasitic on society. This is very dangerous, but has become a core Republican belief system. Perhaps it has also become an accepted reality for the majority of American people?
I also agree with your comments about times of change. America is far more vulnerable to future events, from climate catastrophes and climate migration, to Peak Oil/fossil energy, to debt collapse, not least because it has the highest per capita consumption in the World (several times that of Germany, at similar wealth levels). America's bi-polar politics means an inability to agree on such fundamentals as rewriting and updating the Constitution (by comparison, the last French rewrite took 18months, start to finish!).
So to cut to the chase, America might well be the first country to suffer a Marxist collapse of Capitalism. But it would also be the last country to become an idealistic Marxist nirvana of cooperation and social wellbeing. I would personally envisage something more akin to medieval Italy and its independently governed city-states, in constant alliances and wars. But with more guns!
Maybe it's a good time to dig out the handbook for such times - Machiavelli's 'The Prince'! (And buy an AK47, just in case!)
OMG, is radical liberal leftism just putting people before profit? I guess I’m in, then.
Let’s win the election before we celebrate being radical liberal leftists. We need to get broaden the group that comes out to vote Blue. We already have the liberal leftists, now let’s get the others who want to make history and not give them reasons to analyze economic issues and take the side they’ve been taught their whole lives to fear. Progress is achieved in incremental steps. Step one is to win president and congress, state legislature, step two is to change the courts, step three is policy. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves with “controversial “ economic ideas for what the campaign ought to run on.
Civilize first. Gotcha.
Fuck yeah!