Max Planck, father of quantum mechanics, said science makes progress at funerals. That is, the old guard has to die off because their careers are wedded to the old paradigm. Same for the republicans.
ARGH! IF Americans had good messaging, Bunkerboy and his obsolete party would no longer exist TODAY. President Biden has done incredible things with the horrific economy he was "gifted," but NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT IT!!!
Truly remarkable that a once viable political option, a party populated by many worthy of consideration historically, could become so irrational, even comical in a few short years, compliments of the last president and his authoritarian fascism. So instead, the accomplishments of the President that defeated him conclusively, despite a warped and depraved assertion to the contrary with no basis in fact, are ignored because of the daily rush to put the fascist and his psychotic meanderings in the headlines every day.
The whole scenario with Trump is like one of those low budget horror movies where the director uses every cheap trick to frighten the viewers. This damn guy is jumping out of closets, attacking people almost at random, whispering scary things in the dark, and like the best/worst monsters the damn guy just won't die! But thanks to Fani Willis this movie is just about over. So get some popcorn, don't believe all the scary tricks, and watch the show!
School shootings is a systems problem. It is a problem with the ability to access guns easily and not have a way to require training on guns to get them. It is a problem with economics where some people are struggling and others are not and this is being used to create fear and anger against the other. It is a problem with the glorification of violence in the media and in movies. It is a problem of health care that we are possibly one cough away from bankruptcy. It is an education problem that schools are not teaching real world skills to students as well as how to thinking for themselves. It is a religious problem when the other is made a demon or we are taught to blindly obey. A person does not remain sane in a system that turns a deaf ear to them. As a mental health professional, I can help someone make better choices but I can not change the environment they live in. Until we can get more equal access to healthy options for a sustained amount of time, we will continue to repeat the cycle.
Sep 2, 2023·edited Sep 2, 2023Liked by Heather Lofthouse
Heather--You son has cause for concern with all that has been going on in this country. We very often take the issues that really hit home with our kids for granted because we sometimes don't give them credit for having feelings and emotions that equate to what we as adults feel. "The boy is the father of the man." I don't know who originally stated that sage thought but it fits. I fell in love with a young lady when I was 12 years old, puppy love they called it. However the feelings and emotions that ran through me at that time equaled to any I ever felt later in life as an adult. Kids have adult concerns even at their young age and any concerns should be treated as important. I still care deeply for the young lady I met in Grand Blanc High School when I was 12. Help me Rhonda. Tell your son life is full of dangers of one degree or another, if we give in to them we become less than what we need to be. He is 10 and so is the man he will one day be.
Sep 2, 2023·edited Sep 2, 2023Liked by Heather Lofthouse
Thank you, Robert and Heather, for another great coffee klatch! I try to understand the discussion of economics, but don't always get it immediately ; All I know that positive indicators about consumer spending is encouraging, even though there seems to be a 'need' to slow down the spending? The boost for worker's overtime is a bright spot! I like the job growth report. I'm glad that Bob's cold is not Covid, and he will be better off as the holiday season comes, if he gets over this now. tRump's future is in doubt, with all the prosecutions coming, so he can't really convince us that everything (he) is perfect! I bet that rattles him some. It is a shame that our children must worry about being shot in school, and just about anyplace these days. It is interesting that DeSantis was booed when he arrived at a vigil for those three Black victims of gun violence when he immediately started in with 'thoughts and prayers'! This is the man who held a nighttime meeting with the gun lobby (no constituents invited to this clandestine event) where legislation was passed allowing unlimited freedom to concealed carry with no background checks, no questions required! Pure evil! And look what happened again, in Tennessee! Representative Justin Jones was silenced for speaking out about gun violence! The GOP is beneath the pit!
Loved this weeks coffee klatch. Thanks to both Heather and Robert for what you do each week. It is a part of how I start my day each Saturday. Some of this past week wasn't so great because I live on the West Coast of Florida and had to evacuate for a couple of days because I live near the water. My apartment community was spared flooding and damage but unfortunately those ti the North of us were not spared from Idalia.
If we are forecasting what will happen to a USA political party ten years from now, then we need to forecast within the context of the planet ten years from now. 1. The planet will pass the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold within ten to fifteen years. At our current global pace of carbon emissions, the world will burn through its remaining “carbon budget” by 2030. Doing so would put the long-term goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) irrevocably out of reach. 2. Beyond that threshold, scientists have found, climate disasters will become so extreme that people will not be able to adapt. Basic components of the Earth system will be fundamentally, irrevocably altered. Heat waves, famines and infectious diseases could claim millions of additional lives by century’s end.
I think the most likely state of the Republican Party in 10 years will be .....
Irrelevant!
If you can discern any policy coming from the Republican Party, it's something that is aimed at pleasing their "base" - ANYTHING their base is seeming to care about. But this base is continually shrinking - and growing older on average. Younger generations are trending well away from Republican.
In 10 years? The GOP might still exist - but their support will be so small as to make them irrelevant in US politics.
Unless, of course, wealthy supporters manage to nearly completely control ALL media - in which case all bets are OFF.
I would LOVE if news outlets (e.g., MSNBC) would just IGNORE Trump for a day, a week, a month, or even forever. Trump feeds on coverage. If it goes away, so will he. We need to suck HIS oxygen away (figuratively, I suppose).
You do bring sanity and calm into the world. Thank you thank you. This broadcast is not just entertainment it’s a soothing message that shows there are sensible people in the world .
professor reich: i voted for "continue to be reactionary" in your poll.
of course, i left my crystal ball behind when i relocated, so it's entirely possible that the rethuglican party will not exist at all (although it's ideologies -- if you can call them that -- will likely continue on in another party ... something like the "rich white male asshats party" or "modern slavers' party" or something similar.
How sad and also how infuriating to have our children worried about being shot at school! The GOP and the NRA and the gun makers are to blame for this, and they will do nothing to stop it. It's about money and about supposed freedom. But our children deserve freedom from fear, too. I hope your son will be OK, Heather, and the fear won't spoil his school days. They should be happy days.
I expect that 10 years from now, the Republican Party will have about as much power in national politics as it has in California or New York today. And the Democratic Party will be splitting between truly Progressive and Center Left. The filibuster, though, has to go.
I expect that a decade from now, the Republican Party will: be able to reform itself if Trump has died. This is what it will take for the Republican Party to once again be a functioning political party and not a cult. Note that I said "be able", since this is not a sure thing. For those of you with subscriptions to The Atlantic, there is currently an article about this by Peter Sagal on their website.
Max Planck, father of quantum mechanics, said science makes progress at funerals. That is, the old guard has to die off because their careers are wedded to the old paradigm. Same for the republicans.
ARGH! IF Americans had good messaging, Bunkerboy and his obsolete party would no longer exist TODAY. President Biden has done incredible things with the horrific economy he was "gifted," but NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT IT!!!
Truly remarkable that a once viable political option, a party populated by many worthy of consideration historically, could become so irrational, even comical in a few short years, compliments of the last president and his authoritarian fascism. So instead, the accomplishments of the President that defeated him conclusively, despite a warped and depraved assertion to the contrary with no basis in fact, are ignored because of the daily rush to put the fascist and his psychotic meanderings in the headlines every day.
The whole scenario with Trump is like one of those low budget horror movies where the director uses every cheap trick to frighten the viewers. This damn guy is jumping out of closets, attacking people almost at random, whispering scary things in the dark, and like the best/worst monsters the damn guy just won't die! But thanks to Fani Willis this movie is just about over. So get some popcorn, don't believe all the scary tricks, and watch the show!
School shootings is a systems problem. It is a problem with the ability to access guns easily and not have a way to require training on guns to get them. It is a problem with economics where some people are struggling and others are not and this is being used to create fear and anger against the other. It is a problem with the glorification of violence in the media and in movies. It is a problem of health care that we are possibly one cough away from bankruptcy. It is an education problem that schools are not teaching real world skills to students as well as how to thinking for themselves. It is a religious problem when the other is made a demon or we are taught to blindly obey. A person does not remain sane in a system that turns a deaf ear to them. As a mental health professional, I can help someone make better choices but I can not change the environment they live in. Until we can get more equal access to healthy options for a sustained amount of time, we will continue to repeat the cycle.
Heather--You son has cause for concern with all that has been going on in this country. We very often take the issues that really hit home with our kids for granted because we sometimes don't give them credit for having feelings and emotions that equate to what we as adults feel. "The boy is the father of the man." I don't know who originally stated that sage thought but it fits. I fell in love with a young lady when I was 12 years old, puppy love they called it. However the feelings and emotions that ran through me at that time equaled to any I ever felt later in life as an adult. Kids have adult concerns even at their young age and any concerns should be treated as important. I still care deeply for the young lady I met in Grand Blanc High School when I was 12. Help me Rhonda. Tell your son life is full of dangers of one degree or another, if we give in to them we become less than what we need to be. He is 10 and so is the man he will one day be.
Thank you, Robert and Heather, for another great coffee klatch! I try to understand the discussion of economics, but don't always get it immediately ; All I know that positive indicators about consumer spending is encouraging, even though there seems to be a 'need' to slow down the spending? The boost for worker's overtime is a bright spot! I like the job growth report. I'm glad that Bob's cold is not Covid, and he will be better off as the holiday season comes, if he gets over this now. tRump's future is in doubt, with all the prosecutions coming, so he can't really convince us that everything (he) is perfect! I bet that rattles him some. It is a shame that our children must worry about being shot in school, and just about anyplace these days. It is interesting that DeSantis was booed when he arrived at a vigil for those three Black victims of gun violence when he immediately started in with 'thoughts and prayers'! This is the man who held a nighttime meeting with the gun lobby (no constituents invited to this clandestine event) where legislation was passed allowing unlimited freedom to concealed carry with no background checks, no questions required! Pure evil! And look what happened again, in Tennessee! Representative Justin Jones was silenced for speaking out about gun violence! The GOP is beneath the pit!
Loved this weeks coffee klatch. Thanks to both Heather and Robert for what you do each week. It is a part of how I start my day each Saturday. Some of this past week wasn't so great because I live on the West Coast of Florida and had to evacuate for a couple of days because I live near the water. My apartment community was spared flooding and damage but unfortunately those ti the North of us were not spared from Idalia.
If we are forecasting what will happen to a USA political party ten years from now, then we need to forecast within the context of the planet ten years from now. 1. The planet will pass the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold within ten to fifteen years. At our current global pace of carbon emissions, the world will burn through its remaining “carbon budget” by 2030. Doing so would put the long-term goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) irrevocably out of reach. 2. Beyond that threshold, scientists have found, climate disasters will become so extreme that people will not be able to adapt. Basic components of the Earth system will be fundamentally, irrevocably altered. Heat waves, famines and infectious diseases could claim millions of additional lives by century’s end.
3. Every political party, government, and corporation in the world will have to deal with these facts. 4. The Republican Party and the Democratic Party get their $$ from corporations. Both are captive agencies. The GOP's captors are rock solid oil and gas. https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=e01#:~:text=Led%20by%20the%20oil%20and,has%20remained%20rock%2Dsolid%20red.
So let us see the GOP as the policy arm of the Koch Brothers, Conoco, etc., which is an accurate perception.
5. Either the fossil fuel companies of Earth shift to other energy sources, which BP has started to do, or we all simply die faster and more horribly.
I think the most likely state of the Republican Party in 10 years will be .....
Irrelevant!
If you can discern any policy coming from the Republican Party, it's something that is aimed at pleasing their "base" - ANYTHING their base is seeming to care about. But this base is continually shrinking - and growing older on average. Younger generations are trending well away from Republican.
In 10 years? The GOP might still exist - but their support will be so small as to make them irrelevant in US politics.
Unless, of course, wealthy supporters manage to nearly completely control ALL media - in which case all bets are OFF.
I would LOVE if news outlets (e.g., MSNBC) would just IGNORE Trump for a day, a week, a month, or even forever. Trump feeds on coverage. If it goes away, so will he. We need to suck HIS oxygen away (figuratively, I suppose).
You do bring sanity and calm into the world. Thank you thank you. This broadcast is not just entertainment it’s a soothing message that shows there are sensible people in the world .
professor reich: i voted for "continue to be reactionary" in your poll.
of course, i left my crystal ball behind when i relocated, so it's entirely possible that the rethuglican party will not exist at all (although it's ideologies -- if you can call them that -- will likely continue on in another party ... something like the "rich white male asshats party" or "modern slavers' party" or something similar.
How sad and also how infuriating to have our children worried about being shot at school! The GOP and the NRA and the gun makers are to blame for this, and they will do nothing to stop it. It's about money and about supposed freedom. But our children deserve freedom from fear, too. I hope your son will be OK, Heather, and the fear won't spoil his school days. They should be happy days.
I expect that 10 years from now, the Republican Party will have about as much power in national politics as it has in California or New York today. And the Democratic Party will be splitting between truly Progressive and Center Left. The filibuster, though, has to go.
I expect that a decade from now, the Republican Party will: be able to reform itself if Trump has died. This is what it will take for the Republican Party to once again be a functioning political party and not a cult. Note that I said "be able", since this is not a sure thing. For those of you with subscriptions to The Atlantic, there is currently an article about this by Peter Sagal on their website.