If Trump and his Billionaire buddies would share some of their wealth we could have a much better future as a country and we would set a precedent example for the rest of the world. The repeal of Citizens United would be a good start!
😆🤣🤣😆Like that will ever happen. Trump and his coterie of KuKucKlowns LIVE to collect and hoard wealth. It appears to be the only thing that gives their lives meaning.
Yes--repeal of the Citizens United decision would be an excellent beginning!
The assassination of the CEO of United Health Care has all of the earmarks of a professional hit, but for those who want to see it as payback by a disgruntled customer, nothing will dissuade them.
Jay Feinman wrote a book Delay, Deny, Defend the cartridges had Deny, Defend, Depose
This had all of the earmarks of a professional hit, including a fake NJ ID, a silencer, cool collected hitman clearing a jam between rounds, and conveniently, leave a water bottle for the cops to pick up
And here we are normalizing the situation as if it just another election.
Has anyone even bothered to glance at Project 2025, or to take Kevin Roberts and Trump at their word. Roberts said "this is the second revolution and it will be bloodless if the left allows it to be". Well from what I've seen of the left, they are allowing to be.
At my age and physical condition, I don't have much fight left in me, but I do have a passport and savings.
We can delude ourselves that Trump is a glitch in the matrix and that this too will pass.
Agreed. Now is the time for more vigilance to protect our freedoms to speak, assemble, protest, and vote. This administration is based on greed and corruption. They have already penetrated every branch of our government. But it's not too late to take it back:
I agree and the media, in pursuit of profits, and now fear for their own skins is responsible for the sad state of affairs, were it not for 24/7 uncritical coverage, and I don't mean the handful of hosts on MSNBC which nobody but us old farts watch, but all media including Broadcast, cable and print. Unless these wake up and realize that they have committed suicide we are screwed.
But considering that the media are corporations and that their major institutional investors are Vanguard, Blackrock and State street which are also the major institutional investors in most defense, chemical, industrial, petroleum, and finance corporations.. I don't think we have much of a chance.
But we can try, meanwhile I suggest that we each look to preparing ourselves for the worst. The Putinization or Orbanization of America.
Europe is going to find itself between a rock and a hard place, with a Russo American alliance squeezing them like a pimple.
There are two stories here. 1) who shot the CEO and why. 2) the intense and rageful response of the public which is about the inequities and corruption in our healthcare system and is not about the CEOs death.
True, one is not necessarily connected to the other, but the "rage" of the public is eager to make that connection, understandable.
AHIP kills hundreds of thousands a year, by denying service, and corporations get away with murder because they are, well corporations., The moral of the story is that if you are a greedy sociopath and want to kill somebody with impuunty, then incorporate.
I don’t think Canadians want to be merged with the U.S. I’ll speak for those I know very well and say they are very concerned about our democracy.
Canada has their own challenges with upcoming elections. Canada is a member of the British Commonwealth. The Department of National Defense proclaimed when Trump was last elected, they would heretofore beef up their military in order to not depend on the U.S.
Canada and Justin Trudeau do not want to become part of America! I think most people in this world know what a LOSER TRUMP IS, and they sure as hell do not want to fall under his plots and plans.!
If you want to a residency visa in Canada, Australia or New Zealand, check the requirements on line, besides having a quarter of a million dollars, they require that you bring a business and employ people
I'm looking at Belize (they speak English, but health care is marginal)
Costa Rica and Panama
Yo hablo español y he vivido en Panamá
My wife is somewhat fluent in Spanish but more comfortable living in an English speaking country.
If those billionaires just paid their taxes . . . which many of them never even file!!! And again, that will not change w/the incoming administration. In fact, it will get worse because trump will undoubtedly pare down IRS to go after the small guys and leave those big $$ billion companies alone! yup, I'm angry that so many poor people voted for him and will now get their reward.
This from my Congresswoman Ann Wagner MO 2 CD, a complete tool.
"I was proud to support the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act, one of the first pieces of legislation passed by the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. This bill rescinds the $45.6 billion allocated to the IRS by the Inflation Reduction Act. I urge the Senate to send this legislation to the President's desk to be signed into law, and as Congress continues deliberations for FY2024 appropriations, I will be sure to keep your comments in mind."
Unbelievable! The only reason to cut resources to the IRS is so the super-rich can escape taxes. Why do normal people support such policies? I don't get it.
I feel your pain. Naming names, David Joyce, R OH 14th, has a reputation for "working across the aisle." That is a sham. That "working" is on no-brainer, low-level legislation. When he originally ran for Congress several terms ago, the Cleveland Plain Dealer called him a "coward." He has a weekly constituent newsletter, but it is always nothing but fluff. And, he always manages to throw in total untruths about the Biden administration and the Democrats. Yet, he never said a word about Trump when he was president. Joyce is the worst of the worst, a so-called moderate who caves at nearly every turn, and never informs his constituents about (his hypocrisy on) the serious issues.
Absolutely. But the Republican century-old fight against what they have always called "socialism," i.e. appropriate legislation for the betterment of the American people, will never allow that to happen. Scandinavia's "social democracy" is a democracy which is mature and will long outlast capitalist democracy. Capitalist democracy - an oxymoron if I ever heard one. My own state senator has called me a socialist just because I switched from Republican to Democrat right after Reagan. Even then I could easily see what the Republican Party was becoming.
Well stated. The "woke" were campaigning on the absurdity of WalMart employees needing to fall back on poverty programs thirty years ago. But the authoritarian psycho/social bias in our population has never weakened, and seems to be resurging. Why I checked the "other" box. America has always been a "nation of sheep." Now they are sheep with fangs, but the basic behavior of obediently voting against themselves and hating who the accepted white male Boss tells them to hate is same-old, same-old.
The phrase "Nero fiddled while Rome burned" is a well-known saying that refers to the Roman Emperor Nero as being indifferent or preoccupied with trivial matters during a time of crisis, specifically during the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD.
We must be willing to take a deep dive to evaluate if we are emulating Nero by not grasping the larger picture of what is occurring in our government and our economy. It is not simply that the system is broke and we have to find a way to fix it; it is that the whole structure of the economy and the government now controlled by a system that gives ultimate power to the wealthiest is simply outdated and is unable to operate in modern times.
A Packard designed to operate in the 1930’s was a car of automotive perfection, but it simply cannot be an everyday usable vehicle 50 years later. While some effort is being made to get a few more miles out of it, we must be engineering a practical functional approach to transportation to adjust to our needs to day and to ride on into the future.
The same is true of our system of government and our system of economy. Currently only a few large yachts are “rising with the tide” while the rest of us are stranded high and dry on the beach with ever diminishing purchasing power. The shooting of the United Health executive is only the very small tip of a very large iceberg. While our Titanic, the United States, is rushing blindly towards a fatal collision with the iceberg of economic collapse, little thought is given to the necessary modern economy and system of governance to take us into the future. We can and must do better than Nero. The Democratic Party machine will not save us, they are obviously still fiddling. We the people must plan for a new future NOW.
Who ever thought it might be a reasonable idea for the Big Cheeses to earn upwards of 300 times as much as everybody else? This has caused everything from Social Security being underfunded to people being unable to afford not just homes or college educations for their kids but gas and groceries. All that wealth sitting in accounts doing no good for anybody while people literally go hungry in our country is just impossible to comprehend. What quirk in human nature makes people think it's OK to hoard all that wealth while denying those whose work created it for them the most basic of living expenses? And why is this only getting more entrenched in American life? Why does nothing ever change no matter who gets elected? The system under which we live needs to be blasted to bits and started over. I have come to believe that nothing short of another American Revolution can hope to accomplish this. We need more of the brilliant thinkers who founded our country to come together and repair it now. While they might not have been wonderful in all respects in their personal lives, they knew how to plant and foster ideals for the country.
Yes, democracy has failed as an instrument for incremental progressive change. Scary. Has the death of Brian Thompson just become an intimation of the Guillotine? What ensued in France was not called "The Reign of Terror" for nothing. Too many citizens' brains are too easily "hacked" by propaganda that feeds age-old instincts. Born and bred to default to beliefs that blacks are lazy and violent, Jews are shifty, the rich are rich because God favors them, foreigners are all of the above, and too much education addles the thoughts and morals of the young. I have just outlined the fundamentals of American "culture."
Why do you suppose some of us have brains that are not so easily "hacked" by propaganda? If we could isolate that, perhaps we could figure out how to foster it in others. My husband believes that teaching age-appropriate critical thinking in schools starting in kindergarten would be helpful. I think these days kids are taught what they need to pass the state-mandated tests and then they promptly forget it. Learning facts without an understanding of why they matter does not help people mature into thoughtful citizens.
Boy, that is the question, isn't it? Especially breeding horses, I am strongly biased on the "nature" side of the "Nature vs Nurture" question, which is pretty fatalistic in this context. Historical observation would be, there have always been a minority of creatives, less fearful of "the other," inclined to broader empathy. But perpetually outnumbered by whatever "tribe" they were in, and routinely persecuted. But I think your husband is on to something. I have in mind the very broad reading of my childhood. One of my favorite books was "Oliver Twist," and how powerful is Dickens as social criticism goes! Nobody needed to teach about how to think about it. But human default seems to be comfortable in a herd with somebody telling them what to think and do. (Fromm, et.al.) And, so much in the fore right now: who and what to fear!
Well, I can only go by my own experience, both growing up and raising my children, and if anything I would come down more on the nurture side. I grew up in Hollywood, of all places not in accord with my inherent nature, and I was pretty much left to form my own thoughts and opinions, most of which inevitably ran counter to those of my family. And while I had a really difficult time with my children questioning every word out of my mouth, I strongly did not want them to blindly accept any word as truth "because I said so." So they questioned everything and now I'm grateful for that.
Until the Goddess returns from ancient times to displace the current paternalistic God referenced in just about all religions, this is what we're stuck with.
We are behind the curve compared to other developed democracies on this topic of money and elections. And I agree there needs to be a concerted endeavor to reform the financing of our elections!
There is a long history of complaints against United Healthcare. I was a psychologist in private practice for decades and there were 5 or 6 times the volume of complaints against United Healthcare than any other insurance company. I recall a message years ago that I think was from United Healthcare that said to us mental health professionals that all cases of depression could be successfully treated in 6 sessions. More than Aetna, Cigna, Blue Cross and Blue Shield it was United Healthcare that was relentless in trying to limit and deny care to its subscribers.
The elephant in the room is the amount healthcare CEO's take*. They don't make* anything.
In their defense, the CEO's do not even make the "death panels" that routinely deny people vital care. That's another unaccountable insurance company department to maximize profits.
It's ironic that the insurance industry claims "government run healthcare has death panels." That would be illegal with the government-run Medicaid heathcare delivery system. However, insurance companies have panels that routinely make life and death decisions to deny crucial healthcare that the doctors say are necessary.
Just exactly how much did the insurance company CEO "make" and take home, anyways?
Harvey Levin, an experienced attorney in all disputes and host of TMZ, said in no way did the reporter suggest violence. I agree. The reporter only noted why people are upset. I don't think it's fair to attack the ONLY reporter to address the failed healthcare system mostly due to insurance companies' profit priority. The reporter was only doing her job as a journalist.
Agree. The money they make is the money they don't pay. In this regard, 30% of United's revenues are spent on wages/salaries. In other words, almost 1/3 of your premiums are spent on paying people to deny your care.
Adding facilities, advertising, etc., I suspect that United's overheads must be of the order of 50%. Compare that to Medicare (1.4%).
It's time for the commercial healthcare industry to pack its bags.
I am also a retired clinical psychologist. Working in Michigan from the mid 80s on I saw a shift from fairly reliable access to mental health treatment for folks with health insurance to "managed care" which meant that we only had 6 or 8 sessions and were supposed to handle most issues in that time frame leaving some spare sessions for any possible recurrence later in the year. Essentially band aids at best.
Eventually by the early 00s the local HMO was owned by the hospital system I was working for. So there was an immediate control over the number of sessions allowed by our own administrators. I had a PhD and was working with very troubled children and youth so actually had success accessing more sessions than my peers for a while,, but was eventually black listed by one insurance company because of that. I can't remember which, but that kind of tactic of viewing any "unnecessary treatment" as a loss leader to be stamped out was being used on a large scale. The best paid clinicians were the gatekeepers themselves however.
Our family had enjoyed fairly good health insurance coverage which shifted over time. By 2007 or so we no longer had access to our local university hospital, we had a child who had needed major surgery as a toddler and the idea of taking her to a lower ranked hospital an hour away for tertiary pediatric care was nerve racking. We eventually moved to Canada where we felt the single payer system made our work as health professionals more ethical, as it was needs based and not profit based. Our daughter also had access to good care that was blind to our economic status.
Wow, very good for you. I hope Canada holds on to its excellent system. It seems to me that USonian doctors are just serfs working on the "managed care" plantation now. My family's two primary care physicians retired during COVID. They were just in their 50s but hated all the record-keeping and opted to enjoy their lives now. Much as I miss them, I think they did the right thing.
I did work the insurance system where you had to show continued progress but still a need for further treatment In the mid ‘90’s I began doing EMDR and became an expert in treating fear of public speaking. That specialty allowed me to leave insurance behind a year or so later. I offered reduced fees for those who needed it.
I no longer needed an insurance billing service. I filled out forms for clients to submit themselves and they most often received reimbursement.
Laurie - I'm really getting tired of not hearing the other fact - united healthcare has stolen more from medicare (fraudulent billing) than any other insurance giant. also, the repugnants routinely starve the agencies, such as IRS from enforcing the law, as there is not enough personnel to do the job.
Paul Cesmat : Thanks for that fact. They do the same thing against solving the border mess: withold enough money to hire /appoint enough judges to process asylum requests. Disgusting. A decent Fourth Estate media would expose the ones responsible for these outcomes. No wonder there are so many cases, so many desperate families and individuals building up. So many children and their parents being harmed. They would rather kill them, or exploit them for their own evil uses. They would weaponize human beings. As DeSantis and Abbot have done when they send them to places where they are not expected with lies about jobs and housing. Despicable! wasn't it just a holiday season or two ago that those seeking asylum were sent to Kamala Harris' home on Christmas Eve on a cold night , many of them wearing sandals and summer weight clothing? It should be done to them, so they can see how that feels.
Mother Jones, ProPublica, Democracynow.org, The American Prospect, Vox, The Guardian, all try to follow the money. We keep paying attention to the distracting BS put out by "legacy media." Just say no to them. Support the above organizations instead. They need our help.
Paul IIRC Sen Rick Scott was the CEO of United Health when it was convicted of defrauding Medicare . And here is a US Senator and trouble maker. Corporations routinely commit murder and are never punished, not even their CEO's and Chairman of the Boards.
And w/trump in the WH, you can be sure this will not change in the coming 4 years. It will continue to get worse, as the corrupter in chief shows all the other big corporations how to cheat the little guys (even the ones who voted for him!)
They probably learned it from Sen. Rick Scott of Florida. Look him up. His HMO was the worst Medicare fraud company in the country years ago. Then the "retired" folks from FL elected him Gov twice and now US Sen the second time. DUH! GH
Paul - the repugnants. Good word. Since they love to use "progressives" as a dirty word, I suggest a serious nationwide effort to start consistently calling them "regressives." That's the least we namby-pamby Democrats could do, instead of the lame "we won't go back." C'mon DNC, get serious. Finally. Please.
Thank you for an interesting Coffee Klatch, Thanks especially to Michael for pointing out how (not just younger people) Gen Z people feel there is NO Political party for them. I'm almost 92 Michael and I'm fully with you. I've said this on other posts but I'll say it again anyway. Money does not win elections, voters win elections. For the past too many years all the DNC, DCCC, or DSCC have done is raise money and more money, but we lost the House of Representatives in 2022 - yeah, I know it wasn't the red tsunami as expected, but it brought in the do-nothing years of the 118th Congress. In the "old" days politicians used to talk to their constituents - now all they see to do is beg for money.
The DNC, DCCC, and DSCC are useless as far as I'm concerned. Yes, they raised billions of dollars, but they've lost two elections in a row 2022 and even worse in 2024.
It's obvious that neither major party is of any use the United States. Wall Street and the obscenely wealthy are doing great. goodie goodie. But John Smith and Jane Doe are worried sick they'll lose their housing, My grandchildren (aged 29 to 46) are worried about the worsening climate and the increasing spread between the obscene wealth at the top 0.1% and the near poverty of the bottom 70%.
So, the DNC etc. don't want to bite the hand that feeds them, boohoo. We don't give two hoots in hell if they can't afford that mansion they plan to buy next year.
What we, the people, want is a return to the days when just being an American citizen mattered.
The Republicans have been planning for 2025 for 54 years. They have been chipping away at our Constitutional rights. In Republican States they have been increasingly lowering the standards of education to the point where they now have a mass of semi-illiterate people who idolize TV has-beens like Reagan, Trump, and Oz. They know they've been shafted, but they don't understand how so, when Reagan blamed "welfare queens" ad Trump blamed immigrants, muslims, people of color and 'government handouts' they believed them.
You're right Professor Reich. If the Democrats want to matter again they'd better bloody well organize at the County level in Big States and at least at the State level in smaller States. Appeal to the 20 to 40 year olds and LISTEN to the people not the billionaires
True, any of us with kids or grandkids know and understand their plight, student debt with usury rates, can't afford a house or even a car despite a decent income, and being retired on SS which may go away if the king wants to, make it impossible to help them any. Good to see 3 generations involved in the Klatch.
"near poverty of the bottom 70%" Yet more money than ever was spent on cyber Monday and all the airlines were filled to capacity over the Thanksgiving holidays. Can all this spending be attributed to only the 30%?
Thank you, Fay. I'm glad you are here and sharing your wisdom. I wish my 98 year old mom had access to the internet! I'm planning to call her on the phone - she only has a landline - and ask her for her thoughts on how to get through these dark times. I figure she'll see this as just another bump in the long road - or a detour, as opposed to my dead end/road closed. Her dad came from Ireland to work for the railroads before the Great Depression, and her family lived in a boxcar for a while. She has seen this country get through so many changes! I could use her calm stoicism right now, but you are a good stand-in! 👍
Wealth inequality is problematic. If it really "is the major reason for the surge in anti-establishment thinking and behavior," then why are so many voters so possessed to vote for the party representing the plutocrats & corporate interests who actively do everything they can to ensure that wealth inequality remains uncorrected? Why do the voters not realize that politicians don't set the price of eggs, and all one has to do is keep the price of eggs high to get the voters to vote for the politicians who will do nothing to prevent their hustle of profiteering for fun and political acumen? That's not to mention seeing to it that wages they're paying those in whom they're engendering the frustration calculated to lead to said surge in anti-establishment thinking and behavior remain perpetually static, thus making that wealth inequality perpetually static. And make no mistake, the latter is as cold-blooded a calculation as Project 2025. Why haven't the conspiracy theorists latched onto that?
@DZK. Russia psyops tipped the election. Otherwise, we would have won.
Everything else is a distraction. Our top priority NOW should be national security.
Biden is still president and has the capacity to mitigate the threat or even cut it off.
Once Trump is inaugurated, we are lost, and we will be reduced to guerrilla type actions because if Trump becomes the unitary executive due to an emergency, he will be a totalitarian dictator.
You'll get no contradiction from me about Russkie involvement, moi droog. As for Biden, shoot him a hot email message suggesting your response to him while reminding him to take advantage of the SCOTUS ruling: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/share/
There is a lot Biden can do in his final month, at the top of the list is remove Marijuana from the list of drugs, right now it is schedule 1. Democrats are either intimated by the Right Wing and that is why they haven't do so, or they are controlled by PhRMA, legalizing pot and Psilocybin will cut deep into PhRMA profits.,and thus their donations to the DNC and candidates.
I'd just like to see him do something simple, straightforward, and meaningful with his newly coined SCOTUS granted authority, like seeing to it the long languishing ERA be implemented, since - recently - it has finally been ratified by the required number of states.
I don't expect Biden to do anything meaningful. I am convinced that he is managed, like a sock puppet or a marionette. I've thought that for a long time, but kept my mouth shut, because I didn't want to throw another log on the fire for Trump, but it doesn't matter any more.
Is it moya or moi? The former in the feminine, and latter masculine. Then again, I haven't remembered much of the 5 years of Russian I took in high school. That was a VERY LONG time ago, moi droog!
I couldn't quite remember, m'self. Adding the "a" was a last second impulse - just in case. It's been a long time. You understand. I'm'a'gon'na change that right now! Thanks for bringing it up! 👍😁
I, along with a bunch of others agree with you. Trump is to dumb to realize that Putin is controlling his policies. It could go back to "Trump Tower" or the "Pee Tapes" that Putin has on him, who knows. At this point he has to many politicians scared to opposer him. We need to concentrate on the elections NOW coming up in two years to replace as many of his followers as possible. That's the only way we can start changing America back to a democracy that we all enjoy.
Harvey - since the oligarchs have spent the last four years replacing the election infrastructure in this country to give dumpster the win, there is no longer, as he said, any more reason to vote. the "elections" in two years will see no change, unless it is more significantly entrenched with a larger majority. this past round was only the start, the trial run. now they can tune it up to give them total victory. i do believe this "close" election was merely pretence to lull the feckless dems into a misguided hope for the future. remember that this is a long game, one completely successful so far in imagination and execution. I hate to give them credit, but it's too breathtaking not to.
We can't just stay at home. We have a lot to do here. If, or when we get our people in office, we need to get the Electoral College repealed. That is the first step. Remember, the Republicans haven't won the elections any other way in a long time. They have stirred up so much crap that we can choose what we want to challenge next. Freedom of choice should be at the top.
Trump & cohorts will not allow anything resembling free & fair elections. If they allow any elections at all they will be fixe...nothing more than a sham. List summer, Trump told a gathering of evangelicals, that if they voted for him, they would never have to vote ever again. "“Christians, get out and vote. Just this time... You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”
Harvey, how can Trump be too dumb to realize that Putin is controlling his policies, when they are working in concert.Putin is Trumps mentor, and Putin's assistant is Orban of Hungary.
The MAGAs have been listening to Orban. There are a hell of lot of Republicans that are more center and will not go along with him or Trump and the MAGAs. Putin is pulling Trump's strings here. He's just to dumb to realize it.
3. Grant total absolution againast public threats of recrimination. Every time Trump or someone like Bondi threatens someone, it may constitute a crime under both state and federal law. Trump may be immune, but still can be deposed. The others, i.e. Patel, Bannon, et al are fair game.
4. Order the arrest for probable cause for disruptions during the election. DOJ identified some of it early on. It might mean delay of the electoral count date. On September 4, DOJ indicted members of Tenet Media for having received $9.7 million as part of a covert Russian influence operation to co-opt American right-wing influencers to espouse pro-Russian content and conspiracy theories. Many of the followers of the related influencers were encouraged to steal ballots, intimidate voters, and remove or destroy ballot drop offs in the weeks leading up to the election. IMHO tip of an iceberg.
5. Put Russia on notice that war may be the result.
I agree. It is treason. Our Supreme Court should be subject to impeachment for their ruling on Presidential immunity. But where are the law enforcers? The media by in large has betrayed us. The average American is not aware of what's really going on. They are angry and getting angrier, but Trump has used their rage language against them to leverage the election for himself and his cronies. Now it's Big Money and Russian oligarchs carte blanche. I don't see the current Democratic administration responding with much force. Professor Reich's list seems it could be highly effective if it could happen fast!
Marlo, there is only one solution. Biden must arrest and incarcerate without legal recourse, all the traitors on the courts, in congress, in the legal profession, in state houses and governorships, and the oligarchs who have been financing this coup d'etat. The corrupt 6 gave the office of the president complete immunity from prosecution for all actions within the scope of his duties, which include protecting the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. If he does not take this action, he will be complicit and known as the capitulator forever. He will end up in prison, as dumpster has said on numerous occasions. If he doesn't take this action, he deserves to be imprisoned.
I’m curious as to how Biden can mitigate, let alone cut it off, the trump threat to national security. Given Citizens United and the Dobbs decision it’s clear any existing law or Executive Order can be overturned.
Ha! We can’t even get the most obviously most criminal of them all in jail, how do you think that would work with any of the rest of them? And trump would just pardon them the minute he gets into office.
Karyl -dumpster couldn't pardon anyone if he were in jail. Biden has the power to do that. If biden doesn't use that power, dumpster will, as he has proclaimed numerous times, jail biden, probably at the coronation which biden said he's going to.
Exercise the authority SCOTUS granted him, have from 3 to 6 of those justices who granted that authority, and summarily relocate them to the federally sponsored, luxury bed & breakfast at Guantanamo - or Leavenworth, or some nameless CIA black site! Then bypass the Senate and appoint relatively sane justices to replace them, then go after the Congressional MAGAts as well. Here, I'm not advocating for anything the multiply convicted felon and adjudicated sexual predator elect, supported by his scrotum licking supplicants haven't already sworn to do. I'm only echoing what others have already said here.
I assume these solutions you and others are proposing are tongue in cheek. The obvious first problem, how does one define ‘sane justices’? On what basis would we “go after” those who are MAGAs, how far down the ladder would that go and what would the punishment be? When the Republicans get back into office, would they then be justified in going after “woke Democrats” because that is what they would do. Would they go after the newly appointed Supreme Court Justices for being insane? Come on, let’s get real here. Does the old adage “you can’t keep a bad man down without going down there with him” now not provide good guidance? Yes, right now we’re waste deep in mud but to do any of the aforementioned would sink us up to our chins.
Arbitrary and unexplained selection. It should be enough to know that the detained individuals are a threat to our very survival. While we're at it. the individuals in question are preventing a great deal of communal wealth and resources from being reclaimed for the greater good. Freeze and seize those assets.
That doesn’t erase the problem of Trump becoming President and undoing everything Biden has done. Trump would just release everyone.
But maybe if he put Trump & his advisors there as well, insisted on a National REVOTE (or at least hand recount in the swing states), only using Dominican machines (and not using Starlink for any internet usage uploading the tabulated information), making sure EVERYONE who did not get to vote due to purging, bomb threats, scare tactics, etc. was able to vote.
The world has already caved. I just watched the worse dog and pony show I have ever seen, Macron giving Trump a state welcome, I'm waiting for the rest of the world to cave. Gawd help us.
I am watching all this from the perspective of my own family's escape from Nazi Germany in the 30s. It just took one faked instance of arson on the Reichstag for Hitler to declare marshal law that essentially lasted the next 12 years until the end of the regime. Trump threatening to jail his enemies comes right out of Hitler's playbook.
DZK, Guerilla type actions are fraught with danger, we live in a surveillance state.
The NSA has a huge Data Center in Bluffdale, UT (google it), It sniffs all electronic transmitted data from text, emails, IM and broadcast.
They have video's of the assassin who took out Brian Thompson the other day, riding away on a bike, into Central Park, out of Central park and into a bus station.
If the state want you they got you.
Islamists have gone analog, using notes and messengers, they thought that they had it by reverting to pagers and walkie talkie's, but the Mossad was ahead of them. They captured the scheme via electronic sniffing, and intercepted the devices and had them rigged to blow on command.
I suspect old fashioned land lines (home phones) are the best. The state has to identify a specific target, for a wire tap, and I am not talking about a warrant either.
which means we're all under suspicion under the upcoming regime. Dr. Reich will probably go to jail as well. Under house bill 9495, this substack will be declared a terrorist organization and it's subscibers as well.
Some scary shit isn't it. And just think, 95% of the population is humming along as it,all this was just a glitch in the matrix, and it will self correct if we act normal
Well said. My wife says, "we're old, let it go" but I can't just sit back without at least calling it out. I imagine the sheer genius of dumpster's handlers, using the whole "stolen election" idea and dumpter's masterful performance this past summer as the demented buffoon (inciting all the liberal derision and dismissal) while his handlers put the finishing touches on an extremely well planned and executed coup d'etat. I imagine the absolute glee they must feel, knowing dems are too upright to challenge the election because we play fair, and so that's why we're not going to at least recount the votes in swing states, because we don't want to be seen to be like the repugnants the last four years screaming about a stolen election. The audacity of actually telling us their plans, and knowing that we in our smug confidence in our election infrastructure (remember the states are "in charge" of even national elections) would dismiss them as more rantings of the demented mind of dumpster. What a glorious Con, albeit as evil as they come. If it were a movie, it'd hardly be believable.
For the past 50 years, kids in public school have not been taught how to THINK for themselves. It's been all about trying to measure effective teaching with stupid tests. Critical and/or creative thinking has been left by the side of the public school road.
In our case, we made sure to teach our kids critical thinking. Parents can have a big effect on that. The problem is that the parents must be critical thinkers to do that for their kids.
I go back a lot longer than that as I am now 86 years old. Teaching our children goes to the leaders of each state that dictates the ability of our teachers. Financing of the also affects their abilities also.
I last visited my northeastern Ohio home town in 2004 and sneaked into my old K-8 school for a self-guided tour, until the janitor ordered me out. Both buildings -- the 1904 one and the 1954 adjoining annex -- were in decent shape. Since then, they have been torn down. Also the nearby 1918 high school and its 1950's annex. All I see left on the map now is a Christian Academy in an old church in the hollowed-out center of town. There's a new high school in a distant suburb, which used to be farmland -- but who wants to run a small farm these days?
You mean Columbus, the state capital? I thought Columbus is enjoying a strong economy now. And yet the public schools are still hung out to dry? I guess that gives new meaning to the Philip Roth title "Goodbye, Columbus." (I'm glad Roth didn't live to see it -- although his alternate history novel "The Plot Against America" certainly presaged it.)
I'm 85 Harvey, and what I can recall of school (and I found it so boring that I only attended 90 days in three years, that the history I was taught was bunk.
Myths that reinforced the myth of the status quo. As Voltaire said "All of ancient history is no more than commonly accepted myths"
And you don't have to go "ancient: The revolution was started by a bunch of Boston Merchants, who were forced into smuggling, a capitol offense, because of a monopoly charter given to the East India Company, that was enforced by taxes.
It served corporate interest to have the "no taxation without representation" myth, no wonder the monopolists ignore and gloss over the monopoly granted by the King
The Tidewater aristocracts, the planter class, could have cared less about taxes, they lived well and lived high over exporting tobacco to England, there gripe was that when they visited England as they were expected to do, they were ridiculed and treated like country bumpkin because of their customs manners and speechways.
The revolution for them was a chance to become nobility in the new nation, but the common folk were not about to have home grown overlords replace London overlords,so they had to be intimidated into supporting the revolution by Committees of Public Safety, and "educated' by distributing pamphlets printed by Ben Franklin and Rittenhouse of Philadelphia, like the workds of Thomas Paine.
The effort paid off with unintended consequences the people were now dead set against a class of homegrown nobility, though the Federalists were all for a versions. Hamilton was a proponent of a unitary executive with lifetime powers.
It's pretty funny here. When we went to school it was a lot different than it is now. I started school in a one-room schoolhouse for eight grades. I then transferred to the bigtime, a three room school for eight grades. Wow! What a difference. Now-a-days teachers are trying to stop cell phones in classrooms. Nothing is the same today. We're over the hill (Old farts) now. We have to try to improve what we now have. We have a lot to do.
There's always tutoring at your local schools. I've assisted with lower grade reading as well as college application essays. Never felt like an old fart, however, I was astonished at some of the kids' preoccupations with computer games, a sorry waste of time so far as I can see.
Yeh Harvey, you and I are over the hill, what is, is,,, and there is nothing we can do about the situation,and frankly no one wants to listen to a bunch of old farts
I can remember me telling my mother in 1950, when she was trying to help me with math, that "but this is not the way they do it today" and that was before New math came on the scene.
The only thing I am capable of is taking care of myself and the loved ones who will listen. I don't have a hero complex, a savior complex or a martyr complex.
I do have short term memory lapses, like where did I put my glasses, but my critical reasoning skills and long term memory are still intact.
A dad with kids at University of Maryland said his kids don't understand directions to get to a place. They rely on their smartphone to show and tell them. IMO, smartphones are re-wiring the brain to not use logic and reasoning.
I have to agree there. I wish we could do what the Aussies have proposed and passed--although I have no idea how it could possibly be enforced. (First ever government ban on teens under 16 creating a social media platform)
I , along with over 7,000 people live rural, at the end of or along side of long winding dirt roads, there is one town, 2.6 square miles with a population of 2,700.
There are two delivery serviced, Fed Ex and a local contractor to UPS, the drivers have to know the area, and know it well.
You can drive along one these dirt lanes or roads and the houses are not marked with numbers and are usually set a considerable distance off the road, My driveway is two football fields long.
Amazon has recently started using their own service (Amazon Logistics) are relying on smart phones and GPS and are fouling up badly,packages being delivered to wrong addresses or not being delivered at all.
All my mail goes to a private Postal mail box service, including packages. The Amazon drive couldn't locate it. I had to get on the phone and tell customer service that it was a store front in a strip mall,
Most people in charge/power want to make sure the rest of us remain disempowered. Most people are incapable of giving a definition of Critical Thinking.
Nahhh, Mills, it’s not the kids’ educations. I should know, I’m surrounded by them, live with them. It’s the 2nd and 3rd generation of no economic opportunity AT ALL in too many areas of the U.S.
In your opinion, where do parents fit into the education of their children? History is now, mathematics is crucial, literature is creativity as are many of the elective courses offered. We are fortunate to have an educational system that teaches the basics even if it isn’t perfect.
Basically the basics, the three R's are all schools should teach. My 18th and 19th century ancestors were dependent on the father for tutoring, He either did it personally or hired a tutor. My 5th Great grand dad died before he could tutor his younger sons,only the oldest was tutored.
The eldest was able to enter into business, read and sign contracts, and passed that on to his sons, one of whom became a Justice of the Peace and a constable. His youngest, though they thought of themselves as planters, could only sign with an X and were, not very successful, dirt and pig farmers.
Completely at the mercy of business men and bankers.
The family stayed illiterate until Horace Mann the apostle of universal education's ministry took hold, and my grandfather was the first to be able to read and write (an 8th grade) education, my father graduated HS and some community college before he died at age 44, I have a Masters Degree, My son and his daughter Doctorates.
I didn't learn shite from public school except the three Rs the rest of it was brainwashing to make me a good obedient citizen.
The problem with education is who funds it,and their agenda. Those in favor of publicly funded, parent selected education risk having segments of the population brainwashed in Christian academies, yeshivas and madrassas.
I remember reading about the life of one of the governors of Texas. He was raised out in the countryside, a strong Democrat. When he decided to run for office he had a problem raising the funds to finance his run for office. That is when he saw all the money was on the Republican side. That is when he switched sides and became our governor. This is why we need our elected officials to get the money out of politics. It is the only salvation of democracy.
Recall. Campaign finance reform was a hot issue in the '90s, and some legislation was enacted to address it. Then along came the same nice folks who shitcanned Roe, and who declared campaign finance reform unconstitutional under Scalia - may he rot in Hell - in Citizens United under the old "money is speech" interpretation as a violation of the 1st Amendment. Notice how hot the MAGAts have been about the 1st Amendment, when they clearly support deadly force against anyone who disagrees with them.
Part of it is the flood of dark money into politics that buys effective negative ads against Democrats. That is how Sens. Sherrod Brown and Bob Casey were defeated. There is also the fact that Trump, the master con artist, is able to reassure people that he can and will fix everything, while his opponents will not.
Trump promised to "drain the swamp," but what he has actually done is to make it exponentially swampier.
DZK, that's a great reminder. Perhaps it comes down to who you blame for wealth inequality, who you perceive to be more at fault, or who you think will fix it?
Where is Dark Brandon!? Why do Democrats think it is a sin to fight back and win!? DZK : thanks for sending that reminder of the SCOTUS ruling to President Biden 👏
DZK, it reminds me of a scene on The West Wing when Bartlet responds to the reason why Americans want to repeal the inheritance tax; because they want to believe they, too, can one day be millionaires too. Tis the unanticipated consequence of lotteries. And as to who is responsible for income inequality? You can blame whomever you want but in the end the only real question is what can we still do about it?
That is the same line of crap Ronald McReagan was circulating back in the '80s, when I objected on every occasion: "What the devil makes you think you'll even get a whiff of that kind of wealth." To this day I wring my hands every time I have to wait in line behind a string of clowns spending their paychecks on lottery tickets!
DZK, people are emotional creatures, not rational creatures, even liberals and leftists, as evidence by comments.
People vote on emotions, especially those that trigger the amygdala. The Democratic party's message is tailored to the rational brain, the pre frontal cortex, and assumes that people actually take time to gather information, think about it, process it and come to a rational decision.
They don't, they act on the amygdala, the lizard brain, not the prefrontal cortex,, not that the left doesn't act on the amygdala. But the right's amygdala is "me", "me", Me". what it perceives to be a personal threat to ones ego, identity, control,power, whereas the left is "they, them, the other". all of us, the collective.
When it comes to the personal vs the impersonal, the personal wins every time.
The propaganda machine, the media, advertising,is geared to the personal.
The Republican party has achieved success by making everything personal.
Take Trans folk, Talk about a minority an invisible minority, how many does anyone know. but the Republican party has made them a major threat, via an obliging media.
It is axiomatic, that the further one gets from a city, the greater the racism and xenophobia. The black population of Wyoming is 1.2%, Montana and South Dakota 2.6% and Iowa 4.4%
People in Wyoming are much more comfortable making racist jokes and seem to have race stereotypes in their head that they discriminate against.
I have a rather ham-handed view of what is sanity as a distinction between rational and irrational behavior, given that sometimes the most rational among us can be absolutely bonkers! I give you Lewis Carroll as a poster child of the latter - the mathematician/logician who gave us "Through the Looking Glass" as a logical exercise. Indeed, to this day, to say "I feel as though I've stepped through the looking glass" can be interpreted as dealing with some kind of socially induced alternate reality. (i.e.. "Alternate facts.") Your example of psychopaths works well, too. Field operations in bloody combat can be that way, as well. But generally speaking, in my ham-handed little world, sanity == rational and insanity == irrational, where irrational behavior is naked, unfiltered animal or lizard brain response, rather than a motivation governed by rational consideration.
In combat and in any Adrenaline pumping situation, rationality goes out the window.
Some jobs are adrenaline pumpers. Firemen is one. Like infantry long, long periods of boredom, then bursts of adrenaline.
I understand adrenaline junkies, thrill seekers, been there, done that, too old now. Explains some outlaws as well.
Take Butch and Sundance. They had it good, safe,on a ranchita in Bolivia but boring as hell, what the heck one more hit. It is always that one more hit, that is their last.
Look around there are a lot of adrenaline pumping jobs. Air Traffic Control is one,especially in tower, not a scope dope. Spend some time in an ATC tower
What you hear on the mike is calm, cool, collected, what you don't see is pencils being thrown at the glass, the cussing and expletives.
Paratroopers sky divers. cliff climbing, bungee jumping, people actually pay to activate the adrenaline pump.
All these people, are otherwise rational.
We all have our moments. I had mine, so long as Uncle Sam footed the bill.
you're asking for some irrational people to act rationally-why do some believe in god,or taylor swift,or that elvis has not left the building-asking for consistency-forget it-to blame is to be human-unfortunately
I used to ask the rhetorical question: "What do you expect? Sanity from the insane?" Little did I realize that in the 21st Century - Science Fiction times, for me - that the media response would be: "Normalize it!" I was such a naive and idealistic sexagenarian! 🤣👿
I'm now your age. I was getting sarcastic about how long I've felt that way - naive and idealistic in my 60s. (Actually, as far back as my 30s!) But welcome aboard! What it lacks in being a comforting view it makes up for in preventing the "this must be like to be goin' nuts" response! 👍😏
it's a work in progress-day to day-but like vin Scully said,'aren't we all'-different context,but you get my drift-which reminds me of a quote by mae west-'i used to be snow white,but I drifted '
I vote for All Of The Above." No one answer can account for ALL anti-estblishment thinking and behavior. IMO, all of the listed reasons contribute to the anti-establishment voting.
We could add another reason: A media and social media that only blames poor immigrants rather than CEO's and their lobbyists who help write the laws to rig the system in their favor. The dominant paradigm that immigrants are the reason for inequality, rather than anti-labor management practices.
Since most media is owned by the ultra wealthy, both mass media and social media, it's actually wealth inequality's basket again. The rich control what we're told and HOW we're told. How do we change that?
Remember the infamous words of Ronald Reagan? “The nine most dangerous words in the English language: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” That became the Republican Party’s mantra and why they’ve worked so hard to canonize Reagan’s presidency and attribute so many virtues and accomplishments that never existed or happened. Remember Iran-Contra? Remember his getting credit for ending the dictatorship of the Soviet Union? That was more Charlie Wilson’s doing with military aid to help Afghans defeat the Soviet army. Reagan isn’t America’s great leader who could do no wrong, he was just another average guy who got more glory than he deserved.
People are tired of constantly being told that what they have is all they need. Especially when it isn't the truth. Reagan's Trickledown theory sucked back then, and it still sucks today. And now we have the ignorant positions of men like Musk and that jerk who has 5 syllables in his last name trying to persuade us that being poor is good for the soul. Granny get your gun.
The thing is that historically there have been the rich and the poor, with no middle class. A lot of these folks want that back again. What they don't realize is that the middle class is who creates their wealth otherwise it is like Ayn Rand's description of wealth built a grain of rice at a time.
We have a choice between a civilization, which requires democracy that includes shared wealth and power, or we will have the slavery of a feudalism, with all its charming features.
With you right up until the 5 syllables crack- with the plethora of egregious disqualifying reasons he presents, is it particularly necessary to bring the length (and foreignness?) of names up?
I remember when his "Trickle Down Economics" took effect. I was comparing my paycheck to the prior month and with the menial raise I had received in the military, my bring home pay less that the month before it took affect.
Please don't. We have that stupid open carry here in Texas. Recently I went into a local hardware store only to see a clerk with a gun strapped to his side. To this day I refuse to go into that place again because if it is that dangerous, I don't want to be around it.
Bad idea, Margaret. Guns are tragedies waiting to happen. If your life requires guns for any reason other than hunting, you need to change it. If I had a gun, and found myself surrounded by violent threats, I would only shoot myself.
Paula--Guns are only a problem when they're in the hands of ignorant people. I've lived my entire with guns and the sports that they enrich. How many people have been killed through the reclus use of the automobile. As it is with many things, common sense over rules stupidity.
Take a class, get your gun if it will help you feel empowered. You have the choice to use it or not…if the barbarians are armed- force needs to be met with force…taking the high road will get you dead. Funny a few years ago a Qanon jerk was spouting off threats- when I looked him in the eye and said when he came for me I’d aim for his balls….lol the look of utter shock on his face- that Granny would have a gun and would use it on him….killing him would be too kind, maiming just deserts. (I don’t own mine, yet- but like you, I’m feeling compelled).
This CEO had presided over a multitude of callous and deadly decisions about who is worthy of good medical care and who isn't and everyone knows those decisions were motivated strictly by the profit bottom line. Perhaps this CEO was privately a very nice man. That is not my concern. My concern was his great public power - to do good or do harm and the facts of treatment denial by United Healthcare speak as to how that CEO's power was used. What we see in fact is the embryonic class anger of ordinary working people with all its promise and all its potential for destruction- if MAGA fascists twist that anger against democracy, immigrants and non Christians. So instead of bemoaning the "callousness" of the victims of oligarchic rule, we should be joining with that legitimate anger and help people to see more clearly that money grubbing exploitation and the impulsive violence against individual oligarchs will end only when we wrench back political and economic democracy, and social justice.
As long as the investor is the only person who matters in publicly held companies, nothing will change. As it stands, a CEO can either maximize shareholder value or be replaced, or even sued for not doing so.
I like that you point out the deceased might have been "a nice man." We get into deep water when we train people to make financial decisions without regard for private convictions, and I heard that was a necessity most of my adult work life.
The health care “industry” triggers bitter, bitter resentment. People are deprived of basic needs when they are most vulnerable. Most of us regard medical care as a right, yet a cruel industry imposes unreasonable barriers and rules. Corporate medicine is filled with excessive hurdles and hidden rules. Even doctors & nurses are victims.
It does not have to be this way. We must uncouple healthcare from employment & make it universal. Medicare (traditional) For All is a good starting point for workable model.
Trump has vowed to do away with the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare). That is why he is leaning on RFK Jr. to correct it. I don't think he'll ever do it because it is very popular, but, the healthcare industry keep picking away at it. I'm sure everyone has seen the amount to television advertisements they have BOUGHT to get as much of it as possible. It all comes back to money in their pockets.
Their beyond-extreme wealth and the infinite vastness of wealth inequality, punches me in the face and reminds me that they (and their politicians and media) exploit me every minute with their greed and neglect, in every way it seems, and I feel so powerless.
When will we as a nation, as humans, get it right and see and understand the true inherent value of people? When will we stop undervaluing the many and overvaluing the few? When will we feel our interconnectedness and strive to give each person, not just a few, dignity?
I totally agree with you. The only way we, as a society, can correct the problems we see, is to get the money out of politics. Maybe Trump will wake up enough of America to the problems we see,
Harvey Hild, that's what I try to remember to help ease my fears, that signifigant, positive change isn't possible until enough of us, a critical mass wake up. And that will take, as it always does, great suffering to precede the awakening.
I think, by this time, everyone knows I am a MAGA-Democrat, but, all we can do now is smear their faces in whatever they do and seriously work on the election of 2028
As always, another fantastic Coffee Klatch! Thank you, Professor Reich, Heather Lofthouse and Michael Lahanas-Calderon! I chose corruption as the cause for the surge in anti-establishment thinking and behavior. Think about it. Information today is just a click away. More Americans can easily find information whenever they want - some, reliable and trustworthy, others, misinformation and conspiracy driven. More Americans are finding out the level of corruption in our government than ever before. Are we angry? You bet we are! Are we fed up? You bet we are! Information whether real or not is awakening Americans to just how corrupt the system has become! As I listened to the Klatch today, I agreed with Michael Lahanas-Calderon about the feeling for the Democratic Party. They are completely out of touch with the people about everything! My biggest question is how can the American people believe the government is of, for and by the people when it is being run by the oligarchs? The Democrats don't want to bite the hand that feeds them (the rich) and want to maintain the status quo even when it is perfectly obvious the status quo is no longer working for average Americans! I say ROCK THE BOAT! Ben Wickler is exactly what the Democrats need to get the Democratic Party back to the party I could relate to. He has the intelligence, the drive and the passions to reorganize the party so that it is more on brand with what the average American wants in their political affiliations. If the Democrats continue on the course they have charted, they will be as obsolete as the republican party has become. Should that happen, I would hope a new party would emerge with someone like Ben Wickler in charge that would appeal to the masses who have felt let down by both republicans and Democrats. If the Democrats do not use the remaining time to at least attempt to do the things on Professor Reich's list, I will have no other option than to leave the party and become an Independent. Once again, thank you for a great start to my week-end!
I will not paint the healthcare systems in my or other countries outside the US as ideal. However, I cannot fathom being told that 'yes, the means to help you exists but it does not exist for YOU because....' This is an offshoot of wealth inequity as were all the choices Mr Reich presented. When some people are considered 'more valuable', 'more worthy' in any aspect than are others, a revolution is inevitable. What happened is lamentable and unkindness as a response is shameful. But inevitable...yes...and it won't stop here.
Exactly. Whether the murder of this CEO was a carefully orchestrated event meant to unleash the rage of millions or just an attempt by one distraught individual seeking healthcare justice, the public’s response to it is completely unsurprising to me.
If you’re surprised, then you haven’t been paying attention to what has been right in front of you. This pot has been on a low simmer for decades. Healthcare workers (nurses in particular, who are by large majority women) have been telling about and publishing papers on the threats/acts of violence they face at work for years. I imagine employees of other dysfunctional systems have experienced similar (although to a lesser degree).
The voters have spent the weeks since the election repeatedly asking what they and their elected officials are going to do to stop Trump and his billionaire cabinet from destroying democracy. So far, all that has been suggested is the same tired, ineffective strategy of playing nice and hoping democracy holds.
So, what do Democrats do? Work quickly to identify & acknowledge the problem. Channel the potentially explosive energy of their voters by taking bold, decisive action to resolve the issues. Let people know you’re on their side. Be courageous. Don’t stop until the work is done and voters know you can be trusted.
Staff members for Democratic representatives should be out in the streets, supporting efforts to mobilize their voters within their community.
Sitting behind a computer at a desk preparing posts for the official website isn’t enough anymore. Let’s get started!
Professor Reich, Heather Lofthouse and Michael Calderon: in your poll, I voted for wealth inequality, but i could have chosen any of your poll choices, and i think in some of your polls, you should make "all of the above" one of your choices.
the murder of Brian Thompson does not surprise me, although a few details surrounding this murder are somewhat surprising (daytime, a public street, in full view of a surveillance camera and during daytime traffic, the "getaway" just to name a few). health insurance CEOs have been asking for such a response for literally decades with their arrogant, blatant theft of every americans' limited, hard-earned income. and thompson was being investigated for criminal activity, so he hardly represents “an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives,” (i guess they forgot to mention that he also touched so many bank accounts and people's futures) i guess what surprises me most is that it didn't happen sooner.
you mentioned H5N1 bird flu, and this virus appears to be moving into the human population NOT VIA BIRDS, since most human victims were not exposed to birds before becoming infected, but through RAW MILK.
Professor Reich and colleagues: i support your choices for cabinet nominees and i especially agree with Michael regarding the perception that, even if these nominees are not approved by the orange jeebuz' mob of oligarchs, TRYING to get them approved is important since watching the democrats these days is absolutely DEPRESSING because they appear to be doing NOT MUCH to obviously help us, which i find distressing.
one more thing that deeply concerns me: any one of these criminal oligarchs could press the button and fire off a bunch of nukes against ... a victim of their choice. what's to stop them from trying to extort the leader of a nation .. iran, for example .. and using nuclear weapons as an option that could be used to terrorize these leaders or nations.
Thoughtful people are starting to realize that the killer knew exactly how to make surveillance and identification difficult. That in itself makes me wonder if he acted alone.
The election results, the choices for cabinet positions, and the extreme wealth that will, in fact, control our government make a mockery of our "election process." Worse yet is the ridiculous, out-of-date Electoral College. What matters is that the Democratic party lost the Senate and the chances of ever regaining control slip even more at every election.
Finally, we have a lazy, politically illiterate voting society; they allow the media to do their thinking and vote for them. And we have the audacity to call ourselves a "true" democracy, aha!
Really, nothing will change unless Americans do something about the growing disparity in the wealth and power of a very few people and the rest of the world. Robert Reich has been saying this for decades. Trump's greed, corruption, and incompetence will give us the chance.
When Jesus of Nazareth, a Samaritan Immigrant, was asked by a young man, "How can I get to heaven?", Jesus responded, "Sell all you have and give to the poor."
“Even not counting Elon Musk, this is by far the wealthiest bunch ever to populate a U.S. administration. Hardly an anti-establishment crowd. In fact, how can this group ever know what Americans want or need?”
Answer. They can’t know and they aren’t interested in knowing. They’re there for themselves, not us.
If Trump and his Billionaire buddies would share some of their wealth we could have a much better future as a country and we would set a precedent example for the rest of the world. The repeal of Citizens United would be a good start!
😆🤣🤣😆Like that will ever happen. Trump and his coterie of KuKucKlowns LIVE to collect and hoard wealth. It appears to be the only thing that gives their lives meaning.
Yes--repeal of the Citizens United decision would be an excellent beginning!
"Ku Kuc Klowns," you say?!? THAT 😚👌 is a thing a beauty!
The assassination of the CEO of United Health Care has all of the earmarks of a professional hit, but for those who want to see it as payback by a disgruntled customer, nothing will dissuade them.
Jay Feinman wrote a book Delay, Deny, Defend the cartridges had Deny, Defend, Depose
This had all of the earmarks of a professional hit, including a fake NJ ID, a silencer, cool collected hitman clearing a jam between rounds, and conveniently, leave a water bottle for the cops to pick up
And here we are normalizing the situation as if it just another election.
Has anyone even bothered to glance at Project 2025, or to take Kevin Roberts and Trump at their word. Roberts said "this is the second revolution and it will be bloodless if the left allows it to be". Well from what I've seen of the left, they are allowing to be.
At my age and physical condition, I don't have much fight left in me, but I do have a passport and savings.
We can delude ourselves that Trump is a glitch in the matrix and that this too will pass.
Denial is a great defense mechanism.
Agreed. Now is the time for more vigilance to protect our freedoms to speak, assemble, protest, and vote. This administration is based on greed and corruption. They have already penetrated every branch of our government. But it's not too late to take it back:
https://open.substack.com/pub/oldandintheway45/p/more-and-more-about-the-money?r=3qbw9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
I agree and the media, in pursuit of profits, and now fear for their own skins is responsible for the sad state of affairs, were it not for 24/7 uncritical coverage, and I don't mean the handful of hosts on MSNBC which nobody but us old farts watch, but all media including Broadcast, cable and print. Unless these wake up and realize that they have committed suicide we are screwed.
But considering that the media are corporations and that their major institutional investors are Vanguard, Blackrock and State street which are also the major institutional investors in most defense, chemical, industrial, petroleum, and finance corporations.. I don't think we have much of a chance.
But we can try, meanwhile I suggest that we each look to preparing ourselves for the worst. The Putinization or Orbanization of America.
Europe is going to find itself between a rock and a hard place, with a Russo American alliance squeezing them like a pimple.
There are two stories here. 1) who shot the CEO and why. 2) the intense and rageful response of the public which is about the inequities and corruption in our healthcare system and is not about the CEOs death.
True, one is not necessarily connected to the other, but the "rage" of the public is eager to make that connection, understandable.
AHIP kills hundreds of thousands a year, by denying service, and corporations get away with murder because they are, well corporations., The moral of the story is that if you are a greedy sociopath and want to kill somebody with impuunty, then incorporate.
Where are you planning to travel? I'm really curious. Trump has proposed making Canada our 51st state, so I'm not thinking about that destination.
I don’t think Canadians want to be merged with the U.S. I’ll speak for those I know very well and say they are very concerned about our democracy.
Canada has their own challenges with upcoming elections. Canada is a member of the British Commonwealth. The Department of National Defense proclaimed when Trump was last elected, they would heretofore beef up their military in order to not depend on the U.S.
Canada and Justin Trudeau do not want to become part of America! I think most people in this world know what a LOSER TRUMP IS, and they sure as hell do not want to fall under his plots and plans.!
I don't believe Canada would agree to Trumps proposal, but you might look into Albania. Its cheap, speaks a lot of English and they like Americans.
If you want to a residency visa in Canada, Australia or New Zealand, check the requirements on line, besides having a quarter of a million dollars, they require that you bring a business and employ people
I'm looking at Belize (they speak English, but health care is marginal)
Costa Rica and Panama
Yo hablo español y he vivido en Panamá
My wife is somewhat fluent in Spanish but more comfortable living in an English speaking country.
Trump runs his mouth constantly. Do you honestly believe he can just "annex" another sovereign country? C'mon.
No, I didn't think "annex," I saw Trump's "51st state" remark as a gangsterish economic threat aimed at the Trudeau government:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/after-reportedly-suggesting-canada-become-51st-u-s-state-donald-trump-trolls-justin-trudeau-this-is-what-he-did/articleshow/115980194.cms?from=mdr
Seriously, what’s he going to do: invade Canada? (Paging “South Park”).
If those billionaires just paid their taxes . . . which many of them never even file!!! And again, that will not change w/the incoming administration. In fact, it will get worse because trump will undoubtedly pare down IRS to go after the small guys and leave those big $$ billion companies alone! yup, I'm angry that so many poor people voted for him and will now get their reward.
This from my Congresswoman Ann Wagner MO 2 CD, a complete tool.
"I was proud to support the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act, one of the first pieces of legislation passed by the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. This bill rescinds the $45.6 billion allocated to the IRS by the Inflation Reduction Act. I urge the Senate to send this legislation to the President's desk to be signed into law, and as Congress continues deliberations for FY2024 appropriations, I will be sure to keep your comments in mind."
Unbelievable! The only reason to cut resources to the IRS is so the super-rich can escape taxes. Why do normal people support such policies? I don't get it.
I feel your pain. Naming names, David Joyce, R OH 14th, has a reputation for "working across the aisle." That is a sham. That "working" is on no-brainer, low-level legislation. When he originally ran for Congress several terms ago, the Cleveland Plain Dealer called him a "coward." He has a weekly constituent newsletter, but it is always nothing but fluff. And, he always manages to throw in total untruths about the Biden administration and the Democrats. Yet, he never said a word about Trump when he was president. Joyce is the worst of the worst, a so-called moderate who caves at nearly every turn, and never informs his constituents about (his hypocrisy on) the serious issues.
🤬🤬🤬
100% agree!
Scandinavian Health Care would work.
Absolutely. But the Republican century-old fight against what they have always called "socialism," i.e. appropriate legislation for the betterment of the American people, will never allow that to happen. Scandinavia's "social democracy" is a democracy which is mature and will long outlast capitalist democracy. Capitalist democracy - an oxymoron if I ever heard one. My own state senator has called me a socialist just because I switched from Republican to Democrat right after Reagan. Even then I could easily see what the Republican Party was becoming.
Being called a socialist is a compliment.
The U.S. has corporate socialism. Profits are kept and losses are socialized on the backs of taxpayers.
Well stated. The "woke" were campaigning on the absurdity of WalMart employees needing to fall back on poverty programs thirty years ago. But the authoritarian psycho/social bias in our population has never weakened, and seems to be resurging. Why I checked the "other" box. America has always been a "nation of sheep." Now they are sheep with fangs, but the basic behavior of obediently voting against themselves and hating who the accepted white male Boss tells them to hate is same-old, same-old.
The phrase "Nero fiddled while Rome burned" is a well-known saying that refers to the Roman Emperor Nero as being indifferent or preoccupied with trivial matters during a time of crisis, specifically during the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD.
We must be willing to take a deep dive to evaluate if we are emulating Nero by not grasping the larger picture of what is occurring in our government and our economy. It is not simply that the system is broke and we have to find a way to fix it; it is that the whole structure of the economy and the government now controlled by a system that gives ultimate power to the wealthiest is simply outdated and is unable to operate in modern times.
A Packard designed to operate in the 1930’s was a car of automotive perfection, but it simply cannot be an everyday usable vehicle 50 years later. While some effort is being made to get a few more miles out of it, we must be engineering a practical functional approach to transportation to adjust to our needs to day and to ride on into the future.
The same is true of our system of government and our system of economy. Currently only a few large yachts are “rising with the tide” while the rest of us are stranded high and dry on the beach with ever diminishing purchasing power. The shooting of the United Health executive is only the very small tip of a very large iceberg. While our Titanic, the United States, is rushing blindly towards a fatal collision with the iceberg of economic collapse, little thought is given to the necessary modern economy and system of governance to take us into the future. We can and must do better than Nero. The Democratic Party machine will not save us, they are obviously still fiddling. We the people must plan for a new future NOW.
https://crisistransition.substack.com/p/the-time-for-planning-is-now
Also
Who ever thought it might be a reasonable idea for the Big Cheeses to earn upwards of 300 times as much as everybody else? This has caused everything from Social Security being underfunded to people being unable to afford not just homes or college educations for their kids but gas and groceries. All that wealth sitting in accounts doing no good for anybody while people literally go hungry in our country is just impossible to comprehend. What quirk in human nature makes people think it's OK to hoard all that wealth while denying those whose work created it for them the most basic of living expenses? And why is this only getting more entrenched in American life? Why does nothing ever change no matter who gets elected? The system under which we live needs to be blasted to bits and started over. I have come to believe that nothing short of another American Revolution can hope to accomplish this. We need more of the brilliant thinkers who founded our country to come together and repair it now. While they might not have been wonderful in all respects in their personal lives, they knew how to plant and foster ideals for the country.
Yes, democracy has failed as an instrument for incremental progressive change. Scary. Has the death of Brian Thompson just become an intimation of the Guillotine? What ensued in France was not called "The Reign of Terror" for nothing. Too many citizens' brains are too easily "hacked" by propaganda that feeds age-old instincts. Born and bred to default to beliefs that blacks are lazy and violent, Jews are shifty, the rich are rich because God favors them, foreigners are all of the above, and too much education addles the thoughts and morals of the young. I have just outlined the fundamentals of American "culture."
Why do you suppose some of us have brains that are not so easily "hacked" by propaganda? If we could isolate that, perhaps we could figure out how to foster it in others. My husband believes that teaching age-appropriate critical thinking in schools starting in kindergarten would be helpful. I think these days kids are taught what they need to pass the state-mandated tests and then they promptly forget it. Learning facts without an understanding of why they matter does not help people mature into thoughtful citizens.
Boy, that is the question, isn't it? Especially breeding horses, I am strongly biased on the "nature" side of the "Nature vs Nurture" question, which is pretty fatalistic in this context. Historical observation would be, there have always been a minority of creatives, less fearful of "the other," inclined to broader empathy. But perpetually outnumbered by whatever "tribe" they were in, and routinely persecuted. But I think your husband is on to something. I have in mind the very broad reading of my childhood. One of my favorite books was "Oliver Twist," and how powerful is Dickens as social criticism goes! Nobody needed to teach about how to think about it. But human default seems to be comfortable in a herd with somebody telling them what to think and do. (Fromm, et.al.) And, so much in the fore right now: who and what to fear!
Well, I can only go by my own experience, both growing up and raising my children, and if anything I would come down more on the nurture side. I grew up in Hollywood, of all places not in accord with my inherent nature, and I was pretty much left to form my own thoughts and opinions, most of which inevitably ran counter to those of my family. And while I had a really difficult time with my children questioning every word out of my mouth, I strongly did not want them to blindly accept any word as truth "because I said so." So they questioned everything and now I'm grateful for that.
ps. Not getting started on the putrid complexes about females. But it ain't hopeful, folks.
Until the Goddess returns from ancient times to displace the current paternalistic God referenced in just about all religions, this is what we're stuck with.
We are behind the curve compared to other developed democracies on this topic of money and elections. And I agree there needs to be a concerted endeavor to reform the financing of our elections!
There is a long history of complaints against United Healthcare. I was a psychologist in private practice for decades and there were 5 or 6 times the volume of complaints against United Healthcare than any other insurance company. I recall a message years ago that I think was from United Healthcare that said to us mental health professionals that all cases of depression could be successfully treated in 6 sessions. More than Aetna, Cigna, Blue Cross and Blue Shield it was United Healthcare that was relentless in trying to limit and deny care to its subscribers.
Nancy R Cetlin, Ed.D.
Psychologist - Retired
The elephant in the room is the amount healthcare CEO's take*. They don't make* anything.
In their defense, the CEO's do not even make the "death panels" that routinely deny people vital care. That's another unaccountable insurance company department to maximize profits.
It's ironic that the insurance industry claims "government run healthcare has death panels." That would be illegal with the government-run Medicaid heathcare delivery system. However, insurance companies have panels that routinely make life and death decisions to deny crucial healthcare that the doctors say are necessary.
Just exactly how much did the insurance company CEO "make" and take home, anyways?
Harvey Levin, an experienced attorney in all disputes and host of TMZ, said in no way did the reporter suggest violence. I agree. The reporter only noted why people are upset. I don't think it's fair to attack the ONLY reporter to address the failed healthcare system mostly due to insurance companies' profit priority. The reporter was only doing her job as a journalist.
Agree. The money they make is the money they don't pay. In this regard, 30% of United's revenues are spent on wages/salaries. In other words, almost 1/3 of your premiums are spent on paying people to deny your care.
Adding facilities, advertising, etc., I suspect that United's overheads must be of the order of 50%. Compare that to Medicare (1.4%).
It's time for the commercial healthcare industry to pack its bags.
I am also a retired clinical psychologist. Working in Michigan from the mid 80s on I saw a shift from fairly reliable access to mental health treatment for folks with health insurance to "managed care" which meant that we only had 6 or 8 sessions and were supposed to handle most issues in that time frame leaving some spare sessions for any possible recurrence later in the year. Essentially band aids at best.
Eventually by the early 00s the local HMO was owned by the hospital system I was working for. So there was an immediate control over the number of sessions allowed by our own administrators. I had a PhD and was working with very troubled children and youth so actually had success accessing more sessions than my peers for a while,, but was eventually black listed by one insurance company because of that. I can't remember which, but that kind of tactic of viewing any "unnecessary treatment" as a loss leader to be stamped out was being used on a large scale. The best paid clinicians were the gatekeepers themselves however.
Our family had enjoyed fairly good health insurance coverage which shifted over time. By 2007 or so we no longer had access to our local university hospital, we had a child who had needed major surgery as a toddler and the idea of taking her to a lower ranked hospital an hour away for tertiary pediatric care was nerve racking. We eventually moved to Canada where we felt the single payer system made our work as health professionals more ethical, as it was needs based and not profit based. Our daughter also had access to good care that was blind to our economic status.
Wow, very good for you. I hope Canada holds on to its excellent system. It seems to me that USonian doctors are just serfs working on the "managed care" plantation now. My family's two primary care physicians retired during COVID. They were just in their 50s but hated all the record-keeping and opted to enjoy their lives now. Much as I miss them, I think they did the right thing.
Yes, as Yanis Varoufakis points out, we're in Technofeudalsm now. Capitalism is over.
James Tunney has been trying to warn us about our status as Plantation inhabitants for a few years.
Look these 2 guys up.
Hi Bob Romm,
I did work the insurance system where you had to show continued progress but still a need for further treatment In the mid ‘90’s I began doing EMDR and became an expert in treating fear of public speaking. That specialty allowed me to leave insurance behind a year or so later. I offered reduced fees for those who needed it.
I no longer needed an insurance billing service. I filled out forms for clients to submit themselves and they most often received reimbursement.
In the HMOs out of system reimbursement was eventually banned.
I read somewhere that United Healthcare had the most denials 79% , I think, of all insurance carriers.
Laurie - I'm really getting tired of not hearing the other fact - united healthcare has stolen more from medicare (fraudulent billing) than any other insurance giant. also, the repugnants routinely starve the agencies, such as IRS from enforcing the law, as there is not enough personnel to do the job.
Paul Cesmat : Thanks for that fact. They do the same thing against solving the border mess: withold enough money to hire /appoint enough judges to process asylum requests. Disgusting. A decent Fourth Estate media would expose the ones responsible for these outcomes. No wonder there are so many cases, so many desperate families and individuals building up. So many children and their parents being harmed. They would rather kill them, or exploit them for their own evil uses. They would weaponize human beings. As DeSantis and Abbot have done when they send them to places where they are not expected with lies about jobs and housing. Despicable! wasn't it just a holiday season or two ago that those seeking asylum were sent to Kamala Harris' home on Christmas Eve on a cold night , many of them wearing sandals and summer weight clothing? It should be done to them, so they can see how that feels.
Mother Jones, ProPublica, Democracynow.org, The American Prospect, Vox, The Guardian, all try to follow the money. We keep paying attention to the distracting BS put out by "legacy media." Just say no to them. Support the above organizations instead. They need our help.
Paul IIRC Sen Rick Scott was the CEO of United Health when it was convicted of defrauding Medicare . And here is a US Senator and trouble maker. Corporations routinely commit murder and are never punished, not even their CEO's and Chairman of the Boards.
I wonder what his "golden parachute" was?
And w/trump in the WH, you can be sure this will not change in the coming 4 years. It will continue to get worse, as the corrupter in chief shows all the other big corporations how to cheat the little guys (even the ones who voted for him!)
ESPECIALLY the ones who voted for him.
Trump has cheated everybody he has been able to cheat.
They probably learned it from Sen. Rick Scott of Florida. Look him up. His HMO was the worst Medicare fraud company in the country years ago. Then the "retired" folks from FL elected him Gov twice and now US Sen the second time. DUH! GH
Paul - the repugnants. Good word. Since they love to use "progressives" as a dirty word, I suggest a serious nationwide effort to start consistently calling them "regressives." That's the least we namby-pamby Democrats could do, instead of the lame "we won't go back." C'mon DNC, get serious. Finally. Please.
They think that anyone who is "woke", or conscious, is a threat. Beyond pathetic.
We could call them the "Sheep herders". Regressive is good, too.
Amen
I saw a chart yesterday that confirms what you say.
And yet AARP endorses UHC.
That's a problem. People see one good thing about company does, and overlook the problems.
CVS quit selling tobacco products, but they have monopolized prescription fulfillment for Medicare. Disgusting. Repugnant.
I see AARP as a front for medical insurance for seniors, and not a great one. Very little else.
I’m guessing UHC offered them a deal they couldn’t refuse. I’ve heard there are fewer complaints in that system.
Matt Stolller in his substack list UHC as the worst of the majors in their rejection of claims.
Thank you for an interesting Coffee Klatch, Thanks especially to Michael for pointing out how (not just younger people) Gen Z people feel there is NO Political party for them. I'm almost 92 Michael and I'm fully with you. I've said this on other posts but I'll say it again anyway. Money does not win elections, voters win elections. For the past too many years all the DNC, DCCC, or DSCC have done is raise money and more money, but we lost the House of Representatives in 2022 - yeah, I know it wasn't the red tsunami as expected, but it brought in the do-nothing years of the 118th Congress. In the "old" days politicians used to talk to their constituents - now all they see to do is beg for money.
The DNC, DCCC, and DSCC are useless as far as I'm concerned. Yes, they raised billions of dollars, but they've lost two elections in a row 2022 and even worse in 2024.
It's obvious that neither major party is of any use the United States. Wall Street and the obscenely wealthy are doing great. goodie goodie. But John Smith and Jane Doe are worried sick they'll lose their housing, My grandchildren (aged 29 to 46) are worried about the worsening climate and the increasing spread between the obscene wealth at the top 0.1% and the near poverty of the bottom 70%.
So, the DNC etc. don't want to bite the hand that feeds them, boohoo. We don't give two hoots in hell if they can't afford that mansion they plan to buy next year.
What we, the people, want is a return to the days when just being an American citizen mattered.
The Republicans have been planning for 2025 for 54 years. They have been chipping away at our Constitutional rights. In Republican States they have been increasingly lowering the standards of education to the point where they now have a mass of semi-illiterate people who idolize TV has-beens like Reagan, Trump, and Oz. They know they've been shafted, but they don't understand how so, when Reagan blamed "welfare queens" ad Trump blamed immigrants, muslims, people of color and 'government handouts' they believed them.
You're right Professor Reich. If the Democrats want to matter again they'd better bloody well organize at the County level in Big States and at least at the State level in smaller States. Appeal to the 20 to 40 year olds and LISTEN to the people not the billionaires
True, any of us with kids or grandkids know and understand their plight, student debt with usury rates, can't afford a house or even a car despite a decent income, and being retired on SS which may go away if the king wants to, make it impossible to help them any. Good to see 3 generations involved in the Klatch.
Good for you, Fay! You tell them!!!!
Fay - Triple Like!!
"near poverty of the bottom 70%" Yet more money than ever was spent on cyber Monday and all the airlines were filled to capacity over the Thanksgiving holidays. Can all this spending be attributed to only the 30%?
Thank you, Fay. I'm glad you are here and sharing your wisdom. I wish my 98 year old mom had access to the internet! I'm planning to call her on the phone - she only has a landline - and ask her for her thoughts on how to get through these dark times. I figure she'll see this as just another bump in the long road - or a detour, as opposed to my dead end/road closed. Her dad came from Ireland to work for the railroads before the Great Depression, and her family lived in a boxcar for a while. She has seen this country get through so many changes! I could use her calm stoicism right now, but you are a good stand-in! 👍
Yes, there are many seniors with the younger generations.
Wealth inequality leads the way.
Wealth inequality is problematic. If it really "is the major reason for the surge in anti-establishment thinking and behavior," then why are so many voters so possessed to vote for the party representing the plutocrats & corporate interests who actively do everything they can to ensure that wealth inequality remains uncorrected? Why do the voters not realize that politicians don't set the price of eggs, and all one has to do is keep the price of eggs high to get the voters to vote for the politicians who will do nothing to prevent their hustle of profiteering for fun and political acumen? That's not to mention seeing to it that wages they're paying those in whom they're engendering the frustration calculated to lead to said surge in anti-establishment thinking and behavior remain perpetually static, thus making that wealth inequality perpetually static. And make no mistake, the latter is as cold-blooded a calculation as Project 2025. Why haven't the conspiracy theorists latched onto that?
@DZK. Russia psyops tipped the election. Otherwise, we would have won.
Everything else is a distraction. Our top priority NOW should be national security.
Biden is still president and has the capacity to mitigate the threat or even cut it off.
Once Trump is inaugurated, we are lost, and we will be reduced to guerrilla type actions because if Trump becomes the unitary executive due to an emergency, he will be a totalitarian dictator.
You'll get no contradiction from me about Russkie involvement, moi droog. As for Biden, shoot him a hot email message suggesting your response to him while reminding him to take advantage of the SCOTUS ruling: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/share/
I certainly have!
There is a lot Biden can do in his final month, at the top of the list is remove Marijuana from the list of drugs, right now it is schedule 1. Democrats are either intimated by the Right Wing and that is why they haven't do so, or they are controlled by PhRMA, legalizing pot and Psilocybin will cut deep into PhRMA profits.,and thus their donations to the DNC and candidates.
I'd just like to see him do something simple, straightforward, and meaningful with his newly coined SCOTUS granted authority, like seeing to it the long languishing ERA be implemented, since - recently - it has finally been ratified by the required number of states.
I don't expect Biden to do anything meaningful. I am convinced that he is managed, like a sock puppet or a marionette. I've thought that for a long time, but kept my mouth shut, because I didn't want to throw another log on the fire for Trump, but it doesn't matter any more.
Is it moya or moi? The former in the feminine, and latter masculine. Then again, I haven't remembered much of the 5 years of Russian I took in high school. That was a VERY LONG time ago, moi droog!
I couldn't quite remember, m'self. Adding the "a" was a last second impulse - just in case. It's been a long time. You understand. I'm'a'gon'na change that right now! Thanks for bringing it up! 👍😁
You were in high school for five years?
I, along with a bunch of others agree with you. Trump is to dumb to realize that Putin is controlling his policies. It could go back to "Trump Tower" or the "Pee Tapes" that Putin has on him, who knows. At this point he has to many politicians scared to opposer him. We need to concentrate on the elections NOW coming up in two years to replace as many of his followers as possible. That's the only way we can start changing America back to a democracy that we all enjoy.
Harvey - since the oligarchs have spent the last four years replacing the election infrastructure in this country to give dumpster the win, there is no longer, as he said, any more reason to vote. the "elections" in two years will see no change, unless it is more significantly entrenched with a larger majority. this past round was only the start, the trial run. now they can tune it up to give them total victory. i do believe this "close" election was merely pretence to lull the feckless dems into a misguided hope for the future. remember that this is a long game, one completely successful so far in imagination and execution. I hate to give them credit, but it's too breathtaking not to.
We can't just stay at home. We have a lot to do here. If, or when we get our people in office, we need to get the Electoral College repealed. That is the first step. Remember, the Republicans haven't won the elections any other way in a long time. They have stirred up so much crap that we can choose what we want to challenge next. Freedom of choice should be at the top.
Trump & cohorts will not allow anything resembling free & fair elections. If they allow any elections at all they will be fixe...nothing more than a sham. List summer, Trump told a gathering of evangelicals, that if they voted for him, they would never have to vote ever again. "“Christians, get out and vote. Just this time... You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”
Harvey, how can Trump be too dumb to realize that Putin is controlling his policies, when they are working in concert.Putin is Trumps mentor, and Putin's assistant is Orban of Hungary.
The MAGAs have been listening to Orban. There are a hell of lot of Republicans that are more center and will not go along with him or Trump and the MAGAs. Putin is pulling Trump's strings here. He's just to dumb to realize it.
Dan what could Biden do exactly? Reich’s list is a start.
I still don’t understand how it can be ALLOWED to have our democracy (and constitution) discarded and replaced with a dictator. This is TREASON.
1. Develop a record.There is evidence that Russia tried it in 2016 and 2020. People were convicted. I would use a grand jury. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2024_United_States_elections#:~:text=On%20September%204%2C%202024%2C%20the,Russian%20content%20and%20conspiracy%20theories.
2. Order hand recounts where appropriate.
3. Grant total absolution againast public threats of recrimination. Every time Trump or someone like Bondi threatens someone, it may constitute a crime under both state and federal law. Trump may be immune, but still can be deposed. The others, i.e. Patel, Bannon, et al are fair game.
4. Order the arrest for probable cause for disruptions during the election. DOJ identified some of it early on. It might mean delay of the electoral count date. On September 4, DOJ indicted members of Tenet Media for having received $9.7 million as part of a covert Russian influence operation to co-opt American right-wing influencers to espouse pro-Russian content and conspiracy theories. Many of the followers of the related influencers were encouraged to steal ballots, intimidate voters, and remove or destroy ballot drop offs in the weeks leading up to the election. IMHO tip of an iceberg.
5. Put Russia on notice that war may be the result.
Good suggestions Daniel, but somebody better act fast, only 45 days until regime change.
Send it to Biden!
This is what "the people" wanted!!! That means those who were conned into believing what "fox propaganda" spread. What a disaster.
Correct. That's it!
I agree. It is treason. Our Supreme Court should be subject to impeachment for their ruling on Presidential immunity. But where are the law enforcers? The media by in large has betrayed us. The average American is not aware of what's really going on. They are angry and getting angrier, but Trump has used their rage language against them to leverage the election for himself and his cronies. Now it's Big Money and Russian oligarchs carte blanche. I don't see the current Democratic administration responding with much force. Professor Reich's list seems it could be highly effective if it could happen fast!
I sent the list to the President (his personal cell & WhiteHouse.gov). Maybe we all should!
A number of computer scientists have written to Harris..... There are thousandds of incidents that are fishy. Hopefully DOJ is keeping track.
The FBI probably has agents assigned also.
"Smart elections" is on the job. https://smartelections.us/2024-election-update
Jessica Denson is also keeping track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hDuIGrvvRI
Impeachment infers the Congress and the House is Republican.
He who giveth can taketh away. House had nothing to do with the appointment of the Supreme Court Justicies. That is the prerogative of the Senate.
The Senate appointed and the Senate can remove.
Send it to Biden
Marlo, there is only one solution. Biden must arrest and incarcerate without legal recourse, all the traitors on the courts, in congress, in the legal profession, in state houses and governorships, and the oligarchs who have been financing this coup d'etat. The corrupt 6 gave the office of the president complete immunity from prosecution for all actions within the scope of his duties, which include protecting the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. If he does not take this action, he will be complicit and known as the capitulator forever. He will end up in prison, as dumpster has said on numerous occasions. If he doesn't take this action, he deserves to be imprisoned.
Kill or cure, eh?
Repeal Comstock Act of 1873. Of course it could be restored later on to throw a bone to forced-birthers.
Only congress can repeal an act of congress, and the president must sign it. It cant' be repealed by executive order.
I’m curious as to how Biden can mitigate, let alone cut it off, the trump threat to national security. Given Citizens United and the Dobbs decision it’s clear any existing law or Executive Order can be overturned.
Karyl - not if the traitors are in jail. biden has the power to do that, courtesy of the corrupt 6 on the court
Well, he could put them inside for a week or two. But then what?
Ha! We can’t even get the most obviously most criminal of them all in jail, how do you think that would work with any of the rest of them? And trump would just pardon them the minute he gets into office.
Karyl -dumpster couldn't pardon anyone if he were in jail. Biden has the power to do that. If biden doesn't use that power, dumpster will, as he has proclaimed numerous times, jail biden, probably at the coronation which biden said he's going to.
Exercise the authority SCOTUS granted him, have from 3 to 6 of those justices who granted that authority, and summarily relocate them to the federally sponsored, luxury bed & breakfast at Guantanamo - or Leavenworth, or some nameless CIA black site! Then bypass the Senate and appoint relatively sane justices to replace them, then go after the Congressional MAGAts as well. Here, I'm not advocating for anything the multiply convicted felon and adjudicated sexual predator elect, supported by his scrotum licking supplicants haven't already sworn to do. I'm only echoing what others have already said here.
I assume these solutions you and others are proposing are tongue in cheek. The obvious first problem, how does one define ‘sane justices’? On what basis would we “go after” those who are MAGAs, how far down the ladder would that go and what would the punishment be? When the Republicans get back into office, would they then be justified in going after “woke Democrats” because that is what they would do. Would they go after the newly appointed Supreme Court Justices for being insane? Come on, let’s get real here. Does the old adage “you can’t keep a bad man down without going down there with him” now not provide good guidance? Yes, right now we’re waste deep in mud but to do any of the aforementioned would sink us up to our chins.
Arbitrary and unexplained selection. It should be enough to know that the detained individuals are a threat to our very survival. While we're at it. the individuals in question are preventing a great deal of communal wealth and resources from being reclaimed for the greater good. Freeze and seize those assets.
In a rational world you are correct. In >this< real world, the RepubliMAGAts will agree with you . . . . . . . . . until they don't.
That doesn’t erase the problem of Trump becoming President and undoing everything Biden has done. Trump would just release everyone.
But maybe if he put Trump & his advisors there as well, insisted on a National REVOTE (or at least hand recount in the swing states), only using Dominican machines (and not using Starlink for any internet usage uploading the tabulated information), making sure EVERYONE who did not get to vote due to purging, bomb threats, scare tactics, etc. was able to vote.
Sounds like heaven.
On Russian propaganda efforts
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-trump-biden-disinformation-335ed5bf57996b66bc387497a7efdbb9
You have to hand it to the Putz. Anyone who can get US senators and congressmen repeating Russian talking points has got his s#it together.
The world has already caved. I just watched the worse dog and pony show I have ever seen, Macron giving Trump a state welcome, I'm waiting for the rest of the world to cave. Gawd help us.
Sadly, Biden /Harris controlled by money like almost all other politicians.
I am watching all this from the perspective of my own family's escape from Nazi Germany in the 30s. It just took one faked instance of arson on the Reichstag for Hitler to declare marshal law that essentially lasted the next 12 years until the end of the regime. Trump threatening to jail his enemies comes right out of Hitler's playbook.
there is no provision, not even a legal construct, for "martial law" in the US.
Invoking the insurrection act is a different story.
DZK, Guerilla type actions are fraught with danger, we live in a surveillance state.
The NSA has a huge Data Center in Bluffdale, UT (google it), It sniffs all electronic transmitted data from text, emails, IM and broadcast.
They have video's of the assassin who took out Brian Thompson the other day, riding away on a bike, into Central Park, out of Central park and into a bus station.
If the state want you they got you.
Islamists have gone analog, using notes and messengers, they thought that they had it by reverting to pagers and walkie talkie's, but the Mossad was ahead of them. They captured the scheme via electronic sniffing, and intercepted the devices and had them rigged to blow on command.
I suspect old fashioned land lines (home phones) are the best. The state has to identify a specific target, for a wire tap, and I am not talking about a warrant either.
which means we're all under suspicion under the upcoming regime. Dr. Reich will probably go to jail as well. Under house bill 9495, this substack will be declared a terrorist organization and it's subscibers as well.
Some scary shit isn't it. And just think, 95% of the population is humming along as it,all this was just a glitch in the matrix, and it will self correct if we act normal
Well said. My wife says, "we're old, let it go" but I can't just sit back without at least calling it out. I imagine the sheer genius of dumpster's handlers, using the whole "stolen election" idea and dumpter's masterful performance this past summer as the demented buffoon (inciting all the liberal derision and dismissal) while his handlers put the finishing touches on an extremely well planned and executed coup d'etat. I imagine the absolute glee they must feel, knowing dems are too upright to challenge the election because we play fair, and so that's why we're not going to at least recount the votes in swing states, because we don't want to be seen to be like the repugnants the last four years screaming about a stolen election. The audacity of actually telling us their plans, and knowing that we in our smug confidence in our election infrastructure (remember the states are "in charge" of even national elections) would dismiss them as more rantings of the demented mind of dumpster. What a glorious Con, albeit as evil as they come. If it were a movie, it'd hardly be believable.
For the past 50 years, kids in public school have not been taught how to THINK for themselves. It's been all about trying to measure effective teaching with stupid tests. Critical and/or creative thinking has been left by the side of the public school road.
In our case, we made sure to teach our kids critical thinking. Parents can have a big effect on that. The problem is that the parents must be critical thinkers to do that for their kids.
And the project 2025 wants to end the Department of Education entirely.
I go back a lot longer than that as I am now 86 years old. Teaching our children goes to the leaders of each state that dictates the ability of our teachers. Financing of the also affects their abilities also.
I last visited my northeastern Ohio home town in 2004 and sneaked into my old K-8 school for a self-guided tour, until the janitor ordered me out. Both buildings -- the 1904 one and the 1954 adjoining annex -- were in decent shape. Since then, they have been torn down. Also the nearby 1918 high school and its 1950's annex. All I see left on the map now is a Christian Academy in an old church in the hollowed-out center of town. There's a new high school in a distant suburb, which used to be farmland -- but who wants to run a small farm these days?
The same kind of thing has happened down in Columbus town!
You mean Columbus, the state capital? I thought Columbus is enjoying a strong economy now. And yet the public schools are still hung out to dry? I guess that gives new meaning to the Philip Roth title "Goodbye, Columbus." (I'm glad Roth didn't live to see it -- although his alternate history novel "The Plot Against America" certainly presaged it.)
I'm 85 Harvey, and what I can recall of school (and I found it so boring that I only attended 90 days in three years, that the history I was taught was bunk.
Myths that reinforced the myth of the status quo. As Voltaire said "All of ancient history is no more than commonly accepted myths"
And you don't have to go "ancient: The revolution was started by a bunch of Boston Merchants, who were forced into smuggling, a capitol offense, because of a monopoly charter given to the East India Company, that was enforced by taxes.
It served corporate interest to have the "no taxation without representation" myth, no wonder the monopolists ignore and gloss over the monopoly granted by the King
The Tidewater aristocracts, the planter class, could have cared less about taxes, they lived well and lived high over exporting tobacco to England, there gripe was that when they visited England as they were expected to do, they were ridiculed and treated like country bumpkin because of their customs manners and speechways.
The revolution for them was a chance to become nobility in the new nation, but the common folk were not about to have home grown overlords replace London overlords,so they had to be intimidated into supporting the revolution by Committees of Public Safety, and "educated' by distributing pamphlets printed by Ben Franklin and Rittenhouse of Philadelphia, like the workds of Thomas Paine.
The effort paid off with unintended consequences the people were now dead set against a class of homegrown nobility, though the Federalists were all for a versions. Hamilton was a proponent of a unitary executive with lifetime powers.
It's pretty funny here. When we went to school it was a lot different than it is now. I started school in a one-room schoolhouse for eight grades. I then transferred to the bigtime, a three room school for eight grades. Wow! What a difference. Now-a-days teachers are trying to stop cell phones in classrooms. Nothing is the same today. We're over the hill (Old farts) now. We have to try to improve what we now have. We have a lot to do.
There's always tutoring at your local schools. I've assisted with lower grade reading as well as college application essays. Never felt like an old fart, however, I was astonished at some of the kids' preoccupations with computer games, a sorry waste of time so far as I can see.
Yeh Harvey, you and I are over the hill, what is, is,,, and there is nothing we can do about the situation,and frankly no one wants to listen to a bunch of old farts
I can remember me telling my mother in 1950, when she was trying to help me with math, that "but this is not the way they do it today" and that was before New math came on the scene.
The only thing I am capable of is taking care of myself and the loved ones who will listen. I don't have a hero complex, a savior complex or a martyr complex.
I do have short term memory lapses, like where did I put my glasses, but my critical reasoning skills and long term memory are still intact.
Remember Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g
And I sure as hell ain't going to put it out.
Exactly, and it will only get worse now!
A dad with kids at University of Maryland said his kids don't understand directions to get to a place. They rely on their smartphone to show and tell them. IMO, smartphones are re-wiring the brain to not use logic and reasoning.
I have to agree there. I wish we could do what the Aussies have proposed and passed--although I have no idea how it could possibly be enforced. (First ever government ban on teens under 16 creating a social media platform)
I experienced this with an airport shuttle driver who was lost. Passengers explained to him how streets were laid out
I , along with over 7,000 people live rural, at the end of or along side of long winding dirt roads, there is one town, 2.6 square miles with a population of 2,700.
There are two delivery serviced, Fed Ex and a local contractor to UPS, the drivers have to know the area, and know it well.
You can drive along one these dirt lanes or roads and the houses are not marked with numbers and are usually set a considerable distance off the road, My driveway is two football fields long.
Amazon has recently started using their own service (Amazon Logistics) are relying on smart phones and GPS and are fouling up badly,packages being delivered to wrong addresses or not being delivered at all.
All my mail goes to a private Postal mail box service, including packages. The Amazon drive couldn't locate it. I had to get on the phone and tell customer service that it was a store front in a strip mall,
Most people in charge/power want to make sure the rest of us remain disempowered. Most people are incapable of giving a definition of Critical Thinking.
Nahhh, Mills, it’s not the kids’ educations. I should know, I’m surrounded by them, live with them. It’s the 2nd and 3rd generation of no economic opportunity AT ALL in too many areas of the U.S.
And now these 2nd and 3rd generations will be forced to bear children they neither want nor are able to raise.
In your opinion, where do parents fit into the education of their children? History is now, mathematics is crucial, literature is creativity as are many of the elective courses offered. We are fortunate to have an educational system that teaches the basics even if it isn’t perfect.
Basically the basics, the three R's are all schools should teach. My 18th and 19th century ancestors were dependent on the father for tutoring, He either did it personally or hired a tutor. My 5th Great grand dad died before he could tutor his younger sons,only the oldest was tutored.
The eldest was able to enter into business, read and sign contracts, and passed that on to his sons, one of whom became a Justice of the Peace and a constable. His youngest, though they thought of themselves as planters, could only sign with an X and were, not very successful, dirt and pig farmers.
Completely at the mercy of business men and bankers.
The family stayed illiterate until Horace Mann the apostle of universal education's ministry took hold, and my grandfather was the first to be able to read and write (an 8th grade) education, my father graduated HS and some community college before he died at age 44, I have a Masters Degree, My son and his daughter Doctorates.
I didn't learn shite from public school except the three Rs the rest of it was brainwashing to make me a good obedient citizen.
The problem with education is who funds it,and their agenda. Those in favor of publicly funded, parent selected education risk having segments of the population brainwashed in Christian academies, yeshivas and madrassas.
I remember reading about the life of one of the governors of Texas. He was raised out in the countryside, a strong Democrat. When he decided to run for office he had a problem raising the funds to finance his run for office. That is when he saw all the money was on the Republican side. That is when he switched sides and became our governor. This is why we need our elected officials to get the money out of politics. It is the only salvation of democracy.
Recall. Campaign finance reform was a hot issue in the '90s, and some legislation was enacted to address it. Then along came the same nice folks who shitcanned Roe, and who declared campaign finance reform unconstitutional under Scalia - may he rot in Hell - in Citizens United under the old "money is speech" interpretation as a violation of the 1st Amendment. Notice how hot the MAGAts have been about the 1st Amendment, when they clearly support deadly force against anyone who disagrees with them.
Part of it is the flood of dark money into politics that buys effective negative ads against Democrats. That is how Sens. Sherrod Brown and Bob Casey were defeated. There is also the fact that Trump, the master con artist, is able to reassure people that he can and will fix everything, while his opponents will not.
Trump promised to "drain the swamp," but what he has actually done is to make it exponentially swampier.
I disagree. They transformed "the swamp" into "the cesspool!" 👍😏
DZK, that's a great reminder. Perhaps it comes down to who you blame for wealth inequality, who you perceive to be more at fault, or who you think will fix it?
Well, the RepubliMAGAts bluster bullshit and carry a selective memory, while the Democrats speak softly and carry a limp wrist. Your choice!
Where is Dark Brandon!? Why do Democrats think it is a sin to fight back and win!? DZK : thanks for sending that reminder of the SCOTUS ruling to President Biden 👏
DZK, haha, I think you nailed it.
👍
Yes. 👍
DZK : probably because they own the media and like their tax "breaks"?
DZK, it reminds me of a scene on The West Wing when Bartlet responds to the reason why Americans want to repeal the inheritance tax; because they want to believe they, too, can one day be millionaires too. Tis the unanticipated consequence of lotteries. And as to who is responsible for income inequality? You can blame whomever you want but in the end the only real question is what can we still do about it?
That is the same line of crap Ronald McReagan was circulating back in the '80s, when I objected on every occasion: "What the devil makes you think you'll even get a whiff of that kind of wealth." To this day I wring my hands every time I have to wait in line behind a string of clowns spending their paychecks on lottery tickets!
DZK, people are emotional creatures, not rational creatures, even liberals and leftists, as evidence by comments.
People vote on emotions, especially those that trigger the amygdala. The Democratic party's message is tailored to the rational brain, the pre frontal cortex, and assumes that people actually take time to gather information, think about it, process it and come to a rational decision.
They don't, they act on the amygdala, the lizard brain, not the prefrontal cortex,, not that the left doesn't act on the amygdala. But the right's amygdala is "me", "me", Me". what it perceives to be a personal threat to ones ego, identity, control,power, whereas the left is "they, them, the other". all of us, the collective.
When it comes to the personal vs the impersonal, the personal wins every time.
The propaganda machine, the media, advertising,is geared to the personal.
The Republican party has achieved success by making everything personal.
Take Trans folk, Talk about a minority an invisible minority, how many does anyone know. but the Republican party has made them a major threat, via an obliging media.
It is axiomatic, that the further one gets from a city, the greater the racism and xenophobia. The black population of Wyoming is 1.2%, Montana and South Dakota 2.6% and Iowa 4.4%
People in Wyoming are much more comfortable making racist jokes and seem to have race stereotypes in their head that they discriminate against.
Iowa Racism:
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/2020/07/06/iowa-racism-why-small-town-values-cauldron-brews-bigotry/5382064002/
But you've simply confirmed my observation elsewhere here: "What do you expect? Sanity from the insane?"
DZK, your comment stands as erudite, without the But, because there is no addition or exception to my comment that warrants a "but"
However I wouldn't call them insane. They know what the are doing,they are fulfilling their agenda
Sociopaths yes, with a tinge of psychopathy
The Triumph of patriarchal rule after 180 years of enforced dormancy, like cicadas, they've come out of the ground.
I have a rather ham-handed view of what is sanity as a distinction between rational and irrational behavior, given that sometimes the most rational among us can be absolutely bonkers! I give you Lewis Carroll as a poster child of the latter - the mathematician/logician who gave us "Through the Looking Glass" as a logical exercise. Indeed, to this day, to say "I feel as though I've stepped through the looking glass" can be interpreted as dealing with some kind of socially induced alternate reality. (i.e.. "Alternate facts.") Your example of psychopaths works well, too. Field operations in bloody combat can be that way, as well. But generally speaking, in my ham-handed little world, sanity == rational and insanity == irrational, where irrational behavior is naked, unfiltered animal or lizard brain response, rather than a motivation governed by rational consideration.
In combat and in any Adrenaline pumping situation, rationality goes out the window.
Some jobs are adrenaline pumpers. Firemen is one. Like infantry long, long periods of boredom, then bursts of adrenaline.
I understand adrenaline junkies, thrill seekers, been there, done that, too old now. Explains some outlaws as well.
Take Butch and Sundance. They had it good, safe,on a ranchita in Bolivia but boring as hell, what the heck one more hit. It is always that one more hit, that is their last.
Look around there are a lot of adrenaline pumping jobs. Air Traffic Control is one,especially in tower, not a scope dope. Spend some time in an ATC tower
What you hear on the mike is calm, cool, collected, what you don't see is pencils being thrown at the glass, the cussing and expletives.
Paratroopers sky divers. cliff climbing, bungee jumping, people actually pay to activate the adrenaline pump.
All these people, are otherwise rational.
We all have our moments. I had mine, so long as Uncle Sam footed the bill.
Alas my adrenal glands have atrophied.
Good article.
They are in for a rude awakening!
I'd prefer it for you to be right!
you're asking for some irrational people to act rationally-why do some believe in god,or taylor swift,or that elvis has not left the building-asking for consistency-forget it-to blame is to be human-unfortunately
I used to ask the rhetorical question: "What do you expect? Sanity from the insane?" Little did I realize that in the 21st Century - Science Fiction times, for me - that the media response would be: "Normalize it!" I was such a naive and idealistic sexagenarian! 🤣👿
i'm getting realistic-sort of-at age 75-it's never too late-except for trump-that die was cast long ago
I'm now your age. I was getting sarcastic about how long I've felt that way - naive and idealistic in my 60s. (Actually, as far back as my 30s!) But welcome aboard! What it lacks in being a comforting view it makes up for in preventing the "this must be like to be goin' nuts" response! 👍😏
it's a work in progress-day to day-but like vin Scully said,'aren't we all'-different context,but you get my drift-which reminds me of a quote by mae west-'i used to be snow white,but I drifted '
I vote for All Of The Above." No one answer can account for ALL anti-estblishment thinking and behavior. IMO, all of the listed reasons contribute to the anti-establishment voting.
We could add another reason: A media and social media that only blames poor immigrants rather than CEO's and their lobbyists who help write the laws to rig the system in their favor. The dominant paradigm that immigrants are the reason for inequality, rather than anti-labor management practices.
Since most media is owned by the ultra wealthy, both mass media and social media, it's actually wealth inequality's basket again. The rich control what we're told and HOW we're told. How do we change that?
Educate yourself. Stop getting your news from feeds!
Read /support ProPublica, Democracy Now, Mother Jones, The American Prospect, The Guardian. Stop getting your news from feeds.
Podcasts & these Substack newsletters taking over
Remember the infamous words of Ronald Reagan? “The nine most dangerous words in the English language: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” That became the Republican Party’s mantra and why they’ve worked so hard to canonize Reagan’s presidency and attribute so many virtues and accomplishments that never existed or happened. Remember Iran-Contra? Remember his getting credit for ending the dictatorship of the Soviet Union? That was more Charlie Wilson’s doing with military aid to help Afghans defeat the Soviet army. Reagan isn’t America’s great leader who could do no wrong, he was just another average guy who got more glory than he deserved.
People are tired of constantly being told that what they have is all they need. Especially when it isn't the truth. Reagan's Trickledown theory sucked back then, and it still sucks today. And now we have the ignorant positions of men like Musk and that jerk who has 5 syllables in his last name trying to persuade us that being poor is good for the soul. Granny get your gun.
The thing is that historically there have been the rich and the poor, with no middle class. A lot of these folks want that back again. What they don't realize is that the middle class is who creates their wealth otherwise it is like Ayn Rand's description of wealth built a grain of rice at a time.
We have a choice between a civilization, which requires democracy that includes shared wealth and power, or we will have the slavery of a feudalism, with all its charming features.
YES!!!
With you right up until the 5 syllables crack- with the plethora of egregious disqualifying reasons he presents, is it particularly necessary to bring the length (and foreignness?) of names up?
Miya--It wasn't a crack--No person ever was elected to the presidency that had more than 3 syllables in their last name.
I remember when his "Trickle Down Economics" took effect. I was comparing my paycheck to the prior month and with the menial raise I had received in the military, my bring home pay less that the month before it took affect.
Brilliant, Hodgins!
I'm thinking about getting a gun!
Please don't. We have that stupid open carry here in Texas. Recently I went into a local hardware store only to see a clerk with a gun strapped to his side. To this day I refuse to go into that place again because if it is that dangerous, I don't want to be around it.
Harvey--Open carry is for fools who are afraid of their own shadows.
Harvey-I'm sure what Margaret was referring to was weapon for home protection.
I thought it sounded like that too! . . . I pray! 🙏
Bad idea, Margaret. Guns are tragedies waiting to happen. If your life requires guns for any reason other than hunting, you need to change it. If I had a gun, and found myself surrounded by violent threats, I would only shoot myself.
Paula--Guns are only a problem when they're in the hands of ignorant people. I've lived my entire with guns and the sports that they enrich. How many people have been killed through the reclus use of the automobile. As it is with many things, common sense over rules stupidity.
Margaret, you have the right to bear hand grenades.
Take a class, get your gun if it will help you feel empowered. You have the choice to use it or not…if the barbarians are armed- force needs to be met with force…taking the high road will get you dead. Funny a few years ago a Qanon jerk was spouting off threats- when I looked him in the eye and said when he came for me I’d aim for his balls….lol the look of utter shock on his face- that Granny would have a gun and would use it on him….killing him would be too kind, maiming just deserts. (I don’t own mine, yet- but like you, I’m feeling compelled).
Why don't people here realize that Granny, get your gun!" is a metaphorical call to wake up? Not a literal one?
Reactions here why the right thinks the left has no sense of humor.
I’m ready for the barricade, just prop me up there
This CEO had presided over a multitude of callous and deadly decisions about who is worthy of good medical care and who isn't and everyone knows those decisions were motivated strictly by the profit bottom line. Perhaps this CEO was privately a very nice man. That is not my concern. My concern was his great public power - to do good or do harm and the facts of treatment denial by United Healthcare speak as to how that CEO's power was used. What we see in fact is the embryonic class anger of ordinary working people with all its promise and all its potential for destruction- if MAGA fascists twist that anger against democracy, immigrants and non Christians. So instead of bemoaning the "callousness" of the victims of oligarchic rule, we should be joining with that legitimate anger and help people to see more clearly that money grubbing exploitation and the impulsive violence against individual oligarchs will end only when we wrench back political and economic democracy, and social justice.
As long as the investor is the only person who matters in publicly held companies, nothing will change. As it stands, a CEO can either maximize shareholder value or be replaced, or even sued for not doing so.
Exactly! The system is set up to maximize shareholder value, and that means, insofar as the health care industry is concerned, denying claims.
I like that you point out the deceased might have been "a nice man." We get into deep water when we train people to make financial decisions without regard for private convictions, and I heard that was a necessity most of my adult work life.
Remember that oft-quoted line: "You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs."
The health care “industry” triggers bitter, bitter resentment. People are deprived of basic needs when they are most vulnerable. Most of us regard medical care as a right, yet a cruel industry imposes unreasonable barriers and rules. Corporate medicine is filled with excessive hurdles and hidden rules. Even doctors & nurses are victims.
It does not have to be this way. We must uncouple healthcare from employment & make it universal. Medicare (traditional) For All is a good starting point for workable model.
Trump has vowed to do away with the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare). That is why he is leaning on RFK Jr. to correct it. I don't think he'll ever do it because it is very popular, but, the healthcare industry keep picking away at it. I'm sure everyone has seen the amount to television advertisements they have BOUGHT to get as much of it as possible. It all comes back to money in their pockets.
Their beyond-extreme wealth and the infinite vastness of wealth inequality, punches me in the face and reminds me that they (and their politicians and media) exploit me every minute with their greed and neglect, in every way it seems, and I feel so powerless.
When will we as a nation, as humans, get it right and see and understand the true inherent value of people? When will we stop undervaluing the many and overvaluing the few? When will we feel our interconnectedness and strive to give each person, not just a few, dignity?
I would love to see that happen, M Tree, sooner rather than later.
I totally agree with you. The only way we, as a society, can correct the problems we see, is to get the money out of politics. Maybe Trump will wake up enough of America to the problems we see,
Harvey Hild, that's what I try to remember to help ease my fears, that signifigant, positive change isn't possible until enough of us, a critical mass wake up. And that will take, as it always does, great suffering to precede the awakening.
In the 60’s, it was called a revolution like the song the Beatles wrote.
I think, by this time, everyone knows I am a MAGA-Democrat, but, all we can do now is smear their faces in whatever they do and seriously work on the election of 2028
Harvey Hild, a what? How does that work?
That same greed has fed inflation and ironically drove so many to Trump, despite it being the one thing that will make their lives worse, much worse.
M Tree - Well said!
As always, another fantastic Coffee Klatch! Thank you, Professor Reich, Heather Lofthouse and Michael Lahanas-Calderon! I chose corruption as the cause for the surge in anti-establishment thinking and behavior. Think about it. Information today is just a click away. More Americans can easily find information whenever they want - some, reliable and trustworthy, others, misinformation and conspiracy driven. More Americans are finding out the level of corruption in our government than ever before. Are we angry? You bet we are! Are we fed up? You bet we are! Information whether real or not is awakening Americans to just how corrupt the system has become! As I listened to the Klatch today, I agreed with Michael Lahanas-Calderon about the feeling for the Democratic Party. They are completely out of touch with the people about everything! My biggest question is how can the American people believe the government is of, for and by the people when it is being run by the oligarchs? The Democrats don't want to bite the hand that feeds them (the rich) and want to maintain the status quo even when it is perfectly obvious the status quo is no longer working for average Americans! I say ROCK THE BOAT! Ben Wickler is exactly what the Democrats need to get the Democratic Party back to the party I could relate to. He has the intelligence, the drive and the passions to reorganize the party so that it is more on brand with what the average American wants in their political affiliations. If the Democrats continue on the course they have charted, they will be as obsolete as the republican party has become. Should that happen, I would hope a new party would emerge with someone like Ben Wickler in charge that would appeal to the masses who have felt let down by both republicans and Democrats. If the Democrats do not use the remaining time to at least attempt to do the things on Professor Reich's list, I will have no other option than to leave the party and become an Independent. Once again, thank you for a great start to my week-end!
see Lucas Kunce substack today on why people vote against their self-interest.
I will not paint the healthcare systems in my or other countries outside the US as ideal. However, I cannot fathom being told that 'yes, the means to help you exists but it does not exist for YOU because....' This is an offshoot of wealth inequity as were all the choices Mr Reich presented. When some people are considered 'more valuable', 'more worthy' in any aspect than are others, a revolution is inevitable. What happened is lamentable and unkindness as a response is shameful. But inevitable...yes...and it won't stop here.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
JFK
Exactly. Whether the murder of this CEO was a carefully orchestrated event meant to unleash the rage of millions or just an attempt by one distraught individual seeking healthcare justice, the public’s response to it is completely unsurprising to me.
If you’re surprised, then you haven’t been paying attention to what has been right in front of you. This pot has been on a low simmer for decades. Healthcare workers (nurses in particular, who are by large majority women) have been telling about and publishing papers on the threats/acts of violence they face at work for years. I imagine employees of other dysfunctional systems have experienced similar (although to a lesser degree).
The voters have spent the weeks since the election repeatedly asking what they and their elected officials are going to do to stop Trump and his billionaire cabinet from destroying democracy. So far, all that has been suggested is the same tired, ineffective strategy of playing nice and hoping democracy holds.
So, what do Democrats do? Work quickly to identify & acknowledge the problem. Channel the potentially explosive energy of their voters by taking bold, decisive action to resolve the issues. Let people know you’re on their side. Be courageous. Don’t stop until the work is done and voters know you can be trusted.
Staff members for Democratic representatives should be out in the streets, supporting efforts to mobilize their voters within their community.
Sitting behind a computer at a desk preparing posts for the official website isn’t enough anymore. Let’s get started!
Professor Reich, Heather Lofthouse and Michael Calderon: in your poll, I voted for wealth inequality, but i could have chosen any of your poll choices, and i think in some of your polls, you should make "all of the above" one of your choices.
the murder of Brian Thompson does not surprise me, although a few details surrounding this murder are somewhat surprising (daytime, a public street, in full view of a surveillance camera and during daytime traffic, the "getaway" just to name a few). health insurance CEOs have been asking for such a response for literally decades with their arrogant, blatant theft of every americans' limited, hard-earned income. and thompson was being investigated for criminal activity, so he hardly represents “an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives,” (i guess they forgot to mention that he also touched so many bank accounts and people's futures) i guess what surprises me most is that it didn't happen sooner.
you mentioned H5N1 bird flu, and this virus appears to be moving into the human population NOT VIA BIRDS, since most human victims were not exposed to birds before becoming infected, but through RAW MILK.
Professor Reich and colleagues: i support your choices for cabinet nominees and i especially agree with Michael regarding the perception that, even if these nominees are not approved by the orange jeebuz' mob of oligarchs, TRYING to get them approved is important since watching the democrats these days is absolutely DEPRESSING because they appear to be doing NOT MUCH to obviously help us, which i find distressing.
one more thing that deeply concerns me: any one of these criminal oligarchs could press the button and fire off a bunch of nukes against ... a victim of their choice. what's to stop them from trying to extort the leader of a nation .. iran, for example .. and using nuclear weapons as an option that could be used to terrorize these leaders or nations.
Thoughtful people are starting to realize that the killer knew exactly how to make surveillance and identification difficult. That in itself makes me wonder if he acted alone.
The election results, the choices for cabinet positions, and the extreme wealth that will, in fact, control our government make a mockery of our "election process." Worse yet is the ridiculous, out-of-date Electoral College. What matters is that the Democratic party lost the Senate and the chances of ever regaining control slip even more at every election.
Finally, we have a lazy, politically illiterate voting society; they allow the media to do their thinking and vote for them. And we have the audacity to call ourselves a "true" democracy, aha!
Saludos,
Rolando
The Democratic Party lost everything when they caved to the wealthy donors!
Really, nothing will change unless Americans do something about the growing disparity in the wealth and power of a very few people and the rest of the world. Robert Reich has been saying this for decades. Trump's greed, corruption, and incompetence will give us the chance.
https://open.substack.com/pub/oldandintheway45/p/more-and-more-about-the-money?r=3qbw9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Hope your right on 'the chance."
Until advanced societies treat GREED as a mental illness, they will be unstable, and will soon destroy themselves.
But don't worry, after men (males) are gone, the earth will heal itself in 100,000 years or so.
#GOPTraitors
#Murdoch
When Jesus of Nazareth, a Samaritan Immigrant, was asked by a young man, "How can I get to heaven?", Jesus responded, "Sell all you have and give to the poor."
Jesus is too "woke" for the Dominionists and Christofascists. Their entire belief system is heretical.
Sure! That's what the Christian Nationalists will do!!!!!
“Even not counting Elon Musk, this is by far the wealthiest bunch ever to populate a U.S. administration. Hardly an anti-establishment crowd. In fact, how can this group ever know what Americans want or need?”
Answer. They can’t know and they aren’t interested in knowing. They’re there for themselves, not us.