There are far too few saying this, so thank you Professor Reich. You make economic policy understandable to those of us whose strengths and knowledge lie elsewhere and always feel like life learned something when you explain it.
Here is what worries me. In 1968 protesters disrupted the Democratic National Convention, and in doing so, smeared the Democratic party, the middle class reacted and voted for Nixon.
I had recently returned from Vietnam, and was then a conservative, I also lived with the Vietnamese and spoke their language. I was told we were going to lose the war, because there were more communists in the states, than in Vietnam and they pointed to the Democrat's" who controlled the Senate and Presidency, hearing Senate Hearing, 90th Congress - Submission of the Vietnam conflict to the United Nations: hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Ninetieth Congress, first session, on S. Con. Res. 44, providing that it is the sense of the Congress that the President should submit a resolution to the United Nations for final and binding improvement of peace in Southeast Asia in accordance with the appropriate article of the United Nations charter, [and]S. Res. 180, a sense of the Senate Resolution seeking United States initiative to assure United Nations Security Council consideration of Vietnam Conflict. October 26, 27, and November 2, 1967..
The Saigon post followed American politics and Congressional hearings assiduously, better than Americans.
The real effect of the 68 protests in Chicago, was to piss off middle America and elect Nixon.
The Protesters are doing the work of Bibi and the Israeli right wing, they should have been outside the Republican convention, not the Democrats.
We will see, but protesting the Democrats only benefits the Republicans, and if Trump is elected then the Muslims, the leftists, the campus idiots have only themselves to blame, when Trump starts rounding them up., and doubles down on support for Bibi.
In Mayor Daly was sucker punched by the demonstrators. He was the king of machine politics for so long he was simply clueless.
Mayor Johnson isn't a fabulous mayor but he is a good, intelligent person. The City of Chicago has given the protestors assigned areas. There is strategy planned by our police department and other government militia. Some Milwaukee Police are here to help. We are not deer in the head lights.
I have protested Viet Nam, other wars, and many things. Never once have I pitched a tent or destroyed property. I never entered Grant Park in the 1968 demonstrations. I want protesters to update protesting with behavior that commands the right to be understood.
You are not they. I voted for Nixon in 1960, just for the record, I was a conservative, even a right wing anti communist (my sole agenda) until 1989 when I had an ephany.
I have known two professional agitators in my life, one infiltrated the American NAZI party, the other infiltrated the American Indian Movement (AIM).
The former would infiltrate anyone one and agitate for violence, he even tried to stir up the John Birch Society to violence. The latter had a bout of conscience and converted to Islam, and last I knew he was an Imam in NE Washington
State.
I have never seen protests achieve anything, other than an opposite reaction and disgust, but they haven't achieved their goals.
What has , was the threat of, or actual violence, like in the wake of the Floyd murder. Change only came, when cities burned after Martins assassination.
Brits didn't leave India because of Ghandi, the left because they were frightened of the "ghosts" of Subras Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army (time for google if you don't know what they are).
If Chicaoo turns violent, for sure Trump will be elected, because middle America, whose votes Harris needs desperately is turn off by such antics, and frankly they detest what they perceive as leftists.
There is a cuck who posts on Robert named Brad Luckey, he is like most of America he thinks that leftie is a slur, and that people run away, deny that they are lefties. Maybe so, but not me.
Some protests have caused change, but yes, you are certainly right about infiltrators. The George Floyd protests were simply awful. The sincere people followed the same old noneffective lines. The infiltrators basically took away more in person shopping that was left after the pandemic.
In Chicago I hope for the best and can't wait to vote blue.
Sandra - "Proud left" - but by supporting the Democratic Party you are, in fact and by implication, supporting Israel's genocide. There is nothing "Left" about that! And nothing to be proud of.
Make no mistake. The International Court of Justice in The Hague will be watching Kamala Harris carefully. She smiles a lot and laughs too much. If she wins and continues to act superficially, the ICJ will deem her just as guilty as they currently view Joe Biden.
Make no mistake, Sandra. A whole world is watching the U.S. government's enabling of genocide. The U.S. is not as innocent as it would like to see itself. We know. We will remember.
Thank you for this important cautionary comment, and thank you for your honesty, William. Protests can be easily infiltrated and manipulated, and even when spontaneous they tend to be disruptive and counter-productive.
That's the thing Victor. There was a lot said about the men in black, with black balaclava's, breaking windows and starting riots, like the famous "umbrella man", then along comes and unmarked black van, picks him up and away it goes.
I have encountered Brad Luckey. He is very opinionated and has a lot of pseudo-facts at his disposal. He swallowed the Kool Aid. There is a style you see in the MAGA Right. A certain arrogance and hostility. "We're right, they're wrong, end of story." Boorish.
He has a lot of company on this substack. A few months back, the Putinist Trump trolls have piled on.
spewing agitprop, campaigning for Jill Stein, RFK jr, anyone who can take votes away from the Democrats, and adopting any cause that can schism Trumps opposition, current cause is Gaza, and that had the result of having Americans forget the genocide of Putin in Ukraine.
A real genocide, that fits the requirements of the UN Convention for Prevention of Genocide, not the shit going on in Gaza where a bunch of cowards, called HAMAS are using their people as human shields, after launching a horrible up front and personal campaign of mass terror against the Jews.
The Muslims, of course don't give a shit about Ukraine or anything else other than Muslims, the left doesn't give a shit about anything else either, the right is in the pocket of Putin. And left and right have come together, (the horshoe) where both stand up and shout "Fuck Biden" and who is the beneficiary? Putin.
If Muslims and the left are unhappy with Biden and is relationship with Israel, they will be absolutely apoplectic if Trump wins the election.
Putin will rejoice, and have a clear path to the Baltics, Poland, Moldava, S;lovaka and the Czech Republic and it is 1938 and the Sudetenland all over again.
William - You say, "I have never seen protests achieve anything, other than an opposite reaction and disgust, but they haven't achieved their goals".
Well, then you haven't looked. America's Vietnam War was defeated on two fronts: (1) militarily in Vietnam by the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese Army, and (2) politically, partly through the widespread protest campaign both on the streets and through public debates and behind the scenes.
All this deeply affected the LBJ and Nixon regimes: they knew that they had to pretend to be "for" peace, because that's what people demanded. I am proud of having been a part of that peace movement. We knew that the Vietnam War was a propaganda attempt - a "bright shining lie", as the book title says.
What didn't work was Nixon's fake peace negotiations because they ended with complete military victory for America's self-apppointed enemies in Vietnam. But, then, the U.S. government has often been on the side of dictators. They supported South Africa's apartheid regime for decades. Unfortunately, the U.S. is not always on the side of the angels.
I wish today's growing protest movement in the U.S. all the best.
Yeh, I am more than familiar with the 2 Front myth.
Of course you are proud of yourself, you have to justify the time, money and energy you expended protesting.
The men who fought, the families who lost brothers and fathers are also proud.
Pride is chauvinism,pure and simple
The Viet Cong didn't defeat the US Army and Marines, neither did the NVA.
The Protests didn't end the war either. It was middle America that had enough burying their brothers, fathers, uncles, cousins as evidence I submit, The first thing Bush did when he invaded Iraq is forbid the coverage of metal caskets being unloaded at Dover AFB, Delaware and the coverage of military funerals.
In fact the Pentagon was forbidden to release names and states of the dead, and the journalists had to scour the local media throughout the country, to even estimate the number of dead and wounded.
Of course you pat yourself on the back, ego centrism and narcissism is not restricted to the right, it is a human thing,
And we all seek justification for our efforts and "sacrifice"
I am an AOC progressive, to date she hasn't let herself get distracted, by the idiots outside the convention center, she stays on target and on purpose.. The weakness of the left is that there are too many agenda's demanding attention, primacy and money, and it has been costing us. And a lot of them aren't really progressive, they are single issue people who use the open minded, open hand of the progressive movement, and demand that everyone falls in lock step behind them.
AS it is famously said, Democrats fall in love, and Republicans fall in line, and that is why, though a minority, they control most state legislatures, governorship's, boards of education town and city councils, and congress and have from time to time controlled the executive, until the people have had their stomach full, but people have short memories..
If the polls are correct, some of the same people who voted Trump out of office in 2020 are ready to vote him back in. What does that say about them.?
(I'm on a lot of email lists...) I am greatly relieved to have gotten an email from AOC announcing she's one of the first-night speakers at the convention. The Dems need her to make the case to the protestors that they need to trust the Dems to do the right thing for Palestinians and all Americans, and give Harris the flexibility to be their president. The MAGA-SCOTUS alternative is simply unacceptable!!!
AOC should let the protestors know she and others will be their voice if Harris betrays them, but she's confident it would never come to that, and she's optimistic about all the Harris can accomplish (for women, working families, veterans, jobs, unions, our economy, the environment, world peace, ...)
Mitch the right thing for Palestinians is to get them out from under the control by HAMAS. There was one election 12 years ago, and not another one since, just like what Trump and the Heritage Foundation has in store for us.
The HAMAS cowards are being picked off one by one, but they are responsible for all that has happened in Gaza
.
If they hadn'tbust out and committed wholesale, and personal slaughter and rape of women, infants, toddlers, elderly and disabled then fled back to Gaza with hostages to use as human shields along with their own people, none of this would have happened.
And it is magnified by the pronouncement that "they are a nation of martyrs and will do this again and again until there is no more Israel'
If a group invaded your home, slaughtered your family and carried off a hostage. What would you do, sit down and negotiate over coffee or tea?
I agree with you, but don't see it happening. And, China stepped in a few weeks ago, seeking to unite Hamas and Fatah, and bring Israel's West Bank settlements as another impediment to prevent any peaceful resolution to Gaza. Instability in Gaza will weaken Harris, help MAGA, and lead to Putin bombing Ukraine and China trying to take Taiwan
That is what I am afraid of. If you didn't know it before but Oct 7th was Putin's birthday and the HAMAS attack was Iran's present to their best trade partner
On the other hand there will never be peace in that wretched land, not so long as Jews "squat" on sacred Muslim soil. Isael/Paletine is scond only to Saudi Arabia as sacred Muslim soil. Saudi Arabia is home to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Israel/Palestine is home of the most holy Harma al Shrif (Dome of the Rock an al Aqsa Mosque.
The war between Muslim and Jew started in Medina, when Muhammad had 600 members of the Jewish Quaryza Tribe in Medina, 6 at a time Quranic verses 33:26-27 and 33:9-10 and it gets worse, verses 1295/1296 book56,hadith 139 al The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).
The day of judgement is the end times where Allah will render final judgement on the living and the day.
I just finished reading Lawrence O’Donnell’s “Playing With Fire” about the 1968 campaign and election. Very interesting read and definitely a cautionary tale for this week’s convention. It wasn’t just the demonstrators that helped Nixon- the Democratic Party was in complete disarray for the whole country to see on live television. That’s what the media wanted for this week but the party is united behind Harris and Walz and it’s driving the MSM crazy.
Good point, but what the public saw, and I was one of them, was the disarray the Chicago 7 or 8 (depends), the anti war antics, it all had the opposite affect of the leftist faction, it did not stop the war, it extended it, and in the long run, Trump is the consequence of a Nixon presidency.
The very fact that the major powers of the world are spending billions each year to destroy each other is a genocide-in-the-making. Those hard-earned moneys could instead be spent on education, health care, and assistance to the needy. We must stop playing geopolitics as a zero-sum game.
I look out the window and I see a cat lifting it's tale and spraying it is marking it's territory. Humans do the same, the mark their territory and then defend it to the death, and always, always try to enlarge their territory.in the wild it is because they have exhausted the food supply, in humans it is because their hunger is inexhaustible, and they perceive their neighbor, even the one hundreds of miles away as a possible threat..
Humans can't live in peace, An example are the verbal rumbles you see on substack, Thom's not so much, but try Robert Reich's. Geezus.
That is my point, and just like in 1968, Middle America, especially the fence sitters, will flip over to the Republicans like they did in 68 out of disgust.
The fact is that while liberals may have bleeding hearts, and campus idiots are easily bought and influenced, the all important fence sitters, aren't and don't, but they see chaos, disruption as the enemy.
Protests didn't end the Vietnam war, the photos of flag draped caskets. the incessant military funerals did. Middle America was weary of seeing their sons, fathers, brothers, cousins, uncles come home to get buried, and Dubya knew that, and forbid the publication of casualties, photos of funerals and caskets being unloaded at Dover AFB, Delaware.
And the MSM will foam at the mouth capturing and repeating every jot and tittle staged by the Republicans to disrupt the DNC proceedings just to encourage entertainment that will boost their ratings. That is the height of cynicism.
Thank you. I appreciate your input. And I agree. I avoided campus protests for several reasons back in the late sixties for several reasons. One reason was the way they were hyped and misrepresented by the press. Another was nervous about mob aspect of a group. All it takes is one idiot fanatic to do one dumb thing and then all the good admirable intentions are lost. I was never in the military. I did not want to enlist and due to a deferment and then high lottery number I did not have to go. Not one of my friends or any one else I encountered who did serve ever made me feel bad about my not serving. I do think your assessment is right on target. Many of those protesters may be sincere and genuine yet foolish and contributing to dangerous consequences. Again thank you for your post.
Protests achieve nothing,underthan a pressure relief valve. What did the WTO protests in Seatttle achieve?Nothing other than bad press because professional agitators, men in black, broke windows and caused looting, same in Portland during BLM riots, do you remember the umbrella man?, What did hte March on Washington with MLK achieve? Nothing (It was the riots after his assassination that did) how about the Million women's march after Trump was elected? Nothing, on the contrary three trad rad Catholics were appointed to SCOTUS and they gave us Dobbs.
I am really conflicted on this. I just scrolled down through some comments on news reports of what I thought looked like pretty token fence breaches re: Gaza protests, and the consensus seemed to be on the "just troublemakers" side, to me the image of, why should anybody be all upset over Trayvon or George Floyd, just stay home and shut up! I was personally acquainted with a Jew who escaped Hitler and visited relatives in Israel who respected the rights of awkward, colonial imposed neighbor Palestinians. I mean, Palestine had not belonged to Jews since Rome took over in 60's BCE, and 2,000 years later European colonial occupiers decreed that tough luck, your great great great grandfather's olive grove is now a kibbutz? By the same token, Elizabeth Warren and her 1/60th ought to have absolute claim to a parcel raped away only 500 years ago! I am utterly offended that someone will say I am a terrorist sympathizer.
Mmerose, Palestine has belonged to the Assyrians, the Hittites, the Phonecians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Turks it never belonged to a people called Palestinians, it was occupied by Arabs, Bedouins and Jews for millinnea
The Jews didn't claim a right to Israel because it was "their country" as you seem to infer,
After WWII, Theodore Herzl toured Europe to recruit Jews to migrate to what was then the British Mandate,and they bought, I said bought,land from the inhabitants. the land had been part of the Turkish empire.
Israel was recognized as a sovereign stated in May 1948, six months later it's Arab neighbors the nation states of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia attacked it, and lost to a "handful" of Jews, and the Jews that they may strengthen their borders and secure their future, took land from their Arab invaders, Jordan Egypt and Syria.
I have not misstated anything, everything I have said is verifiable.
You prove my point. If Arabs, Bedouins and Jews occupied a territory known as "Palestine," "for millennia," per characterization we agree upon, how were they not "Palestinians?" Everything you say is verifiable. It does not add up to an apartheid religious police state.
Mmerose First. There are 57 Religious states in the world that are Muslim. The American comment might as well be a religious continent, but officially there are 57 Muslim ethno states. One Hindu ethno state and one Jewish ethno state.
Israel is not an apartheid state. There are 2 million Arab ciizens (1/6th of the population) with the same rights as the 10 million Jews they even served in the Knesset. South Africa was Apartheid and the blacks had no vote,rights or representation.
They weren't Palestinians because there was no and is no country called Palestine, that is why they aren't Palestinians, They are Arabs living in a land that the Romans once called Syria Palestian, which included Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and parts of what we call Egypt.
The West Bank and part of what is now Israel, was part of the Hashemite Kingdom, which is now Jordan. What you and the Arabs Palestine, and Israel was once part of the Ottomman Empire,until the end of WWI.
The "Palestinians" are not a people separate from their Arab kin, but their Arab kin, the Saudi's, the Jordanians, The Egyptians, the Syrians want nothing to do with them.
They bar them from entry and when caught return them.
What got Nixon elected was the Republicans scuttling the Paris Peace Talks, which would have headed off the anti-Vietnam war riots in Chicago. Humphrey would have benefitted from the agreement and probably been elected.
Keep the real history complete within your sites, too, William. What happened — how we were lied to; how “anti-communism” was weaponized to keep us from demanding our government work “for us”; our ignorance of real world affairs — yep, all that happened, too. But it was Republican dirty tricks that got Nixon in, and kept him there for six years too long.
Pat, I am all too familiar with Nixon's treason scuttling the Paris peace talks, in fact when I was an editor on Wikipedia, I posted that on his page, and a right wing gate keeper jumped in an reverted it, If i had continued he would have reported me for a revert war, and he was part of the volunteer clique that runs these appeal "courts". Same thing happened when I edited Reagans page about his treasonous deal with Khomeini.
However it is too simple, and easy to blame his election on just that. It had a play for sure,but the Chicago fiasco, did the trick.
I remember well, because in 1968, I was a conservative and an E-6, a lifer, and we all mused about those "commies" in Chicago, and of course Jane Fonda and the "commie Democatic party". That is where middle America and the Armed Forces were.
I had just returned from Vietnam, and the names of four of my team mates are etched in the wall, in the area reserved for Sep 1967.
The public did not know about Nixon's treason, but they could see what they thought were treasonous acts in Chicago.
Albbie Hoffman et al, should have been demonstrating outside the Republican convention, just like today's idiots should have been in Milwaukee, all they are accomplishment is feeding Trump and Putin.
Sure Todd. Israel is 10 million Jews and 2 million Arabs, and that state is committing genocide against 1 billion Arab Muslims, one chunk at a time.
When the word genocide is tossed around so carelessly, which is what HAMAS propagandists have been doing, then nothing is genocicde, because everything is genocide.
Propagandists, Russian Muslim, know what they are doing and they know that American liberals can be triggered, just toss in words like imperialism, genocide, neo liberal and you have them by the short and curlies.
and only a stupid fuck doesn’t realize who has been misusing “genocide.” Your morbid retardation is showing. please don’t not die painfully with anal herpes.
It's very sad. None of us want this for the Palestinians/Gazans. I hoped we could do more to stop it sooner and I am tremendously saddened by what has happened since day one of this particular conflict, both for the West Bank and Gaza, to both Israelis and Palestinians. The people who are protesting believe they are doing the right thing, And they're doing so for the right reasons, Justice those who protested the Vietnam war didn't for the right reasons. Nuance as a word perhaps we should pay more attention to... To any action, there is an equal and opposite reaction? Anything we change for good purposes will also have some bad come from it. Anything bad, will also have some good come from it. That includes wars and death.
Blaming the electorate for One-Party-Two-Faces, and saddling them with “vote for our neoliberal warmonger because the fascist is worse” is hardly a rallying cry for democracy.
You sure have down the Putin trigger words. Neo liberal, War monger.
Total bullshit, Democrats are neither, neither is Biden. Neo liberals don't try to reign in corporations and their price gouging.
Biden and Democrats have not started any ways either.
Fuck you asshole, fuck you. I have my bitches with Biden, but neo liberal, war monger is not one, but those are favorite trigger words that the trolls in Putins troll farm throws out on liberal sites.
Yeh, that's right. Ole Joe is over there killing Palestinians alrighty. You are correct your name is indeed Mr Asshole.
Something to chew on fuck fase, every dead Gazan, every wounded Gazans blood lies squarely on the head of the leaders of HAMAS.
It wasn't the Jews, or Joe that flew over the walls of Gaza., ra[ed amd slaughtered in cold blood 236 kids attending a music festival and motoring on to rape and slaughter 1,000 more infants, toddlers, women, elderly and disabled in cold blood, burning some of them alive, and hauling back a couple of hundred to use as human sheields and bargaining chips.
It was you dear buddies of HAMAS and Islamic Jihad, fuck faces like you are apologists and allies of cold blooded terrorists, until they get captured and made the subject of beheading video's.
Freedom loving Islamics, who force their women to wear bee keeping suits, and sexual and domestic servants who slaughter people just because they are gay or infidel.
Unfortunately there could be a single drunken old protester staggering in an alley and the Post, NY Times, and others will spend hours on that persons outrageous antics.
My, this leftist drink pissed on himself. They want to piss on America!
Why a photo of Biden’s back with his head bowed? I am so turned off I couldn’t read the newsletter. Images and headlines are what most people see. Please do better. Even “ we thank you Joe” is the stuff of an obituary He’s potus for another half a year. What happens now until Election Day is on his watch. Thank goodness he’s still President and it’s not a the GOP Congress running the country.
It’s not a matter of aesthetics. It’s the connotations of a photo of someone looking beaten, heading into the sunset…sorry, I think it’s wrong for the moment.
Maybe, but somehow it's forgotten that Bernie Sanders was winning the primaries until the old guard appeared to have Biden back in the race. I think it's a terrible shame for the Dems to ask VP Biden to come out of retirement to be president and then push him back to retirement.
I'll mute this thread because otherwise the comment people on here will start calling me names and a trumper.
Economic policy? Yes, Dr. Reich's lectures are amazing which is why I can not figure out WHY he will not interview William Bill Black, PhD, lawyer, former bank regulator about 2008. It's called data and facts. This gentleman helped put the 90s S&L bankers in jail. And, if you al wonder why many people are disillusioned by the Dems - I refer you back to President Obama. He left many of the republicans in the same position and allowed Jamie Dimon to waltz into the Oval Office and write and check and walk out of jail.
What is VP Harris going to do ? Offer 25K to "new homeowners". Build millions of houses? Why? There is plenty of housing. It's neither affordable or it's a vacation rental or owned by wall street.
I would like to see her succeed. I want to get excited. But this just feels like another re- run. Or as Bernie say - flip sides of the same coin...
In all fairness, we won't be ready for Bernie Sanders for a few more years. President Biden honestly did what Rep Sanders couldn't: he passed the beggining stages of the later's economic strategies, but without the stigma associated with him. ("OMG HE A SOCIALIST I SCARED!!!!")
Joe Biden was a well-known MODERATE, so his "left of left" transition was unexpected!
I believe that the established pushed him out to run against Bernie and then saw he wasn't gaining traction against trump the orange and pushed him out again.
It's all speculation but after reading White Trash by Nancy Isenberg - I'm not inclined to believe everything I'm told.
Since when did Biden retire and then unretire? He removed himself from the race. He remains president until either Kamala or (god forbid) the orange A-hole takes office.
No Janet you are not a Trumper. The problem is the old guard, the old farts in the DNC.
The DNC had no one to offer to run against Trump, because they don't groom and nurture anyone who is not acceptable to the establishment.
The DNC is a stable which houses race horses that have paid their due proved their loyalty, are approved by the owners (donors), and have run races (earned their credentials which is foreign service,. The DNC pulls them out of the paddock and puts them at the starting gate.
Old tired, credential earning race horses like Terry McAuliffe, who lost his race for Governor to Youngkin because he is out of touch with the electorate and is tone deaf. All of his life has been inside the Democratic bubble of the beltway. Same for Hillary, same for Biden.
Biden won because a mummy could have beat Trump in 2020.
The DNC is scared shitless of left wing populists, of new blood like the Squad, they wish AOC would go away, because the new blood is people oriented, not slopping at the trough of the donors, the Financial Institutions, the National Association of Manufacturers, PhRMA, AHIP and Chamber of Commerce.
Chances are that at the end of this year we will have a major crisis, no matter who wins the election. I have great confidence in the Biden-Harris team.
I don't have to resort to name calling. I present facts. The fact is that the Dems are funded by wall street and wall street's ancestors are the poor aristocrats who founded this country.
Look back to understand the present. History isn't a study of the past it explains the present and you would be better versed to make comments if you did a little more reading.
Thank you for the name calling - I don't go down that path.
I fear history will repeat itself in Chicago, the protests at he 68 convention had the consequence of electing Nixon. I know, I had just returned from Vietnam, and was a conservative, aghast at what I and others perceived as commies.
Today's protesters should have been in Minneapolis, because the result of their activity could very well shift the energy to the Republicans and Trump, and if Trump is elected, they can only blame themselves for Trump doubling down on support for Bibi, and rounding up Muslims and "enemies of the state"
I believe that good people like Sharod Brown wouldn't have publicly asked Biden to step down unless he and others who say Biden outside of the news cycle saw a progressive dementia.
I heard Obama say (something like) "We don't begrudge CEO's their multi-million dollar packages." He lost me then. Campaigning on "Main Street, not Wall Street" and then appointing a Goldman-Sachs employee as Sec Treas was just handing the fox the key to the hen house. And Geithner opened the door right up.
Too big to fail was as bad a joke as trickle-down.
the Dems played unnecessarily dirty with Bernie, but i think they did fine by Joe. he knows politics is a blood sport. i just wish i had more confidence in Harris.Obama capitulated on Syria and Wall Street. Should have had a “ mini convention” Klobachar has the chops.
This is an excellent summary of Biden's profound economic achievements, but it neglects to mention his efforts to strengthen our democracy at home and to defend it abroad, particularly by supporting Ukraine and strengthening NATO, but also by resisting Chinese aggression. I agree that his refusal to slow or stop arms shipments to Israel is his greatest failing. But overall, what a superb presidency!
The voters don't care about economic achievements, that is where the DNC has gone wrong.
It is what is in their face, and what they think they will face in the future, and the corporate media has normalized the fascist threat. By now you would think the DNC would have learned that, it wasn't the economy that elected Trump either, it was and is resentment, anger, fear, the RNC has perfected its ability tap into primal fears since Nixon's southern strategy and the DNC has been playing three monkey's.
Clinton won because he was from Arkansas and had a southern accent, and the impression was that southerners are racists like they are. Obama won because of unprecedented black and liberal turnout. Biden won because in 2020, after 4 years of Trump, a mummy could have beat Trump.
Now we have a chance to turn things around and have fresh blood, and a minority at that, the idiot's on the left and the Muslims are hell bent on electing Trump by showing their ass, and not unity, in Chicago.
Protesters are showing unity with humanity, unity with morality, unity with international law, and a profound patriotism. They're showing every quality Biden divided us from when he chose to actively assist genocide. All the DNC have to do is uphold the most basic principles of human rights. That's all. Their refusal is criminally divisive, not to mention just plain criminal.
Biden is a hawk. Has always been one. Over his career, he has taken the most money from AIPAC, which seems to support Israel no matter what. Religious conservative Israelis refuse to participate in their military and have been pushing Palestinians off their own land for ever, then using Israeli military to protect themselves stealing Palestine from Palestinians. What would happen in the US if anyone was doing this?? Hamas emerges in the face of these daily land incursions by Israel. Bibi is exactly like Trump. Using his current conservative dominated government, he is running from jail.
The DNC, if it fails to uphold the most basic humanitarian rights, will be electing Trump, as are those of you who make Democrats seem incapable of moralitt. The protesters are just doing their democratic duty. Stop arguing against democracy, and start arguing against genocide.
It matters not what I care about,other than I care about I don't want Trump to be elected,if he is then your sense of morality and bleeding heart, will be sorely wounded and pumping gallons of blood.
What I care about and my morality is irrelevant to the task and problem ahead.
Assume the moral high ground and enjoy the reign of Trump.
Damn people, all the blood goes to the heart none to the brain.
Nope, you can't blame the DNC for not conforming to your emotional needs.
If Trump gets elected, it is because of the votes he gets and the votes that Harris doesn't get.
You can sit there all smug in your self righteousness and excusing yourself for electing Trump by your inaction or partisanship, but that won't do you or the Muslims and Trumps enemies any good, as he puts into position all of his fasicsts,then rounds up the Muslims.
What good did it do the Jews on the siding of the RR tracks at Auschwitz, to mutter it is all the fault of the Weimar Republic and Hindenburg.
If Trump gets elected then Muslims, campus idiots and bleeding hearts like you, beware., you have earned your just reward.
I won't reply, William, as I have to get back to my political work (writing letter for Vote Forward and raising money for donations). I don't want to spend any more time analyzing. Thanks.
The debate over whether it was working class economic decline or racism that caused Trumpism burns on. As you know, Robert R lines up solidly with the former. I would say he considerably overstates his case. How else can you account for the enormous vote for Trump among those making more than $100k? They're sure not Rust Belt victims. And the economic argument was very overstated generally during the first Trump term. The NYT and WaPo got on board. I wouldn't go as far as you. I think the two issues interact in complex ways. Still, I'm closer to your position than Reich's, no question. See a recent essay in The Intercept by James Risen in support of your view.
I didn't say the population of Gaza supports the raping of prisoners. I believe the victims of Oct.7 and medical doctors witness of evidence of the trauma of the released hostages .
David, what you say is so true, but stops short of pointing out that his one failing, the support of Netanyahu, may well be the end of democracy. Here, and everywhere. The Gaza cease fire negotiations are faltering, and possibly on the brink of collapse. Right NOW. Coincident with a jubilant DNC, right NOW. During, or soon after the DNC, Harris could declare no more offensive support for Israel (and demonstrably break from Biden), but she is not President: Biden is, until January. By then this country will be thoroughly split over Israel's right to "defend" itself versus Israel's right to "punish" Palestinians using its colonial occupation of Gaza. Which directly pits Dems against Trump's handlers. Netanyahu succeeded in throwing down the gauntlet. The next few (very few) weeks will set the stage. This country is set to lose, no matter what!
Woozie, I wouldn't go that far, but the situation is desperate and tragic, no question. Biden should never have attempted a grand settlement, when it was clear the Netanyahu government would never go along. I think his Israel/Mideast policy will go down as his single greatest failing. The timing is awful for the election, but I salute youth for protesting vehemently. I would just urge them not to make the mistake we made in 1968 and sit out the most crucial election since WW2, given the climate emergency and the threat to our democracy.
I just had a fantasy: what if Biden announces at DNC tonight, that he is going to withhold any further support of Netanyahu's regime unless a binding cease-fire agreement is signed, THIS WEEK!
I would love it. I wish he had said it six months ago. Palestinians are now dying of hunger. There is no way this level of response to the horrific Hamas attack is justifiable.
And what about HAMAS. Flowers and Garlands for the murderers. Lest you forget HAMAS is responsible for what has happened, If they hadn't flown over the walls, sailed around the barrier and crashed through the gates, raped and murdered infants, toddlers, women, elderly, disabled none of this would have happened, nor would it have happened had they not taken hostages and used them and their people as human shields.
And it isn't over, Ishamail Haniyah said, that they are a nation of martyrs and will come back again and again and again, )until there are no more Jews on sacred Muslim soil.)
I'm not defending Hamas one bit. What they did does not excuse what Israel has done to Palestinians for decades and certainly not what they've done to the residents of Gaza. I consider Israel a racist, apartheid state, and the current government the very worst imaginable. Terrorism doesn't arise out of thin air.
About to be ripped in half Woozie, It already is, Even without Gaza it was ripped in half,exacerbated by the birthday gift that Ayatollah Khameini gave to Putin on Oct 7th, and the organs of agitprop financed by Arab oil money, have been doing their job, pitting the left against itself and against middle America.
The pro HAMAS left is doing Puin's work, America can' t be destroyed from without, the threat to Democracy is not from Russia or China, itis from he American Right Wing and the American left wing.
It is called the horseshoe where the American Right meets the American left, as evidenced in the chant "Fuck Biden"
One one side of a walkway in Columbia were students waving HAMAS flags, and on the other a group waving American upside down flags both chantiing Fuck Biden.
Meanwhilte Muslims and young black males have said that they will sit out the election, bravo, that will certainly elect Trump.
The Muslim population alone in the Swing States of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are more than the votes he got that enabled him to carry the electoral votes of those crucial swing states.
David, the people you salute might very well be responsible for electing Trump.
A vote for other than Kamala, sitting out the election is a vote for Trump.
The unintended consequence of the protest will be President Trump and Project 2025, and persecution of Muslims and anyone Trump and the right declares an enemy, like students and leftists.
My salute was qualified with a warning, recall. I absolutely agree with you that it's folly to not vote for Harris. But youth is often passionate and right but foolish tactically. I remind myself that I wouldn't have voted for Humphrey back in '68 out of anger over Vietnam (I wasn't yet old enough to vote, but vey engaged). It's comparable, though the stakes are vastly higher now.
I acknowledge the evil on the Arab side, btw. The Holocaust denial, the hypocrisy of the Arab oil states, the dehumanization of Jewish people. But I've also lost all patience for Israel. When you pen up millions of Palestinians for decades in atrocious conditions, awful things are gong to happen in retaliation.
The only problem is, David, that the Republicans are full on Zionists, and Gaza would not have received even air drops or the pier, and who knows what Trump would do for his buddy Bibi.
And if elected, as a consequence of the protesters and the Muslims, Muslims and Palestinians will really have something to bemoan.
I realize that. I think I did say that Trump would be worse. But that doesn't excuse the funding of what is essentially genocide. It's also seriously damaged Biden's credibility in Ukraine. Biden could have drawn a line earlier, as the UK is doing (possibly). I don't think it would have cost him the election here.
Whining about Biden and Harris only helps Trump, as it discourages, dismays and encourages them to not vote or vote third party, which is a vote for Trump.
I rebel at the misuse of the word Genocide it is thrown around too freely because in the west it has great propaganda value.
There is no way 10 million Jews can genocide Billions of Muslims and a billion Arabs.
Finally all that has happened in Gaza lies on the heads of HAMAS, all of it, attacking Jews, raping and murdering infants, toddlers, women, elderly disabled, and then running back like cowards to hide behind women and children and hostages, then whine to the world press.
I realize ded is dead, but there is a huge MORAL difference between collateral damage done by Israel, and the cold blood upfront and personal death and destruction done by HAMAS and Islamic Jihad.
You are correct Woozie,and boy will those Muslims, campus idiots and left wing protesters have earned their just reward, when the consequence of their actions (protest) and in actions (not voting) puts Bibi'[s butt buddy back in office and Trump doubles down in supporting Bibi and rounding up Muslims.
HAMAS is responsible for the current carnage, by committing carnage on the Jews.
They started it, hide behind civilians and hostages as human shields, and the blood of every one the people they are suppose to represent and protect is on their hand.
In the same way that Hitler was responsible the blood of every German .
William F., Hamas was ready to sign a cease fire agreement on July 2. Netanyahu wouldn't. Subsequently, he came to the US, spoke to Congress, briefly visited Biden, then Harris, and the next day had a long meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. He returned to Israel and two days later, assassinated the chief negotiator for Hamas. He started relentless bombing in Gaza killing and injuring thousands which he continues to do. Two days later, he signaled a willingness to sign a "bridge" agreement for a cease fire, that was NOT remotely like the early agreement that Hamas agreed to sign. A Blinken bait-and-switch publicized in a false attempt to quiet the discord in Chicago.
When compared to the Presidents of the last fifty years, Joe Biden is one of the best, if not the best! Joe Biden made mistakes and had some negative characteristics, but so did our greatest Presidents like FDR, Lincoln, and Washington.
Tim , Tom High claims that he is a Greenie, a Jill Stein Voter, but the upshot of his position and what he wants us to do, is to elect Putin by electing Trump.
He is dispensing agitprop Oct 7th was the Ayatollah Khameini's birthday gift to Putin.
I agree with both your points, but am extremely grateful that Joe didn't turn out to be as bad as Trump, George W. Bush, Nixon, or Reagan! You may consider this faint praise. I still think Joe did a great job!
Oh! You don't consider DIRECTLY TAKING ON Big Pharma AND big oil as achomplishments??? [sic] What are you even doing here if you are that closed-minded and pro-America's enemies?
You don’t think getting insulin capped at 35 bucks and negotiating with BIG PHARMA to bring down costs of some pretty common drugs isn’t an accomplishment?
He is, by promoting Jill Stein. I've been at a tete a tete with this troll, Tom Hugh, for over a month. He plays on liberal sensiblities and morality. Typical agitprop.
Tom, I sympathize with your comment more than you may imagine. I was once a Chomsky progressive. But that ended over ten years ago, when I realized the full force of Putin's and Xi's intentions. We're fighting now for democracy, for the rule of law, internationally as well as domestically. I stand with the Ukrainians, the Poles, and the Finns, as well as the Taiwanese, the Tibetans and the Uyghurs. They all know who the immediate enemy is. They covet the support of the US and its alliances. If the Left in America wants to continue excusing Putin, Xi, Maduro, and Ortega, then they reduce themselves to irrelevance.
On Israel/Gaza, however, I think the Left critique of Biden has great force, and I am appalled at what's happening in Gaza today. I can't defend Biden here, other than to say that Trump would be still worse. But that's no excuse. It goes down as his greatest failure.
Still, looking at the whole range of his accomplishments, I stand by my praise.
David, Tom is a fraud. He plays on liberal sensibilities and morality, He sez he is voting for Jill Stein, but every vote for Jill Stein is one less vote for Harris and that means one more vote for Trump.
I'm still angry at Bernie bros and Susan Sarandon who just had to sit out or vote independent in 2016. It's just the worst political thinking to not see the profound differences between the GOP and Dems today.
You mention all of two items, both of which are a stretch to pin on Biden, while neglecting to mention all the things he did accomplish, especially given the obstructuion of the GOP.
Whatever your diatribe Tom, The president will be either Kamala or Trump. With Kamala there is an opportunity for compassion, for consideration, with Trump there is none, and woe to the Gazans, Woe to the Arabs, because Trump is Bibi's cavalary, and promised to deport Muslims.
So bloviate all you want, Putin loves you, Putin loves Jill Stein, Putin loves anyone who will help Trump get electedd,including Muslims and self righteous leftists and Greenies.
If you check the Biden record, his entire life has been based on politics! Biden obtained the operational level of being able to maneuver the rules of the game. Biden benefited from it 100% because he based and operated his entire life on his rules of the political game. It has been a good run! Biden’s entire family, including his siblings, have profited from the Biden gig. And it will continue on . . . History will continue to repeat itself no doubt!
And wow. Have you reviewed his economic successes over Trump's? It seems to me he has been fighting the gun situation since Sandy Hook. The Republicans are gun happy and want teachers to pack heat in school rooms as well as teach. How do you suggest an American President "make" a leader of another country do anything? I know you have the answer with all your facts and figures.
The thing I really don't understand is why the people of GAZA now seem to be the only people who matter anymore. What about the people of Ukraine? What about the people in our OWN country, who I am sure will suffer greatly if Trump is elected? Why the single-mindedness? This election will affect not just our lives but those of our friends and loved ones!
Hi Tom, I get your point and I respect your feelings about what is happening in Gaza. My concerns are these: first, a lot more is at stake then free school lunches. I see an out-in-the-open war right now against women, LGBTQ+ folks, people of color, and immigrants. I can see possible genocide happening in our own country if Trump is elected, especially against immigrants and trans folks. Trump has openly called the 'radical Left' (which is pretty much anyone who didn't vote for him) as the 'real enemy' in our country. He has called us 'vermin'. This is language Hitler used. Please wake up about this!
Second, I do not see the Russian Invasion of Ukraine as a 'proxy war'. In fact, I believe that's a MAGA talking point. Many innocent people, both Russians and Ukrainians, are dying due to this invasion. It doesn't make sense to me that only one group of people is worth being elevated to the top of concerns while there are many others who are dying. I think one could call what is happening in Ukraine a form of genocide as well, but the R's don't seem to care about them at all. Also, there seems to be evidence that at least some of the 'genocide Joe' meme/info has been coming from Russian or Chinese sources. You know, a death due to hate crimes or invasion or whatever is still death.
Third, it makes no logical sense whatsoever to sit out the election. We don't know what Kamala might be able to accomplish re: the I/P situation, and we DO already know what Trump thinks of Muslims, including Gaza and Palestinians. I have MAGA family members, and I can tell you right now that they consider the people of Gaza to be 'terrorists', and if Trump is elected I wouldn't be surprised if the brave students who are protesting the genocide in Gaza didn't end up in jail if not worse. In other words, I'm on your side about the horror of Gaza but to sit out the election is literally shooting ourselves in the face. Why is THAT so hard to understand?
The kudos you are giving Joe Biden for what he has accomplished for us as Americans during the last four years is well deserved and it is deserving of the praise that you heap upon his achievements. Now we must roll up our sleeves to make sure that the Dream Team of Harris and Walz get elected.
A recently publicized study showed that 85% to 95% of the races for the House and the Senate could be predicted by which campaign spent the most money. This is a worrisome and sobering conclusion. We may not have the same financial resources to match what the billionaires will be doing to elect Trump, but we can invest our people resources by taking some time to travel to the all important “swing states“ to knock on doors and do whatever we can to get the maximum Democratic votes and thereby the electoral college votes to insure that our Democracy still stands.
It is also time to put up the Harris walls yard signs as well as the same bumper stickers on our vehicles. Even if we do not live in an all important swing state, we should build the sense of inevitability of a Harris walls win.
Unfortunately, it's called Citizens United. If there are big enough majorities on the Dems' side it's one of the very first things to be overturned. Along with Dobbs, Shelby County etc. of course.
Matthew, yes, our Supreme Court under Roberts has done enormous damage to this nation and our democracy. We need Democrats at all levels in government to nullify what Roberts and his cons have done to us. That is the message we need to get out because the only people not seriously harmed by this SC are rich white men and corporations. The rest of us have lost rights, have been bamboozled, cheated of voting rights, taken advantage of by rich individuals and corporations, have had our representatives bought and paid for, had our rights to service squashed, and so much more. We need to get the word out, asking how many people like being used as Republicans and their rich donors have used them to put ignorant, non-caring people in positions of power? Then give examples. It might pull in enough voters to win even the electoral college, that vestige of rich white male supremacy.
Laurie, yeah, and just imagine what it is like trying to do it with a screen reader that doesn't even pronounce the names and some of the words correctly, then calls "spelling error" or "grammar error" when what is written is neither. Worth the effort though to share our thinking, wouldn't you say!
This defeatism is getting tiresome. The R's spent over 40 years taking over the system and creating an oligarchy. We're not going to undo all that in one election, for heaven's sake -- but we have to start somewhere!
Changing the course of the USA mammoth takes time and persistence.
Biden has started the change and Harris must build further on that fundament. One of the first issues to take action on must be reform of the Supreme Court. Otherwise all sorts of laws can be undermined and disempowered by the right wing (SCOTUS) judges.
Harris would be wise to keep former Wall Street people out of government positions. Wall Street should be serving Societal aims, not be the master of them.
Citizens United, Roe versus Wade and a lot more needs to be repaired.
I'm still waiting to watch for the VP Harris to have lunch with Bernie Sanders instead of Jamie Dimon. I don't think much will change for Florida, to be honest. It's an economic dumpster fire. I'm not happy about it but I don't see much policy being offered to rebuild the middle class in Florida. ?? I think the tourists should be taxed and the middle class offer yearly checks so that we can afford to live here year around. The residents in Alaska get annual checks. Why shouldn't we?
1. Bernie supports her. That' comment is nuts. The child tax credit standing alone would start a chain reaction. Extend Medicaid and thousands of new jobs created.
2. The federal government is not able to change most of the stuff the state legislature created.
In all fairness Daniel, why was Bernie Sanders winning the Democratic vote only to have Biden pushed into the race?
Not ready? Baloney - I've heard republican middle class say I want to vote for Bernie.
Unfortunately , wall street and the Koch Brothers are writing the laws - not the people. The people are ready - wall street plays both parties.
I'm not going to make any more phone calls for VP Harris until I see some progress. Right now, it's the same ol' same ol. The Dems put a millionaire as Florida Chair and this state has circled down the drain for 20 years. I hope Nikki Friend can turn it around but - I'm tired of "waiting". I think other people are too and that's why they are not voting.
Not more waiting. Let's see VP Harris have a 2 hour lunch with William Bill Black, PhD, lawyer, former bank regulator and jailer of 90s bankers. The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One. Then , I'll return to phone bank. I have to make an escape plan from Florid because I'm not going to pay for religious schools anymore.
"I'm tired of waiting." Yeah, that just about sums it up. We've have over 40 years of domination by the right -- even with Dems in the presidency -- because R's played the long game, and now we have people saying they're 'tired of waiting' because three and a half years of Biden hasn't miraculously turned things around. I'm sorry but it's just unconscionable that people are deciding not to vote because things haven't changed fast enough to suit them.
CLS, yes, the Republicans (i.e., Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation, Koch Network) have been playing the long game, and Democrats, unfortunately, have been slow to react. If Trump/Vance win our democracy will be finished.
We have a full slate of candidates for the first time in years. Primary is tomorrow. We have an evil senator, "Sunset" Rick Scott, who needs to go. If Debbie Mucarsel is our candidate, we have a good shot to flip this state. . https://www.debbieforflorida.com/ Trump won Florida by 3.1% in 2020. Only need to flip 2%. Need to re-register the 1 mil Democrats cut from the rolls since 2022. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
I always vote because women before me fought and died for the right. And the right to be on a jury. Yes, Debbie Powell visited North Florida. That says much for her good character. Rick Scott is fraud.
However, where is my justice? I'm not waiting anymore. I have done my part. I have no justice for the age discrimination. No licensure justice. I have no housing justice. I have no wage justice. none. Who is going to march with me in Tallahassee? no one.
Nikki Fried would have been the best governor and the Dems stuck Charlie in to defeat her. Honestly, I'm really surprised she accepted the Chair. She is a good person.
Thank you, Janet Adams, for choosing to NOT make any more phone calls for Harris. You are too "knowledgeable" and too self important to be able to communicate effectively with peons (you know, those lowlifes whose votes we really want!).
If I could tap a THOUSAND hearts for this article, I would. It perfectly encapsulates all of the pieces of our Democracy's ebb and flow under different administrations, and just HOW MUCH Biden did to restore the COMMON GOOD to the country's economy and every day, working class Americans. He also paved the way for our technological future. THANK YOU, President Joe Biden. You are a true Patriot, and a genuinely GOOD human being.
Robbyn, I too, can't imagine how we could have let this happen, but when thinking on it, I realize the American people were swept away by a bunch of unamerican corporate actors, our Supreme Court, and people who had been so well-trained to vote for the "R" behind or in front of a name that they couldn't see the person behind the "R" and voted for a lot of appalling human beings who were willing to do whatever an appalling ignorant fool said, no matter the harm it would cause the American people. Well, they could always lie and blame Democrats for whatever it was that was done that did harm to them, and oh wait, that's exactly what they did. It's shameful, but Republicans can no longer feel shame.
It caused an existential crisis for me; my psyche cracked. I'm still working through it in therapy. I wonder how many millions of Americans felt and are feeling this same horror.
Robbyn, it has been an existential threat to have someone as ignorant and self-seeking as Donald Trump in office anywhere, let alone, the White House. And our media has been on board, claiming they did it to catch eyes and "likes." That just proves they are not journalists first, but opportunists who will cover what will pay and will give rich someones more power then they deserve. Lately when watching, listening to, or reading the news, one has to sift through a lot of lies and other detritis to get to what is really going on, if that is even accessible. We must demand our media function better and get off the partisan, pretend we're not partisan bandwagon. It stinks!
President Joe Biden will be known as the president who saved America’s democracy! And the president’s choice of Kamala Harris as his successor was one of his most significant decisions. I believe our Vice President and her future administration will continue Joe’s efforts to make America better for all American citizens. Kamala Harris has my total support and respect. A HUGE THANKS TO PRESIDENT BIDEN FOR ALL HE HAS DONE AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO UNTIL THE END OF HIS TERM.
President Biden's term in office can be summed up in the following manner, "Joe did the best he could with what he had to work with." A true American with the heart of a Lion and the will of a man who put integrity above personal gains. People wonder why this country is the greatest, it's because of men like Joe Biden and the continued belief that good will always conquer evil. Go Blue---Thank you Joe, you saved a country and our people from a man who put greed and ignorance over honor.
Perfectly stated appreciation for a great president, whose accomplishments will be recognized by history while going largely unacknowledged during his tenure. How many imperfect people are among us, those whose hearts mean well and whose actions are unselfish, yet whose lack of swagger and self-promotion consign them to "ordinary" status? Biden was far more than ordinary, as he possessed skills and understanding to bring about the right legislation at the right time. He put his country first, above himself and his party. We have too few others like him, and Liz Cheney, Geoff Duncan, and John McCain were the very last Republicans with his integrity and patriotism.
Beautiful tribute to a great man and a lucid explanation of the economics behind his achievements. I’m afraid he’s under appreciated. You’ve helped bring light to his remarkable achievements, all done in one term in office. Thank you.
I wholeheartedly join Dr Reich thanking a true patriot, who , having had real tragedies in his life (his compession absolutely helped him and us) and wish him and Dr Jill Biden the best life can offer.
Also, thank you Professor Robert for keeping us all aware of recent history - good bits (FDR) and bad bits (Reagan). No-one (except DJT) wants total government control, but we must have regulation in order to give the average person a chance against the greed of the billionaires and multi-national cartels. I hope President Kamala can follow President Teddy Roosevelt's success over 100 years ago in dealing with the 'too big to fail' corporations.
I hope the Harris campaign will pay attention to your excellent encapsulation of economic insight: "Biden’s democratic capitalism is neither socialism nor “big government.” It is, rather, a return to an era when government organized the market for the greater good."
Douglas, you're right about the framework, and we will need it to be presented more steadily and forcefully so the American people will understand and can help make it all happen rather than give up, thinking everything is horrible because their gas prices and grocery prices are too high right now. They are, and to fix any of that there are systemic changes that must be made to the ways our businesses operate now, particularly monopolies, privatized utilities, union-busting, stock buybacks, and so much more. People could help by purchasing products that are from companies that have a decent work ethic and care for the quality of life of their workers, find out which corporations are doing the most harm to our elections with their "donations and don't buy their products," and stand with and for unions. Those things will make a positive difference even if they don't look large right now.
Professor Reich. Thank you for your superb tutorial on economic and social policy since the 1920s. My wish is that every American will read this. If they did, they would understand 3 things. Economic policy is social policy. 2. Economic policy can benefit the majority of the population - regular folks - or it can benefit the wealthy few. 3. Economic and social policy is determined by those who are elected to govern. Anyone reading your essay will understand that one of the two political parties - Democrat or Republican- has this fundamental belief at their heart and soul: What we wish for ourselves, we wish for us all. This is the essence of America. If you believe this, you know who to vote for. If you want this core value to survive, you know who to vote for.
I love Joe and his whole family. Every person I know who has visited Israel say that Netanyahu is despised. He and his wife are a disgrace. Criminals like trump.
Professor Reich, you had me in tears today! I love President Biden and would have continued to spread the word about him to get him elected; however, you are right. President Biden is aging just as I am. To be honest, I am guilty of still trying to do things I once did with ease. I get frustrated when my kids tell me I am too old to do something I'm trying to do. In my head, I know they are right, but my heart tells me something else. President Biden has served this country since he was 27 years old in 1970. He won a seat on the New Castle County, Delaware. He never stopped moving up until he became president. He was faced with a lot of personal tragedy yet still served his country. Through the painful events in his life, he remained strong. He is the most empathetic, compassionate, kind and sweetest man in the Oval Office! He is intelligent. His morality, integrity and presidential demeanor have put dignity back in the White House. There are very few presidents that I hold in really high regard. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, James Earl Carter, Jr., and Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. God bless his selfless act of passing the torch and God bless him. Thank you, President Biden!
Biden is STILL arming the Netanyahu rightwing terrorists in Israel. He is still in power for 4 1/2 more months and yet he continues to feed the murderous war machine. All this does, beside murdering and maiming innocent civilians, is throw a black veil of evil over Israel and America. There is no going around this. We are the pariahs of the sane world. Any high ground we might have had is gone. You cannot support a murderous regime for as long as we have without becoming that evil. Yet he continues to feed our tax money into the monster. I respect everything you have said but for this….everyone needs to call it for what it is at this point. It is not just a blot. He has sacrificed any good he had done into the endless well of the suffering we are “still” causing to thousands of Palestinians.
Margaret, Given that Monday evening officially will mark a transition to the next generation of leadership, I believe it would behoove us to remain open to the possibility that we’ll sense some indication from Harris / Walz of a change in trajectory.
"I spend just 3 minutes in this place and I run into a fucking barney." -- Netanyoohoo's genocide is the saddest thing on TV today. But, goddammit, I have heard them say "Death to America" one time too many. There will never be peace until the Arabs accept Israel's existence.
There are far too few saying this, so thank you Professor Reich. You make economic policy understandable to those of us whose strengths and knowledge lie elsewhere and always feel like life learned something when you explain it.
Souix Fleming, that is an excellent TikTok video you have posted on your Substack account. Possibly more of us should learn to use TikTok in that fashion. https://open.substack.com/pub/jojofromjerz?r=bj2wi&utm_medium=ios
Here is what worries me. In 1968 protesters disrupted the Democratic National Convention, and in doing so, smeared the Democratic party, the middle class reacted and voted for Nixon.
I had recently returned from Vietnam, and was then a conservative, I also lived with the Vietnamese and spoke their language. I was told we were going to lose the war, because there were more communists in the states, than in Vietnam and they pointed to the Democrat's" who controlled the Senate and Presidency, hearing Senate Hearing, 90th Congress - Submission of the Vietnam conflict to the United Nations: hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Ninetieth Congress, first session, on S. Con. Res. 44, providing that it is the sense of the Congress that the President should submit a resolution to the United Nations for final and binding improvement of peace in Southeast Asia in accordance with the appropriate article of the United Nations charter, [and]S. Res. 180, a sense of the Senate Resolution seeking United States initiative to assure United Nations Security Council consideration of Vietnam Conflict. October 26, 27, and November 2, 1967..
The Saigon post followed American politics and Congressional hearings assiduously, better than Americans.
The real effect of the 68 protests in Chicago, was to piss off middle America and elect Nixon.
The Protesters are doing the work of Bibi and the Israeli right wing, they should have been outside the Republican convention, not the Democrats.
We will see, but protesting the Democrats only benefits the Republicans, and if Trump is elected then the Muslims, the leftists, the campus idiots have only themselves to blame, when Trump starts rounding them up., and doubles down on support for Bibi.
In Mayor Daly was sucker punched by the demonstrators. He was the king of machine politics for so long he was simply clueless.
Mayor Johnson isn't a fabulous mayor but he is a good, intelligent person. The City of Chicago has given the protestors assigned areas. There is strategy planned by our police department and other government militia. Some Milwaukee Police are here to help. We are not deer in the head lights.
I have protested Viet Nam, other wars, and many things. Never once have I pitched a tent or destroyed property. I never entered Grant Park in the 1968 demonstrations. I want protesters to update protesting with behavior that commands the right to be understood.
You are not they. I voted for Nixon in 1960, just for the record, I was a conservative, even a right wing anti communist (my sole agenda) until 1989 when I had an ephany.
I have known two professional agitators in my life, one infiltrated the American NAZI party, the other infiltrated the American Indian Movement (AIM).
The former would infiltrate anyone one and agitate for violence, he even tried to stir up the John Birch Society to violence. The latter had a bout of conscience and converted to Islam, and last I knew he was an Imam in NE Washington
State.
I have never seen protests achieve anything, other than an opposite reaction and disgust, but they haven't achieved their goals.
What has , was the threat of, or actual violence, like in the wake of the Floyd murder. Change only came, when cities burned after Martins assassination.
Brits didn't leave India because of Ghandi, the left because they were frightened of the "ghosts" of Subras Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army (time for google if you don't know what they are).
If Chicaoo turns violent, for sure Trump will be elected, because middle America, whose votes Harris needs desperately is turn off by such antics, and frankly they detest what they perceive as leftists.
There is a cuck who posts on Robert named Brad Luckey, he is like most of America he thinks that leftie is a slur, and that people run away, deny that they are lefties. Maybe so, but not me.
Some protests have caused change, but yes, you are certainly right about infiltrators. The George Floyd protests were simply awful. The sincere people followed the same old noneffective lines. The infiltrators basically took away more in person shopping that was left after the pandemic.
In Chicago I hope for the best and can't wait to vote blue.
Me neither - proudly left.
Sandra - "Proud left" - but by supporting the Democratic Party you are, in fact and by implication, supporting Israel's genocide. There is nothing "Left" about that! And nothing to be proud of.
Make no mistake. The International Court of Justice in The Hague will be watching Kamala Harris carefully. She smiles a lot and laughs too much. If she wins and continues to act superficially, the ICJ will deem her just as guilty as they currently view Joe Biden.
Make no mistake, Sandra. A whole world is watching the U.S. government's enabling of genocide. The U.S. is not as innocent as it would like to see itself. We know. We will remember.
Thank you for this important cautionary comment, and thank you for your honesty, William. Protests can be easily infiltrated and manipulated, and even when spontaneous they tend to be disruptive and counter-productive.
That's the thing Victor. There was a lot said about the men in black, with black balaclava's, breaking windows and starting riots, like the famous "umbrella man", then along comes and unmarked black van, picks him up and away it goes.
I have encountered Brad Luckey. He is very opinionated and has a lot of pseudo-facts at his disposal. He swallowed the Kool Aid. There is a style you see in the MAGA Right. A certain arrogance and hostility. "We're right, they're wrong, end of story." Boorish.
He has a lot of company on this substack. A few months back, the Putinist Trump trolls have piled on.
spewing agitprop, campaigning for Jill Stein, RFK jr, anyone who can take votes away from the Democrats, and adopting any cause that can schism Trumps opposition, current cause is Gaza, and that had the result of having Americans forget the genocide of Putin in Ukraine.
A real genocide, that fits the requirements of the UN Convention for Prevention of Genocide, not the shit going on in Gaza where a bunch of cowards, called HAMAS are using their people as human shields, after launching a horrible up front and personal campaign of mass terror against the Jews.
The Muslims, of course don't give a shit about Ukraine or anything else other than Muslims, the left doesn't give a shit about anything else either, the right is in the pocket of Putin. And left and right have come together, (the horshoe) where both stand up and shout "Fuck Biden" and who is the beneficiary? Putin.
If Muslims and the left are unhappy with Biden and is relationship with Israel, they will be absolutely apoplectic if Trump wins the election.
Putin will rejoice, and have a clear path to the Baltics, Poland, Moldava, S;lovaka and the Czech Republic and it is 1938 and the Sudetenland all over again.
William - You say, "I have never seen protests achieve anything, other than an opposite reaction and disgust, but they haven't achieved their goals".
Well, then you haven't looked. America's Vietnam War was defeated on two fronts: (1) militarily in Vietnam by the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese Army, and (2) politically, partly through the widespread protest campaign both on the streets and through public debates and behind the scenes.
All this deeply affected the LBJ and Nixon regimes: they knew that they had to pretend to be "for" peace, because that's what people demanded. I am proud of having been a part of that peace movement. We knew that the Vietnam War was a propaganda attempt - a "bright shining lie", as the book title says.
What didn't work was Nixon's fake peace negotiations because they ended with complete military victory for America's self-apppointed enemies in Vietnam. But, then, the U.S. government has often been on the side of dictators. They supported South Africa's apartheid regime for decades. Unfortunately, the U.S. is not always on the side of the angels.
I wish today's growing protest movement in the U.S. all the best.
Yeh, I am more than familiar with the 2 Front myth.
Of course you are proud of yourself, you have to justify the time, money and energy you expended protesting.
The men who fought, the families who lost brothers and fathers are also proud.
Pride is chauvinism,pure and simple
The Viet Cong didn't defeat the US Army and Marines, neither did the NVA.
The Protests didn't end the war either. It was middle America that had enough burying their brothers, fathers, uncles, cousins as evidence I submit, The first thing Bush did when he invaded Iraq is forbid the coverage of metal caskets being unloaded at Dover AFB, Delaware and the coverage of military funerals.
In fact the Pentagon was forbidden to release names and states of the dead, and the journalists had to scour the local media throughout the country, to even estimate the number of dead and wounded.
Of course you pat yourself on the back, ego centrism and narcissism is not restricted to the right, it is a human thing,
And we all seek justification for our efforts and "sacrifice"
Fierce progressive here too.
I am an AOC progressive, to date she hasn't let herself get distracted, by the idiots outside the convention center, she stays on target and on purpose.. The weakness of the left is that there are too many agenda's demanding attention, primacy and money, and it has been costing us. And a lot of them aren't really progressive, they are single issue people who use the open minded, open hand of the progressive movement, and demand that everyone falls in lock step behind them.
AS it is famously said, Democrats fall in love, and Republicans fall in line, and that is why, though a minority, they control most state legislatures, governorship's, boards of education town and city councils, and congress and have from time to time controlled the executive, until the people have had their stomach full, but people have short memories..
If the polls are correct, some of the same people who voted Trump out of office in 2020 are ready to vote him back in. What does that say about them.?
Not me, either!
Very well said, Gloria.
(I'm on a lot of email lists...) I am greatly relieved to have gotten an email from AOC announcing she's one of the first-night speakers at the convention. The Dems need her to make the case to the protestors that they need to trust the Dems to do the right thing for Palestinians and all Americans, and give Harris the flexibility to be their president. The MAGA-SCOTUS alternative is simply unacceptable!!!
AOC should let the protestors know she and others will be their voice if Harris betrays them, but she's confident it would never come to that, and she's optimistic about all the Harris can accomplish (for women, working families, veterans, jobs, unions, our economy, the environment, world peace, ...)
Thanks for that. I adore AOC. Unlike Ilhan Omar,and some of the other Squaddies, she is not single issue, and has common sense.
Mitch the right thing for Palestinians is to get them out from under the control by HAMAS. There was one election 12 years ago, and not another one since, just like what Trump and the Heritage Foundation has in store for us.
The HAMAS cowards are being picked off one by one, but they are responsible for all that has happened in Gaza
.
If they hadn'tbust out and committed wholesale, and personal slaughter and rape of women, infants, toddlers, elderly and disabled then fled back to Gaza with hostages to use as human shields along with their own people, none of this would have happened.
And it is magnified by the pronouncement that "they are a nation of martyrs and will do this again and again until there is no more Israel'
If a group invaded your home, slaughtered your family and carried off a hostage. What would you do, sit down and negotiate over coffee or tea?
I agree with you, but don't see it happening. And, China stepped in a few weeks ago, seeking to unite Hamas and Fatah, and bring Israel's West Bank settlements as another impediment to prevent any peaceful resolution to Gaza. Instability in Gaza will weaken Harris, help MAGA, and lead to Putin bombing Ukraine and China trying to take Taiwan
That is what I am afraid of. If you didn't know it before but Oct 7th was Putin's birthday and the HAMAS attack was Iran's present to their best trade partner
On the other hand there will never be peace in that wretched land, not so long as Jews "squat" on sacred Muslim soil. Isael/Paletine is scond only to Saudi Arabia as sacred Muslim soil. Saudi Arabia is home to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Israel/Palestine is home of the most holy Harma al Shrif (Dome of the Rock an al Aqsa Mosque.
The war between Muslim and Jew started in Medina, when Muhammad had 600 members of the Jewish Quaryza Tribe in Medina, 6 at a time Quranic verses 33:26-27 and 33:9-10 and it gets worse, verses 1295/1296 book56,hadith 139 al The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).
The day of judgement is the end times where Allah will render final judgement on the living and the day.
I just finished reading Lawrence O’Donnell’s “Playing With Fire” about the 1968 campaign and election. Very interesting read and definitely a cautionary tale for this week’s convention. It wasn’t just the demonstrators that helped Nixon- the Democratic Party was in complete disarray for the whole country to see on live television. That’s what the media wanted for this week but the party is united behind Harris and Walz and it’s driving the MSM crazy.
Good point, but what the public saw, and I was one of them, was the disarray the Chicago 7 or 8 (depends), the anti war antics, it all had the opposite affect of the leftist faction, it did not stop the war, it extended it, and in the long run, Trump is the consequence of a Nixon presidency.
The very fact that the major powers of the world are spending billions each year to destroy each other is a genocide-in-the-making. Those hard-earned moneys could instead be spent on education, health care, and assistance to the needy. We must stop playing geopolitics as a zero-sum game.
I agree Victor,but how?
I look out the window and I see a cat lifting it's tale and spraying it is marking it's territory. Humans do the same, the mark their territory and then defend it to the death, and always, always try to enlarge their territory.in the wild it is because they have exhausted the food supply, in humans it is because their hunger is inexhaustible, and they perceive their neighbor, even the one hundreds of miles away as a possible threat..
Humans can't live in peace, An example are the verbal rumbles you see on substack, Thom's not so much, but try Robert Reich's. Geezus.
Well put, and from the heart.
You can bet the Republicans will be encouraging, even supporting headline-making disruption at the DNC
That is my point, and just like in 1968, Middle America, especially the fence sitters, will flip over to the Republicans like they did in 68 out of disgust.
The fact is that while liberals may have bleeding hearts, and campus idiots are easily bought and influenced, the all important fence sitters, aren't and don't, but they see chaos, disruption as the enemy.
Protests didn't end the Vietnam war, the photos of flag draped caskets. the incessant military funerals did. Middle America was weary of seeing their sons, fathers, brothers, cousins, uncles come home to get buried, and Dubya knew that, and forbid the publication of casualties, photos of funerals and caskets being unloaded at Dover AFB, Delaware.
And the MSM will foam at the mouth capturing and repeating every jot and tittle staged by the Republicans to disrupt the DNC proceedings just to encourage entertainment that will boost their ratings. That is the height of cynicism.
Thank you. I appreciate your input. And I agree. I avoided campus protests for several reasons back in the late sixties for several reasons. One reason was the way they were hyped and misrepresented by the press. Another was nervous about mob aspect of a group. All it takes is one idiot fanatic to do one dumb thing and then all the good admirable intentions are lost. I was never in the military. I did not want to enlist and due to a deferment and then high lottery number I did not have to go. Not one of my friends or any one else I encountered who did serve ever made me feel bad about my not serving. I do think your assessment is right on target. Many of those protesters may be sincere and genuine yet foolish and contributing to dangerous consequences. Again thank you for your post.
Protests achieve nothing,underthan a pressure relief valve. What did the WTO protests in Seatttle achieve?Nothing other than bad press because professional agitators, men in black, broke windows and caused looting, same in Portland during BLM riots, do you remember the umbrella man?, What did hte March on Washington with MLK achieve? Nothing (It was the riots after his assassination that did) how about the Million women's march after Trump was elected? Nothing, on the contrary three trad rad Catholics were appointed to SCOTUS and they gave us Dobbs.
The 68 protests in Chicago gave us Nixon.
I hope this is not a repeat of 68
Again. Agree
I am really conflicted on this. I just scrolled down through some comments on news reports of what I thought looked like pretty token fence breaches re: Gaza protests, and the consensus seemed to be on the "just troublemakers" side, to me the image of, why should anybody be all upset over Trayvon or George Floyd, just stay home and shut up! I was personally acquainted with a Jew who escaped Hitler and visited relatives in Israel who respected the rights of awkward, colonial imposed neighbor Palestinians. I mean, Palestine had not belonged to Jews since Rome took over in 60's BCE, and 2,000 years later European colonial occupiers decreed that tough luck, your great great great grandfather's olive grove is now a kibbutz? By the same token, Elizabeth Warren and her 1/60th ought to have absolute claim to a parcel raped away only 500 years ago! I am utterly offended that someone will say I am a terrorist sympathizer.
Mmerose, Palestine has belonged to the Assyrians, the Hittites, the Phonecians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Turks it never belonged to a people called Palestinians, it was occupied by Arabs, Bedouins and Jews for millinnea
Even before the Balfour declaration there were Jews living there, and had to endure pogroms from their Arab neighbors. https://www.fondapol.org/en/study/pogroms-in-palestine-before-the-creation-of-the-state-of-israel-1830-1948
The Jews didn't claim a right to Israel because it was "their country" as you seem to infer,
After WWII, Theodore Herzl toured Europe to recruit Jews to migrate to what was then the British Mandate,and they bought, I said bought,land from the inhabitants. the land had been part of the Turkish empire.
Israel was recognized as a sovereign stated in May 1948, six months later it's Arab neighbors the nation states of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia attacked it, and lost to a "handful" of Jews, and the Jews that they may strengthen their borders and secure their future, took land from their Arab invaders, Jordan Egypt and Syria.
I have not misstated anything, everything I have said is verifiable.
You prove my point. If Arabs, Bedouins and Jews occupied a territory known as "Palestine," "for millennia," per characterization we agree upon, how were they not "Palestinians?" Everything you say is verifiable. It does not add up to an apartheid religious police state.
Mmerose First. There are 57 Religious states in the world that are Muslim. The American comment might as well be a religious continent, but officially there are 57 Muslim ethno states. One Hindu ethno state and one Jewish ethno state.
Israel is not an apartheid state. There are 2 million Arab ciizens (1/6th of the population) with the same rights as the 10 million Jews they even served in the Knesset. South Africa was Apartheid and the blacks had no vote,rights or representation.
They weren't Palestinians because there was no and is no country called Palestine, that is why they aren't Palestinians, They are Arabs living in a land that the Romans once called Syria Palestian, which included Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and parts of what we call Egypt.
The West Bank and part of what is now Israel, was part of the Hashemite Kingdom, which is now Jordan. What you and the Arabs Palestine, and Israel was once part of the Ottomman Empire,until the end of WWI.
The "Palestinians" are not a people separate from their Arab kin, but their Arab kin, the Saudi's, the Jordanians, The Egyptians, the Syrians want nothing to do with them.
They bar them from entry and when caught return them.
What got Nixon elected was the Republicans scuttling the Paris Peace Talks, which would have headed off the anti-Vietnam war riots in Chicago. Humphrey would have benefitted from the agreement and probably been elected.
Keep the real history complete within your sites, too, William. What happened — how we were lied to; how “anti-communism” was weaponized to keep us from demanding our government work “for us”; our ignorance of real world affairs — yep, all that happened, too. But it was Republican dirty tricks that got Nixon in, and kept him there for six years too long.
Pat, I am all too familiar with Nixon's treason scuttling the Paris peace talks, in fact when I was an editor on Wikipedia, I posted that on his page, and a right wing gate keeper jumped in an reverted it, If i had continued he would have reported me for a revert war, and he was part of the volunteer clique that runs these appeal "courts". Same thing happened when I edited Reagans page about his treasonous deal with Khomeini.
However it is too simple, and easy to blame his election on just that. It had a play for sure,but the Chicago fiasco, did the trick.
I remember well, because in 1968, I was a conservative and an E-6, a lifer, and we all mused about those "commies" in Chicago, and of course Jane Fonda and the "commie Democatic party". That is where middle America and the Armed Forces were.
I had just returned from Vietnam, and the names of four of my team mates are etched in the wall, in the area reserved for Sep 1967.
The public did not know about Nixon's treason, but they could see what they thought were treasonous acts in Chicago.
Albbie Hoffman et al, should have been demonstrating outside the Republican convention, just like today's idiots should have been in Milwaukee, all they are accomplishment is feeding Trump and Putin.
except it’s the democrats who is funding the genocide. Tell us you don’t understand without telling us you don’t understand
Sure Todd. Israel is 10 million Jews and 2 million Arabs, and that state is committing genocide against 1 billion Arab Muslims, one chunk at a time.
When the word genocide is tossed around so carelessly, which is what HAMAS propagandists have been doing, then nothing is genocicde, because everything is genocide.
Propagandists, Russian Muslim, know what they are doing and they know that American liberals can be triggered, just toss in words like imperialism, genocide, neo liberal and you have them by the short and curlies.
and only a stupid fuck doesn’t realize who has been misusing “genocide.” Your morbid retardation is showing. please don’t not die painfully with anal herpes.
Wow, are you ever livid, excited much? Triggered.
Reality is really butting up against your belief system.
People like you are no different than MAGAts, Islamists, Christian evangelists, Opus Dei, same mentality different cause that's all.
wrong. dismissed
Yeh sure, pathetic response.
It's very sad. None of us want this for the Palestinians/Gazans. I hoped we could do more to stop it sooner and I am tremendously saddened by what has happened since day one of this particular conflict, both for the West Bank and Gaza, to both Israelis and Palestinians. The people who are protesting believe they are doing the right thing, And they're doing so for the right reasons, Justice those who protested the Vietnam war didn't for the right reasons. Nuance as a word perhaps we should pay more attention to... To any action, there is an equal and opposite reaction? Anything we change for good purposes will also have some bad come from it. Anything bad, will also have some good come from it. That includes wars and death.
Blaming the electorate for One-Party-Two-Faces, and saddling them with “vote for our neoliberal warmonger because the fascist is worse” is hardly a rallying cry for democracy.
:(
You sure have down the Putin trigger words. Neo liberal, War monger.
Total bullshit, Democrats are neither, neither is Biden. Neo liberals don't try to reign in corporations and their price gouging.
Biden and Democrats have not started any ways either.
Fuck you asshole, fuck you. I have my bitches with Biden, but neo liberal, war monger is not one, but those are favorite trigger words that the trolls in Putins troll farm throws out on liberal sites.
That’s Mr asshole to you.
I’ll rephrase.
Genocide Joe is murdering Palestinians with your tax dollars.
Gee I like him better already.
Yeh, that's right. Ole Joe is over there killing Palestinians alrighty. You are correct your name is indeed Mr Asshole.
Something to chew on fuck fase, every dead Gazan, every wounded Gazans blood lies squarely on the head of the leaders of HAMAS.
It wasn't the Jews, or Joe that flew over the walls of Gaza., ra[ed amd slaughtered in cold blood 236 kids attending a music festival and motoring on to rape and slaughter 1,000 more infants, toddlers, women, elderly and disabled in cold blood, burning some of them alive, and hauling back a couple of hundred to use as human sheields and bargaining chips.
It was you dear buddies of HAMAS and Islamic Jihad, fuck faces like you are apologists and allies of cold blooded terrorists, until they get captured and made the subject of beheading video's.
Freedom loving Islamics, who force their women to wear bee keeping suits, and sexual and domestic servants who slaughter people just because they are gay or infidel.
Unfortunately there could be a single drunken old protester staggering in an alley and the Post, NY Times, and others will spend hours on that persons outrageous antics.
My, this leftist drink pissed on himself. They want to piss on America!
You can see it now.
Why a photo of Biden’s back with his head bowed? I am so turned off I couldn’t read the newsletter. Images and headlines are what most people see. Please do better. Even “ we thank you Joe” is the stuff of an obituary He’s potus for another half a year. What happens now until Election Day is on his watch. Thank goodness he’s still President and it’s not a the GOP Congress running the country.
Amen! You are so right! I’m sick of the way the media has always treated him.
Shame on them!
I thought the photo was elegant and fine for the moment. Aesthetics are very subjective.
It’s not a matter of aesthetics. It’s the connotations of a photo of someone looking beaten, heading into the sunset…sorry, I think it’s wrong for the moment.
The photo bothered me, too. He looks beaten and submissive.
No. Perhaps, deep in thought. Pensive pose.
I recall photos of JFK & RFK in a similar stance, many places. The work of the State / POTUS, is onerous🙏🏻🌌
Maybe, but somehow it's forgotten that Bernie Sanders was winning the primaries until the old guard appeared to have Biden back in the race. I think it's a terrible shame for the Dems to ask VP Biden to come out of retirement to be president and then push him back to retirement.
I'll mute this thread because otherwise the comment people on here will start calling me names and a trumper.
Economic policy? Yes, Dr. Reich's lectures are amazing which is why I can not figure out WHY he will not interview William Bill Black, PhD, lawyer, former bank regulator about 2008. It's called data and facts. This gentleman helped put the 90s S&L bankers in jail. And, if you al wonder why many people are disillusioned by the Dems - I refer you back to President Obama. He left many of the republicans in the same position and allowed Jamie Dimon to waltz into the Oval Office and write and check and walk out of jail.
What is VP Harris going to do ? Offer 25K to "new homeowners". Build millions of houses? Why? There is plenty of housing. It's neither affordable or it's a vacation rental or owned by wall street.
I would like to see her succeed. I want to get excited. But this just feels like another re- run. Or as Bernie say - flip sides of the same coin...
In all fairness, we won't be ready for Bernie Sanders for a few more years. President Biden honestly did what Rep Sanders couldn't: he passed the beggining stages of the later's economic strategies, but without the stigma associated with him. ("OMG HE A SOCIALIST I SCARED!!!!")
Joe Biden was a well-known MODERATE, so his "left of left" transition was unexpected!
I believe that Biden decided to unretire himself when he saw what tcfg was doing.
Reich:"Biden ...[wasn't suddenly]losing some of the capacities that dwindle with old age.
Even among people who are not ...[in]old age [ego]inevitably triggers denial. "
Tonight Biden should announce a 5th FREEDOM to add to FDR's 4 Freedoms:
FREEDOM FROM GULLIBILITY:
MAKE GULLIBILITY ILLEGAL! [begin joke]
SENTENCE VIOLATORS TO HARD LABOR REBUILDING UKRAINE AND GAZA!
I believe that the established pushed him out to run against Bernie and then saw he wasn't gaining traction against trump the orange and pushed him out again.
It's all speculation but after reading White Trash by Nancy Isenberg - I'm not inclined to believe everything I'm told.
Don't know - just saying?
In 2020 we had a clear choice, and we have a clear choice this year. Vote!
Since when did Biden retire and then unretire? He removed himself from the race. He remains president until either Kamala or (god forbid) the orange A-hole takes office.
No Janet you are not a Trumper. The problem is the old guard, the old farts in the DNC.
The DNC had no one to offer to run against Trump, because they don't groom and nurture anyone who is not acceptable to the establishment.
The DNC is a stable which houses race horses that have paid their due proved their loyalty, are approved by the owners (donors), and have run races (earned their credentials which is foreign service,. The DNC pulls them out of the paddock and puts them at the starting gate.
Old tired, credential earning race horses like Terry McAuliffe, who lost his race for Governor to Youngkin because he is out of touch with the electorate and is tone deaf. All of his life has been inside the Democratic bubble of the beltway. Same for Hillary, same for Biden.
Biden won because a mummy could have beat Trump in 2020.
The DNC is scared shitless of left wing populists, of new blood like the Squad, they wish AOC would go away, because the new blood is people oriented, not slopping at the trough of the donors, the Financial Institutions, the National Association of Manufacturers, PhRMA, AHIP and Chamber of Commerce.
He promised to be a one term President. It was appalling when he attempted to go back on that promise and almost doomed the country.
Chances are that at the end of this year we will have a major crisis, no matter who wins the election. I have great confidence in the Biden-Harris team.
I apologize
I don't have to resort to name calling. I present facts. The fact is that the Dems are funded by wall street and wall street's ancestors are the poor aristocrats who founded this country.
Look back to understand the present. History isn't a study of the past it explains the present and you would be better versed to make comments if you did a little more reading.
Thank you for the name calling - I don't go down that path.
Janet, if the choice is between Wall Street and Big Oil which would you choose? By the way, Bernie has been a Biden supporter for quite some time.
Was poking fun. I apologize
I fear history will repeat itself in Chicago, the protests at he 68 convention had the consequence of electing Nixon. I know, I had just returned from Vietnam, and was a conservative, aghast at what I and others perceived as commies.
Today's protesters should have been in Minneapolis, because the result of their activity could very well shift the energy to the Republicans and Trump, and if Trump is elected, they can only blame themselves for Trump doubling down on support for Bibi, and rounding up Muslims and "enemies of the state"
What's going on in Mpls, William?
Great information. Thank you
I believe that good people like Sharod Brown wouldn't have publicly asked Biden to step down unless he and others who say Biden outside of the news cycle saw a progressive dementia.
I heard Obama say (something like) "We don't begrudge CEO's their multi-million dollar packages." He lost me then. Campaigning on "Main Street, not Wall Street" and then appointing a Goldman-Sachs employee as Sec Treas was just handing the fox the key to the hen house. And Geithner opened the door right up.
Too big to fail was as bad a joke as trickle-down.
I appreciate your input
the Dems played unnecessarily dirty with Bernie, but i think they did fine by Joe. he knows politics is a blood sport. i just wish i had more confidence in Harris.Obama capitulated on Syria and Wall Street. Should have had a “ mini convention” Klobachar has the chops.
Very much agree. Thank you Robert.
Agree and the Clutch is great too.
Sioux - “LIKE” Very well said!
Word. Thank you, Sioux Fleming.
This is an excellent summary of Biden's profound economic achievements, but it neglects to mention his efforts to strengthen our democracy at home and to defend it abroad, particularly by supporting Ukraine and strengthening NATO, but also by resisting Chinese aggression. I agree that his refusal to slow or stop arms shipments to Israel is his greatest failing. But overall, what a superb presidency!
The voters don't care about economic achievements, that is where the DNC has gone wrong.
It is what is in their face, and what they think they will face in the future, and the corporate media has normalized the fascist threat. By now you would think the DNC would have learned that, it wasn't the economy that elected Trump either, it was and is resentment, anger, fear, the RNC has perfected its ability tap into primal fears since Nixon's southern strategy and the DNC has been playing three monkey's.
Clinton won because he was from Arkansas and had a southern accent, and the impression was that southerners are racists like they are. Obama won because of unprecedented black and liberal turnout. Biden won because in 2020, after 4 years of Trump, a mummy could have beat Trump.
Now we have a chance to turn things around and have fresh blood, and a minority at that, the idiot's on the left and the Muslims are hell bent on electing Trump by showing their ass, and not unity, in Chicago.
Protesters are showing unity with humanity, unity with morality, unity with international law, and a profound patriotism. They're showing every quality Biden divided us from when he chose to actively assist genocide. All the DNC have to do is uphold the most basic principles of human rights. That's all. Their refusal is criminally divisive, not to mention just plain criminal.
Biden is a hawk. Has always been one. Over his career, he has taken the most money from AIPAC, which seems to support Israel no matter what. Religious conservative Israelis refuse to participate in their military and have been pushing Palestinians off their own land for ever, then using Israeli military to protect themselves stealing Palestine from Palestinians. What would happen in the US if anyone was doing this?? Hamas emerges in the face of these daily land incursions by Israel. Bibi is exactly like Trump. Using his current conservative dominated government, he is running from jail.
The protesters are electing Trump, and there goes the humanity.
The DNC, if it fails to uphold the most basic humanitarian rights, will be electing Trump, as are those of you who make Democrats seem incapable of moralitt. The protesters are just doing their democratic duty. Stop arguing against democracy, and start arguing against genocide.
Ah, I see from the other comments that you don't care about Gaza, or morality. Never mind, then. In a world of people like you, who even needs Trump?
It matters not what I care about,other than I care about I don't want Trump to be elected,if he is then your sense of morality and bleeding heart, will be sorely wounded and pumping gallons of blood.
What I care about and my morality is irrelevant to the task and problem ahead.
Assume the moral high ground and enjoy the reign of Trump.
Damn people, all the blood goes to the heart none to the brain.
You cannot maintain the moral high grounds if you keep shooting yourself in the foot.
Am I to understand you think there'll be LESS genocide if trump wins? No, there'll be much more.
Nope, you can't blame the DNC for not conforming to your emotional needs.
If Trump gets elected, it is because of the votes he gets and the votes that Harris doesn't get.
You can sit there all smug in your self righteousness and excusing yourself for electing Trump by your inaction or partisanship, but that won't do you or the Muslims and Trumps enemies any good, as he puts into position all of his fasicsts,then rounds up the Muslims.
What good did it do the Jews on the siding of the RR tracks at Auschwitz, to mutter it is all the fault of the Weimar Republic and Hindenburg.
If Trump gets elected then Muslims, campus idiots and bleeding hearts like you, beware., you have earned your just reward.
Protesters are showing how ignorant they are about history.
I won't reply, William, as I have to get back to my political work (writing letter for Vote Forward and raising money for donations). I don't want to spend any more time analyzing. Thanks.
Just as well, I see that you and I are certainly on the same page.
The debate over whether it was working class economic decline or racism that caused Trumpism burns on. As you know, Robert R lines up solidly with the former. I would say he considerably overstates his case. How else can you account for the enormous vote for Trump among those making more than $100k? They're sure not Rust Belt victims. And the economic argument was very overstated generally during the first Trump term. The NYT and WaPo got on board. I wouldn't go as far as you. I think the two issues interact in complex ways. Still, I'm closer to your position than Reich's, no question. See a recent essay in The Intercept by James Risen in support of your view.
Muslim protestors should be protesting Hamas for murdering, raping and maiming Israeli's and for using Palestinian people as human shields.
I didn't say the population of Gaza supports the raping of prisoners. I believe the victims of Oct.7 and medical doctors witness of evidence of the trauma of the released hostages .
Please protest peacefully. It will be to your credit if you make your point peacefully.
Yeh, the real horror sets in when the consequences of their action elects Trump.
And he rounds them up , and doubles down on his support of Bibi and the Israeli fascists.
By the way idiot, the first amendment says that Congress shall make no law abridging the right of speech and assembly.
Have you seen any laws doing so passed by congress?
It says nothing about cities, states, counties, corporations, business owners
and it says nothing about Free speech.
They won't know horror, until their stupidity and hypocrisy elects Trump, Then see what they gain. Fools and tools, just like you.
Did that make you feel better, did you get orgasmic relief? I hope so, otherwise you wasted your time and energy.
So helping Trump get elected is helping Democracy.
Interesting idea of what is Democracy.
Too bad for you, but it seems that Reich's readers have your number tool.
David, what you say is so true, but stops short of pointing out that his one failing, the support of Netanyahu, may well be the end of democracy. Here, and everywhere. The Gaza cease fire negotiations are faltering, and possibly on the brink of collapse. Right NOW. Coincident with a jubilant DNC, right NOW. During, or soon after the DNC, Harris could declare no more offensive support for Israel (and demonstrably break from Biden), but she is not President: Biden is, until January. By then this country will be thoroughly split over Israel's right to "defend" itself versus Israel's right to "punish" Palestinians using its colonial occupation of Gaza. Which directly pits Dems against Trump's handlers. Netanyahu succeeded in throwing down the gauntlet. The next few (very few) weeks will set the stage. This country is set to lose, no matter what!
Woozie, I wouldn't go that far, but the situation is desperate and tragic, no question. Biden should never have attempted a grand settlement, when it was clear the Netanyahu government would never go along. I think his Israel/Mideast policy will go down as his single greatest failing. The timing is awful for the election, but I salute youth for protesting vehemently. I would just urge them not to make the mistake we made in 1968 and sit out the most crucial election since WW2, given the climate emergency and the threat to our democracy.
I just had a fantasy: what if Biden announces at DNC tonight, that he is going to withhold any further support of Netanyahu's regime unless a binding cease-fire agreement is signed, THIS WEEK!
I would love it. I wish he had said it six months ago. Palestinians are now dying of hunger. There is no way this level of response to the horrific Hamas attack is justifiable.
And what about HAMAS. Flowers and Garlands for the murderers. Lest you forget HAMAS is responsible for what has happened, If they hadn't flown over the walls, sailed around the barrier and crashed through the gates, raped and murdered infants, toddlers, women, elderly, disabled none of this would have happened, nor would it have happened had they not taken hostages and used them and their people as human shields.
And it isn't over, Ishamail Haniyah said, that they are a nation of martyrs and will come back again and again and again, )until there are no more Jews on sacred Muslim soil.)
I'm not defending Hamas one bit. What they did does not excuse what Israel has done to Palestinians for decades and certainly not what they've done to the residents of Gaza. I consider Israel a racist, apartheid state, and the current government the very worst imaginable. Terrorism doesn't arise out of thin air.
Thank you for explicitly making my point that this country is about to be ripped in half.
About to be ripped in half Woozie, It already is, Even without Gaza it was ripped in half,exacerbated by the birthday gift that Ayatollah Khameini gave to Putin on Oct 7th, and the organs of agitprop financed by Arab oil money, have been doing their job, pitting the left against itself and against middle America.
The pro HAMAS left is doing Puin's work, America can' t be destroyed from without, the threat to Democracy is not from Russia or China, itis from he American Right Wing and the American left wing.
It is called the horseshoe where the American Right meets the American left, as evidenced in the chant "Fuck Biden"
One one side of a walkway in Columbia were students waving HAMAS flags, and on the other a group waving American upside down flags both chantiing Fuck Biden.
Meanwhilte Muslims and young black males have said that they will sit out the election, bravo, that will certainly elect Trump.
The Muslim population alone in the Swing States of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are more than the votes he got that enabled him to carry the electoral votes of those crucial swing states.
David, the people you salute might very well be responsible for electing Trump.
A vote for other than Kamala, sitting out the election is a vote for Trump.
The unintended consequence of the protest will be President Trump and Project 2025, and persecution of Muslims and anyone Trump and the right declares an enemy, like students and leftists.
My salute was qualified with a warning, recall. I absolutely agree with you that it's folly to not vote for Harris. But youth is often passionate and right but foolish tactically. I remind myself that I wouldn't have voted for Humphrey back in '68 out of anger over Vietnam (I wasn't yet old enough to vote, but vey engaged). It's comparable, though the stakes are vastly higher now.
I acknowledge the evil on the Arab side, btw. The Holocaust denial, the hypocrisy of the Arab oil states, the dehumanization of Jewish people. But I've also lost all patience for Israel. When you pen up millions of Palestinians for decades in atrocious conditions, awful things are gong to happen in retaliation.
The only problem is, David, that the Republicans are full on Zionists, and Gaza would not have received even air drops or the pier, and who knows what Trump would do for his buddy Bibi.
And if elected, as a consequence of the protesters and the Muslims, Muslims and Palestinians will really have something to bemoan.
I realize that. I think I did say that Trump would be worse. But that doesn't excuse the funding of what is essentially genocide. It's also seriously damaged Biden's credibility in Ukraine. Biden could have drawn a line earlier, as the UK is doing (possibly). I don't think it would have cost him the election here.
Whining about Biden and Harris only helps Trump, as it discourages, dismays and encourages them to not vote or vote third party, which is a vote for Trump.
I rebel at the misuse of the word Genocide it is thrown around too freely because in the west it has great propaganda value.
There is no way 10 million Jews can genocide Billions of Muslims and a billion Arabs.
Finally all that has happened in Gaza lies on the heads of HAMAS, all of it, attacking Jews, raping and murdering infants, toddlers, women, elderly disabled, and then running back like cowards to hide behind women and children and hostages, then whine to the world press.
I realize ded is dead, but there is a huge MORAL difference between collateral damage done by Israel, and the cold blood upfront and personal death and destruction done by HAMAS and Islamic Jihad.
You are correct Woozie,and boy will those Muslims, campus idiots and left wing protesters have earned their just reward, when the consequence of their actions (protest) and in actions (not voting) puts Bibi'[s butt buddy back in office and Trump doubles down in supporting Bibi and rounding up Muslims.
And you don't assign any fault or blame to HAMAS.
HAMAS is responsible for the current carnage, by committing carnage on the Jews.
They started it, hide behind civilians and hostages as human shields, and the blood of every one the people they are suppose to represent and protect is on their hand.
In the same way that Hitler was responsible the blood of every German .
HAMAS started i, HAMAS can stop it
William F., Hamas was ready to sign a cease fire agreement on July 2. Netanyahu wouldn't. Subsequently, he came to the US, spoke to Congress, briefly visited Biden, then Harris, and the next day had a long meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. He returned to Israel and two days later, assassinated the chief negotiator for Hamas. He started relentless bombing in Gaza killing and injuring thousands which he continues to do. Two days later, he signaled a willingness to sign a "bridge" agreement for a cease fire, that was NOT remotely like the early agreement that Hamas agreed to sign. A Blinken bait-and-switch publicized in a false attempt to quiet the discord in Chicago.
When compared to the Presidents of the last fifty years, Joe Biden is one of the best, if not the best! Joe Biden made mistakes and had some negative characteristics, but so did our greatest Presidents like FDR, Lincoln, and Washington.
Tim , Tom High claims that he is a Greenie, a Jill Stein Voter, but the upshot of his position and what he wants us to do, is to elect Putin by electing Trump.
He is dispensing agitprop Oct 7th was the Ayatollah Khameini's birthday gift to Putin.
I agree with both your points, but am extremely grateful that Joe didn't turn out to be as bad as Trump, George W. Bush, Nixon, or Reagan! You may consider this faint praise. I still think Joe did a great job!
READ
Oh! You don't consider DIRECTLY TAKING ON Big Pharma AND big oil as achomplishments??? [sic] What are you even doing here if you are that closed-minded and pro-America's enemies?
You don’t think getting insulin capped at 35 bucks and negotiating with BIG PHARMA to bring down costs of some pretty common drugs isn’t an accomplishment?
How did he have this “legitimate shot” you speak of?
So, guess you’re voting for Trump?
I am not voting Biden or Trump.
I suppose you don’t understand that not voting for Kamala/Walz or voting for a third party loser is an automatic vote for Trump?
Thank you for your input😊
He is, by promoting Jill Stein. I've been at a tete a tete with this troll, Tom Hugh, for over a month. He plays on liberal sensiblities and morality. Typical agitprop.
Tom, I sympathize with your comment more than you may imagine. I was once a Chomsky progressive. But that ended over ten years ago, when I realized the full force of Putin's and Xi's intentions. We're fighting now for democracy, for the rule of law, internationally as well as domestically. I stand with the Ukrainians, the Poles, and the Finns, as well as the Taiwanese, the Tibetans and the Uyghurs. They all know who the immediate enemy is. They covet the support of the US and its alliances. If the Left in America wants to continue excusing Putin, Xi, Maduro, and Ortega, then they reduce themselves to irrelevance.
On Israel/Gaza, however, I think the Left critique of Biden has great force, and I am appalled at what's happening in Gaza today. I can't defend Biden here, other than to say that Trump would be still worse. But that's no excuse. It goes down as his greatest failure.
Still, looking at the whole range of his accomplishments, I stand by my praise.
David, Tom is a fraud. He plays on liberal sensibilities and morality, He sez he is voting for Jill Stein, but every vote for Jill Stein is one less vote for Harris and that means one more vote for Trump.
I'm still angry at Bernie bros and Susan Sarandon who just had to sit out or vote independent in 2016. It's just the worst political thinking to not see the profound differences between the GOP and Dems today.
That's just an ad hominem, Tom. I won't dignify it with an answer other than to say you're completely wrong.
You mention all of two items, both of which are a stretch to pin on Biden, while neglecting to mention all the things he did accomplish, especially given the obstructuion of the GOP.
Whatever your diatribe Tom, The president will be either Kamala or Trump. With Kamala there is an opportunity for compassion, for consideration, with Trump there is none, and woe to the Gazans, Woe to the Arabs, because Trump is Bibi's cavalary, and promised to deport Muslims.
So bloviate all you want, Putin loves you, Putin loves Jill Stein, Putin loves anyone who will help Trump get electedd,including Muslims and self righteous leftists and Greenies.
If you check the Biden record, his entire life has been based on politics! Biden obtained the operational level of being able to maneuver the rules of the game. Biden benefited from it 100% because he based and operated his entire life on his rules of the political game. It has been a good run! Biden’s entire family, including his siblings, have profited from the Biden gig. And it will continue on . . . History will continue to repeat itself no doubt!
And wow. Have you reviewed his economic successes over Trump's? It seems to me he has been fighting the gun situation since Sandy Hook. The Republicans are gun happy and want teachers to pack heat in school rooms as well as teach. How do you suggest an American President "make" a leader of another country do anything? I know you have the answer with all your facts and figures.
Tom’s high
The Gaza genocide and Biden's role in his complicity will shape my vote.. I will vote my conscience.. So I thank you for mentioning GAZA.
The thing I really don't understand is why the people of GAZA now seem to be the only people who matter anymore. What about the people of Ukraine? What about the people in our OWN country, who I am sure will suffer greatly if Trump is elected? Why the single-mindedness? This election will affect not just our lives but those of our friends and loved ones!
Hi Tom, I get your point and I respect your feelings about what is happening in Gaza. My concerns are these: first, a lot more is at stake then free school lunches. I see an out-in-the-open war right now against women, LGBTQ+ folks, people of color, and immigrants. I can see possible genocide happening in our own country if Trump is elected, especially against immigrants and trans folks. Trump has openly called the 'radical Left' (which is pretty much anyone who didn't vote for him) as the 'real enemy' in our country. He has called us 'vermin'. This is language Hitler used. Please wake up about this!
Second, I do not see the Russian Invasion of Ukraine as a 'proxy war'. In fact, I believe that's a MAGA talking point. Many innocent people, both Russians and Ukrainians, are dying due to this invasion. It doesn't make sense to me that only one group of people is worth being elevated to the top of concerns while there are many others who are dying. I think one could call what is happening in Ukraine a form of genocide as well, but the R's don't seem to care about them at all. Also, there seems to be evidence that at least some of the 'genocide Joe' meme/info has been coming from Russian or Chinese sources. You know, a death due to hate crimes or invasion or whatever is still death.
Third, it makes no logical sense whatsoever to sit out the election. We don't know what Kamala might be able to accomplish re: the I/P situation, and we DO already know what Trump thinks of Muslims, including Gaza and Palestinians. I have MAGA family members, and I can tell you right now that they consider the people of Gaza to be 'terrorists', and if Trump is elected I wouldn't be surprised if the brave students who are protesting the genocide in Gaza didn't end up in jail if not worse. In other words, I'm on your side about the horror of Gaza but to sit out the election is literally shooting ourselves in the face. Why is THAT so hard to understand?
In 1968 and 2000 people voted their conscience, hence Nixon and GW Bush, both war criminals.
The kudos you are giving Joe Biden for what he has accomplished for us as Americans during the last four years is well deserved and it is deserving of the praise that you heap upon his achievements. Now we must roll up our sleeves to make sure that the Dream Team of Harris and Walz get elected.
A recently publicized study showed that 85% to 95% of the races for the House and the Senate could be predicted by which campaign spent the most money. This is a worrisome and sobering conclusion. We may not have the same financial resources to match what the billionaires will be doing to elect Trump, but we can invest our people resources by taking some time to travel to the all important “swing states“ to knock on doors and do whatever we can to get the maximum Democratic votes and thereby the electoral college votes to insure that our Democracy still stands.
It is also time to put up the Harris walls yard signs as well as the same bumper stickers on our vehicles. Even if we do not live in an all important swing state, we should build the sense of inevitability of a Harris walls win.
Unfortunately, it's called Citizens United. If there are big enough majorities on the Dems' side it's one of the very first things to be overturned. Along with Dobbs, Shelby County etc. of course.
Matthew, yes, our Supreme Court under Roberts has done enormous damage to this nation and our democracy. We need Democrats at all levels in government to nullify what Roberts and his cons have done to us. That is the message we need to get out because the only people not seriously harmed by this SC are rich white men and corporations. The rest of us have lost rights, have been bamboozled, cheated of voting rights, taken advantage of by rich individuals and corporations, have had our representatives bought and paid for, had our rights to service squashed, and so much more. We need to get the word out, asking how many people like being used as Republicans and their rich donors have used them to put ignorant, non-caring people in positions of power? Then give examples. It might pull in enough voters to win even the electoral college, that vestige of rich white male supremacy.
😊
But please, not “Harris walls”
Harris/Walz
HulitC Got it! It was a dictation error that I did not catch. Let’s hear it for Harris Walz!
Damn autocorrect!
A spook in the system. I have learned to read before posting. It is amazing what is there sometimes.
Yes, there was quite the misunderstanding a few years ago when spel czech changed my intended word “irrefragable” to “irrefrangible.”
Laurie, yeah, and just imagine what it is like trying to do it with a screen reader that doesn't even pronounce the names and some of the words correctly, then calls "spelling error" or "grammar error" when what is written is neither. Worth the effort though to share our thinking, wouldn't you say!
Again, to be fair: billionaires are ABANDONING Bunkerboy slowing as they see the inevitability of his defeat. That's what I last heard anyway.
🤞 🤞 🤞
They put Biden in - to be fair he did the same in his last debate as the first one 4 years ago. He has done a decent job and held it together.
Neither party will actually do anything when the donors are from wall street.
This defeatism is getting tiresome. The R's spent over 40 years taking over the system and creating an oligarchy. We're not going to undo all that in one election, for heaven's sake -- but we have to start somewhere!
Changing the course of the USA mammoth takes time and persistence.
Biden has started the change and Harris must build further on that fundament. One of the first issues to take action on must be reform of the Supreme Court. Otherwise all sorts of laws can be undermined and disempowered by the right wing (SCOTUS) judges.
Harris would be wise to keep former Wall Street people out of government positions. Wall Street should be serving Societal aims, not be the master of them.
Citizens United, Roe versus Wade and a lot more needs to be repaired.
Janet, you seem to be a fan of Big Oil, which controls the Republican Party.
Marc, it is Harris/WALZ, NOT Harris/"Walls". PLEASE . . . Either learn some respect or learn the man's NAME, for god's sake!
Blue tsunami? https://www.fieldteam6.org/
I'm still waiting to watch for the VP Harris to have lunch with Bernie Sanders instead of Jamie Dimon. I don't think much will change for Florida, to be honest. It's an economic dumpster fire. I'm not happy about it but I don't see much policy being offered to rebuild the middle class in Florida. ?? I think the tourists should be taxed and the middle class offer yearly checks so that we can afford to live here year around. The residents in Alaska get annual checks. Why shouldn't we?
1. Bernie supports her. That' comment is nuts. The child tax credit standing alone would start a chain reaction. Extend Medicaid and thousands of new jobs created.
2. The federal government is not able to change most of the stuff the state legislature created.
In all fairness Daniel, why was Bernie Sanders winning the Democratic vote only to have Biden pushed into the race?
Not ready? Baloney - I've heard republican middle class say I want to vote for Bernie.
Unfortunately , wall street and the Koch Brothers are writing the laws - not the people. The people are ready - wall street plays both parties.
I'm not going to make any more phone calls for VP Harris until I see some progress. Right now, it's the same ol' same ol. The Dems put a millionaire as Florida Chair and this state has circled down the drain for 20 years. I hope Nikki Friend can turn it around but - I'm tired of "waiting". I think other people are too and that's why they are not voting.
Not more waiting. Let's see VP Harris have a 2 hour lunch with William Bill Black, PhD, lawyer, former bank regulator and jailer of 90s bankers. The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One. Then , I'll return to phone bank. I have to make an escape plan from Florid because I'm not going to pay for religious schools anymore.
"I'm tired of waiting." Yeah, that just about sums it up. We've have over 40 years of domination by the right -- even with Dems in the presidency -- because R's played the long game, and now we have people saying they're 'tired of waiting' because three and a half years of Biden hasn't miraculously turned things around. I'm sorry but it's just unconscionable that people are deciding not to vote because things haven't changed fast enough to suit them.
CLS, yes, the Republicans (i.e., Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation, Koch Network) have been playing the long game, and Democrats, unfortunately, have been slow to react. If Trump/Vance win our democracy will be finished.
We have a full slate of candidates for the first time in years. Primary is tomorrow. We have an evil senator, "Sunset" Rick Scott, who needs to go. If Debbie Mucarsel is our candidate, we have a good shot to flip this state. . https://www.debbieforflorida.com/ Trump won Florida by 3.1% in 2020. Only need to flip 2%. Need to re-register the 1 mil Democrats cut from the rolls since 2022. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
I always vote because women before me fought and died for the right. And the right to be on a jury. Yes, Debbie Powell visited North Florida. That says much for her good character. Rick Scott is fraud.
However, where is my justice? I'm not waiting anymore. I have done my part. I have no justice for the age discrimination. No licensure justice. I have no housing justice. I have no wage justice. none. Who is going to march with me in Tallahassee? no one.
Nikki Fried would have been the best governor and the Dems stuck Charlie in to defeat her. Honestly, I'm really surprised she accepted the Chair. She is a good person.
Thank you, Janet Adams, for choosing to NOT make any more phone calls for Harris. You are too "knowledgeable" and too self important to be able to communicate effectively with peons (you know, those lowlifes whose votes we really want!).
I will make no phone calls for Harris during an ongoing genocide.
If I could tap a THOUSAND hearts for this article, I would. It perfectly encapsulates all of the pieces of our Democracy's ebb and flow under different administrations, and just HOW MUCH Biden did to restore the COMMON GOOD to the country's economy and every day, working class Americans. He also paved the way for our technological future. THANK YOU, President Joe Biden. You are a true Patriot, and a genuinely GOOD human being.
Robbyn, wouldn't it be great if we could say the same about any of the Republicans in power these days? We can't!
That's a really alarming truth to have to embrace. I could never imagine, in my worst nightmares, what unfolded between 2015 and now.
Robbyn, I too, can't imagine how we could have let this happen, but when thinking on it, I realize the American people were swept away by a bunch of unamerican corporate actors, our Supreme Court, and people who had been so well-trained to vote for the "R" behind or in front of a name that they couldn't see the person behind the "R" and voted for a lot of appalling human beings who were willing to do whatever an appalling ignorant fool said, no matter the harm it would cause the American people. Well, they could always lie and blame Democrats for whatever it was that was done that did harm to them, and oh wait, that's exactly what they did. It's shameful, but Republicans can no longer feel shame.
It caused an existential crisis for me; my psyche cracked. I'm still working through it in therapy. I wonder how many millions of Americans felt and are feeling this same horror.
Robbyn, it has been an existential threat to have someone as ignorant and self-seeking as Donald Trump in office anywhere, let alone, the White House. And our media has been on board, claiming they did it to catch eyes and "likes." That just proves they are not journalists first, but opportunists who will cover what will pay and will give rich someones more power then they deserve. Lately when watching, listening to, or reading the news, one has to sift through a lot of lies and other detritis to get to what is really going on, if that is even accessible. We must demand our media function better and get off the partisan, pretend we're not partisan bandwagon. It stinks!
To HIGH HEAVEN stinky!
President Joe Biden will be known as the president who saved America’s democracy! And the president’s choice of Kamala Harris as his successor was one of his most significant decisions. I believe our Vice President and her future administration will continue Joe’s efforts to make America better for all American citizens. Kamala Harris has my total support and respect. A HUGE THANKS TO PRESIDENT BIDEN FOR ALL HE HAS DONE AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO UNTIL THE END OF HIS TERM.
Delusional and stupid is no way to go through life, sir.
President Biden's term in office can be summed up in the following manner, "Joe did the best he could with what he had to work with." A true American with the heart of a Lion and the will of a man who put integrity above personal gains. People wonder why this country is the greatest, it's because of men like Joe Biden and the continued belief that good will always conquer evil. Go Blue---Thank you Joe, you saved a country and our people from a man who put greed and ignorance over honor.
That was beautiful, Donald!
Perfectly stated appreciation for a great president, whose accomplishments will be recognized by history while going largely unacknowledged during his tenure. How many imperfect people are among us, those whose hearts mean well and whose actions are unselfish, yet whose lack of swagger and self-promotion consign them to "ordinary" status? Biden was far more than ordinary, as he possessed skills and understanding to bring about the right legislation at the right time. He put his country first, above himself and his party. We have too few others like him, and Liz Cheney, Geoff Duncan, and John McCain were the very last Republicans with his integrity and patriotism.
Beautiful tribute to a great man and a lucid explanation of the economics behind his achievements. I’m afraid he’s under appreciated. You’ve helped bring light to his remarkable achievements, all done in one term in office. Thank you.
I wholeheartedly join Dr Reich thanking a true patriot, who , having had real tragedies in his life (his compession absolutely helped him and us) and wish him and Dr Jill Biden the best life can offer.
Eva Foreman
Also, thank you Professor Robert for keeping us all aware of recent history - good bits (FDR) and bad bits (Reagan). No-one (except DJT) wants total government control, but we must have regulation in order to give the average person a chance against the greed of the billionaires and multi-national cartels. I hope President Kamala can follow President Teddy Roosevelt's success over 100 years ago in dealing with the 'too big to fail' corporations.
Triple, my like!
I hope the Harris campaign will pay attention to your excellent encapsulation of economic insight: "Biden’s democratic capitalism is neither socialism nor “big government.” It is, rather, a return to an era when government organized the market for the greater good."
It's all about the framework!
Douglas, you're right about the framework, and we will need it to be presented more steadily and forcefully so the American people will understand and can help make it all happen rather than give up, thinking everything is horrible because their gas prices and grocery prices are too high right now. They are, and to fix any of that there are systemic changes that must be made to the ways our businesses operate now, particularly monopolies, privatized utilities, union-busting, stock buybacks, and so much more. People could help by purchasing products that are from companies that have a decent work ethic and care for the quality of life of their workers, find out which corporations are doing the most harm to our elections with their "donations and don't buy their products," and stand with and for unions. Those things will make a positive difference even if they don't look large right now.
Professor Reich. Thank you for your superb tutorial on economic and social policy since the 1920s. My wish is that every American will read this. If they did, they would understand 3 things. Economic policy is social policy. 2. Economic policy can benefit the majority of the population - regular folks - or it can benefit the wealthy few. 3. Economic and social policy is determined by those who are elected to govern. Anyone reading your essay will understand that one of the two political parties - Democrat or Republican- has this fundamental belief at their heart and soul: What we wish for ourselves, we wish for us all. This is the essence of America. If you believe this, you know who to vote for. If you want this core value to survive, you know who to vote for.
I love Joe and his whole family. Every person I know who has visited Israel say that Netanyahu is despised. He and his wife are a disgrace. Criminals like trump.
Oct 7 changed history ...and this is the worst government in ISR history!!!
BFTJ--- bad for the Jews
Worst ISR government ever.
How did he get elected?
Professor Reich, you had me in tears today! I love President Biden and would have continued to spread the word about him to get him elected; however, you are right. President Biden is aging just as I am. To be honest, I am guilty of still trying to do things I once did with ease. I get frustrated when my kids tell me I am too old to do something I'm trying to do. In my head, I know they are right, but my heart tells me something else. President Biden has served this country since he was 27 years old in 1970. He won a seat on the New Castle County, Delaware. He never stopped moving up until he became president. He was faced with a lot of personal tragedy yet still served his country. Through the painful events in his life, he remained strong. He is the most empathetic, compassionate, kind and sweetest man in the Oval Office! He is intelligent. His morality, integrity and presidential demeanor have put dignity back in the White House. There are very few presidents that I hold in really high regard. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, James Earl Carter, Jr., and Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. God bless his selfless act of passing the torch and God bless him. Thank you, President Biden!
Biden is STILL arming the Netanyahu rightwing terrorists in Israel. He is still in power for 4 1/2 more months and yet he continues to feed the murderous war machine. All this does, beside murdering and maiming innocent civilians, is throw a black veil of evil over Israel and America. There is no going around this. We are the pariahs of the sane world. Any high ground we might have had is gone. You cannot support a murderous regime for as long as we have without becoming that evil. Yet he continues to feed our tax money into the monster. I respect everything you have said but for this….everyone needs to call it for what it is at this point. It is not just a blot. He has sacrificed any good he had done into the endless well of the suffering we are “still” causing to thousands of Palestinians.
Margaret, Given that Monday evening officially will mark a transition to the next generation of leadership, I believe it would behoove us to remain open to the possibility that we’ll sense some indication from Harris / Walz of a change in trajectory.
"I spend just 3 minutes in this place and I run into a fucking barney." -- Netanyoohoo's genocide is the saddest thing on TV today. But, goddammit, I have heard them say "Death to America" one time too many. There will never be peace until the Arabs accept Israel's existence.
If you don’t like America, get your ass out of here. Just like my ass wouldn’t be in Israel or Gaza or anywhere near there if you paid me.
Go away.
Thank you from Berkeley CA...The Rev. Munther Isaac spoke eloquently at Riverside Church about US complicity in genocide and much more.. https://youtu.be/OiKeYVJpPYg?si=EJovTU9woE0N1GFF
Biden cared about us.