The One Thing The Far-Right Wingnuts Are Consistent With Is Their Outright Lies And Hatred.
And Trump With His Disgusting Rhetoric About Immigrants Is Par For The Course!
Trump said migrants were "poisoning the blood of our country." The GOP frontrunner is pushing Nazi talking points. Trump and his sheep are spreading disinformation again blaming President Biden for the war between Israel and Hamas! How Low Can You Go you PATHETIC HUMAN BEING?
Remember In 2017, Donald Trump divulged classified intelligence about Israeli’s Mossad spy agency and ISIS to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during a meeting at The White House. Trump admitted to sharing the confidential intelligence, tweeting that he had an “absolute right” to do so.
Trump also met with Vladimir Putin at least 5 times without other officials present during his presidency.
Trump has also endorsed Jim Jordan to be Speaker of the House. Liz Cheney recently said that if House Republicans did elect Jordan, “there would no longer be any possible way to argue that a group of elected Republicans could be counted on to defend the Constitution.”
Trump and his radical human Cancer Cells are destroying our country! The longer we allow them to continue their destructive ways the more it will metastasize!
This week Republicans will vote for a new Speaker. Will they defend our Constitution or will they choose a Trump loyalist who worked to raise doubts about the election and erase the voice of more than 81 million Americans who voted for Biden!
The Chair of the RNC Describes Horrific Attack on Israel as a 'Great Opportunity' for Republicans.
Are you as appalled as I am? Ronna McDaniel's response to terror attack reveals how heartless she really is! Unless you are a monster the last thing you would say after a horrific attack is, "This is a great opportunity." That was the first statement McDaniel made in the interview.
As disinformation flooded Twitter, in the wake of Hamas' attacks on Israel, X owner Elon Musk recommended to his nearly 160 million followers that people follow accounts that ENGAGE IN ANTI-SEMITISM and spread disinformation about global events! I’m so glad I never joined TWITTER!
Regarding the attack on ISRAEL From Heather Cox Richardson:
Republicans used the moment to attack President Biden. In an echo of a similar lie from Trump, who falsely claimed the Obama administration had paid $150 billion to Iran for a nuclear agreement, they took to social media in a flood to say that the U.S. had funded the attack on Israel because it had recently “paid” $6 billion to Iran.
The statement was wrong across the board: the U.S did not pay Iran anything. It helped to ease restrictions on Iranian money that had been frozen in South Korea, enabling Qatar to take control of the money and use it for humanitarian aid. In any case, the money has not yet been transferred. Still, it was a surprising decision to attack the U.S. government at a time when the country would normally be united behind Israel.
the latter. Their oil rich billionaire backers LOVE chaos and dysfunctional government. Msiioin accomplished. They have the Supremes. Now they just need to deaden our hearts and minds and they'll be free to get their PR men and groomed lawyers to rewrite the script. So we must vote, And Get Out The Vote. Like our children's live depend on it.
Our children's lives DO depend on it. So do the children of the right wing, mindless followers of the indicted orange traitor who wants to "own" the country.
When will these people realize the orange traitor has no love for and makes no distinction between anyone's children? They could all die, and he would lose no sleep over it.
Celeste, In my view, the objective is to render far-right extremists increasingly irrelevant. One way we do that is by focusing our messaging on persuadables, particularly in battleground states, where elections typically are decided by relatively few votes in a handful of swing districts.
1. All politics is local. It may be more economically feasible to have a national message but in most purple states, that's not effective.
The DNC wrote off Ohio and Florida in the 2022 midterms. It wouln't have taken much brain power to have figured out that Tim Ryan needed a little help and that the BLM support of a repressive Cuban government could't have been fixed.
Here in Florida, the Republicans have an obnoxious incumbent senator who supports sunsetting Social Security, Medicare and other government benefits. Same guy is the poster boy for Medicare fraud. We know that 70% of young people and renters trend Democratic. Where I live we have three majority Democratic Congressional districts represented by Batistinano Republicans
It won't take much to tailor the message to fit the situation.
2. By 2024, 40% of the electorate will be younger voters, and they can overwhelm the vote. 70% trend Democratic. Channel Taylor Swift.
Daniel, I agree with both your points: 1) Strategy needs to be tailored for varying constituencies and 2) The youth vote is critical. I understand, while the percentage that are registered is relatively low, that, once registered, the percentage that vote is quite high.
Biden is losing the youth vote by caving in to Big Oil. Please write to him if you agree, and to the clueless DNC. The issue of our children is the Existential Crisis already destroying their future. They are justifiably appalled at his continued concessions to the powers that be. Russian oil embargo be damned. WE are the world's largest oil producer. WE can stop the killing our their future. Instead, he is folding under pressure which may only be the mistaken idea that we are endangering our security by stopping oil production. BS. The opposite is true. Please help our young people regain their very fragile faith in the difference between the GOP and the Democrats. Pressure Biden to use every power he has to Stop Willow. Stop pipelines. Stop new leases and rescind those he has approved (so many!) and maybe the youth that helped bring him to the White House will vote for him again. Right now? Very unsure. Between supporting the Oiligarchy, continuing Title 42 as long as he did, and now backing Israel and it's 100% with almost no acknowledgement, Ever, of the atrocities committed by its military and leaders, while it starves and bombs the Palestinian People ... well, I can read the room. The youth are throwing in the towel. Wake UP DNC, Biden, all the old Dems. Screw the outdated polls. The youth are Fed Up. I'm done.
Daniel, I like your idea of connecting the young people's vote in some way to Taylor Swift. Look what a potential relationship with a pro football player has done for the NFL. Let's also connect through Hip-Hop, jaz, and other communities. Music can be a mover of people if we choose to use it. We need some pro Biden songs, some anti-Trump songs and maybe Limericks. In short, the crazies have to a great extent taken over social media, the regular media, and they already own the crazy right. The rest of us need to jump in with some protest, pro democracy, anti-fascism songs, poems, couplets, and whatever we can use to get people to pay attention and get their eyes and minds off Fox and the rest of the crap they're wallowing in.
They also seemed to write off even those NY districts, which should never ever have been given up on, or lost, no matter how 'impossibly rightwing red' they may have been deemed.
I mean George Santos, REALLY?!?! What The ever loving F**K!!
Those districts could have been the majority for us, right there, and neutered the effing low life, POS, batshit psychotic NAZI nihilist caucus.
Good points, all, Daniel. It's especially a shame about Ryan in Ohio. While it's true that he ran a truly abysmal campaign, he certainly could have used help and strategy advice from the party.
Barbara Jo, but we also need to push common sense in the red states too. Not everyone in those states has been so brainwashed they can't think at least some of the time. then work must focus on young people, the ones who have the most to lose.
"Increasingly irrelevant," yes, but also use the "all hands on deck" process to let them know that they are outliers, in no way representative of right-minded American citizens, that their ideas do not belong!
Even when he has to sell his plane to pay his bills?
Naw, some Russian oligarch will bail him out.
I’m actually wondering if the banking testimony in his NY fraud trial will reveal that the money Deutsch Bank loaned was actually laundered Russian money. They have a proven connection. And it was the only major bank willing to lend. There was an inkling last week when it was said lower level loan denials were over-ridden by top bank management. The folks on the line said chump was too risky but they were overruled.
However, Trump Organization managed to rework almost all $900 million of the debt it had coming due. Two of its most troublesome Deutsche Bank loans, totaling $295 million, are now off the books. Trump sold his money-losing hotel in Washington, D.C., to an investment shop connected to former Major League Baseball star Alex Rodriguez and retired boxing champion Floyd Mayweather, thanks to help from a firm tied to computer billionaire Michael Dell. Trump also refinanced $125 million of debt against a Miami golf resort and reworked a $100 million mortgage at Trump Tower. https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2022/07/29/donald-trumps-great-escape-how-the-former-president-solved-his-debt-crisis/?sh=4ab08c073970
Daniel, thanks again for making the connections. I had known about each of these pieces to the Trump saga, but had not put them together. How anyone can think of Trump as anything but a cheat and liar and unworthy of being in charge of anything is beyond comprehension.
Peggy, I like to think some of those Trumpers and Trumpettes could be reached if we could figure what it is about him that has captured their intelligence and turned it off. He is not attractive, not smart, not amusing, rude, insulting, totally uncaring of anyone who is not willing to essentially die for him while he gives them nothing but three-word phrases and stupid comments on things he knows little about. Maybe asking them why they like following a puppet controlled by a bunch of rich men who hate them intensely and are gleeful at how easily those people could be conned into going with whatever those rich men want. Most people don't want to be duped. If someone they have even a tiny bit of respect for were to in passing mention those things to them "Wow, I am surprised you have fallen under the spell of that guy who thinks you are ignorant and easily manipulated. I didn't think you would let yourself be treated so badly by someone like Donald Trump and his puppeteers."
Hi Ruth, I have a friend in Alabama who says her neighbors love trump because "he owns the libs" who in their opinion caused all their problems by giving all their tax money to the needy who "everyone knows" is a code name for dark skinned people. Funny, when I was an Eligibility Worker my case load was at least 80% white. Even funnier because we "libs" in California pay more of our taxes to States like Alabama, Missouri and Tennessee than we get back ourselves.
Fay, you have accurately described the carefully cultivated vulnerable MAGA people. Their racism, resentment that they don't have everything they think they deserve, and willingness to see others suffer to salve their own anger make them targets for Trump and Kump and the fascist corps that cares nothing for them beyond their loyalty. Those Alabama etc. folks have not noticed that the jerks they have voted into office at all levels have done nothing to improve their lot. Any improvements have come from the money from the east and west coast states and from Democratic programs that have brought internet to them, repaired their neglected infrastructure, provided food stamps to more white folks than Black ones, and so much more. Their insulated media keep them from understanding any of this, so they get to keep wallowing in their created misery so they happily support, almost worship Trump, the "lib getter" who really has no clue, thinks they are rubes, and spews for them just the right amount of hatred and insulting to keep them grabbing onto his coat tails while they curse at everyone they pass along the way. It truly is sad that so many people who might otherwise be intelligent caring people, choose to ditch intelligence for hero worship of a totally greedy, money and prestige-addicted fool. How terribly sad!
Neita, that is such a hard thing to understand, that so many MAGA Christians have so little connection with their faith that they actually see Trump as anything but the pathetic con artist, jerk that he actually is. He has not been sent by god or anyone else, just raised in an abusive family with an addiction to money and power neither of which he deserves. It will be hard to get the MAGA Christians to see that because they believe they NEED their god-sent Trump to prove they are special and more worthy of everything than anyone else. Of course, they're not, but they can't bear to acknowledge it.
The Trumpers that I know are intelligent people who are single issue voters on the abortion issue. Democrats "kill babies" is their belief. Of course this is not true and what is truly frightening is Trump's disregard for every life, the born and the unborn, and his policies to make life worse (politically, economically and morally) for everyone.
Sadly, if they are all just as cold, cruel, heartless, and sadistic as their putrid orange fuehrer and the fascist oligarchs who support and own him, they simply just do not care about being 'duped rube pawns' at all.
As Fay says, as long as he/they all 'own/BURN the libtards', that is ALL that matters to them, it is their raison d'etre, regardless of any and all consequences even to themselves and their families.
Whether this is something instilled into them by their brain scrubbing/destroying extremist rightwingnut media(s), dogmatized and imprinted into their weak psyches by their fascist leaning (or outright) parents and 'churches', or something inherently in their collective unconscious, I do not know.
Hilary Clinton mentioned they all need to be deprogrammed.Steven Hassan wrote a book cld."The Cult of Trump",he shares his deprogramming course w/other clinicians.
WILLIAM CASH ; There is always that ; But even if they figured out that he is behind their increased misery, It is likely that voting him out will be impossible.
These brain dead, loyal brown shirt fascists somehow think things will be soooo great when their putrid orange fuehrer is installed into power for life!
What they do not realize is that after he persecutes, locks up, and/or murders all of us 'others', he will have his murderous Waffen SS/Gestapo goons turn on THEM, regardless of how; racist, loyal, fascist, ANTI-SEMITIC, xenophobic, cooperative with his REGIME, etc., they are.
This has been shown throughout the history of fascist, despotic 'strong men' to be the inevitable outcome of their abject power and control.
Do these dumb f**k imbeciles realize that the low life scum, orange POS they worship, support so vehemently, and adore so unconditionally, once in totalitarian, unfettered power, can take any of their teenage daughters for his own whims and uses, and there is not a DAMNED THING that they could do about it at that point?!?!?
Is THAT worth their destruction of our democracy, and an implementation of institutionalized, codified racist, fascist, etc. policies?!?
IF they all answer a big YES, to that then we are truly lost as a nation.
I am a conservative and poor Lutheran. I do not idolize Donald Trump nor believe the Pope is infallible. I doubt if listening to your reason or Robert Reichs' would lead to much agreement. I support former President Trump because I believe his policies and leadership are more likely to benefit the USA.
Mr. Pound, please enlighten me as to Mr. Trump's policies. I have not heard him talk about them. Also, do you feel Mr. Trump exhibited good leadership at the beginning of COVID? How does calling our military veterans suckers and losers beneficial to the United States? Calling for Gen. Milley's execution does not make a good leader. I am sorry but running on a platform of shooting shoplifters and imprisoning anyone who said a disparaging word against him does not explain how he will help ALL Americans. Please rethink your stance because only someone who idolizes this man would follow him.
Millions of Americans died of COVID because of Trump. No benefit there. The rich got a tax break, increasing our national debt, no benefit there either. I cannot think of ANY benefits from Trump's so called "leadership", except for the Trump family corruptly ripping off the taxpayers for their own personal gain.
Bill: Blind is he who does not want to see. It appears that you are being blinded by something deep in your subconscious, or is it something that you feel embarrassed to voice?
Since your despotic orange fuehrer equates the USA with himself, yes, in that respect his 'leadership' WILL benefit HIM, and HIM and his oligarchs, ONLY. ;)
Where to begin? Long ago I took a course in technical writing. One exercise stayed with me. Write an essay on a subject of interest. The essays were returned to be rewritten in half the number of words without loss of content or meaning. That was a real challenge. I have wondered if this were repeated would we end up with poetry. Mr. Boatman you must have a lot of time on your hands for such a lengthy comment, or maybe you are one who likes to talk a lot. It's OK, just not me.
My interest in "coming here" is to consider what lifelong Democrats have to say. And also because Robert Reich and some of his friends are part academic who might be open to discussion. Many aren't. One of the primary themes of your comment and many others is a concern for losing our democracy. In the USA, we do have a democracy at local and state levels. We do not have a democracy at the Federal level, we have a Republic "if we can keep it". But your thrust is to remove "DJT and the GOP from our political system once and for all." Leaving the Democratic party and its leader "to become an Autocratic "leader", and for LIFE, while destroying our democracy and our Constitution as bothersome things in his path to absolute power." Your thinking leads to the exact result you abhor but with a leader more to your liking.
I had an interaction with a family Democrat which went something like this,
"I hope Trump ends up in jail".
"OK, well what about Hillary with her private server, classified documents, bleached emails, destroyed phones, and a false dossier designed to discredit and defeat Trump?"
"Well then I didn't care. Now I do."
How's that for justice? But you apparently would agree with my relative.
Trump is and will continue to be a poisonous dart to the heart of America.
With his constant tantrums, filled with bizarre lies, that his followers grab onto, he is shutting down the body of America.
It’s irresponsible to assume he’ll “burn it out.” Or people ( his followers) will get sick of him.
I surely am distressed and tired , tired , tired of his constant frenetic mug being plastered in the news.
I think we need to work as hard as we can to maintain some real talking points maybe three or four to repeat regularly that describe what and who he is.
It would best be delivered calmly and reasonably.
I think it could be impactful if a specific few statements came from people across the country in response to Trumps vile messaging.
I don't think anything short of actually getting what they think they want in governance, then slowly coming to the painfull conclusion that they really DON'T want that type of governance, only when it's too damn late to stop it, will teach them anything!
Celeste, maybe we need to say what you have just said, that their children will suffer too if Trump and Kump are permitted to take over this nation. Those guys care nothing for anyone. They want power, money, and prestige and like bad toddlers want no one to stop them from getting what they want. We the People do need to be the adults and maybe put them in time-out for a while until the rest of us recover from their toddler tantrums.
Tragically, nothing. Psychopathology is assuming plague proportions the world over. This is not a new disease from existential sources; evil and good are entwined in our DNA. Maybe a highly advanced form of Crisper would alleviate some of the pain and by extension, the damage among us.
Patrice, you are right about our children's lives being dependent on their parents and grandparents getting out to vote and all those young people 18 years and older need to get out there and vote too. The current Republican Party is living in some mythical past when white men could rule everyone and harm whoever they wanted with impunity. Let's not allow them to drag us there to their appalling vision of what they want America to be. Ghastly!
Donald Trump loves chaos. When things are in a state of disarray Donnie Boy is in his glory. Fear and confusion are the bedfellows Trump cuddles with at every opportunity. His perverse apatite for all things disreputable gives an eerie look into the mind of a mentally deranged man. How this guy has reached the position he now holds is a mystery to me. A form of mass hysteria has overtaken the minds of good people across our country who have placed Trump on that stupid escalator where he was heading down to Charlie Daniel's vacation spot to visit an old friend. If you seek Trump's happy place just shake up a snow globe and watch as the substance falls over the landscape, it's not snow he envisions covering the scene, it's ash.
With the sneak attack on Israel, the war machines in that area of the world are up and running. Retribution for the slaughter of innocence that occurred a few days ago is understandable but an all-out dismantling of Gaza might prove in the long run to be counterproductive. The Jewish people can't possibly compete with the Muslim religion. To refight the Crusades in our time would lead to a blood bath of historic proportions. In the old days, armies would meet on a pre-arranged battlefield and have at it leaving the civilized areas and the noncombatants free from the horrors of war, at least that was the way it was supposed to work. WWII saw intense bombing raids that destroyed entire cities like Dresden Germany. This attack on the German people was without a doubt a war crime but the entire war was a crime so what difference did any of it make? We slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians as the war came to its conclusion. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was underhanded by nature but it was carried out on military targets for the most part. Putin has opened the door to a new form of war, one where civilians are being targeted intentionally in an effort to cause an atmosphere of utter terror for all concerned. The Middle East is a powder keg of sorts, it is a religious inferno where there is no common ground to speak of. Iran has, no matter what others might say, the ability to produce a nuclear device capable of rendering huge areas unlivable for extended periods of time. This country has said in no uncertain terms that they want to destroy Israel. Putin is smiling as the Middle East is about to burn. Let's see how rapidly this conflict can spread through the region as we usher in the preludes of WWIII
Yes, whether that be thermonuclear fallout ash, democracy burning to the ground ash, or just plain old everything burning due to climate destruction ash, the result is the very same. :( :(
That was Mr. Trump's problem. He thought he had "every right to do" anything he wanted to do. He did not!! He was trying to be an authoritarian in his first stint in the White House. He will try even harder if he is elected again.
Carol F. Yost -- Hamas is a terrorist organization that attacks innocent civilians. Jews and otherwise.
Check with the "Palestinians" who happen to be Christian, Maroinites, Malekites, who have been displaced, who have relatives murdered by Hamas. Gaza was once part of Egypt, and but for Jimmy Carter would not exist as a seperate entity. They have a common border with Egypt. Egypt is not taking any Gazans.
Their policy is the elimination of Israel. Killing all Jews. If they die in jihad, they go to paradise. Use kids as suicide bombers.
Daniel, you are right that Hamas is a terrorist organization and as far as I can tell has nearly always been. They are not much at governing. The conditions so many of the people of Gaza and the West Bank live under are often the breeding ground for resentment. As we have seen in our country, resentment does not lead to good decision-making. Here it led to people blindly supporting Donald Trump an ignorant con artist for, of all things, president and a right-wing insanity. In Palestine, it led to if not embracing, more than tolerating Hamas and other crazies who care nothing for them, just as Trump cares nothing for his followers. Israel and Palestine need to seriously sit down and figure out a two-state solution that will make them trading partners rather than enemies.
Kill, kill, kill, eye for an eye- are we still Neanderthals? So disheartening. I support peace-makers, but haven't read about a lot of effort from the Israeli side to work out a two-state solution. Now too late? What role does (should) the U.S. play? Blind support of Israel hasn't worked.
Your ignorance is astounding. They would have had a deal.... Hamas does not represent "the Palestinians." In 1967, Israel offered "to give up Sinai and the Golan in exchange for peace," an offer that was rejected in September 1967 by the Arab States by the Khartoum Resolution, which became famous for the "Three No's": "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it..."
Crereation of the Palestinian National Authority, which was tasked with the responsibility of conducting limited Palestinian self-governance over parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; and the international acknowledgement of the PLO as Israel's partner in permanent-status negotiations about any remaining issues revolving around the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Daniel, thank you for the history- I yield to your knowledge. Was not in any way defending Hamas or violence. 30+ years ago I attended a speech in Portland, OR- Shimon Peres, I believe, who stated the only solution was a Palestinian state. Just drags on & on. It seems the expansion of Israeli settlements & Netanyahu's right-wing government is aggravating the situation. Am I way off base here? Patience, please- still learning. Reading your Roadmap for peace now...
The MAGA Trump (MAGATs) “Republicans” have succeeded in making history by ousting one of their own. Albeit Kevin McCarthy may not be as hard core as, say, Matt Gaetz, McCarthy has repeatedly shown his loyalty to Trump. Lying, backstabbing and flip flopping were the norm for McCarthy. Good riddance!
But, now that the Speakership has been vacated, what’s next? There’s talk about nominating Donald Trump to be the next Speaker of the House. Do you recall what happened when Germany attempted to appease Adolph Hitler with a Chancellorship? That went down in history. And not in a good way.
We had an opportunity to prevent these current disasters with both of Trump’s impeachments. Unfortunately the fealty of the Senate of the 117th US Congress failed in its primary purpose of governing. Had that Senate prosecuted Trump, we would not now be in this predicament.
But that is in the past. It is the present and the future we need to focus upon. Rhonna McDaniel was empirically incorrect in her statement of “legitimate political discourse”. What is needed today is for the “true” Republicans to renounce Trump and MAGA Trumpism. It is past time for Republicans to grow a backbone, stand up straight, and take back their party. IF they do this, there is a chance that the US has a positive future. If not, the fascists win.
It is critical to undermine and discredit his "props" - the Gaetz, Jordan, Green, Bobert, et al crowd. As long as their demi-monde way of thinking and living dominate the news and our government, trump has supports. All hands on deck for rebuking, debunking, and showing them for the small minds and amoral punks and hucksters they are.
The possibility that either Jordan or Scalise will become Speaker is just beyond the pale. If you all don't read the Raw Story publication, I recommend that you begin. They have a great run-down of the actual histories of Jordan and Scalise when they stopped into the pawn shop where moral compasses were abandoned. Imagine Jordan running things. It is beyond the powers of tolerance to imagine that.
A horrific thought experiment: somehow they make trump Speaker (he is, after all, telling the world that he would be willing, "if it would help..." - is everybody finished retching?). Remember that would make him THIRD in line for the Presidency. He's a criminal.
Even if his puppet Jordan becomes Speaker, he does trump's bidding.
To quote Bette Davis in "All About Eve": "Fasten your seat belts; it's going to be a bumpy night." (year.....years.)
All who support ot supported insurrection, aided, abetted or gave comfort to terrorists are vulnerable. Our first line of defense should have been the criminal law, but Garland is a wuss.
All of the above are candidates for re election and should be vulnerable under the 14th Amendment solution.
I may be late on this comment, however, Garland just gave a interview on 60 Minutes and came across with a believable statement about the administration of justice in regards to the prosecution of all cases being investigated by the Attorney General’s Office. I too think that the fpotis should be in jail by now. He assured us that the wheels of justice are grinding away and that action is on the way.
I choose to believe him and use his promise as a source of hope and relief that I personally need at this time.
The irony is that Garland's 'wussiness' did NOTHING at all, even for himself, let alone appeasing these effing NAZIS, appearing 'apolitical', or any other hand-wringing/pearl clutching by him.
The fascist brown shirts STILL want to execute him, and all of the rest of the DoJ, ANYWAY, so he might as well have really done his job to save our democracy, 'visuals' BE DAMNED!!
Many people have called in to Trump and asked him to become speaker, says Trump so you know it must be true. Yes if i were Trump with the problems he has then becoming speaker might be the best option for me.
Todd, it would be a horror if Trump were to be selected as Speaker. However, he would not last in the position. He does not want to work, he never has. He would get sick of it and move out as soon as he can figure out how to make it look like Democrats drove him out. I am sure his puppet-masters will figure that out for him and he can lie it all with conviction and his unthinking hoard will go along with it.
You forgot ONE point, my dear friend: The Gop is IMMUNE to irony! Barron Trump is Softcore Melanie's ANCHOR BABY. She ONLY recieved citizenship, (did she?), AFTER he was born! Until that point she was an >GASP!< "EELEEGAL IMMIGRAHNT!!!"
I worry that people don't know these facts - facts like these have become meaningless to MAGA people and many others and our public media doesn't help by trying to be unbiased they create false equivalents
That effing 'media' had better wake the F**K UP 'right quick' (as his MAGAt peckerwoods would say).
THEY themselves will not be around long to keep banking their coin off of the SHITler if SCUMp's REGIME is installed back into power, as it will be a Goebbels-like pure fascist 'dear leader' propaganda network, exclusively, 24/7, and they will lose their usefulness to the putrid orange POS.
His minions and NAZI 'cabinet' members will set up something that will make lil' Kimmie's demanded worship networks seem like child's play, and take over ALL other 'media'.
A US President is arguably the most powerful human on earth, but we still risk missing the forest for the trees when we give them too much credit. Reagan's election as president was the first time I was able to vote. I was 19. I literally cried in my beer. But it already looked to me as if the WASPS had just hired The Great Communicator and fed him the lines they needed as part of their grand decades long scheme to carry out the silent coup they failed to pull off against Roosevelt. The "Wall St. Putsch", featuring GHW Bush's father, the banker for the Nazi financiers, and the Duponts, et al. I grew up on the Main Line, on the wrong side of the tracks. I was Alberta Pew's Downstairs Girl. Trump is a narcissistic psychopath, and I don't think he was their first choice (they loath him,) but the Oiligarchs - and their BigChem, BigAg, BigPlastic, spawn) seemed to know that Putin would lead him around by the nose. Trump is their useful idiot. Their one-man bread and circuses. The best chaos maker to distract from their real work of destroying the only thing standing in the way of More Profits. And it's working. And I'm so glad you are still going strong and speaking truth to power, Mr. Reich. Thank you.
Brava Patrice; you are indeed putting all puzzle pieces together. Reagan, was a puppet, deeply indebted and loyal to his prior savior, General Electric, who saved him from bankruptcy and actual ruin, then nursed his shattered career from a failed "C" actor, to a personal spokesman for GE and commercial aims. I do hope you can fully appreciate the rather low key revelations Bob has made in this essay.
(Nadine is an historian journalist living in San Diego - and a committed Russia watcher) - she's incredibly well aware of a lot of the undercurrents (both sides) in Russia.
Unfortunately he is a successful dummy. What he lacks in intelligent thinking is made up by unethical instincts honed through years of business "deals" (swindles). An actual dummy is not dangerous. Trump is.
I don't know what you mean when you say "globalist game.". Typically it is a dog-whistle meant to instigate fear.
But if we're being rational, there are legit concerns about the extent to which we encourage foreign investments on US soil. For example, one driver of tbe price of real estate in NYC, in the 90s, was largely foreign investment from China, Russia, making it impossible for many middle class folks to remain in the city 10 years later. I'm talking residential and commercial real estate. For another example, in yesterday's news it was reported that a Saudi owned owned company in Arizona, growing alfalfa, and shipping it back to Saudi Arabia, that is draining off the water supply in a remote county.
There are equally legit concerns about how much money US corps invest in foreign countries, displacing American workers. Yet the truth is also that the planet is smaller than it used to be, meaning its simply not possible now to stop money from crossing national boundaries, thanks to technology, for one thing. Mr. Reich uploaded an interesting lecture in the spring on this topic of where and how our products are made.
From my perspective, the real issue is not "foreigners" -- it's how much money our tax codes allow the owners of corporations to take home, whether they live here or abroad.. But you know why it's not framed that way? Because tax codes require government. And tax codes are just not as sexy as talking about "globalists"
Well: Obama was, and Biden is, a cut above several Presidents in the years that followed John Kennedy.
I agree with an earlier opinion: that Biden - despite appearances and an occasional verbal slip-up, has the intelligence to take worthwhile initiatives, which benefit the average citizen and worker instead of kowtowing to US billionaires.
Reagan i felt was a con man in his own right he did things like discount the Aids Epidemic therefore helping to kill thousands of inocent men, eventually it passed to women and children. He committed treason with the Nic War in secret. He was no martyr! He was cruel and ignorant. My opinion. It doesnt surprise me it started a lot of this greed and self interest in the r party nut Nixon did an awful good job of it as well! When he was pardoned it was if we were stabbed in the back because justice didnt get served and never forgot when that happenned.! Im 74 it was a time of ugliness as well! But today i never thought we would see the sickness in our country we are experiencing!!!
Reagan was an actor not a politician. Trump is a con man and grifter not a politician. Nixon was an ambulance chasing shady lawyer. None of them should ever have graced the doors of our White House!!!
What you succinctly point out is detailed in Andy Borowitz’s “Profiles In Ignorance”, a very entertaining read. What’s sad is that time-and-again we keep electing idiots.
Andy Borowitz is a gift to readers and thinkers - and those who love to laugh, sometimes out loud, at brilliant satire. He is, as they say, a treasure.
Reagan and Trump were both useful idiots, and Nixon thought he was above the law. Why do people fall for their nonsense? Why don't they understand how they will suffer, along with the rest of us, if Trump is elected? Maybe some subliminal deprogramming is called for. Somebody start working on that ASAP.
Me to, I remember every time democrats treated gop decently giving them a break thinking like people do that it would improve the relationship instead they always got the knife in back. When Clinton let them off the said ah weakness, attack! I keep waiting for dems to get tough but they are human not predatory like republicans.
Unfortunately, it seems to be a facet of human nature that we attend more to the sensational, horrific, disturbing ... than we do to the pleasant, nutritional and satisfying. The media, being, (or so it seems to me), mostly concerned, (as is the way of almost all in society today), with the 'bottom line', inevitably therefore make that their focus.
Education, which was revered and understood, at one time, as a freeing of thought and encouragement to question, has long since been replaced by schooling, which, although misnomered as 'education' is actually about socialisation, i.e. conforming with social norms and rules ... 'without questioning'.
Dictatorships and autocracies, of course, have well understood how powerful this is and have implemented the brain-washing quite blatantly. Democracies have had to do it more subtly but it is clear, nonetheless, and has been so for a long long time. (I recommend anyone who does not understand or disagrees with what I write to read: The Children's Story, by James Clavell.)
The result of this is, of course, that we have a dumbed-down population. That dumbness is maintained by fast-food and so-called 'reality' television, celebrity, wealth, exotic locations, 'beautiful' people and ... the subservience, innocent obedience and simplistic understanding that goes with it - and which feeds the populism engendered by Trump - the Messiah.
Oh that I knew how to change this. I don't. I live in Australia where the same ethos applies, the only difference is that we are a little further behind for, Australians have always followed, first England and then the USA.
Significant critiquing, intelligent debate, intellectual endeavour, all are now 'on the nose'. Even our highest institutions of learning have degenerated to the level of businesses, as or even more concerned with their bottom line than with the quality of teaching and perspicacity of learning. Where, once, a master's degree was an imprimatur of readiness to engage in real study of a field, it is now largely of less value than was previously the worth of an undergraduate degree.
No, I am not an academic writing from an ivory tower. I am just a low income man from a working-class, (literally), background, raised in a slum environment but taught to respect others and to care for all, particularly those in need or distress, as well as to ask questions and expect my answers only to produce yet another question.
Trump is a narcissistic, self-aggrandising fool. Sadly, good and well-meaning people who are frustrated by their disadvantage but unable to understand what causes it, provide the fertile environment for Trump's noxious and fraudulent rhetoric.
One can only hope that expensive legalese and influential power-brokers don't trump any substantial calling to account of a man who is worthy of no public office, let alone yet another stint as POTUS.
Well you are a great representation of the fact that not being able to get that super-education - that was supposed to be required to be able to write intelligently - is not in fact NEEDED at all - you write lucidly & tell us that your level of intelligence is way beyond where society would label you automatically. As we see pretty often this the truth ! I suspect you were always a fervent reader - once you can read well the world is yours ! I was reading books from age 3-4 yrs taught by my mother - thanks mum !
Spot on. Me too. I live in the ultimate redneck state of Western Australia. We don't have time zones. We are years behind the rest of the world !!! Get well Robert we need you !!!
Wow! Like you, I am intelligent and articulate though "un-degreed." Is that a word?
Thank you for such a cogent analysis of current US dysfunction.
No one know precisely what to do. All we can do is the "right thing" (whatever that may be) and ride it out. I remain optimistic though. The glass remains half full.
PS: Mom was a teacher who taught me that reading was my way out.
The Democrats need to hire a very good public relations firm and start an advertising campaign. If the mainstream media is constantly looking for a non-story for their "balance", such as Biden's dogs biting people at the White House. What the hell does that have to do with Biden being the President? And yet, that was all the media talked about until the Israeli conflict. I can't believe the Lincoln Project is doing more in the way of advertising to try to show people what Trump really stands for. We can whine and complain about the corrupt Republican Party and Trump, but we're only screaming to ourselves. We need to start reaching the people that are just too tired at the end of a 12-hour workday to really learn about what Biden has done and is doing for them. And seriously, put Trump and his kids in jail already!
I agree with your suggestion for a very good PR firm being needed, but disagree about the biting dogs. If the Biden dogs showed a pattern of biting staff and Secret Service agents and the Bidens disregarded that, it shows disregard for those who are serving in the White House and a disrespect for others. It isn't "nothing" to be bitten by a dog and there was a pattern of biting. That is irresponsible and uncaring to do nothing about it, even after the FIRST bite.
Beyond that 100% agreement with all you said, especially noting the call to put the trump "kids" (actually middle-aged adults and full-fledged hucksters!) in jail. WHY isn't Ivanka part of the NY real estate fraud case? Why isn't Jared Kushner indicted by the DOJ? And so on and so on......
We’ve lost a lot of good people in the fight. People like Russ Feingold and Claire McCaskill, casualties of red state politics in Wisconsin and Missouri. It’s hard to believe that George McGovern came from South Dakota. Harder to still to remember that Carter and Clinton were Democratic governors of Georgia and Arkansas. Millions of Trump voters simply don’t understand the cause and effect of a Trump presidency. Our evaporation as a world leader was caused by Trump. His presidency enabled Putin’s boldness, and China’s continuing aggression towards Taiwan. As American soft power shrinks under Republican government, the world becomes a much more dangerous place. Gullible people who believe a blowhard when he says that only he can fix things are exactly like Germans of the 1930’s. There wasn’t much left of their country when their beloved Fuhrer was finished.
That is what is so scary to me. We will eventually wind up as Germany did! With nothing! The world doesn't see us as a super power anymore because of Trump. I worry that if this continues, there may be another attack on our soil!!
? Germany is one of the wealthiest and most democratic—and most powerful—countries in the world. Germany as a nation didn’t lose out from its Nazi disaster. But nine million civilians were murdered.
They were always brilliant engineers and industrialists but they had nothing, country was in shambles,owed reparations,were not allowed to have military or navy ships or aircraft. They definitely paid a large price.
They paid an enormous price for WWI and the Depression yes. But after the war, slowly but surely, the country was reconstructed into one of the most successful-- including in human terms--in the world. Which is not to say it's utopia! Residents of the former East deeply miss the communitarianism of the GDR, and dislike the empty consumerism that replaced it after reunification--along with a level of inequality that makes even the consumerism only aspirational for many. But compared to the US of the last 40 years, it's a success. My point, too concisely put, was that while to "wind up like Germany did" might in fact be desirable, the true cost for them of the war was 9 million murdered on their national conscience, and the loss of all but 20,000 of their Jewish citizens to murder or exile.
They are somewhat of a democracy, at this point maybe even more so than OURS!
But, yes, like you've stated, far FAR from a 'utopia'. :(
They DO owe A LOT to the Marshall Plan reconstruction efforts by OUR government of that time, and I doubt that their 'industriousness' and drive alone could have brought them to where they are currently in world status, despite their fervent, racial nationalism, and beliefs in their supposed superiority 'uber alles'.
You also failed to mention the (albeit far 'underground', and yes still quite 'illegal' by their own laws) nationalistic, barely veiled NAZI Aryan supremacist movement there, a resultant backlash to the various immigrant groups who have sought employment in that comparatively wealthy land.
Jews are not their main focus, or point of contention right now, but I am sure that there is no love lost, AT ALL, by these modern day goons for the people of my 'tribal' origins., despite how few are left in their 'Fatherland'. ;) :(
Actually Jews have been flocking back to Germany, especially Berlin--I lived on and off in early 2000's in predominantly Jewish sections and half my friends were Jewish. This 2019 article says 10,000 more have moved there since I was there, and there were at least 10,000 then. Yes, they do have neo-nazis emerging under the increased inequality of late capitalism (harder for the East Germans, who didn't grow up under it), which is troubling all advanced capitalist democracies. But at this point we have more. In any case I wasn't cheerleading for Germany, just surprised at an inaccurate comment that they have "nothing" after the world war they started and lost. I didn't mention industriousness (or any cause, including the crucial Marshall Plan), so don't know why you used quotation marks.
It's an interesting thought experiment, but in the present world, America has too much of what the rest of the world wants and needs: land, water, other natural resources, for example. As long as there are those who want and are willing to take by force what they want, we will need to keep our powers strong. These are scary times with so much turmoil everywhere, all complicated by climate change and associated fears.
What worries me is that, given this current sadism loving fascist rightwing here and their obsessive penchant for 'one-upping' each other (to the point of warring with each other over WHO can be the most Nazified, and cruel) with their cruelty and NAZISM, they will actually attempt to outdo their beloved (S)Hitler 1.0 regime's evil, torturous, inhuman barbarity.
Although If they are allowed to have that much power and control, it is all over anyway, and life will not even be worth living anymore.
But I will be damned if I will allow them to make me passively march into their gas chambers or in front of their brown shirt shitbilly goon firing squads without a fight they will not believe is possible.
IF I am going to die anyway, I might as well go out my way, fighting these scum shitbag low life murderous fascists to the very end. ;)
I blame the news media for continuing coverage of Trump and his shenanigans. Trump is not big news, in fact he is bad news. Media, stop talking about Trump's antics. Ignore him. If the media ignores him it will take the wind out of his sails. Let's talk about the good things that the Biden Administration is doing not the crap that comes out of Trump's mouth.
Your wordplay is appreciated, especially DonaldDuce. He resembles Mussolini in his stance and jutting chin and all the rest of his absurd posing and, of course, he is like that dictator, even in his disgusting deference to Putin as Mussolini did to Hitler.
Thank you Annie. To me, hashtags that hit home are crucial to expose the true nature of the Republican brand. Other phraseology that I use often are #ProSTRIFE, Swiss cheese Christianity with holes where The Golden Rule and “Judge not, lest ye be judged” used to be, and #RepubloFascism. Do you have any that you favor or you’ve come up with yourself?
Well, since you ask.....I came up with an expression that my family and I continue to find amusing and apropos: I refer to trump as a "tick on the body politic."
I think it works for a number of reasons, but one in particular is the fact that his con-game is bleeding America dry, both in treasure and in spirit.
The MSM get more click-bait headlines from Trump t the dysfunctional GQP than Biden and the Dems, so, as their news services are expected to make money instead of being carried as a public service, they run more articles a on Trump and the GQP.
The things Biden does--basically doing his job and doing it well despite opposition from both the House GQP and the Supreme Court--don't make such click-bait headlines, so they give him less coverage. Frankly, we need more Dark Brandon to generate click-bait headlines.
And we need to *stop clicking* on click-bait Trump and MTG and Matt Gaetz etc headlines. I broke my rule against that to read Reich’s column today, wish I hadn’t. Understandably, given Covid, he wasn’t up to his usual high standard—nothing new here, and the responses today are mostly tired cliches. We haven’t got time to repeat ourselves like this. Winning democracy back means working among the disillusioned and depressed to GOTV! A very important election is coming up in Virginia in a few weeks and we can phone bank and canvass for it. Ohio too. Swing Blue Alliance, Swing Left, Sister District, many organizations are educating us about key races and teaching us how to act for democracy in useful ways. We will be very sorry, as will the whole world, if not enough of us do.
There are many ways to hurt Glenn Youngkin's effort to be on the Presidential ticket in 2024. He will be a formidable opponent to Biden should he get on the ticket. Youngkin can only serve one term as Governor. It was not his intent to just be Governor of VA. He is a mild mannered fleece wearing son of a bitch who will ban abortion and carry out a right wing attack on personal liberty.
True!--though I wasn't thinking of that. What's important right now, as in next month, is the VA state elections (always held in off years), which if we all help could swing Democratic--and in addition to being a great thing for the state of VA (particularly its female and/or Black residents) would also give important momentum to the broader aim of getting Democrats back in charge of the disintegrating House.
The question is how to promote Biden’s successes in the media in a way that brings this message to the attention of the public, clearly and consistently.
Beth, While there are a host of reasons for faulting the media, in my view, despite what does or does not get presented, I’m not convinced that everyday people feel the effects of this Administration’s achievements in their day to day. Accordingly, I believe, aside from showcasing accomplishments, Democrats largely need to focus on their pro-worker agenda, which received zero Republican support—$15 hourly minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, the child tax credit, affordable, quality childcare, universal healthcare, investments in housing, in eldercare, and more.
Biden’s achievements have been amazing. Somehow there must be a way to make that exciting in the news! Maybe some kind of comparison, with what parts of that are a basis for transformative change. The good things that are happening are exciting, but how can they be made exciting in print?!!
Judy, While there might be some extraordinary exceptions, in my experience, if one has to keep explaining how her or his achievements are helping, say, the 60% who are living paycheck to paycheck, wherein family income is only sustained by more people working longer hours while still weighted down by mortgage debt, credit card debt, and the like, that person already is losing.
Their 'Saint Ronnie' RayGun ZAP! did NOT do all that much for 'everyday people' (if they were not already major wealthy shareholders), let alone whether or not they 'felt the effects', yet they all adored, worshiped and VOTED for that pompous, arrogant, rightwing pruneface in overwhelming droves.
I agree with you, Beth! How do we do that? I wish that President Biden's campaign people would do a much better job. They need to find someone that can put President Biden's message out there that will resonate with a lot of the public!
Yes, absolutely! And in the meantime, it might be up to us non-journalists to write letters to the editor of our local newspapers that appeal to our less-informed neighbors in terms that they can understand. (That sounds condescending and I don’t mean to be - it’s just that we have to find the words to promote the good things about the Biden presidency simply and without rancor.)
I do write letters but unfortunately they all must wind up in file 13!! I won't stop doing it though!! It is important to keep giving out the message over and over because that is what trump and his idiots do. He has said if you repeat something over and over, people begin to believe it! Well, we need to do the same thing! We need to stop obsessing over the latest stupid, ridiculous thing the republicans have done and stick to our own messaging meeting lie after lie with the truth over and over again!
We can do it ourselves by phone banking. Not only do swing voters learn what this government is getting done despite obstructionist crazies in the Republican Party, but we learn how real people are feeling and thinking—which in my experience is very different from reading abstractions and oversimplifications from media pundits.
Peggy the organizations I work with are MA-based Swing Blue Alliance (which also welcomes phone-bankers and canvassers from other states): it does great work training phone bankers and helping candidates fight serious races in FOX and MAGA country (we only call Democrats and/or infrequent voters who have voted for Democrats), and more broad-based Sister District, which helps people in Blue states support candidates in Red and especially swing states, including registering progressive and Democratic-leaning voters. And Swing Left and Field Team 6. https://www.sisterdistrictactionnetwork.org/
If you have a car and live in a swing state, consider helping RideShare2Vote (founded in Texas) to get elderly, disabled, and/or carless folk in places without public transport to the polls and back home or to work: https://rideshare2vote.com/about-us-2/
A very useful clearing house for these and other groups and events or projects you can sign up for right away is https://www.mobilize.us/
Great to hear! This is really a troubled time, but it helps to be putting your shoulder to the wheel, makes you feel less helpless. BE less helpless in fact!
The irony is that those proposing that government is the problem and its involvement in our lives must be reduced to almost elimination seek to become part of the “government” and then impose measures that make government more restrictive and authoritative. Democracy is much harder, requires negotiation and open dialogue, consideration of all citizens. Authoritarianism is like an abusive parent who squeezes the uniqueness out of the children with strict constraints in order to make them conform to his/her way and that way only. Really, you hate the government so much that you run for office to become part of the government.
I like what you said here! Why would anyone who hates the government and wants to reduce it become a part of it? Authoritarianism does squeeze or try to squeeze the uniqueness out of children; however, there are those in every authoritarian or dictatorial regime who quietly fight it under the radar. People are naturally curious and even more so now with so many ways to discover and find out. These dictators do not have the control they think they do. When enough people decide they have had enough of being told what they can and can't do, what they can and can't think or say, that is when you have serious revolt and that never bodes well for the dictator!!
Government ("gummit" per Reagan) is bad for YOU, but good for THEM. So if YOU can be made to believe that "gummit" is the enemy, keeping you down, threatening your freedom, not helping you in any way, then those who are demagogues and despots can USE government to their advantage and use your gullibility against you. It's a con-game and they're hucksters.
Thank you for this, Professor. It's good to see that Covid has not messed with YOUR brain. I would say more, but it's almost 3 a.m. here, and I woke up anxious, and I'm going back to bed. Thank you for standing watch.
I live in a small Midwestern city. I have 12 relatives, nine of whom are Republican, and won’t listen to a word I have to say about the dangers of Trump. They are not MAGA wearing rally crazies. Even worse, they’re fairly well off middle class, college educated people who come across as intelligent, well-informed people. This scares me more than all of the Yahoo!’s out there.
When I bring up Trump, I get a threat of, “you would support him if you knew what was good for you,” whatever that’s going to translate into. Then I get the rundown fake accomplishments by Trump, followed by how Biden has ruined America. Total FOX plants. They can’t turn the channel. My 87 year-old mother keeps sending in those checks to pump Trump’s pump campaign of further hatred , lies, and Tom Fu@kery.
My family are people who state with complete belief that success of the stock market lies with Trump. They’re heavily invested, and they believe his success will reap them further financial gains! Fools! They will eventually go down with his ship if that happens. He will take their every last cent.
I currently have no relationship with any of these MAGA relatives in town, with the exception of my mother. The rest think I’m insane! This is where the rubber meats the road I’m sure in many families nationwide, and if it’s this scary now, think of what it will turn into if Cheeto gets another term.
Lately I’ve been receiving phone calls and texts from the RNC candidates. I’m a registered Democrat. For some reason when I look up my name online, it says Republican. Maybe that’s where they’re buying names now. I’m doing my best to waste their time, before they waste my life.
I live in an area where there are people who pay for huge signs, some almost as big as billboards, use them to state things like, "Thank you, President Trump, for all you have done for us...." and other balderdash. What in the world do these people think trump has done for them?? Even in their deluded minds, what do they think he has done?? One of the almost billboard-size signs with glowing love-words for trump is right near the Post Office, angled so that anyone approaching the PO can't avoid it and it strikes me as particularly hateful because trump and DeJoy set out to destroy the United States Postal Service! Biden said he would fight that, but doesn't even mention it anymore. Somebody should remind him of the schemes plotted in recent-era elections to undermine using the PO for voting and we have a big election coming up!
I can relate. Sometimes I return to the small town where I completed public school, and it's a given that most people there are trumpians, and if not, yard signs will tell you. Some who are conservative but independent thinkers dropped support for Trump completely, and others will at least converse with people with who think differently, but others have disappeared into QAnon land. There's a whole different meaning to "children of the corn" when driving by farm fields in this area. At least they are not my relatives. Hope it gets better.
This would make me, in the least, want to gag, and at worst, infuriate me, which may feed into a secondary intention. So I wouldn’t fall for that. If someone mentions that, I would tell them that it’s a piece of visual pollution and to ignore it.
I take their; "you would support him if you knew what was good for you” as a direct, unfiltered racist statement.
In other words, they are labeling YOU as a 'race traitor' of sorts, at least that would be MY interpretation of that statement/'warning'. ;)
I live in a *mostly) bright blue area of this land, but I am registered as an Independent.
That is the only explanation I can deduce for why I recieve the vapid, evil campaign lit in the mail from the local Repugnaf**k candidates, despite NEVER having voted for ONE of them in all of my 50 years of voting eligibility.
They somehow think that I am 'reachable' with their fascist rhetoric. LOFL!
David G.Hinkes, the “you better support him if you know what’s good for you” was a direct threat made to me by my own family member! Yes! I and there’s more baggage that goes with it. I was not invited to a wedding this summer, and I’m sure I won’t be invited to the one coming up on November 4 (I keep tabs on these nutballs), so the family is now growing. When there are only 12 people, a wedding is a huge thing. I haven’t been to Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter is a number of years now.
I firmly believe that Democratic and more left leaning, or interested independent voters should start holding coffees in their homes to start generating some grassroots support. We have to end this nonsense.
So glad you are recovering-and so grateful to you for your push to share truth in the midst of all the blather. Mr Reich, you are a national treasure and I’m deeply grateful for your insights, knowledge, and willingness to share them. Health and peace be yours.
professor reich: it saddens me greatly that government is seen as the enemy of the people. shortly after i set out for university, i remember having this very same argument with the people whom i grew up amongst, and telling them, in no uncertain terms, that they were WRONG. telling them of all the nice things we as a people, as a community, and i as an individual, have, thanks to government. they remained silent. not sure if they were silently disagreeing with me or if they -- momentarily, probably -- had an eye-opening moment. (there was a gang of them against me, so my guess is they were actually thinking about what i'd said.)
anywho ... the chicken soup sounds wonderful. except as a nearly løife-long vegan, i wonder if there is a chicken soup equivalent for vegans to enjoy and to aid our recovery? mushroom soup, perhaps? shiitake mushroom soup? (shiitakes always make me feel better.)
OR... brown a bunch of spices in oil, go to the farmers market and get a bunch of veggies and throw 'em in (including the carrot tops), add water, let it all boil and smell up the house for a few hours, then chow down. 😋 Tofu makes for good protein.
Professor, In my view, your brilliant dissection of the problem is begging for a show of the decisive leadership this moment demands from President Biden. Clearly, Biden (and Democratic principals) must go to where the trouble is in this country, the trouble that Donald Trump and the GOP are stoking, the trouble that they are making worse, and show that they (Democrats) can work on legitimate issues and grievances. Contrary to Trump who presents himself as the savior, the Biden team must show an alternate, admittedly arduous path that portrays presidential empathy not just as relating to what others are going through but also as having the will to do something about it. Ultimately, 2024 could land primarily on how effectively Biden and Democrats manage the upheaval that Trump feasts on.
but not too arduous. The public doesn't seem up to "arduous". I think it's time Biden did more and better leveling with the public about how policies D and R have helped make the current situation. Expose Trump as a fake populist. Or don't even put it in partisan terms. I think in 5 or 10 minutes he could knock it out of the park. People don't like Dems or Repubs so might not be damaging as his political handlers think. I have never seen so many people with so little regard for their self-preservation. It's a wonder.
Roger, I can assure you that the players in The West Wing were not a factor in my comment. I seriously was trying to formulate a solution to counter far-right extremist efforts to upend our democratic republic.
The One Thing The Far-Right Wingnuts Are Consistent With Is Their Outright Lies And Hatred.
And Trump With His Disgusting Rhetoric About Immigrants Is Par For The Course!
Trump said migrants were "poisoning the blood of our country." The GOP frontrunner is pushing Nazi talking points. Trump and his sheep are spreading disinformation again blaming President Biden for the war between Israel and Hamas! How Low Can You Go you PATHETIC HUMAN BEING?
Remember In 2017, Donald Trump divulged classified intelligence about Israeli’s Mossad spy agency and ISIS to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during a meeting at The White House. Trump admitted to sharing the confidential intelligence, tweeting that he had an “absolute right” to do so.
Trump also met with Vladimir Putin at least 5 times without other officials present during his presidency.
Trump has also endorsed Jim Jordan to be Speaker of the House. Liz Cheney recently said that if House Republicans did elect Jordan, “there would no longer be any possible way to argue that a group of elected Republicans could be counted on to defend the Constitution.”
Trump and his radical human Cancer Cells are destroying our country! The longer we allow them to continue their destructive ways the more it will metastasize!
This week Republicans will vote for a new Speaker. Will they defend our Constitution or will they choose a Trump loyalist who worked to raise doubts about the election and erase the voice of more than 81 million Americans who voted for Biden!
The Chair of the RNC Describes Horrific Attack on Israel as a 'Great Opportunity' for Republicans.
Are you as appalled as I am? Ronna McDaniel's response to terror attack reveals how heartless she really is! Unless you are a monster the last thing you would say after a horrific attack is, "This is a great opportunity." That was the first statement McDaniel made in the interview.
As disinformation flooded Twitter, in the wake of Hamas' attacks on Israel, X owner Elon Musk recommended to his nearly 160 million followers that people follow accounts that ENGAGE IN ANTI-SEMITISM and spread disinformation about global events! I’m so glad I never joined TWITTER!
Regarding the attack on ISRAEL From Heather Cox Richardson:
Republicans used the moment to attack President Biden. In an echo of a similar lie from Trump, who falsely claimed the Obama administration had paid $150 billion to Iran for a nuclear agreement, they took to social media in a flood to say that the U.S. had funded the attack on Israel because it had recently “paid” $6 billion to Iran.
The statement was wrong across the board: the U.S did not pay Iran anything. It helped to ease restrictions on Iranian money that had been frozen in South Korea, enabling Qatar to take control of the money and use it for humanitarian aid. In any case, the money has not yet been transferred. Still, it was a surprising decision to attack the U.S. government at a time when the country would normally be united behind Israel.
the latter. Their oil rich billionaire backers LOVE chaos and dysfunctional government. Msiioin accomplished. They have the Supremes. Now they just need to deaden our hearts and minds and they'll be free to get their PR men and groomed lawyers to rewrite the script. So we must vote, And Get Out The Vote. Like our children's live depend on it.
Our children's lives DO depend on it. So do the children of the right wing, mindless followers of the indicted orange traitor who wants to "own" the country.
When will these people realize the orange traitor has no love for and makes no distinction between anyone's children? They could all die, and he would lose no sleep over it.
What can we say to make them understand?
Celeste, In my view, the objective is to render far-right extremists increasingly irrelevant. One way we do that is by focusing our messaging on persuadables, particularly in battleground states, where elections typically are decided by relatively few votes in a handful of swing districts.
1. All politics is local. It may be more economically feasible to have a national message but in most purple states, that's not effective.
The DNC wrote off Ohio and Florida in the 2022 midterms. It wouln't have taken much brain power to have figured out that Tim Ryan needed a little help and that the BLM support of a repressive Cuban government could't have been fixed.
Here in Florida, the Republicans have an obnoxious incumbent senator who supports sunsetting Social Security, Medicare and other government benefits. Same guy is the poster boy for Medicare fraud. We know that 70% of young people and renters trend Democratic. Where I live we have three majority Democratic Congressional districts represented by Batistinano Republicans
It won't take much to tailor the message to fit the situation.
2. By 2024, 40% of the electorate will be younger voters, and they can overwhelm the vote. 70% trend Democratic. Channel Taylor Swift.
Daniel, I agree with both your points: 1) Strategy needs to be tailored for varying constituencies and 2) The youth vote is critical. I understand, while the percentage that are registered is relatively low, that, once registered, the percentage that vote is quite high.
Biden is losing the youth vote by caving in to Big Oil. Please write to him if you agree, and to the clueless DNC. The issue of our children is the Existential Crisis already destroying their future. They are justifiably appalled at his continued concessions to the powers that be. Russian oil embargo be damned. WE are the world's largest oil producer. WE can stop the killing our their future. Instead, he is folding under pressure which may only be the mistaken idea that we are endangering our security by stopping oil production. BS. The opposite is true. Please help our young people regain their very fragile faith in the difference between the GOP and the Democrats. Pressure Biden to use every power he has to Stop Willow. Stop pipelines. Stop new leases and rescind those he has approved (so many!) and maybe the youth that helped bring him to the White House will vote for him again. Right now? Very unsure. Between supporting the Oiligarchy, continuing Title 42 as long as he did, and now backing Israel and it's 100% with almost no acknowledgement, Ever, of the atrocities committed by its military and leaders, while it starves and bombs the Palestinian People ... well, I can read the room. The youth are throwing in the towel. Wake UP DNC, Biden, all the old Dems. Screw the outdated polls. The youth are Fed Up. I'm done.
Daniel, I like your idea of connecting the young people's vote in some way to Taylor Swift. Look what a potential relationship with a pro football player has done for the NFL. Let's also connect through Hip-Hop, jaz, and other communities. Music can be a mover of people if we choose to use it. We need some pro Biden songs, some anti-Trump songs and maybe Limericks. In short, the crazies have to a great extent taken over social media, the regular media, and they already own the crazy right. The rest of us need to jump in with some protest, pro democracy, anti-fascism songs, poems, couplets, and whatever we can use to get people to pay attention and get their eyes and minds off Fox and the rest of the crap they're wallowing in.
As an Ohioan, I couldn’t agree more regarding the DNC and Tim Ryan.
DeSantis is following the KKK playbook.
They also seemed to write off even those NY districts, which should never ever have been given up on, or lost, no matter how 'impossibly rightwing red' they may have been deemed.
I mean George Santos, REALLY?!?! What The ever loving F**K!!
Those districts could have been the majority for us, right there, and neutered the effing low life, POS, batshit psychotic NAZI nihilist caucus.
Good points, all, Daniel. It's especially a shame about Ryan in Ohio. While it's true that he ran a truly abysmal campaign, he certainly could have used help and strategy advice from the party.
Barbara Jo, but we also need to push common sense in the red states too. Not everyone in those states has been so brainwashed they can't think at least some of the time. then work must focus on young people, the ones who have the most to lose.
"Increasingly irrelevant," yes, but also use the "all hands on deck" process to let them know that they are outliers, in no way representative of right-minded American citizens, that their ideas do not belong!
Annie, I agree the extremist opposition needs to be disqualified.
Barbara, I think you’re right.
Thanks Dorothy for your affirming reply.
I wish I had an answer to that question! Those that idolize Mr. Trump will never listen to reason and will never stop following him.
Even when he has to sell his plane to pay his bills?
Naw, some Russian oligarch will bail him out.
I’m actually wondering if the banking testimony in his NY fraud trial will reveal that the money Deutsch Bank loaned was actually laundered Russian money. They have a proven connection. And it was the only major bank willing to lend. There was an inkling last week when it was said lower level loan denials were over-ridden by top bank management. The folks on the line said chump was too risky but they were overruled.
He owed Deutsche Bank about $330 million, and the loans were supposed to be due in 2023 and 2024. Trump provided a personal guarantee to get the loans, meaning that if he fails to pay them back, the bank can pursue his personal assets. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/business/trump-deutsche-bank-rosemary-vrablic.html
However, Trump Organization managed to rework almost all $900 million of the debt it had coming due. Two of its most troublesome Deutsche Bank loans, totaling $295 million, are now off the books. Trump sold his money-losing hotel in Washington, D.C., to an investment shop connected to former Major League Baseball star Alex Rodriguez and retired boxing champion Floyd Mayweather, thanks to help from a firm tied to computer billionaire Michael Dell. Trump also refinanced $125 million of debt against a Miami golf resort and reworked a $100 million mortgage at Trump Tower. https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2022/07/29/donald-trumps-great-escape-how-the-former-president-solved-his-debt-crisis/?sh=4ab08c073970
A former Deutsche Bank executive who reportedly signed off on some unorthodox loans to Trump killed himself on November 19, 2019. https://lamag.com/politics/deutsche-bank-death
And also Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s son. Justin...... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/07/12/untangling-the-links-between-trump-deutsche-bank-and-justice-kennedys-son/
Daniel, thanks again for making the connections. I had known about each of these pieces to the Trump saga, but had not put them together. How anyone can think of Trump as anything but a cheat and liar and unworthy of being in charge of anything is beyond comprehension.
May explain his praise and admiration of Putin... almost too obvious that he owed/owes Putin.
What deposits did Deutsch Bank use to fund the loans?
Peggy, I like to think some of those Trumpers and Trumpettes could be reached if we could figure what it is about him that has captured their intelligence and turned it off. He is not attractive, not smart, not amusing, rude, insulting, totally uncaring of anyone who is not willing to essentially die for him while he gives them nothing but three-word phrases and stupid comments on things he knows little about. Maybe asking them why they like following a puppet controlled by a bunch of rich men who hate them intensely and are gleeful at how easily those people could be conned into going with whatever those rich men want. Most people don't want to be duped. If someone they have even a tiny bit of respect for were to in passing mention those things to them "Wow, I am surprised you have fallen under the spell of that guy who thinks you are ignorant and easily manipulated. I didn't think you would let yourself be treated so badly by someone like Donald Trump and his puppeteers."
Hi Ruth, I have a friend in Alabama who says her neighbors love trump because "he owns the libs" who in their opinion caused all their problems by giving all their tax money to the needy who "everyone knows" is a code name for dark skinned people. Funny, when I was an Eligibility Worker my case load was at least 80% white. Even funnier because we "libs" in California pay more of our taxes to States like Alabama, Missouri and Tennessee than we get back ourselves.
Fay, you have accurately described the carefully cultivated vulnerable MAGA people. Their racism, resentment that they don't have everything they think they deserve, and willingness to see others suffer to salve their own anger make them targets for Trump and Kump and the fascist corps that cares nothing for them beyond their loyalty. Those Alabama etc. folks have not noticed that the jerks they have voted into office at all levels have done nothing to improve their lot. Any improvements have come from the money from the east and west coast states and from Democratic programs that have brought internet to them, repaired their neglected infrastructure, provided food stamps to more white folks than Black ones, and so much more. Their insulated media keep them from understanding any of this, so they get to keep wallowing in their created misery so they happily support, almost worship Trump, the "lib getter" who really has no clue, thinks they are rubes, and spews for them just the right amount of hatred and insulting to keep them grabbing onto his coat tails while they curse at everyone they pass along the way. It truly is sad that so many people who might otherwise be intelligent caring people, choose to ditch intelligence for hero worship of a totally greedy, money and prestige-addicted fool. How terribly sad!
They believe he is sent by God, he is a Christian against abortion - LGBTQ - as they are, or they believe the border stories, and so on. 😢
Neita, that is such a hard thing to understand, that so many MAGA Christians have so little connection with their faith that they actually see Trump as anything but the pathetic con artist, jerk that he actually is. He has not been sent by god or anyone else, just raised in an abusive family with an addiction to money and power neither of which he deserves. It will be hard to get the MAGA Christians to see that because they believe they NEED their god-sent Trump to prove they are special and more worthy of everything than anyone else. Of course, they're not, but they can't bear to acknowledge it.
The Trumpers that I know are intelligent people who are single issue voters on the abortion issue. Democrats "kill babies" is their belief. Of course this is not true and what is truly frightening is Trump's disregard for every life, the born and the unborn, and his policies to make life worse (politically, economically and morally) for everyone.
Sadly, if they are all just as cold, cruel, heartless, and sadistic as their putrid orange fuehrer and the fascist oligarchs who support and own him, they simply just do not care about being 'duped rube pawns' at all.
As Fay says, as long as he/they all 'own/BURN the libtards', that is ALL that matters to them, it is their raison d'etre, regardless of any and all consequences even to themselves and their families.
Whether this is something instilled into them by their brain scrubbing/destroying extremist rightwingnut media(s), dogmatized and imprinted into their weak psyches by their fascist leaning (or outright) parents and 'churches', or something inherently in their collective unconscious, I do not know.
Hilary Clinton mentioned they all need to be deprogrammed.Steven Hassan wrote a book cld."The Cult of Trump",he shares his deprogramming course w/other clinicians.
Peggy Freeman ; They won't stop following him until his effects are felt by them personally. It may be too late by then.
They won't stop then either because trump will simply tell them it's someone else's fault and they'll believe him.
WILLIAM CASH ; There is always that ; But even if they figured out that he is behind their increased misery, It is likely that voting him out will be impossible.
True
So right.
I agree!
These brain dead, loyal brown shirt fascists somehow think things will be soooo great when their putrid orange fuehrer is installed into power for life!
What they do not realize is that after he persecutes, locks up, and/or murders all of us 'others', he will have his murderous Waffen SS/Gestapo goons turn on THEM, regardless of how; racist, loyal, fascist, ANTI-SEMITIC, xenophobic, cooperative with his REGIME, etc., they are.
This has been shown throughout the history of fascist, despotic 'strong men' to be the inevitable outcome of their abject power and control.
Do these dumb f**k imbeciles realize that the low life scum, orange POS they worship, support so vehemently, and adore so unconditionally, once in totalitarian, unfettered power, can take any of their teenage daughters for his own whims and uses, and there is not a DAMNED THING that they could do about it at that point?!?!?
Is THAT worth their destruction of our democracy, and an implementation of institutionalized, codified racist, fascist, etc. policies?!?
IF they all answer a big YES, to that then we are truly lost as a nation.
I think that is a good answer Peggy.
His real name is Drumpf.
I am a conservative and poor Lutheran. I do not idolize Donald Trump nor believe the Pope is infallible. I doubt if listening to your reason or Robert Reichs' would lead to much agreement. I support former President Trump because I believe his policies and leadership are more likely to benefit the USA.
Mr. Pound, please enlighten me as to Mr. Trump's policies. I have not heard him talk about them. Also, do you feel Mr. Trump exhibited good leadership at the beginning of COVID? How does calling our military veterans suckers and losers beneficial to the United States? Calling for Gen. Milley's execution does not make a good leader. I am sorry but running on a platform of shooting shoplifters and imprisoning anyone who said a disparaging word against him does not explain how he will help ALL Americans. Please rethink your stance because only someone who idolizes this man would follow him.
Millions of Americans died of COVID because of Trump. No benefit there. The rich got a tax break, increasing our national debt, no benefit there either. I cannot think of ANY benefits from Trump's so called "leadership", except for the Trump family corruptly ripping off the taxpayers for their own personal gain.
Bill: Blind is he who does not want to see. It appears that you are being blinded by something deep in your subconscious, or is it something that you feel embarrassed to voice?
Since your despotic orange fuehrer equates the USA with himself, yes, in that respect his 'leadership' WILL benefit HIM, and HIM and his oligarchs, ONLY. ;)
Where to begin? Long ago I took a course in technical writing. One exercise stayed with me. Write an essay on a subject of interest. The essays were returned to be rewritten in half the number of words without loss of content or meaning. That was a real challenge. I have wondered if this were repeated would we end up with poetry. Mr. Boatman you must have a lot of time on your hands for such a lengthy comment, or maybe you are one who likes to talk a lot. It's OK, just not me.
My interest in "coming here" is to consider what lifelong Democrats have to say. And also because Robert Reich and some of his friends are part academic who might be open to discussion. Many aren't. One of the primary themes of your comment and many others is a concern for losing our democracy. In the USA, we do have a democracy at local and state levels. We do not have a democracy at the Federal level, we have a Republic "if we can keep it". But your thrust is to remove "DJT and the GOP from our political system once and for all." Leaving the Democratic party and its leader "to become an Autocratic "leader", and for LIFE, while destroying our democracy and our Constitution as bothersome things in his path to absolute power." Your thinking leads to the exact result you abhor but with a leader more to your liking.
I had an interaction with a family Democrat which went something like this,
"I hope Trump ends up in jail".
"OK, well what about Hillary with her private server, classified documents, bleached emails, destroyed phones, and a false dossier designed to discredit and defeat Trump?"
"Well then I didn't care. Now I do."
How's that for justice? But you apparently would agree with my relative.
VERY well said!!
Trump is and will continue to be a poisonous dart to the heart of America.
With his constant tantrums, filled with bizarre lies, that his followers grab onto, he is shutting down the body of America.
It’s irresponsible to assume he’ll “burn it out.” Or people ( his followers) will get sick of him.
I surely am distressed and tired , tired , tired of his constant frenetic mug being plastered in the news.
I think we need to work as hard as we can to maintain some real talking points maybe three or four to repeat regularly that describe what and who he is.
It would best be delivered calmly and reasonably.
I think it could be impactful if a specific few statements came from people across the country in response to Trumps vile messaging.
I don't think anything short of actually getting what they think they want in governance, then slowly coming to the painfull conclusion that they really DON'T want that type of governance, only when it's too damn late to stop it, will teach them anything!
We don’t have time for that. I think most would have to die first, or it will take a decade.
A DECADE?!?!
Our, (and WORLDWIDE) democracy may NEVER recover from U.S. turning full bore fascist.
We CANNOT ALLOW these NAZIS to take over, EVER, PERIOD!!!
Exactly! They will take us all down were we to let them.
Celeste, maybe we need to say what you have just said, that their children will suffer too if Trump and Kump are permitted to take over this nation. Those guys care nothing for anyone. They want power, money, and prestige and like bad toddlers want no one to stop them from getting what they want. We the People do need to be the adults and maybe put them in time-out for a while until the rest of us recover from their toddler tantrums.
Tragically, nothing. Psychopathology is assuming plague proportions the world over. This is not a new disease from existential sources; evil and good are entwined in our DNA. Maybe a highly advanced form of Crisper would alleviate some of the pain and by extension, the damage among us.
Patrice, you are right about our children's lives being dependent on their parents and grandparents getting out to vote and all those young people 18 years and older need to get out there and vote too. The current Republican Party is living in some mythical past when white men could rule everyone and harm whoever they wanted with impunity. Let's not allow them to drag us there to their appalling vision of what they want America to be. Ghastly!
Donald Trump loves chaos. When things are in a state of disarray Donnie Boy is in his glory. Fear and confusion are the bedfellows Trump cuddles with at every opportunity. His perverse apatite for all things disreputable gives an eerie look into the mind of a mentally deranged man. How this guy has reached the position he now holds is a mystery to me. A form of mass hysteria has overtaken the minds of good people across our country who have placed Trump on that stupid escalator where he was heading down to Charlie Daniel's vacation spot to visit an old friend. If you seek Trump's happy place just shake up a snow globe and watch as the substance falls over the landscape, it's not snow he envisions covering the scene, it's ash.
You said it. That's Trump. Accurate profile.
Gloria--I'm glad you liked it because I forgot what I said.
The people that still support Trump are comparable to “The Walking Dead “ full stop
Keith--Comparable, what's the difference.
That was a TV show. The other is reality!
Keith--Both realities are filled with people that can't think for themselves.
Keith--Anger is easy to distribute--
Donald Hodgins <silencenotbad@gmail.com>
12:33 PM (0 minutes ago)
With the sneak attack on Israel, the war machines in that area of the world are up and running. Retribution for the slaughter of innocence that occurred a few days ago is understandable but an all-out dismantling of Gaza might prove in the long run to be counterproductive. The Jewish people can't possibly compete with the Muslim religion. To refight the Crusades in our time would lead to a blood bath of historic proportions. In the old days, armies would meet on a pre-arranged battlefield and have at it leaving the civilized areas and the noncombatants free from the horrors of war, at least that was the way it was supposed to work. WWII saw intense bombing raids that destroyed entire cities like Dresden Germany. This attack on the German people was without a doubt a war crime but the entire war was a crime so what difference did any of it make? We slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians as the war came to its conclusion. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was underhanded by nature but it was carried out on military targets for the most part. Putin has opened the door to a new form of war, one where civilians are being targeted intentionally in an effort to cause an atmosphere of utter terror for all concerned. The Middle East is a powder keg of sorts, it is a religious inferno where there is no common ground to speak of. Iran has, no matter what others might say, the ability to produce a nuclear device capable of rendering huge areas unlivable for extended periods of time. This country has said in no uncertain terms that they want to destroy Israel. Putin is smiling as the Middle East is about to burn. Let's see how rapidly this conflict can spread through the region as we usher in the preludes of WWIII
Gloria--Good morning, you're up early.
Yes, whether that be thermonuclear fallout ash, democracy burning to the ground ash, or just plain old everything burning due to climate destruction ash, the result is the very same. :( :(
David --The clouds on the horizon do look rather dark.
Yes, I often wonder WHY it is that the forces of pure, abject EVIL must always (eventually) prevail. :( :(
Didn't we just CRUSH this very same demonic, fascist BULLSHIT some 80 odd years ago?!?!
David--My sister believes the timing of Hitler's so called death and Trump's birth is significant. If you believe in that sort of thing.
If I believed in any sort of 'EVIL, demonic transference' theories, I would agree. ;) :(
Very well said!
That was Mr. Trump's problem. He thought he had "every right to do" anything he wanted to do. He did not!! He was trying to be an authoritarian in his first stint in the White House. He will try even harder if he is elected again.
What you’re saying makes sense, except that we must not support Israel because it has oppressed the Palestinians from Day One and provoked the attack.
I've read that the attack on Israel is similar to 9/11. I agree more with Thom Hartmann that the situation is more similar to Northern Ireland.
Yes, I think so.
Carol F. Yost -- Hamas is a terrorist organization that attacks innocent civilians. Jews and otherwise.
Check with the "Palestinians" who happen to be Christian, Maroinites, Malekites, who have been displaced, who have relatives murdered by Hamas. Gaza was once part of Egypt, and but for Jimmy Carter would not exist as a seperate entity. They have a common border with Egypt. Egypt is not taking any Gazans.
Their policy is the elimination of Israel. Killing all Jews. If they die in jihad, they go to paradise. Use kids as suicide bombers.
Daniel, you are right that Hamas is a terrorist organization and as far as I can tell has nearly always been. They are not much at governing. The conditions so many of the people of Gaza and the West Bank live under are often the breeding ground for resentment. As we have seen in our country, resentment does not lead to good decision-making. Here it led to people blindly supporting Donald Trump an ignorant con artist for, of all things, president and a right-wing insanity. In Palestine, it led to if not embracing, more than tolerating Hamas and other crazies who care nothing for them, just as Trump cares nothing for his followers. Israel and Palestine need to seriously sit down and figure out a two-state solution that will make them trading partners rather than enemies.
Kill, kill, kill, eye for an eye- are we still Neanderthals? So disheartening. I support peace-makers, but haven't read about a lot of effort from the Israeli side to work out a two-state solution. Now too late? What role does (should) the U.S. play? Blind support of Israel hasn't worked.
Your ignorance is astounding. They would have had a deal.... Hamas does not represent "the Palestinians." In 1967, Israel offered "to give up Sinai and the Golan in exchange for peace," an offer that was rejected in September 1967 by the Arab States by the Khartoum Resolution, which became famous for the "Three No's": "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it..."
Rabin was murdered.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords
Crereation of the Palestinian National Authority, which was tasked with the responsibility of conducting limited Palestinian self-governance over parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; and the international acknowledgement of the PLO as Israel's partner in permanent-status negotiations about any remaining issues revolving around the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Roadmap for peace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_map_for_peace
Hamas will not negotiate. They do not recognize Israel as a state.
Daniel, thank you for the history- I yield to your knowledge. Was not in any way defending Hamas or violence. 30+ years ago I attended a speech in Portland, OR- Shimon Peres, I believe, who stated the only solution was a Palestinian state. Just drags on & on. It seems the expansion of Israeli settlements & Netanyahu's right-wing government is aggravating the situation. Am I way off base here? Patience, please- still learning. Reading your Roadmap for peace now...
The MAGATs are coming!
The MAGATs are coming!
The MAGA Trump (MAGATs) “Republicans” have succeeded in making history by ousting one of their own. Albeit Kevin McCarthy may not be as hard core as, say, Matt Gaetz, McCarthy has repeatedly shown his loyalty to Trump. Lying, backstabbing and flip flopping were the norm for McCarthy. Good riddance!
But, now that the Speakership has been vacated, what’s next? There’s talk about nominating Donald Trump to be the next Speaker of the House. Do you recall what happened when Germany attempted to appease Adolph Hitler with a Chancellorship? That went down in history. And not in a good way.
We had an opportunity to prevent these current disasters with both of Trump’s impeachments. Unfortunately the fealty of the Senate of the 117th US Congress failed in its primary purpose of governing. Had that Senate prosecuted Trump, we would not now be in this predicament.
But that is in the past. It is the present and the future we need to focus upon. Rhonna McDaniel was empirically incorrect in her statement of “legitimate political discourse”. What is needed today is for the “true” Republicans to renounce Trump and MAGA Trumpism. It is past time for Republicans to grow a backbone, stand up straight, and take back their party. IF they do this, there is a chance that the US has a positive future. If not, the fascists win.
It is critical to undermine and discredit his "props" - the Gaetz, Jordan, Green, Bobert, et al crowd. As long as their demi-monde way of thinking and living dominate the news and our government, trump has supports. All hands on deck for rebuking, debunking, and showing them for the small minds and amoral punks and hucksters they are.
The possibility that either Jordan or Scalise will become Speaker is just beyond the pale. If you all don't read the Raw Story publication, I recommend that you begin. They have a great run-down of the actual histories of Jordan and Scalise when they stopped into the pawn shop where moral compasses were abandoned. Imagine Jordan running things. It is beyond the powers of tolerance to imagine that.
A horrific thought experiment: somehow they make trump Speaker (he is, after all, telling the world that he would be willing, "if it would help..." - is everybody finished retching?). Remember that would make him THIRD in line for the Presidency. He's a criminal.
Even if his puppet Jordan becomes Speaker, he does trump's bidding.
To quote Bette Davis in "All About Eve": "Fasten your seat belts; it's going to be a bumpy night." (year.....years.)
We need to stop playing defense and start playing offense. When we play defense we are following. When we play offense we take the lead.
All who support ot supported insurrection, aided, abetted or gave comfort to terrorists are vulnerable. Our first line of defense should have been the criminal law, but Garland is a wuss.
All of the above are candidates for re election and should be vulnerable under the 14th Amendment solution.
I may be late on this comment, however, Garland just gave a interview on 60 Minutes and came across with a believable statement about the administration of justice in regards to the prosecution of all cases being investigated by the Attorney General’s Office. I too think that the fpotis should be in jail by now. He assured us that the wheels of justice are grinding away and that action is on the way.
I choose to believe him and use his promise as a source of hope and relief that I personally need at this time.
The irony is that Garland's 'wussiness' did NOTHING at all, even for himself, let alone appeasing these effing NAZIS, appearing 'apolitical', or any other hand-wringing/pearl clutching by him.
The fascist brown shirts STILL want to execute him, and all of the rest of the DoJ, ANYWAY, so he might as well have really done his job to save our democracy, 'visuals' BE DAMNED!!
Many people have called in to Trump and asked him to become speaker, says Trump so you know it must be true. Yes if i were Trump with the problems he has then becoming speaker might be the best option for me.
Todd, it would be a horror if Trump were to be selected as Speaker. However, he would not last in the position. He does not want to work, he never has. He would get sick of it and move out as soon as he can figure out how to make it look like Democrats drove him out. I am sure his puppet-masters will figure that out for him and he can lie it all with conviction and his unthinking hoard will go along with it.
You forgot ONE point, my dear friend: The Gop is IMMUNE to irony! Barron Trump is Softcore Melanie's ANCHOR BABY. She ONLY recieved citizenship, (did she?), AFTER he was born! Until that point she was an >GASP!< "EELEEGAL IMMIGRAHNT!!!"
excellent review of important information
I worry that people don't know these facts - facts like these have become meaningless to MAGA people and many others and our public media doesn't help by trying to be unbiased they create false equivalents
Thanks for your comments
That effing 'media' had better wake the F**K UP 'right quick' (as his MAGAt peckerwoods would say).
THEY themselves will not be around long to keep banking their coin off of the SHITler if SCUMp's REGIME is installed back into power, as it will be a Goebbels-like pure fascist 'dear leader' propaganda network, exclusively, 24/7, and they will lose their usefulness to the putrid orange POS.
His minions and NAZI 'cabinet' members will set up something that will make lil' Kimmie's demanded worship networks seem like child's play, and take over ALL other 'media'.
I agree. They are clueless and can’t imagine consequences.
Touché
A US President is arguably the most powerful human on earth, but we still risk missing the forest for the trees when we give them too much credit. Reagan's election as president was the first time I was able to vote. I was 19. I literally cried in my beer. But it already looked to me as if the WASPS had just hired The Great Communicator and fed him the lines they needed as part of their grand decades long scheme to carry out the silent coup they failed to pull off against Roosevelt. The "Wall St. Putsch", featuring GHW Bush's father, the banker for the Nazi financiers, and the Duponts, et al. I grew up on the Main Line, on the wrong side of the tracks. I was Alberta Pew's Downstairs Girl. Trump is a narcissistic psychopath, and I don't think he was their first choice (they loath him,) but the Oiligarchs - and their BigChem, BigAg, BigPlastic, spawn) seemed to know that Putin would lead him around by the nose. Trump is their useful idiot. Their one-man bread and circuses. The best chaos maker to distract from their real work of destroying the only thing standing in the way of More Profits. And it's working. And I'm so glad you are still going strong and speaking truth to power, Mr. Reich. Thank you.
Brava Patrice; you are indeed putting all puzzle pieces together. Reagan, was a puppet, deeply indebted and loyal to his prior savior, General Electric, who saved him from bankruptcy and actual ruin, then nursed his shattered career from a failed "C" actor, to a personal spokesman for GE and commercial aims. I do hope you can fully appreciate the rather low key revelations Bob has made in this essay.
But wait, there's more -
https://nadinbrzezinski.medium.com/further-connections-israel-and-russian-active-measures-929ef1a14266
(Nadine is an historian journalist living in San Diego - and a committed Russia watcher) - she's incredibly well aware of a lot of the undercurrents (both sides) in Russia.
That’s because he’s incapable because he’s an idiot! And a fascist I might add!
Yeah, that's because he's a complete dummy.
Unfortunately he is a successful dummy. What he lacks in intelligent thinking is made up by unethical instincts honed through years of business "deals" (swindles). An actual dummy is not dangerous. Trump is.
True that. Dummy about democracy because all he's ever read is Mien Kompf.
Spelled: Mein Kampf.
Thank you.
Idiot and senile. And he is only playing the Trump game. Still praying he dies.
I don't know what you mean when you say "globalist game.". Typically it is a dog-whistle meant to instigate fear.
But if we're being rational, there are legit concerns about the extent to which we encourage foreign investments on US soil. For example, one driver of tbe price of real estate in NYC, in the 90s, was largely foreign investment from China, Russia, making it impossible for many middle class folks to remain in the city 10 years later. I'm talking residential and commercial real estate. For another example, in yesterday's news it was reported that a Saudi owned owned company in Arizona, growing alfalfa, and shipping it back to Saudi Arabia, that is draining off the water supply in a remote county.
There are equally legit concerns about how much money US corps invest in foreign countries, displacing American workers. Yet the truth is also that the planet is smaller than it used to be, meaning its simply not possible now to stop money from crossing national boundaries, thanks to technology, for one thing. Mr. Reich uploaded an interesting lecture in the spring on this topic of where and how our products are made.
From my perspective, the real issue is not "foreigners" -- it's how much money our tax codes allow the owners of corporations to take home, whether they live here or abroad.. But you know why it's not framed that way? Because tax codes require government. And tax codes are just not as sexy as talking about "globalists"
Well: Obama was, and Biden is, a cut above several Presidents in the years that followed John Kennedy.
I agree with an earlier opinion: that Biden - despite appearances and an occasional verbal slip-up, has the intelligence to take worthwhile initiatives, which benefit the average citizen and worker instead of kowtowing to US billionaires.
Reagan i felt was a con man in his own right he did things like discount the Aids Epidemic therefore helping to kill thousands of inocent men, eventually it passed to women and children. He committed treason with the Nic War in secret. He was no martyr! He was cruel and ignorant. My opinion. It doesnt surprise me it started a lot of this greed and self interest in the r party nut Nixon did an awful good job of it as well! When he was pardoned it was if we were stabbed in the back because justice didnt get served and never forgot when that happenned.! Im 74 it was a time of ugliness as well! But today i never thought we would see the sickness in our country we are experiencing!!!
Reagan was an actor not a politician. Trump is a con man and grifter not a politician. Nixon was an ambulance chasing shady lawyer. None of them should ever have graced the doors of our White House!!!
What you succinctly point out is detailed in Andy Borowitz’s “Profiles In Ignorance”, a very entertaining read. What’s sad is that time-and-again we keep electing idiots.
Andy Borowitz is a gift to readers and thinkers - and those who love to laugh, sometimes out loud, at brilliant satire. He is, as they say, a treasure.
...and then praise and elevate/pedestalize them to god-like status (i.e.; 'Saint Ronnie'), no less.
It is sickening!
I will definitely read this! Thank you for the suggestion!
It’ll make you laugh. It’ll make you cry.
I just purchased the book on Amazon. Thank you for the suggestion!
It’s excellent! He’s got a new version out (or out soon) with a whole new cast of idiots.
Thanks Peggy, you explained it better than i could. Carolyn
Reagan and Trump were both useful idiots, and Nixon thought he was above the law. Why do people fall for their nonsense? Why don't they understand how they will suffer, along with the rest of us, if Trump is elected? Maybe some subliminal deprogramming is called for. Somebody start working on that ASAP.
Me to, I remember every time democrats treated gop decently giving them a break thinking like people do that it would improve the relationship instead they always got the knife in back. When Clinton let them off the said ah weakness, attack! I keep waiting for dems to get tough but they are human not predatory like republicans.
Yup! And how about watching all the hippies of the 60's, turn 180 degrees to become the yuppies of the 80's + 90's.
Yep we hippies let it happen
Yes they did, not all! I was never a hippie but i have been a yuppie. Now, im just an imvisible senior. You?
The 'highest hippies' became the highest earning yuppies. For them it's just a game to play.
And look where we are at now. My generation has helped make this mess. Look at our history.
Unfortunately, it seems to be a facet of human nature that we attend more to the sensational, horrific, disturbing ... than we do to the pleasant, nutritional and satisfying. The media, being, (or so it seems to me), mostly concerned, (as is the way of almost all in society today), with the 'bottom line', inevitably therefore make that their focus.
Education, which was revered and understood, at one time, as a freeing of thought and encouragement to question, has long since been replaced by schooling, which, although misnomered as 'education' is actually about socialisation, i.e. conforming with social norms and rules ... 'without questioning'.
Dictatorships and autocracies, of course, have well understood how powerful this is and have implemented the brain-washing quite blatantly. Democracies have had to do it more subtly but it is clear, nonetheless, and has been so for a long long time. (I recommend anyone who does not understand or disagrees with what I write to read: The Children's Story, by James Clavell.)
The result of this is, of course, that we have a dumbed-down population. That dumbness is maintained by fast-food and so-called 'reality' television, celebrity, wealth, exotic locations, 'beautiful' people and ... the subservience, innocent obedience and simplistic understanding that goes with it - and which feeds the populism engendered by Trump - the Messiah.
Oh that I knew how to change this. I don't. I live in Australia where the same ethos applies, the only difference is that we are a little further behind for, Australians have always followed, first England and then the USA.
Significant critiquing, intelligent debate, intellectual endeavour, all are now 'on the nose'. Even our highest institutions of learning have degenerated to the level of businesses, as or even more concerned with their bottom line than with the quality of teaching and perspicacity of learning. Where, once, a master's degree was an imprimatur of readiness to engage in real study of a field, it is now largely of less value than was previously the worth of an undergraduate degree.
No, I am not an academic writing from an ivory tower. I am just a low income man from a working-class, (literally), background, raised in a slum environment but taught to respect others and to care for all, particularly those in need or distress, as well as to ask questions and expect my answers only to produce yet another question.
Trump is a narcissistic, self-aggrandising fool. Sadly, good and well-meaning people who are frustrated by their disadvantage but unable to understand what causes it, provide the fertile environment for Trump's noxious and fraudulent rhetoric.
One can only hope that expensive legalese and influential power-brokers don't trump any substantial calling to account of a man who is worthy of no public office, let alone yet another stint as POTUS.
Well you are a great representation of the fact that not being able to get that super-education - that was supposed to be required to be able to write intelligently - is not in fact NEEDED at all - you write lucidly & tell us that your level of intelligence is way beyond where society would label you automatically. As we see pretty often this the truth ! I suspect you were always a fervent reader - once you can read well the world is yours ! I was reading books from age 3-4 yrs taught by my mother - thanks mum !
Spot on. Me too. I live in the ultimate redneck state of Western Australia. We don't have time zones. We are years behind the rest of the world !!! Get well Robert we need you !!!
Are there even still some there, in your location, who want/demand a total, genocidal obliteration of the aboriginal peoples?!?!
In other words, is it THAT effing backwards and 'rednecked'??
Sadly, yes, in places it is.
Wow! Like you, I am intelligent and articulate though "un-degreed." Is that a word?
Thank you for such a cogent analysis of current US dysfunction.
No one know precisely what to do. All we can do is the "right thing" (whatever that may be) and ride it out. I remain optimistic though. The glass remains half full.
PS: Mom was a teacher who taught me that reading was my way out.
The Democrats need to hire a very good public relations firm and start an advertising campaign. If the mainstream media is constantly looking for a non-story for their "balance", such as Biden's dogs biting people at the White House. What the hell does that have to do with Biden being the President? And yet, that was all the media talked about until the Israeli conflict. I can't believe the Lincoln Project is doing more in the way of advertising to try to show people what Trump really stands for. We can whine and complain about the corrupt Republican Party and Trump, but we're only screaming to ourselves. We need to start reaching the people that are just too tired at the end of a 12-hour workday to really learn about what Biden has done and is doing for them. And seriously, put Trump and his kids in jail already!
I agree with your suggestion for a very good PR firm being needed, but disagree about the biting dogs. If the Biden dogs showed a pattern of biting staff and Secret Service agents and the Bidens disregarded that, it shows disregard for those who are serving in the White House and a disrespect for others. It isn't "nothing" to be bitten by a dog and there was a pattern of biting. That is irresponsible and uncaring to do nothing about it, even after the FIRST bite.
Beyond that 100% agreement with all you said, especially noting the call to put the trump "kids" (actually middle-aged adults and full-fledged hucksters!) in jail. WHY isn't Ivanka part of the NY real estate fraud case? Why isn't Jared Kushner indicted by the DOJ? And so on and so on......
We’ve lost a lot of good people in the fight. People like Russ Feingold and Claire McCaskill, casualties of red state politics in Wisconsin and Missouri. It’s hard to believe that George McGovern came from South Dakota. Harder to still to remember that Carter and Clinton were Democratic governors of Georgia and Arkansas. Millions of Trump voters simply don’t understand the cause and effect of a Trump presidency. Our evaporation as a world leader was caused by Trump. His presidency enabled Putin’s boldness, and China’s continuing aggression towards Taiwan. As American soft power shrinks under Republican government, the world becomes a much more dangerous place. Gullible people who believe a blowhard when he says that only he can fix things are exactly like Germans of the 1930’s. There wasn’t much left of their country when their beloved Fuhrer was finished.
That is what is so scary to me. We will eventually wind up as Germany did! With nothing! The world doesn't see us as a super power anymore because of Trump. I worry that if this continues, there may be another attack on our soil!!
? Germany is one of the wealthiest and most democratic—and most powerful—countries in the world. Germany as a nation didn’t lose out from its Nazi disaster. But nine million civilians were murdered.
They were always brilliant engineers and industrialists but they had nothing, country was in shambles,owed reparations,were not allowed to have military or navy ships or aircraft. They definitely paid a large price.
They paid an enormous price for WWI and the Depression yes. But after the war, slowly but surely, the country was reconstructed into one of the most successful-- including in human terms--in the world. Which is not to say it's utopia! Residents of the former East deeply miss the communitarianism of the GDR, and dislike the empty consumerism that replaced it after reunification--along with a level of inequality that makes even the consumerism only aspirational for many. But compared to the US of the last 40 years, it's a success. My point, too concisely put, was that while to "wind up like Germany did" might in fact be desirable, the true cost for them of the war was 9 million murdered on their national conscience, and the loss of all but 20,000 of their Jewish citizens to murder or exile.
They are somewhat of a democracy, at this point maybe even more so than OURS!
But, yes, like you've stated, far FAR from a 'utopia'. :(
They DO owe A LOT to the Marshall Plan reconstruction efforts by OUR government of that time, and I doubt that their 'industriousness' and drive alone could have brought them to where they are currently in world status, despite their fervent, racial nationalism, and beliefs in their supposed superiority 'uber alles'.
You also failed to mention the (albeit far 'underground', and yes still quite 'illegal' by their own laws) nationalistic, barely veiled NAZI Aryan supremacist movement there, a resultant backlash to the various immigrant groups who have sought employment in that comparatively wealthy land.
Jews are not their main focus, or point of contention right now, but I am sure that there is no love lost, AT ALL, by these modern day goons for the people of my 'tribal' origins., despite how few are left in their 'Fatherland'. ;) :(
Actually Jews have been flocking back to Germany, especially Berlin--I lived on and off in early 2000's in predominantly Jewish sections and half my friends were Jewish. This 2019 article says 10,000 more have moved there since I was there, and there were at least 10,000 then. Yes, they do have neo-nazis emerging under the increased inequality of late capitalism (harder for the East Germans, who didn't grow up under it), which is troubling all advanced capitalist democracies. But at this point we have more. In any case I wasn't cheerleading for Germany, just surprised at an inaccurate comment that they have "nothing" after the world war they started and lost. I didn't mention industriousness (or any cause, including the crucial Marshall Plan), so don't know why you used quotation marks.
I sometimes wonder if NOT being a super power would be bad.
It's an interesting thought experiment, but in the present world, America has too much of what the rest of the world wants and needs: land, water, other natural resources, for example. As long as there are those who want and are willing to take by force what they want, we will need to keep our powers strong. These are scary times with so much turmoil everywhere, all complicated by climate change and associated fears.
Russ Feingold, Claire McCaskill and Paul Wellstone. Great losses to our body politic.
What worries me is that, given this current sadism loving fascist rightwing here and their obsessive penchant for 'one-upping' each other (to the point of warring with each other over WHO can be the most Nazified, and cruel) with their cruelty and NAZISM, they will actually attempt to outdo their beloved (S)Hitler 1.0 regime's evil, torturous, inhuman barbarity.
Although If they are allowed to have that much power and control, it is all over anyway, and life will not even be worth living anymore.
But I will be damned if I will allow them to make me passively march into their gas chambers or in front of their brown shirt shitbilly goon firing squads without a fight they will not believe is possible.
IF I am going to die anyway, I might as well go out my way, fighting these scum shitbag low life murderous fascists to the very end. ;)
I blame the news media for continuing coverage of Trump and his shenanigans. Trump is not big news, in fact he is bad news. Media, stop talking about Trump's antics. Ignore him. If the media ignores him it will take the wind out of his sails. Let's talk about the good things that the Biden Administration is doing not the crap that comes out of Trump's mouth.
Trump desperately wants to be #DonaldDuce but every time he opens his mouth, we realize that there needs to be an N in that moniker…
#DonaldDunce
Your wordplay is appreciated, especially DonaldDuce. He resembles Mussolini in his stance and jutting chin and all the rest of his absurd posing and, of course, he is like that dictator, even in his disgusting deference to Putin as Mussolini did to Hitler.
I prefer IL Duchebag myself.
Thank you Annie. To me, hashtags that hit home are crucial to expose the true nature of the Republican brand. Other phraseology that I use often are #ProSTRIFE, Swiss cheese Christianity with holes where The Golden Rule and “Judge not, lest ye be judged” used to be, and #RepubloFascism. Do you have any that you favor or you’ve come up with yourself?
Well, since you ask.....I came up with an expression that my family and I continue to find amusing and apropos: I refer to trump as a "tick on the body politic."
I think it works for a number of reasons, but one in particular is the fact that his con-game is bleeding America dry, both in treasure and in spirit.
ILL DOUCHEBAG would be a great moniker. ;)
The MSM get more click-bait headlines from Trump t the dysfunctional GQP than Biden and the Dems, so, as their news services are expected to make money instead of being carried as a public service, they run more articles a on Trump and the GQP.
The things Biden does--basically doing his job and doing it well despite opposition from both the House GQP and the Supreme Court--don't make such click-bait headlines, so they give him less coverage. Frankly, we need more Dark Brandon to generate click-bait headlines.
And we need to *stop clicking* on click-bait Trump and MTG and Matt Gaetz etc headlines. I broke my rule against that to read Reich’s column today, wish I hadn’t. Understandably, given Covid, he wasn’t up to his usual high standard—nothing new here, and the responses today are mostly tired cliches. We haven’t got time to repeat ourselves like this. Winning democracy back means working among the disillusioned and depressed to GOTV! A very important election is coming up in Virginia in a few weeks and we can phone bank and canvass for it. Ohio too. Swing Blue Alliance, Swing Left, Sister District, many organizations are educating us about key races and teaching us how to act for democracy in useful ways. We will be very sorry, as will the whole world, if not enough of us do.
https://swingleft.org/p/virginia
There are many ways to hurt Glenn Youngkin's effort to be on the Presidential ticket in 2024. He will be a formidable opponent to Biden should he get on the ticket. Youngkin can only serve one term as Governor. It was not his intent to just be Governor of VA. He is a mild mannered fleece wearing son of a bitch who will ban abortion and carry out a right wing attack on personal liberty.
True!--though I wasn't thinking of that. What's important right now, as in next month, is the VA state elections (always held in off years), which if we all help could swing Democratic--and in addition to being a great thing for the state of VA (particularly its female and/or Black residents) would also give important momentum to the broader aim of getting Democrats back in charge of the disintegrating House.
I agree, we our teal President Biden to speak out more and push back with some grot!!!!
https://swingleft.org/p/virginia
The question is how to promote Biden’s successes in the media in a way that brings this message to the attention of the public, clearly and consistently.
Beth, While there are a host of reasons for faulting the media, in my view, despite what does or does not get presented, I’m not convinced that everyday people feel the effects of this Administration’s achievements in their day to day. Accordingly, I believe, aside from showcasing accomplishments, Democrats largely need to focus on their pro-worker agenda, which received zero Republican support—$15 hourly minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, the child tax credit, affordable, quality childcare, universal healthcare, investments in housing, in eldercare, and more.
These are excellent examples of what we all need to promote! Thanks!
Biden’s achievements have been amazing. Somehow there must be a way to make that exciting in the news! Maybe some kind of comparison, with what parts of that are a basis for transformative change. The good things that are happening are exciting, but how can they be made exciting in print?!!
Judy, While there might be some extraordinary exceptions, in my experience, if one has to keep explaining how her or his achievements are helping, say, the 60% who are living paycheck to paycheck, wherein family income is only sustained by more people working longer hours while still weighted down by mortgage debt, credit card debt, and the like, that person already is losing.
Their 'Saint Ronnie' RayGun ZAP! did NOT do all that much for 'everyday people' (if they were not already major wealthy shareholders), let alone whether or not they 'felt the effects', yet they all adored, worshiped and VOTED for that pompous, arrogant, rightwing pruneface in overwhelming droves.
I agree with you, Beth! How do we do that? I wish that President Biden's campaign people would do a much better job. They need to find someone that can put President Biden's message out there that will resonate with a lot of the public!
Yes, absolutely! And in the meantime, it might be up to us non-journalists to write letters to the editor of our local newspapers that appeal to our less-informed neighbors in terms that they can understand. (That sounds condescending and I don’t mean to be - it’s just that we have to find the words to promote the good things about the Biden presidency simply and without rancor.)
I do write letters but unfortunately they all must wind up in file 13!! I won't stop doing it though!! It is important to keep giving out the message over and over because that is what trump and his idiots do. He has said if you repeat something over and over, people begin to believe it! Well, we need to do the same thing! We need to stop obsessing over the latest stupid, ridiculous thing the republicans have done and stick to our own messaging meeting lie after lie with the truth over and over again!
We can do it ourselves by phone banking. Not only do swing voters learn what this government is getting done despite obstructionist crazies in the Republican Party, but we learn how real people are feeling and thinking—which in my experience is very different from reading abstractions and oversimplifications from media pundits.
How do you get involved with phone banking?
Peggy the organizations I work with are MA-based Swing Blue Alliance (which also welcomes phone-bankers and canvassers from other states): it does great work training phone bankers and helping candidates fight serious races in FOX and MAGA country (we only call Democrats and/or infrequent voters who have voted for Democrats), and more broad-based Sister District, which helps people in Blue states support candidates in Red and especially swing states, including registering progressive and Democratic-leaning voters. And Swing Left and Field Team 6. https://www.sisterdistrictactionnetwork.org/
https://www.mobilize.us/swingbluealliance/ https://www.fieldteam6.org/ https://swingleft.org/ (Most enable postcard-writing too.)
If you have a car and live in a swing state, consider helping RideShare2Vote (founded in Texas) to get elderly, disabled, and/or carless folk in places without public transport to the polls and back home or to work: https://rideshare2vote.com/about-us-2/
A very useful clearing house for these and other groups and events or projects you can sign up for right away is https://www.mobilize.us/
Thank you, Mary! I've written these down and will be contacting them!
Great to hear! This is really a troubled time, but it helps to be putting your shoulder to the wheel, makes you feel less helpless. BE less helpless in fact!
Beth, right you are.
The irony is that those proposing that government is the problem and its involvement in our lives must be reduced to almost elimination seek to become part of the “government” and then impose measures that make government more restrictive and authoritative. Democracy is much harder, requires negotiation and open dialogue, consideration of all citizens. Authoritarianism is like an abusive parent who squeezes the uniqueness out of the children with strict constraints in order to make them conform to his/her way and that way only. Really, you hate the government so much that you run for office to become part of the government.
I like what you said here! Why would anyone who hates the government and wants to reduce it become a part of it? Authoritarianism does squeeze or try to squeeze the uniqueness out of children; however, there are those in every authoritarian or dictatorial regime who quietly fight it under the radar. People are naturally curious and even more so now with so many ways to discover and find out. These dictators do not have the control they think they do. When enough people decide they have had enough of being told what they can and can't do, what they can and can't think or say, that is when you have serious revolt and that never bodes well for the dictator!!
Government ("gummit" per Reagan) is bad for YOU, but good for THEM. So if YOU can be made to believe that "gummit" is the enemy, keeping you down, threatening your freedom, not helping you in any way, then those who are demagogues and despots can USE government to their advantage and use your gullibility against you. It's a con-game and they're hucksters.
Exactly….the French Revolution.
Alas, also the current devastating attack of Hamas.
I have been saying to these rightwingnut Reaganites for decades now;
"IF you loathe, hate, and despise government THAT effing much, then GET THE F**K OUT OF IT!!!" ;)
Thank you for this, Professor. It's good to see that Covid has not messed with YOUR brain. I would say more, but it's almost 3 a.m. here, and I woke up anxious, and I'm going back to bed. Thank you for standing watch.
I live in a small Midwestern city. I have 12 relatives, nine of whom are Republican, and won’t listen to a word I have to say about the dangers of Trump. They are not MAGA wearing rally crazies. Even worse, they’re fairly well off middle class, college educated people who come across as intelligent, well-informed people. This scares me more than all of the Yahoo!’s out there.
When I bring up Trump, I get a threat of, “you would support him if you knew what was good for you,” whatever that’s going to translate into. Then I get the rundown fake accomplishments by Trump, followed by how Biden has ruined America. Total FOX plants. They can’t turn the channel. My 87 year-old mother keeps sending in those checks to pump Trump’s pump campaign of further hatred , lies, and Tom Fu@kery.
My family are people who state with complete belief that success of the stock market lies with Trump. They’re heavily invested, and they believe his success will reap them further financial gains! Fools! They will eventually go down with his ship if that happens. He will take their every last cent.
I currently have no relationship with any of these MAGA relatives in town, with the exception of my mother. The rest think I’m insane! This is where the rubber meats the road I’m sure in many families nationwide, and if it’s this scary now, think of what it will turn into if Cheeto gets another term.
Lately I’ve been receiving phone calls and texts from the RNC candidates. I’m a registered Democrat. For some reason when I look up my name online, it says Republican. Maybe that’s where they’re buying names now. I’m doing my best to waste their time, before they waste my life.
I live in an area where there are people who pay for huge signs, some almost as big as billboards, use them to state things like, "Thank you, President Trump, for all you have done for us...." and other balderdash. What in the world do these people think trump has done for them?? Even in their deluded minds, what do they think he has done?? One of the almost billboard-size signs with glowing love-words for trump is right near the Post Office, angled so that anyone approaching the PO can't avoid it and it strikes me as particularly hateful because trump and DeJoy set out to destroy the United States Postal Service! Biden said he would fight that, but doesn't even mention it anymore. Somebody should remind him of the schemes plotted in recent-era elections to undermine using the PO for voting and we have a big election coming up!
I can relate. Sometimes I return to the small town where I completed public school, and it's a given that most people there are trumpians, and if not, yard signs will tell you. Some who are conservative but independent thinkers dropped support for Trump completely, and others will at least converse with people with who think differently, but others have disappeared into QAnon land. There's a whole different meaning to "children of the corn" when driving by farm fields in this area. At least they are not my relatives. Hope it gets better.
This would make me, in the least, want to gag, and at worst, infuriate me, which may feed into a secondary intention. So I wouldn’t fall for that. If someone mentions that, I would tell them that it’s a piece of visual pollution and to ignore it.
I take their; "you would support him if you knew what was good for you” as a direct, unfiltered racist statement.
In other words, they are labeling YOU as a 'race traitor' of sorts, at least that would be MY interpretation of that statement/'warning'. ;)
I live in a *mostly) bright blue area of this land, but I am registered as an Independent.
That is the only explanation I can deduce for why I recieve the vapid, evil campaign lit in the mail from the local Repugnaf**k candidates, despite NEVER having voted for ONE of them in all of my 50 years of voting eligibility.
They somehow think that I am 'reachable' with their fascist rhetoric. LOFL!
David G.Hinkes, the “you better support him if you know what’s good for you” was a direct threat made to me by my own family member! Yes! I and there’s more baggage that goes with it. I was not invited to a wedding this summer, and I’m sure I won’t be invited to the one coming up on November 4 (I keep tabs on these nutballs), so the family is now growing. When there are only 12 people, a wedding is a huge thing. I haven’t been to Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter is a number of years now.
I firmly believe that Democratic and more left leaning, or interested independent voters should start holding coffees in their homes to start generating some grassroots support. We have to end this nonsense.
So glad you are recovering-and so grateful to you for your push to share truth in the midst of all the blather. Mr Reich, you are a national treasure and I’m deeply grateful for your insights, knowledge, and willingness to share them. Health and peace be yours.
professor reich: it saddens me greatly that government is seen as the enemy of the people. shortly after i set out for university, i remember having this very same argument with the people whom i grew up amongst, and telling them, in no uncertain terms, that they were WRONG. telling them of all the nice things we as a people, as a community, and i as an individual, have, thanks to government. they remained silent. not sure if they were silently disagreeing with me or if they -- momentarily, probably -- had an eye-opening moment. (there was a gang of them against me, so my guess is they were actually thinking about what i'd said.)
anywho ... the chicken soup sounds wonderful. except as a nearly løife-long vegan, i wonder if there is a chicken soup equivalent for vegans to enjoy and to aid our recovery? mushroom soup, perhaps? shiitake mushroom soup? (shiitakes always make me feel better.)
This stuff is DELICIOUS!!!!
https://www.swansonvitamins.com/p/better-than-bouillon-vegetarian-no-chicken-base-8-oz-jar?SourceCode=INTL4071&showPopup=f&DFA=1&UTM_Medium=Shopping&UTM_Source=GOOGLE&UTM_Campaign=+
oh waaah! error 404 page not found.
OR... brown a bunch of spices in oil, go to the farmers market and get a bunch of veggies and throw 'em in (including the carrot tops), add water, let it all boil and smell up the house for a few hours, then chow down. 😋 Tofu makes for good protein.
Look for a Chickpea Noodle Soup recipe. My favorite is from America's Test Kitchen.
i'm looking at the recipe right now (on america's test kitchen) and i am blocked from seeing it unless i pay them money ...
but i will poke through the recipe on other sites. thanks for the idea.
https://a.co/d/hmPtlGy
If you are interested; a link for a Black Friday deal on Amazon for the ATK cookbook that contains the recipe. This is an awesome cookbook.
If you share your email they give you 2 free weeks.
Professor, In my view, your brilliant dissection of the problem is begging for a show of the decisive leadership this moment demands from President Biden. Clearly, Biden (and Democratic principals) must go to where the trouble is in this country, the trouble that Donald Trump and the GOP are stoking, the trouble that they are making worse, and show that they (Democrats) can work on legitimate issues and grievances. Contrary to Trump who presents himself as the savior, the Biden team must show an alternate, admittedly arduous path that portrays presidential empathy not just as relating to what others are going through but also as having the will to do something about it. Ultimately, 2024 could land primarily on how effectively Biden and Democrats manage the upheaval that Trump feasts on.
but not too arduous. The public doesn't seem up to "arduous". I think it's time Biden did more and better leveling with the public about how policies D and R have helped make the current situation. Expose Trump as a fake populist. Or don't even put it in partisan terms. I think in 5 or 10 minutes he could knock it out of the park. People don't like Dems or Repubs so might not be damaging as his political handlers think. I have never seen so many people with so little regard for their self-preservation. It's a wonder.
It's West Wing all over again !!!!
Roger, I can assure you that the players in The West Wing were not a factor in my comment. I seriously was trying to formulate a solution to counter far-right extremist efforts to upend our democratic republic.