The American women are the majority and they can make it Trump’s last stand. Remember ladies, no one will know who you voted for. Put an end to this disgusting human and his party!
Sure she can make it with the popular vote. We have to start thinking of the outmoded Electoral College. Don't forget the last two Republican presidents won by the Electoral College.
There is a very interesting and extremely well researched article that came in my recent newsletter from CNN about the electoral college. Also, there are recent reports that Florida has a strong chance to win and I have just contributed to the funding of efforts to help transport people to the polls.
Especially when they find out that many of their congressional representatives voted against supplemental funds for FEMA last week while they are now begging for money. What cockroaches! How they hate the light!
I take it you are from Florida. Both your state and mine, Texas, are really a big problem in politics. I see the Republican hold on Texas politics loosening aa little but not enough yet.
I was actually born in Dallas and lived most of my life in Austin. Before retiring and becoming an aspiring novelist, I spent my last couple of years working for a paycheck in my current home state, Ohio, which I hope might wake up soon and see the light and "nothing but blue skies from now on" as Willie, as well as the FDR supporters, sang back in the day.
I mentioned Florida for three reasons: (1.) It would be a HUGE win to beat trump-the-terrible in his own home state. (2.) The number of electors coming from Florida is quite large. (3.) Florida is in the Eastern Time Zone and if that state is called early as victory for the Dems it could discourage opposition voting in states further west.
I still have family and friends in the Lone Star State and am proud to be a UT alum. I hope we can stop global warming before they all burn up there - another one of many reasons to help the disadvantaged folks everywhere to have transportation to the polls. Many of those who have been hurt the most by the extremists on the right are without a car to drive themselves - and of course the fascists have done all they can to make it more difficult for less fortunate folks to vote.
Oh well, from your comment I assumed you were from Florida. DeSantis is really keeping quite lately. He got his rear in trouble over flying immigrants out of Texas too. .We still have Abbott bussing them out too. He's been a little quitter too. We're still footing the bill for him activating the National Guard. I really don't agree with all this posturing. They want the wall and we want federal judges to process immigrants and INS officers. One governor South Dakota I believe, has sent some of his National Guard here to help out too. They just don't realize that this state is predominately Hispanic. It was built by Hispanics. They have not realized that those same immigrants have picked up and started contributing to the economy at their destination. I really am concerned with all this discrimination. You have it too with the Haitians eating pets. I know they are contributing to the economy up there too. They are so concerned with their "wall". What are they going to do when they get their wall up? I guess next is Canada and after that we'll start with our coasts. Presently discrimination is the R's only issue. Let's hope the American people will wake up before election time. There is a lot of Republicans that have jumped ship already.
Polls say that Cruz is leading, but barely. Dirty little secret it that Republicans win in Texas because Hispanics are culturally conservative, and on right, not left, side of the culture war. Kamala's problem as well.
At this point all I see is Cruz is trying to say his opponent wants bisexual men in women's sports and in women's bathrooms. My thoughts are how did we ever contend with bisexual women or women in our past? As far as I know it has never been a problem. I have NEVER seen a problem.
I just received an article entiitled: FCC Chair rebukes DeSantis-run Florida for threatening TV stations over abortion ads. Sounds interesting. Will they ever stop trying to control women's bodies? This is supposed to be America. We are supposed to be free here.
I’m from Florida and I hope that you’re right. Unfortunately, however, the majority of Cubans (quite large a number) are Trumpees , a shameful preference considering that they escaped a totalitarian dictatorship.
Correct me if I am wrong. Any Cuban since 1959 who could escape Cuba was welcomed here without a visa or passport. Just saying you were not a Commie was good enough. They got a free ride here and are now voting for the man who wants to keep others out and deport the "illegals". Would that include those tens of thousands of Cubans who have been flooding to Fla. and other states for the last 65 years? While in the Navy I was stationed in Fla. in 1968 and '69. The locals hated them. One bumper sticker read... "When the last American leaves Florida please turn out the Lights". Now that the "illegal" Cubans have made a new home here and have become successful enough to now be Republicans they have seem to forgotten their recent history. Now they are all NIMBYs. Go figure! Cheers... GH
Hugo - there are some who suggest that the cubans who fled cuba were the rich capitalist exploiters of the people and resources of Cuba, and that they were sort of like the Clarence (Uncle Tom)Thomas for their white masters from the USA. Stockholm syndrome maybe? identifying with captors or exploiters? republicans who punish the people of cuba with the embargo. sounds like sour grapes. if we can't exploit you, we won't help you in any way, and will prevent anyone else from engaging with you.
You are right , Paul. Initially were the rich (1960-1961), thereafter the upper middle class and so on. Regardless of social status they all escaped a Communist regime and were welcomed and helped like no other group of immigrants by Kennedy and Johnson, democrats . Bottom line: gratitude and loyalty is not part of their make up -- not all, but most .
The other day our A/G had the offices of LULAC raided to stop them from signing up Hispanic voters. I would hope they are doing the same over there (signing up Hispanic voters). I know that the Republicans keep on promising whoever they can convince that they have the interest of them at heart. We've got to convince them we are right. Just maybe the two hurricanes will slow some of the votes there.
I concur with the fact that the electoral college is antiquated. Hopefully if Harris & Walz win the presidency they will try to rid us of the electoral college and sweep it into the dust bin of history! I really have faith in the American women that they have had enough of this misogynistic SOB. And I also believe there are millions of men who agree.
Keith, to our national shame is that the Electoral College was not banished a long time ago, in that it is the most anti-democratic instrument of the entire electoral process. Agree that it must be destroyed in order to preserve whatever good is left of the Constitution. To do this we as voters need to secure a Harris Presidency, as well as to secure Dem Majorities in both the House and Senate. At this late hour, it seems a daunting task, yet a failure to do it would be catastrophic.
Remarkable to me is that a woman and man in the same household could possibly diverge on this critical vote, and that the one does not suffer gender abuse. Ladies, please close out an abusive relationship while you are still able.
To my mind, any person who votes for trump is condoning extreme misogyny
Not that I disagree, but saying this now is motivating the people in the small red states to defend their interest and vote to preserve the electoral college.
The real issue is people voting against their interests and to defend our country. In big states and small states the GOP is making life worse. Small state voters need to be afraid of a Trump presidency, not told that the only way they can keep their outsized influence is with him.
That article I mentioned - from my CNN newsletter - points out that some people in small states realize that they are actually disadvantaged by the electoral college - because their states only get a small number of electors compared to the larger states. Like I said above - it's a very interesting article including an interview with the author (Eastern Kentucky U History Prof, Carolyn Dupont) of the book called: "DISTORTING DEMOCRACY: THE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE AND WHY IT MATTERS TODAY."
It is also the way they control the Senate and decide the judiciary. The only solution I see is for Democrats to move to the small states and the other Red states. A plan to locate industries and universities in these areas would be one step towards that.
DK - business and industry won't usually go to red states because infrastructure is poor, health care is poor, schools are poor, and intolerance and bigotry are rampant. also we now have very poor healthcare for pregant women in red states.
Presently they only control the House. It's all the rest of the rules they have slowly been passing in the past that are taking away our freedoms and democracy. I don't see any negotiating across the isle either.
Being a non church going Catholic myself, I know many who do go on fairly regular basis and don't want this deranged madman anywhere near the Oval Office again.
I know, being a former Catholic of the rad trad variety, a KoC, the Pius XII and Catholic Truth variety. I do know. I also know that the same is true of Protestants, yet here we are Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, SCOTUS and 1500 Federal Judges, not to mention Bill Barr all Opus Dei, And the likes of Mike Johnson and Ted Cruz, New Apostolic Reformation, Dominionist proclivities.
No, W also needed SCOTUS. All this illustrates is that the Constitution overall is a problem. It was a document written by and for wealthy white men. All this stuff in the Declaration of Independence about all men being created equal sounded wonderful in 1776, but was already dead in 1789.
The Founders let us have Amendments, but they didn't give us the means for enacting them: the Congress they gave us is permanently deadlocked in protection of....wealthy white men.
We...do...not...have...democracy in the US, and never did. What we have is a system modelled on the Government in London in 1789 - a plutocracy - cemented in place. The Brits moved on, jeez they just got rid of a Tory government in a landslide.
Trump wrote that he was a self-proclaimed atheist in his book, The Art of the Deal and he said it helped him with his business dealings. We saw how well that worked out. So now, it's more like The Art of the Steal with his phony as hell Bibles, watches, coins and now a post assassination attempt statue after his ear was grazed by something very questionable. He won't stop at anything until he's stopped and it's up to all of us to help make this happen. Also, the six injustices of the Extreme Court failed miserably to do the right thing.
That's why I chose "Hypocrite". Everything about his Bible/God Bless America/Constitution is blatant hypocrisy. It would be honest for him to admit that he's one of the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse, or even the AntiChrist himself.
Yes, the hypocrisy of the Bible selling was the question, but with our lives on the edge of a cliff about to be pushed off, it was the wrong question for the situation we’re in.
But if you want to know, while we call it a huckster’s move, the big picture is that Trump supports the Bible and a white Christian country and the other side complains about it. (The fine details don’t matter, especially to the people that like what he’s selling. ). It’s the same with every one of the lies. He doesn’t regret calling for the execution of the Central Park Five even after they were found innocent, because the message he wants to send is that he is for killing black criminals (even if innocent ones die. What’s so bad about that? They could have been guilty. They’re black men after all.).
He don't believe in anything but enriching himself and his MAGA followers. His contributers have dried up so he has to sell Bibles and shoes to get by.
Yes the American women are the majority. They know it too but they continue to try to downgrade Kamala at very chance they get. At this point they can't do very much comparing her record to his record. He's a coward. He's scared to debate her because he knows he'll loose.
Just maybe the are happy with a president that grabs a woman by her pus*y. He has about 19 women that have come forward to file charges against him now.
What is still and always lacking in the conversation around Harrises electability is a call out to men to stand up and be counted as “Real Men” AND voting for Harris! You are out there. Why are men vocally sitting back who support Harris? There are many men who support reproductive rights for women as a basic Citizen Right. There are many men who do not believe women are incapable of stellar leadership (They live and are supported by them!). Where are the Men? Their partnership is the Wall we need against Trump. Women don’t need to be led by the nose. Men don’t want to be led by the nose either. Side-by-side facing our nations greatest threat this century, should be cause-enough for Men to be loud and proud of their support of women and Harris/Walz. So again: Where are the Men?
How can any sane woman vote for this putrid man that doesn’t respect women ???
Trump wants “ some kind of punishment for a woman getting an abortion “? If he’s in office why ever try to have children…. If there’s something wrong with the baby and it becomes unviable - he’ll make you carry it the full 9 months - What would the punishment be? Institionalized? Prison? Sounds kinda Nazi and kinda 3rd world dictator.
Let’s ask all the men out there that produce such offspring, do you want to desert your wife or girlfriend carrying an unviable baby dying inside her for months just because she wants an abortion ? What if you had a dead or dying organism living in you? Oh that’s alright, you shouldn’t get too stinky before you die.
Agree with you Susan. Here is the real possible nightmare for women. T gets elected with his MAGA morons. He continues to appoint even more fascist judges beholding to him. He will continue to abuse women and have laws passed allowing any abuse of women at every level of society. Now he will be free to date his daughter even though she is married. Do you think her marriage would stop him. The current T Supreme Court would probably go along with it, with Justice Thomas writing the lead opinion. Can't happen here? Look at history. When people like T really get the power no one is safe. Harris for the White House, Trump for Jail. Cheers... GH
". . . date his daughter even though she is married" ??? Hel-l-o-o-o?? Have you never heard of incest, Mr. Harmon? You don't date your own daughter, married or not!!!
Klare, I'm pretty sure Donnie Trump would commit incest at the drop of a hat. Trump has no moral borders, ethics, shame, or compassion. Zero. Your horror at the idea tells me you haven't really plumbed the depths of his depravity yet.
Ms. Kasica, I love how people size me up without ever having even met me! I understand full well the depths of Trump's depravity!!!!! How many letters have YOU WRITTEN TO TRUMP, TELLING HIM EXACTLY WHAT YOU THINK OF HIM????? NONE, ZIP, ZERO, I'LL BET! ALL THE LETTERS I WROTE TO HIM WHILE HE WAS STINKING UP THE NATION'S WHITE HOUSE ARE PROBABLY EVEN IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, IF, THAT IS, THEY WEREN'T WHAT HE WAS FLUSHING DOWN THE TOILETS THERE! I'd just as soon kill Trump as ever have to hear his HIDEOUS, NASALLY VOICE EVER AGAIN! AND, TOWARDS THAT END, IT'S TOO BAD THE GUY IN CALIFORNIA GOT CAUGHT OUTSIDE TRUMP'S WEEKEND RALLY THERE, WITH LOADED GUNS AND AMMO IN HIS CAR!! DAMN!!! TOO BAD THE POLICE GOT TO HIM BEFORE HE COULD UNLOAD ON TRUMP! A third would-be assassin . . . Please, No. 4, step up to the plate!
Klare K. Lighten up. I was being facetious. Trump is the one who said he would date his daughter, if she wasn't his daughter. What kind of a sick pervert would even make a statement like that. My point was that when people like him become dictators all bets on normal society laws and rules go out the window. Why take a chance on this pervert. PS> I don't have a daughter but if I did I would never leave her alone in a room with T.
The truth is, he always had his hands on her. He's sick and disgusting FILTH. PLEASE God, send another assassin, only one who knows how to carry it out! Any former Secret Service or FBI agents out there wishing to do A REAL SERVICE TO THIS NATION???
Donald, I'm glad you commented today. You are a fountain of knowledge about resources. I wanted to ask you if you knew where I could get in touch with any group that is working on abolishing the electoral college and moving to the popular vote. I am determined after this election to use my energy on this problem and on climate change. If you do know of any, I would appreciate the information. Thanks!
Peggy, in my comment today for the Coffee Klatch, I addressed it to you. Did you not see it? I looked up Electoral College-abolishing pursuits, and I found that the group 538 AND Elizabeth Warren are working on this.
Yes, Klare, I did see your post and have been doing that. I'm sorry I didn't respond earlier and thank you for the resources. Things have been a little hectic getting back into the routine after good old Milton paid us a visit! I will begin working on this after the election. Thanks again!
Common Cause? Maybe they are working on getting rid of "Citizens United." Just look it up online. Go to your web browser and type in "abolish the Electoral college" (without the quotation marks). What is there will certainly come up.
Every woman should be voting for Harris! It makes no sense any woman would vote for a sex offender, convicted felon, conman and misogynist. I just don’t get it! Unless you ladies want to go back to the dark ages when women had no rights!
Right on Judi S. If the women who support T think his, JD and the 2025 plans are a good idea, then they should go live in Iran or Afghanistan for a few years. It would give them a taste of the Trump/2025 future. Oh... can't buy a plane ticket without your husband's or some other mans permission? Oh... they control your passport too. Oh... I forgot, you won't even be able to apply for a passport once these monsters get in power. Oh... changed your mind? Oh... to late for you. JD already thinks women without children shouldn't get to vote. What about men without children? Next stop according to the religious right is to repeal the 19th Amendment. Oh... that's the one that took 146 years to allow women to vote. Don't think it can't happen here. Go buy a current copy of Mother Jones and and read the articles about what the far right "Christians" are really up to. It ain't democracy. Cheers...GH
If Trump gives JD Vance, the same power he claims Kamala Harris had during her stint as this country's Vice President we would have no need to elect Trump to anything. Mr. Trump seems to have found a problem that has plagued our political system ever since its conception. The Vice President is referred to as the invisible man, or in this case the invisible woman. VP's never have and never will have the power to do anything. All power revolving around the decision-making process comes direction from the President, the VP is little more than an assistant to the commander and chief. Trump's assertion that all our problems are directly related to the efforts put forth by Kamala Harris during her position as VP of this country, is as stupid as he is.
Donald, I would submit that Trump’s deceptive and repeated reference to Harris’s role in making policy he portrays as failed policy, as with much of his manipulative rhetoric, is less an indication of his stupidity than his banking on the ignorance of a substantial segment of the population. I imagine most, if not all, of us on this site attribute his effectiveness, barring some exceptions, largely to a broken Fourth Estate that has failed to subject Trump’s words and deeds to critical scrutiny, let alone provide context, background or any meaningful sense of which claims hold up and which are misleading.
One thing we heard a lot during Trump’s rants about Joe Biden was that he wasn’t actually running the country because he was senile. My point is that Trump is showing frequent signs of dementia and will not be running our country again even if he is elected. My question is, who, besides Putin, is pulling his strings? Leonard Leo, billionaires like Crow aiming to preserve their assets, the oil companies, or the nefarious international brotherhood of hoodlums?
Susan, I believe the powerful in the GOP as well as the ones you mentioned are pulling his strings. I believe it is their intention to get him elected and once in office, they will use Amendment 25 and put JD Vance in the oval office.
Peggy Freeman: I believe that if Trump is elected, he will be dead in three months either by heart attack or hard-to-trace poison. However, his death won't help. We have his Supreme Court, Vance and all the Congress people who think Jan. 6 didn't happen to contend with.
I agree, Barbara! That is why it is so very, very important to make sure voters get to the polls in November! We absolutely have to defeat the orange man this time around. If we don't, we may not ever get another chance to even vote! Vote blue, America, up and down the ballot!
Susan, I believe the dynamic is less a matter of who is pulling whose strings than it is a transaction wherein each party has a role to play in serving one another’s greed and self interest.
Susan, if you look at the creators of Project 2025, you will have the answer to your question. And those folks are looking at Victor Orban and Putin for inspiration.
Quite right Barbara. I add that the 4th Estate is complicit, because it is corporate, and corporations have one goal, one purpose, and that is to survive, and in their world, survival is profitability,progressive politics are a threat to their survival, as they pose a threat to the profits of not only media corporations, but those who advertise and thus produce the profits for media corporations.
An analogy, do you think Evangelical denominations and the Catholic Church, and Islam would embrace feminism, abortion, and LBGT rights?. No, they would have empty pews and masjids.
William, Your comment rightly recognizes that the news media constitute a commercial, profit-driven enterprise. The question, in my view, is whether news media meaningfully can engage in public service and nurture the public trust and still make a sufficiently decent profit or whether the desire for bigger profits invariably drive media owners to provide popular rather than significant content.
I think, at this point, Trump knows he'll loose the popular vote but the electoral system is what we need to worry about. Remember the last two Republican presidents won by the electoral college votes.
He's consolidating most of his resources in Pa, N. Carolina, MI, WI. We're still registering more new Democrats.
Trump has an internal problem.
“In every swing state, except for Nevada, the number of Nikki Haley [primary] voters far outpaces the [margin] between Trump and Biden in 2020,” said Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Haley Voters Working Group and an adviser to the Haley Voters for Biden super PAC. “In all those places, if you can get 20 percent to vote for Biden and another 5 to 10 percent who don’t vote at all, that’s going to be the difference-maker in this election.”
That galls me Trump, his surrogates and the media plays along and blames Kamala for all of the failures to do anything, and she can't fight back by telling the truth, that the VP has no power, because she is running on experience. The media and talking heads, even "liberal" ones aren't fact checking this right wing assertion.
LBJ and Harry Truman are examples in my lifetime of the importance of the VP. Would either of them have become president on their own? Probably not, but they both made significant impacts - positive and negative - once they succeeded their presidents. Imagine, then, JD Vance succeeding his president… and be very afraid of that image.
Good point Don. I seem to remember the story, hopefully correctly, when FDR died Truman had no, or very little, knowledge of the atomic bomb program. Even seems even FDR may have kept his VP in the dark. Cheers... GH
I must be an exception to the rule that men without college degrees vote for TUMP. I don't have a degree from a college and i would not vote for Donald TUMP if someone held a loaded 9 mm pistol to my head. And why do some people put a ''Mr.'' in front of his name?? He doesn't deserve be addressed as a Mr. anything. He is the worst form of filthy scum on the planet. I may not have a degree, but at least i am intelligent enough to know better than not to vote for the despicable rotten bastard. I have NO respect for that monster whatsoever and hope he dies soon! The world would be a much better place if he was dead and gone! Same thing goes for that MUSK punk ass SOB.
And you would know better than to use your degree to lie like the devil himself and write a 900 page document about how to take over the world, and how to kill anyone whom you hate or whom you want to destroy in a fit of revenge. I offer you an honorary degree in my heart!
I would like to add, i am not normally a person that is bitter and has feelings of hate, but the fascist dictatorship agenda that the former Republican Party and Donald TUMP and his corrupt minions tend to bring out ugliness in me. I think of millions of our soldiers from here in the United States and Canada that died in battle to preserve our Democracy and squash fascism and the unspeakable actions of Adolf Hitler and his henchmen. I have watched TV programs about Hitler and they would show actual footage of mounds of dead bodies he had beaten and starved to death in his concentration camps. Who in the hell wants that kind of thing???? I have tried to explain this to people i have encouraged to vote blue that are TUMP followers, but it doesn't seem to register with them. TUMP followers are impossible, they are so brainwashed by his lies and false rhetoric that they will never change their tiny minds. I have never seen so many formerly good people be taken in by this con monster TUMP. They are so gullible and ignorant and makes me wonder if they even graduated from elementary school. I only wish i had been able to finish my Tech College education, but after a year, i was totally broke and had to get a full time job just to survive and lead a somewhat normal life. My parents were struggling financially and i just didn't have the heart to ask them to lend me the money to finish. I had quite good grades in there too which made it much harder on me.
John, I do not think that anyone is taken in by Trump's lies and bullshit. It is that they just don't care. Trump is their avatar. They perceive him as a means to tear down a society that they feel hasn't listened to them, or a society that has diminished and threatens their personal power and status.
Christians run this country, they are dominant in politics and business, yet we have Christians playing victim, because their dominance is threatened.
Males run this country, politics, business, entertainment yet they complain and play victim.(Check Real Time, Bill Maher, October 11th on Youtube, and fast forward to the rants of Panelist Tim Sexton, but first the interview with guest Tim Walker, an Evangelist.
The take away is that being knocked off your pedestal or dominance and oppression, is perceived as being victimized.
I was raised in a project by a single mom, a high school drop out, who joined the service, as an enlisted man. 26 years later I retired as an officer with a bachelors degree, 2 years later a Masters.
Anyway I don't think these people are gullible, they perceive Trump as their messiah, their savior who will restore them to power and social status.
Well put John. But let's hope he loses the election and his next 50+ court cases. Hopefully some judge will put that traitor in jail for life. At that point I hope he lives a long time behind bars. Didn't he say likes revenge? This won't be revenge but justice. Cheers... GH
I have a question, Gary. Isn't there any way that Kamala Harris can sue the RNC for the slanderous lies that are being broadcast in their TV ads that are being broadcast every few minutes? I couldn't even relax Sunday afternoon watching football games and those never ending ads lying about her. Most of them are lies about the time she was a prosecutor and have nothing to do with being a president. They are irrelevant and immaterial. These ads make a troubling level of anger well up in me. I finally started turning the TV off when these lying ads were being broadcast. I wish Kamala would sue these psychopaths. RNC stands for: Reprehensible Narcissistic Cretins?
I would LOVE to see him put in solitary confinement in prison with absolutely no possibility for parole. Only provide him with muddy and contaminated water to drink and stale moldy bread to eat. Donald TUMP is evil and rotten to the core and make him suffer like he has made us suffer with his arrogance and total disregard for the average citizens of our nation. Could it be that TUMP is a horrific clone of Adolf Hitler?? Their actions are almost exactly the same.
All such stats, Mr Phillips, should be caveated with the majority or percentage.
Not all Evangelicals are Trump humpers, not all Catholics are misogynists, but it takes extra words to caveat statements.
One would expect that all LGBT are progressives, liberals or least anti Trump, but that is not so, take Caitlin (Bruce) Jenner for instance.
One would expect that since the Republican party and MAGA is in fact driven by racists and antisemites, that there would be no black, brown and Jewish Republicans, especially MAGAts, but we know that is not true, Look at all of the Jews, Blacks and Hispanics in Trump's orbit, and in the Republican party.
Power is one hell of an aphrodisiac, and it takes money to get power.
You are so correct. Example: I have a first cousin the is LGBT that is a huge TUMP fanatic. I used to like to talk to him and visit him occasionally, but now i have nothing to do with him. The rest of his immediate family are tried and true democrats. I was quite shocked that he worships and praises the evil and corrupt Donald TUMP. I do not know his name right off hand, but look at the governor, or whatever he is of North Carolina. My Hispanic neighbor is another one that adores Donald TUMP. Power could be the ultimate aphrodisiac that drives these despicable people in the Domestic Terrorist Party.
It boggles the mind doesn't it? John. How people could actually champion politicians and movements that would eradicate them. I am sure that there were some Jews who actually voted for the National Socialist German Workers Party, and then in 1934, the plebiscite that confirmed Hitler as chancellor
I have seen signs "Feminists and queers for Palestine".. They would not last a day in Palestine, much less an Islamic country.
I totally agree with you, William. All of this has my head spinning, round and round. I won't ever forget a German man and his wife weeping while standing in front of where their residence used to be in Berlin at the end of World War 2. There was no home left and they stood there mumbling to themselves, '' Why did i ever support and cheer for Adolf Hitler??'' I saw this on one of the many documentaries about Hitler and the NAZI regime. This makes me wonder what these gullible and ignorant people that worship and reap praise on Donald TUMP are going to say when he enacts his evil Project 2025 on us and we lose our overtime pay and Social Security and Medicare and Obamacare and SNAP benefits? And oh, i forgot the vital and important National Weather Service?
On one of the documentaries i have watched, the narrator begins the program with the statement: '' This is a definitive guide of Adolf Hitler, the most hated man in history!'' I would like to declare, this is America and Donald TUMP, home of the most hated man in our history!
What I see is ignorance, denial and the bandwagon effect.
Ignorance because they don't keep abreast of anything, except perhaps Facebook and Twitter. The internet, social media, has brought all of this down.
TV is an echo chamber for the faithful and converted. Radio is 24/7 right wing hate radio. Progressive stations were bought out by Sinclair or iHeart (Clear channel).
People left and right, jump on the bandwagon that most approximates their proclivities.
If the bandwagon has agenda a, b,c, d and the person has interest only in a, b, they become loyal advocates of c and d, because they are told or led to believe that this is the agenda of their bandwagon.
On the right you have patriarchs and misogynists who support Putin and his Ukrainian genocide, because Trump is supported by and a friend of Putin.
On the left there is anti Semitism because that is the thing now, thanks to Arab students and Arab influence in universities.
The mentality is that you have to eat the whole pie, and not just slices.
Why does the United States let a convicted felon and treasonous creep run for President??? That in itself is a total disgrace and a horrible stain on the reputation of our nation. I have been told by a lady i have talked to that moved to Canada in order to protect her precious children from getting possibly getting shot and killed at school. But, you know what, Donald TUMP does not CARE! I would love to move to Canada myself, but at my age it would be a logistical nightmare for me. I have financial resources to go, but i can't. They do have rather strict guidelines also for non citizens relocating there.
Canada requires that you bring $250,000 into the country, as well as jobs, if you want a residence visa, unless you are seeking political asylum, at that moment that applies to the likes of Syrians, Afghanistani's, Sikhs, Bangladeechi's, etc but not Americans.
I wonder if that will change if Trump gets elected and starts fulfilling his pledge or revenge.
The right wingers that support Trump, arent capable of thinking beyond their immediate fears and needs. They are driven by the amygdala, the lizard brain, and the thinking brain, the prefrontal cortex, is anesthetized
They know what they want, and they want it now., and are totally unable to consider the logical consequences of their desires, just as an addict is unable to weigh t,or chooses to ignore he consequences of their addiction. Speaking as a former nicotine and alcohol addict.
Another good point. Those "queers" were one of the first groups Hitler went after and those that didn't get out in time died along with the other "traitors" Hitler hated. Cheers... GH
He is everything we know to be horrible, lying, disgusting, sick, perverted, menacing, predatory, desperate and wholly incompetent and unfit …. There’s so much and so little time.
Mike ; but who really wants "horrible. lying, disgusting, sick, perverted, menacing, predatory, desperate or wholly incompetent and unfit?". It will not take much time for voters to figure this out.
Correct Mike. T is everything your parents and mine taught you not to be. I guess T's father and maybe mother missed that class on how to be a good parent. Cheers... GH
Yes, that is the assumption over here in Europe. But I wonder if the American war industries would let him. Hard to imagine they would support a president that would have them miss out on the perfect situation - supplying sophisticated and expensive arms to a war on foreign soil that didn't involve American troops on the ground. Especially against Russia - the bogeyman they were created to fight against!
"But there is a more authentic and real deep state, identified by scholars and the Left. In “The Power Elite,” one of the most important sociological books of the 20th century, C. Wright Mills wrote that America was ruled by a triangle of unelected elites: wealthy corporate elites allied with top civilian government leaders and the military. This is a true deep state largely organized around corporate class interests both at home and abroad, sacrificing the jobs of ordinary working Americans of all races for the profits of “the 1%"
I have one problem with that statement, otherwise I agree. The Military has no power, it is simply a bullet fired from a gun, and the gun is held by the Commander in Chief, the President.
The Military can not and has never acted in the history of this country on their own volition. the chain of command starts with the president, and his ability to act has been limited by congress and the courts.
I am a regular retired officer, and know how the military works. Even the Generals can't act on their own. When significant service members retire, and by that I mean service members who have networks built on personal relationships and jobs, they are often hired as 'consultants" by large corporations.
Build contracts are approved by Congress, which funds them, And all too often the military has to accept or keep equipment it doesn't want, because an important congress critter has that supplier in his district
For years, the Air Force and Congress have clashed over the service’s attempts to retire older aircraft in its fleet, a move intended to free up money for modernization—a strategy dubbed “divest to invest.”
In the 2023 NDAA, lawmakers are prepared to let some retirements go through. After the Air Force asked to retire 21 A-10s, one provision in the bill would allow that process to go through by reducing the congressionally mandated size of the fleet from 171 to 153.
The Navy has the same problem. Gordon R England, then Secretary of the Navy, a VP of General Dynamics, a job he returned to after retirement from the government
and his allies in Congress fought to build more littoral combat ships even as they broke down at sea and their weapons systems failed. The Navy wound up with more ships than it wanted, at an estimated lifetime cost that could reach $100 billion
The ships have been retired and used for target practice and as reefs.
Congress uses DOD as a piss boy, to placate constituents and donors.
Let me stop you Alternative, it is not the American War Industries, nor are they specifically American.
When Eisenhower mentioned the Military Industrial complex in his farewell speech, people stopped thinking. People need and want simple answers, that
leads to scapegoating. Blaming he MIC is a left wing equivalent of blaming the Jews.
Ir is more complex than that.
Take a major defense Contractor, Raytheon
Raytheon Technologies Corporation (RTX) is owned by a variety of shareholders, including institutions, the top 15 shareholders, and individual investors:
Institutions: Own around 81% of the company's shares
Top 15 shareholders: Have a combined ownership of 51%
Capital Research and Management Company: The largest shareholder, with 9.8% of shares outstanding
BlackRock Inc. A top beneficial owner of Raytheon, with 6.6% ownership
Vanguard Group Inc: A large shareholder
State Street Corp: A large shareholder
Dodge & Cox: A large shareholder
Morgan Stanley: A large shareholder
Do a deep dive on those institutions for instance Black Rock has a major investment in media, entertainment,health care, as does State Street, Vanguard, Morgan Stanley, and those companies are global, and foreign sovereign funds own large portions. Vanguard is owned by its funds, which are owned by the funds' shareholders. This means that Vanguard's customers are the owners of the company. Vanguard does not have any outside shareholders., but the owners of their shareholders do.
Ownership is protected by the Board of Directors of corporations.. The investors select a chairman of the board, and a CEO/President.
It takes a lot of time and patience to do a deep dive as to who owns who, and whose interests are protected. I will say this, that today the economy is global,as are investments. For instance China, Saudi Arabia,Russian oligarchs may not bedirectly invested in say Boeing or Raytheon, but they are invested in Corporations,(Public or private equity funds) that are invested in corporations, that are invested in corporations that are invested in Boeing and Raytheon.
Boeing doesn't manufacture it's airplanes, ir assembles it's planes.it does manufacture parts, but it subcontracts including to China, .
Modern war equipment from field electronics, to tanks, ships, planes, missiles rely on computer chips. The major supplier of chips is TSMC, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. And it and every other manufacturer of chips rely on a Dutch town of Veldhoven, near where sits the only factory capable of assembling a revolutionary machine that’s relied upon by the world’s biggest chipmakers.
EUV lithography is the most expensive step in making the advanced microchips that power data centers, cars and iPhones. The machines are made by only one company: Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography(ASML)
The damn thing is global
But it isn't the world wide military industrial complex that drives wars, though they are the beneficiaries, it is men. the ego's and needs of men that power human conflict and suffering. And it is not just the profit motive either, the profit motive is driven by ego needs.profit means wealth, wealth means power, power feeds the ego.
I loved that video! I am so glad you began doing those videos and then creating this substack! I get so much information here. Thank you, Professor Reich and Ms. Lofthouse, for these Coffee Klatches! I love them every Saturday! I chose the first one because the orange man is so obviously one of the most infamous con men ever! He even puts Jim Bakker to shame! I agree with Ms. Lofthouse that women are essential in this election. When I talk to women that I know are MAGA, I simply say that their husband has no idea which candidate you choose when you get in that voting box. I tell them if they believe Kamala has a better platform and if her ideas resonate with them, then tick that box! I have also asked people who say they won't vote for her to let me know their reasons. If they don't come up with any sound reason, I ask them if it is because she is a woman which they very quickly deny and then I will ask them if it is because she is a woman of color which makes them really angry. That's when I know they are probably racist and mysogynists. I will keep talking right up until election day. We have got to ensure a win for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Vote blue, America, up and down the ballot!
One of my neighbors, an elderly lady, thinks Harris is stupid, because she laughs a lot, and thus plans on voting for Trump. A machinist neighbor, male and not a youngster, dislikes Harris for smiling a lot, but at least he loathes Trump. Many people form impressions and make voting decisions as if the candidates were only running in some kind of Twilight Zone beauty contest.
What I can't come to grips with are the people who say, "I just don't know enough about the woman." Is your middle name "Stupid?" There are only two choices on the next Presidential ballot that hold any possibility of ever sitting in the Oval Office. One is Donald Trump and the other Kamala Harris. I'll be the first to admit the writer of this post is no genius, however being stupid is something I take great pride in avoiding. Trump is a ragging moron, while Kamala holds our future as an individual who recognizes a fascist when she sees one. Voting for our next President is an easy thing when Donald Trump is the alternative. Everything about Trump is in a shrunken condition or absent all together. The young lady has my vote for our future. Go blue...
In my opinion, the "I don't know enough about the woman" is a fiction, a creation of the media,with the NYT leading the charge trying to force her to sit down for an interview, so they can hit her with gotcha questions. Progressive politics are a threat to corporate power and profit.
Agree, Diane. Saying "I don't know enough about Harris yet" is just a euphemism for "I would never vote for a woman" or "I would never vote for a Black person." Or heaven forbid, a Black woman.
How can it be that millions and millions of Americans want to support a bona fide sociopath . . . This says more about "us" and our country . . . It is jaw-dropping and an ominous reflection as to how damaged our politics and country are at this time in history . . .
The sad thing about Trump is that his criminal actions have been normalized by so many of Americans that love the idea he is their bully that stands up for so many men of all races as a role model. They seem to ignore that fact that fraud is illegal and criminal.
I chose, "He's a clever businessman," but I do NOT regard that as a compliment nor as a qualification for public office. Being what is considered a successful businessperson today requires the ability to cheat both your workers and your customers to make the maximum profit for yourself. Given that the voters constitute both the "employees" and the "customers" of government, no voter with any sense should vote for someone who is adept at cheating them in both roles (nor should they buy cheap bibles from them).
He is not a successful businessman. That’s the illusion he’s parlayed his entire life, including via the scripted Apprentice show and even earlier when he lied his way onto the Forbes (not Fortune) wealthiest persons list early in his career. He’s a successful extractor of capital for himself, a remorseless gilded street hustler with the cold keen instincts of a hardcore predator. He’s sucked the financial life out of every company he’s owned and the small businesses he stole from to prop them up, and left them all as crippled shells. When all the other Atlantic City casinos were booming, his were in decay and bankruptcy. He even dwindled the large inheritance from his father. It’s often been said that if he had put that money into a simple mutual fund, he’d be far wealthier today.
Thank you for pointing out this unfortunate situation.
However, in my humble opinion, I would like to also add to your excellent assessment that it might be better to use a different word than "successful" to describe the cheater-business leaders.
It is due to our culture's misguided attitude of overvaluing money and power as being the measure of a "successful" businessperson. Although "clever" is also basically a positive term, at least it is sometimes used to have the negative meaning of "SUPERFICIALLY ingenious or witty."
I would prefer the term "cunning," which, according to my Oxford American College Dictionary has the main meaning of "skill in achieving one's ends by DECEIT."
I think Inequality Media needs to put together a video showing why people will be better off economically under Harris than Trump. This is going to be hard because Harris represents the status quo while Trump represents taking money from the middle class and giving it to the rich and the oil companies. It looks like a President Harris would have to govern with a Republican Senate and House of Representatives, not to mention a partisan Supreme Court. The Republicans will work to ensure that President Harris does almost nothing. By contrast, a second President Trump would have the Congress and the courts on his side. In other words, he would have unrestrained power. He plans big tax cuts for the rich while cutting FEMA, Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare, food safety, etc. The first problem is convincing Harris to funnel more of her $ Billion into Senate campaigns because the prospect of total GOP power is overwhelming. Second, how do you explain to people who believe the economy is bad right now, that it could be so much worse under Trump? He promises high tariffs that will inflate the price of everything, and he will blame the resulting inflation on Biden. Even Trump's promise of spending money on the Department of Defense is hollow when he can't get along with our NATO allies. As far as men, Trump plans to further emasculate them by getting rid of public education. Under the Republicans, the government subsidizes education for the rich by tax cuts and "school choice". School choice leaves American males further and further behind. Under Trump, American men will lose everything except their guns.
Peter - Although she could give them more (and should) at least she has given them some. Unlike the other candidate who has not given anyone else a dime. I too fear what will happen if the Republicans take back the Senate but that advantage has already been baked for this election cycle it seems. The house is what I am hoping that we have a better chance at flipping.
Folks, we must remember that the Kamala Harris campaign is trying to defeat, at the ballot box, the most intense and financially wealthy political cult of fascism in political world history. Not in any time in world history have we ever seen the financial support to defeat a great democratic experiment like the U.S. constitution and create a fascist dictatorship. Elon Musk, Peter Theil, and the leaders in the fascist party know exactly what they are doing. They are using the orange monster idiot to "sell" anger and hate towards black and brown people, AND anyone who may sound like a person who may be a little more reasonable and smarter than them? Look at the cults of David Koresh and Jim Jones. Their followers were willing to DIE rather than listen to anyone who begged them to get out of the cult. The Trump cult, enabled by the richest and greediest people in American History, may end the wonderful experiment of the United States. Sadly, we STILL have almost half of the eligible voters in the United States WHO NEVER VOTE!!!! Without a major change in the voting participation rate in the United States, we are doomed eventually.
I think you're right. Once we let money into politics we were doomed. They got the power to destroy democracy with the passing of Citizens United and the "corporations are people" loophole. Thank you SCOTUS and Heritage Foundation/Federalist Society.
Money has been in politics since he first election. It took money to print handbills, it took money to travel on horseback or coach., it took money to campaign.
The first election was John Adams vs Thomas Jefferson, Adams won because he had the financial support of Boston and Philadelphia merchants., he lost the re election probably because of alien and sedition act, alienated his financial supporters.
There must be a way we can get money out of politics. It is ruining us. Please Dr. Reich, after the election, would it be feasible to discuss alternate ways of funding election candidates?
well Pamela, there is a way to do anything, however it requires a majority in congress and an executive that agrees, It also requires, if it changes the constitution, 2/3rd's of the congress (house and senate) need to agree and 3/4th of the states must ratify the change.
A steep hill indeed. That's why it took 146 years to pass an amendment to give women the vote. All of the women who will vote for T don't seem to realize the 2025 plan will eventually reverse progress for women back before 1920 when they finally got the vote. The new name for our country will be Ameristan. Good luck to girls and women when that happens. Cheers... GH
The American women are the majority and they can make it Trump’s last stand. Remember ladies, no one will know who you voted for. Put an end to this disgusting human and his party!
Sure she can make it with the popular vote. We have to start thinking of the outmoded Electoral College. Don't forget the last two Republican presidents won by the Electoral College.
There is a very interesting and extremely well researched article that came in my recent newsletter from CNN about the electoral college. Also, there are recent reports that Florida has a strong chance to win and I have just contributed to the funding of efforts to help transport people to the polls.
Especially when they find out that many of their congressional representatives voted against supplemental funds for FEMA last week while they are now begging for money. What cockroaches! How they hate the light!
TRUE & AMEN
I take it you are from Florida. Both your state and mine, Texas, are really a big problem in politics. I see the Republican hold on Texas politics loosening aa little but not enough yet.
I was actually born in Dallas and lived most of my life in Austin. Before retiring and becoming an aspiring novelist, I spent my last couple of years working for a paycheck in my current home state, Ohio, which I hope might wake up soon and see the light and "nothing but blue skies from now on" as Willie, as well as the FDR supporters, sang back in the day.
I mentioned Florida for three reasons: (1.) It would be a HUGE win to beat trump-the-terrible in his own home state. (2.) The number of electors coming from Florida is quite large. (3.) Florida is in the Eastern Time Zone and if that state is called early as victory for the Dems it could discourage opposition voting in states further west.
I still have family and friends in the Lone Star State and am proud to be a UT alum. I hope we can stop global warming before they all burn up there - another one of many reasons to help the disadvantaged folks everywhere to have transportation to the polls. Many of those who have been hurt the most by the extremists on the right are without a car to drive themselves - and of course the fascists have done all they can to make it more difficult for less fortunate folks to vote.
That's an insult. Trump's home state is New York. Mar-a-Lago is a crime scene.
I certainly wish the state of New York starts to confiscate his assets from the win over his cheating on his taxation.
They will find the BODIES!
Oh well, from your comment I assumed you were from Florida. DeSantis is really keeping quite lately. He got his rear in trouble over flying immigrants out of Texas too. .We still have Abbott bussing them out too. He's been a little quitter too. We're still footing the bill for him activating the National Guard. I really don't agree with all this posturing. They want the wall and we want federal judges to process immigrants and INS officers. One governor South Dakota I believe, has sent some of his National Guard here to help out too. They just don't realize that this state is predominately Hispanic. It was built by Hispanics. They have not realized that those same immigrants have picked up and started contributing to the economy at their destination. I really am concerned with all this discrimination. You have it too with the Haitians eating pets. I know they are contributing to the economy up there too. They are so concerned with their "wall". What are they going to do when they get their wall up? I guess next is Canada and after that we'll start with our coasts. Presently discrimination is the R's only issue. Let's hope the American people will wake up before election time. There is a lot of Republicans that have jumped ship already.
H as anyone noted the governor of Florida who bused refugees to Mass now has many refugees who cannot go home since they have no homes?
How’s the senate race looking. Hoping Cruz gets sent packing.
Polls say that Cruz is leading, but barely. Dirty little secret it that Republicans win in Texas because Hispanics are culturally conservative, and on right, not left, side of the culture war. Kamala's problem as well.
At this point all I see is Cruz is trying to say his opponent wants bisexual men in women's sports and in women's bathrooms. My thoughts are how did we ever contend with bisexual women or women in our past? As far as I know it has never been a problem. I have NEVER seen a problem.
I just received an article entiitled: FCC Chair rebukes DeSantis-run Florida for threatening TV stations over abortion ads. Sounds interesting. Will they ever stop trying to control women's bodies? This is supposed to be America. We are supposed to be free here.
I’m from Florida and I hope that you’re right. Unfortunately, however, the majority of Cubans (quite large a number) are Trumpees , a shameful preference considering that they escaped a totalitarian dictatorship.
Correct me if I am wrong. Any Cuban since 1959 who could escape Cuba was welcomed here without a visa or passport. Just saying you were not a Commie was good enough. They got a free ride here and are now voting for the man who wants to keep others out and deport the "illegals". Would that include those tens of thousands of Cubans who have been flooding to Fla. and other states for the last 65 years? While in the Navy I was stationed in Fla. in 1968 and '69. The locals hated them. One bumper sticker read... "When the last American leaves Florida please turn out the Lights". Now that the "illegal" Cubans have made a new home here and have become successful enough to now be Republicans they have seem to forgotten their recent history. Now they are all NIMBYs. Go figure! Cheers... GH
Hugo - there are some who suggest that the cubans who fled cuba were the rich capitalist exploiters of the people and resources of Cuba, and that they were sort of like the Clarence (Uncle Tom)Thomas for their white masters from the USA. Stockholm syndrome maybe? identifying with captors or exploiters? republicans who punish the people of cuba with the embargo. sounds like sour grapes. if we can't exploit you, we won't help you in any way, and will prevent anyone else from engaging with you.
You are right , Paul. Initially were the rich (1960-1961), thereafter the upper middle class and so on. Regardless of social status they all escaped a Communist regime and were welcomed and helped like no other group of immigrants by Kennedy and Johnson, democrats . Bottom line: gratitude and loyalty is not part of their make up -- not all, but most .
The other day our A/G had the offices of LULAC raided to stop them from signing up Hispanic voters. I would hope they are doing the same over there (signing up Hispanic voters). I know that the Republicans keep on promising whoever they can convince that they have the interest of them at heart. We've got to convince them we are right. Just maybe the two hurricanes will slow some of the votes there.
They are two faced - they like our freedoms but what a strong armed man to do their bidding
WHERE MIGHT I OBTAIN THE REPORT?
I concur with the fact that the electoral college is antiquated. Hopefully if Harris & Walz win the presidency they will try to rid us of the electoral college and sweep it into the dust bin of history! I really have faith in the American women that they have had enough of this misogynistic SOB. And I also believe there are millions of men who agree.
Keith, to our national shame is that the Electoral College was not banished a long time ago, in that it is the most anti-democratic instrument of the entire electoral process. Agree that it must be destroyed in order to preserve whatever good is left of the Constitution. To do this we as voters need to secure a Harris Presidency, as well as to secure Dem Majorities in both the House and Senate. At this late hour, it seems a daunting task, yet a failure to do it would be catastrophic.
Remarkable to me is that a woman and man in the same household could possibly diverge on this critical vote, and that the one does not suffer gender abuse. Ladies, please close out an abusive relationship while you are still able.
To my mind, any person who votes for trump is condoning extreme misogyny
in a relationship.
Not that I disagree, but saying this now is motivating the people in the small red states to defend their interest and vote to preserve the electoral college.
The real issue is people voting against their interests and to defend our country. In big states and small states the GOP is making life worse. Small state voters need to be afraid of a Trump presidency, not told that the only way they can keep their outsized influence is with him.
That article I mentioned - from my CNN newsletter - points out that some people in small states realize that they are actually disadvantaged by the electoral college - because their states only get a small number of electors compared to the larger states. Like I said above - it's a very interesting article including an interview with the author (Eastern Kentucky U History Prof, Carolyn Dupont) of the book called: "DISTORTING DEMOCRACY: THE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE AND WHY IT MATTERS TODAY."
It's beginning to look like the only way the Republicans can win is the Electoral College. They certainly do not have the popular votes.
It is also the way they control the Senate and decide the judiciary. The only solution I see is for Democrats to move to the small states and the other Red states. A plan to locate industries and universities in these areas would be one step towards that.
DK - business and industry won't usually go to red states because infrastructure is poor, health care is poor, schools are poor, and intolerance and bigotry are rampant. also we now have very poor healthcare for pregant women in red states.
Presently they only control the House. It's all the rest of the rules they have slowly been passing in the past that are taking away our freedoms and democracy. I don't see any negotiating across the isle either.
It is the female vote that will save us Keith. Unless they are Evangelical and religiously afflicted Catholics.
Being a non church going Catholic myself, I know many who do go on fairly regular basis and don't want this deranged madman anywhere near the Oval Office again.
I know, being a former Catholic of the rad trad variety, a KoC, the Pius XII and Catholic Truth variety. I do know. I also know that the same is true of Protestants, yet here we are Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, SCOTUS and 1500 Federal Judges, not to mention Bill Barr all Opus Dei, And the likes of Mike Johnson and Ted Cruz, New Apostolic Reformation, Dominionist proclivities.
No, W also needed SCOTUS. All this illustrates is that the Constitution overall is a problem. It was a document written by and for wealthy white men. All this stuff in the Declaration of Independence about all men being created equal sounded wonderful in 1776, but was already dead in 1789.
The Founders let us have Amendments, but they didn't give us the means for enacting them: the Congress they gave us is permanently deadlocked in protection of....wealthy white men.
We...do...not...have...democracy in the US, and never did. What we have is a system modelled on the Government in London in 1789 - a plutocracy - cemented in place. The Brits moved on, jeez they just got rid of a Tory government in a landslide.
If the Dems would only turn out the Republican would never win.
President Biden won it HANDILY and Bunkerboy's Alzheimer's was mentioned in THE NEW YORK TIMES, just not in so many words.
Wasn't the question about his selling the Bible at a rip-off price?
It tells me that he doesn't believe in God. Or Christianity. Or anything holy and pure.
It tells me that he clearly used religious belief to entrap his cult members.
Just saying. And BTW, I am being restrained.
Trump wrote that he was a self-proclaimed atheist in his book, The Art of the Deal and he said it helped him with his business dealings. We saw how well that worked out. So now, it's more like The Art of the Steal with his phony as hell Bibles, watches, coins and now a post assassination attempt statue after his ear was grazed by something very questionable. He won't stop at anything until he's stopped and it's up to all of us to help make this happen. Also, the six injustices of the Extreme Court failed miserably to do the right thing.
Like, like, like, like, like!!!
That's why I chose "Hypocrite". Everything about his Bible/God Bless America/Constitution is blatant hypocrisy. It would be honest for him to admit that he's one of the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse, or even the AntiChrist himself.
So funny!!!
Yes, the hypocrisy of the Bible selling was the question, but with our lives on the edge of a cliff about to be pushed off, it was the wrong question for the situation we’re in.
But if you want to know, while we call it a huckster’s move, the big picture is that Trump supports the Bible and a white Christian country and the other side complains about it. (The fine details don’t matter, especially to the people that like what he’s selling. ). It’s the same with every one of the lies. He doesn’t regret calling for the execution of the Central Park Five even after they were found innocent, because the message he wants to send is that he is for killing black criminals (even if innocent ones die. What’s so bad about that? They could have been guilty. They’re black men after all.).
He's his fathers son racist all the way.
He don't believe in anything but enriching himself and his MAGA followers. His contributers have dried up so he has to sell Bibles and shoes to get by.
Remind Republican women that even they can miscarry.
There is no other choice, Keith. If we don't, we will never have choices again!
Yes the American women are the majority. They know it too but they continue to try to downgrade Kamala at very chance they get. At this point they can't do very much comparing her record to his record. He's a coward. He's scared to debate her because he knows he'll loose.
All other issues are secondary to the fact that the Republican Party is RACIST.
Trump is a misogynist. Their nightmare is that they might need him to be their protector. This is why Hannibal Lecter is relevant to him.
I agree. Trump doesn't mind killing a few people like (1) non-whites, (2) any whites that don't worship him.
I absolutely agree. It's not "might," He and his "Project 2035" is the root of it all.
Misogynist... true. But perverted really describes everything he touches.
Cheers... GH
Remember, women: will you be able to live with yourself if you vote for a RAPIST? Can you be a rape enabler comfortably? (Yes, I am shaming you.)
Just maybe the are happy with a president that grabs a woman by her pus*y. He has about 19 women that have come forward to file charges against him now.
What is still and always lacking in the conversation around Harrises electability is a call out to men to stand up and be counted as “Real Men” AND voting for Harris! You are out there. Why are men vocally sitting back who support Harris? There are many men who support reproductive rights for women as a basic Citizen Right. There are many men who do not believe women are incapable of stellar leadership (They live and are supported by them!). Where are the Men? Their partnership is the Wall we need against Trump. Women don’t need to be led by the nose. Men don’t want to be led by the nose either. Side-by-side facing our nations greatest threat this century, should be cause-enough for Men to be loud and proud of their support of women and Harris/Walz. So again: Where are the Men?
How can any sane woman vote for this putrid man that doesn’t respect women ???
Trump wants “ some kind of punishment for a woman getting an abortion “? If he’s in office why ever try to have children…. If there’s something wrong with the baby and it becomes unviable - he’ll make you carry it the full 9 months - What would the punishment be? Institionalized? Prison? Sounds kinda Nazi and kinda 3rd world dictator.
Let’s ask all the men out there that produce such offspring, do you want to desert your wife or girlfriend carrying an unviable baby dying inside her for months just because she wants an abortion ? What if you had a dead or dying organism living in you? Oh that’s alright, you shouldn’t get too stinky before you die.
Agree with you Susan. Here is the real possible nightmare for women. T gets elected with his MAGA morons. He continues to appoint even more fascist judges beholding to him. He will continue to abuse women and have laws passed allowing any abuse of women at every level of society. Now he will be free to date his daughter even though she is married. Do you think her marriage would stop him. The current T Supreme Court would probably go along with it, with Justice Thomas writing the lead opinion. Can't happen here? Look at history. When people like T really get the power no one is safe. Harris for the White House, Trump for Jail. Cheers... GH
". . . date his daughter even though she is married" ??? Hel-l-o-o-o?? Have you never heard of incest, Mr. Harmon? You don't date your own daughter, married or not!!!
Klare, I'm pretty sure Donnie Trump would commit incest at the drop of a hat. Trump has no moral borders, ethics, shame, or compassion. Zero. Your horror at the idea tells me you haven't really plumbed the depths of his depravity yet.
Ms. Kasica, I love how people size me up without ever having even met me! I understand full well the depths of Trump's depravity!!!!! How many letters have YOU WRITTEN TO TRUMP, TELLING HIM EXACTLY WHAT YOU THINK OF HIM????? NONE, ZIP, ZERO, I'LL BET! ALL THE LETTERS I WROTE TO HIM WHILE HE WAS STINKING UP THE NATION'S WHITE HOUSE ARE PROBABLY EVEN IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, IF, THAT IS, THEY WEREN'T WHAT HE WAS FLUSHING DOWN THE TOILETS THERE! I'd just as soon kill Trump as ever have to hear his HIDEOUS, NASALLY VOICE EVER AGAIN! AND, TOWARDS THAT END, IT'S TOO BAD THE GUY IN CALIFORNIA GOT CAUGHT OUTSIDE TRUMP'S WEEKEND RALLY THERE, WITH LOADED GUNS AND AMMO IN HIS CAR!! DAMN!!! TOO BAD THE POLICE GOT TO HIM BEFORE HE COULD UNLOAD ON TRUMP! A third would-be assassin . . . Please, No. 4, step up to the plate!
Klare K. Lighten up. I was being facetious. Trump is the one who said he would date his daughter, if she wasn't his daughter. What kind of a sick pervert would even make a statement like that. My point was that when people like him become dictators all bets on normal society laws and rules go out the window. Why take a chance on this pervert. PS> I don't have a daughter but if I did I would never leave her alone in a room with T.
Cheers... GH
The truth is, he always had his hands on her. He's sick and disgusting FILTH. PLEASE God, send another assassin, only one who knows how to carry it out! Any former Secret Service or FBI agents out there wishing to do A REAL SERVICE TO THIS NATION???
Susan, please don’t sweat the sick stuff in the mind of a very “small” man.
Hugh. Dude. Wake up. The sick stuff is the point about T and JD, and half of the country is about to vote for these two perverts. Cheers... GH
I am proud to say both my husband and I are voting for Kamala and Tim!
Keith--I don't know if the effort will end the stupidity, but it will go a long way in correcting it.
Donald, I'm glad you commented today. You are a fountain of knowledge about resources. I wanted to ask you if you knew where I could get in touch with any group that is working on abolishing the electoral college and moving to the popular vote. I am determined after this election to use my energy on this problem and on climate change. If you do know of any, I would appreciate the information. Thanks!
Peggy, in my comment today for the Coffee Klatch, I addressed it to you. Did you not see it? I looked up Electoral College-abolishing pursuits, and I found that the group 538 AND Elizabeth Warren are working on this.
Yes, Klare, I did see your post and have been doing that. I'm sorry I didn't respond earlier and thank you for the resources. Things have been a little hectic getting back into the routine after good old Milton paid us a visit! I will begin working on this after the election. Thanks again!
Common Cause? Maybe they are working on getting rid of "Citizens United." Just look it up online. Go to your web browser and type in "abolish the Electoral college" (without the quotation marks). What is there will certainly come up.
Every woman should be voting for Harris! It makes no sense any woman would vote for a sex offender, convicted felon, conman and misogynist. I just don’t get it! Unless you ladies want to go back to the dark ages when women had no rights!
Right on Judi S. If the women who support T think his, JD and the 2025 plans are a good idea, then they should go live in Iran or Afghanistan for a few years. It would give them a taste of the Trump/2025 future. Oh... can't buy a plane ticket without your husband's or some other mans permission? Oh... they control your passport too. Oh... I forgot, you won't even be able to apply for a passport once these monsters get in power. Oh... changed your mind? Oh... to late for you. JD already thinks women without children shouldn't get to vote. What about men without children? Next stop according to the religious right is to repeal the 19th Amendment. Oh... that's the one that took 146 years to allow women to vote. Don't think it can't happen here. Go buy a current copy of Mother Jones and and read the articles about what the far right "Christians" are really up to. It ain't democracy. Cheers...GH
Not Human, just a rampant fatal virus!
I HOPE AND PRAY
SUB-HUMAN
If Trump gives JD Vance, the same power he claims Kamala Harris had during her stint as this country's Vice President we would have no need to elect Trump to anything. Mr. Trump seems to have found a problem that has plagued our political system ever since its conception. The Vice President is referred to as the invisible man, or in this case the invisible woman. VP's never have and never will have the power to do anything. All power revolving around the decision-making process comes direction from the President, the VP is little more than an assistant to the commander and chief. Trump's assertion that all our problems are directly related to the efforts put forth by Kamala Harris during her position as VP of this country, is as stupid as he is.
Donald, I would submit that Trump’s deceptive and repeated reference to Harris’s role in making policy he portrays as failed policy, as with much of his manipulative rhetoric, is less an indication of his stupidity than his banking on the ignorance of a substantial segment of the population. I imagine most, if not all, of us on this site attribute his effectiveness, barring some exceptions, largely to a broken Fourth Estate that has failed to subject Trump’s words and deeds to critical scrutiny, let alone provide context, background or any meaningful sense of which claims hold up and which are misleading.
One thing we heard a lot during Trump’s rants about Joe Biden was that he wasn’t actually running the country because he was senile. My point is that Trump is showing frequent signs of dementia and will not be running our country again even if he is elected. My question is, who, besides Putin, is pulling his strings? Leonard Leo, billionaires like Crow aiming to preserve their assets, the oil companies, or the nefarious international brotherhood of hoodlums?
Susan, I believe the powerful in the GOP as well as the ones you mentioned are pulling his strings. I believe it is their intention to get him elected and once in office, they will use Amendment 25 and put JD Vance in the oval office.
I agree. I think that is the plan. A true servant of billionaires.
Peggy Freeman: I believe that if Trump is elected, he will be dead in three months either by heart attack or hard-to-trace poison. However, his death won't help. We have his Supreme Court, Vance and all the Congress people who think Jan. 6 didn't happen to contend with.
I agree, Barbara! That is why it is so very, very important to make sure voters get to the polls in November! We absolutely have to defeat the orange man this time around. If we don't, we may not ever get another chance to even vote! Vote blue, America, up and down the ballot!
Susan, I believe the dynamic is less a matter of who is pulling whose strings than it is a transaction wherein each party has a role to play in serving one another’s greed and self interest.
Susan, if you look at the creators of Project 2025, you will have the answer to your question. And those folks are looking at Victor Orban and Putin for inspiration.
Quite right Barbara. I add that the 4th Estate is complicit, because it is corporate, and corporations have one goal, one purpose, and that is to survive, and in their world, survival is profitability,progressive politics are a threat to their survival, as they pose a threat to the profits of not only media corporations, but those who advertise and thus produce the profits for media corporations.
An analogy, do you think Evangelical denominations and the Catholic Church, and Islam would embrace feminism, abortion, and LBGT rights?. No, they would have empty pews and masjids.
William, Your comment rightly recognizes that the news media constitute a commercial, profit-driven enterprise. The question, in my view, is whether news media meaningfully can engage in public service and nurture the public trust and still make a sufficiently decent profit or whether the desire for bigger profits invariably drive media owners to provide popular rather than significant content.
I think, at this point, Trump knows he'll loose the popular vote but the electoral system is what we need to worry about. Remember the last two Republican presidents won by the electoral college votes.
He's consolidating most of his resources in Pa, N. Carolina, MI, WI. We're still registering more new Democrats.
Trump has an internal problem.
“In every swing state, except for Nevada, the number of Nikki Haley [primary] voters far outpaces the [margin] between Trump and Biden in 2020,” said Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Haley Voters Working Group and an adviser to the Haley Voters for Biden super PAC. “In all those places, if you can get 20 percent to vote for Biden and another 5 to 10 percent who don’t vote at all, that’s going to be the difference-maker in this election.”
https://www.haleyvotersforharris.org/
That is hopeful to know! Thank you, Daniel
That galls me Trump, his surrogates and the media plays along and blames Kamala for all of the failures to do anything, and she can't fight back by telling the truth, that the VP has no power, because she is running on experience. The media and talking heads, even "liberal" ones aren't fact checking this right wing assertion.
LBJ and Harry Truman are examples in my lifetime of the importance of the VP. Would either of them have become president on their own? Probably not, but they both made significant impacts - positive and negative - once they succeeded their presidents. Imagine, then, JD Vance succeeding his president… and be very afraid of that image.
Good point Don. I seem to remember the story, hopefully correctly, when FDR died Truman had no, or very little, knowledge of the atomic bomb program. Even seems even FDR may have kept his VP in the dark. Cheers... GH
He is both a hypocrite and a con artist; it boggles my mind that people actually believe his lies! I am very worried!
I must be an exception to the rule that men without college degrees vote for TUMP. I don't have a degree from a college and i would not vote for Donald TUMP if someone held a loaded 9 mm pistol to my head. And why do some people put a ''Mr.'' in front of his name?? He doesn't deserve be addressed as a Mr. anything. He is the worst form of filthy scum on the planet. I may not have a degree, but at least i am intelligent enough to know better than not to vote for the despicable rotten bastard. I have NO respect for that monster whatsoever and hope he dies soon! The world would be a much better place if he was dead and gone! Same thing goes for that MUSK punk ass SOB.
And you would know better than to use your degree to lie like the devil himself and write a 900 page document about how to take over the world, and how to kill anyone whom you hate or whom you want to destroy in a fit of revenge. I offer you an honorary degree in my heart!
Well said, John!
I like your fervor
Thank you, Susan!
I would like to add, i am not normally a person that is bitter and has feelings of hate, but the fascist dictatorship agenda that the former Republican Party and Donald TUMP and his corrupt minions tend to bring out ugliness in me. I think of millions of our soldiers from here in the United States and Canada that died in battle to preserve our Democracy and squash fascism and the unspeakable actions of Adolf Hitler and his henchmen. I have watched TV programs about Hitler and they would show actual footage of mounds of dead bodies he had beaten and starved to death in his concentration camps. Who in the hell wants that kind of thing???? I have tried to explain this to people i have encouraged to vote blue that are TUMP followers, but it doesn't seem to register with them. TUMP followers are impossible, they are so brainwashed by his lies and false rhetoric that they will never change their tiny minds. I have never seen so many formerly good people be taken in by this con monster TUMP. They are so gullible and ignorant and makes me wonder if they even graduated from elementary school. I only wish i had been able to finish my Tech College education, but after a year, i was totally broke and had to get a full time job just to survive and lead a somewhat normal life. My parents were struggling financially and i just didn't have the heart to ask them to lend me the money to finish. I had quite good grades in there too which made it much harder on me.
John, I do not think that anyone is taken in by Trump's lies and bullshit. It is that they just don't care. Trump is their avatar. They perceive him as a means to tear down a society that they feel hasn't listened to them, or a society that has diminished and threatens their personal power and status.
Christians run this country, they are dominant in politics and business, yet we have Christians playing victim, because their dominance is threatened.
Males run this country, politics, business, entertainment yet they complain and play victim.(Check Real Time, Bill Maher, October 11th on Youtube, and fast forward to the rants of Panelist Tim Sexton, but first the interview with guest Tim Walker, an Evangelist.
The take away is that being knocked off your pedestal or dominance and oppression, is perceived as being victimized.
I was raised in a project by a single mom, a high school drop out, who joined the service, as an enlisted man. 26 years later I retired as an officer with a bachelors degree, 2 years later a Masters.
Anyway I don't think these people are gullible, they perceive Trump as their messiah, their savior who will restore them to power and social status.
Well put John. But let's hope he loses the election and his next 50+ court cases. Hopefully some judge will put that traitor in jail for life. At that point I hope he lives a long time behind bars. Didn't he say likes revenge? This won't be revenge but justice. Cheers... GH
I have a question, Gary. Isn't there any way that Kamala Harris can sue the RNC for the slanderous lies that are being broadcast in their TV ads that are being broadcast every few minutes? I couldn't even relax Sunday afternoon watching football games and those never ending ads lying about her. Most of them are lies about the time she was a prosecutor and have nothing to do with being a president. They are irrelevant and immaterial. These ads make a troubling level of anger well up in me. I finally started turning the TV off when these lying ads were being broadcast. I wish Kamala would sue these psychopaths. RNC stands for: Reprehensible Narcissistic Cretins?
I would LOVE to see him put in solitary confinement in prison with absolutely no possibility for parole. Only provide him with muddy and contaminated water to drink and stale moldy bread to eat. Donald TUMP is evil and rotten to the core and make him suffer like he has made us suffer with his arrogance and total disregard for the average citizens of our nation. Could it be that TUMP is a horrific clone of Adolf Hitler?? Their actions are almost exactly the same.
All such stats, Mr Phillips, should be caveated with the majority or percentage.
Not all Evangelicals are Trump humpers, not all Catholics are misogynists, but it takes extra words to caveat statements.
One would expect that all LGBT are progressives, liberals or least anti Trump, but that is not so, take Caitlin (Bruce) Jenner for instance.
One would expect that since the Republican party and MAGA is in fact driven by racists and antisemites, that there would be no black, brown and Jewish Republicans, especially MAGAts, but we know that is not true, Look at all of the Jews, Blacks and Hispanics in Trump's orbit, and in the Republican party.
Power is one hell of an aphrodisiac, and it takes money to get power.
Good point. When was the last time Jenner had dinner at T or JD's house?
Cheers... GH
You are so correct. Example: I have a first cousin the is LGBT that is a huge TUMP fanatic. I used to like to talk to him and visit him occasionally, but now i have nothing to do with him. The rest of his immediate family are tried and true democrats. I was quite shocked that he worships and praises the evil and corrupt Donald TUMP. I do not know his name right off hand, but look at the governor, or whatever he is of North Carolina. My Hispanic neighbor is another one that adores Donald TUMP. Power could be the ultimate aphrodisiac that drives these despicable people in the Domestic Terrorist Party.
It boggles the mind doesn't it? John. How people could actually champion politicians and movements that would eradicate them. I am sure that there were some Jews who actually voted for the National Socialist German Workers Party, and then in 1934, the plebiscite that confirmed Hitler as chancellor
I have seen signs "Feminists and queers for Palestine".. They would not last a day in Palestine, much less an Islamic country.
I totally agree with you, William. All of this has my head spinning, round and round. I won't ever forget a German man and his wife weeping while standing in front of where their residence used to be in Berlin at the end of World War 2. There was no home left and they stood there mumbling to themselves, '' Why did i ever support and cheer for Adolf Hitler??'' I saw this on one of the many documentaries about Hitler and the NAZI regime. This makes me wonder what these gullible and ignorant people that worship and reap praise on Donald TUMP are going to say when he enacts his evil Project 2025 on us and we lose our overtime pay and Social Security and Medicare and Obamacare and SNAP benefits? And oh, i forgot the vital and important National Weather Service?
On one of the documentaries i have watched, the narrator begins the program with the statement: '' This is a definitive guide of Adolf Hitler, the most hated man in history!'' I would like to declare, this is America and Donald TUMP, home of the most hated man in our history!
What I see is ignorance, denial and the bandwagon effect.
Ignorance because they don't keep abreast of anything, except perhaps Facebook and Twitter. The internet, social media, has brought all of this down.
TV is an echo chamber for the faithful and converted. Radio is 24/7 right wing hate radio. Progressive stations were bought out by Sinclair or iHeart (Clear channel).
People left and right, jump on the bandwagon that most approximates their proclivities.
If the bandwagon has agenda a, b,c, d and the person has interest only in a, b, they become loyal advocates of c and d, because they are told or led to believe that this is the agenda of their bandwagon.
On the right you have patriarchs and misogynists who support Putin and his Ukrainian genocide, because Trump is supported by and a friend of Putin.
On the left there is anti Semitism because that is the thing now, thanks to Arab students and Arab influence in universities.
The mentality is that you have to eat the whole pie, and not just slices.
Why does the United States let a convicted felon and treasonous creep run for President??? That in itself is a total disgrace and a horrible stain on the reputation of our nation. I have been told by a lady i have talked to that moved to Canada in order to protect her precious children from getting possibly getting shot and killed at school. But, you know what, Donald TUMP does not CARE! I would love to move to Canada myself, but at my age it would be a logistical nightmare for me. I have financial resources to go, but i can't. They do have rather strict guidelines also for non citizens relocating there.
Canada requires that you bring $250,000 into the country, as well as jobs, if you want a residence visa, unless you are seeking political asylum, at that moment that applies to the likes of Syrians, Afghanistani's, Sikhs, Bangladeechi's, etc but not Americans.
I wonder if that will change if Trump gets elected and starts fulfilling his pledge or revenge.
The right wingers that support Trump, arent capable of thinking beyond their immediate fears and needs. They are driven by the amygdala, the lizard brain, and the thinking brain, the prefrontal cortex, is anesthetized
They know what they want, and they want it now., and are totally unable to consider the logical consequences of their desires, just as an addict is unable to weigh t,or chooses to ignore he consequences of their addiction. Speaking as a former nicotine and alcohol addict.
Another good point. Those "queers" were one of the first groups Hitler went after and those that didn't get out in time died along with the other "traitors" Hitler hated. Cheers... GH
He is everything we know to be horrible, lying, disgusting, sick, perverted, menacing, predatory, desperate and wholly incompetent and unfit …. There’s so much and so little time.
Mike ; but who really wants "horrible. lying, disgusting, sick, perverted, menacing, predatory, desperate or wholly incompetent and unfit?". It will not take much time for voters to figure this out.
It will be too late
I hope most will not want the horrible choice.
Correct Mike. T is everything your parents and mine taught you not to be. I guess T's father and maybe mother missed that class on how to be a good parent. Cheers... GH
Coming from the UK I am very worried about the implications for the USA IF Trump wins. America will not be great anymore.
EU here, Diana - All my friends are obsessed.
The EU has shown who they think will win, They are, as Macron, kissing the ass of the shadow president.
Hedging their bets. Kamala is trustworthy over NATO, but Trump needs managing.
Trump has already said as much that he will pull out of NATO, that is after all what his buddy Putin wants.
Yes, that is the assumption over here in Europe. But I wonder if the American war industries would let him. Hard to imagine they would support a president that would have them miss out on the perfect situation - supplying sophisticated and expensive arms to a war on foreign soil that didn't involve American troops on the ground. Especially against Russia - the bogeyman they were created to fight against!
Here is a copy and paste from Salon.
"But there is a more authentic and real deep state, identified by scholars and the Left. In “The Power Elite,” one of the most important sociological books of the 20th century, C. Wright Mills wrote that America was ruled by a triangle of unelected elites: wealthy corporate elites allied with top civilian government leaders and the military. This is a true deep state largely organized around corporate class interests both at home and abroad, sacrificing the jobs of ordinary working Americans of all races for the profits of “the 1%"
https://www.salon.com/2024/10/12/deep-state-and-uniparty-to-defeat-trumps-american-caste-system-democrats-need-a-realignment/?lh_aid=112154&lh_cid=09o75dmape&lh_em=myocicats%40gmail.com&di=03faee485b687a6545f0a924fcdff8e0
I have one problem with that statement, otherwise I agree. The Military has no power, it is simply a bullet fired from a gun, and the gun is held by the Commander in Chief, the President.
The Military can not and has never acted in the history of this country on their own volition. the chain of command starts with the president, and his ability to act has been limited by congress and the courts.
I am a regular retired officer, and know how the military works. Even the Generals can't act on their own. When significant service members retire, and by that I mean service members who have networks built on personal relationships and jobs, they are often hired as 'consultants" by large corporations.
Build contracts are approved by Congress, which funds them, And all too often the military has to accept or keep equipment it doesn't want, because an important congress critter has that supplier in his district
For years, the Air Force and Congress have clashed over the service’s attempts to retire older aircraft in its fleet, a move intended to free up money for modernization—a strategy dubbed “divest to invest.”
In the 2023 NDAA, lawmakers are prepared to let some retirements go through. After the Air Force asked to retire 21 A-10s, one provision in the bill would allow that process to go through by reducing the congressionally mandated size of the fleet from 171 to 153.
The Navy has the same problem. Gordon R England, then Secretary of the Navy, a VP of General Dynamics, a job he returned to after retirement from the government
and his allies in Congress fought to build more littoral combat ships even as they broke down at sea and their weapons systems failed. The Navy wound up with more ships than it wanted, at an estimated lifetime cost that could reach $100 billion
The ships have been retired and used for target practice and as reefs.
Congress uses DOD as a piss boy, to placate constituents and donors.
Let me stop you Alternative, it is not the American War Industries, nor are they specifically American.
When Eisenhower mentioned the Military Industrial complex in his farewell speech, people stopped thinking. People need and want simple answers, that
leads to scapegoating. Blaming he MIC is a left wing equivalent of blaming the Jews.
Ir is more complex than that.
Take a major defense Contractor, Raytheon
Raytheon Technologies Corporation (RTX) is owned by a variety of shareholders, including institutions, the top 15 shareholders, and individual investors:
Institutions: Own around 81% of the company's shares
Top 15 shareholders: Have a combined ownership of 51%
Capital Research and Management Company: The largest shareholder, with 9.8% of shares outstanding
BlackRock Inc. A top beneficial owner of Raytheon, with 6.6% ownership
Vanguard Group Inc: A large shareholder
State Street Corp: A large shareholder
Dodge & Cox: A large shareholder
Morgan Stanley: A large shareholder
Do a deep dive on those institutions for instance Black Rock has a major investment in media, entertainment,health care, as does State Street, Vanguard, Morgan Stanley, and those companies are global, and foreign sovereign funds own large portions. Vanguard is owned by its funds, which are owned by the funds' shareholders. This means that Vanguard's customers are the owners of the company. Vanguard does not have any outside shareholders., but the owners of their shareholders do.
Ownership is protected by the Board of Directors of corporations.. The investors select a chairman of the board, and a CEO/President.
It takes a lot of time and patience to do a deep dive as to who owns who, and whose interests are protected. I will say this, that today the economy is global,as are investments. For instance China, Saudi Arabia,Russian oligarchs may not bedirectly invested in say Boeing or Raytheon, but they are invested in Corporations,(Public or private equity funds) that are invested in corporations, that are invested in corporations that are invested in Boeing and Raytheon.
Boeing doesn't manufacture it's airplanes, ir assembles it's planes.it does manufacture parts, but it subcontracts including to China, .
Modern war equipment from field electronics, to tanks, ships, planes, missiles rely on computer chips. The major supplier of chips is TSMC, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. And it and every other manufacturer of chips rely on a Dutch town of Veldhoven, near where sits the only factory capable of assembling a revolutionary machine that’s relied upon by the world’s biggest chipmakers.
EUV lithography is the most expensive step in making the advanced microchips that power data centers, cars and iPhones. The machines are made by only one company: Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography(ASML)
The damn thing is global
But it isn't the world wide military industrial complex that drives wars, though they are the beneficiaries, it is men. the ego's and needs of men that power human conflict and suffering. And it is not just the profit motive either, the profit motive is driven by ego needs.profit means wealth, wealth means power, power feeds the ego.
I loved that video! I am so glad you began doing those videos and then creating this substack! I get so much information here. Thank you, Professor Reich and Ms. Lofthouse, for these Coffee Klatches! I love them every Saturday! I chose the first one because the orange man is so obviously one of the most infamous con men ever! He even puts Jim Bakker to shame! I agree with Ms. Lofthouse that women are essential in this election. When I talk to women that I know are MAGA, I simply say that their husband has no idea which candidate you choose when you get in that voting box. I tell them if they believe Kamala has a better platform and if her ideas resonate with them, then tick that box! I have also asked people who say they won't vote for her to let me know their reasons. If they don't come up with any sound reason, I ask them if it is because she is a woman which they very quickly deny and then I will ask them if it is because she is a woman of color which makes them really angry. That's when I know they are probably racist and mysogynists. I will keep talking right up until election day. We have got to ensure a win for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Vote blue, America, up and down the ballot!
Men fear intelligent women.
One of my neighbors, an elderly lady, thinks Harris is stupid, because she laughs a lot, and thus plans on voting for Trump. A machinist neighbor, male and not a youngster, dislikes Harris for smiling a lot, but at least he loathes Trump. Many people form impressions and make voting decisions as if the candidates were only running in some kind of Twilight Zone beauty contest.
Personally I love intelligent women. Especially my bride of nearly 46 years!
What I can't come to grips with are the people who say, "I just don't know enough about the woman." Is your middle name "Stupid?" There are only two choices on the next Presidential ballot that hold any possibility of ever sitting in the Oval Office. One is Donald Trump and the other Kamala Harris. I'll be the first to admit the writer of this post is no genius, however being stupid is something I take great pride in avoiding. Trump is a ragging moron, while Kamala holds our future as an individual who recognizes a fascist when she sees one. Voting for our next President is an easy thing when Donald Trump is the alternative. Everything about Trump is in a shrunken condition or absent all together. The young lady has my vote for our future. Go blue...
In my opinion, the "I don't know enough about the woman" is a fiction, a creation of the media,with the NYT leading the charge trying to force her to sit down for an interview, so they can hit her with gotcha questions. Progressive politics are a threat to corporate power and profit.
They know enough. They just won’t say that they will never vote for a woman.
Agree, Diane. Saying "I don't know enough about Harris yet" is just a euphemism for "I would never vote for a woman" or "I would never vote for a Black person." Or heaven forbid, a Black woman.
How can it be that millions and millions of Americans want to support a bona fide sociopath . . . This says more about "us" and our country . . . It is jaw-dropping and an ominous reflection as to how damaged our politics and country are at this time in history . . .
Peter, he's a bona fide psychopath. He's way beyond a meek and mild sociopath.
Musk is the single greatest threat to democracy now
The sad thing about Trump is that his criminal actions have been normalized by so many of Americans that love the idea he is their bully that stands up for so many men of all races as a role model. They seem to ignore that fact that fraud is illegal and criminal.
I chose, "He's a clever businessman," but I do NOT regard that as a compliment nor as a qualification for public office. Being what is considered a successful businessperson today requires the ability to cheat both your workers and your customers to make the maximum profit for yourself. Given that the voters constitute both the "employees" and the "customers" of government, no voter with any sense should vote for someone who is adept at cheating them in both roles (nor should they buy cheap bibles from them).
He is not a successful businessman. That’s the illusion he’s parlayed his entire life, including via the scripted Apprentice show and even earlier when he lied his way onto the Forbes (not Fortune) wealthiest persons list early in his career. He’s a successful extractor of capital for himself, a remorseless gilded street hustler with the cold keen instincts of a hardcore predator. He’s sucked the financial life out of every company he’s owned and the small businesses he stole from to prop them up, and left them all as crippled shells. When all the other Atlantic City casinos were booming, his were in decay and bankruptcy. He even dwindled the large inheritance from his father. It’s often been said that if he had put that money into a simple mutual fund, he’d be far wealthier today.
Trump is not a businessman; he only played one on TV.
Thank you for pointing out this unfortunate situation.
However, in my humble opinion, I would like to also add to your excellent assessment that it might be better to use a different word than "successful" to describe the cheater-business leaders.
It is due to our culture's misguided attitude of overvaluing money and power as being the measure of a "successful" businessperson. Although "clever" is also basically a positive term, at least it is sometimes used to have the negative meaning of "SUPERFICIALLY ingenious or witty."
I would prefer the term "cunning," which, according to my Oxford American College Dictionary has the main meaning of "skill in achieving one's ends by DECEIT."
I agree; I've made a slight amendment to my answer.
Maureen ; "He is a clever business man" who went bankrupt 6 times.
How can you call a person who has to date bankrupted six major companies either clever or successful? He is a failed businessperson.
I think Inequality Media needs to put together a video showing why people will be better off economically under Harris than Trump. This is going to be hard because Harris represents the status quo while Trump represents taking money from the middle class and giving it to the rich and the oil companies. It looks like a President Harris would have to govern with a Republican Senate and House of Representatives, not to mention a partisan Supreme Court. The Republicans will work to ensure that President Harris does almost nothing. By contrast, a second President Trump would have the Congress and the courts on his side. In other words, he would have unrestrained power. He plans big tax cuts for the rich while cutting FEMA, Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare, food safety, etc. The first problem is convincing Harris to funnel more of her $ Billion into Senate campaigns because the prospect of total GOP power is overwhelming. Second, how do you explain to people who believe the economy is bad right now, that it could be so much worse under Trump? He promises high tariffs that will inflate the price of everything, and he will blame the resulting inflation on Biden. Even Trump's promise of spending money on the Department of Defense is hollow when he can't get along with our NATO allies. As far as men, Trump plans to further emasculate them by getting rid of public education. Under the Republicans, the government subsidizes education for the rich by tax cuts and "school choice". School choice leaves American males further and further behind. Under Trump, American men will lose everything except their guns.
Peter - Although she could give them more (and should) at least she has given them some. Unlike the other candidate who has not given anyone else a dime. I too fear what will happen if the Republicans take back the Senate but that advantage has already been baked for this election cycle it seems. The house is what I am hoping that we have a better chance at flipping.
If you plucked out his eyeball, his head would collapse into his chest cavity.
Folks, we must remember that the Kamala Harris campaign is trying to defeat, at the ballot box, the most intense and financially wealthy political cult of fascism in political world history. Not in any time in world history have we ever seen the financial support to defeat a great democratic experiment like the U.S. constitution and create a fascist dictatorship. Elon Musk, Peter Theil, and the leaders in the fascist party know exactly what they are doing. They are using the orange monster idiot to "sell" anger and hate towards black and brown people, AND anyone who may sound like a person who may be a little more reasonable and smarter than them? Look at the cults of David Koresh and Jim Jones. Their followers were willing to DIE rather than listen to anyone who begged them to get out of the cult. The Trump cult, enabled by the richest and greediest people in American History, may end the wonderful experiment of the United States. Sadly, we STILL have almost half of the eligible voters in the United States WHO NEVER VOTE!!!! Without a major change in the voting participation rate in the United States, we are doomed eventually.
I think you're right. Once we let money into politics we were doomed. They got the power to destroy democracy with the passing of Citizens United and the "corporations are people" loophole. Thank you SCOTUS and Heritage Foundation/Federalist Society.
Money has been in politics since he first election. It took money to print handbills, it took money to travel on horseback or coach., it took money to campaign.
The first election was John Adams vs Thomas Jefferson, Adams won because he had the financial support of Boston and Philadelphia merchants., he lost the re election probably because of alien and sedition act, alienated his financial supporters.
There must be a way we can get money out of politics. It is ruining us. Please Dr. Reich, after the election, would it be feasible to discuss alternate ways of funding election candidates?
well Pamela, there is a way to do anything, however it requires a majority in congress and an executive that agrees, It also requires, if it changes the constitution, 2/3rd's of the congress (house and senate) need to agree and 3/4th of the states must ratify the change.
A steep hill indeed. That's why it took 146 years to pass an amendment to give women the vote. All of the women who will vote for T don't seem to realize the 2025 plan will eventually reverse progress for women back before 1920 when they finally got the vote. The new name for our country will be Ameristan. Good luck to girls and women when that happens. Cheers... GH