Yesterday we were discussing whether it was appropriate to refer to Ron DeSantis as a fascist. In my comment I referenced Lewis Powell's "memo" to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (in 1972) which I belive was the focal point of America's shift toward corporatism. Thus, the republican party has been supporting the tax evasion of people like Mr. Wynn for the past 50 years. Tax havens such as the Cayman Islands are directly the result of republicans doing what their donors (like Wynn) demand. Having enough IRS agents to actually audit the wealthy tax cheats is, to me, a significant step forward in causing the "wealthiest among us" to pay their fair share. Sadly, many of them feel their "fair share" is finding ways to pay no taxes at all. (Trump called that being "smart") This would be consistent with what I referred to as Musolini type fascism - the corporate/government alliance. Bravo for the democrats getting this legislation passed. Voters, however, MUST be aware that giving POWER back to republicans will cause this "step forward" to be reversed. (Which is exactly what Mr. Leo intends to accomplish with the $1.6 BILLION in "dark money")
This is exactly the sort of 100% lie that the GOP can rely on to inflame their base. Their base want to hear this. Their base doesn’t even care if it is shown to be a lie. Dem candidates and Dem messaging have to quote less than one sentence of actual text from the legislation that is enough to expose that it is an unequivocal lie to inflame Dems and Indies so that they actually vote.
“Get this TRUTH out!” Instead of metal detectors at the gates of the government, install Lie Detectors. And if we contract with a made in Russia or Hungary, the repubs will buy it. So disappointing and frightening we cannot trust the repubs. Yet, for half the country, trust and truth are not top considerations.
It’s amazing to me, and I’m sure many of you, how many of our fellow Americans are Willfully Ignorant! This monetized Corruption has been growing for many years because we have allowed the Greed of the few to become the Greed of the Many.
It’s no longer a :
GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE
BY THE PEOPLE
FOR THE PEOPLE
And to tell the truth, I’m not sure if it ever was!
There is a constant theme here. The USA was conceived to protect the power of the wealthy, with a thin veneer of democracy to make it look or feel better.
I am aware that change is something very difficult to effect, after all every American must swear allegiance to the Consititution. But where are the influential people - like you Mr Reich - pointing out that 'US democracy' is little more than a not-very-democratic veneer on a system intended to do pretty much what it is doing?
Steve Wynn is asking Ronna ROMNEY MCDaniel and Newt Gingrich to lie to help him avoid paying taxes. Well, Wynn has come to the right people for help. Both those characters have been lying for a living for many years.
Each time Trump had a tweet tantrum during his presidency, Gingrich would dutifully push away from his wine and pasta in Rome, and tweet a convenient lie supporting Trump. This was how he paid for his wife’s cushy government job as ambassador to the Vatican. Nice work if you can get it.
Ronna ROMNEY MCDaniel dropped her maiden name because Uncle Mitt displeased the very sensitive Baby Donald. She also has had the RNC pay Trump’s legal bills, since Trump, the billionaire, can’t pay his own bills.
So Steve Wynn is asking experienced liars to do his bidding. I guess that makes him a smarter employer than Trump who doesn’t require experience or intelligence, only the willingness to kiss his ample bottom.
This is the structure of corruption that has received the blessing of the Supreme Court via Citizens United.
So far I haven't heard anyone in the media ask what is Trump's reason for stealing secret documents. Certainly not for his own personal use. He had no use for security briefings when in office. Was he planning to sell them to foreign governments? Has he already sold some? This would move the needle from simply removing documents to espionage.
The difference between honest people and Mafiosi is that the latter only care about their wallets. The combination of lies and dark money is their business method. Ooops! Have I just spoken about the GOP?
It’s like they don’t realize that what they’re doing is, basically, going to destroy America as we know it. But yeah, keep letting the stinking rich not pay the taxes they owe, and if one of their mansions catches on fire, they can’t use the fire department! And yup, no police, either! Need some road work on the public streets around their properties, pay for it your damn self!! They want or need Any public services, ummmmm No!! They should be happy, we’ll let em keep water going to their places, but they have to supply their own electric!! Just Fk em ALL, we’d be So Much better without their cheap asses!! Maybe send em all to the damn moon, or Mars! There they can do whateverTF they wanna do!!
i assume the elites' end goal is for average americans to end up as modern slaves? what will they do after they've accomplished this? will they declare war on each other (using us as their soldiers) as they fight for the position of supreme leader over the planet? this america-as-dystopia looks rather like a modern version of Game of Thrones ...
Ever since Ronald Reagan so effectively characterized that government is the problem, people have forgotten what should be the first lesson in civics education - for over 800 years government has been the tool of the common people to reign in excess power and abuse by (first) kings and later by other rulers and exploiters. Reagan succeeded with the same 23% or so who are MAGA believers. Add in the moneyed interests who see government only as an obstacle to their exploitative plans along with the fringes and crazies - there you have it, the Republican coalition. Civics education, drawing the line from the Magna Carta to our Constitution, could help people see that government should be of the people, for the people and by the people. Stop money in politics!!
If (and when) US democracy falls due to destruction from within it won’t be because of trump. This cancer started long long before him, and most certainly with Reagan. Everything you describe in this article is due to the inability of a democratic counterforce to put a halt to the internal destruction that has been going on for decades. At every turn, Republicans have eked out victories that ended up being written in stone. Reversing some of these most consequential anti democratic attacks on American society will be impossible or will take generations and spilling blood.
The Machiavellian machinations by Republicans have succeeded because democrats have brought stones to an AR-15 fight.
Citizens United. . . The Federalist Society. . . Marble Freedom Trust
There it is the whole story. As long as the average voter on the street is ignorant of those three subjects, nothing will change. It is the job of the media to inform us.
I have one piece of advice to the Democrats: Attack or die.
Yesterday we were discussing whether it was appropriate to refer to Ron DeSantis as a fascist. In my comment I referenced Lewis Powell's "memo" to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (in 1972) which I belive was the focal point of America's shift toward corporatism. Thus, the republican party has been supporting the tax evasion of people like Mr. Wynn for the past 50 years. Tax havens such as the Cayman Islands are directly the result of republicans doing what their donors (like Wynn) demand. Having enough IRS agents to actually audit the wealthy tax cheats is, to me, a significant step forward in causing the "wealthiest among us" to pay their fair share. Sadly, many of them feel their "fair share" is finding ways to pay no taxes at all. (Trump called that being "smart") This would be consistent with what I referred to as Musolini type fascism - the corporate/government alliance. Bravo for the democrats getting this legislation passed. Voters, however, MUST be aware that giving POWER back to republicans will cause this "step forward" to be reversed. (Which is exactly what Mr. Leo intends to accomplish with the $1.6 BILLION in "dark money")
This is exactly the sort of 100% lie that the GOP can rely on to inflame their base. Their base want to hear this. Their base doesn’t even care if it is shown to be a lie. Dem candidates and Dem messaging have to quote less than one sentence of actual text from the legislation that is enough to expose that it is an unequivocal lie to inflame Dems and Indies so that they actually vote.
What a shock, the Republicans leaning into more lies, excuse me while I do a heavy eye roll.
“Get this TRUTH out!” Instead of metal detectors at the gates of the government, install Lie Detectors. And if we contract with a made in Russia or Hungary, the repubs will buy it. So disappointing and frightening we cannot trust the repubs. Yet, for half the country, trust and truth are not top considerations.
It’s amazing to me, and I’m sure many of you, how many of our fellow Americans are Willfully Ignorant! This monetized Corruption has been growing for many years because we have allowed the Greed of the few to become the Greed of the Many.
It’s no longer a :
GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE
BY THE PEOPLE
FOR THE PEOPLE
And to tell the truth, I’m not sure if it ever was!
There is a constant theme here. The USA was conceived to protect the power of the wealthy, with a thin veneer of democracy to make it look or feel better.
I am aware that change is something very difficult to effect, after all every American must swear allegiance to the Consititution. But where are the influential people - like you Mr Reich - pointing out that 'US democracy' is little more than a not-very-democratic veneer on a system intended to do pretty much what it is doing?
Thank you, Robert Reich. You’ve spelled it out. We have to stop the dark-money people. Tax ‘em all!
Steve Wynn is asking Ronna ROMNEY MCDaniel and Newt Gingrich to lie to help him avoid paying taxes. Well, Wynn has come to the right people for help. Both those characters have been lying for a living for many years.
Each time Trump had a tweet tantrum during his presidency, Gingrich would dutifully push away from his wine and pasta in Rome, and tweet a convenient lie supporting Trump. This was how he paid for his wife’s cushy government job as ambassador to the Vatican. Nice work if you can get it.
Ronna ROMNEY MCDaniel dropped her maiden name because Uncle Mitt displeased the very sensitive Baby Donald. She also has had the RNC pay Trump’s legal bills, since Trump, the billionaire, can’t pay his own bills.
So Steve Wynn is asking experienced liars to do his bidding. I guess that makes him a smarter employer than Trump who doesn’t require experience or intelligence, only the willingness to kiss his ample bottom.
This is the structure of corruption that has received the blessing of the Supreme Court via Citizens United.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
So far I haven't heard anyone in the media ask what is Trump's reason for stealing secret documents. Certainly not for his own personal use. He had no use for security briefings when in office. Was he planning to sell them to foreign governments? Has he already sold some? This would move the needle from simply removing documents to espionage.
The difference between honest people and Mafiosi is that the latter only care about their wallets. The combination of lies and dark money is their business method. Ooops! Have I just spoken about the GOP?
It’s like they don’t realize that what they’re doing is, basically, going to destroy America as we know it. But yeah, keep letting the stinking rich not pay the taxes they owe, and if one of their mansions catches on fire, they can’t use the fire department! And yup, no police, either! Need some road work on the public streets around their properties, pay for it your damn self!! They want or need Any public services, ummmmm No!! They should be happy, we’ll let em keep water going to their places, but they have to supply their own electric!! Just Fk em ALL, we’d be So Much better without their cheap asses!! Maybe send em all to the damn moon, or Mars! There they can do whateverTF they wanna do!!
i assume the elites' end goal is for average americans to end up as modern slaves? what will they do after they've accomplished this? will they declare war on each other (using us as their soldiers) as they fight for the position of supreme leader over the planet? this america-as-dystopia looks rather like a modern version of Game of Thrones ...
oh, did anyone see the f-word in a washington post headline? https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/06/03/trump-protests-fascism/ i was going to congratulate robert reich (and president joe biden) for starting a trend but noticed the piece is 2 years old ...
Ever since Ronald Reagan so effectively characterized that government is the problem, people have forgotten what should be the first lesson in civics education - for over 800 years government has been the tool of the common people to reign in excess power and abuse by (first) kings and later by other rulers and exploiters. Reagan succeeded with the same 23% or so who are MAGA believers. Add in the moneyed interests who see government only as an obstacle to their exploitative plans along with the fringes and crazies - there you have it, the Republican coalition. Civics education, drawing the line from the Magna Carta to our Constitution, could help people see that government should be of the people, for the people and by the people. Stop money in politics!!
If (and when) US democracy falls due to destruction from within it won’t be because of trump. This cancer started long long before him, and most certainly with Reagan. Everything you describe in this article is due to the inability of a democratic counterforce to put a halt to the internal destruction that has been going on for decades. At every turn, Republicans have eked out victories that ended up being written in stone. Reversing some of these most consequential anti democratic attacks on American society will be impossible or will take generations and spilling blood.
The Machiavellian machinations by Republicans have succeeded because democrats have brought stones to an AR-15 fight.
Citizens United. . . The Federalist Society. . . Marble Freedom Trust
There it is the whole story. As long as the average voter on the street is ignorant of those three subjects, nothing will change. It is the job of the media to inform us.