Donald Lambert: Jack Smith is calling their bluff about whether the Supreme Court is ready to give tRump absolute lifetime immunity from criminal prosecution. Let's see what they are made of!
It's obvious which way corrupt cross-eyed Clarence and his luxury gift-loving partner in crime Samuel will vote. Five votes from the other justices will seal the deal and keep the mango madman from being immune from his multiple crimes now and in the future. No person can be above the law, especially any president, vice president or legislator.
It has not been just Trump. GOP turned thugs a long time ago. Stock market and bank failures, wars, lies, etc. Money all at the top few. Privatization, monopolies, CEO robbery, International no regulation banks, etc. They've been at the grift level for along time.
I can’t swear to it, but I think Ike’s administration was MOSTLY on the square — perhaps as much as government ever was, when the wealthy and powerful too often felt they were exempt people who could make their own rules, and law-and-order was a ruse to keep the masses in line. {Am I too cynical here?} But I think Ike was the last of his breed in the Republican Party.
Seems like every Republican administration — bar none — since then has been shifty. I don’t say Dems have been angels — and some of their private behavior was reprehensible, like Slick Willy and his girlfriends; and our behaviors on the international front under both parties have too often been abysmal, vis a vis spies and “imperial interference” — but Dems have not had Nixonian Dirty Tricks and outright criminality like Nixon’s plumbers, Reagan and HW Bush’s Iran Contra, and just about everything Dick Cheney did in eight years. I’m not even letting Gerald Ford off the hook, since he pardoned Nixon.
All in all, Republicans have shown they will get up to any chicanery they can get away with — Mitch McConnell, anyone? Kevin McCarthy? — and Dems have shown they color inside the lines most of the time, at least domestically.
NOW, even if they are not outright fascists, the Republican Party is enabling fascism, with legislators somehow believing the fascists have the power to vote them out of office, if they don’t play along. Is the Republican Party that far gone that the fascists outnumber those who support actual democracy?
If men were punished for having affairs few would be left in government. Few in jobs period. Wives have rights but people's personal lives are not the most critical part of a job.
Mmmm, I’d like to agree with that, but I worry that stability would be undermined if the terms were too short.
But we have far too many judges with lifetime appointments, and we’ve seen how people like Trump and the Heritage Society and Mitch McConnell can gum up the works for generations
Well, it SEEMS like this should be a slam-dunk he is prosecutable, but in light of no bodily autonomy and paper entities are people and money is speech … well, let’s hope they don’t find a way …
They swore an oath of office just like most government employees to the Constitution. If they fail to protect it...out they go We already want them gone for profiteering for votes. 2 fake cases went to the Supreme Court and no one noticed? Not even their aids?
If they rule it for Trump then Biden should have great powers to get his way. After all he is still in power. Trump is not.
If the Supremes follow the law.."precedence" exist now.
1. In the past we had a king. King George of the East India Corporation.
We in America finally decided we didn't want a monarchy. We decided we wanted a democracy by the people. We won the Revolutionary War declaring our independence. We kicked King George and his royals out of America.
State Representatives gathered and decided how our leaders and agencies would work. The people ratified our Constitution and Bill of Rights. We are still adding amendments to it in modern day to be "a more perfect union" as a democracy.
Every year we celebrate that independence of being a democracy on the 4th of July. No kings who are above the law has been decided for hundreds of years.
2. Hitler a dictator and Fascist was defeated in WWII. We Americans did want a dictator who jailed and killed on a whim. No one is above our law neither king or dictator.
It is simple Supreme Court. No king or dictator Trump is allowed power under our Constitution and laws. Stop delaying this traitor and do your duty for a speedy trial for We the people.
tRump actually taught the Republicans how to become Mafia type scumbags snd threaten people and do all sorts of nasty things in our political system. TRump and all his cronies need to be drummed out of politics. We need people that actually represent the people in the legislature and the court systems.
I studied the rise of fascism in Germany a long time ago in college. I always knew it could happen here, as a theoretic but unlikely possibility. I knew deep down that people and the security of our democracy were not as commonly thought say for example by the NYT. But I am like you now. The rise of ubiquitous concentrated polarizing media, along with decades of concentrated centers of power/wealth, and decades of disregard (at best) for the American people by Congress, is a perfect storm.
It seems clear, at times (when Trump is in the kitchen, nothing stays clear for long), that Mango Man has informed historians who tell him that it would improve his chances if he had some Commies to slap around. With patience, he might be able to mix up an artificial communist threat out of wokism, critical race theory, antisemitism and cosmopolitan elitism. Fortunately, he doesn’t have the patience for that kind of cooking, but unfortunately his MAGA core will eat anything.
I live in cognitive dissonance since the ride down the elevator. Cause and effect, the disruption and dismantling our processes which have experienced workers overall and causing the rule of law to be duplicitous and self serving. It protects and leaves a treasonous former president to continue to "rule" and some republicans see it as a way to power. I see no plan from them. Yet I will stop because none of the questions today relieve my disbelief and wonder why he is not in jail along with a few other...........we need to turn the ship around before it hits the iceberg of reality of consequenses.
You have to remember we don't have the supreme Court anymore. Not really. There are five religious nuts on the supreme Court three of which were put there by Trump and the other two are taking graft and hiding it into all kinds of hidey holes that we don't know about. Do you realize in South Dakota, of all places, you can stash billions of dollars and nobody will tell. Welcome to the Soviet Union or Russian federation or whatever it's called. The Republican politicians in our Congress and probably in our Senate are dirty as hell.
Yikes! I always think that if I learn something new every day it is a good thing. Well I did NOT know about South Dakota and not pleased to learn such a fact!!! Yet to know is better in the long run. re: supreme court...It was my hope for fairness and actual justice. I am also still angry re: Mitch McConnell's double standard of judge appointments. "As my stomach turns.."
If they did decide that, right now, Joe Biden would be immune from prosecution and he could do whatever he wants. He could, for example threaten dire consequences for anyone investigating/charging/saying anything negative about Hunter Biden. That possibility could be a deterrent to such a decision. Maybe that's one reason Trump is so upset about Jack Smith's appeal to the Supreme Court.
Carolyn - thank you! i never thought of that. even clarence thomas might be able to understand the implications. hey couldn't biden arrest all the congressional participants in the insurrection? arrest ginni? i mean, really throw their asses in jail? wow! skip habeas corpus, and also throw the orange slug in jail, as well as all his corrupt lawyers. oops, now i'm starting to sound like orangie. better calm down, i was getting giddy.
Franklin. Both were Progressives but Franklin had more reason to move for democracy than Theodre.. He was of the elite but wanted a better society and life for Americans. The elite tried to kill him but he never talked about it...giving them power.
His wife, Eleanor was a force to behold also. Many children, a difficult mother-in-law and a paralyzed husband. Yet she was out there with the troops and poor, etc.
If she were alive today the RW would have had time taking female rights away. GOP act like they hate them back to the Dark Ages of the oppressive and tyrannical church rule. The GOP can't go forward only backwards with their policies and Mega. They have no real message but revenge.
They are supposed to represent us all when in power (since we the people pay and protect them) yet they only listen to 20 Megas.
HEY! I think you’ve got something there …. {of course, a President CAN be impeached and kicked out of office, but in the meantime, think of all he could do … }
I like the “nobody is above the law” standard, myself, but maybe your thoughts, Carolyn, will serve to hold the court back from making a nasty mistake.
What’s good for one president is good for another. If they rule that way, any president, including Biden, can do anything. Is the Court really okay with that? Are Republicans?
Shall we strike " high crimes and misdemeanors" from the Constitution? Maybe we can exonerate Nixon at the same time. And it might be fun to strike "sin" from the Bible.
Ask the electronic media moguls and producers why Ukraine suddenly disappeared from their reporting. You would think the conflict in Ukraine stopped on October 7 when Israel was attacked. Do we suppose that public support for Ukraine is helped by the sudden loss of interest by the media? Abandoning Ukraine is unthinkable and stupid from a security point of view. We must support their ongoing struggle to stop Putin. (Republican party today has no bottom. They will do literally anything at all to acquire power. They have no regard for our country, our people, our obligations around the world or at home. The unreported underlying question is; who is financing their madness ???)
There should be severe consequences for bringing impeachment charges with no evidence much the same as frivolous lawsuits. This society is way too litigious because we fail to punish this nonsense!
That's the purpose of elections. That's the theory anyway. We have an enourmous amount of such nonsense going on at state level in Missouri. I would like to see legal consequences in addition to elections. Our state attorney is able to delay an abortion petition on the ballot for many months without any consequences to him. Heck, our Republican legislature ignores passed ballot measures and the Missouri Supreme Court. It is a lawless group in many ways.It sounds extreme to say this, but it's the truth.
Of course they will make up stuff. They and their media accomplices will produce a gun and give several bogus reasons why the gun is smoking and some will say "yeah , I see the smoke clearly."
One lawyer representing insurrectionists said they were claiming to be "ghost busters at the Capital coup." The judge said stop it right now with that bull. She should have fined them for wasting court time.
It is mostly because Trump demands it, but it also because of an older marching order from Newt Gingrich of "No Compromise, No Cooperation" that has led to Trump. Think about it. The Republicans are willing to give Ukraine to Putin and risk a European war to prevent Biden from getting a political win.
Considering that Republican political strategy is oriented around the courts, because they don't have policies anyone wants, it's obvious to attack President Biden through with law... something the Republicans corrupt as a basic strategy..
If Putin overruns any NATO country before Biden leaves office, we will be at war. People generally support wartime presidents. I wonder if Trump and the Republicans have thought of this.
This is true, of course, but I still think in this case a lot of people would fall behind Biden. He didn’t lie and a lot of Americans have European roots. But let’s hope none of that happens.
No but Biden is complicit with RW con Netanyahu lies about his mercenaries Hamas to get money and power. Both Israelis and our military in harms way because of Netanyahu. He wants Iran, Lebanon, Syria, etc. His "perceived enemies". Millions could die.
Netanyahu wants more billions...and on it goes..genocide, mercenaries and settlements on other people's land. Zionist Jews never owned it but want us to pay and die for it. 75 yrs of the same thing. STOP It now. It is foolish. The world knows it. Why doesn't Biden?
Ukraine needs a PAC like Israel has (AIPAC, second largest in DC). Money gets influence and Israel has lots of that. The Russian/Ukraine war is an existential threat to the world, Israel/Hamas isn’t, but Israel knows how capitalistic cronyism works.
By threats of ruining our politicians for their own agenda? I think it is bribery not capitalistic cronyism. It stinks from those who call us their friends. What was 911 to get us to war for Israel? Seems to me both Americans and Israelis are "collateral damage" for RWers in Israeli agenda of power and wealth.
They can only bribe us if we let them and they know how to play our players. Israel will inevitably win the conflict in Gaza, at least in the short run, and both Democrats and Republicans want to take credit for helping it happen, ideally at the expense of the other. Remember, Obama didn’t “love” Israel enough and Netanyahu slammed him in front of OUR Congress. Bibi’s best friend went on to win in 2016.
Hamas is a mercenary group formed and paid by Netanyahu. Hamas kills everyone they are told to kill..."collateral damage" including Israelis. Three Israelis dead by "mistake" were planned. Look like gays to me. Had a white flag of surrender as a joke? No I am against them being killed regardless of who they are. Once RW gets all the oil in ME do you think we will prosper? They are playing games with us and Russia. Israelis in the streets don't trust him why should we?
"Less informed?' the Republicans are complicit. Traitors.
The OPEC/Saudi/Russian cartel fixes energy prices. Saudis control our largest refineries,, and companies like Exxon. The inflation and the funding for the Russian war on Ukraine is funded by those prices.
Meanwhile, 2,700 pages of information from U.S. intelligence and that of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies about Russian efforts to help Trump win the 2016 presidential election. It's IMHO all about Russia, Russia, Russia. Cassidy Hutchinson told the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol last year that she thought Mark Meadows took the unredacted binder with him. Meadows is in denial.
Mueller found 10 counts of obstruction by Trump after his investigation of Russian influence on the 2016 election. Mueller found that the Russians were guilty of aiding Trump. Garland failed to file a case based on that finding.
In questions of national security, all involved should have to appear before grand juries. I'm sure the CIA and FBI have other means to get to the truth.
Again, as I have said MANY times: had "The January 6th Insurrection" occured in the 1700s, Bunkerboy would have been HANGED on January 7th for his HIGH TREASON! (We were at war in Iraq, making it HIGH treason.)
A lot of their voting base is less informed and they need those folks to win. Sadly, being well-informed doesn't result from soundbites, so they have an advantage with that.
Yes, it's often about soundbites and the Democrats couldn't message their way out of a wet paper sack. The Lib-Talk.com web site is a collection of "sound bites" to deflate Maga sound bites (lies). It's interesting and if you like to pick on the Maga folks on social media and in the comments, it is about providing the ammunition to do it.
Daniel Solomon: The CIA and FBI should use all means! And appropriate punishment if guilty! Treason is as treason does.They are our enemies! This is something that can't be rationalized.
Maga republicans don’t care about anything but making Biden look bad. They don’t care about national security that’s for sure! All they want is power over us all!
Partially agree. Without that caring the briefings they get go in one ear and out the other. The main reason they are there in Congress seems to be that so that they can be there in Congress and acquire power and financial reward.
Trump is a total dope, for openers. He's also dangerous. His attraction to the likes of V. Putin and Kim J. tells it all. He's a bully and both Vlad and Kim are his kinda guys Trump and his brand of frenetic government needs to be rejected - soundly, at the polls. His loose handling of sensitive intelligence docs should be viewed as near-treasonous. Like I noted above, he's dangerous -- reject him!!
It is hard to understand cult mentality. Trump cost Fox $787 million, cost Rudy Guliani $148 million and an endless list of Jan 6 insurrectionists their freedom for months and years. There is not enough room under the Trump bus for the people he will throw there to aid and abet his retribution. Mr. Speaker, Messeres Comer, McCarthy, Gaetz and the House Trump minions, there is still room under the bus for you. Stop the madness before you pay the price.
First, it’s not an Israel-Hamas war, it is Israel trying to wipe out the Palestinians, using Hamas as an excuse. Don’t forget that Netanyahu admitted he boosted and supported Hamas for a long time, and then ignored the signs that Hamas was planning to attack. Of course it’s never morally justifiable to kill innocent civilians. I’m very critical of the coldness with which you talk about what Israel is doing, when more than 18,000 Palestinians have been killed. This is not a chess game, or a matching of wits. If you’re worried about Trump, why aren’t you worried about all the people being killed in Gaza? Do you not care because they’re far away?
Yes, we all have to keep Trump out of the Presidency.
Robert, I thought you had retired from teaching. Who were the students you sat down with?
Protests only when Jews fight back. No one has ever even heard of the 700,000 Muslim Rohingya expelled, or 10,000 murdered. All Muslims but Jews didn't do the killing, only Burmese or Chinese or Alewites. No demonstrations for the 3-400,000 Yemenis killed by Saudi and Iran, no demonstrations for 200,000 Syrian civilians murdered, none for the millions of Muslim Wyugurs imprisoned in concentration camps by China, no demonstrations for 100, 000 Armenians expelled, no demonstrations for 4 million Afghans ordered expelled from Pakistan and Iran just in the last month.
The only reason the West Bank is governed (such as it is) by the Palestinian Authority is due to the insistence of Jimmy Carter. It was controlled by Jordan, which was supposed to be the "second state" in 1948, but had trouble governing. See Black September.
The only reason Gaza is not controlled by Egypt, is that Carter and Sadat, who was killed by the Moslem Brotherhood, bargained land for peace. "Palestinians" were and are at each other's throats and refused to participate, even when it benefitted them.
However, 20 years later, Arafat bargained for the boundaries established by the Oslo Accords, which remain US policy.
Netanyahu has lost his position to "peaceniks" before and will again. He lost in 2009 and again in 2021. Israel had two prime ministers in 2021. Under a rotation agreement, Naftali Bennett of Yamina Party initially served as Prime Minister but ultimately ceded the position to Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid Party, after the coalition fell on June 30, 2022.. Lapid became Prime Minister on July 1, 2022. Due to the collapse of the government, Lapid served as caretaker Prime Minister until elections were held on November 1, 2022, and Netanyahu returned to office. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Israel
IMHO the real power in the Mideast is Saudi Arabia, which could put together a deal in a minute. Israel is a speck in a sea of Arab countries.
Israel has always been a speck in a sea of Arab countries from the beginning. DA! You want them all to be RW Jew Arabs now? Jews in America are more than Israel but still only 3%. You are a minority religious group. More Muslims world wide than any religious group. Im not worried being either of them. I worry about fanatics of any religious group. History has proven that fact.
Oh forget it. RW Jews did bad things for 75yrs. Some Jews collateral damage for RW Netanyahu's agenda to rule and kill em all. Don't point a finger at others when blame is in front of you. Your paranoia is ridiculous about students wanting to kill you all. That's what RW Jews do not American students wanting a solution.
Not only "yes", but "Hell yes" we should give Ukraine the aid it needs, and not just because Putin will otherwise win. If we bail on Ukraine now, the entire western world will consider us unreliable feckless allies who could not, and should not, be relied upon. In the eyes of the Russians, Chinese, and Iranians, we will be considered weak, irresolute, and more easily disregarded and dominated. NATO will be weakened, China will become much more influential, regional wars will be more likely, and the move to authoritarianism will accelerate world wide.
Aid to Ukraine is essential. What I find most peculiar is the total lack of hitorical argument in favor of such aid. I am only 82, so was not alive when the relevant history was made. There are confirming news reels about it. The Prime Minister of England (Chaimberlan) returned from a multilateral peace conference just before the onset of WW II. Mr Hitler promised he was finished with expansion in Europe in exchanke for about 1/3rd of Czechoslovakia. It was given to Him and Chamberlain proclaimed he had bought "Peace in our Time." Shortly thereafter, Hitler attacked Poland and WW II officially began. The parallel is exquiset. Putin will not stop at Ukraine. The only question is which country is next.
Ukraine is the door to the rest of Europe. If we can’t protect the door, Europe potentially will also fall but before that we have a WWIII. Frightening
I’ve been “talking”with a smart young woman pro Palestine. Her blindness to even try to hear another view or think of other reasonings, is appalling and scary as H. Her “thinking” (emotions) jump to different interpretations of what we hear until we are not even on the same page. Sad!! I can talk well usually with people with whom i disagree, but hard when the same words have different meanings.
The republican do trumps and Putins bidding. The republicans do not works for the American interests or for the American people.
As for the impeachment of President Biden the republicans were successful in raising doubt against Secretary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election and they are doing the same thing with President Biden.
It is NOT a good economy. Ask the single mother making $15/hour, who is paying more for groceries, gasoline, health care, housing, than she did in 2019, 2020, 2021. . .If Biden can't fix this he's finished.
I don’t understand how anyone can think that Biden can fix this problem in less than 4 years. It’s taken decades from the 1970s to get us in the situation. Biden has been working to make headway. But only morons can possibly think that any president can fix the mess that started with Republicans in the 1970s and that Reagan made significantly worse. It is going to take time. And if idiots vote to return Herr Pumpkinfuhrer to power, it won’t be Biden that is done, it will be Americans.
I just wish President Biden spoke more openly and adamantly about the economy. IMO Martha is right on the money (pun intended). He could speak to all the great antitrust work that Lisa Kahn at the FTC. Maybe he could show up at an antitrust hearing, who knows. Similarly to how he stepped out to join the UAW picket line. Actions like these matter! He is not powerless!
The corporations, especially the groceries corporations, have found they do not need to reduce prices. There is insufficient competition, hence the need for anti-trust suits.
I could argue that President Carter failed to control inflation. Reagan and Thatcher adopted Milton Friedmans model of monetarism resulting in a high FED rate (18% in 1980). And inflation did come down rapidly:
1980: 13.55%
1981: 10.32%
1982: 6.13%
1983: 3.22%
1984: 4.30%
1985: 3.55%
1986: 1.90%
1987: 3.66%
1988: 4.08%
1989: 4.83%
1990: 5.40%
1991: 4.23%
1992: 3.03%
(In the UK I had a secondary mortgage at 17% in 1980.)
However, the FED rate did not come down until 1992 at 3.2%
Also, Reegan spent heavily on defense that provided jobs, and forced USSR to ramp up their defense budget at the expense of the civilian population. The demise of the USSR is a very complex story, and I am no expert, but I think we owe a lot to Reagan for the collapse of the USSR.
Nope. That's what The Economist magazine proclaimed in 1988. But nope. Russia has never - go back to Peter the Great - been able to overcome the problems of mass ignorance, too much geography, not enough arable land, not enough efficient distribution, too much investment in weapons, too much national suspicion, obstinacy, religion, mysticism, alcohol, class and caste fabulism, and despotism. They did it to themselves. It is true that leading up to Reagan the USSR was spending 1/3 of its GDP on weapons. That's comparable to the US. But nobody wanted to invest in Russia. Nobody. So Stalin and Khrushchev actually saved the nation financially - oil and nuclear power - at the expense of every other part of civilization. Remember Glasnost? How many scientists, artists, did a bunk? And then came Putin. The future, as Masha Gessen wrote, became history.
Well, whose fault was it that the Russian civilians are ignorant? As you point out centuries of the Czars treating the people as peasants. Then Lenin, Starlin, and Khrushchev. Decades of oppression and brainwashing with threat of execution or the imprisonment in Siberia for any dissidents.
Who would not be ignorant?
Here is an interesting article on the demise of the USSR and Reagans influence. Concluding it was not Reagan's policy that caused the implosion.
I understand your frustration with the economy. I am a person of very modest means, too. However, this next election will determine whether we exist is a democracy or slide into fascism. If one thinks things are tough now, an authoritarian leader who is drunk on power will only make matters worse. Much, much worse.
You are 100% correct but why anyone would believe that Trump will help them is an absolute mystery.
The Republicans want their base fighting the culture wars instead of seeing that they are being taken to the cleaners in the economic wars. Warren Buffett said that there was a class war and his side was winning. Ordinary Americans are hurting economically. Trump said the game was rigged and he knew because he took advantage of it. Somehow his base believed he would help them and voted for him. He won't help them but he was talking about the Corporate Democracy Reagan had built which made a lot of billionaires but made everyone else and the nation the poorer for it. Joe Biden's State of the Union speech was about changing the economy back to the Citizen Democracy we had from Eisenhower until Reagan, America's most prosperous time.
My family loves Trump because he isn't afraid to go after the Democrats. The lies of the right wing media have convinced them that the "Democrat" Party wants to destroy America and is responsible for all their problems and the country's decline. Trump is their hero in their fight against the Democrats. We need to address the power of the right wing media over so many of our fellow citizens to have any chance getting rid of the MAGA curse in our country!
There is no getting rid of MAGA! It is like saying “Getting rid of HAMAS” is an answer! Unfortunately, humans have very little time left otherwise the real answer would be to finance public education at a level which would teach critical thinking skills!
I cannot recall the last time I saw them reading a book. Most of their information comes from fake reality TV shows, like "Mountain Monsters and "Ancient Aliens", and Fox "News", especially the smirking Jesse Watters. In their defense, they are mostly good people and I love them, but it's tough sometimes.
It must be very hard, @Tim Baldwin. I am sorry to know this. I had a rightwing dingbat dad who did massive damage to the world, and was a mean sonofabitch with a violent temper. It was only decades after his death that I was able to understand how he got that way. Forgiveness is another story.
@MikeyB, it has nothing to do with Trump's economy or his promises, IMHO. But some facts: During the first part of the Trump administration the prices for housing, gasoline, health care, groceries, were significantly lower than they have been since Covid. Greed ran rampant, unregulated, and today it costs 47% more to buy a house than it did in 2019. Today it costs less to rent a house all over the United States than it does to buy a house. Here is the fact no politician can say: There are too many people. It would take more than 5 planets to give every American kid alive today what I have, and I don't have that much. It's over. It's a rat fight.
I don't think his supporters really believe what he says,they just dumbly go along w/ it.I have read articles where people were deprogrammed and they were disgusted w/ themselves and shocked that they let him do this to them.Some peole love a 'cause'.
Food stores are cheating now making packages smaller, etc. Publix doubled their share prices and profit. Food Corporations have to be stopped. Nixon did it. We have to since we now produce little of our own.
Yes, Judith, i have noticed that too. I would estimate they have reduced the package sizes by at least by 1/3 or about 35%. I have almost completely stopped shopping at Publix, even though my youngest son has worked there 21 years now. My son also said he is frustrated with the treatment of employees in the past 2 years. I don't know if you know this or not, the top Publix executives have donated to the Orange Baboon millions of dollars. They have jacked up their costs for groceries way more than the other grocery stores in my area. A 2 liter Dr. Pepper costs $3.75 at Publix, and costs $ 1.80 at the Wal Mart superstore here.
Up until the year 2018 i had a garden, but it seems to soil is worn out and my last garden was a disaster as the plants were doing good and then suddenly they turned yellow, then brown and the leaves fell off of them. The drought that year didn't help either.
Plant some clover, spread mulch and rebuild your soil. Til it in. My grandfather hired a farmer to do that for him. Farmers do it all the time where I grew up in WNY.
They grew wheat, corn, peas, potatoes, etc. Dairy farms mostly. Now that has changed since Reagan moved them to CA and AZ. I saw a lot of corn only. Amish raise sheep in WNY not far from Lake Erie. The Eden farm soil near the lake is so rich they still grow a lot of vegetables, etc. for WNY and Buffalo food markets. Apples in open markets in WNY are $0.55 each. Here in mid-Floridan...almost $2.00 each. Ya we are being robbed. It's not like we have to go far to buy apples in Chile, etc.
Maybe you over watered\loved them? Send your soil to a place who tests it for nutrients, etc. Stop at a local farm store for address or check on line. My grandfather was a wonderful gardener. He grew almost all our vegetables and some fruit. He spread straw between the mounded lines of plants to keep moisture there, stop weeds and keep insects away. Install some slow soaking water lines. In the heat this summer little could grow well. Have to time the crops to fit the seasons. Some areas of the country grow two crops, etc. a season like N. Carolina, etc.
I got to weed and pick the berries. Berries paid for the seeds and plants, etc. next season. I cut the lawn with a push mower. Ya... I was slim. I'd get a cold sore from the sun. Prom and graduation in June, I had a cold sore. I know how to stop them now. Store vegetables are tasteless to me now. Miss those Free Stone peaches right off the tree. Yum.
One huge related problem is that all of the pandemic programs that improved ordinary people's lives and helped them make ends meet have expired: enhanced Medicaid benefits, enhanced child tax credit paid out monthly, eviction moratorium, enhanced unemployment payments, student loan repayment pause, stimulus checks. People who were receiving these benefits and now are not are substantially worse off. Dramatically increased prices on basic necessities exacerbate the pain.
I read a report that campaign workers in Georgia are having a difficult time convincing Black voters who were thrown off Medicaid, as millions have been nationwide, that Biden is good for them.
One nation that I'm intimately familiar with -- having lived their for years -- is Japan. The virus hit them too, and they did not shut down their economy. They had adopted rules for decades that helped them deal with other viruses -- like SARS-CoV-1 -- and it turned out to be very effective for Covid-19. They didn't need much in the way of any government assistance.
With a third of the US population -- much more elderly and living in much more densely populated cities and towns -- Japan lost a total of just under 75,000 citizens to Covid. We're nearing 1.2 million with 1400 still dying from Covid every week.
how many hundreds of thousands needlessly died because of Trump and right wing nonsense ? But the press has been pretty silent on the damage the Republicans caused leading up to and during the pandemic.
Steve: 80% were needless. 960,000. And we can't even begin to mourn.
In Japan, there was a lot of deliberation as to WHAT to close. Early on, they suspected it was airborne -- and so karaoke bars were shut down completely. Places where the voice is projected. Japanese are not church-goers... around 1% Christian.
By contrast, South Korea found that churches were a BIG source of transmission. Both countries owe a lot to effective contact tracing.
Look up "pachinko." They are these pinball parlors in Japan -- some of them massive. People sitting shoulder to shoulder for hours. At first, there were tight restrictions that gradually became more relaxed. The Japanese found that there was next to ZERO transmission in pachinko parlors. Even though people were sitting for hours shoulder to shoulder -- the NEVER talk -- and they wear masks. AND the ventilation is outstanding -- due to the days when Japanese were heavy smokers. The effective measures were almost no-cost and so simple. 960,000 needless deaths -- mainly due to ignorance and lack of caring.
It’s NOT up to Biden to fix anything! As it stands now, the Congress has ALL the chips for making change! Read the above comments which point towards the Republican’s position to win at any cost! Republicans no longer are a political entity, they are a cult!
The president signs into law legislation passed by the two houses of Congress. I read President Clinton had the Patriot Act on his desk for a long time. He refused to sign it. Guess the GOP got their revenge with sex, etc.
Yes, the US should provide more aid to Ukraine because doing so shows we keep our promises to allies. Yes because it aligns with and strengthens NATO, a major bulwark within the geopolitical order that supports our goals. Yes because ceding to our enemies the "breadbasket of Europe" and a significant source of lithium is just foolish. And, okay, yes because turning our back on Ukraine gives Putin a big win.
What about them supporting Ukraine too. We rebuilt them and protect them...and what do we get in return? Send money and troops. They barely have any military. We should cut back. Our military budge is way too high. A lot of it missing. Building and hiding bases, etc.
How presidents and Congress love war. Forget them even asking us. US who pay and die without having any say. I'm not impressed if we are sending billions to two counrtries on lies and ambition of RW Netanyahu.
My largest fear is the Supreme Court will decide the President is immune from criminal prosecution….that scares the heck out of me! D in TX
If the Supreme Court rules that trump is untouchable, it will be the end of democracy and the rule of law in the USA.
Won't have to wait for trump to be elected.
It will be a call to the drug cartels to get their "big men" into public office...Venezula, Equador North!
Donald Lambert: Jack Smith is calling their bluff about whether the Supreme Court is ready to give tRump absolute lifetime immunity from criminal prosecution. Let's see what they are made of!
It's obvious which way corrupt cross-eyed Clarence and his luxury gift-loving partner in crime Samuel will vote. Five votes from the other justices will seal the deal and keep the mango madman from being immune from his multiple crimes now and in the future. No person can be above the law, especially any president, vice president or legislator.
Rick Calegari : I agree! Let's see what happens!
Laurie — Clearly Smith thinks the court will rule with integrity — Some of us are not so sure … But I continue to hope …
Pat - I'm glad you can hope. I sometimes feel overwhelmed by dread. My belief in our systems has been deeply shaken.
It has not been just Trump. GOP turned thugs a long time ago. Stock market and bank failures, wars, lies, etc. Money all at the top few. Privatization, monopolies, CEO robbery, International no regulation banks, etc. They've been at the grift level for along time.
I can’t swear to it, but I think Ike’s administration was MOSTLY on the square — perhaps as much as government ever was, when the wealthy and powerful too often felt they were exempt people who could make their own rules, and law-and-order was a ruse to keep the masses in line. {Am I too cynical here?} But I think Ike was the last of his breed in the Republican Party.
Seems like every Republican administration — bar none — since then has been shifty. I don’t say Dems have been angels — and some of their private behavior was reprehensible, like Slick Willy and his girlfriends; and our behaviors on the international front under both parties have too often been abysmal, vis a vis spies and “imperial interference” — but Dems have not had Nixonian Dirty Tricks and outright criminality like Nixon’s plumbers, Reagan and HW Bush’s Iran Contra, and just about everything Dick Cheney did in eight years. I’m not even letting Gerald Ford off the hook, since he pardoned Nixon.
All in all, Republicans have shown they will get up to any chicanery they can get away with — Mitch McConnell, anyone? Kevin McCarthy? — and Dems have shown they color inside the lines most of the time, at least domestically.
NOW, even if they are not outright fascists, the Republican Party is enabling fascism, with legislators somehow believing the fascists have the power to vote them out of office, if they don’t play along. Is the Republican Party that far gone that the fascists outnumber those who support actual democracy?
Well, that’s a damned scary thought …
If men were punished for having affairs few would be left in government. Few in jobs period. Wives have rights but people's personal lives are not the most critical part of a job.
I very much agree. Grift says it all - a mingy, sandpapery word. Wearing down any edge that can be chiseled at.
😥 I hear you, Lark. I hear you ….
Lark Leonard : Yes, these are scary times!
They are all pretty arrogant. Life time on the court? Nope. Change is demanded.
TOTALLY!! People are talking about 18-year terms. I think that’s still to long, tho.
Twelve or maybe fifteen at the most … makes more sense to me.
8 years of long enough.
Mmmm, I’d like to agree with that, but I worry that stability would be undermined if the terms were too short.
But we have far too many judges with lifetime appointments, and we’ve seen how people like Trump and the Heritage Society and Mitch McConnell can gum up the works for generations
Something has to change.
I agree, and I can't see how they can avoid following the rule of law and the Constitution!
Well, it SEEMS like this should be a slam-dunk he is prosecutable, but in light of no bodily autonomy and paper entities are people and money is speech … well, let’s hope they don’t find a way …
Pat Goudey OBrien ; It is sickening to think that they would try to get around it ; and 'succeed'! and get away with it!
Yes, incredibly so. But not beyond them. That’s sad.
They swore an oath of office just like most government employees to the Constitution. If they fail to protect it...out they go We already want them gone for profiteering for votes. 2 fake cases went to the Supreme Court and no one noticed? Not even their aids?
There are those doing insider trading too. They just get away with it!
If they rule it for Trump then Biden should have great powers to get his way. After all he is still in power. Trump is not.
If the Supremes follow the law.."precedence" exist now.
1. In the past we had a king. King George of the East India Corporation.
We in America finally decided we didn't want a monarchy. We decided we wanted a democracy by the people. We won the Revolutionary War declaring our independence. We kicked King George and his royals out of America.
State Representatives gathered and decided how our leaders and agencies would work. The people ratified our Constitution and Bill of Rights. We are still adding amendments to it in modern day to be "a more perfect union" as a democracy.
Every year we celebrate that independence of being a democracy on the 4th of July. No kings who are above the law has been decided for hundreds of years.
2. Hitler a dictator and Fascist was defeated in WWII. We Americans did want a dictator who jailed and killed on a whim. No one is above our law neither king or dictator.
It is simple Supreme Court. No king or dictator Trump is allowed power under our Constitution and laws. Stop delaying this traitor and do your duty for a speedy trial for We the people.
Grift.
oh yeah, having lived several decades I never thought this
1, could happen,or certainly not in my lifetime
2, that it could happen so fast
3, that there are so many people who lack ability to think through cause and effect,and” by their fruits you shall know them”
Are ready to blow it all up because someone says” im fighting fir you, when he’s fighting for himself
I think this has been brewing (deregulations, power of a few) for awhile and Trump took the lid off of Pandora’s box
tRump actually taught the Republicans how to become Mafia type scumbags snd threaten people and do all sorts of nasty things in our political system. TRump and all his cronies need to be drummed out of politics. We need people that actually represent the people in the legislature and the court systems.
Indeed, Lesly - He shook out the box, flushed it down the toilet, and all the problems are now on the loose, flying around.
It took 40 years to build up to this. Even Reagan has been perverted by Trump, a real feat.
Correct
I studied the rise of fascism in Germany a long time ago in college. I always knew it could happen here, as a theoretic but unlikely possibility. I knew deep down that people and the security of our democracy were not as commonly thought say for example by the NYT. But I am like you now. The rise of ubiquitous concentrated polarizing media, along with decades of concentrated centers of power/wealth, and decades of disregard (at best) for the American people by Congress, is a perfect storm.
It seems clear, at times (when Trump is in the kitchen, nothing stays clear for long), that Mango Man has informed historians who tell him that it would improve his chances if he had some Commies to slap around. With patience, he might be able to mix up an artificial communist threat out of wokism, critical race theory, antisemitism and cosmopolitan elitism. Fortunately, he doesn’t have the patience for that kind of cooking, but unfortunately his MAGA core will eat anything.
Scary damned storm!!!
I live in cognitive dissonance since the ride down the elevator. Cause and effect, the disruption and dismantling our processes which have experienced workers overall and causing the rule of law to be duplicitous and self serving. It protects and leaves a treasonous former president to continue to "rule" and some republicans see it as a way to power. I see no plan from them. Yet I will stop because none of the questions today relieve my disbelief and wonder why he is not in jail along with a few other...........we need to turn the ship around before it hits the iceberg of reality of consequenses.
The Twilight Zone was NEVER as strange as this…
What would be their basis for deciding Trump is immune from criminal prosecution? I thought no one was above the law.
You have to remember we don't have the supreme Court anymore. Not really. There are five religious nuts on the supreme Court three of which were put there by Trump and the other two are taking graft and hiding it into all kinds of hidey holes that we don't know about. Do you realize in South Dakota, of all places, you can stash billions of dollars and nobody will tell. Welcome to the Soviet Union or Russian federation or whatever it's called. The Republican politicians in our Congress and probably in our Senate are dirty as hell.
Separation of church (RW) and state has been violated big time. Media never says...take away the RW Churches tax exempt status.
Yikes! I always think that if I learn something new every day it is a good thing. Well I did NOT know about South Dakota and not pleased to learn such a fact!!! Yet to know is better in the long run. re: supreme court...It was my hope for fairness and actual justice. I am also still angry re: Mitch McConnell's double standard of judge appointments. "As my stomach turns.."
We are the Supreme Court and we get to decide.
me too!!! I think I would be (as my dad would have said...) under the jail by now.
It says that "No one is above the law." on the front of the Supreme Court building in DC. They see it everyday as a reminder.
If they did decide that, right now, Joe Biden would be immune from prosecution and he could do whatever he wants. He could, for example threaten dire consequences for anyone investigating/charging/saying anything negative about Hunter Biden. That possibility could be a deterrent to such a decision. Maybe that's one reason Trump is so upset about Jack Smith's appeal to the Supreme Court.
Carolyn - thank you! i never thought of that. even clarence thomas might be able to understand the implications. hey couldn't biden arrest all the congressional participants in the insurrection? arrest ginni? i mean, really throw their asses in jail? wow! skip habeas corpus, and also throw the orange slug in jail, as well as all his corrupt lawyers. oops, now i'm starting to sound like orangie. better calm down, i was getting giddy.
Biden could also arrest Clarence Thomas and put him and his wife in jail.
President Roosevelt would have.
Franklin, Theodore, or both?
Franklin. Both were Progressives but Franklin had more reason to move for democracy than Theodre.. He was of the elite but wanted a better society and life for Americans. The elite tried to kill him but he never talked about it...giving them power.
His wife, Eleanor was a force to behold also. Many children, a difficult mother-in-law and a paralyzed husband. Yet she was out there with the troops and poor, etc.
If she were alive today the RW would have had time taking female rights away. GOP act like they hate them back to the Dark Ages of the oppressive and tyrannical church rule. The GOP can't go forward only backwards with their policies and Mega. They have no real message but revenge.
They are supposed to represent us all when in power (since we the people pay and protect them) yet they only listen to 20 Megas.
LOL
I hope Jack Smith makes this point to the Supreme Court.
Interesting thought
HEY! I think you’ve got something there …. {of course, a President CAN be impeached and kicked out of office, but in the meantime, think of all he could do … }
I like the “nobody is above the law” standard, myself, but maybe your thoughts, Carolyn, will serve to hold the court back from making a nasty mistake.
What’s good for one president is good for another. If they rule that way, any president, including Biden, can do anything. Is the Court really okay with that? Are Republicans?
You & me both.
I don't think it's possible but it is scary.
Shall we strike " high crimes and misdemeanors" from the Constitution? Maybe we can exonerate Nixon at the same time. And it might be fun to strike "sin" from the Bible.
I hope no one is fooled by these antics.
Me too.
With all the CONSTANT refrain that “No one is above the law,” now we have to worry that a brain-addled SCOTUS might claim otherwise.
Egad.
I dunno' honestly. Boofer Brett at least has shown he is on OUR side most of the time . . .
that seems unlikely even for this court so hostile to democracy.
Ask the electronic media moguls and producers why Ukraine suddenly disappeared from their reporting. You would think the conflict in Ukraine stopped on October 7 when Israel was attacked. Do we suppose that public support for Ukraine is helped by the sudden loss of interest by the media? Abandoning Ukraine is unthinkable and stupid from a security point of view. We must support their ongoing struggle to stop Putin. (Republican party today has no bottom. They will do literally anything at all to acquire power. They have no regard for our country, our people, our obligations around the world or at home. The unreported underlying question is; who is financing their madness ???)
I strongly agree. It is criminal that our broadcasters are not covering Ukraine.
Well, Edward Jones and the banking industry are big donors to my Republican Representative from Missouri.
Shortsighted madness is hardly confined to Congress. It's all about short term financial gain for corporate donors and everything else be damned.
There should be severe consequences for bringing impeachment charges with no evidence much the same as frivolous lawsuits. This society is way too litigious because we fail to punish this nonsense!
That's the purpose of elections. That's the theory anyway. We have an enourmous amount of such nonsense going on at state level in Missouri. I would like to see legal consequences in addition to elections. Our state attorney is able to delay an abortion petition on the ballot for many months without any consequences to him. Heck, our Republican legislature ignores passed ballot measures and the Missouri Supreme Court. It is a lawless group in many ways.It sounds extreme to say this, but it's the truth.
And, Patrick, we don't report the information accurately when a frivolous suit is launched.
The number of frivolous lawsuits is historic by any president. Court judges should have a big stamp for them all to save time..."REJECTED".
Excellent point!
I hope the the GoP doesn’t make up stuff and present fraudulent materials at the hearings - that’s really the end of democracy
You're just joking right ? Being sarcastic ?
Of course they will make up stuff. They and their media accomplices will produce a gun and give several bogus reasons why the gun is smoking and some will say "yeah , I see the smoke clearly."
One lawyer representing insurrectionists said they were claiming to be "ghost busters at the Capital coup." The judge said stop it right now with that bull. She should have fined them for wasting court time.
No Superman did not rescue them.
It is mostly because Trump demands it, but it also because of an older marching order from Newt Gingrich of "No Compromise, No Cooperation" that has led to Trump. Think about it. The Republicans are willing to give Ukraine to Putin and risk a European war to prevent Biden from getting a political win.
Considering that Republican political strategy is oriented around the courts, because they don't have policies anyone wants, it's obvious to attack President Biden through with law... something the Republicans corrupt as a basic strategy..
If Putin overruns any NATO country before Biden leaves office, we will be at war. People generally support wartime presidents. I wonder if Trump and the Republicans have thought of this.
Not always. War presidents creating wars for their own popularity (like baby Bush) are not loved. He and his father lied
This is true, of course, but I still think in this case a lot of people would fall behind Biden. He didn’t lie and a lot of Americans have European roots. But let’s hope none of that happens.
No but Biden is complicit with RW con Netanyahu lies about his mercenaries Hamas to get money and power. Both Israelis and our military in harms way because of Netanyahu. He wants Iran, Lebanon, Syria, etc. His "perceived enemies". Millions could die.
Netanyahu wants more billions...and on it goes..genocide, mercenaries and settlements on other people's land. Zionist Jews never owned it but want us to pay and die for it. 75 yrs of the same thing. STOP It now. It is foolish. The world knows it. Why doesn't Biden?
they have visited orban in turkey in his palace and they think this isn’t so bad, (as a rich powerful politician)
Ukraine needs a PAC like Israel has (AIPAC, second largest in DC). Money gets influence and Israel has lots of that. The Russian/Ukraine war is an existential threat to the world, Israel/Hamas isn’t, but Israel knows how capitalistic cronyism works.
By threats of ruining our politicians for their own agenda? I think it is bribery not capitalistic cronyism. It stinks from those who call us their friends. What was 911 to get us to war for Israel? Seems to me both Americans and Israelis are "collateral damage" for RWers in Israeli agenda of power and wealth.
They can only bribe us if we let them and they know how to play our players. Israel will inevitably win the conflict in Gaza, at least in the short run, and both Democrats and Republicans want to take credit for helping it happen, ideally at the expense of the other. Remember, Obama didn’t “love” Israel enough and Netanyahu slammed him in front of OUR Congress. Bibi’s best friend went on to win in 2016.
Hamas is a mercenary group formed and paid by Netanyahu. Hamas kills everyone they are told to kill..."collateral damage" including Israelis. Three Israelis dead by "mistake" were planned. Look like gays to me. Had a white flag of surrender as a joke? No I am against them being killed regardless of who they are. Once RW gets all the oil in ME do you think we will prosper? They are playing games with us and Russia. Israelis in the streets don't trust him why should we?
Who is RW???
Because they know that it will be in the news and just the accusation is implication for many less-informed voters.
"Less informed?' the Republicans are complicit. Traitors.
The OPEC/Saudi/Russian cartel fixes energy prices. Saudis control our largest refineries,, and companies like Exxon. The inflation and the funding for the Russian war on Ukraine is funded by those prices.
Meanwhile, 2,700 pages of information from U.S. intelligence and that of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies about Russian efforts to help Trump win the 2016 presidential election. It's IMHO all about Russia, Russia, Russia. Cassidy Hutchinson told the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol last year that she thought Mark Meadows took the unredacted binder with him. Meadows is in denial.
Mueller found 10 counts of obstruction by Trump after his investigation of Russian influence on the 2016 election. Mueller found that the Russians were guilty of aiding Trump. Garland failed to file a case based on that finding.
In questions of national security, all involved should have to appear before grand juries. I'm sure the CIA and FBI have other means to get to the truth.
Again, as I have said MANY times: had "The January 6th Insurrection" occured in the 1700s, Bunkerboy would have been HANGED on January 7th for his HIGH TREASON! (We were at war in Iraq, making it HIGH treason.)
I don't believe in the death penalty,however,he's the only one that wouldn't break my heart if it happens.
For me, it depends on 1) The severety of the crime and 2) The individual and their mindframe.
A lot of their voting base is less informed and they need those folks to win. Sadly, being well-informed doesn't result from soundbites, so they have an advantage with that.
Yes, it's often about soundbites and the Democrats couldn't message their way out of a wet paper sack. The Lib-Talk.com web site is a collection of "sound bites" to deflate Maga sound bites (lies). It's interesting and if you like to pick on the Maga folks on social media and in the comments, it is about providing the ammunition to do it.
@ Mikey B: I find:
1. Trump hates dogs, and
2. The Trump family charity stole from kids with cancer
deflate most anything a MAGA might have to say.
Mikey B: there is more than enough evidence of tfg's complicity with the Kremlin. And his traitors in government.
We can however write some impressive essays suitable for framing. This stuff should be bulletized and simplified.
I'll offer my services to them. Hah!
https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/restoring-and-strengthening-our-democracy/
Done. I'm sure they'll get back to me.
Marx called them the lumpen proletariat. But Trump and Putin are demagogues. Can sell "snowater."
Daniel Solomon: The CIA and FBI should use all means! And appropriate punishment if guilty! Treason is as treason does.They are our enemies! This is something that can't be rationalized.
I really feel like the democrats especially mr biden are still acting like its 1980’s political landscape, this is survival or gulag
Dan : it seems
That way. I wonder what "The Democrats and Mr Biden" should "act like" ?
Like Bernie Sanders. That would do for starters.
It's about all the Republicans have got, Benghazi 2.0. It is, in the words of Gingrich, "investigating to create an impression of wrongdoing".
Yes..our propaganda expert Gingrich.
Alas.
Maga republicans don’t care about anything but making Biden look bad. They don’t care about national security that’s for sure! All they want is power over us all!
I don't think many of them have a clue about our national security. If they did they would not act so irresponsibly.
They understand national security just fine and it interests them not a bit.
they know,they get all latest top security,they just don’t care
Partially agree. Without that caring the briefings they get go in one ear and out the other. The main reason they are there in Congress seems to be that so that they can be there in Congress and acquire power and financial reward.
They belong to the "club".
And nap during speeches.
Just worry about their wealth and crimes being exposed by Trump (who has many of his own).
Or our reputation in the world.
Trump is a total dope, for openers. He's also dangerous. His attraction to the likes of V. Putin and Kim J. tells it all. He's a bully and both Vlad and Kim are his kinda guys Trump and his brand of frenetic government needs to be rejected - soundly, at the polls. His loose handling of sensitive intelligence docs should be viewed as near-treasonous. Like I noted above, he's dangerous -- reject him!!
He care about no one but his ego self.
It is hard to understand cult mentality. Trump cost Fox $787 million, cost Rudy Guliani $148 million and an endless list of Jan 6 insurrectionists their freedom for months and years. There is not enough room under the Trump bus for the people he will throw there to aid and abet his retribution. Mr. Speaker, Messeres Comer, McCarthy, Gaetz and the House Trump minions, there is still room under the bus for you. Stop the madness before you pay the price.
First, it’s not an Israel-Hamas war, it is Israel trying to wipe out the Palestinians, using Hamas as an excuse. Don’t forget that Netanyahu admitted he boosted and supported Hamas for a long time, and then ignored the signs that Hamas was planning to attack. Of course it’s never morally justifiable to kill innocent civilians. I’m very critical of the coldness with which you talk about what Israel is doing, when more than 18,000 Palestinians have been killed. This is not a chess game, or a matching of wits. If you’re worried about Trump, why aren’t you worried about all the people being killed in Gaza? Do you not care because they’re far away?
Yes, we all have to keep Trump out of the Presidency.
Robert, I thought you had retired from teaching. Who were the students you sat down with?
More BS. How many of those "students" threaten to kill any Jew, anytime, anyplace, anywhere?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgMrrtQlw2QNr5eSBNkzpSeIVjMShPC2r
Protests only when Jews fight back. No one has ever even heard of the 700,000 Muslim Rohingya expelled, or 10,000 murdered. All Muslims but Jews didn't do the killing, only Burmese or Chinese or Alewites. No demonstrations for the 3-400,000 Yemenis killed by Saudi and Iran, no demonstrations for 200,000 Syrian civilians murdered, none for the millions of Muslim Wyugurs imprisoned in concentration camps by China, no demonstrations for 100, 000 Armenians expelled, no demonstrations for 4 million Afghans ordered expelled from Pakistan and Iran just in the last month.
Perhaps arming Jewish Students that are intimidated by Muslim students.
Talking will have limited use when actual violence takes place .
Without violence talk is Just Talk. Blaming American Jews for the activities of a failed politician BB Netanyahu is pointless.
Academia set by sat by and did nothing during most of the Vietnam war they’re gonna do the same thing now nothing.
The only reason the West Bank is governed (such as it is) by the Palestinian Authority is due to the insistence of Jimmy Carter. It was controlled by Jordan, which was supposed to be the "second state" in 1948, but had trouble governing. See Black September.
The only reason Gaza is not controlled by Egypt, is that Carter and Sadat, who was killed by the Moslem Brotherhood, bargained land for peace. "Palestinians" were and are at each other's throats and refused to participate, even when it benefitted them.
However, 20 years later, Arafat bargained for the boundaries established by the Oslo Accords, which remain US policy.
Netanyahu has lost his position to "peaceniks" before and will again. He lost in 2009 and again in 2021. Israel had two prime ministers in 2021. Under a rotation agreement, Naftali Bennett of Yamina Party initially served as Prime Minister but ultimately ceded the position to Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid Party, after the coalition fell on June 30, 2022.. Lapid became Prime Minister on July 1, 2022. Due to the collapse of the government, Lapid served as caretaker Prime Minister until elections were held on November 1, 2022, and Netanyahu returned to office. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Israel
IMHO the real power in the Mideast is Saudi Arabia, which could put together a deal in a minute. Israel is a speck in a sea of Arab countries.
Israel has always been a speck in a sea of Arab countries from the beginning. DA! You want them all to be RW Jew Arabs now? Jews in America are more than Israel but still only 3%. You are a minority religious group. More Muslims world wide than any religious group. Im not worried being either of them. I worry about fanatics of any religious group. History has proven that fact.
Oh forget it. RW Jews did bad things for 75yrs. Some Jews collateral damage for RW Netanyahu's agenda to rule and kill em all. Don't point a finger at others when blame is in front of you. Your paranoia is ridiculous about students wanting to kill you all. That's what RW Jews do not American students wanting a solution.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/05/gaza-palestinians-tortured-summarily-killed-by-hamas-forces-during-2014-conflict/
Not only "yes", but "Hell yes" we should give Ukraine the aid it needs, and not just because Putin will otherwise win. If we bail on Ukraine now, the entire western world will consider us unreliable feckless allies who could not, and should not, be relied upon. In the eyes of the Russians, Chinese, and Iranians, we will be considered weak, irresolute, and more easily disregarded and dominated. NATO will be weakened, China will become much more influential, regional wars will be more likely, and the move to authoritarianism will accelerate world wide.
Aid to Ukraine is essential. What I find most peculiar is the total lack of hitorical argument in favor of such aid. I am only 82, so was not alive when the relevant history was made. There are confirming news reels about it. The Prime Minister of England (Chaimberlan) returned from a multilateral peace conference just before the onset of WW II. Mr Hitler promised he was finished with expansion in Europe in exchanke for about 1/3rd of Czechoslovakia. It was given to Him and Chamberlain proclaimed he had bought "Peace in our Time." Shortly thereafter, Hitler attacked Poland and WW II officially began. The parallel is exquiset. Putin will not stop at Ukraine. The only question is which country is next.
All the small surrounding break away countries near Russia.
Ukraine is the door to the rest of Europe. If we can’t protect the door, Europe potentially will also fall but before that we have a WWIII. Frightening
I’ve been “talking”with a smart young woman pro Palestine. Her blindness to even try to hear another view or think of other reasonings, is appalling and scary as H. Her “thinking” (emotions) jump to different interpretations of what we hear until we are not even on the same page. Sad!! I can talk well usually with people with whom i disagree, but hard when the same words have different meanings.
The republican do trumps and Putins bidding. The republicans do not works for the American interests or for the American people.
As for the impeachment of President Biden the republicans were successful in raising doubt against Secretary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election and they are doing the same thing with President Biden.
they will try but uncertain how successful they will be. It might even hurt them. It's not 2016 anymore.
DOJ Garland is missing punishing the seditionist GOP who are free right now.
It is NOT a good economy. Ask the single mother making $15/hour, who is paying more for groceries, gasoline, health care, housing, than she did in 2019, 2020, 2021. . .If Biden can't fix this he's finished.
I don’t understand how anyone can think that Biden can fix this problem in less than 4 years. It’s taken decades from the 1970s to get us in the situation. Biden has been working to make headway. But only morons can possibly think that any president can fix the mess that started with Republicans in the 1970s and that Reagan made significantly worse. It is going to take time. And if idiots vote to return Herr Pumpkinfuhrer to power, it won’t be Biden that is done, it will be Americans.
I just wish President Biden spoke more openly and adamantly about the economy. IMO Martha is right on the money (pun intended). He could speak to all the great antitrust work that Lisa Kahn at the FTC. Maybe he could show up at an antitrust hearing, who knows. Similarly to how he stepped out to join the UAW picket line. Actions like these matter! He is not powerless!
Kate,
I agree. He is currently powerless.
The corporations, especially the groceries corporations, have found they do not need to reduce prices. There is insufficient competition, hence the need for anti-trust suits.
I could argue that President Carter failed to control inflation. Reagan and Thatcher adopted Milton Friedmans model of monetarism resulting in a high FED rate (18% in 1980). And inflation did come down rapidly:
1980: 13.55%
1981: 10.32%
1982: 6.13%
1983: 3.22%
1984: 4.30%
1985: 3.55%
1986: 1.90%
1987: 3.66%
1988: 4.08%
1989: 4.83%
1990: 5.40%
1991: 4.23%
1992: 3.03%
(In the UK I had a secondary mortgage at 17% in 1980.)
However, the FED rate did not come down until 1992 at 3.2%
Also, Reegan spent heavily on defense that provided jobs, and forced USSR to ramp up their defense budget at the expense of the civilian population. The demise of the USSR is a very complex story, and I am no expert, but I think we owe a lot to Reagan for the collapse of the USSR.
Nope. That's what The Economist magazine proclaimed in 1988. But nope. Russia has never - go back to Peter the Great - been able to overcome the problems of mass ignorance, too much geography, not enough arable land, not enough efficient distribution, too much investment in weapons, too much national suspicion, obstinacy, religion, mysticism, alcohol, class and caste fabulism, and despotism. They did it to themselves. It is true that leading up to Reagan the USSR was spending 1/3 of its GDP on weapons. That's comparable to the US. But nobody wanted to invest in Russia. Nobody. So Stalin and Khrushchev actually saved the nation financially - oil and nuclear power - at the expense of every other part of civilization. Remember Glasnost? How many scientists, artists, did a bunk? And then came Putin. The future, as Masha Gessen wrote, became history.
"Never trust Russians, because Russians don't even trust themselves."
~ Otto Von Bismarck
Well called. And neither do we.
Write On!
Well, whose fault was it that the Russian civilians are ignorant? As you point out centuries of the Czars treating the people as peasants. Then Lenin, Starlin, and Khrushchev. Decades of oppression and brainwashing with threat of execution or the imprisonment in Siberia for any dissidents.
Who would not be ignorant?
Here is an interesting article on the demise of the USSR and Reagans influence. Concluding it was not Reagan's policy that caused the implosion.
https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/politics/foreign/reagrus.htm
We almost went bankrupt too with Reagan's Cold War against Russia. We are still paying off that debt. Clinton and Obama paid part of it off.
USSR went broke in Afghanistan and almost took us too. Clinton saved the economy after Reagan's Cold War spending.
There are many morons. Puzzle solved.
I understand your frustration with the economy. I am a person of very modest means, too. However, this next election will determine whether we exist is a democracy or slide into fascism. If one thinks things are tough now, an authoritarian leader who is drunk on power will only make matters worse. Much, much worse.
You are 100% correct but why anyone would believe that Trump will help them is an absolute mystery.
The Republicans want their base fighting the culture wars instead of seeing that they are being taken to the cleaners in the economic wars. Warren Buffett said that there was a class war and his side was winning. Ordinary Americans are hurting economically. Trump said the game was rigged and he knew because he took advantage of it. Somehow his base believed he would help them and voted for him. He won't help them but he was talking about the Corporate Democracy Reagan had built which made a lot of billionaires but made everyone else and the nation the poorer for it. Joe Biden's State of the Union speech was about changing the economy back to the Citizen Democracy we had from Eisenhower until Reagan, America's most prosperous time.
(pasted from lib-talk.com)
My family loves Trump because he isn't afraid to go after the Democrats. The lies of the right wing media have convinced them that the "Democrat" Party wants to destroy America and is responsible for all their problems and the country's decline. Trump is their hero in their fight against the Democrats. We need to address the power of the right wing media over so many of our fellow citizens to have any chance getting rid of the MAGA curse in our country!
There is no getting rid of MAGA! It is like saying “Getting rid of HAMAS” is an answer! Unfortunately, humans have very little time left otherwise the real answer would be to finance public education at a level which would teach critical thinking skills!
Why would Democrats want to destroy the country? This makes no sense.
It makes plenty of sense if you believe what they are being told endlessly.
In general, do your family members enjoy their beliefs or do they prefer knowledge?
I cannot recall the last time I saw them reading a book. Most of their information comes from fake reality TV shows, like "Mountain Monsters and "Ancient Aliens", and Fox "News", especially the smirking Jesse Watters. In their defense, they are mostly good people and I love them, but it's tough sometimes.
It must be very hard, @Tim Baldwin. I am sorry to know this. I had a rightwing dingbat dad who did massive damage to the world, and was a mean sonofabitch with a violent temper. It was only decades after his death that I was able to understand how he got that way. Forgiveness is another story.
Do they have pets? Do they know Trump stole from kids with cancer?
Bet your family prospered by SS and Medicare, public schools, libraries, unions, etc. GOP did none of that.
see The Digital Republic by Susskind.
I guess we need to out- MEGA them. We don't have to do anything, just say we do (we'll call them "white lies" - the sacrosanct kind).
@MikeyB, it has nothing to do with Trump's economy or his promises, IMHO. But some facts: During the first part of the Trump administration the prices for housing, gasoline, health care, groceries, were significantly lower than they have been since Covid. Greed ran rampant, unregulated, and today it costs 47% more to buy a house than it did in 2019. Today it costs less to rent a house all over the United States than it does to buy a house. Here is the fact no politician can say: There are too many people. It would take more than 5 planets to give every American kid alive today what I have, and I don't have that much. It's over. It's a rat fight.
Trump followers are brain washed - they can’t explain the economy or how it works - they only know they are paying more for groceries and gas - scary
I don't think his supporters really believe what he says,they just dumbly go along w/ it.I have read articles where people were deprogrammed and they were disgusted w/ themselves and shocked that they let him do this to them.Some peole love a 'cause'.
Gas costs are quite a bit lower here in GA than they were a year ago. Grocery costs are still high, however.
Food stores are cheating now making packages smaller, etc. Publix doubled their share prices and profit. Food Corporations have to be stopped. Nixon did it. We have to since we now produce little of our own.
Yes, Judith, i have noticed that too. I would estimate they have reduced the package sizes by at least by 1/3 or about 35%. I have almost completely stopped shopping at Publix, even though my youngest son has worked there 21 years now. My son also said he is frustrated with the treatment of employees in the past 2 years. I don't know if you know this or not, the top Publix executives have donated to the Orange Baboon millions of dollars. They have jacked up their costs for groceries way more than the other grocery stores in my area. A 2 liter Dr. Pepper costs $3.75 at Publix, and costs $ 1.80 at the Wal Mart superstore here.
Up until the year 2018 i had a garden, but it seems to soil is worn out and my last garden was a disaster as the plants were doing good and then suddenly they turned yellow, then brown and the leaves fell off of them. The drought that year didn't help either.
Plant some clover, spread mulch and rebuild your soil. Til it in. My grandfather hired a farmer to do that for him. Farmers do it all the time where I grew up in WNY.
They grew wheat, corn, peas, potatoes, etc. Dairy farms mostly. Now that has changed since Reagan moved them to CA and AZ. I saw a lot of corn only. Amish raise sheep in WNY not far from Lake Erie. The Eden farm soil near the lake is so rich they still grow a lot of vegetables, etc. for WNY and Buffalo food markets. Apples in open markets in WNY are $0.55 each. Here in mid-Floridan...almost $2.00 each. Ya we are being robbed. It's not like we have to go far to buy apples in Chile, etc.
Maybe you over watered\loved them? Send your soil to a place who tests it for nutrients, etc. Stop at a local farm store for address or check on line. My grandfather was a wonderful gardener. He grew almost all our vegetables and some fruit. He spread straw between the mounded lines of plants to keep moisture there, stop weeds and keep insects away. Install some slow soaking water lines. In the heat this summer little could grow well. Have to time the crops to fit the seasons. Some areas of the country grow two crops, etc. a season like N. Carolina, etc.
I got to weed and pick the berries. Berries paid for the seeds and plants, etc. next season. I cut the lawn with a push mower. Ya... I was slim. I'd get a cold sore from the sun. Prom and graduation in June, I had a cold sore. I know how to stop them now. Store vegetables are tasteless to me now. Miss those Free Stone peaches right off the tree. Yum.
They blame the Democrats!
For the highest stock market in history?
One huge related problem is that all of the pandemic programs that improved ordinary people's lives and helped them make ends meet have expired: enhanced Medicaid benefits, enhanced child tax credit paid out monthly, eviction moratorium, enhanced unemployment payments, student loan repayment pause, stimulus checks. People who were receiving these benefits and now are not are substantially worse off. Dramatically increased prices on basic necessities exacerbate the pain.
I read a report that campaign workers in Georgia are having a difficult time convincing Black voters who were thrown off Medicaid, as millions have been nationwide, that Biden is good for them.
One nation that I'm intimately familiar with -- having lived their for years -- is Japan. The virus hit them too, and they did not shut down their economy. They had adopted rules for decades that helped them deal with other viruses -- like SARS-CoV-1 -- and it turned out to be very effective for Covid-19. They didn't need much in the way of any government assistance.
With a third of the US population -- much more elderly and living in much more densely populated cities and towns -- Japan lost a total of just under 75,000 citizens to Covid. We're nearing 1.2 million with 1400 still dying from Covid every week.
says alot about when a country has good policies and pulls together.
Oh HELL YeAH... And it ain't that hard!! That's what really gets me.
how many hundreds of thousands needlessly died because of Trump and right wing nonsense ? But the press has been pretty silent on the damage the Republicans caused leading up to and during the pandemic.
Steve: 80% were needless. 960,000. And we can't even begin to mourn.
In Japan, there was a lot of deliberation as to WHAT to close. Early on, they suspected it was airborne -- and so karaoke bars were shut down completely. Places where the voice is projected. Japanese are not church-goers... around 1% Christian.
By contrast, South Korea found that churches were a BIG source of transmission. Both countries owe a lot to effective contact tracing.
Look up "pachinko." They are these pinball parlors in Japan -- some of them massive. People sitting shoulder to shoulder for hours. At first, there were tight restrictions that gradually became more relaxed. The Japanese found that there was next to ZERO transmission in pachinko parlors. Even though people were sitting for hours shoulder to shoulder -- the NEVER talk -- and they wear masks. AND the ventilation is outstanding -- due to the days when Japanese were heavy smokers. The effective measures were almost no-cost and so simple. 960,000 needless deaths -- mainly due to ignorance and lack of caring.
It's good it you are a monopolist, oligarch or a coupon clipper.
It’s NOT up to Biden to fix anything! As it stands now, the Congress has ALL the chips for making change! Read the above comments which point towards the Republican’s position to win at any cost! Republicans no longer are a political entity, they are a cult!
Umm. @Tim, let's look at the record. See any time since Biden took office that Biden did not have to circumvent the House to get his program through?
The president signs into law legislation passed by the two houses of Congress. I read President Clinton had the Patriot Act on his desk for a long time. He refused to sign it. Guess the GOP got their revenge with sex, etc.
So are they all.
This is the GOP fault not Democrats.
how does he fix a hundred or so years of selling out for money-corruption american style very genteel
Let all the Americans die.
Yes, the US should provide more aid to Ukraine because doing so shows we keep our promises to allies. Yes because it aligns with and strengthens NATO, a major bulwark within the geopolitical order that supports our goals. Yes because ceding to our enemies the "breadbasket of Europe" and a significant source of lithium is just foolish. And, okay, yes because turning our back on Ukraine gives Putin a big win.
What about them supporting Ukraine too. We rebuilt them and protect them...and what do we get in return? Send money and troops. They barely have any military. We should cut back. Our military budge is way too high. A lot of it missing. Building and hiding bases, etc.
How presidents and Congress love war. Forget them even asking us. US who pay and die without having any say. I'm not impressed if we are sending billions to two counrtries on lies and ambition of RW Netanyahu.
Thank You , for helping to keep us more informed ( and more educated).