These are moments pregnant with possibility, but also saturated by danger - they require exceptional and farsighted leadership, statesmanship instead of politics & a commitment to the general welfare…
Sorry be repetectitive but the answer is demographics. We have them in our favor. 70% of young people trend Democratic. 40% of the 2024 electorate can ovewhelm them.
Forgot to also say "thank you for all you do weekly keeping us informed of the truth and history". I've been listening and reading you for over 20 years now.
"The Fourth Turning" - will this be a moment of yearning or burning?
Will we make this historic fulcrum leverage our demand for a more just world, or will we let apathy and defeatism help drag the future of democracy to its grave?
There is no doubt (among those still tethered to reality) of who is who in this current crisis of national and global fascistic besiegement. Here at home, the GOP is swimming in bottomless pools of cash, courtesy of fascist billionaires within the US - as well as even more sinister individuals and institutions abroad (Thank you, dark money. And a big round of applause to the corrupt politicians and SCOTUS justices who made this form of treason legal.). It's worth mentioning that the entirety of the GOP may not be explicitly forwarding its worst devotee's most disgusting impulses, but their silence in condemning such agendas and actions is, beyond a doubt, complicit in such.
Vladimir Punti, Head of GOP/ MAGA - Eastern Europe. Terrorist and occupier. Hamas informant. This could go on forever...
Donald Turmp, Head of MAGA/ RF - North America. Geriatric fascion model - Makeup, Gooebels (stupid autocorrect: "Girdles"), Diapers. Does not "support" the US Constitution. 91-count indictee.
I'd be writing for the rest of my life...
Steve Scails, Speaker of the House of US Represtatives, KKK caucus.
Shouldn't have to add anything further to that one.
Tommy Tubervilian, US Senator, primary role is to threaten US national security via obstruction of DOD and Intelligence community staffing.
I Know there's a bottomless hole of shit to pull from, but I'll need to get to the point of this word salad eventually.
So here is my point (I deviated wildly, sorry): This moment of slow motion horror we all find ourselves involuntarily confined to - it is not only "our" moment. It is a moment that primarily belongs to those who will come after us. As Chief Seattle once said, "We don't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children".
It would be morally criminal of us, here in this moment, to allow "our children" to one day (perhaps soon) be ruled over by the likes of monsters. This moment is perhaps not about "our" comfort here on Earth, but about building a fair and just way for life itself.
I don't expect a quick return on our investments, these things take time. And this does not discourage me, this acknowledgement that we may not see the fruits of our labor while we are here. All I know is that we need to row together, in the correct direction. That is our duty to those who built democracy before us, and to those whom we will leave it to.
You have to be from the PNW, only one of us would even know about Chief Sealth (Seattle is the Anglo spelling of the name. The Washington State Ferries has it right, they have a ferry named Sealth. Same with Tacoma, the Mountain called Rainier was called Tachoma by the natives, but the ch is a dipthong that English speakers can't handle.
Rarely have I read an article so well written, and on such an important subject, or rather group of subjects, as your Report today Thom. I haven't been a subscriber as long as Julie (20+ years), but am equally appreciative of your work in keeping us informed. Thank you for the work you do.
Israel's leader Bibi has been indicted and convicted years ago?? Can you explain that history of corruption and how does he become the leader again and again. Maga's must be thoroughly studying this history.
While the GOP seems to be willing to still play the election game, albeit with voter suppression and gerrymandering, what will happen if those of us who still support democracy, are successful in the 2024 elections? If the 2020 elections are any indication we already know.
You cannot win a game where the opponents do not agree on the rules, and the "loser" refuses to accept their defeat.
Will January 6th prove to be merely a preview to a 2024 main feature played out on a nation-wide
Good questions. But rhetorical. I fear the end is known as the fascist controlled state legislatures have already enacted laws that will inhibit or prevent voting by POC, students, disabled, and will be setting militia as poll watchers.
The department of Justice has approximately one month to round up the instigators of the insurrection. Not the foot soldiers, but the planners who organized it all. It needs to look into the FBI and the CIA and the secret service as well. They all need to be behind bars within a month. So America won't default on its debt. And now with the Israeli situation All eyes in Washington are looking thousands of miles away again! This should have been done two and a half years ago but better late than never since the statute of limitations is 5 years! Don't let the Democratic accomplices get away with no investigation. Garland is a Republican and it shows!
With militaristic madmen like Biden running the world, saying we "share the values" of a racist militaristic theocracy run by a right-wing dictator worse than Trump, and liberals supporting such brutal and dehumanizing and brutal dictators while they promote nationalism and authoritarianism to their own political advantage, there is little hope. There is even less hope because almost all US media sources including yours refuse to discuss historical context and humanity in the context of justice if it does not support the ideology of their imperiialist heroes. Had our media been covering the daily horrors inflicted on the Palestinian people by Israel--the murder and abduction of their children, the bulldozing of their homes, the settler colonialism, the illegal occupation, the blockades all occurring every single day for decades and escalating with Netanyahu's rein of terror, perhaps the horrific attack by Hamas would have never taken place. The fact that most of our media is now state run and trivialized to the point of Putin and Trump and Republicans being the main threat on one side and liberals and the LGBTQ community and Biden on the other completely misses the heart of the problem that needs to be addressed before we are all left desperate or dead by our policy of regime change, escalation, selective economic partnerships, choosing white lives over black and brown lives, and perpetual war.
There you go again. I am very confident that you are, consciously or unconsciously, a Putinik
I am quite aware of the crimes by the Israeli right, against the Palestinians, but what do you expect the Jews to do, as the Arabs have been trying to drive the Jews into the sea sincde 1948, and haven't relented. Israel needed secure borders, and the Arabs have brought all of this down on their own.
If you are a Jew, as your name suggests, then you should know that the Theodore Herzl's settlers actually bought the land from the Arabs, and in 1948 they arose in unison and tried to eradicate them, so what are people constantly faced with an existential threat suppose to do, walk into the sea to appease the Muslims.?
This time HAMAS went too far, slaughtering children, babies, the elderly the disabled, and taking 150 back as human shields, not to mention the 240 or so kids killed by a paragliding terrorist at a concert.
HAMAS is a terrorist organization, who along with Iran, ISIS and Islamic Jihad, has declared a religious war on Jews
Israel has two choices either flee en masse to American and Europe or eradicate HAMAS and Islamic Jihad.
No other choice exists, and at this point the sins of Israel's past are irrelevant.I once sympathized with the plight of the Palestinians, but not anymore, they turned the tide.
Israel is not a theocracy, the people, most of them are secular, and are Jews because they honor traditions. It is the hard core Orthodox Jews who are trying to turn Israel into a Theocracy and Bibi kowtows to them. Just as Trump kowtows to the racists and bigots.
Regardless their is no rationalization, no excuse for what HAMAS has done, and there will be no peace in the Mideast so long as Islam has a religious war with the Jews.
The war with the Jews is indeed a religious war.
Sahih al_Bukhari: Fighting for the Cause of Allah (Jihaad)
Narrated Abu Huraira,quoting Sahih al-Bukrari, book 56, Hadith 149, vol 4, Book 52, Hadith 177
Allah’s apostle said “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say “O Muslim!There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him
So now we know where you stand. Your screen name is a distracting fraud.
The left is non-religious and is not a fan of any religious countries or their immigrants or unlimited greed! Most Democrats are GOP lite, they share most of the same values the GOP have about unlimited greed, religion, the family unit. The left cares about the big issues like the environment and balancing the budget and protecting the world and trying to help end human suffering where is the right cares about abortion and flag burning and prayer in school... The minor issues in other words.
I differ with you on one matter. Balancing the budget can only be done at the expense of the poor, the elderly, the disabled the needy, and that is the eternal song of the Republicans, after they raise the national debt to trillions.
Remember Thom's lessons about Jude Wanniski and the Two Santa Claus theory?
Democrats were Santa Claus, providing for the poor, the elderly, the disenfranchised, women and children who needed public assistance.
Jude told the GOP to play their own Santa Claus to whine about the debt and demand tax cuts (for the wealthy, the non thinking masses, believe that they are beneficiaries of tax cuts, except that the boobs are totally blithe to the deletion of mortgage interest, which affects them, not the rich because they claim mortgage interest as a business expense.
Any way John Maynard Keynes (the bete noire of the entitled elites class of billionaires) said that deficit spending was the way to maintain a country's economic health, and the reason why is that we owe it to ourselves. There will always be a national debt, and a trade deficit, since America is no longer a producer, but a borrower and buyer.
The two Santa Claus theory is for the Republicans to spend, spend, spend, but only on their projects, which are slanted towards corporations and billionaires. Trump signed a 3.2 trillion dollar debt, and Jerome Powell dropped the interest rate to near zero, now that a Democrat is president, the Republicans whine about our debt, and the Democrats, who lack a back bone and don't know how to write a bumper sticker, cave and make themselves unpopular or a perceived enemy of the middle class.
I am sure that many MAGGOTs became so because of Jude Wanniskis two Santa Claus theory, and the inability of Democrats to counter it. Inability or unwillingness, because to counter it with exposure is to ultimately shine the spotlight on Megadonors, and politicians would not exist, today, were it not for megadonors, and that ties in Citizens United and a political system corrupted by money. Just look at Sen Menendez a NJ Democrat, Egypt is only part of the problem, that he is a client of PhRMA is not even mentioned.
William I support taxing the rich 98% and socializing healthcare and building self-supporting prisons and poor farms it's the moderate Democrats and the right wing Republicans that opposed any solutions!
Prisons and poor farms are a hard problem. The British had poor farms, and they are horror beyond belief. Private prisons and poor farms are privatized institutions, where the inmates are slaves and if paid are paid something like $.30 cents a day.
A great many of the inhabitants of prisons in Britain were shipped to Virginia as indentured servants.
Indentured servitude was the standard for all, black or white, slavery was not legalized until 1654 with the case of Johnson v Casor (a black planter who was a previous indentured servant and John Casor an indentured servant. Casor ran off to a kinder planter, Anthony Johnson sued for his return. In 1661, the House of Burgess, enacted legislation that made slavery legal.
The difference between and indentured servant and a slave. Is that indentured was not property, and had to work off his debt, his debt was the sea fare, which carried him to Virginia and to the clutches of the planters. My 9th great grandfather paid the transportation for over 40 indentured servants, and at the end of their indenture the planter had to furnish them with a musket, a bag of seed corn, and a mule and then he could go and found his own plantation or home, but while a servant, he was actually treated harsher than a slave. A slave was an investment, they cost a pretty penny, and he or she was a source of income. People don't willy nilly destroy their property, because they cost too much and cost too much to replace. Oh they beat them, rape them, and abuse them, while denying them an education, and force them to attend services of the white man's god.
A Thomas Farrar, no relationship, was a prisoner in Bridewell prison, and was shipped to Virginia were his indenture was sold and he was bought by a planter., just like what happened to the 20 Africans that were unloaded in Jamestown in 1619, their indenture was sold to the planters and elite of the James River Community.
Poor farms were important rural institutions that cared for a wide range of poor and dependent people in the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet today they are little remembered. This manuscript discusses these poor farms, their function, operation, who they served, and how they relate to modern day social welfare. Keywords: poor farm, rural social welfare, social welfare history, rural social work Over the hill to the poor-house--my chil'rn dear, good-by! Many a night I've watched you when only God was nigh; And God 'll judge between us; but I will al'ays pray That you shall never suffer the half I do to-day. (Carleton, 1872) This brief stanza from the poem Over the Hill to the Poorhouse by Will Carleton (1872) captures some of the dread and foreboding about becoming poor and the need for assistance that faced paupers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. When, family, church, friends, and neighbors were not able to help with support, the locally maintained poor farm or poorhouse was a place of last resort for help. As the poem indicates, heading to the poorhouse, or for rural people the poor farm, indicated a feeling of despair and a deep sense of loss of self-worth. To earlier generations phrases like “You are driving us to the poorhouse!” were common chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1117&context=crsw#:~:text=These%20poor%20farms%20were%20the,relief%20for%20those%20in%20need.
Obviously their poor farms were designed improperly, probably by greedy right wing capitalists. Poor farms need to grow their own food and make their own clothes, not work for less than slave labor. The other alternative is just to step over the top of them on the streets and defecations. Or I'm sure that GOP would rather shoot them all. The left needs to design the poor farms because the right will intentionally design them in order to punish the poor because the right are truly sadists.
I think I understand what you are saying. Something akin to a commune. However, the way things are now, even with Democrats, these "poor farms" (they should never be called that), would be set up and run by corporations, the same way that prisons are, and guess what, again exploitation.
If run by the people themselves, then we are again up to an abusive, power hungry, abusive cult leader. I remember WACO and Jonestown, especially Jonestown. he had the same idea, he recruited the poor to live in a paradise, that turned into hell. It wa suppose to be self sufficient, even had it's own airport. (I personally think, that it was a CIA project, and at the end he was killed by a monitor.)
The government would be no more efficient at running these communes, than they were at managing reservations run by corrupt men employed by the BIA.
The federal government could provide the states with the funds to purchase old hotels, motels, etc for living quarters. But I see a problem there, not all homeless are victims of a capitalist economy, there are alcoholic/drug addicts, criminals, mentally disabled, everything from intellectually, like Downs Syndrome, extreme on the spectrum, to schizophrenic and bi polar.
Such projects will need honest, well paid, "hall monitors" and a security force (one that doesn't think that their badge makes them superior and abuses the people, that perform inspection and maintenance, because things people live in break down (frequently), everything from electricity and plumbing to stairs, railings, roofs. And it all requires a budget, money, states and communities are always struggling to meet their budgets, through local taxes.
Rent can not be free. Want to get rid of something, put it by the road with a sign Free, and someone will haul your trash away (worked for me).
Rent will have to be charged, and people will need a way to earn rent, food, clothing. So jobs must be nearby, and industry will have to be induced to build and hire, people and of course they will only do so if there is a financial benefit, meaning low wages, and the next thing you know people will be protesting, and striking, as humans tend to think only in the present, and not capable of forward thinking or gratitude. We are an ungrateful and voracious creature.
I grew up in a project, the last one built during FDR's administration, right before the war.
Blocks of row houses, made of poured concrete and brick facade, each dwelling had it's own lawn, which we had to maintain. or be evicted, taking care of the outside required effort and pride, and a clean uncluttered exterior meant a relatively clean interior. Built in the 1930's, we lived there late 40's to mid 50's. I googled it, and it looks the same, mowed lawns, clean, as it did over 70 years ago.
I think the project, originally provided housing for labor at the Exide Battery Company, which was torn down and turned into a strip mall, and is now rundown and closed, but not the housing.
Cost was about $30 a month, you could sign out lawnmowers, from the office. The office is where you paid the rent and conducted business.
The Philadelphia under that corrupt right wing mayor, Ruzzo privatized everything from the project to Charter schools, but after I left.
Point is that people have to have a vested interest in something, or they won't take care of it.
Modern projects are run down, rat and cockroach infested, furniture on the common area, graffit on the walls and stairwell, and soon demolished as a health hazard. Because there is no ownership. pride, or sense of responsibility, and the kids grow up and become problems. Continue to live there, instead of being evicted and having to make it on their own.
And the problem is exasperated because of bleeding heart, civil rights groups.
I support such things, I wouldn't be here today, were it not for the project, but how to build, fund, administer and supervise such communities in today environment, especially when you have so many NGO's, making noise to get attention and funding..
As regard these organizations, they may start up because of a genuine sense of justice and community, but they soon become animals of their own.. The leadership and staff, have to eat, pay for travel to conferences, pay rent or mortgage, and although a non profit, they operate at a "profit" from solicitations, for leadership and staff. I worked for the Red Cross for three years, after retirement, so I know.
To justify their organization and incomes, they keep the pot stirred or create a new problem.
Down the street from he RC office there was the March of Dimes, founded by Eleanor Roosevelt for polio victims, it never found a cure for polio, it it had it would havemeant the end of lucrative careers.
As it is Jonas Salk did, as an independent researcher, and that put the March of Dimes out of business.
Overnight they closed their offices, nation wide, and convened high level staff, to salvage their careers. I vividly remember them closing their doors and going into a conference.
Then after a few days, they re emerged from their cocoon, with a new mission statement.
This time it was something for which there was no cure, and nothing that they could do about it.
Their mission is to lead the fight for the health of all moms and babies. Our goals are to end the preventable maternal health risks and deaths, end preventable preterm birth and infant death, and close the health equity gap.
Thus the organization is safe from being made obsolete as the problem is one that has no solution (and thus not a problem but a difficulty) that part about equity is a rather recent add on to their mission statement, as people realized that you can't throw money at a problem (difficulty) that can't be solved.
Back to your idea, It has to be thought through, thoroughly, who, what, where, when and how, not just today but into the future.
It will take all of us. We almost learn how to communicate with MAGA. They’re angry at Neoliberalism, but have been misguided by the ultra wealthy to their demise
MAGA constitute only about 25% of the electorate. The people we have to impress are unregistered young people, renters, "independents." College educated women trend heavily Democratic.
I can report that I've been in a discussion group where about half of the former MAGATS have had an ephiphany.
In some cases, never mention Trump. find out what government benefits they have to protect. Sometimes it takes a while to sink in. Show them that Republicans want to "sunset" their benefits.
In others, show them, through documents, how Trump screwed his suppliers, was fined for using illegals, had to pay $25 million to settle his Trump University scam, had to shut down his family charity because he stole from kids with cancer, wounded veterans.
I recommend that Thom interview "influencers" who can develop the young group. That Thom interview the heads of veterans' organizations, now that Generals Milley and Kelly have come forward, and e vidence shows Trump gave top secret military info to the enemy. @ million members in the American Legion, standing alone.
I am a progressive and angry at neoliberalism, because neo liberalism is about free trade and profit regarless of the cost. What MAGA is angry about is the culture war they started. Self affirming women (like pro choice, and strong independent women) LGBT and American Descendants of Slaves (ADOS). Quisling, like Clarence Thomas,, and other people of color like Vivik Ramaswamy, are accepted, so long as they side with and support their corporate masters and ignore the racism and bigotry that has infested the Republican party, since LBJ signed the Civil Rights act.
The idea of Liberal, was anti Mercantilist, propenents of a free market and free trade (of course their is and never have been a free market, or free trade, it is fiction perpetuated by international financial institutions and Pluto crats, the concept of a neo liberal is that of a Ricardo or Adam Smith liberal, No regulation, no restraint and unfettered free trade, which inevitably leads to monopolies and oligarchy.
Apologies for going off topic, but I had to bring Iran into it, as it was mentioned.
Iran claims to know nothing of the attack by HAMAS. I take this moment to educate the reader about taqiyah,. The Quran says that a Muslim should not lie to save his own life, but it commands lies and obfuscation to protect Islam.
The Iranians are experts at taqiyah. There is no doubt that Iran is behind the attack, maybe they didn't know the time and date, but there fingerprints are all over it.
HAMAS used six rockets one of them ten feet tall (the Jafar), and they certainly didn't build them in Gaza, and rocket lanchers as well.
Question is how did they get them into Gaza. Through tunnels at the Rafa entrance? I doubt it, from boats, Gaza has a long shoreline. If so, then where were the ever vigilant Israeli coast guard and surveillance.
One thing I know is that this affair has pulled Bibi's bacon out of the fire, and now he has his unity government, which will supposedly disband when he crisis ends, which is motivation for Bibi to pull a Dubya, and make sure it doesn't end until it is too late.
Just observations, because I never take things at face value.
On the other hand, HAMAS has to be eradicated for as long as it and Islamic Jihad exist, there will be no respite and the slaughter of women , infants and children will continue. If Israel backs off for any reason, HAMAS will declare victory, resupply,, retrain and do it all again, knowing that the best Israel can do is bomb some buildings, which HAMAS ensures are full of innocent civilians, wash, rinse, repeat.
Israel has two choices, Jews pack up and leave for America, Europe or eradicate HAMAS and Islamic Jihad, and doing so will evoke international and selective outrage, because the Israel is defying the "rules of war". Problem is, as we have learned from WWII, and Putin is that there are no rules in war, and those who claim otherwise are just using an excuse to side with the Palestinians.. And war is a conflict between nations, and Gaza is not a nation, but a terrorist camp.
Israel is guilty of many things, under pressure from it's extreme right wing, but it hasn't killed, burned and beheaded infants (they make too much noise and require attention and care, so they get rid of the troublesome burdens. Neither has Israel kidnapped women, children, even the disabled and used them as human shields.
I use to think, absent Jews being driven into the sea which is the Mission statement of HAMAS, that two state solution was an answer, but I now see that all they would be doing is creating a hostile state on their borders and repeated attacks like this, or even an all out war, as the leitmotif of HAMAS, Hezbollah and Iran, is the total eradication of Israel, which means the total eradication of Jews.
There are many, many issues. But, what can we get behind that will unlock solutions?
We need to fix the House by 1) upsizing the House to a politically acceptable number--600??? and 2) ending single member House districts if a State implements ranked choice voting for statewide house districts.
In addition to partially addressing the Electoral College disproportionalities (2028 onwards only), these changes would help move the focus from politics to constituent services. Imagine a House race where those on the ranked choice ballot would try to out-do each other showing how they serve voters!
And get rid of the insane 2 senators per state. Each state has two senators. There are seven states with only one representative, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Delaware.
You meant single member states. The amended law now requires that a House district must have 700,000 people The constitution stipulates two senators per state, because at the time, some states were frontier states, and Senators were selected,not elected, by state legislatures which of course were dominated by the land owning aristocratic white males. In 1912, th 17th Amendment changed that.
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators.
Article I, Section 2, Clause 1:
The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
The first census of the United States in 1790 was used to count the number of people, to determine congressional representatives, it also had a separate column for free white males, broken up into 16 and over, and under 16. 16 was the age for serving in the militia, which as obligatory not volunteer. In 1800 they refined, they realized that old males were not adequate for a robust militia, so they split the census into Free white males, free white females, all others except Indians (not taxed) and slaves.
Under the heading free white males there were columns for different ages, one was 16-25 (those were men eligible for the militia), 1810 same as 1800, in 1820 they expanded the categories of free white males to a column for males 16- 18 and 16-25, with those of 16-25 counted for drafting into slave patrols (err militias)
No it would mean changing the 1967 Uniform Congressional District Act (2 U.S.C. § 2c) to allow at large representatives IF there was a ranked choice voting process in place. Details on the history of the Act at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Congressional_District_Act
RCV can be configured to create a German solution, where there is a double vote--one for the party and one for a candidate. What then happens in Germany is that the seats in the Bundestag are apportioned generally based on the party preferences and then the members appointed based on their vote rank (highest votes ranks highest).
Garland can prosecute the House members that are obstructing the Jan 6 prosecutions. Also NY and GA can prosecute Gym Jordan and his committee for obstruction of justice under state law.
I get the delineation issue. Seems to me the Boomers came in after a huge bang and have been going out with one too.
It has taken the last twenty years for us to see the biggest awakening America has ever known---I love it. That's just the beginning. The rest will require the hard work of pushing back on the stifling conservatism that would kill us all. We have seen it can and will be done.
What the Republicans do is all out there, and thank you Thom for for your part in that. Battle on everyone. This whole new society needs us as allies, and we should be proud to Boom-on.
Sorry be repetectitive but the answer is demographics. We have them in our favor. 70% of young people trend Democratic. 40% of the 2024 electorate can ovewhelm them.
Channel Taylor Swift.
Forgot to also say "thank you for all you do weekly keeping us informed of the truth and history". I've been listening and reading you for over 20 years now.
"The Fourth Turning" - will this be a moment of yearning or burning?
Will we make this historic fulcrum leverage our demand for a more just world, or will we let apathy and defeatism help drag the future of democracy to its grave?
There is no doubt (among those still tethered to reality) of who is who in this current crisis of national and global fascistic besiegement. Here at home, the GOP is swimming in bottomless pools of cash, courtesy of fascist billionaires within the US - as well as even more sinister individuals and institutions abroad (Thank you, dark money. And a big round of applause to the corrupt politicians and SCOTUS justices who made this form of treason legal.). It's worth mentioning that the entirety of the GOP may not be explicitly forwarding its worst devotee's most disgusting impulses, but their silence in condemning such agendas and actions is, beyond a doubt, complicit in such.
Vladimir Punti, Head of GOP/ MAGA - Eastern Europe. Terrorist and occupier. Hamas informant. This could go on forever...
Donald Turmp, Head of MAGA/ RF - North America. Geriatric fascion model - Makeup, Gooebels (stupid autocorrect: "Girdles"), Diapers. Does not "support" the US Constitution. 91-count indictee.
I'd be writing for the rest of my life...
Steve Scails, Speaker of the House of US Represtatives, KKK caucus.
Shouldn't have to add anything further to that one.
Tommy Tubervilian, US Senator, primary role is to threaten US national security via obstruction of DOD and Intelligence community staffing.
I Know there's a bottomless hole of shit to pull from, but I'll need to get to the point of this word salad eventually.
So here is my point (I deviated wildly, sorry): This moment of slow motion horror we all find ourselves involuntarily confined to - it is not only "our" moment. It is a moment that primarily belongs to those who will come after us. As Chief Seattle once said, "We don't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children".
It would be morally criminal of us, here in this moment, to allow "our children" to one day (perhaps soon) be ruled over by the likes of monsters. This moment is perhaps not about "our" comfort here on Earth, but about building a fair and just way for life itself.
I don't expect a quick return on our investments, these things take time. And this does not discourage me, this acknowledgement that we may not see the fruits of our labor while we are here. All I know is that we need to row together, in the correct direction. That is our duty to those who built democracy before us, and to those whom we will leave it to.
Great comment, worth the read.
You have to be from the PNW, only one of us would even know about Chief Sealth (Seattle is the Anglo spelling of the name. The Washington State Ferries has it right, they have a ferry named Sealth. Same with Tacoma, the Mountain called Rainier was called Tachoma by the natives, but the ch is a dipthong that English speakers can't handle.
...w h e w !
Rarely have I read an article so well written, and on such an important subject, or rather group of subjects, as your Report today Thom. I haven't been a subscriber as long as Julie (20+ years), but am equally appreciative of your work in keeping us informed. Thank you for the work you do.
...2nd that
Israel's leader Bibi has been indicted and convicted years ago?? Can you explain that history of corruption and how does he become the leader again and again. Maga's must be thoroughly studying this history.
While the GOP seems to be willing to still play the election game, albeit with voter suppression and gerrymandering, what will happen if those of us who still support democracy, are successful in the 2024 elections? If the 2020 elections are any indication we already know.
You cannot win a game where the opponents do not agree on the rules, and the "loser" refuses to accept their defeat.
Will January 6th prove to be merely a preview to a 2024 main feature played out on a nation-wide
screen?
Good questions. But rhetorical. I fear the end is known as the fascist controlled state legislatures have already enacted laws that will inhibit or prevent voting by POC, students, disabled, and will be setting militia as poll watchers.
The department of Justice has approximately one month to round up the instigators of the insurrection. Not the foot soldiers, but the planners who organized it all. It needs to look into the FBI and the CIA and the secret service as well. They all need to be behind bars within a month. So America won't default on its debt. And now with the Israeli situation All eyes in Washington are looking thousands of miles away again! This should have been done two and a half years ago but better late than never since the statute of limitations is 5 years! Don't let the Democratic accomplices get away with no investigation. Garland is a Republican and it shows!
With militaristic madmen like Biden running the world, saying we "share the values" of a racist militaristic theocracy run by a right-wing dictator worse than Trump, and liberals supporting such brutal and dehumanizing and brutal dictators while they promote nationalism and authoritarianism to their own political advantage, there is little hope. There is even less hope because almost all US media sources including yours refuse to discuss historical context and humanity in the context of justice if it does not support the ideology of their imperiialist heroes. Had our media been covering the daily horrors inflicted on the Palestinian people by Israel--the murder and abduction of their children, the bulldozing of their homes, the settler colonialism, the illegal occupation, the blockades all occurring every single day for decades and escalating with Netanyahu's rein of terror, perhaps the horrific attack by Hamas would have never taken place. The fact that most of our media is now state run and trivialized to the point of Putin and Trump and Republicans being the main threat on one side and liberals and the LGBTQ community and Biden on the other completely misses the heart of the problem that needs to be addressed before we are all left desperate or dead by our policy of regime change, escalation, selective economic partnerships, choosing white lives over black and brown lives, and perpetual war.
There you go again. I am very confident that you are, consciously or unconsciously, a Putinik
I am quite aware of the crimes by the Israeli right, against the Palestinians, but what do you expect the Jews to do, as the Arabs have been trying to drive the Jews into the sea sincde 1948, and haven't relented. Israel needed secure borders, and the Arabs have brought all of this down on their own.
If you are a Jew, as your name suggests, then you should know that the Theodore Herzl's settlers actually bought the land from the Arabs, and in 1948 they arose in unison and tried to eradicate them, so what are people constantly faced with an existential threat suppose to do, walk into the sea to appease the Muslims.?
This time HAMAS went too far, slaughtering children, babies, the elderly the disabled, and taking 150 back as human shields, not to mention the 240 or so kids killed by a paragliding terrorist at a concert.
HAMAS is a terrorist organization, who along with Iran, ISIS and Islamic Jihad, has declared a religious war on Jews
Israel has two choices either flee en masse to American and Europe or eradicate HAMAS and Islamic Jihad.
No other choice exists, and at this point the sins of Israel's past are irrelevant.I once sympathized with the plight of the Palestinians, but not anymore, they turned the tide.
Israel is not a theocracy, the people, most of them are secular, and are Jews because they honor traditions. It is the hard core Orthodox Jews who are trying to turn Israel into a Theocracy and Bibi kowtows to them. Just as Trump kowtows to the racists and bigots.
Regardless their is no rationalization, no excuse for what HAMAS has done, and there will be no peace in the Mideast so long as Islam has a religious war with the Jews.
The war with the Jews is indeed a religious war.
Sahih al_Bukhari: Fighting for the Cause of Allah (Jihaad)
Narrated Abu Huraira,quoting Sahih al-Bukrari, book 56, Hadith 149, vol 4, Book 52, Hadith 177
Allah’s apostle said “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say “O Muslim!There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him
So now we know where you stand. Your screen name is a distracting fraud.
...he is speaking to the
despairing citizenry....
...?militaristic
...1 son later ? ...😮💨
The left is non-religious and is not a fan of any religious countries or their immigrants or unlimited greed! Most Democrats are GOP lite, they share most of the same values the GOP have about unlimited greed, religion, the family unit. The left cares about the big issues like the environment and balancing the budget and protecting the world and trying to help end human suffering where is the right cares about abortion and flag burning and prayer in school... The minor issues in other words.
I differ with you on one matter. Balancing the budget can only be done at the expense of the poor, the elderly, the disabled the needy, and that is the eternal song of the Republicans, after they raise the national debt to trillions.
Remember Thom's lessons about Jude Wanniski and the Two Santa Claus theory?
Democrats were Santa Claus, providing for the poor, the elderly, the disenfranchised, women and children who needed public assistance.
Jude told the GOP to play their own Santa Claus to whine about the debt and demand tax cuts (for the wealthy, the non thinking masses, believe that they are beneficiaries of tax cuts, except that the boobs are totally blithe to the deletion of mortgage interest, which affects them, not the rich because they claim mortgage interest as a business expense.
Any way John Maynard Keynes (the bete noire of the entitled elites class of billionaires) said that deficit spending was the way to maintain a country's economic health, and the reason why is that we owe it to ourselves. There will always be a national debt, and a trade deficit, since America is no longer a producer, but a borrower and buyer.
The two Santa Claus theory is for the Republicans to spend, spend, spend, but only on their projects, which are slanted towards corporations and billionaires. Trump signed a 3.2 trillion dollar debt, and Jerome Powell dropped the interest rate to near zero, now that a Democrat is president, the Republicans whine about our debt, and the Democrats, who lack a back bone and don't know how to write a bumper sticker, cave and make themselves unpopular or a perceived enemy of the middle class.
I am sure that many MAGGOTs became so because of Jude Wanniskis two Santa Claus theory, and the inability of Democrats to counter it. Inability or unwillingness, because to counter it with exposure is to ultimately shine the spotlight on Megadonors, and politicians would not exist, today, were it not for megadonors, and that ties in Citizens United and a political system corrupted by money. Just look at Sen Menendez a NJ Democrat, Egypt is only part of the problem, that he is a client of PhRMA is not even mentioned.
William I support taxing the rich 98% and socializing healthcare and building self-supporting prisons and poor farms it's the moderate Democrats and the right wing Republicans that opposed any solutions!
Prisons and poor farms are a hard problem. The British had poor farms, and they are horror beyond belief. Private prisons and poor farms are privatized institutions, where the inmates are slaves and if paid are paid something like $.30 cents a day.
A great many of the inhabitants of prisons in Britain were shipped to Virginia as indentured servants.
Indentured servitude was the standard for all, black or white, slavery was not legalized until 1654 with the case of Johnson v Casor (a black planter who was a previous indentured servant and John Casor an indentured servant. Casor ran off to a kinder planter, Anthony Johnson sued for his return. In 1661, the House of Burgess, enacted legislation that made slavery legal.
The difference between and indentured servant and a slave. Is that indentured was not property, and had to work off his debt, his debt was the sea fare, which carried him to Virginia and to the clutches of the planters. My 9th great grandfather paid the transportation for over 40 indentured servants, and at the end of their indenture the planter had to furnish them with a musket, a bag of seed corn, and a mule and then he could go and found his own plantation or home, but while a servant, he was actually treated harsher than a slave. A slave was an investment, they cost a pretty penny, and he or she was a source of income. People don't willy nilly destroy their property, because they cost too much and cost too much to replace. Oh they beat them, rape them, and abuse them, while denying them an education, and force them to attend services of the white man's god.
A Thomas Farrar, no relationship, was a prisoner in Bridewell prison, and was shipped to Virginia were his indenture was sold and he was bought by a planter., just like what happened to the 20 Africans that were unloaded in Jamestown in 1619, their indenture was sold to the planters and elite of the James River Community.
Poor farms were important rural institutions that cared for a wide range of poor and dependent people in the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet today they are little remembered. This manuscript discusses these poor farms, their function, operation, who they served, and how they relate to modern day social welfare. Keywords: poor farm, rural social welfare, social welfare history, rural social work Over the hill to the poor-house--my chil'rn dear, good-by! Many a night I've watched you when only God was nigh; And God 'll judge between us; but I will al'ays pray That you shall never suffer the half I do to-day. (Carleton, 1872) This brief stanza from the poem Over the Hill to the Poorhouse by Will Carleton (1872) captures some of the dread and foreboding about becoming poor and the need for assistance that faced paupers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. When, family, church, friends, and neighbors were not able to help with support, the locally maintained poor farm or poorhouse was a place of last resort for help. As the poem indicates, heading to the poorhouse, or for rural people the poor farm, indicated a feeling of despair and a deep sense of loss of self-worth. To earlier generations phrases like “You are driving us to the poorhouse!” were common chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1117&context=crsw#:~:text=These%20poor%20farms%20were%20the,relief%20for%20those%20in%20need.
Obviously their poor farms were designed improperly, probably by greedy right wing capitalists. Poor farms need to grow their own food and make their own clothes, not work for less than slave labor. The other alternative is just to step over the top of them on the streets and defecations. Or I'm sure that GOP would rather shoot them all. The left needs to design the poor farms because the right will intentionally design them in order to punish the poor because the right are truly sadists.
I think I understand what you are saying. Something akin to a commune. However, the way things are now, even with Democrats, these "poor farms" (they should never be called that), would be set up and run by corporations, the same way that prisons are, and guess what, again exploitation.
If run by the people themselves, then we are again up to an abusive, power hungry, abusive cult leader. I remember WACO and Jonestown, especially Jonestown. he had the same idea, he recruited the poor to live in a paradise, that turned into hell. It wa suppose to be self sufficient, even had it's own airport. (I personally think, that it was a CIA project, and at the end he was killed by a monitor.)
The government would be no more efficient at running these communes, than they were at managing reservations run by corrupt men employed by the BIA.
The federal government could provide the states with the funds to purchase old hotels, motels, etc for living quarters. But I see a problem there, not all homeless are victims of a capitalist economy, there are alcoholic/drug addicts, criminals, mentally disabled, everything from intellectually, like Downs Syndrome, extreme on the spectrum, to schizophrenic and bi polar.
Such projects will need honest, well paid, "hall monitors" and a security force (one that doesn't think that their badge makes them superior and abuses the people, that perform inspection and maintenance, because things people live in break down (frequently), everything from electricity and plumbing to stairs, railings, roofs. And it all requires a budget, money, states and communities are always struggling to meet their budgets, through local taxes.
Rent can not be free. Want to get rid of something, put it by the road with a sign Free, and someone will haul your trash away (worked for me).
Rent will have to be charged, and people will need a way to earn rent, food, clothing. So jobs must be nearby, and industry will have to be induced to build and hire, people and of course they will only do so if there is a financial benefit, meaning low wages, and the next thing you know people will be protesting, and striking, as humans tend to think only in the present, and not capable of forward thinking or gratitude. We are an ungrateful and voracious creature.
I grew up in a project, the last one built during FDR's administration, right before the war.
Blocks of row houses, made of poured concrete and brick facade, each dwelling had it's own lawn, which we had to maintain. or be evicted, taking care of the outside required effort and pride, and a clean uncluttered exterior meant a relatively clean interior. Built in the 1930's, we lived there late 40's to mid 50's. I googled it, and it looks the same, mowed lawns, clean, as it did over 70 years ago.
I think the project, originally provided housing for labor at the Exide Battery Company, which was torn down and turned into a strip mall, and is now rundown and closed, but not the housing.
Cost was about $30 a month, you could sign out lawnmowers, from the office. The office is where you paid the rent and conducted business.
The Philadelphia under that corrupt right wing mayor, Ruzzo privatized everything from the project to Charter schools, but after I left.
Point is that people have to have a vested interest in something, or they won't take care of it.
Modern projects are run down, rat and cockroach infested, furniture on the common area, graffit on the walls and stairwell, and soon demolished as a health hazard. Because there is no ownership. pride, or sense of responsibility, and the kids grow up and become problems. Continue to live there, instead of being evicted and having to make it on their own.
And the problem is exasperated because of bleeding heart, civil rights groups.
I support such things, I wouldn't be here today, were it not for the project, but how to build, fund, administer and supervise such communities in today environment, especially when you have so many NGO's, making noise to get attention and funding..
As regard these organizations, they may start up because of a genuine sense of justice and community, but they soon become animals of their own.. The leadership and staff, have to eat, pay for travel to conferences, pay rent or mortgage, and although a non profit, they operate at a "profit" from solicitations, for leadership and staff. I worked for the Red Cross for three years, after retirement, so I know.
To justify their organization and incomes, they keep the pot stirred or create a new problem.
Down the street from he RC office there was the March of Dimes, founded by Eleanor Roosevelt for polio victims, it never found a cure for polio, it it had it would havemeant the end of lucrative careers.
As it is Jonas Salk did, as an independent researcher, and that put the March of Dimes out of business.
Overnight they closed their offices, nation wide, and convened high level staff, to salvage their careers. I vividly remember them closing their doors and going into a conference.
Then after a few days, they re emerged from their cocoon, with a new mission statement.
This time it was something for which there was no cure, and nothing that they could do about it.
Their mission is to lead the fight for the health of all moms and babies. Our goals are to end the preventable maternal health risks and deaths, end preventable preterm birth and infant death, and close the health equity gap.
Thus the organization is safe from being made obsolete as the problem is one that has no solution (and thus not a problem but a difficulty) that part about equity is a rather recent add on to their mission statement, as people realized that you can't throw money at a problem (difficulty) that can't be solved.
Back to your idea, It has to be thought through, thoroughly, who, what, where, when and how, not just today but into the future.
Kauufman is oblivious to the Hamas pogrom and that they would kill anyone named "Barry Kaufman" if they could.
Totally agree, and thus I am sure that his is but a screen name thing .like Boris would be more appropriate.
It will take all of us. We almost learn how to communicate with MAGA. They’re angry at Neoliberalism, but have been misguided by the ultra wealthy to their demise
"All must" learn?
MAGA constitute only about 25% of the electorate. The people we have to impress are unregistered young people, renters, "independents." College educated women trend heavily Democratic.
I can report that I've been in a discussion group where about half of the former MAGATS have had an ephiphany.
In some cases, never mention Trump. find out what government benefits they have to protect. Sometimes it takes a while to sink in. Show them that Republicans want to "sunset" their benefits.
In others, show them, through documents, how Trump screwed his suppliers, was fined for using illegals, had to pay $25 million to settle his Trump University scam, had to shut down his family charity because he stole from kids with cancer, wounded veterans.
I recommend that Thom interview "influencers" who can develop the young group. That Thom interview the heads of veterans' organizations, now that Generals Milley and Kelly have come forward, and e vidence shows Trump gave top secret military info to the enemy. @ million members in the American Legion, standing alone.
Well, I may have unintentionally projected in that I need to learn to talk to MAGA.
I am a progressive and angry at neoliberalism, because neo liberalism is about free trade and profit regarless of the cost. What MAGA is angry about is the culture war they started. Self affirming women (like pro choice, and strong independent women) LGBT and American Descendants of Slaves (ADOS). Quisling, like Clarence Thomas,, and other people of color like Vivik Ramaswamy, are accepted, so long as they side with and support their corporate masters and ignore the racism and bigotry that has infested the Republican party, since LBJ signed the Civil Rights act.
The idea of Liberal, was anti Mercantilist, propenents of a free market and free trade (of course their is and never have been a free market, or free trade, it is fiction perpetuated by international financial institutions and Pluto crats, the concept of a neo liberal is that of a Ricardo or Adam Smith liberal, No regulation, no restraint and unfettered free trade, which inevitably leads to monopolies and oligarchy.
Apologies for going off topic, but I had to bring Iran into it, as it was mentioned.
Iran claims to know nothing of the attack by HAMAS. I take this moment to educate the reader about taqiyah,. The Quran says that a Muslim should not lie to save his own life, but it commands lies and obfuscation to protect Islam.
The Iranians are experts at taqiyah. There is no doubt that Iran is behind the attack, maybe they didn't know the time and date, but there fingerprints are all over it.
HAMAS used six rockets one of them ten feet tall (the Jafar), and they certainly didn't build them in Gaza, and rocket lanchers as well.
Question is how did they get them into Gaza. Through tunnels at the Rafa entrance? I doubt it, from boats, Gaza has a long shoreline. If so, then where were the ever vigilant Israeli coast guard and surveillance.
One thing I know is that this affair has pulled Bibi's bacon out of the fire, and now he has his unity government, which will supposedly disband when he crisis ends, which is motivation for Bibi to pull a Dubya, and make sure it doesn't end until it is too late.
Just observations, because I never take things at face value.
On the other hand, HAMAS has to be eradicated for as long as it and Islamic Jihad exist, there will be no respite and the slaughter of women , infants and children will continue. If Israel backs off for any reason, HAMAS will declare victory, resupply,, retrain and do it all again, knowing that the best Israel can do is bomb some buildings, which HAMAS ensures are full of innocent civilians, wash, rinse, repeat.
Israel has two choices, Jews pack up and leave for America, Europe or eradicate HAMAS and Islamic Jihad, and doing so will evoke international and selective outrage, because the Israel is defying the "rules of war". Problem is, as we have learned from WWII, and Putin is that there are no rules in war, and those who claim otherwise are just using an excuse to side with the Palestinians.. And war is a conflict between nations, and Gaza is not a nation, but a terrorist camp.
Israel is guilty of many things, under pressure from it's extreme right wing, but it hasn't killed, burned and beheaded infants (they make too much noise and require attention and care, so they get rid of the troublesome burdens. Neither has Israel kidnapped women, children, even the disabled and used them as human shields.
I use to think, absent Jews being driven into the sea which is the Mission statement of HAMAS, that two state solution was an answer, but I now see that all they would be doing is creating a hostile state on their borders and repeated attacks like this, or even an all out war, as the leitmotif of HAMAS, Hezbollah and Iran, is the total eradication of Israel, which means the total eradication of Jews.
There are many, many issues. But, what can we get behind that will unlock solutions?
We need to fix the House by 1) upsizing the House to a politically acceptable number--600??? and 2) ending single member House districts if a State implements ranked choice voting for statewide house districts.
In addition to partially addressing the Electoral College disproportionalities (2028 onwards only), these changes would help move the focus from politics to constituent services. Imagine a House race where those on the ranked choice ballot would try to out-do each other showing how they serve voters!
And get rid of the insane 2 senators per state. Each state has two senators. There are seven states with only one representative, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Delaware.
Yes, but the size of the House and single member districts can be done by statute not a constitutional amendment.
You meant single member states. The amended law now requires that a House district must have 700,000 people The constitution stipulates two senators per state, because at the time, some states were frontier states, and Senators were selected,not elected, by state legislatures which of course were dominated by the land owning aristocratic white males. In 1912, th 17th Amendment changed that.
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators.
Article I, Section 2, Clause 1:
The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
The first census of the United States in 1790 was used to count the number of people, to determine congressional representatives, it also had a separate column for free white males, broken up into 16 and over, and under 16. 16 was the age for serving in the militia, which as obligatory not volunteer. In 1800 they refined, they realized that old males were not adequate for a robust militia, so they split the census into Free white males, free white females, all others except Indians (not taxed) and slaves.
Under the heading free white males there were columns for different ages, one was 16-25 (those were men eligible for the militia), 1810 same as 1800, in 1820 they expanded the categories of free white males to a column for males 16- 18 and 16-25, with those of 16-25 counted for drafting into slave patrols (err militias)
No it would mean changing the 1967 Uniform Congressional District Act (2 U.S.C. § 2c) to allow at large representatives IF there was a ranked choice voting process in place. Details on the history of the Act at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Congressional_District_Act
Thanks, a lot to wrap the head around. Thom has often talked about rank choice voting.
I abhor and dread having to vote for Humpty or Dumpty, Demopubs or Republicrats.
However the rise of the MAGGOTS, has removed that decision from me, all I can do now is vote to keep the fascists out of my life.
RCV can be configured to create a German solution, where there is a double vote--one for the party and one for a candidate. What then happens in Germany is that the seats in the Bundestag are apportioned generally based on the party preferences and then the members appointed based on their vote rank (highest votes ranks highest).
Need to sweep the 2024 election.
Garland can prosecute the House members that are obstructing the Jan 6 prosecutions. Also NY and GA can prosecute Gym Jordan and his committee for obstruction of justice under state law.
Dan, whom I admire. Fat chance of Garland prosecuting the Congressional conspirators of J6, which even the J6 committee revealed.
Garland is twiddling his thumbs awaiting the election and statute of limitations, the man is a conservative, a Republican not a Democrat.
I learn much from your show and posts.
Are you on Tribel? If not someone is claiming to be you, wanted to let you know 💙💙💙💙
Yes, I am on Tribel! :)
Amen. There are days that you are the only person who seems to be making sense.
I get the delineation issue. Seems to me the Boomers came in after a huge bang and have been going out with one too.
It has taken the last twenty years for us to see the biggest awakening America has ever known---I love it. That's just the beginning. The rest will require the hard work of pushing back on the stifling conservatism that would kill us all. We have seen it can and will be done.
What the Republicans do is all out there, and thank you Thom for for your part in that. Battle on everyone. This whole new society needs us as allies, and we should be proud to Boom-on.
...mother was wise...when our friends said, 40 years ago, 'beware the muslim', she said "beware: no water"
"when the bee is gone,
we have 4 years "
--einstien