The next two or three election cycles will determine our nation’s fate: a more widespread democracy or the Russian-style fascism promoted by Trump and DeSantis. Stay tuned and stay woke!
I've been so complacent living in Oregon and having great representation in Washington and in Oregon legislature and trying to call other representatives when I can get thru. What more can a person do especially one that is closer to the end of life than middle of life? Very sad that the last decade of life will be filled with chaos, corporate gouging on prices, and disastrous weather conditions all across these "United"? States of America. But I am very grateful for you Thom, Free Speech TV, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and many other organization that tirelessly work to keep democracy alive. I was out in the streets in 60's and 70's and then again in 2000's. Alot of wins back then that are no longer as they have been shattered. Men's revenge is front and center and putting us women in their place, barefoot and one step behind her man. WTF Our media is owned by billionaires who do not provide us with good information or analysis as you discussed yesterday and I got tagged by (?) for naming them lamestreet media.
I agree with commenter Julie on feeling frustration that our so-called “ Golden Years” are only a mirage. Mostly because of worries that the political lean toward fascist policies will take this country down that path unless Americans fight back, especially considering a lot of our parents of my generation fought fascism during WWII. I have lived in S. California all my life and other than a few Republican mis- administrations ( Ronnie raygun to name one) I am grateful that I live in a mostly progressive state. So yes, I am “ woke” and proud of it. What’s the alternative? Non-woke and stupid? Ignorant and racist? Uneducated and a conspiracy follower? Yes, California also has segments of right wing enclaves and I live in one unfortunately, where the representative of my district votes Republican Party line. Typical hypocrite who does photo ops with veterans then votes against the burn pit bill and other budget assistance to the VA. It’s just disgusting when you call or email these jerks that you get the Republican talking points of total BS. And nothing changes for the better. We are also going through horrible weather right now in California raising concerns about whether this is a one time mega storm and the climate change bill has come due or the new normal for us. I am grateful for Governor Newsome and his leadership, overall. So yeah, I vote every election, donate to candidates when I can, call representatives with concerns from my little neck of the woods. And being retired I have the time to read information from different sources because I don’t feel the major networks spend enough time on facts and details concentrating instead on “ both sides” fluff pieces and entertainment. So yes, they are “lame” in my opinion.
That 1924 law also worked against anyone from eastern or southern Europe, since the great wave of Italian and Russian/Polish/Lithuanian Jewish immigration was after 1890. And incidentally in 1923 the U.S. Supreme court said that although East Indians were Caucasians, their "profound differences" made them ineligible for citizenship (U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind). Congress didn't include Indians in the quota system until 1946. Maybe we've come a little way since then, but in any case I don't see how the Republicans can stop simple demographics for very long. The country is shifting and what are they going to do? Pay white women to have more children? They’ll fight, try to coop Hispanics and anyone else they can, but the tide is (hopefully) turning against them.
And if anyone asks, I'd rather be Woke Up then live as a Zombie.
I did not know that's where 'woke' came from...Thank you! I learned about the murder of those young men the hard way, too. In my disgusting, white ignorance, I made what I thought was a joking expression to a fellow employee who was Black. She asked me how I was doing and I tilted my head and made a 'I wanna hang myself' gesture. Ugh! I was clueless, insensitive. I didn't mean it any other way than, 'I'm stressed.' She found it highly insulting (of course) and, to add insult to injury, it was on the anniversary of the Scottsboro Boys death. We sat down with the HR Manager and this beautiful woman explained to me and forgave me. I sure needed to be 'woke' from that day on and with God's grace, I hope I am.
The GOP strategy goes back to that of the white elites of the Virginia colony and its reaction to Bacon's Rebellion of 1676. Bacon organized his own militia, consisting of white and black indentured servants and enslaved black people. After Bacon’s Rebellion, Virginia’s lawmakers began to make legal distinctions between “white” and “black” inhabitants. By permanently enslaving Virginians of African descent and giving poor white indentured servants and farmers some new rights and status, they hoped to separate the two groups and make it less likely that they would unite again in rebellion.
The colonial government, after the rebellion, decided to implement what’s called the Slave Codes, a series of laws enshrining slavery as the race-based, hereditary chattel enslavement system that would persist until 1863. In 1705, the Virginia General Assembly made a declaration "All servants imported and brought into the Country...who were not Christians in their native Country...shall be accounted and be slaves. All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves within this dominion...shall be held to be real estate. If any slave resist his master...correcting such slave, and shall happen to be killed in such correction...the master shall be free of all punishment...as if such accident never happened. It stated that slaves needed written permission to leave their plantation, that slaves found guilty of murder or rape would be hanged, that for robbing or any other major offence, the slave would receive sixty lashes and be placed in stocks, where his or her ears would be cut off, and that for minor offences, such as associating with whites, slaves would be whipped, branded, or maimed."
This continues to this day with the states’ prison industrial slave system that targets people of color and the impunity of the police when they maim or murder people of color.
A few years ago, Thiel wrote that “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” Presumably he was referring to the freedom of oligarchs like himself to be unconstrained by taxes and regulations. In this narrow sense, he’s correct: Oligarchy is incompatible with democracy. Nor is oligarchy compatible with the freedom of the rest of us.
Thiel and others like him want to return to an era when American oligarchs had freer reign. In that same essay, Thiel wrote:
"The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron.
But if “capitalist democracy” has become an oxymoron, it’s not due to excessive public assistance or because women got the right to vote. It’s because billionaire capitalists like Thiel are undermining democracy with giant campaign donations to authoritarian candidates."
Thiel is part of the anti-democracy movement, of which Trump is the informal leader.
"Their antipathy to democracy comes from the same fear that the extremely wealthy have always harbored about democracy — that a majority could vote to take away their money. That fear has been heightened by the fact that more and more of the nation’s wealth is going to the top, combined with demographic trends showing the majority of voters becoming less economically secure, more non-white, and politically left.
Thiel and his ilk see in Trump an authoritarian strongman who won’t allow a majority to take away their wealth. In December 2017, Trump and his Republican allies in Congress engineered a giant tax cut for the super-rich and the companies in which they invest. Many believe that a second Trump administration, backed by a Republican Congress, will cut their taxes even further.
They also support the Fed. Like most of the world’s central banks, the Fed is removed from democratic accountability"
"The last thing Trump and his Bois want is racial or religious harmony in America. They thrive on hate and division, which the morbidly rich billionaires and big corporations behind them also appreciate because it takes the focus off issues of economic justice and the destruction of the middle class."
Hi Thom,
Thanks again for providing a specific example of the core values of the members of the GQP.
These core values are documented by John Dean in Authoritarian Nightmare and by Professor George Lakoff in Don't Think of an Elephant.
John Dean and Professor Robert Altemeyer have shown that the authoritarian personality is exclusive to the Republican Party with their white supremacist and evangelical factions - "right-wing authoritarianism." They have also shown this cult is highly prejudice and supportive of DJT.
Professor Lakoff has shown that those fitting this personality were probably raised in an environment he calls the "Strict Father family model."
The core values that evolve through an authoritarian strict father upbringing are:
- A belief in an imaginary social hierarchy with a male God at the pinnacle followed white, American, homophobic, misogynist, cis-gender, married, wealthy males. Everyone else is ranked lower according to how many of the previous descriptors don't apply. For example, a black, single, unwed, lesbian with children is placed very near the bottom.
- The use of severe punishment is necessary to maintain their hierarchy of inequality - White "America First." They start severely punishing their own children as young at 18 months. Later this punishtment becomes wage theft, benefit reduction, privatized/limited health care and union busting. This punishment is extended to others here and abroad and leads to mass murders, the death penalty, school to prison pipeline, war on drugs, regime change, economic sanctions, and pre-emptive WAR.
Thanks so much for playing the Leadbelly recording today... Spectacular genesis of the word.
Can you also provide a link to the store you spoke of? Ziggy? I couldn't find it via google.
Also, I was strangely happy to hear that woman's poem about Woke. (Strangely because I usually don't appreciate spoken poetry as much as reading it, and I have a reactive inner groan to most folks telling me they write poetry... because most do not) Is it possible to read that poem? Or is the phone reading just an ephemeral moment in time? Which is also fine. Anyway, thanks again Thom for your herculean efforts to save our freedoms, democracy, and sanity.
Some people are born "woke". Out of the seven people in my immediate family, I was the one. Through my whole life, it's been a joy to know people of all stripes. What a blessing to be curious and to be able to LISTEN. How wonderful it is to embrace variety.
So if someone calls me woke, my response is going to be "Baby, I was born this way, just like the people you choose to persecute!".
We have to let these comatose fascists know they can't hide behind the children, especially for the sake of the growing percentages of children that are LGBTQ+ and BIPOC.
I consider it a compliment when i hear that directed at me . I hope it means ill continue to speak out on behalf of people of color Immigrants from anywhere , women and honestly I’m so angry at what the GOP has created in terms of the Supreme Court’s white supremacy leanings in almost everything that is brought before them . The Constitution means little to the people working hard to restyle it to mean we can all carry guns anywhere , any time and by anyone . Along with many other misinterpretations as they see fit. As long as it favors white straight men preferably with money it all works for. them
I've been so complacent living in Oregon and having great representation in Washington and in Oregon legislature and trying to call other representatives when I can get thru. What more can a person do especially one that is closer to the end of life than middle of life? Very sad that the last decade of life will be filled with chaos, corporate gouging on prices, and disastrous weather conditions all across these "United"? States of America. But I am very grateful for you Thom, Free Speech TV, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and many other organization that tirelessly work to keep democracy alive. I was out in the streets in 60's and 70's and then again in 2000's. Alot of wins back then that are no longer as they have been shattered. Men's revenge is front and center and putting us women in their place, barefoot and one step behind her man. WTF Our media is owned by billionaires who do not provide us with good information or analysis as you discussed yesterday and I got tagged by (?) for naming them lamestreet media.
I agree with commenter Julie on feeling frustration that our so-called “ Golden Years” are only a mirage. Mostly because of worries that the political lean toward fascist policies will take this country down that path unless Americans fight back, especially considering a lot of our parents of my generation fought fascism during WWII. I have lived in S. California all my life and other than a few Republican mis- administrations ( Ronnie raygun to name one) I am grateful that I live in a mostly progressive state. So yes, I am “ woke” and proud of it. What’s the alternative? Non-woke and stupid? Ignorant and racist? Uneducated and a conspiracy follower? Yes, California also has segments of right wing enclaves and I live in one unfortunately, where the representative of my district votes Republican Party line. Typical hypocrite who does photo ops with veterans then votes against the burn pit bill and other budget assistance to the VA. It’s just disgusting when you call or email these jerks that you get the Republican talking points of total BS. And nothing changes for the better. We are also going through horrible weather right now in California raising concerns about whether this is a one time mega storm and the climate change bill has come due or the new normal for us. I am grateful for Governor Newsome and his leadership, overall. So yeah, I vote every election, donate to candidates when I can, call representatives with concerns from my little neck of the woods. And being retired I have the time to read information from different sources because I don’t feel the major networks spend enough time on facts and details concentrating instead on “ both sides” fluff pieces and entertainment. So yes, they are “lame” in my opinion.
That 1924 law also worked against anyone from eastern or southern Europe, since the great wave of Italian and Russian/Polish/Lithuanian Jewish immigration was after 1890. And incidentally in 1923 the U.S. Supreme court said that although East Indians were Caucasians, their "profound differences" made them ineligible for citizenship (U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind). Congress didn't include Indians in the quota system until 1946. Maybe we've come a little way since then, but in any case I don't see how the Republicans can stop simple demographics for very long. The country is shifting and what are they going to do? Pay white women to have more children? They’ll fight, try to coop Hispanics and anyone else they can, but the tide is (hopefully) turning against them.
And if anyone asks, I'd rather be Woke Up then live as a Zombie.
I did not know that's where 'woke' came from...Thank you! I learned about the murder of those young men the hard way, too. In my disgusting, white ignorance, I made what I thought was a joking expression to a fellow employee who was Black. She asked me how I was doing and I tilted my head and made a 'I wanna hang myself' gesture. Ugh! I was clueless, insensitive. I didn't mean it any other way than, 'I'm stressed.' She found it highly insulting (of course) and, to add insult to injury, it was on the anniversary of the Scottsboro Boys death. We sat down with the HR Manager and this beautiful woman explained to me and forgave me. I sure needed to be 'woke' from that day on and with God's grace, I hope I am.
The GOP strategy goes back to that of the white elites of the Virginia colony and its reaction to Bacon's Rebellion of 1676. Bacon organized his own militia, consisting of white and black indentured servants and enslaved black people. After Bacon’s Rebellion, Virginia’s lawmakers began to make legal distinctions between “white” and “black” inhabitants. By permanently enslaving Virginians of African descent and giving poor white indentured servants and farmers some new rights and status, they hoped to separate the two groups and make it less likely that they would unite again in rebellion.
The colonial government, after the rebellion, decided to implement what’s called the Slave Codes, a series of laws enshrining slavery as the race-based, hereditary chattel enslavement system that would persist until 1863. In 1705, the Virginia General Assembly made a declaration "All servants imported and brought into the Country...who were not Christians in their native Country...shall be accounted and be slaves. All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves within this dominion...shall be held to be real estate. If any slave resist his master...correcting such slave, and shall happen to be killed in such correction...the master shall be free of all punishment...as if such accident never happened. It stated that slaves needed written permission to leave their plantation, that slaves found guilty of murder or rape would be hanged, that for robbing or any other major offence, the slave would receive sixty lashes and be placed in stocks, where his or her ears would be cut off, and that for minor offences, such as associating with whites, slaves would be whipped, branded, or maimed."
This continues to this day with the states’ prison industrial slave system that targets people of color and the impunity of the police when they maim or murder people of color.
The war on woke is just a tool by the oligarchs, that fear and hate democracy. Woke is a stand in for a liberal democracy which is what they really fear. Robert Reich explains it pretty well in this essay https://robertreich.substack.com/p/what-connects-trumps-call-to-protest?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email To quote a part
A few years ago, Thiel wrote that “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” Presumably he was referring to the freedom of oligarchs like himself to be unconstrained by taxes and regulations. In this narrow sense, he’s correct: Oligarchy is incompatible with democracy. Nor is oligarchy compatible with the freedom of the rest of us.
Thiel and others like him want to return to an era when American oligarchs had freer reign. In that same essay, Thiel wrote:
"The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron.
But if “capitalist democracy” has become an oxymoron, it’s not due to excessive public assistance or because women got the right to vote. It’s because billionaire capitalists like Thiel are undermining democracy with giant campaign donations to authoritarian candidates."
Thiel is part of the anti-democracy movement, of which Trump is the informal leader.
"Their antipathy to democracy comes from the same fear that the extremely wealthy have always harbored about democracy — that a majority could vote to take away their money. That fear has been heightened by the fact that more and more of the nation’s wealth is going to the top, combined with demographic trends showing the majority of voters becoming less economically secure, more non-white, and politically left.
Thiel and his ilk see in Trump an authoritarian strongman who won’t allow a majority to take away their wealth. In December 2017, Trump and his Republican allies in Congress engineered a giant tax cut for the super-rich and the companies in which they invest. Many believe that a second Trump administration, backed by a Republican Congress, will cut their taxes even further.
They also support the Fed. Like most of the world’s central banks, the Fed is removed from democratic accountability"
Maybe we should call the GOP & Trumpers "sleepyheads"?
"The last thing Trump and his Bois want is racial or religious harmony in America. They thrive on hate and division, which the morbidly rich billionaires and big corporations behind them also appreciate because it takes the focus off issues of economic justice and the destruction of the middle class."
Hi Thom,
Thanks again for providing a specific example of the core values of the members of the GQP.
These core values are documented by John Dean in Authoritarian Nightmare and by Professor George Lakoff in Don't Think of an Elephant.
John Dean and Professor Robert Altemeyer have shown that the authoritarian personality is exclusive to the Republican Party with their white supremacist and evangelical factions - "right-wing authoritarianism." They have also shown this cult is highly prejudice and supportive of DJT.
Professor Lakoff has shown that those fitting this personality were probably raised in an environment he calls the "Strict Father family model."
The core values that evolve through an authoritarian strict father upbringing are:
- A belief in an imaginary social hierarchy with a male God at the pinnacle followed white, American, homophobic, misogynist, cis-gender, married, wealthy males. Everyone else is ranked lower according to how many of the previous descriptors don't apply. For example, a black, single, unwed, lesbian with children is placed very near the bottom.
- The use of severe punishment is necessary to maintain their hierarchy of inequality - White "America First." They start severely punishing their own children as young at 18 months. Later this punishtment becomes wage theft, benefit reduction, privatized/limited health care and union busting. This punishment is extended to others here and abroad and leads to mass murders, the death penalty, school to prison pipeline, war on drugs, regime change, economic sanctions, and pre-emptive WAR.
Thanks so much for playing the Leadbelly recording today... Spectacular genesis of the word.
Can you also provide a link to the store you spoke of? Ziggy? I couldn't find it via google.
Also, I was strangely happy to hear that woman's poem about Woke. (Strangely because I usually don't appreciate spoken poetry as much as reading it, and I have a reactive inner groan to most folks telling me they write poetry... because most do not) Is it possible to read that poem? Or is the phone reading just an ephemeral moment in time? Which is also fine. Anyway, thanks again Thom for your herculean efforts to save our freedoms, democracy, and sanity.
AM
W O K E
AM
PROUD TO BE
AM
AMERICAN
Some people are born "woke". Out of the seven people in my immediate family, I was the one. Through my whole life, it's been a joy to know people of all stripes. What a blessing to be curious and to be able to LISTEN. How wonderful it is to embrace variety.
So if someone calls me woke, my response is going to be "Baby, I was born this way, just like the people you choose to persecute!".
We have to let these comatose fascists know they can't hide behind the children, especially for the sake of the growing percentages of children that are LGBTQ+ and BIPOC.
I consider it a compliment when i hear that directed at me . I hope it means ill continue to speak out on behalf of people of color Immigrants from anywhere , women and honestly I’m so angry at what the GOP has created in terms of the Supreme Court’s white supremacy leanings in almost everything that is brought before them . The Constitution means little to the people working hard to restyle it to mean we can all carry guns anywhere , any time and by anyone . Along with many other misinterpretations as they see fit. As long as it favors white straight men preferably with money it all works for. them
My apologies for being off topic, but would it be possible for Alex Lawson to look into this.
I found this in my inbox https://larrykotlikoff.substack.com/p/dont-let-social-security-cost-you?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email and am leery, as they are coming after social security and medicare from so many directions.