Thanks for this report, Thom. While reading this, I was also noting the current news about how the largest union in Israel was calling for walkouts. Embassies around the world have now closed down. I had a flash back to Scott Walker as captured in a short video in 2011. In the video, Walker was chatting with his biggest funder Diane Hend…
Thanks for this report, Thom. While reading this, I was also noting the current news about how the largest union in Israel was calling for walkouts. Embassies around the world have now closed down.
I had a flash back to Scott Walker as captured in a short video in 2011. In the video, Walker was chatting with his biggest funder Diane Hendricks. He causally describes how he is using 'divide and conquer' to destroy unions as a first step to make Wisconsin a red-state. I recall at the time how shocked I was at their strategy being completely open for all to see.
So, where is Scott Walker today? I live in PA and remember how the voters of WI did not want Walker or his policies. They tried to have him removed. Those of us screaming it’s only going to get worse! we’re told, “No! It can’t Possibly!” Well, look where we are today...Seditionists Seated in Congress and Senate. Not only Seated but Re-elected. A Traitorous, INSURRECTIONIST, Twice Impeached, Russian Operative is about to run for POTUS AGAIN! The SCOTUS is so partisan most of the country has lost faith and respect for them. Women have lost control of their bodies, and billionaires make the laws. Is it possible to return to “Life, Liberty and The Pusuit of Happiness”?
The only remedy for the theocratic fascist SCOTUS is to expand the seats, and Biden can do that now, but hasn't. His weakness and failure would be the death of democracy. and the rise of a theocratic autocracy.
I am familiar with the Tidewater Aristocracy and the taxation of the Crown and the East India monopoly. A hobby of my husband’s. We’re members of the The House of Burgesses in Colonial Williamsburg.
Cool my namesake and 9th great grand father was a member of the House of Burgess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Farrar_(settler), he was also part of the deputation which arrested Governor Harvey, which is strange because when Harvey later returned for his second tour as governor, he granted Williams 12 year old son, William the younger, a 2,000 acre patent
My family also pre-dates the Revolutionary War. I will have to go through my father’s papers to recall our family’s patriot’s name. The Tarr family settled in what is now Westmoreland county in PA. There’s still the small town of Tarr’s , PA, after my G- grandfather being the station master for the Pennsylvania Railroad. They came from Germany and settled as millers and potters in the early to mid 1700’s. Gaspar and Mary Tarr had twelve children who also had large families. There’s a large Tarr family reunion (pre-COVID) in Hunker, PA. They stayed in the business of milling and pottery until the Pennsylvania Railroad pushed east. They began to sell off property to the Pennsy and became lawyers, engineers and conductors for the RR. I do have both my G-Grandfather’s original discharges from the Civil War. My G-grandfather on my grandfather’s side was the conductor on the first supply train in to Johnstown, PA after the Great Flood of 1889 The year my grandfather was born (Nana was born in 1893). My G-grandfather on my grandmother’s side was a glass blower for Jeanette Glass and a tavern owner in Youngwood, PA. My grandfather married my grandmother in 1910 and dad was born in 1929.
By the way, on my fathers side I lost a great great grandfather, a great great uncle and at least four, maybe more, 1st Cousins, 3 times removed. My 3rd great grandfather was the last to own a slave, he died 1859 in Alabama. He was also conscripted into a Georgia slave patrol before he moved to Alabama.
I am not proud of any of it. My "esteemed" ancestors were dirt and pig farmers, sharecroppers and plow boys, even the slave owned by my 3rd great grandfather was an old man over 45, and grandpa only owned 40 acres, not enough to provide anything more than a subsistence income.
His son and those of his brother, who homesteaded adjoining property, migrated to Louisiana as soon as they could. Didn't much improve their circumstances though, wound up a pig farmer in the tall pines of southern Arkansas
Family story is like many others, riches to rags, the problem with fecundity, not enough property left for all of the young 'uns to inherit. Choice was stay put and work for brother or someone else or pack up and move on. Also if died died, as did my 4th great grandfather, before he could tutor all of his sons, those untutored lacked the necessary skill to succeed, even as a farmer, they could neither read nor write, thus completely at the mercy of the market, bankers, wholesalers, merchants combine that with bad habits and there you got it, the formula for downward mobility.
Took two hundred years and socialism to dig the genes out of the hole. I have a masters, son a PhD, as does his daughter.
I’ve been offered a membership to the DAR, as have my sisters. We’ve all refused because Nana took issue with the fact Marian Anderson, a black opera singer was denied entry to...I can’t remember if it was the Capitol or Constitution Hall because of her race, and was permitted to perform on the front steps only. Nana was not happy with the DAR and left the organization she had helped foster.
In 2015, her great grandson graduated medical school USUHAS as a member of the USAF at Constitution Hall. He’s now stationed in San Antonio TX.
I could never see the sense or purpose behind the DAR SAR, Sons of the Conferracy etc.
What purpose do they serve other than bragging rights, and if you need bragging rights then you have a serious identity problem
The genesis of the DAR and Colonial Dames is post civil war, high teas, The wives of the upper class would sit around the "drawing room", white gloves, tea, crumpets, chocolate pie (if you ever saw the movie the help, then you get he picture).
When they weren't gossiping (politicking) they were busy trying to outdo the others. It would start with some biddy claiming that her husband was a cousin (times removed) of Judith Jefferson (aunt of Thomas Jefferson) or some other significant person. and on it went, then one day, a woman. who probably did not have knowledge of any famous ancestor, stood up and said "prove it"
And with that challenge the DAR was started.
I have a 6 h or 7th cousin, once removed who joined the DAR because they handed out scholarships to girls. That's cool,
Genealogy is fun. I've been at it since 1962. I spend my time trying to solve mysteries for others. I've been long bored with my own tree, In fact I posted my research on the net 2 decades ago, and it has been used (mistakes and all) by countless others.
I have a 4th great grandfather who was born in 1756, and didn't marry until 1780/81 and would have been conscripted into a Virginia Militia,l his brother, one year younger, died in 1780 as a militia member.
On my fathers side a 4th great grandfather served as a lieutenant in the Maryland militia.
For my part this is all interesting anecdotes as I have zero interest in joining any organization.
I do't need to pay good money for a piece of paper that I will probably wind up losing. I have a pile of certificates, awards and decorations from my 26 years in the military and honestly don't know where they are.
I don't need a piece of paper to tell me who I am, and frankly no one else cares either.. Also I do not stand on the shoulders of my ancestors, neither do I fall under their feet. Contrary to the now off the air, TV program. I am not my ancestors. The mess that I have made is all mine, my choices.
I agree, but is it a lack of desire, or just an exercise in futility? Are there other factors beside an EO? I thought there needed to be a 2/3 vote in the Senate. I could be wrong and I’m too lazy to look it up at the moment.
The appointment of Federal Judges, including SCOTUS, does not require a 2/3 vote in the Senate, thanks to a law that the Republicans put through when they controlled the senate. All it requires is a majority in the Senate. There is nothing in the constitution about the Senate or Congress having to approve seating additional judges or expanding the court.
All Biden has to do is recommend Judges to the Senate (including SCOTUS) and with a majority vote the Senate can approve the recommendation.
When a judge is being recommended to the Senate ofr approval, his position is also mentioned, and there is nothing stopping Biden fromrecommending additioal judges to SCOTUS.
Thank you. Next question, do you think he can get the votes for a majority? I don’t think Sinema or Manchin would support expanding the court. It’s worth the risk for sure in my opinion. Just keep recommending judges until it they pass them?
You are most likely correct on all accounts. Manchin and/or Sinema will probably demur. Not so sure about Sinema, she is a money grubbing narcissistic bitch, but in her Greenie days she was behind the progressive approach to the culture war. Manchin, looks to his W VA base, which is ultra right wing I assume, but keep trying until they pass, which is a tacitic the Democrats haven't used. They take one defeat, pick up their ball and go home.
Nor do they make clear over and over until ya wanna puke 🤢 exactly where the blame lies when Washington “can’t get anything done” in your face all day everyday.
The significant word in your statement is "they". Who is "they". (I am not asking you, I have the same question). I don't want to be or sound defeatist, because we are faced with choices between the devil and the deep blue sea, between theocratic fascism and self serving corruption..
Given the choices I have no option but to vote for the self serving corrupt, but I fear it is only a stop gap, as we inch forward to a dark, Orwellian future.
Here is how I see it. In 1788, a ship of state was launched, its investors were a clique of the wealthiest and most influential men in the colonies cum states.They ensured that they, and their class would always be in ultimate control, by setting a rule, that the Senate (House of Lords) would have ultimate power, and more importantly historical control,over the government. The House of Representatives (House of commons) were limited to two year terms, and thus had little chance to establish even semi permanently their authority and more importantly less institutional memory.
Every four years the passengers on the ship of state, select a new Captain (much better for the investors than a mutiny (revolution).
The ship of state, under it's new Captaincy, will slightly alter the course to port or starboard, only to be course corrected with a change in Captaincy, in the next 4 or 8 years, but always the ship of state stays on the charted course.
Captains change, the original investors die, their investments are passed on to heirs, new shares are authorized by the Board of Directors, new investors buy in. Question is, who are the board of directors. Board of directors come and go, they die, retire, new ones, representing other financial interests, are hired. The purpose of the board of directors is to ensure that the corporation produces positive results (the definition of which varies with the nature of the corporation).
All societies are organized along the lines of class. In communist countries there was a new class, the party apparatchiks (China too) these are the people who took the biggest slice of the pie,
In monarchies they were called the nobility, in Republics they are the new nobility, the uber rich, the plutocrats/oligarchs.
The Tidewater Aristocracy of Virginia had no motivation to enjoin the New Englanders in a revolution. They were not discomfited or inconvenienced by the taxation of the Crown or the Monopoly of the East India Company.
My hobbyis genetic genealogy, and I came upon bills of lading, for the likes of George Washington, in which he bought china, silver ware, fome funiture, fine clothing, from London.
They had a comfortable life, they made plenty of money selling tobacco to London. The same goes for South Carolina, who resisted joining the revolution until the Brits occupied Charleston and kicked the cotton aristocrats out of their homes.
The motivation for the Tidewater aristocrats was to be established as a nobility in the new country. Most of these planters were descended from scions of English nobility. The "wild geese" (Cavaliers)that fled to Virginia with the victory of Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians (Round heads)
Making an aliyah to London was expected among the planter class, the Tidewater Aristocracy, but in London they were laughed at, humored and treated like country bumpkins. In part because their speechway was an artifact of the indentured servants that were used to serve as labor in the Virginia colony. Most of the indentured servants and freemen (skilled artisans) were recruited from the counties around London, mostly Surrey. The Speechway of Surrey, found it's way into the speechway of Virginia, but was extinct by the time of the revolution (by royal decree). Speech, habits, customs of Virginia were alien to the gentry of London.
The revolution afforded them an opportunity to become the nobility. However the farmer, the tradesman, the common man had no desire to replace one set of Britisih overlords,with a homegrown versions, so they resorted to paying and distributing literature about the Rights of Man and establishing Committees of Public Safety to monitor the behaviors of people, identify and punish loyalists, and even punishing them by tar and feathers and carrying them out of town on a rail.
These committees were so successful that the French copied them and their name in 1789, as did the Bolsheviks in 1917.
This is where gerrymandering and taking over the court system was/is critical to the destruction of democracy. There must be a secret book of the steps fascism uses...
My one train of thought is, this is such a huge country to try these steps of fascism. Most fascist countries are much, much smaller. To force this nation into fascism does seem to be problematic. First, we fought for our freedom from tyranny. Established on paper our goals, as we evolved, we needed to include more people into our democracy, which meant expanding rights to those previously excluded. Then we had the Civil War. Which ended with mixed results, but abolished slavery, another excluded group of people were then included (on paper). Then the industrial age emerged and badly needed workers emigrated from Europe because of work opportunities and starvation in their countries. Hence the formation of unions. The battle for democracy raged the entire time. There hasn’t been a second in our short history that aggrieved groups and individuals have plotted to steal money from taxpayers, impose upon the country their white supremacists views, and always claim to be the victim of democracy. They have always been here. We have always overcome them at the ballot box. Until Nixon. A grave mistake was made when Ford, a gaffe of a POTUS, pardoned Nixon. Which lead to Reagan, Bush, and finally Trump. When Biden clearly one the election in 2020, Trump couldn’t control his criminal behavior. It’s there for all of us to see the GOP is burning hot as it implodes. The crazy is getting crazier. Their intentions are there laid bare.
Now, vote them out. All of them. That’s how this works. Gerrymander away. If no one votes for you, you’re still the loser. All the machinations that have been created to assure one party always wins has vulnerabilities. This business of turning over to a sleight of electors if the election results aren’t in favor of the party in power, can be overturned is the next hurdle. Whew! That was a lot!
Found also the great discussion between Bill Moyers and the two authors (Hacker and Pierson). I'll read their books to catch up "On Winner-Take-All Politics"
My original thinking was probably more along what Bannon would provide in his anarchist university (which GOP appears to be building in DC). But this early inflection point from a future Supreme is very information. Thanks much.
Yes, correct. It's all there. Please do share it all. This is significant American history, insidious as it is. The sky has been falling for a very long time. We gotta start screaming, "Hey! Homey don't play that game!"
You might try Powell Memo Bill Moyers on Bing or Google. As I recall, from a long time ago, it had a copy of the original Memo, handwritten. Go figure. Those links have been lost from my computer, sadly.
If you find it before I do, please do add the link. Thank you.
As a former shop steward, I've often given thought to those feckless and stupid workers who would vote to disestablish their union, and who would vote for Right to Work (for low ages) candidates.
I can only think that people really don't have critical thinking skills, short memories, easily beguiled (a sucker is born every moment said P T Barnum), or just plain greedy, they want an extra $10 in their pocket (union dues) today, and the hell with an indeterminate future.
Then there are the Judas goats who were bought by the company.
Yet Unions are their own worst enemies. Like all organizations, a victim of their own success.
Once Unions were able to obtain decent wages, COLAs, benefits, there was nothing left to justify their existence, and the existence of Union officers. So they would bargain and strike for more, with the result of absurdities like the UAW employees on assembly lines getting upwards of $45 an hour and that was back in the 80's. Result, massive donations to DNC, as well as RNC, and finally Bill Clinton signing NAFTA, which had Democratic help shepherding through Congress, and almost overnight the auto industry moved to Mexico. MY 2001 PT Cruiser was built in Mexico, shipped to Montreal and trans shipped to Washington State
.The swing states are in the rust belt, created by Bill Clinton and (yes, the greening of America, where polluting jobs were shipped overseas), and that problem (NAFTA and GAAT) were created by out of control unions, who had to keep upping the ante every year to justify their existence and salaries.
We have seen this phenomenon else wheres. The March of Dimes was found by Eleanor Roosevelt to help polio victims and to fight polio. FDR was afflicted by polio.
I was in my 2nd year of retirement and was managing a Senior Transportation Program, whose office was a few doors up from the March of Dimes.
One day, I came to work, and the MoD, office was closed all of it's senior staff were hddling in a think session. Jonas Salk had developed a vaccine, that made Polio an artifact of history, and the MoD found themselves out of a job (income, benefits, and social status.)
Unions, especially in NY and Chicago were taken over by or worked with the mob, and mob thugs would be paid as no shows in public contracts. Then there was the teamsters union, where the mobs and union officers were embezzling the pension fund.
The rise of the middle class is directly attributable to the unions, as is the decline and fall of the middle class.
A similar situation exists in the carbon chemical industry. Exxon in the 1970's and 80's, did their own study and published a paper that predicted the effects of climate change, Which the CEO and Board of Directors buried.
The scientists who performed the study, offered alternatives to fossil fuel, but such alternatives would take time and investment, and that would interfere with the quarterly profit and loss statement, adversely effect stock prices, and why should they care, because by the time the check hit the bank for redemption, they would be long gone.. not their problem,meanwhile they would continue to enjoy the perks of millionaires and billionaires.
Well said. Collective bargaining is a power tool but the organizations that implement can easily themselves become corrupted. This corruption then becomes a tool against the collective and to inspire a revolt. 'right-to-work' is an example of how this is done.
Thanks for this report, Thom. While reading this, I was also noting the current news about how the largest union in Israel was calling for walkouts. Embassies around the world have now closed down.
I had a flash back to Scott Walker as captured in a short video in 2011. In the video, Walker was chatting with his biggest funder Diane Hendricks. He causally describes how he is using 'divide and conquer' to destroy unions as a first step to make Wisconsin a red-state. I recall at the time how shocked I was at their strategy being completely open for all to see.
https://archive.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/in-film-walker-talks-of-divide-and-conquer-strategy-with-unions-8o57h6f-151049555.html/
So, where is Scott Walker today? I live in PA and remember how the voters of WI did not want Walker or his policies. They tried to have him removed. Those of us screaming it’s only going to get worse! we’re told, “No! It can’t Possibly!” Well, look where we are today...Seditionists Seated in Congress and Senate. Not only Seated but Re-elected. A Traitorous, INSURRECTIONIST, Twice Impeached, Russian Operative is about to run for POTUS AGAIN! The SCOTUS is so partisan most of the country has lost faith and respect for them. Women have lost control of their bodies, and billionaires make the laws. Is it possible to return to “Life, Liberty and The Pusuit of Happiness”?
The only remedy for the theocratic fascist SCOTUS is to expand the seats, and Biden can do that now, but hasn't. His weakness and failure would be the death of democracy. and the rise of a theocratic autocracy.
Theocratic fascist state supremes have a similar issue. Just look at Florida.
I am familiar with the Tidewater Aristocracy and the taxation of the Crown and the East India monopoly. A hobby of my husband’s. We’re members of the The House of Burgesses in Colonial Williamsburg.
Cool my namesake and 9th great grand father was a member of the House of Burgess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Farrar_(settler), he was also part of the deputation which arrested Governor Harvey, which is strange because when Harvey later returned for his second tour as governor, he granted Williams 12 year old son, William the younger, a 2,000 acre patent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrar%27s_Island which is today basically a dump for Dominion's coal ash.
YDNA proof of my ancestry as the SNP is shared with 25 others who have the same ancestry.
A couple of books which support my previous screed :)
https://www.amazon.com/Intimate-American-Revolution-Pittsylvania-Virginia/dp/B01E1RQEW0
https://www.amazon.com/Albions-Seed-audiobook/dp/B00KAH5LMK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=39M8RUKLDLU0P&keywords=albion%27s+seed&qid=1679956472&s=books&sprefix=albion%27s+seed%2Cstripbooks%2C214&sr=1-1
My family also pre-dates the Revolutionary War. I will have to go through my father’s papers to recall our family’s patriot’s name. The Tarr family settled in what is now Westmoreland county in PA. There’s still the small town of Tarr’s , PA, after my G- grandfather being the station master for the Pennsylvania Railroad. They came from Germany and settled as millers and potters in the early to mid 1700’s. Gaspar and Mary Tarr had twelve children who also had large families. There’s a large Tarr family reunion (pre-COVID) in Hunker, PA. They stayed in the business of milling and pottery until the Pennsylvania Railroad pushed east. They began to sell off property to the Pennsy and became lawyers, engineers and conductors for the RR. I do have both my G-Grandfather’s original discharges from the Civil War. My G-grandfather on my grandfather’s side was the conductor on the first supply train in to Johnstown, PA after the Great Flood of 1889 The year my grandfather was born (Nana was born in 1893). My G-grandfather on my grandmother’s side was a glass blower for Jeanette Glass and a tavern owner in Youngwood, PA. My grandfather married my grandmother in 1910 and dad was born in 1929.
By the way, on my fathers side I lost a great great grandfather, a great great uncle and at least four, maybe more, 1st Cousins, 3 times removed. My 3rd great grandfather was the last to own a slave, he died 1859 in Alabama. He was also conscripted into a Georgia slave patrol before he moved to Alabama.
I am not proud of any of it. My "esteemed" ancestors were dirt and pig farmers, sharecroppers and plow boys, even the slave owned by my 3rd great grandfather was an old man over 45, and grandpa only owned 40 acres, not enough to provide anything more than a subsistence income.
His son and those of his brother, who homesteaded adjoining property, migrated to Louisiana as soon as they could. Didn't much improve their circumstances though, wound up a pig farmer in the tall pines of southern Arkansas
Family story is like many others, riches to rags, the problem with fecundity, not enough property left for all of the young 'uns to inherit. Choice was stay put and work for brother or someone else or pack up and move on. Also if died died, as did my 4th great grandfather, before he could tutor all of his sons, those untutored lacked the necessary skill to succeed, even as a farmer, they could neither read nor write, thus completely at the mercy of the market, bankers, wholesalers, merchants combine that with bad habits and there you got it, the formula for downward mobility.
Took two hundred years and socialism to dig the genes out of the hole. I have a masters, son a PhD, as does his daughter.
I’ve been offered a membership to the DAR, as have my sisters. We’ve all refused because Nana took issue with the fact Marian Anderson, a black opera singer was denied entry to...I can’t remember if it was the Capitol or Constitution Hall because of her race, and was permitted to perform on the front steps only. Nana was not happy with the DAR and left the organization she had helped foster.
In 2015, her great grandson graduated medical school USUHAS as a member of the USAF at Constitution Hall. He’s now stationed in San Antonio TX.
I could never see the sense or purpose behind the DAR SAR, Sons of the Conferracy etc.
What purpose do they serve other than bragging rights, and if you need bragging rights then you have a serious identity problem
The genesis of the DAR and Colonial Dames is post civil war, high teas, The wives of the upper class would sit around the "drawing room", white gloves, tea, crumpets, chocolate pie (if you ever saw the movie the help, then you get he picture).
When they weren't gossiping (politicking) they were busy trying to outdo the others. It would start with some biddy claiming that her husband was a cousin (times removed) of Judith Jefferson (aunt of Thomas Jefferson) or some other significant person. and on it went, then one day, a woman. who probably did not have knowledge of any famous ancestor, stood up and said "prove it"
And with that challenge the DAR was started.
I have a 6 h or 7th cousin, once removed who joined the DAR because they handed out scholarships to girls. That's cool,
Genealogy is fun. I've been at it since 1962. I spend my time trying to solve mysteries for others. I've been long bored with my own tree, In fact I posted my research on the net 2 decades ago, and it has been used (mistakes and all) by countless others.
I have a 4th great grandfather who was born in 1756, and didn't marry until 1780/81 and would have been conscripted into a Virginia Militia,l his brother, one year younger, died in 1780 as a militia member.
On my fathers side a 4th great grandfather served as a lieutenant in the Maryland militia.
For my part this is all interesting anecdotes as I have zero interest in joining any organization.
I do't need to pay good money for a piece of paper that I will probably wind up losing. I have a pile of certificates, awards and decorations from my 26 years in the military and honestly don't know where they are.
I don't need a piece of paper to tell me who I am, and frankly no one else cares either.. Also I do not stand on the shoulders of my ancestors, neither do I fall under their feet. Contrary to the now off the air, TV program. I am not my ancestors. The mess that I have made is all mine, my choices.
I agree, but is it a lack of desire, or just an exercise in futility? Are there other factors beside an EO? I thought there needed to be a 2/3 vote in the Senate. I could be wrong and I’m too lazy to look it up at the moment.
The appointment of Federal Judges, including SCOTUS, does not require a 2/3 vote in the Senate, thanks to a law that the Republicans put through when they controlled the senate. All it requires is a majority in the Senate. There is nothing in the constitution about the Senate or Congress having to approve seating additional judges or expanding the court.
All Biden has to do is recommend Judges to the Senate (including SCOTUS) and with a majority vote the Senate can approve the recommendation.
When a judge is being recommended to the Senate ofr approval, his position is also mentioned, and there is nothing stopping Biden fromrecommending additioal judges to SCOTUS.
Thank you. Next question, do you think he can get the votes for a majority? I don’t think Sinema or Manchin would support expanding the court. It’s worth the risk for sure in my opinion. Just keep recommending judges until it they pass them?
You are most likely correct on all accounts. Manchin and/or Sinema will probably demur. Not so sure about Sinema, she is a money grubbing narcissistic bitch, but in her Greenie days she was behind the progressive approach to the culture war. Manchin, looks to his W VA base, which is ultra right wing I assume, but keep trying until they pass, which is a tacitic the Democrats haven't used. They take one defeat, pick up their ball and go home.
Nor do they make clear over and over until ya wanna puke 🤢 exactly where the blame lies when Washington “can’t get anything done” in your face all day everyday.
The significant word in your statement is "they". Who is "they". (I am not asking you, I have the same question). I don't want to be or sound defeatist, because we are faced with choices between the devil and the deep blue sea, between theocratic fascism and self serving corruption..
Given the choices I have no option but to vote for the self serving corrupt, but I fear it is only a stop gap, as we inch forward to a dark, Orwellian future.
Here is how I see it. In 1788, a ship of state was launched, its investors were a clique of the wealthiest and most influential men in the colonies cum states.They ensured that they, and their class would always be in ultimate control, by setting a rule, that the Senate (House of Lords) would have ultimate power, and more importantly historical control,over the government. The House of Representatives (House of commons) were limited to two year terms, and thus had little chance to establish even semi permanently their authority and more importantly less institutional memory.
Every four years the passengers on the ship of state, select a new Captain (much better for the investors than a mutiny (revolution).
The ship of state, under it's new Captaincy, will slightly alter the course to port or starboard, only to be course corrected with a change in Captaincy, in the next 4 or 8 years, but always the ship of state stays on the charted course.
Captains change, the original investors die, their investments are passed on to heirs, new shares are authorized by the Board of Directors, new investors buy in. Question is, who are the board of directors. Board of directors come and go, they die, retire, new ones, representing other financial interests, are hired. The purpose of the board of directors is to ensure that the corporation produces positive results (the definition of which varies with the nature of the corporation).
All societies are organized along the lines of class. In communist countries there was a new class, the party apparatchiks (China too) these are the people who took the biggest slice of the pie,
In monarchies they were called the nobility, in Republics they are the new nobility, the uber rich, the plutocrats/oligarchs.
The Tidewater Aristocracy of Virginia had no motivation to enjoin the New Englanders in a revolution. They were not discomfited or inconvenienced by the taxation of the Crown or the Monopoly of the East India Company.
My hobbyis genetic genealogy, and I came upon bills of lading, for the likes of George Washington, in which he bought china, silver ware, fome funiture, fine clothing, from London.
They had a comfortable life, they made plenty of money selling tobacco to London. The same goes for South Carolina, who resisted joining the revolution until the Brits occupied Charleston and kicked the cotton aristocrats out of their homes.
The motivation for the Tidewater aristocrats was to be established as a nobility in the new country. Most of these planters were descended from scions of English nobility. The "wild geese" (Cavaliers)that fled to Virginia with the victory of Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians (Round heads)
Making an aliyah to London was expected among the planter class, the Tidewater Aristocracy, but in London they were laughed at, humored and treated like country bumpkins. In part because their speechway was an artifact of the indentured servants that were used to serve as labor in the Virginia colony. Most of the indentured servants and freemen (skilled artisans) were recruited from the counties around London, mostly Surrey. The Speechway of Surrey, found it's way into the speechway of Virginia, but was extinct by the time of the revolution (by royal decree). Speech, habits, customs of Virginia were alien to the gentry of London.
The revolution afforded them an opportunity to become the nobility. However the farmer, the tradesman, the common man had no desire to replace one set of Britisih overlords,with a homegrown versions, so they resorted to paying and distributing literature about the Rights of Man and establishing Committees of Public Safety to monitor the behaviors of people, identify and punish loyalists, and even punishing them by tar and feathers and carrying them out of town on a rail.
These committees were so successful that the French copied them and their name in 1789, as did the Bolsheviks in 1917.
Just a nit: "thanks to a law" ==> "thanks to a Senate standing rule". I believe last changed in 2017.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomination_and_confirmation_to_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States#:~:text=A%20simple%20majority%20vote%20is%20needed%20for%20confirmation. A simple majority is all that is needed to confirm a judge.
This is where gerrymandering and taking over the court system was/is critical to the destruction of democracy. There must be a secret book of the steps fascism uses...
My one train of thought is, this is such a huge country to try these steps of fascism. Most fascist countries are much, much smaller. To force this nation into fascism does seem to be problematic. First, we fought for our freedom from tyranny. Established on paper our goals, as we evolved, we needed to include more people into our democracy, which meant expanding rights to those previously excluded. Then we had the Civil War. Which ended with mixed results, but abolished slavery, another excluded group of people were then included (on paper). Then the industrial age emerged and badly needed workers emigrated from Europe because of work opportunities and starvation in their countries. Hence the formation of unions. The battle for democracy raged the entire time. There hasn’t been a second in our short history that aggrieved groups and individuals have plotted to steal money from taxpayers, impose upon the country their white supremacists views, and always claim to be the victim of democracy. They have always been here. We have always overcome them at the ballot box. Until Nixon. A grave mistake was made when Ford, a gaffe of a POTUS, pardoned Nixon. Which lead to Reagan, Bush, and finally Trump. When Biden clearly one the election in 2020, Trump couldn’t control his criminal behavior. It’s there for all of us to see the GOP is burning hot as it implodes. The crazy is getting crazier. Their intentions are there laid bare.
Now, vote them out. All of them. That’s how this works. Gerrymander away. If no one votes for you, you’re still the loser. All the machinations that have been created to assure one party always wins has vulnerabilities. This business of turning over to a sleight of electors if the election results aren’t in favor of the party in power, can be overturned is the next hurdle. Whew! That was a lot!
There is. It's called the Powell Memo, circa 1972
Thank you ! Required reading unless you are blocked in an anti-woke state ;)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_F._Powell_Jr.
https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/powellmemo/1/
Once upon a time I found a link to a Bill Moyers program and he interviewed a couple of folks who wrote a book about the Powell Memo.
Love Bill Moyers and miss him a lot.
Thanks for your contribution!
Wow. A link would be wonderful to hear the interview.
Dear Thom L., I found this. https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/2/
It's a start.
Thanks @Van Gogh !
Found also the great discussion between Bill Moyers and the two authors (Hacker and Pierson). I'll read their books to catch up "On Winner-Take-All Politics"
A pointer to the actual Powell memo: https://billmoyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Lewis-Powell-Memo.pdf
My original thinking was probably more along what Bannon would provide in his anarchist university (which GOP appears to be building in DC). But this early inflection point from a future Supreme is very information. Thanks much.
https://theauthoritarians.org
"They Thought They Were Free: The German, 1933-1945. Milton Mayer, 1955.
Yes, correct. It's all there. Please do share it all. This is significant American history, insidious as it is. The sky has been falling for a very long time. We gotta start screaming, "Hey! Homey don't play that game!"
You might try Powell Memo Bill Moyers on Bing or Google. As I recall, from a long time ago, it had a copy of the original Memo, handwritten. Go figure. Those links have been lost from my computer, sadly.
If you find it before I do, please do add the link. Thank you.
As a former shop steward, I've often given thought to those feckless and stupid workers who would vote to disestablish their union, and who would vote for Right to Work (for low ages) candidates.
I can only think that people really don't have critical thinking skills, short memories, easily beguiled (a sucker is born every moment said P T Barnum), or just plain greedy, they want an extra $10 in their pocket (union dues) today, and the hell with an indeterminate future.
Then there are the Judas goats who were bought by the company.
Yet Unions are their own worst enemies. Like all organizations, a victim of their own success.
Once Unions were able to obtain decent wages, COLAs, benefits, there was nothing left to justify their existence, and the existence of Union officers. So they would bargain and strike for more, with the result of absurdities like the UAW employees on assembly lines getting upwards of $45 an hour and that was back in the 80's. Result, massive donations to DNC, as well as RNC, and finally Bill Clinton signing NAFTA, which had Democratic help shepherding through Congress, and almost overnight the auto industry moved to Mexico. MY 2001 PT Cruiser was built in Mexico, shipped to Montreal and trans shipped to Washington State
.The swing states are in the rust belt, created by Bill Clinton and (yes, the greening of America, where polluting jobs were shipped overseas), and that problem (NAFTA and GAAT) were created by out of control unions, who had to keep upping the ante every year to justify their existence and salaries.
We have seen this phenomenon else wheres. The March of Dimes was found by Eleanor Roosevelt to help polio victims and to fight polio. FDR was afflicted by polio.
I was in my 2nd year of retirement and was managing a Senior Transportation Program, whose office was a few doors up from the March of Dimes.
One day, I came to work, and the MoD, office was closed all of it's senior staff were hddling in a think session. Jonas Salk had developed a vaccine, that made Polio an artifact of history, and the MoD found themselves out of a job (income, benefits, and social status.)
They found a solution, they reinvented themselves. as March for Babies;https://www.marchforbabies.org/Registration/ads-signup?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=2023mfb&utm_content=brand&bt=google&gclid=CjwKCAjw_YShBhAiEiwAMomsEDeMip7RQrh14ACZlmVPOlKzw2XwwGjq0gN3GtIURL_5JoHkhKqKdxoCwcYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds PURPOSE To work in partnership with staff to lead a prioritization and action planning process that focuses on advancing maternal and infant health equity in their market. Identify strategies and solutions that address community needs in the designated area, aligned with the National Framework of the Mom and Baby Action Network and National March of Dimes Strategic Plan. Translate and share the Mission Impact work in ways that invite donor investment and supporter engagement.
Unions, especially in NY and Chicago were taken over by or worked with the mob, and mob thugs would be paid as no shows in public contracts. Then there was the teamsters union, where the mobs and union officers were embezzling the pension fund.
The rise of the middle class is directly attributable to the unions, as is the decline and fall of the middle class.
A similar situation exists in the carbon chemical industry. Exxon in the 1970's and 80's, did their own study and published a paper that predicted the effects of climate change, Which the CEO and Board of Directors buried.
The scientists who performed the study, offered alternatives to fossil fuel, but such alternatives would take time and investment, and that would interfere with the quarterly profit and loss statement, adversely effect stock prices, and why should they care, because by the time the check hit the bank for redemption, they would be long gone.. not their problem,meanwhile they would continue to enjoy the perks of millionaires and billionaires.
"Unions are their own worst enemies"
Well said. Collective bargaining is a power tool but the organizations that implement can easily themselves become corrupted. This corruption then becomes a tool against the collective and to inspire a revolt. 'right-to-work' is an example of how this is done.