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.
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.
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!
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.
Add Mexico to your list at the beginning of your article -- Obrador is working to cut back on fair elections also. Can't help but be concerned for your country -- Trump chooses Waco to campaign at. Hope that sensible Americans see the signs -- Waco (Wacko?) is where the demons go to rebel. When Trump was pressed about his wrongdoings around the Stormy Daniels case, he replied "WE have done nothing wrong". That tells me that he as an individual is no longer in control of himself. He was always an egoist, but now the demons have taken over -- the man has become deranged. Some Americans have a history of being gullible, so off they tred to Wacko to support one of their own.
"A Nishma poll taken in January 2020 showed some 56% of the ultra-Orthodox and 29% of the Modern Orthodox voted for Trump in 2016, and his approval rating had risen to 68% among the ultra-Orthodox and 36% amongst the modern Orthodox earlier this year."
Yes, I am amazed how the alignment of religious hierarchy with autocratic power generally overwhelms their moderate religious teachings. It turns out that evangelist hierarchy is equivalent to orthodox jewish hierarchy to taliban hierarchy etc.
Hi Thom L: I am not amazed at all about how religions meld into each other, the only diffrence being inane differences in ritual, the name they call god, and son on.
Religions, including polytheistic ones like Hindu, are patriarchal and that necessiates the female being subordinate, even submissive.
One need that religion fills is psychosexual, Humans, despite their evolved brains, are still animals, driven by hormones and (arguementally) instincts. Like the instint to breed, to pass on our genes.
And the act of reproduction requires, in the more brutish of mammals, the need to dominate, the female,the female seeks the most powerful male in her social strata with which to mate, thus providing safety and security for her and her offspring.
You can see that in a "biker" trailer park, the best looking, best built, women is paired with the foulest, biggest, thug. In fact you can determine the rank of say, a drug dealing biker gang, by the attractiveness of their woman. Among the upper class, unless it is a "court marriage" like the medieval marriages, the woman plays the role of arm candy, like Melania Trump, an underwear "model" cum 1st Lady.
Men have no problem marrying "down", women on the other hand, well that is a different story.
When race was an indicator of social status, the only mixed "marriages" were between white men and women of color, usually very light, almost white women.
As race became subordinate to economic wealth and status, and men of color with wealth, achieved a greater social status, that color line was broken.
I classify the 2% as old money and new money, what qualifies as old money is quite different than in the gilded age, when old money did not necessarily have money, but had pedigrees stretching back to before the revolution.
The old money generally marries within their social circle, for instance J F K and Jacqueline Bouvier. While that is where the old money marries, the old money males are expected to have attractive mistresses and affairs (JFK and Marilyn Monroe for instance). You will be hard pressed to find an "old money" female, marrying a lower class commoner, or even a hard working, but non descript well to do middle class.
In our celebrity culture, you might even include celebrities in the old money classification, for they too marry within their social class.
When I was a freshly minted 2d Lt, my boss was a major an American descendant of Slaves (ADOS), he was horrified that a female Major (a nurse) was dating and married a Sergeant.
She was guilty of a social faux pas, she married "down" out of her class. He was oblivious to
the fact that it was only a couple of decades bast Loving v Virginia, and that even then (1980's) interracial marriages where stigmatized (he was not in one)..
The nurse had busted the patriarchal paradigm, she married "below" her station in life. Unfortunately the patriarchal paradigm still has a headlock on society, and religion is just one way in which it is manifested. The law is another, employment is another.
There is one thing in common with the Abrahamic religions and it is that they are patriarchal.
The Torah is nothing but patriarchy enshrined. The Dominionist goal of a theocratic America is to use the Mosaic laws (i.e. Deuteronomy and Levitucus) as the bedrock of our system, which calls for, among other things, the stoning of adulterers, gays, less than faithful Christians and even juvenile delinquents (rebellious children). Stones, because they are libertarian and stones are free.
Islam is an Arab adopted form of "the book" as the Quran refers to it Christianity was a milder form, but humanized with the enlightenment. The Inquisition claimed it's last victim in 1823.
We are now in retrograde, the reactionaries in Christianity have rebounded, and have a new face, a political face, their avatar is Donald J Trump (for the time being), their organization is the Republican Party.
The difference between them and the Taliban or the Wahhabi's of Saudi Arabia, is that they don't make their women wear bee keeper suits, , but the Saudis are more humane, they behead and not stone, and then there is the mullahcracy of Iran which is only slightly more modern than the Saudi's or Taliban, yet they prefer slow strangulation with cranes as their preferred form of execution.
"And Donald Trump and the GOP have made their choice: they’re doing everything they can to end democracy and install a permanent oligarchy that can never be excised from our bodies politic and economic." Just add Biden and the whole democratic wing of government, too. Do you really think Biden would have issued those drilling leases in AK if he wasn't counting on several hundred million from the oil industry to run a billion-dollar campaign? They all go to the highest bidder. Rather than destroy a monarchy, they are trying to create one. BOTH SIDES. This really is the end of all discussion; there's nothing substantive going on here. It's all about the Emperor and his new clothes. BOTH SIDES. But, if that's it, what else is there to rant and rave about?
This essay as usual lays out the current scene very well, but there is one aspect you should make more explicit. For 50 years the CIA followed each country's GINI Index - a measure of income inequality. Their rule of thumb was that when it was over 40 there was a substantial risk of civil unrest. For about 10 years the USA has been hovering in this range (depending on how you calculate it). Current political and cultural turmoil reflects this underlying factor. In fact the USA GINI was surreptitiously and uniquely lowered by Obama's ACA and exploded by DJT's tax bill. The GINI predicts unrest but not what form it will take - we are in the midst of learning that. Hopefully "The Second Golden Age" will not be followed by another Great Depression or a fascist revolution.
Make no mistake. The GOP does not want to rule our democracy. They want to destroy it.
They have done nothing constructive to fix the economy. Instead they are relishing the political advantage of sitting back and letting banks implode when the cure for runaway inflation is simply restoring taxation of the super-rich. Instead, the GOP Congress has refused to raise the debt ceiling that will lead to a stock market and banking crash that will wipe out the wealth of the entire middle class while drying up funds small businesses need to compete with billionaire monopolies.
I can no longer stand to watch journalists interviewing MAGAs at Trump rallies. MAGAs are clueless that, like fascist movements in the past, they are being conned and manipulated to bring down their own livelihoods – even when repentant jailed insurrectionists regularly express regret that their support of Trump has ruined their lives – even when prominent antivaxxers express regret as they were dying from COVID. When the Italians finally got Woke about fascist Mussolini, they strung him up by his heels in the square, but by then their country was in shambles. Fascist Hitler committed suicide taking Germany down with him rather than surrender and save lives.
I have no doubt that Trump views 2024 as a battle to the death. He either wins or commits suicide taking the GOP down with him. Our inability to hold not merely Trump, but the entire enabling Republican party accountable is society’s dilemma. We have just become too comfortable. We do not even notice that the US poverty line is the average middle-class income in many East European countries, and the upper class of many 3rd world countries. Maybe that is our Achilles heel. I hope not.
Great job cutting through the nonsense of both parties being the same, Thom. I see some of the commenters have not quite given up on equivocation.
All I can repeat to anyone listening is that everything that has made my life livable during my work-life and retirement as an American woman has been won by Democrats who fought Republicans and their repressive ideas.
Republicans and responsible both begin with "re", and those letters are the ONLY thing they share. Many Republicans like the idea of accountability concerning their religion, and with the way they treat people, I too hope Jesus comes back soon.
This lies on the raw edge of human nature and politics, how the "morbidly rich" actually think in their heart of hearts, their destructive delusions of what they have determined life should be — for themselves foremost, then everyone else as necessary baggage — failing forever to satisfy their ever-expanding, unquenchable desires. Violent authoritarianism by the powerful and greedy living among us is an ugly fact of human existence from time immemorial, impossible to hide from the abundance of evidence produced by their own selfish actions throughout society, throughout history.
It's just who they are, who they want to be. Trump is the paragon of their twisted egos, their damaged souls. But a deep, black fear of emptiness is at the heart of their extreme selfishness, and their all-consuming desire to fill that horrible emptiness within, which, unfortunately, all their riches and power can never fill.
Yet, seeing is acting. For people to witness the simple, though still shocking truth of things on their little planet, this truly insane consolidation of wealth and power playing out in the real world — the obvious correlation between acute wealth disparity and the forces of anti-democracy — is the first and most critical step if we are to survive on this godforsaken rock whirling around in the void.
If not ripped out by the roots through our collective action of nonviolent, choiceless intelligence (whatever that is) by we the people ourselves (whoever we are), uncompromising fascism, a hideous infection of the mind and soul, will only erode society and nature even further than it already has, far down a deadend road. Selfishness and greed equal violence — in all its many physical and mental expressions, on distant battlefields, but also in our streets, in our schools, in our churches, at work, at play, at home, against each other, against nature, everywhere, constantly. A violent world has produced violent beings who must see themselves for what they truly are, in all their glory and in all their horror, to effect real change for the better.
An anonymous quote I once copied down from somewhere (paraphrased): "The truth is not something far away; it is very close, under every leaf, in every smile, in every tear, in the words, in the feelings and thoughts that one has. But it is so covered up that we have to work hard to uncover it. And see. To uncover is to discover what is false. And the moment you know what is false, when that drops away, the truth is there."
The gop/repub DESTROYERS are rigging everything they can, from "elections" only open to goppers so they can win to "laws" that can remove all power from prosecutors to hold any gop/repub from accountability. (See Georgia, USA, legislature.) All the judiciary will be in their fist soon, like SCOTUS is already. (See what Netanyahu in Israel is trying to do.) The MASSIVE protests in Israel (and Tbilisi, Georgia) seem to be making a difference in those countries. Could America produce MASSIVE protests to save ourselves? Will we? Would it work? Will the gop/repubs and their handler superrich oligarchs win to turn America into a fascist Mordor? We MUST protest in work and deed, any way we are able. Ruthie B
Thom, I think the best way to fight the fascist autocratic theocracy movement, is just by telling the truth to the Trump supporters. The truth that they will lose their standard of living and be thown away as soon as they can't make money for the rich. I predict there are about 80 million Americans that could be called useless eaters and replaced with healthy young fertile religious immigrants from other nations.
The poor right wing white males, also will have their organs harvested, turned into slaves, tortured, starved and die from lack of healthcare after being poisoned by environmental toxins, just like all the poor black people. The left needs to set up a GoFundMe page for the Lincoln project, so they can run thousands of ads educating the idiots. I have no idea how to get the crazy right wingers in the gop Congress to raise the debt ceiling. That better come from the autocrats themselves if they want to protect the goose that lays the golden eggs. Part of the right wing plan is to cause a great depression and blame the Democrats for it and Biden seems to be going for it also, in my opinion. The dictatorship will be elected.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Add Mexico to your list at the beginning of your article -- Obrador is working to cut back on fair elections also. Can't help but be concerned for your country -- Trump chooses Waco to campaign at. Hope that sensible Americans see the signs -- Waco (Wacko?) is where the demons go to rebel. When Trump was pressed about his wrongdoings around the Stormy Daniels case, he replied "WE have done nothing wrong". That tells me that he as an individual is no longer in control of himself. He was always an egoist, but now the demons have taken over -- the man has become deranged. Some Americans have a history of being gullible, so off they tred to Wacko to support one of their own.
In 2016 Ha'aretz ran the following: https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2020-07-09/ty-article/trump-campaign-jewish-billionaires-are-using-their-money-to-try-to-rig-election/0000017f-e629-dc7e-adff-f6adbcb50000
Yet somehow that antisemitic, racist right is completely oblivious to the fact that the biggest donors , lawyers, advisors and supporters of Trump and the GOP are Jews. Such as Rupert Murdoch https://observer.com/2016/03/algemeiner-celebrates-power-jews-at-packed-manhattan-gala/, Steve Wynn, the Addelsons, the Mercers, Weiselberger, Jared Kushner his son in law, Steven Miller, (a racist, white nationalist, xenophobic Jew) and there is this https://www.jta.org/2020/08/28/opinion/many-orthodox-jews-support-president-trump-im-one-of-them-heres-why
"A Nishma poll taken in January 2020 showed some 56% of the ultra-Orthodox and 29% of the Modern Orthodox voted for Trump in 2016, and his approval rating had risen to 68% among the ultra-Orthodox and 36% amongst the modern Orthodox earlier this year."
Yes, I am amazed how the alignment of religious hierarchy with autocratic power generally overwhelms their moderate religious teachings. It turns out that evangelist hierarchy is equivalent to orthodox jewish hierarchy to taliban hierarchy etc.
Hi Thom L: I am not amazed at all about how religions meld into each other, the only diffrence being inane differences in ritual, the name they call god, and son on.
Religions, including polytheistic ones like Hindu, are patriarchal and that necessiates the female being subordinate, even submissive.
One need that religion fills is psychosexual, Humans, despite their evolved brains, are still animals, driven by hormones and (arguementally) instincts. Like the instint to breed, to pass on our genes.
And the act of reproduction requires, in the more brutish of mammals, the need to dominate, the female,the female seeks the most powerful male in her social strata with which to mate, thus providing safety and security for her and her offspring.
You can see that in a "biker" trailer park, the best looking, best built, women is paired with the foulest, biggest, thug. In fact you can determine the rank of say, a drug dealing biker gang, by the attractiveness of their woman. Among the upper class, unless it is a "court marriage" like the medieval marriages, the woman plays the role of arm candy, like Melania Trump, an underwear "model" cum 1st Lady.
Men have no problem marrying "down", women on the other hand, well that is a different story.
When race was an indicator of social status, the only mixed "marriages" were between white men and women of color, usually very light, almost white women.
As race became subordinate to economic wealth and status, and men of color with wealth, achieved a greater social status, that color line was broken.
I classify the 2% as old money and new money, what qualifies as old money is quite different than in the gilded age, when old money did not necessarily have money, but had pedigrees stretching back to before the revolution.
The old money generally marries within their social circle, for instance J F K and Jacqueline Bouvier. While that is where the old money marries, the old money males are expected to have attractive mistresses and affairs (JFK and Marilyn Monroe for instance). You will be hard pressed to find an "old money" female, marrying a lower class commoner, or even a hard working, but non descript well to do middle class.
In our celebrity culture, you might even include celebrities in the old money classification, for they too marry within their social class.
When I was a freshly minted 2d Lt, my boss was a major an American descendant of Slaves (ADOS), he was horrified that a female Major (a nurse) was dating and married a Sergeant.
She was guilty of a social faux pas, she married "down" out of her class. He was oblivious to
the fact that it was only a couple of decades bast Loving v Virginia, and that even then (1980's) interracial marriages where stigmatized (he was not in one)..
The nurse had busted the patriarchal paradigm, she married "below" her station in life. Unfortunately the patriarchal paradigm still has a headlock on society, and religion is just one way in which it is manifested. The law is another, employment is another.
Thanks @Farrar. History defines us but as an optimist I hope it does not trap us.
There is one thing in common with the Abrahamic religions and it is that they are patriarchal.
The Torah is nothing but patriarchy enshrined. The Dominionist goal of a theocratic America is to use the Mosaic laws (i.e. Deuteronomy and Levitucus) as the bedrock of our system, which calls for, among other things, the stoning of adulterers, gays, less than faithful Christians and even juvenile delinquents (rebellious children). Stones, because they are libertarian and stones are free.
Islam is an Arab adopted form of "the book" as the Quran refers to it Christianity was a milder form, but humanized with the enlightenment. The Inquisition claimed it's last victim in 1823.
We are now in retrograde, the reactionaries in Christianity have rebounded, and have a new face, a political face, their avatar is Donald J Trump (for the time being), their organization is the Republican Party.
The difference between them and the Taliban or the Wahhabi's of Saudi Arabia, is that they don't make their women wear bee keeper suits, , but the Saudis are more humane, they behead and not stone, and then there is the mullahcracy of Iran which is only slightly more modern than the Saudi's or Taliban, yet they prefer slow strangulation with cranes as their preferred form of execution.
"And Donald Trump and the GOP have made their choice: they’re doing everything they can to end democracy and install a permanent oligarchy that can never be excised from our bodies politic and economic." Just add Biden and the whole democratic wing of government, too. Do you really think Biden would have issued those drilling leases in AK if he wasn't counting on several hundred million from the oil industry to run a billion-dollar campaign? They all go to the highest bidder. Rather than destroy a monarchy, they are trying to create one. BOTH SIDES. This really is the end of all discussion; there's nothing substantive going on here. It's all about the Emperor and his new clothes. BOTH SIDES. But, if that's it, what else is there to rant and rave about?
This essay as usual lays out the current scene very well, but there is one aspect you should make more explicit. For 50 years the CIA followed each country's GINI Index - a measure of income inequality. Their rule of thumb was that when it was over 40 there was a substantial risk of civil unrest. For about 10 years the USA has been hovering in this range (depending on how you calculate it). Current political and cultural turmoil reflects this underlying factor. In fact the USA GINI was surreptitiously and uniquely lowered by Obama's ACA and exploded by DJT's tax bill. The GINI predicts unrest but not what form it will take - we are in the midst of learning that. Hopefully "The Second Golden Age" will not be followed by another Great Depression or a fascist revolution.
"Woman Interrupts Fox News Broadcast With Passionate Call For Gun Control"
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nashville-school-shooting-fox-news_n_6421d6c2e4b0f6517feb4c6f
Make no mistake. The GOP does not want to rule our democracy. They want to destroy it.
They have done nothing constructive to fix the economy. Instead they are relishing the political advantage of sitting back and letting banks implode when the cure for runaway inflation is simply restoring taxation of the super-rich. Instead, the GOP Congress has refused to raise the debt ceiling that will lead to a stock market and banking crash that will wipe out the wealth of the entire middle class while drying up funds small businesses need to compete with billionaire monopolies.
I can no longer stand to watch journalists interviewing MAGAs at Trump rallies. MAGAs are clueless that, like fascist movements in the past, they are being conned and manipulated to bring down their own livelihoods – even when repentant jailed insurrectionists regularly express regret that their support of Trump has ruined their lives – even when prominent antivaxxers express regret as they were dying from COVID. When the Italians finally got Woke about fascist Mussolini, they strung him up by his heels in the square, but by then their country was in shambles. Fascist Hitler committed suicide taking Germany down with him rather than surrender and save lives.
I have no doubt that Trump views 2024 as a battle to the death. He either wins or commits suicide taking the GOP down with him. Our inability to hold not merely Trump, but the entire enabling Republican party accountable is society’s dilemma. We have just become too comfortable. We do not even notice that the US poverty line is the average middle-class income in many East European countries, and the upper class of many 3rd world countries. Maybe that is our Achilles heel. I hope not.
Great job cutting through the nonsense of both parties being the same, Thom. I see some of the commenters have not quite given up on equivocation.
All I can repeat to anyone listening is that everything that has made my life livable during my work-life and retirement as an American woman has been won by Democrats who fought Republicans and their repressive ideas.
Republicans and responsible both begin with "re", and those letters are the ONLY thing they share. Many Republicans like the idea of accountability concerning their religion, and with the way they treat people, I too hope Jesus comes back soon.
This lies on the raw edge of human nature and politics, how the "morbidly rich" actually think in their heart of hearts, their destructive delusions of what they have determined life should be — for themselves foremost, then everyone else as necessary baggage — failing forever to satisfy their ever-expanding, unquenchable desires. Violent authoritarianism by the powerful and greedy living among us is an ugly fact of human existence from time immemorial, impossible to hide from the abundance of evidence produced by their own selfish actions throughout society, throughout history.
It's just who they are, who they want to be. Trump is the paragon of their twisted egos, their damaged souls. But a deep, black fear of emptiness is at the heart of their extreme selfishness, and their all-consuming desire to fill that horrible emptiness within, which, unfortunately, all their riches and power can never fill.
Yet, seeing is acting. For people to witness the simple, though still shocking truth of things on their little planet, this truly insane consolidation of wealth and power playing out in the real world — the obvious correlation between acute wealth disparity and the forces of anti-democracy — is the first and most critical step if we are to survive on this godforsaken rock whirling around in the void.
If not ripped out by the roots through our collective action of nonviolent, choiceless intelligence (whatever that is) by we the people ourselves (whoever we are), uncompromising fascism, a hideous infection of the mind and soul, will only erode society and nature even further than it already has, far down a deadend road. Selfishness and greed equal violence — in all its many physical and mental expressions, on distant battlefields, but also in our streets, in our schools, in our churches, at work, at play, at home, against each other, against nature, everywhere, constantly. A violent world has produced violent beings who must see themselves for what they truly are, in all their glory and in all their horror, to effect real change for the better.
An anonymous quote I once copied down from somewhere (paraphrased): "The truth is not something far away; it is very close, under every leaf, in every smile, in every tear, in the words, in the feelings and thoughts that one has. But it is so covered up that we have to work hard to uncover it. And see. To uncover is to discover what is false. And the moment you know what is false, when that drops away, the truth is there."
Wow, this is so on point! Thank you again Thom for bringing powerful clarity to the issues we are struggling with today!!
The gop/repub DESTROYERS are rigging everything they can, from "elections" only open to goppers so they can win to "laws" that can remove all power from prosecutors to hold any gop/repub from accountability. (See Georgia, USA, legislature.) All the judiciary will be in their fist soon, like SCOTUS is already. (See what Netanyahu in Israel is trying to do.) The MASSIVE protests in Israel (and Tbilisi, Georgia) seem to be making a difference in those countries. Could America produce MASSIVE protests to save ourselves? Will we? Would it work? Will the gop/repubs and their handler superrich oligarchs win to turn America into a fascist Mordor? We MUST protest in work and deed, any way we are able. Ruthie B
Thom, I think the best way to fight the fascist autocratic theocracy movement, is just by telling the truth to the Trump supporters. The truth that they will lose their standard of living and be thown away as soon as they can't make money for the rich. I predict there are about 80 million Americans that could be called useless eaters and replaced with healthy young fertile religious immigrants from other nations.
The poor right wing white males, also will have their organs harvested, turned into slaves, tortured, starved and die from lack of healthcare after being poisoned by environmental toxins, just like all the poor black people. The left needs to set up a GoFundMe page for the Lincoln project, so they can run thousands of ads educating the idiots. I have no idea how to get the crazy right wingers in the gop Congress to raise the debt ceiling. That better come from the autocrats themselves if they want to protect the goose that lays the golden eggs. Part of the right wing plan is to cause a great depression and blame the Democrats for it and Biden seems to be going for it also, in my opinion. The dictatorship will be elected.