Hopefully this time Democratic politicians and our media will, finally, call the GOP out on Wanniski’s and Reagan’s Two Santa Clauses scam and put an end to it once and for all…
Where is the line between political maneuvering and conspiracy to defraud? Where is the line between legitimate partisan differences and criminal intent to deceive? Ultimately, where is the line between "the will of the people" and the rule of law?
The average American can probably tell you where that line is, if they're being honest. And perhaps most people would say this line has surely been crossed (given the facts, no thanks to our "there there, now" media). Therefore, at what point is this no longer a matter that can be addressed through voting, and instead, an acute threat to democracy that demands intervention from the Justice Department?
I ask, where is the line? I ask, at what point is this no longer in our hands alone?
I answer, the line is 40 years back and the point is NOW.
I agree. I have a dream that DOJ fully exposes the oligarchs Santa conspiracy and the corrupt SCOTUS. We can't regain or maintain a democracy on lies.
Sadly, mainstream media refuses to give us the truth. I am sickened by MSNBC's showcasing former GOP talking heads who were all a part of the Santa scheme.
They refuse to showcase progressives. They bow to their big pharma (nonstop advertisers demands) and give us what their masters will allow.
I will support Free Speech TV as long as I can, but the average person simply has no $ (especially after COVID) to support media and progressive candidates to compete with the oligarch billions.
Their plan has worked perfectly and the path back to the people is.........????
Mr. Notabot, very good question: Where is the line? You are treading on extremely dangerous ground here. Democracy in America is a two-way street. I have asked myself the same question a few times in the last several years. I do not think "the average American can probably tell you where that line is." But the average American knows it when they feel it, and they feel it when it is reached. Does that make sense?
Will people ever wise up to this bait and switch game? I have my doubts, and the GQP will continue to run this scam once they achieve their goal of complete power without public accountability.
Thanks again Thom for this cyclic history of Santa Clauses. Even on 2d or 3d hearing it shocks me. Why our news media across the color spectrum from blue to red ignore this obscenity is truly sad. But also, the failure of Congress is built-in and structural. It may never be repaired. And the megaphone of our electric-powered social media has put billionaires very much in charge.
Today our Attorney General attempts to explain the difference between an addiction to power and an addiction to drugs, under federal law.
All of the various shortcomings of our media coverage will be on display today, as the FCC (Freedom Caucus Clowns) know that the public is woefully under- or mis-informed about these topics by our media. Understanding this, Mr. Jordan will refer to the "classified documents" case in the same way that our media does - not revealing that the classification status of any and all docs is irrelevent under the charges, because the charges are "national security" violations, not classified documents violations. Just one example of where our media coverage falls short, and follows the essential framing that was put forward on "truth social".
Man, you sure do have an obsession with trying to redeem a man, who among other things, appointed a Trump humper as Special Council to prosecute Hunter, while keeping hands off Ivanka and Jr, and not even investigating the insurrectionist in Congress, while moving the Mara Lago case to a Trump humping Judge. (The excuses are phony and ridiculous, for those that have the guts to speak out, amongst which you can find gutless
Thanks for the daily trolling comment, clown, and welcome to the freedom caucus clowns.
People attacking this AG are not only just republicans but should be called freedom caucus clowns. You finally found a true home with them as these are the folks who lie and talk out of their asses every day, and who certainly won't pay any attention to anything that's happening in the congress.
This comes after 3 separate requests to stop trolling every comment here. What type of cynical individual has to pick fights and engage in name-calling every day, today it's one of the most respected judges and lawyers in the country and anyone who would provide some balance to Jim Jordan's stupidity (which gets carried all across the media and gets implanted in unsophisticated minds like yours). No let's not tolerate any of that - you're in charge here and need to make sure Jim's punches land hard, so you add some of your own to his. Like Jim and the others, your tired, stupid ad hominem shit certainly stinks badly, and some people may just be tired enough it to say goodbye to it for good. Have fun, clown.
Marc, there is a political strategy that you and Republicans use. The ad hominem, when you can't answer the question attack the author. And by the way, you resort to the age old diversionary tactic, of trying to change the subject, this time you try to interject Gym Jordan.
I respond to you constantly because you spout b..s., make threats, claim to be a legal expert, citing the jobs that you supposedly held. And always, come out sideways on the side of the MAGAts. In one voice you disprove of them, and in another voice make excuses.
Please explain, precisely way, you have this obsessive need to defend a man who sits back and has let the traitors destroy America.?
Do I have to repeat myself again? Gaetz investigated, piles of evidence, not even indicted.
Tons of evidence that members of Congress are guilty of insurrection (which is treason) and yet not even investigated. Appointing a Trump humping special counsel to indict Hunter, and hands off Ivanka and Jr. letting 98% of the low level traitors get off with a virtual wrist slap, misdemeanors and a lecture or a couple months in jail.
Never even starting an investigation of the J6 traitors until a year after being shamed into it by judges and peers, not to mention the public.
Yet he is your hero so much, that you choose to try to insult, a critic who dare exposes your hero to facts ignored by the press, democratic party and the administration
Again, what is the motive of yours behind this fullo throated defense of Garland, when it is clearly demonstrable that he is a fox in the henhouse, and is using his office to discredit Trump, while letting criminals like Gaetz, Boebert, Jordan, MTG, Comer, Biggs off the hook, while appointing a Trump humper (Weiss) to prosecute Hunter.
Tis you Marc, that are a symptom of the problem.
As regards ad hominem, you are misusing the term. As you use ad hominems against your antagonist, while defending an enemy of democracy, and no I don't use ad hominems, I simply use facts, and facts are not ad hominems.
I knew this had happened but never heard the story behind it. Thank you! We studied both trickle-down economics and the Laffer curve in college- hard to make this idiocy sound rational! Smart people I know still believe both!
Thank you Thom for this explanation of the crisis that we all know but few understand. This article must be shon and shared to 200 million Americans in order to incite a revolution against the top 10% of our country.
Only through knowledge like this can we ever hope to save our economy and our Democracy. How do we get the national media onto this track immediately?
Isn't this a story that 60 Minutes, or CBS Sunday Morning would take on? Maybe even Rachel Maddow? Send them what you've written that won't reach the big audiences these shows have. Are they all cowed by our oligarchical rulers? Or how about all those true crime shows, for an episode outside their boxes?
Thank you Mr. Hartman. I am ashamed to say I never heard of Jude Winniski until now. I remember how Reagan turned everything around, or should I say turned everything on its head? I wondered for years how Daddy Bush could call Reagan's policy "Voodoo Economics" while competing against Reagan in the GOP primary, yet adopt that same policy himself when he (Daddy Bush) arrived in the White House. Now thanks to your writing Mr. Hartman I see. Bush obviously had not heard of Winniski until he had power and was only then informed of Winniski's evil, clever plan, by conniving Economists in the Milton Friedman/Alan Greenspan School of thought.
Your readers, Mr. Hartman, might be interested to know that after WWl the fascists in Italy, did the same thing to engineer a takeover of their government. Wealthy Italians were petrified by the bolshevik's "Socialist" takeover in Russia. So they invented economic theories which claimed austerity for the masses was necessary for "Fiscal responsibility." Rather than use up space here to elaborate their successful scheme, I refer readers to Clara E. Mattei"s excellent book THE CAPITAL ORDER, How Economists Invented Austerity And Paved The Way To Fascism, Univ. Chicago Press, 2022.
For the last four decades, since "The Reagan Revolution" we have been on the same rails here in the U.S. After the Bolshevik takeover in Russia the initial response of the wealthy elite in America was to go underground. They more or less disappeared from public view. They did this out of design for fear of being identified by an angry public and facing something similar to a Bolshevik movement here. After Herbert Hoover's Great Depression and WWll, they ducked lower out of sight. But they were always in a state of anger and agitation over Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal which helped ordinary Americans live a good life.
Eventually, with the appearance of President Reagan, armed with what I now know were Winniski's ideas, the American Elite saw their opportunity. So the they jumped onto Newt Gingrich's Contract With America, and have come out of hiding. The forty years since Reagan have produced in America an echo of those events in Italy during the rise of Mussolini and his Fascisti.
Whenever someone tries to tell me Reagan cut Federal taxes I have to them he increased my taxes. He shut down deductions I relied on to reduce my taxes.
Ultimately, that is THE question. Right? I'm not convinced that the vote, by itself, is the answer. I think we need to be sober in our judgment of what is possible in this impossible moment we find ourselves in. The GOP has gerrymandered us into oblivion, has enacted laws in many states to make voting HARDER (if not impossible for some), and drowned us in a pandemonium of lies. For decades.
So yes, what is the path back to the people when they are disenfranchised or otherwise hobbled in electing legitimate representatives?
Nobody wants to be here in this moment of fracturing. But life presents us with reality - not the moments of our choosing. So... Here we are.
Thank you, Thom, yet again, for not only describing on a daily basis the various terrible situations that are currently threatening this country (among others), but for including the history of how and when -- and because of whom -- these situations started, and then grew to gnaw at our democracy and our lives.
But the so-frequently referred-to "mainstream media's" continuous, communal "failure to report" on these same events, situations, and their histories; their "refusal" to "pay attention" to what is, and was, happening virtually in front of them (and us) for decades, and which so clearly has adversely affected the lives of almost everyone in the U.S., except for those you call the "morbidly rich" -- that gigantic information black hole is a mystery.
Is it simply the fact that the rich folks who own the various media outlets instruct their editors and managers and writers to remain mum about what is actually going on? And those editors and journalists agree -- en masse, throughout the vast media outlets -- to obey those instructions, and to then ignore, or minimize, or simply not examine or report on, the facts? That's understandable here and there, I suppose, for this publication or that network. But for the entire, generalized "media"?? The stories, the histories, which all seem so crystal clear as you lay them out; not only about this "Two Santa Clauses" story, but about so many that you report on in your shows and newsletters, and write books about? That's what I have a hard time understanding.
Freedom of the press still exists, at least in a pretty large majority of places in this benighted country. Why do these stories -- apparently available to you and others who want to know and research and write and talk about them -- remain under wraps, as it were, with only your voice, and the seeming few who do similar reporting, telling what appears to be the "truth," while the truly massive "mainstream media," that presumably have the means, the resources, the people, the motivation, the information, the sources, the outlets to report accurately and in a timely way, stay quiet, or bury the stories, or do only half-hearted, incomplete reporting? I have to say, I don't get it. Is it simply the old adage, credited to Mark Twain, as well as to Charles Haddon Spurgeon: :"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting its shoes on"?
I remain mystified, frustrated, and angry, that so much of our politics, and the actions of our legislators, and the voting of our people, are based on a lack of knowledge of the truth of what's actually going on in all of our lives! And I don't fully understand WHY that is the case!
Thom, you are absolutely correct about the two Santa Clauses. I don't think NBC will ever expose their audience to it though? I'm sure that all the right wingers in different nations are trying to do the same thing in order to destroy happiness and cause human suffering, because their mommy didn't love them enough. I can see why they didn't!
I suggest that the left goes along with all this insanity and by next election time, there will be such a mess, caused by the right wing greedy bastards, the Dems will take the house and Senate and executive branch and add seats to the supreme Court if Biden will let them.
I believe we are reading from the same page here, if you'll allow me to clarify a few points.
1) I acknowledge that the question I posed is an uncomfortable one. Essentially, I asked if it was time for the DOJ to intervene in matters which have been, to this point, the exclusive burden of the people. I asked this question not because I think it's a good idea in practice - or even possible - but to illustrate the indisputable fact that we do find ourselves "...on extremely dangerous ground". I tread this ground because it is the ground before me, not the ground I wish for.
2) Indeed, our system is a two-way street. The nightmare of the DOJ bringing RICO against an entire political party is not lost on me - neither is the precedent it could set.
3) I should have worded "the average American can probably tell you where that line is" differently. Your words are more in the spirit of what I was attempting to say, so thank you for sharing!
In conclusion, to be absolutely clear, I am not retracting my words or questions. I do believe that we need to think beyond "get out and vote". What "beyond" even is, I have no idea. Truly. But I do know that we are in a desperate moment, the clock is ticking, and the status quo doesn't seem like enough given the GOP's absolute violence to the franchise. When those in power are the ones who write the rules about who comes into power - we are powerless as a whole. For now, vote like hell.
Nixon the crook kicked off the lying and as he disgraced his party and was leaving, Wanniski apparently decided to pick-up where he left off. It groomed Republican generations to come to accept this crazy magical-thinking. Other conservatives who didn't actually buy that trickle-down crap decided to accept all the lies as the way to beat and own the libs.
As much as we are amazed by Republican acceptance of Trump's lying, this shows us how decades of lies got them to where they are in 2023 with an orange albatross hanging around their party's neck. He is their "colossal" idiotic ideas personified---here comes Santa Claus!
When our mainstream press is owned by oligarchs one cannot expect them to reveal the secrets of the continued wealth gap in this country. Wickipedia owned by Google, Fox by Rupert Murdoch, CNN is a publicly traded company by Biggest shareholder is ATT. See more here. https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/futureofmedia/index-us-mainstream-media-ownership
Beware the media. It has an agenda, and that is not to serve the people. They serve their owners and shareholders interests. Thank you for not being the mainstream press and pointing out that Reaganomics is evil. So many people I grew up with embraced it, and were Democrats converted, went and made tons of money, and loved that he had justified greed and a ME, ME, ME attitude. I could not believe they all fell for it. Later some admitted their mistakes. Their mistakes are ones we all suffer for. We are watching this played out again. It is really frightening.
Hmm, the article is about an actual policy, not good cop vs bad cop. Thom explains the political strategy of the Republicans, and the cowardly failure of Democrats to counter it, with their own strategy.
Republican strategy fits on bumper stickers, because it false, deceptive and gets to the lizard brain.
Democratic strategy, because they play nice, is weak and too long to put on a bumper sticker.
You don't win elections by touting your goodness, you win by grabbing the lizard brain. If you have to use paragraphs to explain yourself, you have lost
Voting Americans don't care about the economy, those that have jobs and decent incomes, take it for granted. The rest have scapegoats to blame for their anger and angst.
The sad part is that blue collar voters, are dissatisfied with the Democrats and Biden, because they feel ignored and discounted,because the Republicans know how to capture the Lizard Brain and terrorize it, in their favor.
The Democrats are too good for that mess. They try to appeal to the pre frontal cortex, which is the weakest part of the brain. An example, ssocial, religious and ethnic identity is how the Lizard Brain (Amygdala) sees the world, and it is always looking for offense, for threats
Wanninski captalized on that, by harping on budget deficits, leading Americans to believe that Budget deficits, government spending, was harmful, especially when some of it went to those that don't deserve it, like poor folk and especially people of color.
Hey MF My strategy is to light a fire under Biden and Garland, that he is either fired or quits
BTW, a current article on Raw Story is about Matt Gaetz trying to steam roll Garland.
This is either a purposeful red herring, or a problem Garland created by not using the info accumulated to indict the pervert, liar and racist. So much for your hero.
Today's hearing look like a purposeful red herring to me. You got the GOP criticizing the man that let them off with treason. All phony in my opinion and prestaged. There is a movement to make America another right wing dictatorship and eventually turn it into the same standard of living as South America in my opinion. The Trump humpers deserve it. It will go well with global warming. But then their supernatural force "human sacrifice Jesus" should come back by then and save them. You can't make this stuff up.
My thoughts exactly, I called it Kabuki theater. I am especially peeved at Swalwell. When he had his chance to interview Garland, he could have and should have asked him why he hasn't investigated or indicted Ivanka and Jr?
On top of which Durham and Weiss were appointed by Trump, and then embedded in DOJ by his EO 13957. Weiss begged Garland to put him in charge of the Hunter investigation., as special counsel.
Garland said that he is not the presidents lawyer, So his choice of investigating Hunter, while ignoring the crimes of Ivanka and Jr, as well as that of the traitors in Congress, like Gym Jordan, Hawley, Beobert, MTG, Comer, Biggs was his discretion, and why would he exercise such discretion? Question was rhetorical, he is a conservative Republican. Question is who is benefiting? Not America, not we the people, not democracy.
Edit added: I think that Democrats in power, are loathe to question Garland and expose his loyalties, because he is a Biden appointee,
Oops forgot just as and more important. Garland has failed to indict Matt Gaetz, although he has been investigate for at least 2 years. And Now this pervert and crook is the leader of a faction holding our economy to hostage. Good show Garland, real good show, but was quick to appoint Weiss as special counsel for Hunter.
Where is the line between political maneuvering and conspiracy to defraud? Where is the line between legitimate partisan differences and criminal intent to deceive? Ultimately, where is the line between "the will of the people" and the rule of law?
The average American can probably tell you where that line is, if they're being honest. And perhaps most people would say this line has surely been crossed (given the facts, no thanks to our "there there, now" media). Therefore, at what point is this no longer a matter that can be addressed through voting, and instead, an acute threat to democracy that demands intervention from the Justice Department?
I ask, where is the line? I ask, at what point is this no longer in our hands alone?
I answer, the line is 40 years back and the point is NOW.
I agree. I have a dream that DOJ fully exposes the oligarchs Santa conspiracy and the corrupt SCOTUS. We can't regain or maintain a democracy on lies.
Sadly, mainstream media refuses to give us the truth. I am sickened by MSNBC's showcasing former GOP talking heads who were all a part of the Santa scheme.
They refuse to showcase progressives. They bow to their big pharma (nonstop advertisers demands) and give us what their masters will allow.
I will support Free Speech TV as long as I can, but the average person simply has no $ (especially after COVID) to support media and progressive candidates to compete with the oligarch billions.
Their plan has worked perfectly and the path back to the people is.........????
Mr. Notabot, very good question: Where is the line? You are treading on extremely dangerous ground here. Democracy in America is a two-way street. I have asked myself the same question a few times in the last several years. I do not think "the average American can probably tell you where that line is." But the average American knows it when they feel it, and they feel it when it is reached. Does that make sense?
Will people ever wise up to this bait and switch game? I have my doubts, and the GQP will continue to run this scam once they achieve their goal of complete power without public accountability.
Thanks again Thom for this cyclic history of Santa Clauses. Even on 2d or 3d hearing it shocks me. Why our news media across the color spectrum from blue to red ignore this obscenity is truly sad. But also, the failure of Congress is built-in and structural. It may never be repaired. And the megaphone of our electric-powered social media has put billionaires very much in charge.
Wow, well put in one paragraph yet.
Today our Attorney General attempts to explain the difference between an addiction to power and an addiction to drugs, under federal law.
All of the various shortcomings of our media coverage will be on display today, as the FCC (Freedom Caucus Clowns) know that the public is woefully under- or mis-informed about these topics by our media. Understanding this, Mr. Jordan will refer to the "classified documents" case in the same way that our media does - not revealing that the classification status of any and all docs is irrelevent under the charges, because the charges are "national security" violations, not classified documents violations. Just one example of where our media coverage falls short, and follows the essential framing that was put forward on "truth social".
Garland attempts to what?
Man, you sure do have an obsession with trying to redeem a man, who among other things, appointed a Trump humper as Special Council to prosecute Hunter, while keeping hands off Ivanka and Jr, and not even investigating the insurrectionist in Congress, while moving the Mara Lago case to a Trump humping Judge. (The excuses are phony and ridiculous, for those that have the guts to speak out, amongst which you can find gutless
Dems and administration officials.
Thanks for the daily trolling comment, clown, and welcome to the freedom caucus clowns.
People attacking this AG are not only just republicans but should be called freedom caucus clowns. You finally found a true home with them as these are the folks who lie and talk out of their asses every day, and who certainly won't pay any attention to anything that's happening in the congress.
This comes after 3 separate requests to stop trolling every comment here. What type of cynical individual has to pick fights and engage in name-calling every day, today it's one of the most respected judges and lawyers in the country and anyone who would provide some balance to Jim Jordan's stupidity (which gets carried all across the media and gets implanted in unsophisticated minds like yours). No let's not tolerate any of that - you're in charge here and need to make sure Jim's punches land hard, so you add some of your own to his. Like Jim and the others, your tired, stupid ad hominem shit certainly stinks badly, and some people may just be tired enough it to say goodbye to it for good. Have fun, clown.
Marc, there is a political strategy that you and Republicans use. The ad hominem, when you can't answer the question attack the author. And by the way, you resort to the age old diversionary tactic, of trying to change the subject, this time you try to interject Gym Jordan.
I respond to you constantly because you spout b..s., make threats, claim to be a legal expert, citing the jobs that you supposedly held. And always, come out sideways on the side of the MAGAts. In one voice you disprove of them, and in another voice make excuses.
Please explain, precisely way, you have this obsessive need to defend a man who sits back and has let the traitors destroy America.?
Do I have to repeat myself again? Gaetz investigated, piles of evidence, not even indicted.
Tons of evidence that members of Congress are guilty of insurrection (which is treason) and yet not even investigated. Appointing a Trump humping special counsel to indict Hunter, and hands off Ivanka and Jr. letting 98% of the low level traitors get off with a virtual wrist slap, misdemeanors and a lecture or a couple months in jail.
Never even starting an investigation of the J6 traitors until a year after being shamed into it by judges and peers, not to mention the public.
Yet he is your hero so much, that you choose to try to insult, a critic who dare exposes your hero to facts ignored by the press, democratic party and the administration
LOL. I effectively refute your love affair with Garland, and you call me a troll and clown.
Pure MAGAt responses.
I am not name calling I am pointing out facts.
Pathetic you.
Again, what is the motive of yours behind this fullo throated defense of Garland, when it is clearly demonstrable that he is a fox in the henhouse, and is using his office to discredit Trump, while letting criminals like Gaetz, Boebert, Jordan, MTG, Comer, Biggs off the hook, while appointing a Trump humper (Weiss) to prosecute Hunter.
Tis you Marc, that are a symptom of the problem.
As regards ad hominem, you are misusing the term. As you use ad hominems against your antagonist, while defending an enemy of democracy, and no I don't use ad hominems, I simply use facts, and facts are not ad hominems.
I knew this had happened but never heard the story behind it. Thank you! We studied both trickle-down economics and the Laffer curve in college- hard to make this idiocy sound rational! Smart people I know still believe both!
Thank you Thom for this explanation of the crisis that we all know but few understand. This article must be shon and shared to 200 million Americans in order to incite a revolution against the top 10% of our country.
Only through knowledge like this can we ever hope to save our economy and our Democracy. How do we get the national media onto this track immediately?
Isn't this a story that 60 Minutes, or CBS Sunday Morning would take on? Maybe even Rachel Maddow? Send them what you've written that won't reach the big audiences these shows have. Are they all cowed by our oligarchical rulers? Or how about all those true crime shows, for an episode outside their boxes?
Thank you Mr. Hartman. I am ashamed to say I never heard of Jude Winniski until now. I remember how Reagan turned everything around, or should I say turned everything on its head? I wondered for years how Daddy Bush could call Reagan's policy "Voodoo Economics" while competing against Reagan in the GOP primary, yet adopt that same policy himself when he (Daddy Bush) arrived in the White House. Now thanks to your writing Mr. Hartman I see. Bush obviously had not heard of Winniski until he had power and was only then informed of Winniski's evil, clever plan, by conniving Economists in the Milton Friedman/Alan Greenspan School of thought.
Your readers, Mr. Hartman, might be interested to know that after WWl the fascists in Italy, did the same thing to engineer a takeover of their government. Wealthy Italians were petrified by the bolshevik's "Socialist" takeover in Russia. So they invented economic theories which claimed austerity for the masses was necessary for "Fiscal responsibility." Rather than use up space here to elaborate their successful scheme, I refer readers to Clara E. Mattei"s excellent book THE CAPITAL ORDER, How Economists Invented Austerity And Paved The Way To Fascism, Univ. Chicago Press, 2022.
For the last four decades, since "The Reagan Revolution" we have been on the same rails here in the U.S. After the Bolshevik takeover in Russia the initial response of the wealthy elite in America was to go underground. They more or less disappeared from public view. They did this out of design for fear of being identified by an angry public and facing something similar to a Bolshevik movement here. After Herbert Hoover's Great Depression and WWll, they ducked lower out of sight. But they were always in a state of anger and agitation over Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal which helped ordinary Americans live a good life.
Eventually, with the appearance of President Reagan, armed with what I now know were Winniski's ideas, the American Elite saw their opportunity. So the they jumped onto Newt Gingrich's Contract With America, and have come out of hiding. The forty years since Reagan have produced in America an echo of those events in Italy during the rise of Mussolini and his Fascisti.
Whenever someone tries to tell me Reagan cut Federal taxes I have to them he increased my taxes. He shut down deductions I relied on to reduce my taxes.
"...and the path back to the people is.....?"
Ultimately, that is THE question. Right? I'm not convinced that the vote, by itself, is the answer. I think we need to be sober in our judgment of what is possible in this impossible moment we find ourselves in. The GOP has gerrymandered us into oblivion, has enacted laws in many states to make voting HARDER (if not impossible for some), and drowned us in a pandemonium of lies. For decades.
So yes, what is the path back to the people when they are disenfranchised or otherwise hobbled in electing legitimate representatives?
Nobody wants to be here in this moment of fracturing. But life presents us with reality - not the moments of our choosing. So... Here we are.
Thank you, Thom, yet again, for not only describing on a daily basis the various terrible situations that are currently threatening this country (among others), but for including the history of how and when -- and because of whom -- these situations started, and then grew to gnaw at our democracy and our lives.
But the so-frequently referred-to "mainstream media's" continuous, communal "failure to report" on these same events, situations, and their histories; their "refusal" to "pay attention" to what is, and was, happening virtually in front of them (and us) for decades, and which so clearly has adversely affected the lives of almost everyone in the U.S., except for those you call the "morbidly rich" -- that gigantic information black hole is a mystery.
Is it simply the fact that the rich folks who own the various media outlets instruct their editors and managers and writers to remain mum about what is actually going on? And those editors and journalists agree -- en masse, throughout the vast media outlets -- to obey those instructions, and to then ignore, or minimize, or simply not examine or report on, the facts? That's understandable here and there, I suppose, for this publication or that network. But for the entire, generalized "media"?? The stories, the histories, which all seem so crystal clear as you lay them out; not only about this "Two Santa Clauses" story, but about so many that you report on in your shows and newsletters, and write books about? That's what I have a hard time understanding.
Freedom of the press still exists, at least in a pretty large majority of places in this benighted country. Why do these stories -- apparently available to you and others who want to know and research and write and talk about them -- remain under wraps, as it were, with only your voice, and the seeming few who do similar reporting, telling what appears to be the "truth," while the truly massive "mainstream media," that presumably have the means, the resources, the people, the motivation, the information, the sources, the outlets to report accurately and in a timely way, stay quiet, or bury the stories, or do only half-hearted, incomplete reporting? I have to say, I don't get it. Is it simply the old adage, credited to Mark Twain, as well as to Charles Haddon Spurgeon: :"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting its shoes on"?
I remain mystified, frustrated, and angry, that so much of our politics, and the actions of our legislators, and the voting of our people, are based on a lack of knowledge of the truth of what's actually going on in all of our lives! And I don't fully understand WHY that is the case!
Thom, you are absolutely correct about the two Santa Clauses. I don't think NBC will ever expose their audience to it though? I'm sure that all the right wingers in different nations are trying to do the same thing in order to destroy happiness and cause human suffering, because their mommy didn't love them enough. I can see why they didn't!
I suggest that the left goes along with all this insanity and by next election time, there will be such a mess, caused by the right wing greedy bastards, the Dems will take the house and Senate and executive branch and add seats to the supreme Court if Biden will let them.
Thank you for commenting.
I believe we are reading from the same page here, if you'll allow me to clarify a few points.
1) I acknowledge that the question I posed is an uncomfortable one. Essentially, I asked if it was time for the DOJ to intervene in matters which have been, to this point, the exclusive burden of the people. I asked this question not because I think it's a good idea in practice - or even possible - but to illustrate the indisputable fact that we do find ourselves "...on extremely dangerous ground". I tread this ground because it is the ground before me, not the ground I wish for.
2) Indeed, our system is a two-way street. The nightmare of the DOJ bringing RICO against an entire political party is not lost on me - neither is the precedent it could set.
3) I should have worded "the average American can probably tell you where that line is" differently. Your words are more in the spirit of what I was attempting to say, so thank you for sharing!
In conclusion, to be absolutely clear, I am not retracting my words or questions. I do believe that we need to think beyond "get out and vote". What "beyond" even is, I have no idea. Truly. But I do know that we are in a desperate moment, the clock is ticking, and the status quo doesn't seem like enough given the GOP's absolute violence to the franchise. When those in power are the ones who write the rules about who comes into power - we are powerless as a whole. For now, vote like hell.
Nixon the crook kicked off the lying and as he disgraced his party and was leaving, Wanniski apparently decided to pick-up where he left off. It groomed Republican generations to come to accept this crazy magical-thinking. Other conservatives who didn't actually buy that trickle-down crap decided to accept all the lies as the way to beat and own the libs.
As much as we are amazed by Republican acceptance of Trump's lying, this shows us how decades of lies got them to where they are in 2023 with an orange albatross hanging around their party's neck. He is their "colossal" idiotic ideas personified---here comes Santa Claus!
When our mainstream press is owned by oligarchs one cannot expect them to reveal the secrets of the continued wealth gap in this country. Wickipedia owned by Google, Fox by Rupert Murdoch, CNN is a publicly traded company by Biggest shareholder is ATT. See more here. https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/futureofmedia/index-us-mainstream-media-ownership
Beware the media. It has an agenda, and that is not to serve the people. They serve their owners and shareholders interests. Thank you for not being the mainstream press and pointing out that Reaganomics is evil. So many people I grew up with embraced it, and were Democrats converted, went and made tons of money, and loved that he had justified greed and a ME, ME, ME attitude. I could not believe they all fell for it. Later some admitted their mistakes. Their mistakes are ones we all suffer for. We are watching this played out again. It is really frightening.
Perhaps it would be better to explain it as the Santa Clause (Dems) vs. Santa Scrooge (GOP)?
Hmm, the article is about an actual policy, not good cop vs bad cop. Thom explains the political strategy of the Republicans, and the cowardly failure of Democrats to counter it, with their own strategy.
Republican strategy fits on bumper stickers, because it false, deceptive and gets to the lizard brain.
Democratic strategy, because they play nice, is weak and too long to put on a bumper sticker.
You don't win elections by touting your goodness, you win by grabbing the lizard brain. If you have to use paragraphs to explain yourself, you have lost
Voting Americans don't care about the economy, those that have jobs and decent incomes, take it for granted. The rest have scapegoats to blame for their anger and angst.
The sad part is that blue collar voters, are dissatisfied with the Democrats and Biden, because they feel ignored and discounted,because the Republicans know how to capture the Lizard Brain and terrorize it, in their favor.
The Democrats are too good for that mess. They try to appeal to the pre frontal cortex, which is the weakest part of the brain. An example, ssocial, religious and ethnic identity is how the Lizard Brain (Amygdala) sees the world, and it is always looking for offense, for threats
Wanninski captalized on that, by harping on budget deficits, leading Americans to believe that Budget deficits, government spending, was harmful, especially when some of it went to those that don't deserve it, like poor folk and especially people of color.
Please "oh learned one" give us a strategy rather than just a bitch slapping.
Show us what you truly know or shut the F up.
Hey MF My strategy is to light a fire under Biden and Garland, that he is either fired or quits
BTW, a current article on Raw Story is about Matt Gaetz trying to steam roll Garland.
This is either a purposeful red herring, or a problem Garland created by not using the info accumulated to indict the pervert, liar and racist. So much for your hero.
Today's hearing look like a purposeful red herring to me. You got the GOP criticizing the man that let them off with treason. All phony in my opinion and prestaged. There is a movement to make America another right wing dictatorship and eventually turn it into the same standard of living as South America in my opinion. The Trump humpers deserve it. It will go well with global warming. But then their supernatural force "human sacrifice Jesus" should come back by then and save them. You can't make this stuff up.
My thoughts exactly, I called it Kabuki theater. I am especially peeved at Swalwell. When he had his chance to interview Garland, he could have and should have asked him why he hasn't investigated or indicted Ivanka and Jr?
On top of which Durham and Weiss were appointed by Trump, and then embedded in DOJ by his EO 13957. Weiss begged Garland to put him in charge of the Hunter investigation., as special counsel.
Garland said that he is not the presidents lawyer, So his choice of investigating Hunter, while ignoring the crimes of Ivanka and Jr, as well as that of the traitors in Congress, like Gym Jordan, Hawley, Beobert, MTG, Comer, Biggs was his discretion, and why would he exercise such discretion? Question was rhetorical, he is a conservative Republican. Question is who is benefiting? Not America, not we the people, not democracy.
Edit added: I think that Democrats in power, are loathe to question Garland and expose his loyalties, because he is a Biden appointee,
Oops forgot just as and more important. Garland has failed to indict Matt Gaetz, although he has been investigate for at least 2 years. And Now this pervert and crook is the leader of a faction holding our economy to hostage. Good show Garland, real good show, but was quick to appoint Weiss as special counsel for Hunter.
Gee Al, a bit over the top response don't you think? #nasty