Note: I originally wrote this to post on yesterday's blog, but by the time I finished, today's blog was already up. I guess it's still on topic, so I'll post it here.
Why did Kamala Harris Lose?
The answers vary wildly, depending on who is pontificating: The Left says she needed to be more on the left; the right says she was not right enough; and the center says she should have focused exclusively on the center.
Some say that her principal message should have targeted the concerns of middle-class workers and their families, even though ninety percent of her campaign speeches did just that. Maybe, in the remaining ten percent, she harped too much about Trump being a fascist nutball fcking idiot; then again, perhaps she needed to attack him even more aggressively.
Others criticize her for having devoted too much of the campaign's energy to the abortion issue — never mind that it was foremost on the minds of most women and many men, as shown by their overwhelming support for state ballot initiatives to decriminalize abortion.
The Joe Rogan types of manly men with no college degrees insist she should have addressed their sense of whiney victimhood in an economy that increasingly requires a college education. (Regardless, they wouldn't vote for a woman to be president, no matter what she says. No way in hell!)
Most Democrats of nearly all stripes think that an unpopular Joe Biden should have bowed out much sooner or not attempted to run for a second term in the first place, giving Harris or some other candidate additional time to mount a more effective campaign.
While some of these arguments and many more have merit and will be discussed ad nauseam for years, most miss the main point: Shameless Republican liars, supported by a ruling class of right-wing plutocrats who hate common-sense regulations and paying their fair share of taxes, have hijacked our media environment and will lie about Democratic messaging no matter what it is, how truthful it is, or how vitally important it is in the lives of everyday Americans and for the very survival of small-d democracy itself.
The fact is that Kamala Harris ran an almost flawless campaign in the short three-plus months she had. Her messaging was right on; she connected with millions of ordinary citizens on issues that mattered to them. She only lost by a whisker because of Republicans' unrelenting campaign of outright lies and widespread voter suppression and disenfranchisement on an industrial scale, egged on by Russia and our other foreign enemies who hate democracy.
Also, to correct another despicable right-wing lie, Biden is a great President who will go down in history for shepherding the nation out of an economy ravaged by a once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic grossly mismanaged by a criminally negligent *REPUBLICAN* president, someone who committed uncountable serious felonies in and out of office.
For sure, the Democratic Party can tweak its messaging in many ways and certainly will in response to its latest loss to Republicans, the party of the filthy rich. But it should never alter its overall position or lose sight of its north star as the party of the common man and woman.
The biggest challenge for truth-tellers in the future is to create, sustain, and expand a popular media environment in the electorate's mind that can counteract the omnipresent right-wing lie machine for the long term. Franklin Roosevelt accomplished that by talking to ordinary people primarily through the radio. In his day, Thomas Jefferson had to rely on pamphlets to get the word out.
In the modern world, it will have to be a full-court press, using every available medium, including print media, radio, TV, the internet, and, yes, pamphlets if necessary. (Liar Tim Sheehy won his Senate race in Montana primarily by flooding everyone's mailboxes with large splashy fliers that simply outnumbered and overwhelmed Jon Tester's mailings.)
Throughout history, democracy has been a war between lies and truth. Today, for the most part, the Democrats are on the side of truth — if people can hear them through the storm of Republican lies.
Hi Eadie. I'm not trained in law, so will defer to Daniel on that matter. But I do firmly believe that whatever counteraction people undertake there must be a groundswell of support to be effective, which means small-d democrats must break through by every means necessary the wall of right-wing media that has gripped our nation, steering us toward fascism and autocracy. This is a war for the minds of citizens.
"...we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolved, and the people recovering their true sight, restoring their government to its true principles. It is true, that in the meantime, we are suffering deeply in spirit..."
-Maybe again now. Maybe no such luck this time.
This was about war on the press, and you even wrote several weeks ago about being imprisoned yourself.
That got me thinking that if they go that far next year, it will be neccessary to set up a "Radio Free US", probably in Canada, so we can still get truth and news.
Maybe they can start a Radio Free US division of the CBC, funded by more affluent "refugees" to Canada, who will flee the tyranny that is about to be unleashed. It can be a powerful shortwave signal that will reach every corner of the lower 48 states plus Alaska.
I've been thinking a lot about this "tables turned" situation that is about to become real. Probably at least 100 million Americans are soon going to want out, to be in a sanely functioning democracy again. This number is so huge, the world is in uncharted waters, especially because Europe is so threatened now by Putin and by climate change. The countries there probably will not be able to expand and liberalize their immigration capacity for Americans. Maybe Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and some Asian countries will be more able.
...And another thing!.. The REAL crisis about to hit the economy is even worse than what we are already talking about (gutting the government of competence and replacing it with cultists, reckless, crazy trade and economic policies, disruption of labor via mass deportations, etc etc).
Instead, the crisis I am talking about is a total flat lining of average so-called "consumer confidence", because perhaps up to half of all Americans are so terrified and disgusted right now the last thing on their minds is buying more stuff and spending money into an economy controlled by maniacs!
Unless we are talking about weapons for defending themselves, and supplies to get through unrest, what the hell are these many tens of millions of people gonna have any interest in spending money on?!
Thank you Thom for all the history lessons and hope in that this has happened before and truth and democracy will win. I agree with LeMoine Surlamont that I never learned this in school. I hated history, US and World, because of having to remember all the wars and dates etc. If they would have spent more on the real reasons and changed, that would have helped.
I agree. I love history, and yet I failed a quarter in a Gen. History class that emphasized battles and dates in order to pass tests. Thom is definitely giving me some new info about Adams, and the precarious state our Republic was in at the time, and sadly so close to so many who died for the freedom to begin our Country.
You are so right. It’s amazing how many others responded with similar stories. And now the threat of destroying the Dept. of Education by a woman wrestler! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry - but sadly it will be at my elderly age joining the young to revolt! Like the 1960’s have returned.
Wow what a great read this morning ☕ Thom. I wonder what Jefferson would do to combat All the outside influence ? Russia and China for example,or say the Internet, Ticktock and Facebook? Main Stream Media, full of Disinformation and trump talking points? Outstanding article and will reStack ASAP 👍💯 🇺🇲 !
Thom, that was a great read and I intend to circulate it within my contacts, and particularly with my sons who are despondent over the election results. This is the kind of stuff we were never told about in US history K-12 and gives me hope that we can overcome the current situation once again. Thank you very much!
In my opinion, Trump's warning that the media will be silenced is useless because that horse and carriage had already left the barn a long time ago. The 'mainstream media' is a phrase coined by Goebbels in 1932 referring to that which Hitler's regime strove to silence, and we still refer to our large media networks as mainstream media that we once depended on to write the truth; in the 1970s, Ayres decided to dismantle it after Nixon's loss, their view began to permeate our news still through others like Murdoch, and now the few large media companies spew news skewed to the neoliberals world view guiding our country/politics with misinformation and the billionaires driving this carriage reflects the mantra of tyrants. If allowed, Trump and others could shut down various media forms that speak the truth, such as Thom Hartmann. Therefore, we should take heart, as Jefferson did, and persevere. Carol Heasley
Both or all parties in the UK hate the BBC for its truth-telling accuracy. It is time we linked up with the BBC for our national news. How that would go over or even be possible, I don't know. I imagine they have their hands full in England.
What percentage of the populous do you think the media reached in this period of history? I’m trying to equate with our far-reaching media outlets, be it valid information or gross misinformation.
Good question. I can't find any data about newspaper circulations to answer it though. I found sources saying there were about 3 million US adults then, and that over 90 percent of the men were literate. Since many women were not, the OVERALL literacy rate was about 60 percent.
The play Hamilton was an ode to a myth of political correctness, Just because he was a bastard born in the British West Indies on a sugar plantation, there is an assumption amongst people of African ancestry, that he was a mulatto, that they could claim that a black man was a founding father.This is what happens when people are beat down, and have to create myths to build dignity. History is revised, to fit a narrative. Just like project 1619 claims that the 20 Africans that were sold off at Elizabeth Town, in VA were slaves. They weren't they were indentured servants, slavery didn't come to Viginia until 1655 and the case of Johnson v Casor, but not legally until 1661 when the House of Burgesslegalized slavery.
Until then one was either a yeoman, planter, or indentured servant. And there were slave owning black,former indentured servant, blacks until 1833 and the Nat Turner rebellion, when in reaction all blacks were re enslaved.
What we know is that Alexanders father was a sugar cane planter and his mother an Irish indentured servant.
I am discouraged to learn that our 2nd President, in our fresh, new Democratic-Republic & with a Bill Of Rights that the ink was barely dry on, that Adams could do ehat he did. So, from the start, there was a lack of respect for our most basic rights, like FREE SPEECH? I'm disgusted that Adams was able to have people imprisoned for speaking truth that he didn't like! So much for "freedom of speech" then, eh?! Trump doesn't know squat about history or our government, nor does he care to - since he has always felt he can do as he pleases, & thanks to SCOTUS, he now has 'total immunity' for anything he does as prez!🤬 We've gotten this far w/o our prez needing such immunity ~ how is it that only NOW is it needed!?!
What do insiders know of
"Unprecedented", BS is Trump's hallmark & now GOP's too, by virtue of "loudly & proudly" spreading his crapola & jumping on board the Liars' Train with him!
*1st came Federalists.
*Replaced by Whig Party.
*From the remnants of those 2 unpatriotic, democracy-hating Parties came the 3rd reincarnation ~ the Republican GOP Party of today...(aka Trump's MAGA/GOP Party). Nothing has changed really, except their Party's name...& they've gotten more vile & determined to do anything it takes to grab & retain all the power themselves! Seems they never believed in what the USA was founded on/for... A Gov't Of, By & For The People. ~ As said in Pledge Of Allegiance..."with liberty & justice for All."
Time for Rethugs Party to disappear - AGAIN - as the 2 prior versions did!?! But 3 tries are enuff to show that they do NOT share the same vision for this Country & its people & don't support the foundation it was built on, nor it's goals for the future. They have "pledged their allegiance" to Trump & those behind "Project 2025"...the dystopian plan for a future of poverty for "the people"...& all the riches, power, freedom & rights are reserved ONLY FOR THE WEALTH-CLASS, in top 2%.
The Party is NOT "conservative", nor about true "law & order", or "family values", for that matter.
To be honest, it (in all 3 names) is & has been, the Grandiose Party of Control, Power & Greed!! What they want can be found in other nations, "kingdoms" on Earth & they should GO LIVE THERE -- NOT turn our Country into another one of those nations!
I readily admit to knowing little about Adams beyond the musical film "1776". Thank you for revealing this history to me. I have been a fan of Bonhoffer and recently saw the film based on his life. I could hardly breathe as the similarly to what we have been experiencing here was again blasted before me. If this is civilization then why do these maniacs keep overpowering the idea of the common good? The atrocities of Trump’s people are more than revealed yet that party won the majority. I, for one, intend to remain a thorn in their side. Called my congressperson for the first time over HB 9495.
Sarah, did they really win? Do you have any doubts about whether the voting machines were manipulated? AnExpert in the field has sounded the alarm. What say you?
Yes, there was everything smelly about the election results. However, I believe it would be a tragic mistake to focus any energy on that. Our thrust needs to be strongly on opening the eyes of those who willingly deluded themselves into supporting a despicable man. The women who voted for Trump willingly deluded themselves despite clear evidence that they were electing a person who allowed women to bleed out in parking lots. Our effort must be on strongly putting forth democratic values as the desirable outcome in '26.
Sarah, I get your drift. However, I thought the election was about winning. Wasn't that why so many people invested their time and energy and money? People from every walk of life were invested in this. What if the election actually proves that the election was stolen? What if John Spoonamore, an expert on voting machines, who has been claiming they are not always reliable is right. there are a lot of what ifs, but a simple hand recount can answer that question. tRump had that done 64 times. I can't understand why you feel it's not worth investing our time. Stating what we should do when tRump is in office gives me no comfort.
Interesting information. But we’re in a deep hole because most people don’t know how people got so stupid that Trump seemed reasonable ? And no one like you is talking about it helping people get it. We can’t solve what we don’t know. Getting enough people to elect a criminal pervert who always lies was quite a feat. Or was it? That’s what I just wrote about in my book A Graver Danger, which is my memoir about my teaching experiences.
Our schools are corrupt and since they’re the foundation of democracy there was no chance democracy could last. WhiteChalkCrime.com explains a lot. The question is did the media refuse to report this on purpose? Did the courts assume our schools are the good guys and our teachers are the bad guys on purpose? Did the ACLU dodge reporting this on purpose? Do the universities ignore this on purpose?
I think some unintentional players have helped these bad guys unknowingly due to our dysfunctional schools. It’s a chicken and egg situation. The people who want inequality set up opportunities to destroy institutions like our schools and then crooks take over while the good guys lose.
My hope was to get my book that explains exactly what we can do to fix our schools to someone in power since I truly believe those in power have no intellectual sources for getting it right. Education is such a stepchild institution that few bright minds look into it in any depth and it’s had no leader since Horace Mann died in 1859. And the fact the the unions are as terrified of the crooks in charge makes this a deep hole! We need unions but not ones who’ve succumbed to the bad guys.
We are a bell curve of other centered and self centered people. We start with an Equal chance to go in either direction. We went selfish because our schools stopped producing citizens. They became authoritarian and corrupt - selfish. The closeness of this election proves we’re a bell curve. It was up to us who gets to pull it in which direction. Actually it was the schools that prejudiced the direction toward other centered.
.
Abraham Lincoln warned that the way of the schoolroom in one generation would be the government in the next. It is. I felt like Trump values ran my school.
We’re like a scale of justice. We have two sides. We put too much on the selfish side. Our school were where we were taught otherness. Not much anymore.
The called to teach teachers are the gift we’ve been given to keep the scales even. They’ve been banished from education and with that went our balance .
Yes the billionaires have an agenda. There were always selfish people. No one can convince me that God suddenly changed the balance. What changed is the balancer - our schools. I’m talking about how we prepare young children for this world. We used to teach democracy . We used to model democracy.
Learn about what’s going on in our elementary schools and you’ll know how we ended up in this mess. Nothing explains it better than WhiteChalkCrime.com. Plus once people understand how we got here, they’ll understand how to fix this. It will be by all the other centered people running for school boards- or voting for them. Our boards control our schools so the solution is learn about education and get them back in the democracy side.
We lost democracy due to our schools and they are the only way back to democracy. People didn’t change. Our schools did
Had the election followed the adjusted results Vice President Kamala Harris would have won 294 electoral votes for the win over Trump’s 241 losing electoral votes.
If we can refer to her as that for press they will try to correct and the we ahow them the work that was done, share articles, and then people will know and act.
The forces of evil and violence have all the hands of legal action. Only a movement of peace has any chance of aiding the free loving peoples. The meek will have their day in how they stand for the earth they inherit.
If all you report is true, I can see the reason for it but for the election Jefferson won, he screwed up the Electoral college by convincing Virginia to give all their electors to the winner of the state. Other states found it necessary to do the same. Now low population states rule the electoral college.
Thom you have spoken about the signers of the declaration of independence (what they did what happened to them),I always found it interesting and inspiring. I think we all need to be reminded of the sacrifices made to birth this country and what so many people so casually tossed aside nov.5 could you do a rant?
Substack, you never answered my question yesterday on either this letter or Robert Hubbell or Robert Reich. You did not allow me to comments made on these newsletters. Please write to me or answer this question. I spend a great deal of time of time trying to convey my thoughts. The inability to post on these letters is not what I woould expect from reliable companies I deal with.
Note: I originally wrote this to post on yesterday's blog, but by the time I finished, today's blog was already up. I guess it's still on topic, so I'll post it here.
Why did Kamala Harris Lose?
The answers vary wildly, depending on who is pontificating: The Left says she needed to be more on the left; the right says she was not right enough; and the center says she should have focused exclusively on the center.
Some say that her principal message should have targeted the concerns of middle-class workers and their families, even though ninety percent of her campaign speeches did just that. Maybe, in the remaining ten percent, she harped too much about Trump being a fascist nutball fcking idiot; then again, perhaps she needed to attack him even more aggressively.
Others criticize her for having devoted too much of the campaign's energy to the abortion issue — never mind that it was foremost on the minds of most women and many men, as shown by their overwhelming support for state ballot initiatives to decriminalize abortion.
The Joe Rogan types of manly men with no college degrees insist she should have addressed their sense of whiney victimhood in an economy that increasingly requires a college education. (Regardless, they wouldn't vote for a woman to be president, no matter what she says. No way in hell!)
Most Democrats of nearly all stripes think that an unpopular Joe Biden should have bowed out much sooner or not attempted to run for a second term in the first place, giving Harris or some other candidate additional time to mount a more effective campaign.
While some of these arguments and many more have merit and will be discussed ad nauseam for years, most miss the main point: Shameless Republican liars, supported by a ruling class of right-wing plutocrats who hate common-sense regulations and paying their fair share of taxes, have hijacked our media environment and will lie about Democratic messaging no matter what it is, how truthful it is, or how vitally important it is in the lives of everyday Americans and for the very survival of small-d democracy itself.
The fact is that Kamala Harris ran an almost flawless campaign in the short three-plus months she had. Her messaging was right on; she connected with millions of ordinary citizens on issues that mattered to them. She only lost by a whisker because of Republicans' unrelenting campaign of outright lies and widespread voter suppression and disenfranchisement on an industrial scale, egged on by Russia and our other foreign enemies who hate democracy.
Also, to correct another despicable right-wing lie, Biden is a great President who will go down in history for shepherding the nation out of an economy ravaged by a once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic grossly mismanaged by a criminally negligent *REPUBLICAN* president, someone who committed uncountable serious felonies in and out of office.
For sure, the Democratic Party can tweak its messaging in many ways and certainly will in response to its latest loss to Republicans, the party of the filthy rich. But it should never alter its overall position or lose sight of its north star as the party of the common man and woman.
The biggest challenge for truth-tellers in the future is to create, sustain, and expand a popular media environment in the electorate's mind that can counteract the omnipresent right-wing lie machine for the long term. Franklin Roosevelt accomplished that by talking to ordinary people primarily through the radio. In his day, Thomas Jefferson had to rely on pamphlets to get the word out.
In the modern world, it will have to be a full-court press, using every available medium, including print media, radio, TV, the internet, and, yes, pamphlets if necessary. (Liar Tim Sheehy won his Senate race in Montana primarily by flooding everyone's mailboxes with large splashy fliers that simply outnumbered and overwhelmed Jon Tester's mailings.)
Throughout history, democracy has been a war between lies and truth. Today, for the most part, the Democrats are on the side of truth — if people can hear them through the storm of Republican lies.
Why. Russian psy ops.
Deepspace, Daniel Solomon suggested civil litigation. Do you know how that can be done?
Hi Eadie. I'm not trained in law, so will defer to Daniel on that matter. But I do firmly believe that whatever counteraction people undertake there must be a groundswell of support to be effective, which means small-d democrats must break through by every means necessary the wall of right-wing media that has gripped our nation, steering us toward fascism and autocracy. This is a war for the minds of citizens.
It's surprisingly reassuring to learn about this part of our national history. Thank you, Thom!
"...we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolved, and the people recovering their true sight, restoring their government to its true principles. It is true, that in the meantime, we are suffering deeply in spirit..."
-Maybe again now. Maybe no such luck this time.
This was about war on the press, and you even wrote several weeks ago about being imprisoned yourself.
That got me thinking that if they go that far next year, it will be neccessary to set up a "Radio Free US", probably in Canada, so we can still get truth and news.
CBC is pretty good -- probably more accurate than anything we have.
The problem is they have little penetration in US media markets.
Maybe they can start a Radio Free US division of the CBC, funded by more affluent "refugees" to Canada, who will flee the tyranny that is about to be unleashed. It can be a powerful shortwave signal that will reach every corner of the lower 48 states plus Alaska.
I've been thinking a lot about this "tables turned" situation that is about to become real. Probably at least 100 million Americans are soon going to want out, to be in a sanely functioning democracy again. This number is so huge, the world is in uncharted waters, especially because Europe is so threatened now by Putin and by climate change. The countries there probably will not be able to expand and liberalize their immigration capacity for Americans. Maybe Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and some Asian countries will be more able.
...And another thing!.. The REAL crisis about to hit the economy is even worse than what we are already talking about (gutting the government of competence and replacing it with cultists, reckless, crazy trade and economic policies, disruption of labor via mass deportations, etc etc).
Instead, the crisis I am talking about is a total flat lining of average so-called "consumer confidence", because perhaps up to half of all Americans are so terrified and disgusted right now the last thing on their minds is buying more stuff and spending money into an economy controlled by maniacs!
Unless we are talking about weapons for defending themselves, and supplies to get through unrest, what the hell are these many tens of millions of people gonna have any interest in spending money on?!
Thank you Thom for all the history lessons and hope in that this has happened before and truth and democracy will win. I agree with LeMoine Surlamont that I never learned this in school. I hated history, US and World, because of having to remember all the wars and dates etc. If they would have spent more on the real reasons and changed, that would have helped.
I agree. I love history, and yet I failed a quarter in a Gen. History class that emphasized battles and dates in order to pass tests. Thom is definitely giving me some new info about Adams, and the precarious state our Republic was in at the time, and sadly so close to so many who died for the freedom to begin our Country.
You are so right. It’s amazing how many others responded with similar stories. And now the threat of destroying the Dept. of Education by a woman wrestler! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry - but sadly it will be at my elderly age joining the young to revolt! Like the 1960’s have returned.
Wow what a great read this morning ☕ Thom. I wonder what Jefferson would do to combat All the outside influence ? Russia and China for example,or say the Internet, Ticktock and Facebook? Main Stream Media, full of Disinformation and trump talking points? Outstanding article and will reStack ASAP 👍💯 🇺🇲 !
Thom, that was a great read and I intend to circulate it within my contacts, and particularly with my sons who are despondent over the election results. This is the kind of stuff we were never told about in US history K-12 and gives me hope that we can overcome the current situation once again. Thank you very much!
In my opinion, Trump's warning that the media will be silenced is useless because that horse and carriage had already left the barn a long time ago. The 'mainstream media' is a phrase coined by Goebbels in 1932 referring to that which Hitler's regime strove to silence, and we still refer to our large media networks as mainstream media that we once depended on to write the truth; in the 1970s, Ayres decided to dismantle it after Nixon's loss, their view began to permeate our news still through others like Murdoch, and now the few large media companies spew news skewed to the neoliberals world view guiding our country/politics with misinformation and the billionaires driving this carriage reflects the mantra of tyrants. If allowed, Trump and others could shut down various media forms that speak the truth, such as Thom Hartmann. Therefore, we should take heart, as Jefferson did, and persevere. Carol Heasley
Both or all parties in the UK hate the BBC for its truth-telling accuracy. It is time we linked up with the BBC for our national news. How that would go over or even be possible, I don't know. I imagine they have their hands full in England.
Maybe historically, ala the TV series "The Hours." These days BBC is just as biased as US MSM.
What percentage of the populous do you think the media reached in this period of history? I’m trying to equate with our far-reaching media outlets, be it valid information or gross misinformation.
Only needed to swing a percentage or two. Otherwise we wudda won.
I don’t understand. I asked what the press’ reach was in the Jefferson-Adams era.
Good question. I can't find any data about newspaper circulations to answer it though. I found sources saying there were about 3 million US adults then, and that over 90 percent of the men were literate. Since many women were not, the OVERALL literacy rate was about 60 percent.
Probably the same in 1800. Tied. The only reason Jefferson prevailed was Hamilton hated Burr more.
The play Hamilton was an ode to a myth of political correctness, Just because he was a bastard born in the British West Indies on a sugar plantation, there is an assumption amongst people of African ancestry, that he was a mulatto, that they could claim that a black man was a founding father.This is what happens when people are beat down, and have to create myths to build dignity. History is revised, to fit a narrative. Just like project 1619 claims that the 20 Africans that were sold off at Elizabeth Town, in VA were slaves. They weren't they were indentured servants, slavery didn't come to Viginia until 1655 and the case of Johnson v Casor, but not legally until 1661 when the House of Burgesslegalized slavery.
Until then one was either a yeoman, planter, or indentured servant. And there were slave owning black,former indentured servant, blacks until 1833 and the Nat Turner rebellion, when in reaction all blacks were re enslaved.
What we know is that Alexanders father was a sugar cane planter and his mother an Irish indentured servant.
I am discouraged to learn that our 2nd President, in our fresh, new Democratic-Republic & with a Bill Of Rights that the ink was barely dry on, that Adams could do ehat he did. So, from the start, there was a lack of respect for our most basic rights, like FREE SPEECH? I'm disgusted that Adams was able to have people imprisoned for speaking truth that he didn't like! So much for "freedom of speech" then, eh?! Trump doesn't know squat about history or our government, nor does he care to - since he has always felt he can do as he pleases, & thanks to SCOTUS, he now has 'total immunity' for anything he does as prez!🤬 We've gotten this far w/o our prez needing such immunity ~ how is it that only NOW is it needed!?!
What do insiders know of
"Unprecedented", BS is Trump's hallmark & now GOP's too, by virtue of "loudly & proudly" spreading his crapola & jumping on board the Liars' Train with him!
*1st came Federalists.
*Replaced by Whig Party.
*From the remnants of those 2 unpatriotic, democracy-hating Parties came the 3rd reincarnation ~ the Republican GOP Party of today...(aka Trump's MAGA/GOP Party). Nothing has changed really, except their Party's name...& they've gotten more vile & determined to do anything it takes to grab & retain all the power themselves! Seems they never believed in what the USA was founded on/for... A Gov't Of, By & For The People. ~ As said in Pledge Of Allegiance..."with liberty & justice for All."
Time for Rethugs Party to disappear - AGAIN - as the 2 prior versions did!?! But 3 tries are enuff to show that they do NOT share the same vision for this Country & its people & don't support the foundation it was built on, nor it's goals for the future. They have "pledged their allegiance" to Trump & those behind "Project 2025"...the dystopian plan for a future of poverty for "the people"...& all the riches, power, freedom & rights are reserved ONLY FOR THE WEALTH-CLASS, in top 2%.
The Party is NOT "conservative", nor about true "law & order", or "family values", for that matter.
To be honest, it (in all 3 names) is & has been, the Grandiose Party of Control, Power & Greed!! What they want can be found in other nations, "kingdoms" on Earth & they should GO LIVE THERE -- NOT turn our Country into another one of those nations!
"Buh-bye!!!"
I readily admit to knowing little about Adams beyond the musical film "1776". Thank you for revealing this history to me. I have been a fan of Bonhoffer and recently saw the film based on his life. I could hardly breathe as the similarly to what we have been experiencing here was again blasted before me. If this is civilization then why do these maniacs keep overpowering the idea of the common good? The atrocities of Trump’s people are more than revealed yet that party won the majority. I, for one, intend to remain a thorn in their side. Called my congressperson for the first time over HB 9495.
Sarah, did they really win? Do you have any doubts about whether the voting machines were manipulated? AnExpert in the field has sounded the alarm. What say you?
Hi Eadie Sharron
Yes, there was everything smelly about the election results. However, I believe it would be a tragic mistake to focus any energy on that. Our thrust needs to be strongly on opening the eyes of those who willingly deluded themselves into supporting a despicable man. The women who voted for Trump willingly deluded themselves despite clear evidence that they were electing a person who allowed women to bleed out in parking lots. Our effort must be on strongly putting forth democratic values as the desirable outcome in '26.
Sarah, I get your drift. However, I thought the election was about winning. Wasn't that why so many people invested their time and energy and money? People from every walk of life were invested in this. What if the election actually proves that the election was stolen? What if John Spoonamore, an expert on voting machines, who has been claiming they are not always reliable is right. there are a lot of what ifs, but a simple hand recount can answer that question. tRump had that done 64 times. I can't understand why you feel it's not worth investing our time. Stating what we should do when tRump is in office gives me no comfort.
Interesting information. But we’re in a deep hole because most people don’t know how people got so stupid that Trump seemed reasonable ? And no one like you is talking about it helping people get it. We can’t solve what we don’t know. Getting enough people to elect a criminal pervert who always lies was quite a feat. Or was it? That’s what I just wrote about in my book A Graver Danger, which is my memoir about my teaching experiences.
Our schools are corrupt and since they’re the foundation of democracy there was no chance democracy could last. WhiteChalkCrime.com explains a lot. The question is did the media refuse to report this on purpose? Did the courts assume our schools are the good guys and our teachers are the bad guys on purpose? Did the ACLU dodge reporting this on purpose? Do the universities ignore this on purpose?
I think some unintentional players have helped these bad guys unknowingly due to our dysfunctional schools. It’s a chicken and egg situation. The people who want inequality set up opportunities to destroy institutions like our schools and then crooks take over while the good guys lose.
My hope was to get my book that explains exactly what we can do to fix our schools to someone in power since I truly believe those in power have no intellectual sources for getting it right. Education is such a stepchild institution that few bright minds look into it in any depth and it’s had no leader since Horace Mann died in 1859. And the fact the the unions are as terrified of the crooks in charge makes this a deep hole! We need unions but not ones who’ve succumbed to the bad guys.
We are a bell curve of other centered and self centered people. We start with an Equal chance to go in either direction. We went selfish because our schools stopped producing citizens. They became authoritarian and corrupt - selfish. The closeness of this election proves we’re a bell curve. It was up to us who gets to pull it in which direction. Actually it was the schools that prejudiced the direction toward other centered.
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Abraham Lincoln warned that the way of the schoolroom in one generation would be the government in the next. It is. I felt like Trump values ran my school.
We’re like a scale of justice. We have two sides. We put too much on the selfish side. Our school were where we were taught otherness. Not much anymore.
The called to teach teachers are the gift we’ve been given to keep the scales even. They’ve been banished from education and with that went our balance .
Yes the billionaires have an agenda. There were always selfish people. No one can convince me that God suddenly changed the balance. What changed is the balancer - our schools. I’m talking about how we prepare young children for this world. We used to teach democracy . We used to model democracy.
Learn about what’s going on in our elementary schools and you’ll know how we ended up in this mess. Nothing explains it better than WhiteChalkCrime.com. Plus once people understand how we got here, they’ll understand how to fix this. It will be by all the other centered people running for school boards- or voting for them. Our boards control our schools so the solution is learn about education and get them back in the democracy side.
We lost democracy due to our schools and they are the only way back to democracy. People didn’t change. Our schools did
Had the election followed the adjusted results Vice President Kamala Harris would have won 294 electoral votes for the win over Trump’s 241 losing electoral votes.
HUH? An explanation for this old mind, please.
Let us refer to her as President-Elect Harris (if legal of course)
If we can refer to her as that for press they will try to correct and the we ahow them the work that was done, share articles, and then people will know and act.
The forces of evil and violence have all the hands of legal action. Only a movement of peace has any chance of aiding the free loving peoples. The meek will have their day in how they stand for the earth they inherit.
If all you report is true, I can see the reason for it but for the election Jefferson won, he screwed up the Electoral college by convincing Virginia to give all their electors to the winner of the state. Other states found it necessary to do the same. Now low population states rule the electoral college.
Thom you have spoken about the signers of the declaration of independence (what they did what happened to them),I always found it interesting and inspiring. I think we all need to be reminded of the sacrifices made to birth this country and what so many people so casually tossed aside nov.5 could you do a rant?
Substack, you never answered my question yesterday on either this letter or Robert Hubbell or Robert Reich. You did not allow me to comments made on these newsletters. Please write to me or answer this question. I spend a great deal of time of time trying to convey my thoughts. The inability to post on these letters is not what I woould expect from reliable companies I deal with.