You can date the origin to any number of points (New Deal, Great Society, to name a few). Republicans in Washington have (re?)created themselves into a party of opposition. They aren't designed to do the dirt-under-the-fingernails work of governing. They don't want to, and they don't know how.
No accountability over the last 50 years is almost as responsible as supremes approving bribery. They've been planning this for the last 40 years as democrats twiddle their thumbs. Biden is now standing up to them with a stick not a corrupted sycophant, but it needs to be stronger as the voters are being shut out of voting.
The threat is all too real. The reason is that so many of these people on the right are true believers who are quite fascinated by the idea of burning it all down. Scorched earth actions are very appealing to them because they don’t think in terms of fixing things or have hope for the future except for a glorious fantasy future under dear leader or in heaven for eternity. Demagogues flock to the true believers knowing they can hoodwink them and exploit them and motivate them to do their bidding, which includes extreme measures and violence when necessary.
We are dealing with mythologies which are ancient and which run deep (original sin, patriarchy, strict father metaphor, the savior coming soon, etc.). Our risks are compounded by the power and money which has already been accumulated and by the desire to control others and to punish those seen as responsible for corrupting their pure and safe world with libertine and permissive ideas (originating from Satan himself). They live with massive apprehension and fear and suspect all those who are not in their group or camp who they imagine are inferior and secretly hostile. We swim in a sea of ignorance and apathy.
This is going to take a lot of letters to the editor, petitions, rallies, marches, and calls to senators and congresspersons. Good luck with that. Have we got what it takes?
Our options are to hang onto hope or to become hopeless and despairing, and as Thom often says, the latter is not an option. Aside from relying on a somewhat naïve and childish belief that good will always ultimately triumph over evil, we expect, as always, that education will save us and that truth will prevail over misinformation, propaganda, and ignorance. Lawsuits and revelations about Fox and the right wing will probably have a significant effect, if it isn't too late. But there is a very long way to go. You probably know my beliefs about schools and their failure to educate. I'm afraid it will be two steps forward in 2024 and one step back after that, leaving us slightly better off for a decade or two. The thing that we can count on is the incompetence and arrogance of the right-wing fanatics who constantly screw things up so badly that rational people are the heroes when they repair the worst of the damage. Accentuate the positive! And keep screaming bloody murder.
Thom I concur but I separately don't accept that "morbidly rich men who own them. They naively believe that fascist leaders like Trump actually care about “unborn children,” budget deficits, and Drag Queen Story Hour."
They don't care about anything past the bottom line. The only issue that impresses them is whether they will get more gravy if Trump is reinstated.
Wow, it’s Friday pop quiz day on Thom’s post. And it’s multiple choice with multiple right (intended pun) answers.
Q. "Why have Republicans in the House and Senate become so unable or unwilling to do the nation’s business?"
A. Besides Instructor Thom’s proposed answer, there’s even a simpler one: They never had any intention of governing for the good of the people and country once they got to D.C.. Who has time for governance when one can be stroking the ego on a Faux News interview show or watching yourself on C-Span reruns at 3:30 am spew lies on the chamber floor? Then it’s off to a day of fun fund raising at a Hater’s Convention.
Michael Is that the best you could do for a comment. Using Thom and his report, and ridiculing Thom in the process, as a spring board for espousing your own opinion.. I would have upvoted your response, save for the fact that you started off with a facetious and belittling comment, and then hurls an insult, meant to demean him as an "instructor"
Good. I've noticed that many commenters here, don't know how to make a comment and promote their favorite meme. They use Thom as a springboard, stating that he didn't do this or that, or missed including their favorite subject.
I often notice that Thom brings up a subject, but I don't use him as a spring board and mention him. I simply state my own case, not using Thom as a foil or springboard.
Just to repeat something that I have written in other threads, because it is worth saying again, Trump is a man who betrayed everybody who ever trusted him--his workers, his creditors, his investors, his wives. And now he is following habit and trying to stiff his lawyers and throwing anyone who once stood up for him under the bus if that will save him. There is no loyalty here--Pence, Barr, etc. are all good examples of how anything less than total fealty to The Leader, no matter how long they have been together, is met with symbolic (or if were possible actual) death. It's a bad strategy of course because it encourages people to flip on him, but he clearly doesn't care.
It's amazing that his followers keep on trusting him, yet like a friend of mine some still believe he is "for the little guy". And McConnell and his buddies...they must not have read "Frankenstein", where a created monster becomes uncontrollable. It’s Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football. But then Trump really is a good example of the parable of the scorpion and the frog; as they sank together the bug said, "I can't help it, that's just my nature."
Democracy's future, ironically, will depend on its present.
Today, American democracy is threatened by US Congressional Republicans, extremist right-wing media including Fox News, and social media (X and Truth Social,) morbidly rich mega-donors and wealthy Corporations, the former guy, red state congresses and judiciary, SCOTUS majorities, Evangelicals and Christian Nationalists, misogynists, election, vaccine and climate change deniers, anti-abortionists, anti-LGBTQ "patriots," anti-immigrant, anti-Semites and other racists, white supremacists, gun-toting Second Amendment militia, (Proud Boys, Oath Keepers,) red state Governor "banners," (CRT, DEI, SEL, Disney, drag shows, books, trans healthcare,) Moms for Liberty, and Artificial Intelligence-using foreign nationals mis- and disinformation campaigns.
Their "Job One" will be to destroy American democracy by encouraging voter suppression and purges, gerrymandering, and voter intimidation, including through violence, (using firearms if necessary,) and stochastic terrorism.
Voting will be very important in '24, to the extent "permitted" by those with power, and their supporters, who'd rather we didn't.
Yes David voting is important, but what worries me is as Stalin says, and the Republicans have been promoting is that It isn't the votes that count, but who counts the votes. I fear that Trump's claim that the election was rigged, was what Hannah Ahrendt said of authoritarians, you can tell what they intend to do, by what they claim others have done.
Voter nullification and voter surpression laws, and jerrymandering have put many states with Republican ruled legislatures in the position of rigging the election, and if that weren't bad enough the MAGAt fascists have terrorized election officials into resigning and being replaced by MAGAts. The first was in blue Hollister, county seat of San Benito Co, California and IIRC even before January 6th.
What is sorely needed is more Democrats getting involved in election commissions.
"At first, Thyssen got along with Hitler, even believed he was influencing the man, but when he began to object to some of the Nazi leader’s worse excesses he had to flee the country with his family to avoid being murdered."
Those in the red hats don't get this. The closer to the dictator, the faster they are eliminated once the dictator has achieved his power goals. There are no exceptions in history of which I know.
Merrick the Meek isn't called "Meek" for nothing. He sat on his hands until public pressure forced a special counsel, wasting a critical amount of time. He never wanted to indict Trump and has only been concerned with his own political future.
An unrelenting thirst for power and vengeance comes at the expense of perspective.
They crusade onwards - blind to their own mortality - every step more perilous than the last as they venture into a forest of death, all in pursuit of mythical trees of gold.
These people know not what they do. They fight without mind, for the deliverance of a hell they too will certainly inhabit.
When the morbidly rich realized a crazy person could actually win they saw an opportunity. TFG, however, can not win in '24. My guess is they will spend to win the senate, where they can 'Kill it Under the Dome' as they like to say. If senate rules are not adjusted to reflect democracy we're in for more non-governing for years to come. I'm calling on the DNC to prioritize the senate races in play.
Swapondering, Don't expect the woose Schumer to do anything. If you showed up with a backbone he would take off running. All of this right wing obstructionism is because Schumer has a yellow streak down his back, and is afraid to change the rules,because his donors and the Reublicans might think ill of him.
They're busy supporting US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson as he cavorts in Paris with Balazx Orban (Hungary's Political Director of Prime Minister Victor Orban) and other global conservatives at the Worldwide Freedom Initiative:
@WFI2023
🗽 STAND, SPEAK AND ACT FOR YOUR FREEDOM
Conservative gathering aiming at debating about our common challenges.
This is correct. Putin wanted and got a cut from the various oligarchs doing business in Russia in return for which he let them do what they wanted. Putin also thinks it’s ok for Russian criminals to scam people in the U.S., Canada, and the E.U., but he doesn’t want the, scamming their fellow Russians.
Q. "Why have Republicans in the House and Senate become so unable or unwilling to do the nation’s business?"
A. Because, in the terminology of the 1950s, they are fucking traitors.
You can date the origin to any number of points (New Deal, Great Society, to name a few). Republicans in Washington have (re?)created themselves into a party of opposition. They aren't designed to do the dirt-under-the-fingernails work of governing. They don't want to, and they don't know how.
No accountability over the last 50 years is almost as responsible as supremes approving bribery. They've been planning this for the last 40 years as democrats twiddle their thumbs. Biden is now standing up to them with a stick not a corrupted sycophant, but it needs to be stronger as the voters are being shut out of voting.
The threat is all too real. The reason is that so many of these people on the right are true believers who are quite fascinated by the idea of burning it all down. Scorched earth actions are very appealing to them because they don’t think in terms of fixing things or have hope for the future except for a glorious fantasy future under dear leader or in heaven for eternity. Demagogues flock to the true believers knowing they can hoodwink them and exploit them and motivate them to do their bidding, which includes extreme measures and violence when necessary.
We are dealing with mythologies which are ancient and which run deep (original sin, patriarchy, strict father metaphor, the savior coming soon, etc.). Our risks are compounded by the power and money which has already been accumulated and by the desire to control others and to punish those seen as responsible for corrupting their pure and safe world with libertine and permissive ideas (originating from Satan himself). They live with massive apprehension and fear and suspect all those who are not in their group or camp who they imagine are inferior and secretly hostile. We swim in a sea of ignorance and apathy.
This is going to take a lot of letters to the editor, petitions, rallies, marches, and calls to senators and congresspersons. Good luck with that. Have we got what it takes?
That is my question, too. Have we got what it takes? My first thought is no because I see and hear of too many getting burned out. They are tired.
Our options are to hang onto hope or to become hopeless and despairing, and as Thom often says, the latter is not an option. Aside from relying on a somewhat naïve and childish belief that good will always ultimately triumph over evil, we expect, as always, that education will save us and that truth will prevail over misinformation, propaganda, and ignorance. Lawsuits and revelations about Fox and the right wing will probably have a significant effect, if it isn't too late. But there is a very long way to go. You probably know my beliefs about schools and their failure to educate. I'm afraid it will be two steps forward in 2024 and one step back after that, leaving us slightly better off for a decade or two. The thing that we can count on is the incompetence and arrogance of the right-wing fanatics who constantly screw things up so badly that rational people are the heroes when they repair the worst of the damage. Accentuate the positive! And keep screaming bloody murder.
You nailed it Robert
Thom I concur but I separately don't accept that "morbidly rich men who own them. They naively believe that fascist leaders like Trump actually care about “unborn children,” budget deficits, and Drag Queen Story Hour."
They don't care about anything past the bottom line. The only issue that impresses them is whether they will get more gravy if Trump is reinstated.
Treasonous Congress persons are trying to save their traitorous asses. If trump wins they will get pardoned.
Wow, it’s Friday pop quiz day on Thom’s post. And it’s multiple choice with multiple right (intended pun) answers.
Q. "Why have Republicans in the House and Senate become so unable or unwilling to do the nation’s business?"
A. Besides Instructor Thom’s proposed answer, there’s even a simpler one: They never had any intention of governing for the good of the people and country once they got to D.C.. Who has time for governance when one can be stroking the ego on a Faux News interview show or watching yourself on C-Span reruns at 3:30 am spew lies on the chamber floor? Then it’s off to a day of fun fund raising at a Hater’s Convention.
Michael Is that the best you could do for a comment. Using Thom and his report, and ridiculing Thom in the process, as a spring board for espousing your own opinion.. I would have upvoted your response, save for the fact that you started off with a facetious and belittling comment, and then hurls an insult, meant to demean him as an "instructor"
William, Comment accepted. It was in no way meant in disrespect or to down grade the excellent quality of Thom’s work.
Good. I've noticed that many commenters here, don't know how to make a comment and promote their favorite meme. They use Thom as a springboard, stating that he didn't do this or that, or missed including their favorite subject.
I often notice that Thom brings up a subject, but I don't use him as a spring board and mention him. I simply state my own case, not using Thom as a foil or springboard.
Just to repeat something that I have written in other threads, because it is worth saying again, Trump is a man who betrayed everybody who ever trusted him--his workers, his creditors, his investors, his wives. And now he is following habit and trying to stiff his lawyers and throwing anyone who once stood up for him under the bus if that will save him. There is no loyalty here--Pence, Barr, etc. are all good examples of how anything less than total fealty to The Leader, no matter how long they have been together, is met with symbolic (or if were possible actual) death. It's a bad strategy of course because it encourages people to flip on him, but he clearly doesn't care.
It's amazing that his followers keep on trusting him, yet like a friend of mine some still believe he is "for the little guy". And McConnell and his buddies...they must not have read "Frankenstein", where a created monster becomes uncontrollable. It’s Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football. But then Trump really is a good example of the parable of the scorpion and the frog; as they sank together the bug said, "I can't help it, that's just my nature."
Democracy's future, ironically, will depend on its present.
Today, American democracy is threatened by US Congressional Republicans, extremist right-wing media including Fox News, and social media (X and Truth Social,) morbidly rich mega-donors and wealthy Corporations, the former guy, red state congresses and judiciary, SCOTUS majorities, Evangelicals and Christian Nationalists, misogynists, election, vaccine and climate change deniers, anti-abortionists, anti-LGBTQ "patriots," anti-immigrant, anti-Semites and other racists, white supremacists, gun-toting Second Amendment militia, (Proud Boys, Oath Keepers,) red state Governor "banners," (CRT, DEI, SEL, Disney, drag shows, books, trans healthcare,) Moms for Liberty, and Artificial Intelligence-using foreign nationals mis- and disinformation campaigns.
Their "Job One" will be to destroy American democracy by encouraging voter suppression and purges, gerrymandering, and voter intimidation, including through violence, (using firearms if necessary,) and stochastic terrorism.
Voting will be very important in '24, to the extent "permitted" by those with power, and their supporters, who'd rather we didn't.
Yes David voting is important, but what worries me is as Stalin says, and the Republicans have been promoting is that It isn't the votes that count, but who counts the votes. I fear that Trump's claim that the election was rigged, was what Hannah Ahrendt said of authoritarians, you can tell what they intend to do, by what they claim others have done.
Voter nullification and voter surpression laws, and jerrymandering have put many states with Republican ruled legislatures in the position of rigging the election, and if that weren't bad enough the MAGAt fascists have terrorized election officials into resigning and being replaced by MAGAts. The first was in blue Hollister, county seat of San Benito Co, California and IIRC even before January 6th.
What is sorely needed is more Democrats getting involved in election commissions.
"At first, Thyssen got along with Hitler, even believed he was influencing the man, but when he began to object to some of the Nazi leader’s worse excesses he had to flee the country with his family to avoid being murdered."
Those in the red hats don't get this. The closer to the dictator, the faster they are eliminated once the dictator has achieved his power goals. There are no exceptions in history of which I know.
All the above are correct. If only Biden would have chosen a different attorney general and would use his bully pulpit we might have a chance.
Merrick the Meek isn't called "Meek" for nothing. He sat on his hands until public pressure forced a special counsel, wasting a critical amount of time. He never wanted to indict Trump and has only been concerned with his own political future.
Amen. Exactly.
An unrelenting thirst for power and vengeance comes at the expense of perspective.
They crusade onwards - blind to their own mortality - every step more perilous than the last as they venture into a forest of death, all in pursuit of mythical trees of gold.
These people know not what they do. They fight without mind, for the deliverance of a hell they too will certainly inhabit.
When the morbidly rich realized a crazy person could actually win they saw an opportunity. TFG, however, can not win in '24. My guess is they will spend to win the senate, where they can 'Kill it Under the Dome' as they like to say. If senate rules are not adjusted to reflect democracy we're in for more non-governing for years to come. I'm calling on the DNC to prioritize the senate races in play.
Swapondering, Don't expect the woose Schumer to do anything. If you showed up with a backbone he would take off running. All of this right wing obstructionism is because Schumer has a yellow streak down his back, and is afraid to change the rules,because his donors and the Reublicans might think ill of him.
GOOD question!
They're busy supporting US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson as he cavorts in Paris with Balazx Orban (Hungary's Political Director of Prime Minister Victor Orban) and other global conservatives at the Worldwide Freedom Initiative:
@WFI2023
🗽 STAND, SPEAK AND ACT FOR YOUR FREEDOM
Conservative gathering aiming at debating about our common challenges.
📅 10th of Nov. 2023
📍 Paris
http://wfi2023.org
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/completely-unacceptable-johnson-gavels-house-out-for-3-day-weekend-to-attend-far-right-event-in-paris/ar-AA1jIPNH
More modern example would be Russia/Putan/ Oligarchs. They thought they would/could control him, but nope.
This is correct. Putin wanted and got a cut from the various oligarchs doing business in Russia in return for which he let them do what they wanted. Putin also thinks it’s ok for Russian criminals to scam people in the U.S., Canada, and the E.U., but he doesn’t want the, scamming their fellow Russians.