Last night, I attended an online inspiring, encouraging and energizing interview with Heather Booth,
sometimes referred to as "the most influential person you have never heard of." Her positive message didn't shy away from what Thom wrote in this morning's report. She brought the threat to our democracy into the room and told us how we, the grassroots activists, can save our country from the fascist movement.
Heather's message was the same as Thom wrote, "If Biden is re-elected and Democrats can take the House and hold the Senate, there’s a very good chance — particularly without Manchin and Sinema to sabotage the process like they did in 2022 — that such legislation can be brought up again and pass". The time to act is NOW - tomorrow may well be too late.
How is it that the US/UK Europe don't give a fliyng fuck about Palestinian people dying in their thousands?
IF this was happening in the US what would YOU do?
Forgive me for being so angry BUT you in the US lived the life of depravity. Buying/not voting and could care less about your kids education.
You have been committing wars all over the world. IF the US does not like a new President they manipulate. This has happened in so many S. American countries and you wonder why you have so many immigrants.
Yes and you see how Putin is treating his troops over in the Ukraine. Sending them in troops of 70 to get butchered by drones. He is basically genociding his own people who don't have money.
Today's NYT reports: "Many voters now say that immigration is their top concern." How off the mark! Our democracy is on life-support and climate catastrophe is well under way, but the awful humanitarian (not catastrophic) situation at the southern border has become a strategic proxy for political dueling and distracting the electorate from real threats. The irony is that inaction on climate change will accelerate the creation of climate refugees on a scale humans have never known before. The related impending geopolitical disruption (probably our greatest threat) is being ignored. The oligarchs are of no mind to address it - except perhaps in so far as it is exploitable.
The NYT is influential inside the Beltway. It's editorial staff is by and large restrained Trump humpers. It's journalists have been raised on both sides ism.
I do not believe that immigration is Americas top concern. I do believe that the editorial staff of the NYT wants to make immigration a top concern. Take a clue from the Trump Humping Republican party, they are bending over backwards to make immigration a top concern, as it is a distraction from their fascist position on abortion and democracy.
The NYT doesn't report the news it uses it's influence to make the news,
What the Republicans “say” is quite different than reality. Trump is pulling Johnson’s strings. Trump does NOT want ANY successful immigration policy passed.
We all need to CALL Johnson and implore him to put this bill through they have been working on in a bipartisan manner for months. 202-225-4000
Johnson took an oath to support our country and constitution, NOT to support Trump and what Trump wants! CALL
(You can call after hours & it will record. Wait until the end. Press “2” to send as “urgent “).
A major part of our disagreement is that you are focused on nation states, not the perps.
Nation states, like religion, like ideology, even corporations are simply tools.
I am not interested in the hammer, but the hand that wields it. I am not afraid of the sword, but the hand that wields it.
All Nations leaders answer to someone(s), in democracies it is the voter, but the voter only has the say in choosing between Humpty or Dumpty, and both serve a money master, often the same.
The exception is Dictatorships, especially those that have sham elections,hence a public display of a democracy that isn't.
Currently there are only a few nations that fit that bill. Iran, Russia, North Korea, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and it appears that Pakistan will be joining the club.
And a wannabe nation, The nation of Palestine under rule by HAMAS.
The trumpublican Party often uses the phrase “own the libs.” We tend to brush those words off as if they’re just one more crazy, moronic statement from trump’s acolytes. It’s not. It is their full intention to own this country and its people; to be elevated to the master class who will design and implement a plutocratic theocracy, giving them the power to install and implement a neofascist government. The cruelty is the point.
Yep. Last chance to get things back on track. 3 or 4 economic campaign issues with all the other cultural issues and pound them into the ground by repeat and repeating every day so that everybody knows them by election day. That is the path to victory and then passing them quickly into law but first protect the right to vote.
A lot of people don't pay attention, and I was the same way 15 years ago. A lot of people have tuned out Trump. I hear people say, "both sides are crooked." Some people think it is just a "witch hunt" with Trump. The Propaganda Machine is well oiled. We could be something as simple as a health scare/issue to Biden, a rise in gas prices, or a last minute scandal like Hillary's emails and Hunter's laptop, etc. from losing.
Thanks to FDR, most Americans have not been hungry a day in their life. Thanks to religion, the flock thanks God has provided for them, not the progressives. When Americans start going hungry and starving for just one day, they will turn into progressives, but it will be too late.
I cannot even explain what a dictator can do on other so-called news comment sections. I get censored when I mention, a dictator can take your guns, harvest your organs, sell you and your children into slavery, turn you into a soldier, torture you, exterminate you, chop you up in a bathroom, end food stamps and social security, feed you poisoned medicine air and water and exterminate and rape you plus I'm sure there's much more. I do believe the mega crowd understands that and that's why they support Trump. They think only the liberals will be treated like that and not themselves. The feudalists, fascists, capitalists, globalist and oligarchs, will own them also. They could be sent off to war with the European democracies but probably Taiwan first...
You are correct that “they” DON’T understand what a dictator will do. A dictator will take their precious guns. A citizenry as heavily armed as Americans will not be easily subdued. The right has soaked their minions with the belief in the 2nd Amendment as almost sacred. I have been living among people who have had encounters with the criminal justice system. While most support trump - they will not be told what to do. So any trump policies that run counter to what they want to do ....
These people don’t understand dictatorship and will start resisting if Trump’s dictator policies run counter to what they are willing to put up with.
I told my Congressional Representative about this and the Representative said that was why Justice was trying to get trump handled. I live in Michigan. The opening day of firearms deer hunting season in Michigan, used to have 1,000,000 hunters out in the crappy November weather hunting deer. My mother would tell me that number was larger than most standing armies in the world. Think about it.
What Thom has been writing is fingering the problems we have and the ongoing takeovers orchestrated by the corporate oligarchy and its billionaires. It is not unlike the French aristocrats who pushed their advantages too far and eventually ended up where they belonged for the many atrocities they committed on ordinary people. The question remains have a people who threw the tea in the harbor and founded a government based on principles of liberty and equality and equal under the law as aspirations for our government and society going to fail because of the money and manipulations of the selfishness of these bad actions who will kill the working class and wreck any change of a decent working society with a comfort zone for all that includes a safety net for the unfortunate for whatever reasons. The visionary Francis Perkins tried as did Eleanor Roosevelt and they succeeded as much as was possible but individuals who were true public servants disappeared decades ago and the only vestige’s to be seen are in what’s left of the Democratic Party and among independent voters. With the current Congress and most importantly the Supremely corrupted court we are on the razors edge if we do not stop wasting our energies on distractions and settle down to the up hill work of registering our voters and getting them to the polls to vote for democracy and decency so we get the many reforms we need.
Principles of liberty and equality like genocide and perpetual war? The Democratic Party that silences those who speak up for humanity and justice? Nancy Pelosi calling for the FBI to investigate pro-Palestinian activists? Joe Biden failing to mention the word Palestinian in his 100 day speech on Gaza? No, Democrats are as phony as Republicans, playing their base about social issues they have no intention of remedying.
(Assuming this is all a "thought experiment" for entertainment) "Rothschild" is code for Jewish, which opens a whole other can of worms. Oh, I know what you're talking about. Let's go with "Bush's." Or "DeVoss's." Or, hey, even "Trump." The precious son (and I do mean son) and heir doesn't need an education or IQ above 90: he gets "legacy admission" to the right school/club to get his piece of paper, although Trump doesn't seem to have managed even that threshold. (Do we actually know he was born in America? His Mom apparently visited with family in Scotland a lot; but I digress...) Sonny (insert surname) has no skills; that's what foreigners are for. Religion is just a veneer to don occasionally as a sop to the hoi polloi. Business is what Jews are for. (I seem to remember Trump actually said this.) One also contracts out the killing; not sure who the overlords think is particularly suited to that. Why waste energy on hate? Hey, this is fun!
Barry is an opportunist who would support anything fascist it appears. As for the Hamas run Gaza the term “genocide” is still propaganda central hijacking by the extreme Islamic media campaign to try to influence world opinion.
Here is the latest atrocity in the Islamic republic of Iran.
The popular publishing house Saless was cited on January 30 for infractions by the Public Places Authority, which led to the immediate closure of its bookstore, according to the Saless Publication's official Instagram account.
The incident highlights a continued clampdown on public, commercial, and tourist venues, hundreds of which have been shut recently due to what authorities deemed as noncompliance with hijab regulations.
Anger over the suppression of human rights, and women's rights in particular, has boiled over since September 2022 when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died while in police custody. She was being held for an alleged violation of the hijab law, which makes it compulsory for women and girls over the age of 9 to cover their heads when out in public.
While the protests appear to have waned, resistance to the hijab remains strong, as it is seen now as a symbol of the state's repression of women and the deadly crackdown on society.
The campaign against the compulsory hijab has grown so widespread that Abdolhossein Khosropanah, the secretary of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, conceded last year that while women defying the hijab law should technically be arrested, the large numbers of women involved make such mass detentions unfeasible.
The authorities have broadened their crackdown, shutting down businesses, restaurants, cafes, and in some cases pharmacies due to the failure of owners or managers to enforce Islamic laws and hijab rules.
In the face of the unrest, some religious and government figures have repeatedly advocated a tougher stance by the government against offenders.
Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda
The Hijab is totally political. There was no requirement to wear the hijab until the
Ayatollah Khomeini revolution,. Iran is Shia, and there has been a tension, even hostilities between Shia and Sunni since Iranians became Muslim at the battle of Kerbala (google it, if interested)
Shia claim that the cousin and 1st convert (student) of Muhammad Ali ibn Abi Talib is the successor to Muhammad, however the 1st successor was a follower, abu Bakr, and from him the Caliphs and Caliphates/.
Sunni, from Sunnah. Sunnah means follower.
Persians were not Muslim until the battle of Kerbala, and they bemoan the fact that they became Muslim because of Arabs. They have disdain for Arabs.
Their, Iranians) revered poet Ferdowsi in his book of kings, Shanameh, bemoaned that fact, and every educated Iranian knows that.
In the 1970's a group of Shia, sponsored by Iran, took advantage of the haj, and took over Medina, there was violence and the Saudi's put down the terrorists.
Anyway, as a sign of support for the Religious revolt, Muslims throughout the world required there women to wear the hijab, a head scarf, and the Ayatollahs are punishing females for improper wearing of the scarf.
The act is perceived as defiance to their authority, and thus a threat, has nothing to do with religion.
By thesame toeken, Iran requires grown women, to wear the chador, in Arabia it is called an Abaya, it is the bee keepers suit. In Saudi Arabia it iis black in Iran it is any color, in the south of Iran it is modifed with a veil that covers the face, except for the eyes, and here is a version that is one piece that has a strip of cloth tht comes down over the nose. In Afghanistan it is the burqa.
The whole idea is that Muslim men are so randy that they if they see a woman's skin, their horniness is deflected from thinking about al Lihah, and they are tempted. (Not a mispelling , in the pre Islamic Arabia, the primary god of the Arabs was the Moon, or al Lihah, Allah is simply a contraction of al Lihah)
The time before Muhammad is known as the jahiliyyah ( lit. 'ignorance/stupidity').
All the Quran says is that women should dress modestly and cover their breasts, it also requires modesty in men.
Basketball players use to wear tight and high shorts on the court, but when many adopted Islam, they started wearing long, baggy shorts, and that became the fashion.
What confounds me, and shows how stupid our students and the extreme left is today is that while they march and militate for women and gay rights, they defend the most misogynistic and homophobic religion (Islam and Islamists) on the planet.
Dominionism aka Christian Reconstruction and the theocratic evangelists, are a runner up, but they don't control a country...YET.
Whatever it's faults, Israeli citizens do not have to be subject to religious police, gays can live and get married like any citizen, an Israelis citizen, or tourist, can be an atheist and secular
Not so in an Islamic country, and there are 57 of them.
Our Universities have been corrupted and coopted by Saudi and UAE money, and students.
The wealthy in Muslim countries send their young to America for education, and they are subverting the minds of their classmates,
The problem is that the west is ignorant of Islam.
To compound the ridiculousness of the problem, while the right wing is up in arms about Sharia Law, Christian Reconstruction has made inroads into main stream Protestantism, and is every bit as bad,if not worse than Islam.
Dominionism, the face of which is the Chalcedon Institute), wants the Mosaic Laws (i.e. Leviticus to govern the country, sans those that they don't like, like not eating pork or shell fish or mixing fabrics) and the punishment for violating Mosaic laws is death, and the preferred method is stoning, because stones are free (very libertarian of them). This includes less than faithful Christians, women who have sex outside of marriage, juvenille delinquents, and LGBT.
You hit the nail on the head! I believe Putin has “reared his ugly head” again, infiltrating social media as he did to get Trump elected in 2016. But this time Trump is going to prison.
From the Hamas Charter, “ For our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide ranging and grave, its ultimate goal is Islam, the Prophet, its model, the Qur’an, its constitution... strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine. The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them, until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry;of Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him.”
Their interpretation of the Koran like our KKK fascist patriarchy is only one and there are Muslim clerics who say as well as artists and writers but they all live in fear of retaliation for their views. Fanatics abound and intimidation and murder are their weapons of choice.
It's all in the interpretation. I'm sure there are hundreds of pages of same old, same old in The Bible. Probably same text as you quote, just paste in "Sunni" in one neighborhood, "Shia" in the next block over. In fact, historically, the Muslims were the tolerant ones. Jews fled Spain when the Inquisition took over, and Salah-al-Din kept his treaties. Allah knows what "Charter" those guys thought they were going by. So leadership matters.
I think this charter is very clear. No words minced here. FYI, The Qur’an is completely opposite in the “ interpretation “, from Syrah Bani Isra’il, 17;104 ,” And there after god said to the children of Israel ‘dwell securely in the promise land.’
Ha thanks for that and your assessment. I do think there are those who for whatever reason are working for Joe Biden or Thom Hartmann or the cult of a particular political party and placing electoral politics above humanity which causes them to lash out when they are challenged (or facing the truth). And if you can dehumanize someone on Thom's board it's not a stretch to dehumanize those poor black and brown people Democrats can't stop slaughtering. Or working with the likes of Netanyahu and "pariah" MBS to do so.
And apparently you don’t give a dam about the Hamas Charter, either. It is Hamas’s goal to wipe Jews off the planet. Or perhaps this October attack just has Trump’s and Putin’s fingerprints all over it.
It's not only the goal of Israel to displace Palestinians once again, it has been their goal to torment and exterminate them for the past several decades. The "conflict" is actually oppression of the Palestinian people by the Jews that has been amplified by the Trump of Tel-Aviv Netanyahu. And you are actually serious about Trump and Putin somehow being behind this, when Netanyahu was perfectly aware that Hamas was planning an attack for the past year at least, then you and Nancy Pelosi best do lunch.
And so it goes back and forth. One is as bad as the other and you would welcome the death of innocent people of those you don’t agree with. You are no better than anyone else.
Thom it is probably beneath you or any thinking person to correct Barry and Carol as they appear to be trolling your substack. That’s all I have to say on their unsupported opinions.
Maybe, but it amazes me how people just must take a side. Israel was attacked by Hamas not Palestinians. Most Jews do not want Netanyahu to continue this attack on Gaza and neither does Joe Biden and Biden has called for Netanyahu to scale back to protect the innocent. Barry appears to have an agenda and is very much against Biden. He would rather see Jews get killed? War is horrible anyway you look at it. The HAMAS CHARTER demonstrates what their goal is.
Voting? Merely a superbly engineered societal vent for a frustrated citizenry. But an oligarchic illusion, in point of fact. So . . .
Koch, Mercer et al are represented by Lucy in "Peanuts."
Democracy? . . . It's the football Lucy holds so perfectly for the kicker, only to swipe it away.
We, the people—we're the airborne kickers in this clumsy analogy. We ARE Charley Brown ad nauseum.
And we do this little routine every doggone election, after which, we set about feeling: a. Had b. Angry.
So we spend credit to buy, but we still aren't happy.
So we eat and eat godawful "food." But we're not happy or healthy.
So we over-arm ourselves. And not only are we not happy, we're afraid, too.
So we watch the news and 48hrs to become more ever more fearful.
And then some wacked-out Happiness 101, Harvard prof. on NPR assures us that (to paraphrase the Beatles) "All you need are friends . . . Rat Tat Tah Duh Duh ; to be happy."
Poppycock! All you need is a REAL democracy with REAL representation.
To be (happy) or not to be?
Do the Right Thing: Or follow Orange Jesus into oblivion.
PS The Purdue Pharma pushers (the Sacklers) were/are offering up Happiness in convenient mega pill form. But, wait !!! . . . They're oligarchs, too.
You had me at your opening. According to " Princeton scholars Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page famously found that the odds of average Americans’ political desires being translated into policy are about the same as “random noise,” whereas what they referred to as “economic elites” frequently get everything they want from the political class."
We have already our Democracy and won't get it back as long as we rely on the same political and electoral system. FDR saved the system for his class. Will the oligarchs allow it to be saved again? Just as solar is the original source of all energy on earth, labor is the source of everything that makes up our civilization, including what the oligarchs need to survive.
The oligarchs need to be reminded of that reality.
Here is the raw truth, an unavoidable fact of life. Money rules. Not just politics but every aspect of human endeavor and behavior, including you, yours, me and the rest of us.
Money is a medium of exchange, a social fiction to replace barter. Barter is inefficient, and people who rely on barter starve, and you need a product by which to barter, and the only product that humans really have is their labor.
Labor is not fungible or divisible. a medium of exchange (money) is. No one, not even mountain men are self reliant, even they need money.
You need money to live, I need money to live, they need money to live, and those with the most money rule.
Oligarchs would not be oligarchs unless they had the ability to command and control resources, and humans are the most important resource and unlike coal, iron, steel, oil and minerals the human resource is self renewing.
How does one remind one that has the power and control to command resources that their existence, success and power depend on the cooperation, compliance and obedience of their most vital self renewing resource?
That is the question.
How? Giles and Page and tens of thousands of others, including us substack readers, have identified the problem.
But identifying the problem is not solving the problem, and what is the value in identifying a problem,without a solution.
So what is the solution?
How to strip and reclaim power from those that command and control power?
Especially when those that have such power, have successfully used it to pit the many classes of people against each other.
]
You know, divide and conquer, keep the threat at each others throats, and better yet convince a sizable portion of the population that you are their ally, and with and through you one can dominate, control and eliminate those that you have been convinced pose the real threat.
These oligarchs, plutocrats, 10% (whatever label we put on the powers that be) have successfully convinced 40 -50% of the population that they are their allies and they look up to them to solve the problems, that their savors have created.
Like Hitler, create a problem (in his case Jews and commies, which Hitler said was a Jewish problem) and then offer a solution.
How does one reform the ruling order? One doesn't, it has to reform itself, and by the time it realizes that it is too late to save its own existence the end of the anthropocene will see to that, and by the time they realize they were committing suicide it will be too late, then again their motto is make hay while the sun shines.
The other way is to force reform (change) from without, and that requires mass organization and violence, or the real threat of violence.
But then there is unintended consequences. Revolutions always eat their own.
American colonies 1775 was not a revolution, as it did not depose the ruling order.
It was a revolt against parental authority, in the same way a teen or young adult revolts against a parent and leaves home.
The child grew up, struck out on his own, but the parent (Britain) never forgot and tried again in 1812 to reassert it's authority.
(A different way of looking at history).
In summation. Problems have solutions. We have identified the problem, so what is the solution"
Absent a solution, we have a difficulty, and difficulties do not have solutions, the only thing we can do when faced with a difficulty is work around it, take steps to ameliorate the harm of the difficulty.
Perhaps a general strike, but how to convince people who have needs and who have different ideological, mental, emotional, physical needs and motives to partake in general strike.
People need to eat, they have bills to pay,and when the strike is over, the debt collector and the sheriff come a knocking.
We all know what is wrong, we know who caused it, we know who maintains it but what is the solution, and I mean a real solution , one with no unintended adverse consequences.
As I see it, in our modern mass/social media society, the solution lies in a bottom up,grass roots propaganda campaign, with a top down propaganda campaign by what is the most favorable and likely ally, the deficient and corrupted (not so badly as the Republican party) Democratic party, which also very dependent upon the very same power that be.
Not gibberish. You could say, "wishful thinking," except there was the "New Deal," which was the "top-down" combined with "bottom-up" that he describes. Like that.
None of this should come as a surprise; I've been expecting it for decades. The surprise has been that the "man on a white horse" turned out to be an ignorant buffoon playing on the pettiest of grievances. I remember watching the youngish reporters, Rather and Brokaw, asking people about the man on the moon the night of the landing. They were angling for answers to "shouldn't we be spending the money to take care of problems here at home"? One lady in block party responded: I don't know about that, I just know our government will do what's right. That was chilling. Then we had the Silent Majority (a scary term) who only turned their backs on Nixon when the tapes revealed he used "dirty" words. I grew up listening to Jesse Helms' editorials. You may not believe it, but he toned it down after he became a Senator. Not only can it happen here, it has been happening here for some time, it's just picking up steam.
Thom, I'm sure I represent "our" majority, but no amount of information, no matter how it is presented to the cult, will not budge their willful ignorance. I try to talk to relatives and friends to no avail--ever. The relentless march of misinformation from the right media and even the so-called independent is consumed with ever more vitriol. Voting is all that's left and I fear we are becoming the minority.
I don’t CARE. Our country’s democracy is TOO important! Send them emails of Robert Reich, Thom Hartmann, Heather Cox Richardson and Joyce Vance as I do. Copy and paste (they might not click on the url but include it). Maybe they will see the “truth”.
Aw, don't be bullied: "communication" is futile. The only hope is the fact against your fear: "we" are NOT becoming the minority. The issue is the electoral mechanics of can the majority win?
Sorry, based on experience, I am "voting" on side of, don't waste your energy. They think God sent Him! They will never believe he called the fallen at Arlington "suckers" and "losers." All you will do is remind them why they hate you, liberal scum.
And it is FACT he called those buried at Arlington “suckers”and “losers “. Anyone who doesn’t know this, doesn’t educate themselves (something Trump WANTS! He can’t compete with someone who is educated. Probably why he refuses to debate - he is not only dumb, he is now senile).
Sometimes old metaphor/quirks of speech can be confusing. Obviously I wasn't literally voting, and the "side" was just that I was not joining Marlo's hopefulness about getting anywhere "reaching out" to the "cult" with good information. But I think you also are wishful thinking about Trump not competing with somebody educated. His obnoxious bullying went over just fine with plenty of audience vs Hillary Clinton, hardly uneducated.
I'm not a Jungist [Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist] but he might have been right that some people have a collective racial subconscious, that predisposes them to hate "the other" and are persuaded to follow a demagogue. I'm not a Marxist [Karl not Groucho] but he was right about the "lumpen" who have no clue and vote with their gut.
Unfortunately, the media has given Trump, a demagogue, free coverage, oblivious to the maxim, “You can fool most of the people most of the time,” PT Barnum. He also said “I don't care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right.” Although he never said it, P.T. Barnum was credited with “There's a sucker born every minute” Trump is a grifter who has succeeded in selling
bullshit.
By rights, every time they mention his name, they should identify him as twice impeached, four times indicted, who has been proven to be a serial liar and grifter.
Anecdotally the "lumpen" and the MAGATS need to be exposed to those lies. Maybe when the 81 ex-MAGATs, all appointed by Trump, who will testify against him in the DC criminal case will have some effect.
I know when they learn that Trump hates dogs, they tear up. When they learn that he stole from kids with cancer, they choke.
"By rights, every time they mention his name, they should identify him as twice impeached, four times indicted, who has been proven to be a serial liar and grifter" AND dog hater who stole from kids with cancer.
Nothing will make a dent in Trump's core supporters. Fortunately, they are a minority in a minority party. Saw an article the other day, where some evangelical preachers are getting pushback from preaching the teachings of Jesus. One congregant was reported to have said: that stuff doesn't work anymore. (Think you may be misreading Jung's concept of the collective unconscious)
They should already know about the charity scam, the university scam...maybe not about the dogs, but he's the first President in my memory not to have one. If he did get dog, it would probably bite him.
Maybe it's because to many Americans "democracy" is mostly a chimera trotted out on the 4th of July? That didn't start with the 1971 Powell memo, though for sure it did have a big effect: it pointed out to corporations and rich people that while they were snoozing, African Americans got the right to vote! women started questioning patriarchal assumptions (and getting credit in our own names) -- and getting elected to office! Horrors! Time to wake the hell up!
But corporations and rich people have been at it far longer than that. One obvious difference between the U.S. and the European democracies is that the U.S. never has had a significant labor or social democratic party. This is closely related to the fact that the U.S. Constitution provides for three branches of government, which are supposed to provide checks and balances on each other, but never acknowledges the fourth, unelected branch: economic power, which has the power to undermine and/or control the other three. After economic power crashed the world economy, the New Deal imposed some checks on it and some protections for the working, non-rich people who were at its mercy. Going too far in that direction, however, was immediately greeted with Red-baiting, blacklisting, McCarthyism, etc. Labor's power was conditioned on toeing the anti-socialist line.
So it doesn't surprise me all that much that many Americans translate "Democracy is under attack!" into "Wolf! Wolf! No, there really is a wolf this time!"
Our first political party was named after the form of government that the founders of country, and that political party created. The Democratic Republican party, founded by Jefferson and Adams.
It was not a party of the people, they founders did not trust the people, they trusted only property owning men. People they believed had an economic stake in the health and future of the country. I took four amendments, the 15th, 17th, 19th and 26th for this country to become a true democracy., and the elite have been at work trying to roll back the clock ever since, and it all came to fruition with Trump.
Great post! "Who is Labor's friend" is on tenterhooks today: Trump "courts" the Teamsters, and "leadership" has a dilemma that the membership has MAGA fever. Even though, reminded about on MSNBC, Joe Biden was part of an important pension bail-out along the way. Meanwhile, a number of red state governors are answering Texas' call to spit in the face of the "Supreme" Court ruling that the Border is under Federal jurisdiction: failure of "checks and balances" as you say. The "women out of their place" issue, oh, my. As a retired courthouse rat (Public Defender) I have a fantasy about how little it could take to utterly mess with enforcement of the "felony helper" in crossing the border to a free state situation. Many of the America-hating states are lightly populated. Some of the border counties may have only a couple of courtrooms and judges, and a few wide-ranging Sheriffs or H.P. Only 50 women, not even all local, could make up a convoy and announce they are escorting a couple of girls to "run" the border to America. Maybe they get stopped, and start to be arrested. On felonies. They refuse bail and demand "speedy trial." (refuse to "waive time.") Solidarity on no guilty pleas. Now a county on a shoestring budget has a jailful of respectable ladies they're supposed to feed while setting them for jury trial on an impossible schedule, and ya think the Media is noticing? Just a little story I made up.... ps I started a trial in an outlying court in a medium-sized County one time, and the enthusiastic young judge had to go out on the street to drag in enough jurors. Any coordinated action to refuse bail, demand jury trial and refuse to "waive time" is going to break the system boom!
That struck me today: are you familiar with "The Mouse that Roared?" Of course, this issue is not a comedy. Maybe more "Two Billboards" (or was it three?) which I really hated: the woman beats up a rude teenager and molotov cocktails the Sheriff's office, with victims inside, and she's supposed to be a hero? How about an angry woman who recruits a few of her neighbors for a really good cause? They secretly rendezvous about ten miles to the intra-American border, only announcing then: "Pig Pen, this is the Rubber Duck, and I'm about to Put the Metal Down!" (old hit song) They have no I.D. When arrested, they all declare: "My name is Jane Doe, and I'm pregnant!" You really can almost see it..... The pregnant ones are mixed up in the bunch, and most of them have never been fingerprinted, and those outposts of Freedom don't have much female medical care anyhow, so it's going to be quite the investigation, ya think?
I would say yes Americans are ignoring it but voting alone is not going to get it done (for those who still have access to the polls). This is borne out by the fact that Biden has not done anything meaningful regarding voting rights enforcement (no legislation needed for that) although he promised to. They care less if we vote than if we are at each other's throats as that allows Biden to aid and abet genocide in Palestine, shut the borders, deny tens of thousands of migrants their right to asylum, expand oil pipelines, hold a disastrous proxy war with Russia and on and on while his minions go on about how terrible Republicans are (which they certainly are). As for democracy, I have the choice between two amoral old white men, of which your brainwashed minions will tell me how much worse Trump is but I'm not certain if there's anything worse than perpetual war and genocide. So we can "vote" for Biden's genocidal oligarchal imperialism or Trump's theocratic fascism. Judging from the agenda for your show today it's no wonder liberals are as clueless and amoral as the Trumpers they love to hate.
There you go again, asshat. Anyone with half a brain knows that you could care less about the Palestinians, it is just a cudgel that you can wield to sucker the witless into supporting your Putin agenda.
Thom: Once upon a time, I met you and your lovely wife at Julio’s in Montpelier, Vermont. I was a Representative-Elect in the Vermont Legislature, putting together a resolution against corporate consolidation of the media. Your guidance was very helpful, and we were able to pass the resolution in spite of opposition in a Republican majority House. I have followed you since, and just want to let you know that - to my mind - your insights and intellectual honesty are among the best available to us. Your grasp of history and how it is playing out contributes in critical ways to how we understand the present moment. I am hoping that you can refer me to your most complete analysis of how Jude Wanniski’s 1976 WSJ editorial has impacted our politics since it was published. Thank you for all you do, and please stay the course. We need your insights now more than ever.
Thanks, Floyd! Nice to hear from you after all these years.
For my articles on Wanniski, plug his name and mine, in quotes, into a search engine with "site:hartmannreport.com" and you'll find a few. Most have the same core info...
Last night, I attended an online inspiring, encouraging and energizing interview with Heather Booth,
sometimes referred to as "the most influential person you have never heard of." Her positive message didn't shy away from what Thom wrote in this morning's report. She brought the threat to our democracy into the room and told us how we, the grassroots activists, can save our country from the fascist movement.
Heather's message was the same as Thom wrote, "If Biden is re-elected and Democrats can take the House and hold the Senate, there’s a very good chance — particularly without Manchin and Sinema to sabotage the process like they did in 2022 — that such legislation can be brought up again and pass". The time to act is NOW - tomorrow may well be too late.
I am happy you had a good talk BUT Biden?
How is it that the US/UK Europe don't give a fliyng fuck about Palestinian people dying in their thousands?
IF this was happening in the US what would YOU do?
Forgive me for being so angry BUT you in the US lived the life of depravity. Buying/not voting and could care less about your kids education.
You have been committing wars all over the world. IF the US does not like a new President they manipulate. This has happened in so many S. American countries and you wonder why you have so many immigrants.
The same is happening here in France.
By the way I like immigrants.
The Greedy Old Plutocrats are also Groupies Of Putin, treasonously working against American values.
Yes and you see how Putin is treating his troops over in the Ukraine. Sending them in troops of 70 to get butchered by drones. He is basically genociding his own people who don't have money.
Link?
Groupies Of Putin - that’s great!
LOOK for one minute at the American agenda.
Russia: Communist
China : Communist and yet these 2 countries have better welfare than the US
Please don't call me a "Putin troll' I have had enough of this because it is just not pertinent.
The richest country in the world:
Pollution....2nd to Cina
Education.......don't know what to say except even Sri Lanka is way ahead of you...
Other countries are surpassing YU..
Today's NYT reports: "Many voters now say that immigration is their top concern." How off the mark! Our democracy is on life-support and climate catastrophe is well under way, but the awful humanitarian (not catastrophic) situation at the southern border has become a strategic proxy for political dueling and distracting the electorate from real threats. The irony is that inaction on climate change will accelerate the creation of climate refugees on a scale humans have never known before. The related impending geopolitical disruption (probably our greatest threat) is being ignored. The oligarchs are of no mind to address it - except perhaps in so far as it is exploitable.
The NYT is influential inside the Beltway. It's editorial staff is by and large restrained Trump humpers. It's journalists have been raised on both sides ism.
I do not believe that immigration is Americas top concern. I do believe that the editorial staff of the NYT wants to make immigration a top concern. Take a clue from the Trump Humping Republican party, they are bending over backwards to make immigration a top concern, as it is a distraction from their fascist position on abortion and democracy.
The NYT doesn't report the news it uses it's influence to make the news,
What the Republicans “say” is quite different than reality. Trump is pulling Johnson’s strings. Trump does NOT want ANY successful immigration policy passed.
We all need to CALL Johnson and implore him to put this bill through they have been working on in a bipartisan manner for months. 202-225-4000
Johnson took an oath to support our country and constitution, NOT to support Trump and what Trump wants! CALL
(You can call after hours & it will record. Wait until the end. Press “2” to send as “urgent “).
The full court press is to call, write, send letters to the editors, to the Republican House members who represent districts that Biden won in 2020. https://ballotpedia.org/U.S._House_districts_represented_by_a_Republican_in_2022_and_won_by_Joe_Biden_in_2020
As we should ALL do!
I wonder if they are going to go back and investigate the “hidden room”? Probably too late. He has probably moved everything to another hidden room.
Yes, you're right!
Well said and for once I agree with you William
We have the same happening here in Europe.......it's just a scare tactic and the sooner people realise this the better.
In my view: The corporations do NOT want to stop immigration.
No they don't.
A major part of our disagreement is that you are focused on nation states, not the perps.
Nation states, like religion, like ideology, even corporations are simply tools.
I am not interested in the hammer, but the hand that wields it. I am not afraid of the sword, but the hand that wields it.
All Nations leaders answer to someone(s), in democracies it is the voter, but the voter only has the say in choosing between Humpty or Dumpty, and both serve a money master, often the same.
The exception is Dictatorships, especially those that have sham elections,hence a public display of a democracy that isn't.
Currently there are only a few nations that fit that bill. Iran, Russia, North Korea, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and it appears that Pakistan will be joining the club.
And a wannabe nation, The nation of Palestine under rule by HAMAS.
The trumpublican Party often uses the phrase “own the libs.” We tend to brush those words off as if they’re just one more crazy, moronic statement from trump’s acolytes. It’s not. It is their full intention to own this country and its people; to be elevated to the master class who will design and implement a plutocratic theocracy, giving them the power to install and implement a neofascist government. The cruelty is the point.
Yep. Last chance to get things back on track. 3 or 4 economic campaign issues with all the other cultural issues and pound them into the ground by repeat and repeating every day so that everybody knows them by election day. That is the path to victory and then passing them quickly into law but first protect the right to vote.
A lot of people don't pay attention, and I was the same way 15 years ago. A lot of people have tuned out Trump. I hear people say, "both sides are crooked." Some people think it is just a "witch hunt" with Trump. The Propaganda Machine is well oiled. We could be something as simple as a health scare/issue to Biden, a rise in gas prices, or a last minute scandal like Hillary's emails and Hunter's laptop, etc. from losing.
That’s why we need a total landslide!
Landslide to whom?
Thanks to FDR, most Americans have not been hungry a day in their life. Thanks to religion, the flock thanks God has provided for them, not the progressives. When Americans start going hungry and starving for just one day, they will turn into progressives, but it will be too late.
I cannot even explain what a dictator can do on other so-called news comment sections. I get censored when I mention, a dictator can take your guns, harvest your organs, sell you and your children into slavery, turn you into a soldier, torture you, exterminate you, chop you up in a bathroom, end food stamps and social security, feed you poisoned medicine air and water and exterminate and rape you plus I'm sure there's much more. I do believe the mega crowd understands that and that's why they support Trump. They think only the liberals will be treated like that and not themselves. The feudalists, fascists, capitalists, globalist and oligarchs, will own them also. They could be sent off to war with the European democracies but probably Taiwan first...
You are correct that “they” DON’T understand what a dictator will do. A dictator will take their precious guns. A citizenry as heavily armed as Americans will not be easily subdued. The right has soaked their minions with the belief in the 2nd Amendment as almost sacred. I have been living among people who have had encounters with the criminal justice system. While most support trump - they will not be told what to do. So any trump policies that run counter to what they want to do ....
These people don’t understand dictatorship and will start resisting if Trump’s dictator policies run counter to what they are willing to put up with.
I told my Congressional Representative about this and the Representative said that was why Justice was trying to get trump handled. I live in Michigan. The opening day of firearms deer hunting season in Michigan, used to have 1,000,000 hunters out in the crappy November weather hunting deer. My mother would tell me that number was larger than most standing armies in the world. Think about it.
But doesn't Trump want what they want: "open season" on "illegal" brown people and control over "their women?" What's to resist?
Because MAGA is more concerned with the damage Trump does to the opposition than to their own welfare.
That explains maga, but doesn't explain all the others unless they're complete idiots? The ones who will vote third party or not voted all.
It’s true and You are right. It amazes me, everyday, tho, how many people sabotage their own interests and basic needs.
JO.
Who will you vote for?
The warmonger Biden or a 3rd party.
YOU in the US are in deep shit.
What Thom has been writing is fingering the problems we have and the ongoing takeovers orchestrated by the corporate oligarchy and its billionaires. It is not unlike the French aristocrats who pushed their advantages too far and eventually ended up where they belonged for the many atrocities they committed on ordinary people. The question remains have a people who threw the tea in the harbor and founded a government based on principles of liberty and equality and equal under the law as aspirations for our government and society going to fail because of the money and manipulations of the selfishness of these bad actions who will kill the working class and wreck any change of a decent working society with a comfort zone for all that includes a safety net for the unfortunate for whatever reasons. The visionary Francis Perkins tried as did Eleanor Roosevelt and they succeeded as much as was possible but individuals who were true public servants disappeared decades ago and the only vestige’s to be seen are in what’s left of the Democratic Party and among independent voters. With the current Congress and most importantly the Supremely corrupted court we are on the razors edge if we do not stop wasting our energies on distractions and settle down to the up hill work of registering our voters and getting them to the polls to vote for democracy and decency so we get the many reforms we need.
Principles of liberty and equality like genocide and perpetual war? The Democratic Party that silences those who speak up for humanity and justice? Nancy Pelosi calling for the FBI to investigate pro-Palestinian activists? Joe Biden failing to mention the word Palestinian in his 100 day speech on Gaza? No, Democrats are as phony as Republicans, playing their base about social issues they have no intention of remedying.
Who you kidding Barry, you could care less about Palestinians or anyone else, but your man Putin.
When you started out you were ragging on Biden and Dem's about Ukraine, now you have a new toy, the Palestinians.
You are an opportunist Barry, an ideological opportunist.
All your roads lead to Trump 47, and Trump 47 leads to Putin's new world order.
It isn’t Putin’s new world order you should get too concerned about, William. It’s America’s.
Is there a difference?
Yes. Who in the world starts wars?
(Assuming this is all a "thought experiment" for entertainment) "Rothschild" is code for Jewish, which opens a whole other can of worms. Oh, I know what you're talking about. Let's go with "Bush's." Or "DeVoss's." Or, hey, even "Trump." The precious son (and I do mean son) and heir doesn't need an education or IQ above 90: he gets "legacy admission" to the right school/club to get his piece of paper, although Trump doesn't seem to have managed even that threshold. (Do we actually know he was born in America? His Mom apparently visited with family in Scotland a lot; but I digress...) Sonny (insert surname) has no skills; that's what foreigners are for. Religion is just a veneer to don occasionally as a sop to the hoi polloi. Business is what Jews are for. (I seem to remember Trump actually said this.) One also contracts out the killing; not sure who the overlords think is particularly suited to that. Why waste energy on hate? Hey, this is fun!
Barry is an opportunist who would support anything fascist it appears. As for the Hamas run Gaza the term “genocide” is still propaganda central hijacking by the extreme Islamic media campaign to try to influence world opinion.
Here is the latest atrocity in the Islamic republic of Iran.
The popular publishing house Saless was cited on January 30 for infractions by the Public Places Authority, which led to the immediate closure of its bookstore, according to the Saless Publication's official Instagram account.
The incident highlights a continued clampdown on public, commercial, and tourist venues, hundreds of which have been shut recently due to what authorities deemed as noncompliance with hijab regulations.
Anger over the suppression of human rights, and women's rights in particular, has boiled over since September 2022 when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died while in police custody. She was being held for an alleged violation of the hijab law, which makes it compulsory for women and girls over the age of 9 to cover their heads when out in public.
While the protests appear to have waned, resistance to the hijab remains strong, as it is seen now as a symbol of the state's repression of women and the deadly crackdown on society.
The campaign against the compulsory hijab has grown so widespread that Abdolhossein Khosropanah, the secretary of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, conceded last year that while women defying the hijab law should technically be arrested, the large numbers of women involved make such mass detentions unfeasible.
The authorities have broadened their crackdown, shutting down businesses, restaurants, cafes, and in some cases pharmacies due to the failure of owners or managers to enforce Islamic laws and hijab rules.
In the face of the unrest, some religious and government figures have repeatedly advocated a tougher stance by the government against offenders.
Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda
The Hijab is totally political. There was no requirement to wear the hijab until the
Ayatollah Khomeini revolution,. Iran is Shia, and there has been a tension, even hostilities between Shia and Sunni since Iranians became Muslim at the battle of Kerbala (google it, if interested)
Shia claim that the cousin and 1st convert (student) of Muhammad Ali ibn Abi Talib is the successor to Muhammad, however the 1st successor was a follower, abu Bakr, and from him the Caliphs and Caliphates/.
Sunni, from Sunnah. Sunnah means follower.
Persians were not Muslim until the battle of Kerbala, and they bemoan the fact that they became Muslim because of Arabs. They have disdain for Arabs.
Their, Iranians) revered poet Ferdowsi in his book of kings, Shanameh, bemoaned that fact, and every educated Iranian knows that.
In the 1970's a group of Shia, sponsored by Iran, took advantage of the haj, and took over Medina, there was violence and the Saudi's put down the terrorists.
Anyway, as a sign of support for the Religious revolt, Muslims throughout the world required there women to wear the hijab, a head scarf, and the Ayatollahs are punishing females for improper wearing of the scarf.
The act is perceived as defiance to their authority, and thus a threat, has nothing to do with religion.
By thesame toeken, Iran requires grown women, to wear the chador, in Arabia it is called an Abaya, it is the bee keepers suit. In Saudi Arabia it iis black in Iran it is any color, in the south of Iran it is modifed with a veil that covers the face, except for the eyes, and here is a version that is one piece that has a strip of cloth tht comes down over the nose. In Afghanistan it is the burqa.
The whole idea is that Muslim men are so randy that they if they see a woman's skin, their horniness is deflected from thinking about al Lihah, and they are tempted. (Not a mispelling , in the pre Islamic Arabia, the primary god of the Arabs was the Moon, or al Lihah, Allah is simply a contraction of al Lihah)
The time before Muhammad is known as the jahiliyyah ( lit. 'ignorance/stupidity').
All the Quran says is that women should dress modestly and cover their breasts, it also requires modesty in men.
Basketball players use to wear tight and high shorts on the court, but when many adopted Islam, they started wearing long, baggy shorts, and that became the fashion.
What confounds me, and shows how stupid our students and the extreme left is today is that while they march and militate for women and gay rights, they defend the most misogynistic and homophobic religion (Islam and Islamists) on the planet.
Dominionism aka Christian Reconstruction and the theocratic evangelists, are a runner up, but they don't control a country...YET.
Whatever it's faults, Israeli citizens do not have to be subject to religious police, gays can live and get married like any citizen, an Israelis citizen, or tourist, can be an atheist and secular
Not so in an Islamic country, and there are 57 of them.
Our Universities have been corrupted and coopted by Saudi and UAE money, and students.
The wealthy in Muslim countries send their young to America for education, and they are subverting the minds of their classmates,
The problem is that the west is ignorant of Islam.
To compound the ridiculousness of the problem, while the right wing is up in arms about Sharia Law, Christian Reconstruction has made inroads into main stream Protestantism, and is every bit as bad,if not worse than Islam.
Dominionism, the face of which is the Chalcedon Institute), wants the Mosaic Laws (i.e. Leviticus to govern the country, sans those that they don't like, like not eating pork or shell fish or mixing fabrics) and the punishment for violating Mosaic laws is death, and the preferred method is stoning, because stones are free (very libertarian of them). This includes less than faithful Christians, women who have sex outside of marriage, juvenille delinquents, and LGBT.
Putin speaks through Barry.
You hit the nail on the head! I believe Putin has “reared his ugly head” again, infiltrating social media as he did to get Trump elected in 2016. But this time Trump is going to prison.
Daniel. You need to let your 'Putin thinggy' go.
This is about Zionism.
Says the antisemite.
You know Daniel............I am beginning to believe YOU are the anti-semite NOT me.
I am anti-Zionism.
I suggest you look at the Forbes list of the richest people in the world?
From the Hamas Charter, “ For our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide ranging and grave, its ultimate goal is Islam, the Prophet, its model, the Qur’an, its constitution... strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine. The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them, until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry;of Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him.”
Their interpretation of the Koran like our KKK fascist patriarchy is only one and there are Muslim clerics who say as well as artists and writers but they all live in fear of retaliation for their views. Fanatics abound and intimidation and murder are their weapons of choice.
I have ONE question?
How many wars have Muslims started?
It's all in the interpretation. I'm sure there are hundreds of pages of same old, same old in The Bible. Probably same text as you quote, just paste in "Sunni" in one neighborhood, "Shia" in the next block over. In fact, historically, the Muslims were the tolerant ones. Jews fled Spain when the Inquisition took over, and Salah-al-Din kept his treaties. Allah knows what "Charter" those guys thought they were going by. So leadership matters.
I think this charter is very clear. No words minced here. FYI, The Qur’an is completely opposite in the “ interpretation “, from Syrah Bani Isra’il, 17;104 ,” And there after god said to the children of Israel ‘dwell securely in the promise land.’
Ha thanks for that and your assessment. I do think there are those who for whatever reason are working for Joe Biden or Thom Hartmann or the cult of a particular political party and placing electoral politics above humanity which causes them to lash out when they are challenged (or facing the truth). And if you can dehumanize someone on Thom's board it's not a stretch to dehumanize those poor black and brown people Democrats can't stop slaughtering. Or working with the likes of Netanyahu and "pariah" MBS to do so.
And apparently you don’t give a dam about the Hamas Charter, either. It is Hamas’s goal to wipe Jews off the planet. Or perhaps this October attack just has Trump’s and Putin’s fingerprints all over it.
It's not only the goal of Israel to displace Palestinians once again, it has been their goal to torment and exterminate them for the past several decades. The "conflict" is actually oppression of the Palestinian people by the Jews that has been amplified by the Trump of Tel-Aviv Netanyahu. And you are actually serious about Trump and Putin somehow being behind this, when Netanyahu was perfectly aware that Hamas was planning an attack for the past year at least, then you and Nancy Pelosi best do lunch.
And so it goes back and forth. One is as bad as the other and you would welcome the death of innocent people of those you don’t agree with. You are no better than anyone else.
Look up your reading History Joe.
Israel USED Hamas multiple times to stop the control of Palestine.
Don't write what you don't know.
You’ve shown that you are not kind or compassionate. What a farce!
Well, that was weird.
Thom it is probably beneath you or any thinking person to correct Barry and Carol as they appear to be trolling your substack. That’s all I have to say on their unsupported opinions.
Maybe.. I was in healthcare for 30 years and there are many there to make a buck.
Maybe, but it amazes me how people just must take a side. Israel was attacked by Hamas not Palestinians. Most Jews do not want Netanyahu to continue this attack on Gaza and neither does Joe Biden and Biden has called for Netanyahu to scale back to protect the innocent. Barry appears to have an agenda and is very much against Biden. He would rather see Jews get killed? War is horrible anyway you look at it. The HAMAS CHARTER demonstrates what their goal is.
Voting? Merely a superbly engineered societal vent for a frustrated citizenry. But an oligarchic illusion, in point of fact. So . . .
Koch, Mercer et al are represented by Lucy in "Peanuts."
Democracy? . . . It's the football Lucy holds so perfectly for the kicker, only to swipe it away.
We, the people—we're the airborne kickers in this clumsy analogy. We ARE Charley Brown ad nauseum.
And we do this little routine every doggone election, after which, we set about feeling: a. Had b. Angry.
So we spend credit to buy, but we still aren't happy.
So we eat and eat godawful "food." But we're not happy or healthy.
So we over-arm ourselves. And not only are we not happy, we're afraid, too.
So we watch the news and 48hrs to become more ever more fearful.
And then some wacked-out Happiness 101, Harvard prof. on NPR assures us that (to paraphrase the Beatles) "All you need are friends . . . Rat Tat Tah Duh Duh ; to be happy."
Poppycock! All you need is a REAL democracy with REAL representation.
To be (happy) or not to be?
Do the Right Thing: Or follow Orange Jesus into oblivion.
PS The Purdue Pharma pushers (the Sacklers) were/are offering up Happiness in convenient mega pill form. But, wait !!! . . . They're oligarchs, too.
Cue "The Twilight Zone" theme.
You had me at your opening. According to " Princeton scholars Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page famously found that the odds of average Americans’ political desires being translated into policy are about the same as “random noise,” whereas what they referred to as “economic elites” frequently get everything they want from the political class."
We have already our Democracy and won't get it back as long as we rely on the same political and electoral system. FDR saved the system for his class. Will the oligarchs allow it to be saved again? Just as solar is the original source of all energy on earth, labor is the source of everything that makes up our civilization, including what the oligarchs need to survive.
The oligarchs need to be reminded of that reality.
Here is the raw truth, an unavoidable fact of life. Money rules. Not just politics but every aspect of human endeavor and behavior, including you, yours, me and the rest of us.
Money is a medium of exchange, a social fiction to replace barter. Barter is inefficient, and people who rely on barter starve, and you need a product by which to barter, and the only product that humans really have is their labor.
Labor is not fungible or divisible. a medium of exchange (money) is. No one, not even mountain men are self reliant, even they need money.
You need money to live, I need money to live, they need money to live, and those with the most money rule.
Oligarchs would not be oligarchs unless they had the ability to command and control resources, and humans are the most important resource and unlike coal, iron, steel, oil and minerals the human resource is self renewing.
How does one remind one that has the power and control to command resources that their existence, success and power depend on the cooperation, compliance and obedience of their most vital self renewing resource?
That is the question.
How? Giles and Page and tens of thousands of others, including us substack readers, have identified the problem.
But identifying the problem is not solving the problem, and what is the value in identifying a problem,without a solution.
So what is the solution?
How to strip and reclaim power from those that command and control power?
Especially when those that have such power, have successfully used it to pit the many classes of people against each other.
]
You know, divide and conquer, keep the threat at each others throats, and better yet convince a sizable portion of the population that you are their ally, and with and through you one can dominate, control and eliminate those that you have been convinced pose the real threat.
These oligarchs, plutocrats, 10% (whatever label we put on the powers that be) have successfully convinced 40 -50% of the population that they are their allies and they look up to them to solve the problems, that their savors have created.
Like Hitler, create a problem (in his case Jews and commies, which Hitler said was a Jewish problem) and then offer a solution.
How does one reform the ruling order? One doesn't, it has to reform itself, and by the time it realizes that it is too late to save its own existence the end of the anthropocene will see to that, and by the time they realize they were committing suicide it will be too late, then again their motto is make hay while the sun shines.
The other way is to force reform (change) from without, and that requires mass organization and violence, or the real threat of violence.
But then there is unintended consequences. Revolutions always eat their own.
American colonies 1775 was not a revolution, as it did not depose the ruling order.
It was a revolt against parental authority, in the same way a teen or young adult revolts against a parent and leaves home.
The child grew up, struck out on his own, but the parent (Britain) never forgot and tried again in 1812 to reassert it's authority.
(A different way of looking at history).
In summation. Problems have solutions. We have identified the problem, so what is the solution"
Absent a solution, we have a difficulty, and difficulties do not have solutions, the only thing we can do when faced with a difficulty is work around it, take steps to ameliorate the harm of the difficulty.
Perhaps a general strike, but how to convince people who have needs and who have different ideological, mental, emotional, physical needs and motives to partake in general strike.
People need to eat, they have bills to pay,and when the strike is over, the debt collector and the sheriff come a knocking.
We all know what is wrong, we know who caused it, we know who maintains it but what is the solution, and I mean a real solution , one with no unintended adverse consequences.
As I see it, in our modern mass/social media society, the solution lies in a bottom up,grass roots propaganda campaign, with a top down propaganda campaign by what is the most favorable and likely ally, the deficient and corrupted (not so badly as the Republican party) Democratic party, which also very dependent upon the very same power that be.
Take away the TEEVEE
Social media, the internet are more destructive than TV, the Millenials, Gen X,Y,Z don't even watch TV anymore., they stream and use social media.
Not gibberish. You could say, "wishful thinking," except there was the "New Deal," which was the "top-down" combined with "bottom-up" that he describes. Like that.
Childish response. Have you nothing else to do?, you certainly don't contribute anything to the discussion.
The oligarchs are Zionists. Look up corporations..millionaires. billionaires!
None of this should come as a surprise; I've been expecting it for decades. The surprise has been that the "man on a white horse" turned out to be an ignorant buffoon playing on the pettiest of grievances. I remember watching the youngish reporters, Rather and Brokaw, asking people about the man on the moon the night of the landing. They were angling for answers to "shouldn't we be spending the money to take care of problems here at home"? One lady in block party responded: I don't know about that, I just know our government will do what's right. That was chilling. Then we had the Silent Majority (a scary term) who only turned their backs on Nixon when the tapes revealed he used "dirty" words. I grew up listening to Jesse Helms' editorials. You may not believe it, but he toned it down after he became a Senator. Not only can it happen here, it has been happening here for some time, it's just picking up steam.
Thom, I'm sure I represent "our" majority, but no amount of information, no matter how it is presented to the cult, will not budge their willful ignorance. I try to talk to relatives and friends to no avail--ever. The relentless march of misinformation from the right media and even the so-called independent is consumed with ever more vitriol. Voting is all that's left and I fear we are becoming the minority.
I don’t CARE. Our country’s democracy is TOO important! Send them emails of Robert Reich, Thom Hartmann, Heather Cox Richardson and Joyce Vance as I do. Copy and paste (they might not click on the url but include it). Maybe they will see the “truth”.
And on that we agree Marlo.
Can't argue the activity; maybe there's hope there
Aw, don't be bullied: "communication" is futile. The only hope is the fact against your fear: "we" are NOT becoming the minority. The issue is the electoral mechanics of can the majority win?
thanks, but I wasn't feeling bullied, just surprised!
Sorry, based on experience, I am "voting" on side of, don't waste your energy. They think God sent Him! They will never believe he called the fallen at Arlington "suckers" and "losers." All you will do is remind them why they hate you, liberal scum.
?? What side are s that?
And it is FACT he called those buried at Arlington “suckers”and “losers “. Anyone who doesn’t know this, doesn’t educate themselves (something Trump WANTS! He can’t compete with someone who is educated. Probably why he refuses to debate - he is not only dumb, he is now senile).
Sometimes old metaphor/quirks of speech can be confusing. Obviously I wasn't literally voting, and the "side" was just that I was not joining Marlo's hopefulness about getting anywhere "reaching out" to the "cult" with good information. But I think you also are wishful thinking about Trump not competing with somebody educated. His obnoxious bullying went over just fine with plenty of audience vs Hillary Clinton, hardly uneducated.
Why?
I'm not a Jungist [Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist] but he might have been right that some people have a collective racial subconscious, that predisposes them to hate "the other" and are persuaded to follow a demagogue. I'm not a Marxist [Karl not Groucho] but he was right about the "lumpen" who have no clue and vote with their gut.
Unfortunately, the media has given Trump, a demagogue, free coverage, oblivious to the maxim, “You can fool most of the people most of the time,” PT Barnum. He also said “I don't care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right.” Although he never said it, P.T. Barnum was credited with “There's a sucker born every minute” Trump is a grifter who has succeeded in selling
bullshit.
By rights, every time they mention his name, they should identify him as twice impeached, four times indicted, who has been proven to be a serial liar and grifter.
Anecdotally the "lumpen" and the MAGATS need to be exposed to those lies. Maybe when the 81 ex-MAGATs, all appointed by Trump, who will testify against him in the DC criminal case will have some effect.
I know when they learn that Trump hates dogs, they tear up. When they learn that he stole from kids with cancer, they choke.
"By rights, every time they mention his name, they should identify him as twice impeached, four times indicted, who has been proven to be a serial liar and grifter" AND dog hater who stole from kids with cancer.
You got it.
Lol.
Don’t forget RAPIST, ADULTERER, MOBSTER, BULLY, LIAR, CHEATER and TRAITOR.
Nothing will make a dent in Trump's core supporters. Fortunately, they are a minority in a minority party. Saw an article the other day, where some evangelical preachers are getting pushback from preaching the teachings of Jesus. One congregant was reported to have said: that stuff doesn't work anymore. (Think you may be misreading Jung's concept of the collective unconscious)
When Haley starts calling Trump a loser, Trump loses market share.
If she would tell them Trump hates dogs, when they learn that he stole from kids with cancer, she might overcome him.
They should already know about the charity scam, the university scam...maybe not about the dogs, but he's the first President in my memory not to have one. If he did get dog, it would probably bite him.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/opinion/trump-military-dog.html
Another good reason to distrust and dislike him. Thanks.
Shrub Bush's Scotty obviously hated him. Your token dog can give you away!
Maybe it's because to many Americans "democracy" is mostly a chimera trotted out on the 4th of July? That didn't start with the 1971 Powell memo, though for sure it did have a big effect: it pointed out to corporations and rich people that while they were snoozing, African Americans got the right to vote! women started questioning patriarchal assumptions (and getting credit in our own names) -- and getting elected to office! Horrors! Time to wake the hell up!
But corporations and rich people have been at it far longer than that. One obvious difference between the U.S. and the European democracies is that the U.S. never has had a significant labor or social democratic party. This is closely related to the fact that the U.S. Constitution provides for three branches of government, which are supposed to provide checks and balances on each other, but never acknowledges the fourth, unelected branch: economic power, which has the power to undermine and/or control the other three. After economic power crashed the world economy, the New Deal imposed some checks on it and some protections for the working, non-rich people who were at its mercy. Going too far in that direction, however, was immediately greeted with Red-baiting, blacklisting, McCarthyism, etc. Labor's power was conditioned on toeing the anti-socialist line.
So it doesn't surprise me all that much that many Americans translate "Democracy is under attack!" into "Wolf! Wolf! No, there really is a wolf this time!"
Good point Susanna.
Our first political party was named after the form of government that the founders of country, and that political party created. The Democratic Republican party, founded by Jefferson and Adams.
It was not a party of the people, they founders did not trust the people, they trusted only property owning men. People they believed had an economic stake in the health and future of the country. I took four amendments, the 15th, 17th, 19th and 26th for this country to become a true democracy., and the elite have been at work trying to roll back the clock ever since, and it all came to fruition with Trump.
But, WE Are at this time, potentially, beyond the point of no return.
Great post! "Who is Labor's friend" is on tenterhooks today: Trump "courts" the Teamsters, and "leadership" has a dilemma that the membership has MAGA fever. Even though, reminded about on MSNBC, Joe Biden was part of an important pension bail-out along the way. Meanwhile, a number of red state governors are answering Texas' call to spit in the face of the "Supreme" Court ruling that the Border is under Federal jurisdiction: failure of "checks and balances" as you say. The "women out of their place" issue, oh, my. As a retired courthouse rat (Public Defender) I have a fantasy about how little it could take to utterly mess with enforcement of the "felony helper" in crossing the border to a free state situation. Many of the America-hating states are lightly populated. Some of the border counties may have only a couple of courtrooms and judges, and a few wide-ranging Sheriffs or H.P. Only 50 women, not even all local, could make up a convoy and announce they are escorting a couple of girls to "run" the border to America. Maybe they get stopped, and start to be arrested. On felonies. They refuse bail and demand "speedy trial." (refuse to "waive time.") Solidarity on no guilty pleas. Now a county on a shoestring budget has a jailful of respectable ladies they're supposed to feed while setting them for jury trial on an impossible schedule, and ya think the Media is noticing? Just a little story I made up.... ps I started a trial in an outlying court in a medium-sized County one time, and the enthusiastic young judge had to go out on the street to drag in enough jurors. Any coordinated action to refuse bail, demand jury trial and refuse to "waive time" is going to break the system boom!
I *love* your fantasy. It ought to at least be a movie.
That struck me today: are you familiar with "The Mouse that Roared?" Of course, this issue is not a comedy. Maybe more "Two Billboards" (or was it three?) which I really hated: the woman beats up a rude teenager and molotov cocktails the Sheriff's office, with victims inside, and she's supposed to be a hero? How about an angry woman who recruits a few of her neighbors for a really good cause? They secretly rendezvous about ten miles to the intra-American border, only announcing then: "Pig Pen, this is the Rubber Duck, and I'm about to Put the Metal Down!" (old hit song) They have no I.D. When arrested, they all declare: "My name is Jane Doe, and I'm pregnant!" You really can almost see it..... The pregnant ones are mixed up in the bunch, and most of them have never been fingerprinted, and those outposts of Freedom don't have much female medical care anyhow, so it's going to be quite the investigation, ya think?
I would say yes Americans are ignoring it but voting alone is not going to get it done (for those who still have access to the polls). This is borne out by the fact that Biden has not done anything meaningful regarding voting rights enforcement (no legislation needed for that) although he promised to. They care less if we vote than if we are at each other's throats as that allows Biden to aid and abet genocide in Palestine, shut the borders, deny tens of thousands of migrants their right to asylum, expand oil pipelines, hold a disastrous proxy war with Russia and on and on while his minions go on about how terrible Republicans are (which they certainly are). As for democracy, I have the choice between two amoral old white men, of which your brainwashed minions will tell me how much worse Trump is but I'm not certain if there's anything worse than perpetual war and genocide. So we can "vote" for Biden's genocidal oligarchal imperialism or Trump's theocratic fascism. Judging from the agenda for your show today it's no wonder liberals are as clueless and amoral as the Trumpers they love to hate.
What would you have him do?
STOP the arms shipments to Israel!
Not the question I was referring to. Maybe YOU should stop calling people stupid and read it again.
Liked because I think it was directed to Barry J. IMO, Biden's multiple "rock vs hard place" situations are like multiples of even Abe Lincoln's.
I think Barry has an uneducated opinion and hates Biden. His agenda is to shed hatred on Biden, nothing more. He also has a high opinion of himself.
Barry has an uneducated opinion: I am laughing my socks off.
You have not said one word on here which is comprehensive
Nor have you, Jenny. Just spewing a whole lot of hatred as far as I can see.
There you go again, asshat. Anyone with half a brain knows that you could care less about the Palestinians, it is just a cudgel that you can wield to sucker the witless into supporting your Putin agenda.
You are a Putin TROLL! We are not interested or receptive to your LIES.
Both sides ism and maybe anger control issues?
Thom: Once upon a time, I met you and your lovely wife at Julio’s in Montpelier, Vermont. I was a Representative-Elect in the Vermont Legislature, putting together a resolution against corporate consolidation of the media. Your guidance was very helpful, and we were able to pass the resolution in spite of opposition in a Republican majority House. I have followed you since, and just want to let you know that - to my mind - your insights and intellectual honesty are among the best available to us. Your grasp of history and how it is playing out contributes in critical ways to how we understand the present moment. I am hoping that you can refer me to your most complete analysis of how Jude Wanniski’s 1976 WSJ editorial has impacted our politics since it was published. Thank you for all you do, and please stay the course. We need your insights now more than ever.
Thanks, Floyd! Nice to hear from you after all these years.
For my articles on Wanniski, plug his name and mine, in quotes, into a search engine with "site:hartmannreport.com" and you'll find a few. Most have the same core info...
Thanks, will do. If ever you find yourself in Vermont again, I’d love to get together.