The white Republican base has been so lied to and abused over the past forty or so years that they’ve become easy marks for the predators in both big business and the GOP…
That is about the best explanation I have heard of why so many people don't listen or pay attention. As long as most people have food and shelter, they accept their fate because it is such a struggle to have that much anymore.
I wasn't, but what I meant certainly fits into that theoretical framework. When we are focused on our physiological and safety needs, we have a diminished view of the world. Fear keeps us functioning at a lower lever and we are less rationale.
It was so bad that the Republican Party, the Party of Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot and (eek) Richard Nixon led the fight for environmental justice.
Meanwhile, I sound like a broken record, but since 1973 OPEC/Saudis/ and Russia have us over a barrel. An oil barrel! They fix prices by limiting production, and have caused the worldwide inflation and have undermined our domestic economy while Saudis own our largest refineries and control companies like Exxon.
Many in that white Republican base live in places where life expectancies are short and the quality of life is poor. California is doing something about it. California filed a sweeping climate lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron, as well as the domestic oil industry's biggest lobby, the American Petroleum Institute. California claims that the companies misled the public for decades about climate change and the dangers of fossil fuels. It demands the companies help fund recovery efforts related to California's extreme weather events, from rising sea levels to drought and wildfires, that have been supercharged by human-caused climate change.
Thanks Daniel. One of my take a ways is that the Arabs have us by the balls, and as Nixon said, grab them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow.
The U.S. produces more oil than it consumes, so we don't need to import oil, but we do, and at the same time we export oil. I've wondered why our Presidents, even Biden, has approved oil drilling permits, on the North Slope, and off shore, we don't need that oil, but the Saudis do.
And cancer alley is refining Arab oil, that means the Arabs are keeping the desert cancer free, the air clean
Basically the Arabs are a major shareholder in USA, Inc. Russia too,, with it's ownership of so much real estate.
Amirite Daniel, or am I overstating the situation. For sure the Arabs have a very invested financial interest in our universities, and in large part explains the pro Palestinian outbursts, by professors and students, and fellow travelers on the left.
In 1964 I stood death watch with uncles, and cousins over my Dad's brother, Clarence. Clarence, once a 180 hunk of a man, was 90 lbs and smelled like death. He was dying from Hodgkins disease, He lived in Pt Neches, Texas and worked as a pipe fitter for Texaco, whose plant was a short walk from his home.
My Dad was a Marine in the Pacific, his brother and brother in law, moved from lumber company town, to newly built refineries to support the war effort.
The town, once known as Cancer Capitol of America, was sold to Koch Brothers who converted it into a pulp mill and producer of cardboard and paper products like Brawny and Angel Soft. Every family in that town has suffered cancer, all of my cousins (s and second) and my aunt died of cancer.
The same is true of Pt Neches my cousins who stayed in cancer alley, have had their lives cut short by cancer.
What people will subject themselves to for a paycheck.
The Port of Corpus Christi is a major crude oil refinery hub comprising six refineries and the top petroleum commodities include crude oil, diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, naphtha, jet fuel, etc., and it is also the current Cancer Capitol of the US
Kentucky has the highest rate of cancer in the US of all state, New Mexico the lowest. What is not mentioned on this site is coal mining, the major cancers are lung and esophageal, and those come from coal mining.https://www.asbestos.com/cancer/state-cancer-rates/
The amount of time, effort, and money that has gone into convincing Americans to vote against their best interests is astounding and disheartening. These are the same forces that attacked the New Deal and want to take the nation back to the smokey days of the Gilded Age. It is easy to use fear when it is in human nature to be tribalistic and to fear those who are not like us or the people we associate. Democracy is being put to it's most challenging test in modern times and sometimes I wonder if it's asking too much of people to defy a human nature that has been in place since antiquity.
Yes Steward, It is too much to defy human nature. Fear is how people, populations, nations are controlled. Fear of death, fear of hell, fear of the unknown, fear of the other.
Fear accounts for autocracy, dictatorship, fear made Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, Orban, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot. Fear brought them to power, fear keeps (kept) them in power, Fear of the other, then fear of the leader.
The age old battle between the amygdala (lizard brain) and the prefrontal cortex) thinking brain.
Alas controlling the lizard brain (Republicans) is easy, fear inducing words and phrases is all that is needed.
Getting to the thinking brain is complicated and exhaustive.
This is why Democrats are always on the back foot, and have trouble taking the offense.
In football and war it is the offense that wins.
Even now the Democrats are playing defense, talking about what Biden has done for us, the people don't care, what they will listen to is what Trump will do to us.
Though the Democrats didn't use that tactic in 2020, Biden won, or rather Trump lost, because America woke up, a least 81 million people, and saw what a threat Trump was. It is not a stretch to say anyone could have beat Trump, even Hillary
America's amygdala over powered, the MAGAt amygdala, no thanks to the DNC, with it's polyannaish defense cost control of Congress.
The irrational always wins over the rational, Fear always conquers reason.
And if the Democrats and the Biden campaign, don't pull their head out of their ass, and fight on their own chosen ground, instead of giving the initiative to the MAGAts and megadonors by ceding to them the battle ground
So long as Napoleon was able to choose the battleground, he was victorious even against overwhelming force.
The allies chose the battleground (Normandy) not Hitler's the Pais de Calaise, and thus ended Hitlers reign.
Alexander chose the battle ground at Gaugamela, a forced choice on Darius, because his weapon the Macedonian phalanx, was only effective on open and level ground.
Caesar was victorious because he too chose the battlegrounds, even at Alesia when he had Vercingetorix surrounded, and was attacked from behind by Celts he turned his defense (the second wall) into a weapon of offense
Politics is no different, it is war, and there are no rules in war.
A generally excellent polemic, until the misogynistic comment that “anyone could have beat tRump, EVEN HILLARY” may I remind you that Secretary Clinton (Hillary!) womped #TraitorTrump in the vote that counts, the Popular Vote of the American people. Even Putin, woman hating Republicans, Comey , convicted rapist, traitor trump and the 40 year effort to destroy Secretary Clinton couldn’t stop her from winning the vote of the people.
I consider myself a pretty radicalized, thoughtful feminist, and the "Hillary Question" just isn't as simple as "vote no on female." She tried too hard to act like a mean conservative man, from "super predators" to voting for "Shock and Awe," because, you know, a woman couldn't vote weak on war. So sad.
Liz, please resist looking at everything through a misogynistic lens, I have the same problem with other that look at the world through the lens of race. It is not misogynistic to not like Hillary. I don't judge people by race, gender, religion, occupation. I judge based on prior performance and perceived loyalties.
Here is facts. Bill and Hillary were and are a team, she moved in lock step with him. Bill was a disaster and because of him, we had Dubya, the criminal and disastrous Invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan the waste of billions of dollars and lives, and where has it ended up. The enemies of America and Israel are stronger and more unified than before.
Iraq is majority Shia, Iran is Shia at least when Saddam, a Sunni, held power, the Shia were held at bay, now they use Iraq to target America and Israel. and we have zero influence in a land that we rolled over in 2003.
The purpose of this rant is to demonstrate a chain of events that has led to the present debacle. I even say that Dubya weakened the US and thus encourage Putin, to rebuild, by force, the Soviet Empire. And it started with Bush, acually started with Bill Clinton, who sold America to international financial institutions, the Chamber of Commerce and multinational corporations, while voters were asleep at the switch all caught up in the melodrama of an intern and fellatio. Set the stage for Bush, who swept in to claim his own place in history and take the first step that led to Trump.
Nice gentle mild mannered and funny Obama was in essence a place holder, despite being black (not not an American Descendant of Slave, rather an American Descendant of slave owners) did nothing to advance the need for civil rights for people of color, rather . when faced with a situation when a white law enforcement official, racial profiled and harassed a distinguished black professor, named Henry Louis Gates Jr, Obama made a spectacle of him self with his "Beer Summit",when Barry's tour of duty expired, waiting in the wings was the spouse of the wife of the disastrous Bill Clinton, who had been biding her time, accumulating credential that she could be president.
At that time in our history, foreign service credentials were held to be all important for a President, primarily because of global trade and influence, so vital to international corporations and financial institutions To be president the jaded, and antiquated heads of the DNC thought that they needed the blessing of the CFR. And Hillary was selected to be the next candidate, by these morons, these troglydytes, so they saw to it that Hillary had the foreign service credentials by making her Secretary of State, and to bolster her creds, the assassination of bin Laden, had her seated at the head of the table, while Obama sat in the background to her right in a low chair, to show she was i n charge and thus presidential. It didn't work, because she didn't not have the trust of the rust belt voters, who lost their jobs because her husband, signed NAFTA and a GAAT that gave tax breaks, permission and incentive to move their factories to a source of cheap labor, Mexico and Asia.
In your eyes it is misogyny to criticize and distrust the Clintons, husband and wife.
Just like in black eyes it is racist to criticize Cornell West. It is the old If you ain't with me, you are against me trope and tripe"
I can criticize and call names of white men all day, and no one calls me a misandrist, but dare I say a word against a women, a person of color, an Arab I am a misogynist and/.or a racist.
Myopia, tunnel vision, is a real problem with those on the left. It is time to get off the pity pot, and stop calling all of those who don't fall in line, misogynists and racists.
It really is possible to despise Hillary Clinton, not because she is a woman, because she has proven to be not trustworthy, and a self aggrandizing power hungry politician just like her male counterparts.
I base my opinions on past performance.
An d by the way I held my nose and voted for Hillary,as I could clearly see, like Maya D'Angelou said, who he was the first time, as he came down the golden escalator.
Although Hillary won the popular vote, she lost the all important electoral college, for one reason, the voters of the rust belt, the swing states, remembered who to blame for their loss of jobs... Bill Clinton and by extension his wife, who as Tammy Wynette sang, stood by her man, though he cheated on and embarrassed her. She never even showed any disgust. They didn't trust her.
Sadly the DNC has not learned its lesson, and because they are troglodytes their end and ours is in sight.
As a citizen witnessing All the above, you are 100% correct again Thom! The rich never have enough. The rich have lots of money but very little empathy for the poor. The poor are seen as objects to exploit. If you can't make a buck off them, what is the point in feeding them? Instead of serving good and God, the rich who oppose a maximum wage, are sadistic and they spread their sadism to their cult of zombies.
The unlimited greed rich are pushing no birth control and no abortions, so they can cause more human suffering. Six or seven billion isn't enough to make suffer.
The fascist supporters that I have met are incapable of reading this article. They would read something, about two lines and just say it's all lies. There is no reasoning with them. They want everyone to be insane sadists, just like them!
The lack of care by the Church of those that lie as a way of life is all that is needed to understand the poison lies do to society. This harm is so great to the Church but fundamental conservatives thrive in the toxic mix though an ideology built on hate. Hate as love is their way of understanding life. It allows those that use cheap labor for their industries to not be blamed for boarder tensions and deflect the blame to those that do not hate and treat others acting without hate as the enemy. If you do not hate as they do, you are the enemy of society. They normalize lies and hate.
Brings back painful memories of innocent chidhood, being a truth-teller in a profoundly authoritarian family. A dearly loved Uncle was shocked when I blurted out that Archie Bunker was a comedy show. But that was only the last straw after I made fun (very young!) of pro wrestling. As an adult, I really, really tried to "mask" and "go along." But they know if you aren't all in. Like you say: "If you do not hate as they do...."
This whole report breaking down the important changes on the protection of our planet and our people tell s up many things. One is that anything Obama or other concerned executive s
changed were dumped by the likes of Trump who clearly gives not one care for other people . And the Republicans phonies in Congress who would do anything for a dime... all rampant crooks taking away any possibility for life and our environment to improve. The Republicans did this.
Their BS and little attempts to confuse aren’t working . Instead of doing something positive for the future of this country they put all their sordid effort into attempting to impeach Joe Biden, because what he’s done has been good for the average American . Also Hunter Biden a private citizen has been hounded all a sick attempt by these cretins to ruin whatever is good . Recovery from addiction should be celebrated not used to hurt someone . These wealthiest Americans are ugly , self centered fools who are destroying the world for profit and they’re fine with it . No wonder Putin is their buddy now . He too is a destroyer and a torturer .
Patricia, Republicans are not the only crooks in politics. Bob Menendez, D NJ is simply one that was caught. Being a congress critter is a lucrative job, one enters a modest middle class, or even lower middle class, and leaves a millionaire. Just how do they become so wealth.y, The pay is about $176,000 a year, that is a lot to most of us, but having to rent,eat, party and live,not to mention wardrobe in Washington D.C. takes up a good chunk, and then there is supporting a home (mortgage family) in your home state or district takes up another chunk.
And despite all of the expenses, and drama, they fight tooth and nail, to get re elected, and they wouldn't stand a chance were it not for money in politics. But Thom has written books and reams in his reports,including this one, of the problem.
It is rare indeed to find a politician motivated by principles. The squad for instance, but they represent districts, the majority of which are people that look like them, and hold the same aspirations, and values.
I don't believe Joe used his influence to help Hunter, however Hunter, as would practically all legacy brats, use their fathers name and influence to enrich themselves.
12 of the first Presidents of the U.S. were of the First Families of Virginia, meaning descendants of royalists (Cavaliers) that fled England with the victory of Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil war.
If daddy Bush had not been the son of Prescott Bush who financed the NAZI's, early on he would not have become Governor of Texas and President of the U.S. and Prescott's grandson would not have been President of the U.S.. Remember the primary was dominated by GWHB's two sons, J.E.B. and Dubya., and Dubya was financed by the Saudis and the bin Laden's.
If Trump wins, with the help of a Republican congress and Supreme Court he will deconstruct and ignore our constitution become dictator, and Don Jr will be his successor see Project 2025.
Corporations are "people" and people are "collateral damage." I guess that about says it. If only we could get ALL MONEY out of politics then the politicians would be forced to be responsible to their actual constituents, and we would see solutions rather than smokescreens.
Thank John Roberts for Citizens “United” and his cowardly aquescense to the grifters and flat earthers Alito, Sugar Baby Clarence Thomas, Handmaid Amy Coney Barrett and Joy Boys Bret Kavanaughty and Neil Gorsuch.
Why do we tolerate this in America?? Elect clowns, get a circus.
Conservative brains have an attribution problem. They have been played by industries and billionaires, and even with the history laid-out by you and many others, they hate to admit it. The absurdity of what they say and feel for Trump is only matched by the fact many of them are financing HIM. What a liar and a charlatan! And now he is screaming "Drill, baby drill!" once more.
The industrial age and then big oil era have given way to the information age. Some may feel supercomputers are the bane to our existence, but the future will be built on sorting out the data, especially about the environmental climate crisis. Disaster after disaster is being thrust upon us all, and having one land on their doorstep is how the right-wing holdouts will FINALLY learn. Will they attribute it to fossil fuel usage? Some already have--others never will.
We are moving forward without them. The Trump cult/conservatism is a very dangerous speed-bump on the way. Assholes---we are always cleaning-up after them. Not holding my breath waiting for them to attribute any of that to the left.
A shout out to Mackenzie Scott (aka: money hoarding Jeff Bezos classy former wife) for sharing the wealth far and wide for the benefit of the less fortunate among us.
That’s a whole lotta man ‘splaining to further confirm your misogynystic street cred. No surprise that you don’t want to be called out on your racism, either. You’re really not all that.
Instead of calling them billionaires I think we should be calling them Oligarchs, since that is what they are. They are destroying our democracy. According to this article we have the most in the world, which means something is broken with our democracy.
We should be freezing the oligarch's money if they are helping the Russian economy and giving it to Ukraine after we tax them properly.
It is clear that people have been coopted to go along with the wishes of the oligarchs even when it is in no one's interest. Vain and stupid their basest thoughts are appealed to. I think everyone needs to live abroad in high school to see how things can be different and not be so rah, rah sis boom bah about our country. The good is good, and the bad is awful.
It happens gradually, over generations. And people who grow up with it think it’s just “the way the world works.” And so it goes …..
That is about the best explanation I have heard of why so many people don't listen or pay attention. As long as most people have food and shelter, they accept their fate because it is such a struggle to have that much anymore.
Are you talking about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-4136760
I wasn't, but what I meant certainly fits into that theoretical framework. When we are focused on our physiological and safety needs, we have a diminished view of the world. Fear keeps us functioning at a lower lever and we are less rationale.
Cuyahoga river! Dead Lake Erie! Superfund sites are testament that it has been a national disgrace for many years. https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live
It was so bad that the Republican Party, the Party of Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot and (eek) Richard Nixon led the fight for environmental justice.
Meanwhile, I sound like a broken record, but since 1973 OPEC/Saudis/ and Russia have us over a barrel. An oil barrel! They fix prices by limiting production, and have caused the worldwide inflation and have undermined our domestic economy while Saudis own our largest refineries and control companies like Exxon.
Exxon, once was controlled by the Rockefeller family who knew that fossil fuels were killing us and wanted to diversify were rebuffed. https://www.eenews.net/articles/why-exxon-hates-the-rockefellers-its-founding-family/
Many in that white Republican base live in places where life expectancies are short and the quality of life is poor. California is doing something about it. California filed a sweeping climate lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron, as well as the domestic oil industry's biggest lobby, the American Petroleum Institute. California claims that the companies misled the public for decades about climate change and the dangers of fossil fuels. It demands the companies help fund recovery efforts related to California's extreme weather events, from rising sea levels to drought and wildfires, that have been supercharged by human-caused climate change.
The people who need relief the most, however, are in red states like Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Appalachian states. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/life_expectancy/life_expectancy.htm
Thanks Daniel. One of my take a ways is that the Arabs have us by the balls, and as Nixon said, grab them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow.
The U.S. produces more oil than it consumes, so we don't need to import oil, but we do, and at the same time we export oil. I've wondered why our Presidents, even Biden, has approved oil drilling permits, on the North Slope, and off shore, we don't need that oil, but the Saudis do.
And cancer alley is refining Arab oil, that means the Arabs are keeping the desert cancer free, the air clean
Basically the Arabs are a major shareholder in USA, Inc. Russia too,, with it's ownership of so much real estate.
Amirite Daniel, or am I overstating the situation. For sure the Arabs have a very invested financial interest in our universities, and in large part explains the pro Palestinian outbursts, by professors and students, and fellow travelers on the left.
In 1964 I stood death watch with uncles, and cousins over my Dad's brother, Clarence. Clarence, once a 180 hunk of a man, was 90 lbs and smelled like death. He was dying from Hodgkins disease, He lived in Pt Neches, Texas and worked as a pipe fitter for Texaco, whose plant was a short walk from his home.
My Dad was a Marine in the Pacific, his brother and brother in law, moved from lumber company town, to newly built refineries to support the war effort.
The town, once known as Cancer Capitol of America, was sold to Koch Brothers who converted it into a pulp mill and producer of cardboard and paper products like Brawny and Angel Soft. Every family in that town has suffered cancer, all of my cousins (s and second) and my aunt died of cancer.
The same is true of Pt Neches my cousins who stayed in cancer alley, have had their lives cut short by cancer.
What people will subject themselves to for a paycheck.
The Port of Corpus Christi is a major crude oil refinery hub comprising six refineries and the top petroleum commodities include crude oil, diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, naphtha, jet fuel, etc., and it is also the current Cancer Capitol of the US
Kentucky has the highest rate of cancer in the US of all state, New Mexico the lowest. What is not mentioned on this site is coal mining, the major cancers are lung and esophageal, and those come from coal mining.https://www.asbestos.com/cancer/state-cancer-rates/
The amount of time, effort, and money that has gone into convincing Americans to vote against their best interests is astounding and disheartening. These are the same forces that attacked the New Deal and want to take the nation back to the smokey days of the Gilded Age. It is easy to use fear when it is in human nature to be tribalistic and to fear those who are not like us or the people we associate. Democracy is being put to it's most challenging test in modern times and sometimes I wonder if it's asking too much of people to defy a human nature that has been in place since antiquity.
Yes Steward, It is too much to defy human nature. Fear is how people, populations, nations are controlled. Fear of death, fear of hell, fear of the unknown, fear of the other.
Fear accounts for autocracy, dictatorship, fear made Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, Orban, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot. Fear brought them to power, fear keeps (kept) them in power, Fear of the other, then fear of the leader.
The age old battle between the amygdala (lizard brain) and the prefrontal cortex) thinking brain.
Alas controlling the lizard brain (Republicans) is easy, fear inducing words and phrases is all that is needed.
Getting to the thinking brain is complicated and exhaustive.
This is why Democrats are always on the back foot, and have trouble taking the offense.
In football and war it is the offense that wins.
Even now the Democrats are playing defense, talking about what Biden has done for us, the people don't care, what they will listen to is what Trump will do to us.
Though the Democrats didn't use that tactic in 2020, Biden won, or rather Trump lost, because America woke up, a least 81 million people, and saw what a threat Trump was. It is not a stretch to say anyone could have beat Trump, even Hillary
America's amygdala over powered, the MAGAt amygdala, no thanks to the DNC, with it's polyannaish defense cost control of Congress.
The irrational always wins over the rational, Fear always conquers reason.
And if the Democrats and the Biden campaign, don't pull their head out of their ass, and fight on their own chosen ground, instead of giving the initiative to the MAGAts and megadonors by ceding to them the battle ground
So long as Napoleon was able to choose the battleground, he was victorious even against overwhelming force.
The allies chose the battleground (Normandy) not Hitler's the Pais de Calaise, and thus ended Hitlers reign.
Alexander chose the battle ground at Gaugamela, a forced choice on Darius, because his weapon the Macedonian phalanx, was only effective on open and level ground.
Caesar was victorious because he too chose the battlegrounds, even at Alesia when he had Vercingetorix surrounded, and was attacked from behind by Celts he turned his defense (the second wall) into a weapon of offense
Politics is no different, it is war, and there are no rules in war.
A generally excellent polemic, until the misogynistic comment that “anyone could have beat tRump, EVEN HILLARY” may I remind you that Secretary Clinton (Hillary!) womped #TraitorTrump in the vote that counts, the Popular Vote of the American people. Even Putin, woman hating Republicans, Comey , convicted rapist, traitor trump and the 40 year effort to destroy Secretary Clinton couldn’t stop her from winning the vote of the people.
I consider myself a pretty radicalized, thoughtful feminist, and the "Hillary Question" just isn't as simple as "vote no on female." She tried too hard to act like a mean conservative man, from "super predators" to voting for "Shock and Awe," because, you know, a woman couldn't vote weak on war. So sad.
Because trump was so much better?? Yikes!
Liz, please resist looking at everything through a misogynistic lens, I have the same problem with other that look at the world through the lens of race. It is not misogynistic to not like Hillary. I don't judge people by race, gender, religion, occupation. I judge based on prior performance and perceived loyalties.
Here is facts. Bill and Hillary were and are a team, she moved in lock step with him. Bill was a disaster and because of him, we had Dubya, the criminal and disastrous Invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan the waste of billions of dollars and lives, and where has it ended up. The enemies of America and Israel are stronger and more unified than before.
Iraq is majority Shia, Iran is Shia at least when Saddam, a Sunni, held power, the Shia were held at bay, now they use Iraq to target America and Israel. and we have zero influence in a land that we rolled over in 2003.
The purpose of this rant is to demonstrate a chain of events that has led to the present debacle. I even say that Dubya weakened the US and thus encourage Putin, to rebuild, by force, the Soviet Empire. And it started with Bush, acually started with Bill Clinton, who sold America to international financial institutions, the Chamber of Commerce and multinational corporations, while voters were asleep at the switch all caught up in the melodrama of an intern and fellatio. Set the stage for Bush, who swept in to claim his own place in history and take the first step that led to Trump.
Nice gentle mild mannered and funny Obama was in essence a place holder, despite being black (not not an American Descendant of Slave, rather an American Descendant of slave owners) did nothing to advance the need for civil rights for people of color, rather . when faced with a situation when a white law enforcement official, racial profiled and harassed a distinguished black professor, named Henry Louis Gates Jr, Obama made a spectacle of him self with his "Beer Summit",when Barry's tour of duty expired, waiting in the wings was the spouse of the wife of the disastrous Bill Clinton, who had been biding her time, accumulating credential that she could be president.
At that time in our history, foreign service credentials were held to be all important for a President, primarily because of global trade and influence, so vital to international corporations and financial institutions To be president the jaded, and antiquated heads of the DNC thought that they needed the blessing of the CFR. And Hillary was selected to be the next candidate, by these morons, these troglydytes, so they saw to it that Hillary had the foreign service credentials by making her Secretary of State, and to bolster her creds, the assassination of bin Laden, had her seated at the head of the table, while Obama sat in the background to her right in a low chair, to show she was i n charge and thus presidential. It didn't work, because she didn't not have the trust of the rust belt voters, who lost their jobs because her husband, signed NAFTA and a GAAT that gave tax breaks, permission and incentive to move their factories to a source of cheap labor, Mexico and Asia.
In your eyes it is misogyny to criticize and distrust the Clintons, husband and wife.
Just like in black eyes it is racist to criticize Cornell West. It is the old If you ain't with me, you are against me trope and tripe"
I can criticize and call names of white men all day, and no one calls me a misandrist, but dare I say a word against a women, a person of color, an Arab I am a misogynist and/.or a racist.
Myopia, tunnel vision, is a real problem with those on the left. It is time to get off the pity pot, and stop calling all of those who don't fall in line, misogynists and racists.
It really is possible to despise Hillary Clinton, not because she is a woman, because she has proven to be not trustworthy, and a self aggrandizing power hungry politician just like her male counterparts.
I base my opinions on past performance.
An d by the way I held my nose and voted for Hillary,as I could clearly see, like Maya D'Angelou said, who he was the first time, as he came down the golden escalator.
Although Hillary won the popular vote, she lost the all important electoral college, for one reason, the voters of the rust belt, the swing states, remembered who to blame for their loss of jobs... Bill Clinton and by extension his wife, who as Tammy Wynette sang, stood by her man, though he cheated on and embarrassed her. She never even showed any disgust. They didn't trust her.
Sadly the DNC has not learned its lesson, and because they are troglodytes their end and ours is in sight.
As a citizen witnessing All the above, you are 100% correct again Thom! The rich never have enough. The rich have lots of money but very little empathy for the poor. The poor are seen as objects to exploit. If you can't make a buck off them, what is the point in feeding them? Instead of serving good and God, the rich who oppose a maximum wage, are sadistic and they spread their sadism to their cult of zombies.
The unlimited greed rich are pushing no birth control and no abortions, so they can cause more human suffering. Six or seven billion isn't enough to make suffer.
The fascist supporters that I have met are incapable of reading this article. They would read something, about two lines and just say it's all lies. There is no reasoning with them. They want everyone to be insane sadists, just like them!
The lack of care by the Church of those that lie as a way of life is all that is needed to understand the poison lies do to society. This harm is so great to the Church but fundamental conservatives thrive in the toxic mix though an ideology built on hate. Hate as love is their way of understanding life. It allows those that use cheap labor for their industries to not be blamed for boarder tensions and deflect the blame to those that do not hate and treat others acting without hate as the enemy. If you do not hate as they do, you are the enemy of society. They normalize lies and hate.
Brings back painful memories of innocent chidhood, being a truth-teller in a profoundly authoritarian family. A dearly loved Uncle was shocked when I blurted out that Archie Bunker was a comedy show. But that was only the last straw after I made fun (very young!) of pro wrestling. As an adult, I really, really tried to "mask" and "go along." But they know if you aren't all in. Like you say: "If you do not hate as they do...."
Boom 💥
This whole report breaking down the important changes on the protection of our planet and our people tell s up many things. One is that anything Obama or other concerned executive s
changed were dumped by the likes of Trump who clearly gives not one care for other people . And the Republicans phonies in Congress who would do anything for a dime... all rampant crooks taking away any possibility for life and our environment to improve. The Republicans did this.
Their BS and little attempts to confuse aren’t working . Instead of doing something positive for the future of this country they put all their sordid effort into attempting to impeach Joe Biden, because what he’s done has been good for the average American . Also Hunter Biden a private citizen has been hounded all a sick attempt by these cretins to ruin whatever is good . Recovery from addiction should be celebrated not used to hurt someone . These wealthiest Americans are ugly , self centered fools who are destroying the world for profit and they’re fine with it . No wonder Putin is their buddy now . He too is a destroyer and a torturer .
Patricia, Republicans are not the only crooks in politics. Bob Menendez, D NJ is simply one that was caught. Being a congress critter is a lucrative job, one enters a modest middle class, or even lower middle class, and leaves a millionaire. Just how do they become so wealth.y, The pay is about $176,000 a year, that is a lot to most of us, but having to rent,eat, party and live,not to mention wardrobe in Washington D.C. takes up a good chunk, and then there is supporting a home (mortgage family) in your home state or district takes up another chunk.
And despite all of the expenses, and drama, they fight tooth and nail, to get re elected, and they wouldn't stand a chance were it not for money in politics. But Thom has written books and reams in his reports,including this one, of the problem.
It is rare indeed to find a politician motivated by principles. The squad for instance, but they represent districts, the majority of which are people that look like them, and hold the same aspirations, and values.
I don't believe Joe used his influence to help Hunter, however Hunter, as would practically all legacy brats, use their fathers name and influence to enrich themselves.
12 of the first Presidents of the U.S. were of the First Families of Virginia, meaning descendants of royalists (Cavaliers) that fled England with the victory of Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil war.
If daddy Bush had not been the son of Prescott Bush who financed the NAZI's, early on he would not have become Governor of Texas and President of the U.S. and Prescott's grandson would not have been President of the U.S.. Remember the primary was dominated by GWHB's two sons, J.E.B. and Dubya., and Dubya was financed by the Saudis and the bin Laden's.
If Trump wins, with the help of a Republican congress and Supreme Court he will deconstruct and ignore our constitution become dictator, and Don Jr will be his successor see Project 2025.
Corporations are "people" and people are "collateral damage." I guess that about says it. If only we could get ALL MONEY out of politics then the politicians would be forced to be responsible to their actual constituents, and we would see solutions rather than smokescreens.
Thank John Roberts for Citizens “United” and his cowardly aquescense to the grifters and flat earthers Alito, Sugar Baby Clarence Thomas, Handmaid Amy Coney Barrett and Joy Boys Bret Kavanaughty and Neil Gorsuch.
Why do we tolerate this in America?? Elect clowns, get a circus.
Conservative brains have an attribution problem. They have been played by industries and billionaires, and even with the history laid-out by you and many others, they hate to admit it. The absurdity of what they say and feel for Trump is only matched by the fact many of them are financing HIM. What a liar and a charlatan! And now he is screaming "Drill, baby drill!" once more.
The industrial age and then big oil era have given way to the information age. Some may feel supercomputers are the bane to our existence, but the future will be built on sorting out the data, especially about the environmental climate crisis. Disaster after disaster is being thrust upon us all, and having one land on their doorstep is how the right-wing holdouts will FINALLY learn. Will they attribute it to fossil fuel usage? Some already have--others never will.
We are moving forward without them. The Trump cult/conservatism is a very dangerous speed-bump on the way. Assholes---we are always cleaning-up after them. Not holding my breath waiting for them to attribute any of that to the left.
A shout out to Mackenzie Scott (aka: money hoarding Jeff Bezos classy former wife) for sharing the wealth far and wide for the benefit of the less fortunate among us.
"Tax the rich; feed the poor; until there are no rich no more." - Ten Years After, circa 1968
Please Help Elect Progressives, Thank You.
That’s a whole lotta man ‘splaining to further confirm your misogynystic street cred. No surprise that you don’t want to be called out on your racism, either. You’re really not all that.
Instead of calling them billionaires I think we should be calling them Oligarchs, since that is what they are. They are destroying our democracy. According to this article we have the most in the world, which means something is broken with our democracy.
https://www.newsnationnow.com/banfield/oligarchs-inside-the-minds-of-the-wealthiest-americans/#:~:text=They're%20private%20citizens%20who,any%20other%20country%20on%20earth.
We should be freezing the oligarch's money if they are helping the Russian economy and giving it to Ukraine after we tax them properly.
It is clear that people have been coopted to go along with the wishes of the oligarchs even when it is in no one's interest. Vain and stupid their basest thoughts are appealed to. I think everyone needs to live abroad in high school to see how things can be different and not be so rah, rah sis boom bah about our country. The good is good, and the bad is awful.