Thom - I hold you and the decades long literally volumes of work you have done to insure this nation continuously moves toward a society that is mirrors the true promise of a nation. A nation that strives to be egalitarian and empathetic to the citizenry.
You are among a tiny but powerful few, like Chomsky, Robert Reich, Bill Moyers and Heather Cox Richardson who tirelessly use their genius to cut through the fog and smoke of propoganda and lies generated by rampant, crony Capitalism that seeks to gain its true Fascist and Christo Fascist hold on the people.
Around 2008 I began to describe the Republicans (largely under Bush) as Fascist. People were aghast at this proper term to describe what they wanted to see as the party of Ike, when that “conservative” ideology began to reveal itself through Goldwater and onto Reagan. The Cold War set into full blown operation Neo Fascism 2.0 we have today in that that at this time Jews are not a dedicated target of mass slaughter.
My deepest respect and encouragement for your efforts to raise the consciousness of decent Americans.
DeSantis is part of a long line of Republicans who have violated our Constitution in pursuit of plutocracy. Before DeSantis there was Rick Scott who forbade state employees from mentioning the words climate change, global warming, and sustainability as Governor of Florida, a state almost surrounded by sea water and potential hurricanes:
These policies mainly stem from the Koch network of like-minded billionaire influence and fossil fuel ownership on the Republican Party. Their puppet politicians are tasked with a contradictory challenge: Create a plutocracy while appearing to be on the side of "freedom" and the "people." It's no wonder they always flounder and appear as hypocrites, when their tax cuts don't trickle down.
DeSantis is banned by his R sponsors to actually legislate policies that would help to protect all Floridians: It's much easier to create fictional issues then address obvious challenges:
Also, addressing critical challenges would require re-installing the wealthiest Americans, who also own 90% of American corporate wealth, into our progressive taxation system. This is the same system that actually made America an Empire. How else could real Florida issues be addressed, without raising taxes?
DeSantis is banned by his R sponsors to actually formulate environmental and climate change policies that would protect all Floridians. It's much easier to ban books then address these obvious challenges:
After running up a Federal debt tab by 11 Trillion, causing a Depression, and an Insurrection in just four years, while ignoring our critical challenges what is left for the Republicans to run on? Their answer is to develop fictions, and then offer unconstitutional solutions to their fictional reality. Hence, we need to ban books, arrest teachers for teaching sex ed in kindergarden, and of course privatize the public school system. All this will make the the pathways to a plutocracy easier because our kids will learn less, be easier to indoctrinate, and a few chosen corporations will profit from their exclusive rights to publish & monitor Republican untruths. Monopolies are the building blocks of a plutocracy and by necessity so is misinformation.
As Thom noted, if you take a job in the three branches of our government, you “…shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution;…” Because “support this Constitution” seems a bit nebulous, let’s assume that it means our public sector decision-makers should do their best to meet their purpose as defined in the Preamble because that is the most fundamental of the fundamentals of American democracy. It is our nation’s mission statement, containing the ultimate purpose and a few other objectives to help make that happen. The rest of the Constitution is there to describe things like “who does what”, “how to get elected” and what are the boundaries, especially by showing how our citizens can collaborate with our elected officials so we can get our general welfare promoted using best practice-based solutions and protect us from the morbidly rich. Assume that the Constitution's purpose is what Alexander Hamilton said about it in 1788, “We are attempting, by this Constitution, to abolish factions, and to unite all parties for the general welfare.” The factions have only gotten worse, evolving into unimaginably incompetent/corrupt enterprises, because America has never gotten rid of them. And as far as “unit(ing) all parties for the general welfare,” you know how that’s going if you’re a regular consumer of Thom’s teachings.
Uniting for the general welfare is on life support. I don’t know if it is possible to get rid of “factions.” Likeminded people will always band together. However, if so many people refuse to accept the verifiable truth as the Republican base does, we are going to a VERY BAD place. We are not in the land of politics as usual per 1990’s or before, all hands on deck for saving democracy from the robber barons and conspiracy theorists.
Thom, I disagree. The NaziRepublican Party coming out from under their rock is energizing Americans. My wife and I are retired so we vacation a lot. Since airplanes don't require vaccination, we can't fly anymore, so we drive. We routinely drive from Portland to Orlando to DC to Chicago to Denver, and all points between Everywhere I go, I see the same story.
1. Progressives, that is supporters of center-right candidates like Bernie and AOC, are energized to win. Some are discussing buying guns and protecting the capitol during the next coup attempt (I point out it's great to protest but it's safer to NOT bring a gun)
2. NaziRepublican Party Worshippers, the intentionally self-misinformed fear and hate crowd, now say they don't support fascism. A year ago they would bury me in impossible conspiracy fantasies. Today, you have to "lean" on them to even get them to MENTION Benghazi or Pizza Parlors.
We are winning, thank you NaziRepublican Party fanatics!!!!
Sedition is a high bar to prove, say against Marjorie Green (around the gills). But isn't every lawmaker that swore an oath to the Constitution breaking that oath when they openly tout the Big Lie of the election being stolen? Don't the decisions of the courts, ( in this case 70 or more as I recall,) demand to be upheld by our elected officials?
Republicans shoot from the hip, and I think that's what DeSantis did in the case of Disney. They ticked him off, and he is in the process of proving he's as big an asshole as Trump. That's how he will take him on in the primaries.
DeSantis has a problem. He was a Harvard/Yale student, magna cum laude BA grad, then lawyer, and an excellent athlete. He taught a year at a private school, was a JAG officer, deployed to Iraq, married just one beautiful wife, has three kids, is young and good-looking. He's way too perfect (according to the Wiki stats) and not nearly as nasty and stupid as Trump. Will the party of Trump go for someone so disgustingly elite? They will if he has ruined enough lives to suit their destructive social agenda.
This guy knows his way around a baseball bat, and he is going to use one on the libs in Florida, just to show how he fights.
Extrapolating from one’s personal experience and drawing unverified conclusions is risky. My best guess is that, in the century before Reagan, somewhere between fifteen and thirty percent of students attending public schools who had the benefit of civics instruction were well enough informed and articulate enough in matters of the US Constitution to be able to make the sort of essential distinctions being discussed here. Little Thom was the clear exception to the rule. He was primed by whatever family and other experiences that befell him and was obviously endowed with native talents, abilities, proclivities, or intelligence to excel in that typically repressive environment. The millions of Baby Boomers and those who preceded their generation and who were semi-literate and easily misled by the right-wing propaganda, the Red Scare, the economic royalists, etc., were the majority of students with vague impressions, misperceptions, and abject ignorance.
Sentimentality and nostalgia for the good old school days before Reagan are not appropriate for or complimentary to such a great mind. Public school should never be turned into a profit-making enterprise. Everything possible should be done to improve schools. But indulging in mythology and cult worship of a failing institution only has gotten us deeper into the morass. If you want schools to be saved and democracy to survive, stop expecting miracles from the forcible incarceration of children in right-wing behavioral modification indoctrination centers. PLEASE!
Agree about DeSantis, not certain why feel the need to use the "Comrade" propaganda. You do know that certain Democratic Socialist groups use "brother" and "Comrade" as well?
I don't really care about the politics. To me, a congress that waits MORE THAN A YEAR to prosecute treason in order to use it to gain votes for a party that NEVER does what the people want, isn't what we need, or want.
What matters to me is government messing with business. The role of government is creating a well defined economy with rules that apply to all businesses. Government interfering with businesses will just motivate business to purchase more judges and other politicians.
Thom - I hold you and the decades long literally volumes of work you have done to insure this nation continuously moves toward a society that is mirrors the true promise of a nation. A nation that strives to be egalitarian and empathetic to the citizenry.
You are among a tiny but powerful few, like Chomsky, Robert Reich, Bill Moyers and Heather Cox Richardson who tirelessly use their genius to cut through the fog and smoke of propoganda and lies generated by rampant, crony Capitalism that seeks to gain its true Fascist and Christo Fascist hold on the people.
Around 2008 I began to describe the Republicans (largely under Bush) as Fascist. People were aghast at this proper term to describe what they wanted to see as the party of Ike, when that “conservative” ideology began to reveal itself through Goldwater and onto Reagan. The Cold War set into full blown operation Neo Fascism 2.0 we have today in that that at this time Jews are not a dedicated target of mass slaughter.
My deepest respect and encouragement for your efforts to raise the consciousness of decent Americans.
Democracy can not bel allowed to perish!
DeSantis is part of a long line of Republicans who have violated our Constitution in pursuit of plutocracy. Before DeSantis there was Rick Scott who forbade state employees from mentioning the words climate change, global warming, and sustainability as Governor of Florida, a state almost surrounded by sea water and potential hurricanes:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/08/florida-banned-terms-climate-change-global-warming
These policies mainly stem from the Koch network of like-minded billionaire influence and fossil fuel ownership on the Republican Party. Their puppet politicians are tasked with a contradictory challenge: Create a plutocracy while appearing to be on the side of "freedom" and the "people." It's no wonder they always flounder and appear as hypocrites, when their tax cuts don't trickle down.
DeSantis is banned by his R sponsors to actually legislate policies that would help to protect all Floridians: It's much easier to create fictional issues then address obvious challenges:
https://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/05/11512/cmd-special-report-alecs-gun-agenda-flourished-koch-industries-board-other-koch-f
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/the-koch-brothers-dirty-war-on-solar-power-193325/
Also, addressing critical challenges would require re-installing the wealthiest Americans, who also own 90% of American corporate wealth, into our progressive taxation system. This is the same system that actually made America an Empire. How else could real Florida issues be addressed, without raising taxes?
http://www.landscope.org/florida/threats/
Yet, sometimes Republicans put on a good show pretending they are doing something without even coming close:
10 Million is one-percent of one-billion. The average cost of hurricanes alone in Florida is 148 Billion annually over the last five years:
https://coast.noaa.gov/states/fast-facts/hurricane-costs.html#:~:text=2021%3A%20Year%20in%20Review&text=The%20total%20cost%20for%20the,nearly%20%24148.4%20billion%20per%20year.
DeSantis is banned by his R sponsors to actually formulate environmental and climate change policies that would protect all Floridians. It's much easier to ban books then address these obvious challenges:
http://www.landscope.org/florida/threats/
After running up a Federal debt tab by 11 Trillion, causing a Depression, and an Insurrection in just four years, while ignoring our critical challenges what is left for the Republicans to run on? Their answer is to develop fictions, and then offer unconstitutional solutions to their fictional reality. Hence, we need to ban books, arrest teachers for teaching sex ed in kindergarden, and of course privatize the public school system. All this will make the the pathways to a plutocracy easier because our kids will learn less, be easier to indoctrinate, and a few chosen corporations will profit from their exclusive rights to publish & monitor Republican untruths. Monopolies are the building blocks of a plutocracy and by necessity so is misinformation.
Perfect simple explanation and what every debating Dem should adapt and put out there for their area.
As Thom noted, if you take a job in the three branches of our government, you “…shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution;…” Because “support this Constitution” seems a bit nebulous, let’s assume that it means our public sector decision-makers should do their best to meet their purpose as defined in the Preamble because that is the most fundamental of the fundamentals of American democracy. It is our nation’s mission statement, containing the ultimate purpose and a few other objectives to help make that happen. The rest of the Constitution is there to describe things like “who does what”, “how to get elected” and what are the boundaries, especially by showing how our citizens can collaborate with our elected officials so we can get our general welfare promoted using best practice-based solutions and protect us from the morbidly rich. Assume that the Constitution's purpose is what Alexander Hamilton said about it in 1788, “We are attempting, by this Constitution, to abolish factions, and to unite all parties for the general welfare.” The factions have only gotten worse, evolving into unimaginably incompetent/corrupt enterprises, because America has never gotten rid of them. And as far as “unit(ing) all parties for the general welfare,” you know how that’s going if you’re a regular consumer of Thom’s teachings.
Uniting for the general welfare is on life support. I don’t know if it is possible to get rid of “factions.” Likeminded people will always band together. However, if so many people refuse to accept the verifiable truth as the Republican base does, we are going to a VERY BAD place. We are not in the land of politics as usual per 1990’s or before, all hands on deck for saving democracy from the robber barons and conspiracy theorists.
Spot-on piece, as always, as expected. Reading your stuff makes my day, but the content unmakes it....
One thing to keep in mind. Nothing a NaziRepublican Politician does is done for political reasons, nor for personal beliefs.
EVERYTHING a NaziRepublican Politician does is done to line their own pockets.
They don't give a flying about America or Americans, just giving themselves more power so they can transfer more money from taxpayers to themselves.
In that respect, the NaziRepublican Party and Democratic Party Leadership are identical.
Thom, I disagree. The NaziRepublican Party coming out from under their rock is energizing Americans. My wife and I are retired so we vacation a lot. Since airplanes don't require vaccination, we can't fly anymore, so we drive. We routinely drive from Portland to Orlando to DC to Chicago to Denver, and all points between Everywhere I go, I see the same story.
1. Progressives, that is supporters of center-right candidates like Bernie and AOC, are energized to win. Some are discussing buying guns and protecting the capitol during the next coup attempt (I point out it's great to protest but it's safer to NOT bring a gun)
2. NaziRepublican Party Worshippers, the intentionally self-misinformed fear and hate crowd, now say they don't support fascism. A year ago they would bury me in impossible conspiracy fantasies. Today, you have to "lean" on them to even get them to MENTION Benghazi or Pizza Parlors.
We are winning, thank you NaziRepublican Party fanatics!!!!
Sedition is a high bar to prove, say against Marjorie Green (around the gills). But isn't every lawmaker that swore an oath to the Constitution breaking that oath when they openly tout the Big Lie of the election being stolen? Don't the decisions of the courts, ( in this case 70 or more as I recall,) demand to be upheld by our elected officials?
Republicans shoot from the hip, and I think that's what DeSantis did in the case of Disney. They ticked him off, and he is in the process of proving he's as big an asshole as Trump. That's how he will take him on in the primaries.
DeSantis has a problem. He was a Harvard/Yale student, magna cum laude BA grad, then lawyer, and an excellent athlete. He taught a year at a private school, was a JAG officer, deployed to Iraq, married just one beautiful wife, has three kids, is young and good-looking. He's way too perfect (according to the Wiki stats) and not nearly as nasty and stupid as Trump. Will the party of Trump go for someone so disgustingly elite? They will if he has ruined enough lives to suit their destructive social agenda.
This guy knows his way around a baseball bat, and he is going to use one on the libs in Florida, just to show how he fights.
Extrapolating from one’s personal experience and drawing unverified conclusions is risky. My best guess is that, in the century before Reagan, somewhere between fifteen and thirty percent of students attending public schools who had the benefit of civics instruction were well enough informed and articulate enough in matters of the US Constitution to be able to make the sort of essential distinctions being discussed here. Little Thom was the clear exception to the rule. He was primed by whatever family and other experiences that befell him and was obviously endowed with native talents, abilities, proclivities, or intelligence to excel in that typically repressive environment. The millions of Baby Boomers and those who preceded their generation and who were semi-literate and easily misled by the right-wing propaganda, the Red Scare, the economic royalists, etc., were the majority of students with vague impressions, misperceptions, and abject ignorance.
Sentimentality and nostalgia for the good old school days before Reagan are not appropriate for or complimentary to such a great mind. Public school should never be turned into a profit-making enterprise. Everything possible should be done to improve schools. But indulging in mythology and cult worship of a failing institution only has gotten us deeper into the morass. If you want schools to be saved and democracy to survive, stop expecting miracles from the forcible incarceration of children in right-wing behavioral modification indoctrination centers. PLEASE!
Agree about DeSantis, not certain why feel the need to use the "Comrade" propaganda. You do know that certain Democratic Socialist groups use "brother" and "Comrade" as well?
I don't really care about the politics. To me, a congress that waits MORE THAN A YEAR to prosecute treason in order to use it to gain votes for a party that NEVER does what the people want, isn't what we need, or want.
What matters to me is government messing with business. The role of government is creating a well defined economy with rules that apply to all businesses. Government interfering with businesses will just motivate business to purchase more judges and other politicians.