A Diverse America Votes to Uphold the Constitution; A Largely Male White America Votes to Abrogate It
The House Judiciary Committee just voted to send two articles of impeachment against Donald Trump to the full House.
The entire vote took just minutes. But it said so much about the state of America today.
It will forever be portrayed as a party line vote, with 23 Democrats in favor, and 17 Republicans against. But it was also a tribute to the degree to which polarization in America today pivots on issues of diversity.
The Democrats who voted in favor included 11 women, and 13 Latinx and people of color (Ted Lieu missed the vote recovering from a heart procedure). Three (plus Lieu) are immigrants. One is gay. These Democrats voted to uphold the Constitution a bunch of white men, several of them owners of African-American slaves, wrote hundreds of years ago.
The Republicans who voted against were all white. Just two were women. These Republicans voted to permit a racist white male President to cheat to get reelected in violation of the rule of law.
This is about a clash between the rising America and the past. And it’s unclear who will win this battle for America. But the stakes are clear.
The Rs have become the party of liars, cheaters, and white male supremacists.
Lincoln would declare war on them.
Washington would lead the charge.
They are the party of the super wealthy, the .001% oligarchs who rule the world, but are not content to be wealthy and rule the world: they want the rest of humanity to be poor and suffer horribly. That’s their philosophy, and they are winning, not because they’re smart, but because both parties are owned by them. The Dem impeachment was just theater. Sound and Fakefury, signifying nothing to the American people.
No, it was important to make the case, to demonstrate that rule of law is still in charge under our Constitution. There will be an accounting, those who run from their responsibility to defend our way of life in support of a man on short-term political life, will ultimately be judged by their actions whether now or later.
Lol. Yes yes, the House Democrats needed to go through all the obstruction of justice, Constitutional emoluments and separation of powers violations, campaign finance violations, bribery violations….all those things. Oh, and use their Article I power to get the oversight disclosure and testimony they have been relentlessly denied.
Oh, wait, the House Democrats did not do any of that. Instead they cravenly focused on one pissant phone call. What a fucking joke.
I don’t disagree with that point. But the Democrats don’t want to take the fight to the street like the Republicans are prepared to do, using any excuse to serve their leader. i totally understand and share your frustration, but having made the case is still a historical blot on Trump, and nothing changes that.
First, it won’t be Democrats who take to the streets — at least they won’t be people who worry about identifying first as Democrats.
Second, many of them were ready on Day One and they knew what was coming. Their resistance won’t look like what you expect if you think in traditional terms.
Let go of your preconceived notion of who has fought and will fight for this democracy and the Constitution.
Maybe we should be looking at the way these articles were drafted and passed through a different lens: representatives of the oppressed versus the oppressors chose this path. Ask why based on that perspective.
The phone call was the reason for attention to this scheme, but it seems to me a Trumpist strategy to claim it was what this impeachment “boiled down to” as more than one Republican on the committee claimed yesterday in the hearings. Democrats on the committee rejected that reductionist claim but how effectively their argument will be conveyed to the voters remains to be seen. I’m not hopeful.
I am thinking of the witnesses at the investigative hearings; men and women who ruined their careers and risked their lives to testify about Trump’s crimes. So what is he charged with? A crime he exposed by himself.
bmaz: As they say, IANAL, but I have some experience writing copy. I see the Trump Impeachment as less a jury case (with impaneled listeners taking notes) and more a teevee pitch competing with *Dancing With The Stars*. I agree that I wish there had been a deeper dive into the issues you raise above, but do you think the results could have made it into an effective ad buy — um, Impeachment Resolution — sufficiently consumable to product a more effective result?
More effective result? If a Senate trial vote is the measure, no. As to continuing educating the public and fueling of ads, yes, more effective by a light year.
Though I may be skeptical about the impact (of a more comprehensive Resolution) on the public, I hadn’t thought about grist for ads. Thanx.
To be clear, I am not talking about just a more comprehensive final resolution, but, more importantly, about a broader and more comprehensive hearing and consideration process behind the final resolution.
Honestly, whether that begets articles of impeachment for Senate trial is absolutely irrelevant to my eye. That result is, sadly, preordained.
It is the constant process, grinding away, and laying it all out in plain view that is important. Picture what the GOP did with Benghazi as to Clinton, except this time with actual truth.
Its impeachment by the party of triangulation.
I have mixed emotions as to the benefit of either one inch deep or 60,000 leagues deep.
Getting the information has been a true slog.
It would continue as Trump was raised on phony litigation by his dad.
That is his true calling.
I truly want a full blown exposure of this prick ever since the 1970’s. Having read Wayne Barret in the Village Voice for years I have earned that much.
I dont think the Senate under McConnell would have removed Trump no matter how much there is exposed.
I do want the investigations to continue and be made public. I want his name to be totally toxic for ever.
Wayne deserves that, we all do.
Its also the democrats kicking republican ass for a change, instead of getting kicked and saying “Please may I have another?” Hard to support a party that behaves in such a passive and spineless way. Hard to understand why they are like that, unless it is deliberate, and they’re not so opposed to republican notions as they say they are. They’re just less overtly cruel.
bmaz: Well, maybe we do have a fundamental difference of opinion. I’m focusing on the “deliverable”, what *reaches* the American public. How much of the “constant process, grinding away, and laying it all out in plain view” would reach a broad audience? Are they or the American media interested in “grinding away”? BENGHAZI! “worked” because it was rebroadcast over and over by Trump TV. Would that happen with an extended “constant process” even of actual truth? I’m skeptical of the effectiveness of anything beyond bullet-point ads extracted from the Resolution.
Naw, you are right. Probably the United States ought just go seek an immediate gratification in the form of a “deliverable”.
As Trumpian as that trite term seems.
No need for a complete explication, just spew some crap and move on. Excellent plan.
This is why the whole list of impeachable actions should/must be listed and charged. There’s over a dozen.
The terms for these charges, listing the details, will be read along with whatever Senate vote results. That won’t be as easy for the Republican PR machine to use. It’s only easy to dismiss something in.entioned.
Based on your analysis, the impeachment trial would start on or about August 2020.
Time is of the essence.
Fuck him. Fuck him now!
bmaz: Seems I vaguely remember when the impeachment started, I asked you to try and not be so negative? Fuck that! I owe you a HUGE apology: it was as bad as you were stating in the beginning. I was so hoping my last shred of hope for the dim’s to get some backbone and go for the gusto. Nope. Nada. Zilch.
Some say on twitter that we shouldn’t get down on ole’ Nancy. She can’t do it by herself. Well Why Not? Old shithead mcconnell or shall I say: trump’s senate, will just feed the ignorant, angry trumpers w/an old fashion lynch mob energy: they’ll show us for trying to uphold our checks and balances.
Yeah. They’ll show us and I’m SO grateful I’m 70. My bingo partner, Lucille (95) said the same thing today. We’re both just really grateful remembering ….when …………
It’s all so terrible sad.
I just turned 65. All my life, till Bush2, I knew things would keep getting better, and we could and would deal with our serious problems like world hunger, AIDS, and then climate change. As Gary Trudeau said “We were a country that wanted to be good and do good.” Not any more, and world hunger is worse, epidemics -even preventable ones- are everywhere, and we’re pretty much doomed by climate change. No one is going to do anything to even try to deal with the effects, let alone stop or reverse them. How did these MONSTERS get control of the world?
Because everyone is just as afraid as you are and are only worried about themselves. Circling the wagons, gonna get theirs. That is what is behind the racism and the anti immigrant sentiments.
They do not want to share what they see as limited commodities.
I did everything I could to stop these people. I am not responsible for this situation.
It is the democrats, especially Pelosi and Obama who had the power to stop them but allowed the war criminals and banksters go free, who are to blame. They are the famous “Good People Who Did Nothing”.
The Dems have lost the optics war. The R’s repetitive thunder and damnation was loud, crackling , and wrong. But they are smart enough to know how dumb voting Americans are. “Americans are divided into two categories; those to whom thinking is difficult, and those to who it is impossible.” Mencken. Which category you think the R’s are courting ?
Dems are speaking softly, in platitudes, models of civility. They badly need a street fighter. When Colins calls their efforts “pathetic”, no one answers. The R’s have won, through sheer volume and tone, the moral indignation high ground. People think they are right because they sound so indignant about it all. People react on a visceral primate level.
The R’s have proven themselves to be the Alpha males. Sickening but true. No Trumper is open for persuasion. FB is now full of rants about Civil War. They are winning the rant war. Hard to remember and repeat cogent logical arguments. Easy to remember a rant. It’s why Bud is the most popular beer. One syllable. Whad’ya have? Bud.
Saying abuse of power does not resonate with average voter. Saying he didn’t do his job does.
It’s congress’s job to write the laws. It’s the president’s job to execute those laws. How come not one Dem looked up the voting record for the 2015 military aid package and confronted the R’s who voted for it and then asked them how they felt about Trump not just thumbing his nose at them? When Trump held up the aid he was holding up the will of the people as voted on by their representatives, both R and D’s. Trump was refusing to do his job so he could get something for himself out of the deal.
The over educated types. Collins, and Jordan , and Gaetz don’t have to be right just so long they are shouting and pointing at the weak appearing democrats. Dems don’t seem to have much fire. They fight back with eloquence. Eloquence alone ain’t going to cut it in this next election. They better learn how to dumb down the message, because the airy pronouncements dems are making might impress their old college professors but they just ain’t resonating with regular working folk. Trump won because the deplorable were so hungry to stick it to the over educated types. That motivation is still very much at play and republicans are playing right into it. This is rehearsal for them for when they take this circus on the road at Trump rallies. If only we still had John McCain. Who in the Senate will fill that void?
https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2019/09/26/senate-passes-ukraine-aid-extension-stopgap-spending-bill/
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-resolution/162/text
Basically, I agree with you, but Trump is a fucking Walmart (metaphor not intended as support of Walmart) of impeachable behavior and, in fairness to the House leadership, it’s hard to go into a Walmart and come out with only one item.
dwfreeman, I agree wholey with your statement. Those tRumpsters who oppose this impeachment are part of why America is backsliding to the days of bigotry, racism, sexism and white males dominated and oppressed Native American, blacks and women. The occupant in the WH has been a criminal before he stepped into this role handed to him by an Electoral College law based on slavery. Those who continue to support him do not believe in the rule of law nor the Constitution, nor the separation of powers, they want autocracy.
Are you yet another one of those silly souls that is too petty to actually use the name of the President of the United States? This shit is so incredibly lame. WTF?
Hmmm. Some people retreat to the satirical jest because they have yet to find the solace afforded by an emotional support emoji?
Come on, admit it – the name mangles are less annoying than the emojis.
Have to admit, am not crazy about the emojis either. I would nuke them in a heartbeat.
But not willing to rank them? That’s probably fair – so much depends on context.
:-)
What’s an emoji?
Nunes’ cow in emoji form: “moo” – 🐄
[apologies, bmaz, it’s a compulsion]
This seems pretty close:
Extremely primitive.
Agreed. Compare emoji cow image to extremely prehistoric cow image:
Vache rouge à tête noire (http://archeologie.culture.fr/lascaux/en/visit-cave/diverticule-axial/paroi-gauche-diverticule-axial/vache-rouge-tete-noire/info).
Of course she’s just one of many.
In context: Lascaux (http://archeologie.culture.fr/lascaux/en). If you’re willing to try the guided tour she can be seen in the Axial Gallery (2nd chamber), left wall.
[I had to click on the “Start Guided Tour” box, then click on the subsequent still image to nudge the video player.]
I love the conclusion of the site’s Interpretations essay (http://archeologie.culture.fr/lascaux/en/interpretations):
“These vast painted and engraved compositions seem like witnesses to a spiritual way of thinking, whose symbolic significance is based on a cosmogonic approach. From the entrance of the cave to its very depths, the great book of the first – the founding – mythologies unfurls before our eyes, with its central theme, the creation of the world.”
I, myself, am not too crazy about typographical emojis either.
I apologize if this is against the rules here, but I personally think that anyone who has not read this article by Ta-Nehisi Coates should read it now.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/
Thank you for the link to that essay. It was powerful, insightful and eye-opening for me. What a great writer. Kind of reframes the country we are living in & the reason why Trump’s base is so laser focused on keeping him in office. We have a LOT of work to do to keep that from happening and the GOP is doing all it can to disenfranchise people of color.
A Radical Republican named Thaddeus Stevens would have none of this.
The party of Lincoln, with no nexus to Lincoln anymore protects a “misfit” while leveraging debtor servitude against a republic while using discrimination and arm twisting for political gain.
The “obstruction” we witness from republicans is no different than the “obstruction,” Thaddeus witnessed.
When executive privilege is not an issue duty requires compliance with congressional prerogatives.
No inquiry is more “pertinent” and “relevant” to constitutional structure, duty and power than Impeachment.
Myopic self interest has again run amok.
In the near term, we already know the outcome to your last question, Marcy, it will be the last hurrah for a largely white male Republican controlled Senate. If there were any scintilla of hope that a GOP controlled upper chamber would offer anything more than a carefully orchestrated acquittal for their WH leader, Moscow Mitch signaled otherwise on Fox claiming he is in complete lockstep with Trump’s legal advisors.
The only hope for semblance of an actual purposeful trial would stem from the role of Justice Roberts and how he chooses to act under the shadow of this historical moment and how it reflects on his legacy in its handling.
We’ve all known since the Democrats embarked on this road that it would lead to a dead end in the Senate, regardless of the facts supporting Trump’s guilt as a serial election cheater who will remain undeterred in that effort to retain his power and by extension that of his sycophantic party and its dying leadership.
Roberts made this whole takeover-by-billionaires and corporations possible in the first place. Why on earth would he do anything but help his Owners now?
The whole world is watching. I agree he will be nothing more than an administrator because it is the Republicans show and they control everything. Normally, I would accept your cynicism but Roberts still must preside as if he is a fair arbiter of the process.
The thing is, many are assuming that a senate impeachment trial approximates an actual judicial proceeding where the Judge makes rulings on matters of law, motion and evidence in accordance with laws and court rules that are immutable for purposes of that proceeding. This is not that. For example, any evidentiary ruling CJ Roberts might make (say, to compel John Bolton to testify) can essentially be nullified by a mere majority of the Senate. So, in reality, McConnell controls the evidence that may be heard and therefore the scope of the trial itself.
And, that’s only with respect to the Senate rules as currently written. The Senate, by supermajority, could change the rules themselves. The Constitution says remarkably little about the substance of what takes place in the trial.
So, the Senate trial may be a complete sham and fraud and there is little for CJ Roberts to do about it. Whether the public will punish the Repubs for running a mockery remains to be seen.
On the plus side, if they make it too much of a perfunctory spectacle, & if Roberts does rule that Bolton must testify, then Moscow Mitch & friends overrule him on a party line vote, the optics will be _atrocious_. Maybe when Bloomburg gets tired of spunking his millions onto TV in Super Tuesday states, maybe he can try ads communicating how corrupt the Trump GOP is…
Well, before we jump to thinking the only brake on McConnell trial rigging is public opprobrium, there is the potential of a couple of Repub Senators to essentially force a real trial. I think the number is 4.
I was intrigued by this article from The Bulwark by Bill Kristol and Jeffrey Tullis about a few senators forming a constitutional caucus to design a fair impeachment trial structure. Not sure how such a constitutional caucus would prevail against Sen. McConnell’s plans but could this be a last line of defense against a sham trial?
https://thebulwark.com/how-a-small-group-of-senators-can-shape-the-impeachment-trial-and-vindicate-the-constitutional-order/
Not one (R) member of the House Judiciary voted to support the impeachment articles.
Mitch McConnell, per reporting last night, is already colluding with the WH (RE: Impeachment Trial in the Senate) and stated there’s no way he will allow the president will be impeached.
Outside of Justin Amash, there’s not one (R) in Congress who has honor, courage, and faithfulness to the Constitution and our Republic, oaths be damned!
They are talking about the “special oath” the Senate will take during impeachment. Since they don’t honor their Oath of Office, who here thinks they will uphold their special oaths during the impeachment trial.
Our country is lost. People don’t understand that this is NOT about Trump. This is about deep rooted corruption, hatred, bigotry, showing America’s true colors. This is about the power of corruption, of undue influence of power and money, of foreign manipulation, of the power of demagoguery, gaslighting, and the corrupting power of social media and today’s media who ignore the truth and fact, instead hitching a ride on the power of a President’s Tweets…all to make a buck while selling out our Republic.
They first said the voters wouldn’t let Trump (and the haters/bigots) win the nomination. Nope.
They said the “good people in America” would save our country. Nope.
They said the dutiful members of the Electoral College would do their duty and protect against a demagogue. Nope.
They said the honor bound Cabinet would have the courage and honor to protect our Country and Constitution. Nope.
They said Mueller would be our White Knight and save the day. Nope.
Now they say Impeach!
Guess what? He will get IMPEACHED and exhonorated, per Mitch McConnell and all the rabid anti-American “deplorables”, coupled with Russian-born corrupting Foreign Influence, will vote him in to office, while the “good people” (like many of my co-workers) will tune out and not show up to vote. Even if they did, will the “gerry-mandered” districts and foreign influence and domestic corruption carry the day?
Nope.
We have no honor. We hold no truths to be “self-evident”. There is no “e pluribus unum”. and there is no “…one Nation, indivisible…” anymore.
What a corrupt, shallow, population of sycophants and deplorables we have running wild in our country.
This is NOT going to end well.
While hope has long since been lost, I will give my last breath fighting for our country. While I despair, I will continue to FIGHT to my last breath. I took an oath when serving in the Navy (’84) and *I* will continue to *HONOR* my oath to “support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God,
indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
What a sad time for our Country. Russia is rejoicing while our Nation is divided.
You have moved me to tears of frustration
Agree to keep fighting. Our image of the country we cherish may be fragmenting before our eyes, but those deep rooted forces you name are not new. It’s frustrating to believe the movement of our social norms toward ideals of liberty and justice is anything but steady progress. We seem to cycle between extremes instead. Yet I think it’s too soon to say we’ve turn our backs on those ideals, even as we acknowledge how hard the struggle is. And the harder the struggle the greater the resolve.
I’m glad it only took a few minutes, after watching the whole of yesterday listening to Republicans lather themselves with sudsy bubbles of loyalty to Trump was sickening. I gave each of them a few seconds to see if any of them would be honest enough to honor their oath of office, when they didn’t I would just simply mute them. I will only listen to people that will move this country forward the hell with party. The idea that each Rep simply dismissed the Constitution which makes it extraordinaryly obvious of the crimes yet they sided with Trump.
Who wins this fight on impeachment? I think it’s irrelevant when it comes to the big picture aka Climate Change. With Trump it will come much faster w/o him it will come regardless and we better be ready to face the consequences.
It’s not going to be which party you’re on but who’s left standing.
Plus, McConnell openly admitted on live tv that he is coordinating with the WH and will do whatever trump says, that there will be no actual Senate trial. Just right out in the open about it. Because letting the accused dictate terms & outcome to the jury is how the GOP does it.
I wonder how it feels to just openly embrace being a spineless, craven boot-licker? To just really get into debasing yourself publicly? To really groove on betrayal? The psychology of it boggles my mind. This behavior is what you find in a cult, not in normal society.
bmaz was so right in every way, the Dems are blowing this badly.
Actually, I don’t know what ‘America’ thinks. Statistically, 75% of us don’t bother to vote. Others may want to vote but get blocked, purged or limited by party officials – typically for race and ethnicity. Still more affirmatively decide NOT to vote, which serves all of the above.
That said, practical result of decades of bigotry, big money and apathy is that rich white males remain in charge of district lines, policy, courts, treasury and military – all to the satisfaction of white wives and mothers who think patriarchy works for their families.
Lol, bullshit. Provide a cite. Because that comment is a lie through your teeth.
The turnout percentage could certainly be better, but that is an outlandish lie. Don’t waltz into this blog and pull that shit.
Anytime someone writes something like “statistically, ….” you know it is bs. While the overall voting rate in US presidential elections is about 55%, it is still too low for me. Since i am over 65 years of age, I am happy that this age group has a higher voting record (65% or more.) I have voted in every single presidential election in which I was eligible — 100%, n of 1. I wish everyone could do that. But, I know better. The obstacles are in place for a reason — voter suppression.
Same here (except the 65 thing; thankfully not there quite yet, but edging far too close). And one time had to drive hours to get back home, where I was registered, to cast the vote.
There are so many avenues for increasing turnout. More motor voter registration. More AVR. More emphasis on vote by mail. And, of course, making national election days holidays for as many people as possible. It will never be perfect, but could easily be so much better.
I used to be the election official for 4 wards in my former state. The wards had a 95% turnout in presidential elections. We had a terrific voting place. I instructed the workers that it was our job to make sure that ANYONE that met the criteria would vote in our wards, and it was also our job to make sure that we did everything in our power to HELP them vote. It was the kind of venue where families celebrated their 18 year old children’s first vote at the polls. It was a passionate, wonderful place of support for the process and for the country. For ALL the voters. Then I retired and moved to a state where voting is by mailed paper ballot. It’s easier, but it’s not nearly as fun….
I stubbornly kept going to the actual precinct polling spot here, because it was good to see democracy in action. Still miss it a little bit. But, man, the voting by mail thing is so easy here, so that is it now.
I missed one presidential election, but that was because I moved to a different state that fall and in the fuss of getting all the legal stuff done, registration got lost until it was too late (which was maybe a week and a half after the move).
There’s the choice. Are people afraid of the future, or do they see Veronica Escobar and El Paso, as the 21st century New York? And why is Ms. Escobar in Congress?
Veronica Escobar is in Congress because she is dedicated to where she was born and raised, El Paso, has served that constituency forever and they voted far more than overwhelmingly to elect her to Congress when her friend Beto O’Rourke left. She is also very good.
Exactly.
Escobar does not have the fame of AOC and “the squad” yet, but she is seriously good. Very much one to watch for the long run.
Agreed.
Wut?
(A lot of the Southwest is El Paso, or will be soon. In case you hadn’t noticed, NY isn’t exactly all-white, and never has been.)
Think you guys are not necessarily on different pages.
Living in L.A. for most of the last 40 years, my world is not like the places the Rs love to talk about as “America”.
Neither is Phoenix, even if we get tarred with “Arizona conservative” as if it is all the same.
El Paso may feel the same.
You in Phoenix? Tucson is my home town; we always thought of Phoenix as a HOT, polluted mafia den. Nice to know there’s something GOOD there.
Hopefully there are better things here than me. But, yep, in Phoenix. Have lived in Tucson before, during graduate school, and love the Old Pueblo. Tucson is wonderful.
Yep, same here. Just everyday life, going about one’s business, is like a veritable UN of people come together over the ages. And to highlight the GOP supremacists’ bad heuristics, lots of the “white people” — who R-types register as “real” and “deep” Americans — are recent-enough immigrants that their speech bears accents of native lands and tongues. The fifth of July newspaper in Phila., featuring the new citizens who take their oaths on the 4th, usually mentions well over 100 countries of origin (or at least it used to).
The official voter notice signs at my polling place are in twelve or fourteen languages. (The civil-rights notices that the MTA has at some of their stations are in something like 10. I can identify about half of them, even if I can’t read them – most are Asian.)
We are about to find out how many honest Secretary of State and County Clerk officers are left in the USA. The answer is contingent.
In less than 3 years, we have moved from a House of Representatives to a Duma, and unless we show up in multitudes in November, the oligarchs will have won.
Also, did the Dems ever have anyone do a five-minute explainer on how corporate Board members are chosen? Because they badly needed to completely shut down the GOP malarkey about how supposedly unusual it was for Hunter Biden to be chosen for a Board position because of his family connections. Which of course is absolutely standard operating procedure for Boards right here in the US, let alone elsewhere. It would be so easy to shut down that stupid talking point.
George Kent hinted at this in his testimony but I don’t remember anyone else doing so.
Absolutely correct.
Aren’t some members of the Trump crime family on boards of foreign countries? If so, why don’t Democrats bring THAT up?
Because they would be responding to the republicans illegitimate argument.(For once the democrats are right)
It does not matter if Joe and Hunter Biden were corrupt, if they were even more corrupt and criminal than Trumpsterfire and most of the republicans in office today.
Because the honesty or dishonesty of the Bidens does not alter the fact that Trump illegally blocked desperately needed military aid to extort the leader of an allied country to help him in his re-election campaign.
Recommend the Know Your Enemy podcast (https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy) to anyone interested in how conservatives think. A good starting point is The Rise of the Illiberal Right (https://know-your-enemy-1682b684.simplecast.com/episodes/rise-of-the-illiberal-right) or The Definitely-Not-Racist National Conservatives (https://know-your-enemy-1682b684.simplecast.com/episodes/the-definitely-not-racist-national-conservatives).
There are a few earlier episodes, but the hosts really hit their stride in these episodes.
This observation and analysis are absolutely correct. This will be a short-sighted win for the reactionaries. The outcome will be to drive the non-white, non-male and non-old- away from compromise around the constitution, rule of law and slow change- toward solutions that will far more severely injure the white patriarchy than would the obsolescence to which it is destined.
Will the ” the non-white, non-male and non-old” come out and vote?
Will the white, male, and old protect the non-white, non-male, and non-old when they vote?
Or will they ignore voter suppression, continue to bash their concerns about candidates who don’t represent the full intersection of Americans?
It’s not on the backs of the people who have been constantly denied their full rights as citizens. It’s on the privileged who benefit from the status quo.
Whether the new majority comes out to vote or not or is suppressed or not are good questions, but my point was that there is no equipoise the the current state of affairs. The old power is changing the rules in a way that invites retribution, and changing demographics will eventually be insurmountable. At some point tyranny will be resisted, through democratic means or otherwise, and I think retribution will be much more painful for those who have power now than if they had yielded. Short term gain for a very unstable victory.
“We the People” let this happen. We voted for narrow self-interests, or didn’t vote at all. We listened to the echo chamber or chose to ignore the news because it was too upsetting.
We allowed ‘civics’ to be removed from the curriculum of our schools and the result is an uneducated electorate.
I have been dismayed by the lack of involvement of the younger generations, but they have been distracted with creating social images for themselves and checking ‘likes’ and wallowing in the cult of “ME” created by social media which is just a giant digital mirror.
The 9/11 attacks closely followed by the Great Recession scared a lot of people. It created a Them to hate and a justification for caring only about ourselves and our financial security.
The only hopeful signs I have seen have been the Women’s Marches and the growing activism of the teens/twenties regarding the Climate Crisis. These are the groups who can move the needle in the next election.
IF they show up to vote.
Yes! You echo some of my biggest concerns. How the hell could we stop teaching civics?? And how long ago did it happen? It’s been a while since middle school for me. And Facebook should be outlawed. I quit opening it the day Trump was elected and haven’t been on since. I knew they had played an outsized role in him being elected.
>I have been dismayed by the lack of involvement of the younger generations, but they have been distracted with creating social images for themselves and checking ‘likes’ and wallowing in the cult of “ME” created by social media which is just a giant digital mirror.
I’ve been dismayed at the lack of involvement by the older generations. The generation that taught me to verify my sources and not trust everything I see on TV have fallen hard for comfortable disinformation on social media and pleasing propaganda. The older generations have consistently voted against my generations interests, accepting tax benefits for the middle class in exchange for huge tax cuts for the rich.
Who failed to leave the world in a better state than they found it? It certainly wasn’t the younger generations.
2016 exit polls Where the GOP vote flippers targeted…
white men 62 Trump 31 Clinton
non college grad white men 71 Trump 22 Clinton
https://www.cnn.com/election/2016/results/exit-polls
Correction.
non college grad white men 71 Trump 23 Clinton
I agree, that is why I said we have done this to ourselves.
I will say, however, my generation when in our teens and twenties defied those in control and ended the Viet Nam War and began the ecology movement. A lot of blood was shed in demonstrations across the country by high school and college students. That is the passion and commitment I have not seen in comparable numbers today.
Living in the Bay Area, what I have seen is youth fighting to become the next Sergey Brin or Steve Jobs .
“War and lechery, nothing else holds the style” said Shakespeare. But he forgot “Greed and racism”. Greed and racism won the day.
Congrats on ending the Vietnam war. From my perspective, people are people, none of us are that special, and we interact with the world following the rules we have learned. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t feel frustrated and try to motivate people who come from different places than us to work toward goals we value, but it does mean we shouldn’t feel too self righteous. We are all products of environments we didn’t create.
The outcome of the UK election should be a warning. Not the warning the BBC and corporate media are selling, that Labor must move right if it ever wants power again. That argument is a Trump carrot, used to keep Labor and the Democratic donkey moving in the right direction. It will always be out of reach.
The real lesson is Do Not move to the right. Move to what you believe in. Tell voters early, fast, and often what that is, why you believe in it, and how it will help them.
Voters don’t follow Trump because he’s perfect or right – he’s deeply flawed and usually wrong. They follow him because he leads without hesitation. They can spot a wavering Jeremy on either side of the Atlantic and won’t follow him. Trump has none of the angst that haunts smart politicians looking for hard answers to tough questions. He doesn’t give a shit. Nor is he aching to find some safe middle ground. He prefers unsafe ground, because only from there can he promise to lead his followers to the Promised Land.
Democrats should stop playing it safe. F*ck the asterisk and the genteel, and use plain language. Be smart and funny, but use the pointer. Republican views on Trump are so uniform you couldn’t separate them with a crowbar. But they expect Democrats to be fractious. Let’s prove them wrong, and help each other do what needs to be done.
How you could remain neutral on the defining issue of an election is a mystery to me. Who is advising these fools?
I had in mind Joe Biden’s safe pair of hands and let’s keep the Republicans strong so that Democrats can’t do too much are what I had in mind.
As for Joe’s “one and done” pledge, regarding his position that he’ll only serve one term, I’ll believe that when Nancy Pelosi relinquishes her gavel and her seat come January 2021. It’s a massive leadership fail that puts the onus on Joe’s running mate for winning or losing the election, but puts Joe in the Oval Office if they win. Horse manure.
Just like Susan Collins just two-terms pledge. (Just one more, then I’ll quit.)
There are several that pledged that they’d leave after two terms, and haven’t.
That claim of one and done is absolutely moronic to make at this point. It hobbles the Presidency . He has no business being President. He is a lovely man with a heart breaking history who has served his country. He needs to step aside.
Agreed. Triangulation spelled disaster for Hillary and now Corbyn. Political consultants don’t want their candidates to believe it, but actually standing for something matters to voters. There is an easy case for Dems to make that Trump has betrayed his base. The difficulty is making it with Fox/Sinclair preventing them from hearing it.
I would like to see the House continue the impeachment investigation into emoluments because that opens up an avenue into every corrupt thing Trump has engaged in. They should make it clear that the urgent impeachment articles (voted out yesterday) were pointedly about preserving the integrity of the impending elections, but that they do not condone nor concede that other conduct is off-limits. That would give them leverage with the Senate: remove him now or we’ll ferret out all the dirty laundry. That might sway even Moscow Mitch.
The Brits that I read online think that Corbyn lost by mostly being unlikeable. But never coming out strongly against Brexit, and never explaining how it’s bad, didn’t help him at all.
Seth Masket @smotus
Wow, okay. Recent fav/unfav:
Johnson: 35/47
Corbyn: 21/61
3:34 PM – Dec 12, 2019
I also noted the diversity contrast, but I caution that it does not matter in the long run because the fuckers have set themselves up for minority rule.
Even if Texas and the Red elsewhere turn as Blue as the ocean and there are super D majorities in both houses of congress, there will be no progress as long as this judiciary is in place.
And I see no way to change that during the rest of my life and likely my children’s as well.
The judiciary is easily avoided if the legislature is careful and precise in their law making process. Moreover, super majorities in the legislature allow for the impeachment and removal of justices and judges who do not uphold the oaths of office.
Hand-wringing over the judiciary is overwrought and unwarranted. What is not easily overcome is the stupidity and willful ignorance of the electorate. As Mencken noted, democracy is the notion that the plain public knows what they want and deserve it good and hard, as well as nothing fails because it underestimates the ignorance of said electorate.
I guess you’ve missed all the appointed judges in the last two or three years, many of whom are completely unqualified, but were pushed through by the GOP anyway.
KQED, the Bay Area NPR station, was just discussing the 20+ judges appointed to the Ninth Circuit, a formerly progressive court, which have ratings as low as ‘unqualified’. It is a disaster coming at us like a train in a tunnel.
One thing I HOPE comes out of this is for (younger) voter motivation – those who are disappointed and feel unrepresented by the Rs OR the Ds to work towards at least a viable third party. There is a risk that they become (more) apathetic, but I have hope.
That will NOT be easy as the two-party system is entrenched at the most local level and percolates up from there. Political parties are NOT in The Constitution.
Political parties are a fairly natural form of political organization. FPTP voting tends to result in two major parties, where other systems allow more, but usually smaller, parties.
I am convinced that this “person” we have masquerading as President could commit any crime whatsoever and the republicans in congress wouldn’t hold him accountable as long as they could gaslight and convince their voters with lies that it didn’t happen or that it wasn’t really wrong of him. They don’t care at all about the country or the constitution. As long as they remain in congress we are effectively a tin pot dictatorship. There is no punishment too harsh for them, it is too bad they will face none.
I believe that at the root of the predicament we are in is a shift from the illusion of infinite growth to a realization that is a sham. The children have been saying that the king has no clothes for some time now. This week they are shouting it from the rooftops of Madrid. The owners have publicly pretended that the king’s regalia is ever more splendid but they know otherwise. They have long realized that the world is now in a zero sum game and international politics reflects this.
Do the followers of Boris and the followers of the Donald still believe we can go on as usual? Or are they trying to crowd onto the high ground as the waters rise around them. Do they think that by shooting holes in our lifeboats they can save themselves? Or are they just completely delusional?
Whatever the answers to these questions, the future looks dim unless we listen to the children. And act. As young Greta has said now is not the time for pretty phrases and awards. They are the rising America. And the rising world.
Avidly agree: they are delusional for sure; we may be as well for thinking this will be fixed in time. There are already tipping points we seem to have crossed.
I don’t think there is another bet at this point: so by the children for the children and cross your fingers. Greta is right: only talking “about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
I agree. The universal consensus that economic growth is the class-neutral panacea has collapsed but most politicians on the left and in the center are reluctant to acknowledge that. Meanwhile, the right has no scruples about proclaiming the expropriators of wealth to be the true benefactors of mankind.
Little attention is being paid to the game of economic chicken the Trump administration is playing with the U.S. economy. WHEN the next recession arrives, the counter-cyclical policy cupboard will be bare because it’s all been used to stoke the spectacle of tax-breaks-for-billionaires prosperity. There is no exit plan (to be fair, the Obama administration didn’t have one either).
The U.S., along with the rest of the world, will sooner rather than later be facing challenges that cannot be resolved through the Trump/MAGA mantra of retaliation. This is what people really ought to be concerned about — building alternative institutions and intellectual resources that break with the tradition of fossil-fueled, self-perpetuating economic growth.
Cancer is a good illustration of unlimited growth.
Ha-ha, that was Edward Abbey’s line.”Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell,” he wrote in “Arizona: How big is big enough?” I was diagnosed with prostate cancer this summer, so I spent a bit of time contemplating the metaphor and came to the conclusion that cancer doesn’t have an ideology. It just does what it does. So “growth for the sake of growth” is an ideology that is WORSE than cancer!
Cancer cells may be malignant but they’re not malicious. Cancer only kills its host; fossil-fueled perpetual growth annihilates innocent species that have no stake in the growth but the loss of their habitat.
Here are my thoughts on growth and cancer from last summer, after reading Abbey’s Desert Solitaire: https://econospeak.blogspot.com/2019/08/goats-and-dogs-eco-fascism-and-liberal.html
I’m reading posts here claiming younger Americans don’t vote. According to Pew Research Center from May 2019, Gen Z, Gen X and Millennials outvoted Boomers and prior generations in 2018. Younger generations doubled their presence at the polls between 2014-2018. These kids will vote; it’s their future. (I’m not citing a link because I don’t know how to take off the tracking.)
A common way is to print out the full url, and delete the text at the end, starting with the question mark. Test it by copying and pasting the revised url into the address bar of a blank browser page. If it takes you to the desired page, bob’s your uncle. A few sites, though, do require their unrevised url.
I paste the entire url in a comment so that moderators can see it and revise or delete as necessary, even if the cite is to a well-known source.
Thanks, Earl.
I sincerely hope those polls are correct. The 20/30 year olds I spoke to in the 2016 election told me they weren’t voting “to send a message to Washington that the candidates weren’t liberal enough” for them. Gee, that worked out really well.
Washington heard them and said great, all the more votes for our guy.
Unfortunately, as in all of life, there are compromises which must be made at times. I would gladly have taken what ever the downside of Hillary would have been over what we have now.
Do not sacrifice the good on the alter of perfect.
Pew Research doesn’t include tracking in their URLs to the best of my knowledge. Go ahead and post a link to that study and I’ll watch for it and check for tracking.
Climate change and gun violence are going to drive youth to the polls. Not voting is an existential threat to them.
Yes, I think that is a big issue for twenty and thirty somethings. Many see climate crisis as an existential threat to themselves, their children, and the planet. It is a clear and present danger that might get them to the voting booths in large numbers.
Trump, on the other hand, has gone out of his way to promote high-carbon emission extractive industries, including old-growth timber lands in the Tongass National Forest and oil leasing in the Alaskan Arctic.
earl, thank you! for your shoutout to Alaska. The Tongass is a fairytale come true with its spongy tundra under majestic spruce .. 10 miles of hiking feels like one…I’ve only been there a handful of times and am determined to go to Sitka in June for the summer music festival.
I recommend Gustavus highly, the Alaska ferry system is very fun for tourists and essential ‘road’ for locals (Our terrible governor is trying to gut the ferry… we are trying to recall him).
Our senator Lisa Murkowski is very disdainful of the forest and those who love it and I’m still mad at my democratic friends for writing her name in out of fear of tea partier Joe Miller, ancient history now.
Enough of our local politics, thanks again for your awareness and interest.
Just one more short note about Alaska: my kids are 21 and 24 and very progressive and there are many more like them so I am hopeful for our state and our country due to the young people.
Cilluffo, Anthony and Richard Fry. “Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X outvoted older generations in 2018 midterms.” Pew Research Center, May 19, 2019 (https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/29/gen-z-millennials-and-gen-x-outvoted-older-generations-in-2018-midterms/)
Nice.
Now you know which demographics will be targeted most heavily for influence ops and suppression before Election Day 2020.
Forewarned is forearmed.
They’re the most likely to recognize it when they see it, though
Thank you for the link. I am reading this now.
For 20+ years I voted not for a “D” or an “R” or an “I” but for who I thought was the best candidate for any elected office. After yesterday, I don’t see myself voting for an “R” for the rest of my life. What candidate could have qualities sufficient to overcome that stain, I can’t imagine.
“the rest of your life?” In 1922, the Democrats were the party of protectionism, anti-immigration and the KKK. By 1928, they were the party of Al Smith, the reformist Governor of NY and by 1932, they were the party of FDR and the New Deal. History informs us and makes us less hyperbolic.
Like you, I have voted without consideration to party affiliation before. I will not vote for any Republican in this election. But our country works best where there are serious competing parties for our votes. We should be hoping the Repubs can eventually be reformed or another viable center-right party replace it.
The last time I voluntarily voted for a R was 1972. They’ve gone from poor to bad to “in some other universe” in the decades since. As for what they were before 1950 – that was another world.
The one and only time I voted R (for which I had to register as R), was to vote strategically for John Anderson and against Ronald Reagan in the 1980 California Republican primary. Didn’t work out as I’d hoped . . . :(
In my case, it was our congresscritter – the district was gerrymandered in an obvious attempt to get him out of office. He walked the new section of his district, and also had a booth at the county fair where you could meet him.
He’s still the only elected official I’ve met.
I cast my first ever Presidential vote in 1980 for John Anderson who wound up running as a 3rd party candidate. He supported the ERA and a women’s right to choose.
I voted for Carter, but met Anderson at a campaign appearance and have to say he was an incredibly decent and compelling person, irrespective of whether he had a R or I after his name.
I’m 72. Never voted for a Republican.
If “the Repubs can eventually be reformed” into something that has any positive value or moral compass, they would be a different party than what was represented in Judiciary yesterday. I might vote for candidates of that reformed party if it were to rise from the ashes of the current one.
I would prefer that “another viable center-right party replace it.” I’d certainly be open to voting for candidates affiliated with that new party.
Maybe they’d be called the “Know-Something Party”?
I was a teenager during the crimes of Watergate; I hate Gerald Ford for pardoning that criminal. I was disgusted by the demented Reagan and the Republicans who protected him. When Caspar said “I ain’t going down alone, George”, HW made it all go away on Christmas Eve; that would be Bill Barr 1.0. I consider W a war criminal who was responsible (with Dick) for a quarter to a half a million violent deaths and several times that many deaths, due to lack of infrastructure and the challenges of living in a war zone. Trump is an out-and-out criminal, openly violating the constitution and supported by the Republicans in doing so.
My only consolation will be: every Republican who voted against the articles of impeachment and every Republican Senator who votes to acquit him will have that fact in the first paragraph of the newspaper’s obituary and, again, in the last paragraph. That is cold consolation.
I am heartbroken.
This song captures the mood: (hope I got the embedded linky thing right)
Talking Heads – The Overload
A terrible signal
Too weak to even recognize
A gentle collapsing
The removal of the insides
I’m touched by your pleas
I value these moments
We’re older than we realize
…in someone’s eyes
A frequent returning
And leaving unnoticed
A condition of mercy
A change in the weather
A view to remember
The center is missing
They question how the future lies
…in someone’s eyes
The gentle collapsing
Of every surface
We travel on the quiet road
…the overload
You’ve reminded me….Jared Kushner: The Musical
March 2018 interview of David Byrne on The Late Show:
Colbert asked Byrne […] if he drew any inspiration from the dim-witted tragedy of any member of the Trump administration. “I was thinking about Jared Kushner,” Byrne responded. Stone-faced, conflicted, and forever cursed by an inability to escape the same fate as his jailed father, Kushner would make the perfect modern Greek legend, according to Byrne: “Everything that Jared does takes him closer to what happened to daddy. He can’t stop it.” [clip of Steven Colbert interview embedded in the linked page] (http://davidbyrne.com/explore/american-utopia/press/david-byrne-suggests-jared-kushner-the-musical-to-steven-colbert)
Cool, thx for the heads up. I saw Byrne with this “barefoot drumline” crew about a year ago performing mostly Talking Heads classics – great show. The lighting on the metal beaded curtain backdrop was excellent.
Cool.
Thank heavens punaise is back.
What a relief.
wait … I left? :~)
(just keeping a low profile)
Wonderful – T-heads do Joy Division.
Three questions: first why bother and second what if Mitch calls the Bidens to testify? And a third, can he prevent the dems from calling anyone – even while calling his witnesses?
Jamie Raskin is one of the best.
L’etat c’est Moi – Louis XIV
A nine letter word for Trump – Crime Boss
Crime Boss yes, but after 3 years it appears that nearly half of Americans are OK with that……especially the ones obsessed with personal morality.
Driftglass goes All Shakespeare………. yeah a tragedy.
Rosencrantz: So today is Impeachment Day, eh?
Guildenstern: Indeed it is. Indeed it is.
Rosencrantz: And how many impeachable thingies did President Stupid commit?
Guildenstern: I figure about thirty.
Rosencrantz: Really? That sounds like a lot.
Guildenstern: Thirty. And that’s being conservative. Well, not “conservative” conservative. In America now that word just means “fascist”. But the older meaning. “Marked by moderation or caution.”
Rosencrantz: So that’s what “conservative” means? Wow.
Guildenstern: Wow indeed. One may even say “wowie zowie”.
Rosencrantz: So President Stupid is being charged with thirty impeachable offenses.
Guildenstern: Oh god no.
Rosencrantz: But you said…
Guildenstern: I said he can committed around thirty impeachable offenses, not that he was being charged with thirty.
Rosencrantz: So some of them are iffy? Marginal?
Guildenstern: Oh goodness no. They’re clear as day. Open and shut.
Rosencrantz: So if he did all thirty why aren’t they charging him with all thirty?
Guildenstern: Democrats are charging him commensurate with what they believe to be the American public’s ability to understand those charges.
Rosencrantz: Which means they’re hitting him with what? Twenty charges? Fifteen?
Guildenstern: Two.
Rosencrantz (pause): How many?
Guildenstern: Two.
Rosencrantz: Two?
Guildenstern: Yes.
Rosencrantz: Two fucking charges? Out of thirty?
Guildenstern: Yes.
Rosencrantz: May I ask a very obvious question?
Guildenstern: Why stop now?
Rosencrantz: Why? And why? And why?
Guildenstern: It’s because the American public are dum-dums.
Rosencrantz: Really?
Guildenstern: Well, no. That’s not entirely fair. A third of the American public have, in fact, been paying pretty close attention to the crimes of President Stupid.
Rosencrantz: And the rest?
Guildenstern: Well another third have been fairly described as “reprogrammable meatbags” in the thrall of a well-funded domestic terrorist and propaganda network called the Republican Party. Their dearest wish it to have President Stupid seize power and declare himself Maximum Leader for Life.
Rosencrantz: And the other third?
Guildenstern: Those are the dum-dums who can’t be bothered to figure out who’s right or ever which side thinks what.
Rosencrantz: Sounds pretty grim.
Guildenstern: It is.
Rosencrantz: And so the third that understands the scope of President Stupid’s crimes have stripped the charges way, way down so that even the dum-dums can understand them?
Guildenstern: That’s the general idea.
Rosencrantz: Reduced them from thirty … to two?
Guildenstern: Yep.
.
nicely done, bay state. you have provided cheer on a day of foreboding.
and i love the opening coin-flipping scene in “rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead,” to which you deftly allude
Rosencrantz: And so the third that understands the scope of President Stupid’s crimes have stripped the charges way, way down so that even the dum-dums can understand them?
Guildenstern: That’s the general idea.
“That is what the democrats say. In truth, they are too frightened of their own wealthy masters to go after the Humungous Avatar of Wealth, the Not-billionaire, probably Not-millionaire, God-KingTrump. Because their own wealthy donors might not donate as much for the 2020 election. So the democrats claim that the “Stupid Americans” (who watch and understand Law & Order and a dozen other police/detective TV shows regularly) “can’t understand the of the crimes Trump has committed…”
If Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead who will flip Donny’s coin so it keeps coming up heads every time? Mitch? Perhaps some sly dem can slip a bogus letter into his coat pocket that instructs the execution of ….. well you take your pick.
As I posted up thread, the children are shouting out from the rooftops of Madrid. Here’s a link to Ms Gretta’s plenary speech at yesterday’s COP25 conference:
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/12/12/greta_thunberg_speech_cop_time_magazine
Think of this as an intercalary post between this one and the one on France–or as a non-sequitur if you must.
History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake…
What is the significance of the UK vote yesterday? It reenforced the proclivities of the Brexit referendum to be sure. Essentially, the country embraced an anti-immigrant, anti-European (the only democratic unit economically capable of resisting the U.S.) anti-progressive, anti-democratic future.
What does this mean for the UK? Looking down the road for the next 15 years or so, I think it means that Scotland will leave the UK to stay a member of the EU. It probably means that Northern Ireland will leave the UK and join Ireland for the same reason but also to continue Ireland’s path towards greater democracy and tolerance. It may mean (though this is less certain) that Wales will feel pressure to join these others and leave the UK. In any case Wales will certainly sue for greater autonomy further weakening the U.K. In short, the vote yesterday was a reaffirmation of a nationalist England that will be forced to become a client state of the US. I expect greater inequality there as the commons (the core of The Great Charter) are privatized. I don’t know what this means for the citizens of London, who do not wish to follow this self-defeating path. I suspect they too will sue for greater autonomy. The hinterlands may give it to them. In short, the vote was an exhausted, generalized throwing up of hands to an outside world made up of OTHERS and a turning inward to embrace the shelter of an insular self fully cathected into obedience by the propaganda of authority, the comfort of being with one’s own kind.
If we accept the notion that there is a political rhyme between what UK does and the US, what does this vote mean for us? In the same vein as the UK, the election of Trump signaled an anti-immigrant, sexist, racist, anti-science, anti-democratic impulse in the Republican party and in the rural states and given the undemocratic rules of the game here—the country as a whole. If this is repeated in November as the Johnson vote did with regards to Brexit, then looking down the road, what will happen? Certainly it does not entirely mean the same thing as the UK. The US is the most powerful country in the world and will not turn purely isolationist which would weaken its center and cause it to collapse. As any authoritarian knows, In order to sustain itself it must expand its territory constantly. Yes, it must press its military and economic advantages at every frontier abroad while simultaneously reproducing consent at home by inducing the nation’s populace to turn inward psychologically to become willing (enthusiastic?) accomplices for its external aggression. All of this happens as a reactionary response to the global ecological catastrophe. Rather than dealing with reality, turn inward, double down with any blowhard to be found, and march. Expect war, famine, dislocation, and disease. No doubt lots of money-making opportunities will be provided.
Perhaps such a vote will eventually foment the emergence of a new vortex nation (made up of former blue states, [joined with Canada and Mexico?]) that will shake itself off and secede (will it be able to avoid a civil war?) from the reactionary middle. This new entity (cognizant of our common heritage, our shared lives) will form a democracy predicated upon the great need to build a future that is consistent with scientific facts and one that embraces philosophical, economical, and ecological paradigms. From this acceptance of the facts on the ground and the embrace of all others in equality, and through the democratic practice of consensual truth procedures, genuine liberty may come to dwell.
Or perhaps before the shit hits the fan in the next election–rather than throwing our hands up too, we could just rise to the occasion and vote in record numbers for a true progressive and choose this latter path without all the ancillary bother.
“The US is the most powerful country in the world…”
Was.
The U.S. has been running on hegemony for thirty years. What Trump slyly portrays as other countries “taking advantage” of the U.S. has actually been other countries propping up U.S. consumption as their part of the arrangement. It was O.K. by them because they got something out of it too. Trump’s trade & foreign policy follows his stiff-the-contractors philosophy. Hyman Minsky wrote a great analysis of Trump’s finance strategy back in 1990. Not to put too fine a point on it, Trump finance boiled down to a Ponzi scheme — “in effect Trump was Brazil in drag,” Minsky remarked.
In effect, then, the U.S. under Trump’s tutelage is Brazil in drag on steroids.
A helluva lot of people in the US aren’t rich, and never will be. I’ve never had the money to buy even a mobile home. I’ve only been able to afford a new car *once*. And I had an “average” income most of the time I worked. What Trmp and his oligarch buddies do isn’t how most of us live, or even dream of living.
The imagery I got from this is Trump as Uncle Sam, in a thong bathing suit, with the body of Jesse Ventura, wearing a feather headdress, clutching money, inside the outline of a pyramid
Ooof. That’s tough to unsee.
Some images require a lot more brain-bleach than others.
“What is the significance of the UK vote yesterday?”
RACISM is powerful. FEAR is powerful. HATE is powerful.
Now, honesty, kindness, generosity, justice, truth… they are just as powerful as conservative hatred, but the people who are supposed to exemplify and practice these principals, are chickenshit cowards. So the hatred wins
#MeToo should be a lesson there
“..it’s unclear who will win this battle…”
Seems pretty clear that Trump and the GOP have won.
Many battles in a war of attrition. Wonder which side exhausts its resources first?
Some in the readership here might find a little sardonic amusement in a one-minute video recently posted to YouTube. The lyrics begin thus:
“The aides began to snitch.
The House, to switch.
And even then, Repugnicans refuse to ditch.
They self-enrich,
Corrupt as Moscow Mitch,
Who’s snug in bed with Oleg Vladimirovich.”
etc.
I can’t recall ever seeing YouTube linked here, even without the tracking string. Would it be appropriate for me to post the link without the tracking string? Or simply to direct possibly interested readers how to search for it themselves? Or is it site policy never to direct readers to YouTube?
(For what it’s worth, the video is not making money for the party who posted it.)
The inactive link is nested under @PJ’s post (December 13, 2019 at 10:01 pm) just two down. [hee, hee]
Sorry @RR – that’s not directed at you, just everyone else that makes it this far. :-)
in my youth we, the counterculture, the freaks, the hippies, rebelled to try to tear down the status quo. we thought when the old folks were dead and gone that things would be better. the makeup of the house Dem reflect some success but we also failed in so many ways. now that i am part of the status quo generation (ok, boomer) i can only hope the new youthquake learns from our failures and succeeds in ways we only imagined.
Vicente Fox is trolling the GOP-T and Trmp.
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQEMIywdpg [remove space to view]
*Five* different red hats….
Thank you so much—you’ve confirmed for me that it’s appropriate, and how to do it.
The link to the video I referred to earlier at 5:40, based on the number from the Munchkinland sequence, is here:
h ttps://youtu.be/slPjIWglRz4 [remove the space to view the video]
Both y’all have cracked my ribs. Shame on you. Oh the tears. [hee, hee, gasp]
General / fyi to all: you can post a youtube link unbroken that will be hot and clickable, but will NOT make a big (or any) embedded video, by putting (plain parentheses) around the link.
Lots have asked about this lately.
Hi Eureka! Girded for battle? It’s been a splendid day in the Commentariat. Nothing like the smell of binned troll in the morning.
:-)
Oh gosh. I am nowhere near caught up here, this has been yet again one of the longest days of my life, lol. Though in my cursory perusals, I have noticed some *very stinky socks* — they barely draw-on the puppet faces anymore. I’ve noticed an uptick as well in “ostensibly female” personas. Sounds like there’s lots to read up on!
Hi there PJ, RR, Cathy and all:
I’d like to use RR’s comment as an example. Sometimes, some of the editing functions, even the seemingly basic ones, may regrettably not be available. Even down to reply. We know, but things are complicated.
So, please, just do your best and, as RR did, if you have to post a new comment with a reference to the prior commenter and time you are responding to, that is fine. Believe it or not, that is how it all used to work, and still does now when necessary.
Thank you.
Will watch for it – thanks for watching out for us!
It seems quite archaic now. But when most, actually I think all, of the proprietors here started the enterprise, the “in response to bmaz at 10:19 pm” or “emptywheel at 11:23 am” or the like was the only reply function. It still works in a pinch!
Some of the sites I visit have numbered comments – there, it’s usual to refer to the number.
Was that [= started the enterprise] before mice had the little scroll-y wheels? I recall a day like that early last Spring and I think I wore the itty-bitty bearing on my little scroll-y wheel clean off. Coddled, aren’t we?
[Lucky for me I’m not in the browser that has emojis; pretty sure there’s a mouse]
This is a fascinating interview of Malcom Nance at the Commonwealth Club. He goes back to the very beginning of Trump’s contact with the Russians back when he was married to Ivana.
https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/archive/podcast/malcolm-nance-plot-betray-america
Jeff Van Drew is apparently going to swear allegiance to Trmp.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Rep-Jeff-Van-Drew-anti-impeachment-Democrat-14906930.php
I’m beginning to have a very bad feeling about where things are going. Because our country has become so uneducated, most people know nothing about the functioning and purpose of government.
The creature, a veteran of reality TV, knows this well. It’s one of the few things he does know. His administration has already been self-identified as a TV show – their reality is not ours.
I sincerely hope we come through this with a new president next year, and both houses of congress in Democratic hands.