I second Robert's endorsement of Rachel Maddow's Ultra podcast. The 8 episodes average 40 minutes each and are suspenseful in revealing the story of Hitler's Nazis operatives in the U.S. buying influence in Congress and spreading Nazi propaganda to the masses--at U.S. taxpayer expense--and why not during a sedition trial?!?! The trials are lessons to be learned in the here and now.
Nov 28, 2022·edited Nov 28, 2022Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
I take comfort in the belief that the 51 postcards I've written (so far) will result in the successful election of our 51st Democratic Senator. And the 15,000+ other PTV writers are mailing massive numbers of postcards!
And, because I truly doubt that Trump will ever get the R nomination, there are others who concern me far more. DeSantis or Pence would be disastrous presidents, and they're far less likely to self-inflict political wounds. We can never lessen our efforts!
I am baffled that Black voters - especially male, female, old and young ones - can tolerate the sight of stupid, foolish Black men being propped up by white men. I thought the days of Black people being cast as idiots was no longer something to be tolerated, yet there they are, the white men (like Ted Cruz), playing the part of the white masters of the Black performers, making fools of themselves in public. I'm surprised Walker isn't wearing a white jacket and dancing for the crowd. No wonder they're banning discussion of critical race theory. The GOP is keeping the 1930's alive and fruitful when it comes to their willingness to portray Black people as fools and idiots. I thought that was no longer okay. .
Nov 28, 2022·edited Nov 28, 2022Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
DeSantis and Abbott need to be compared to fascists. The evil they perpetuated with the “voter integrity” bull Schitt, was the reason they performed so well. Voter suppression works. Somebody tell the MSM, who point out how well they did ad nauseam.
Great recap Robert. Walker's popularity is stunning and very frightening because he is such a pathetic and unqualified candidate. Let's hope he is dispatched effectively on December 6. Warnock has my money.
But I am a lot more worried about the so called "reasonable" Republicans who are carefully and slowly slithering out of the rotten woodwork. I am terrified of a candidacy like Nikki Haley or Mike Pompeo. An America under their leadership would be a horror. They have the veneer of "civilized" but there are awful philosophies in their dark hearts. Think Glenn Youngkin. Think George W. Bush. The first a domestic policy dumbass and the second an international mass murderer.
It could be that the GQP might serve us better by offering up whackos who can't get elected. And then maybe, just maybe they will go the way of the Whigs who also lost their way. A new center right party could emerge. I know, I know. Wake up, Bill.
I have maintained for some time that aspirants for political office should be required to take the AP Civics course, United States Government and Politics, and pass its exam. We have far too many candidates for political office and appointed positions whose knowledge of civics and American government is woefully inadequate. We presently have one candidate in the Georgia Senate runoff election who I doubt could pass the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services naturalization test required of immigrants to qualify for citizenship.
For those unfamiliar with the AP US Government and Politics course and exam, here is a link describing it and what is covered:
I believe firmly that an understanding of the fundamentals of American governance and a demonstrated ability to critically apply those fundamentals is a pretty low bar to qualify to hold any political position. Yet I am willing to wager that most current office holders not named Jamie Raskin would fail this examination.
This is the early voting line in my area of Georgia, Cobb county. Saturday and Sunday both looked like this. I am so hopeful that Brian Robinson’s prediction that we would be “too busy with football, Turkey and Black Friday shopping” are wrong. I am hopeful these people in line are furious about the State Supreme Court reinstating the 6week abortion ban last Friday and Herschel paling around with his new Best Friend, Brian Kemp. Kemp waited until after the election to be seen with Herschel. Hmmm.
Thank you for your extraordinary efforts to keep us well informed! I recommend the following op-ed by Jaron Lanier for more context in which the issues you cover are unfolding, driven by, and consequences of which are amplified.
I am glad to see that you mentioned Rachel Maddow’s podcast, Ultra. It is a horrifying account of Naziism in the USA in the 1940s and how they had penetrated the US Congress. And, shockingly, the trial was a fiasco that ended without a verdict and then President Truman blocked the publication of the report in order to protect his friends in Congress.
1. Thank you, Robert, for continuing a strong focus on what we can do in strengthening democracy. This is what positive journalism is about. Going beyond the "my God, ain't it awful" reporting to here is how to channel our energies into making things better.
2. I'll go out on a limb and say this is the beginning of the end for DT. The only thing that matters to today's Republicans is staying in power. DT is now labeled as a loser and a threat to Rs holding onto elected office and the power they desire above everything else.
3. Just subscribed to Joyce Vance's Civic Discourse. I'm especially interested in following the Extreme Court and what we can do about it. I'd say in 2024 we need to elect enough Ds to impeach and remove Injustices Alito and Thomas.
4. President Biden is showing all of us the courage of putting your faith in the American people. I hope he succeeds with banning assault weapons. It is time to truly address domestic terrorism. People want security to go about their normal lives.
"Imagine what will happen if we win the presidency and take back the House in 2024!" AND keep/expand the Senate!
Defund the police "...that refuse to enforce existing gun regulations." What a concept. Just like the Rs had a seemingly weekly motion to defund the ACA, Democrats should weekly bring the floor a bill to ban assault weapons.
"Am I comparing Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott to the dictatorial leader of the Chinese Communist Party? No—I don’t need to. " Ha! Even after reading several articles on the China uprisings, including ones linked in your post, Heather Cox Richardson had an interesting text thread on her post this morning that I found clarifying. Yikes.
Having been hyper-tuned to politics the last few years and texting into various states throughout the country, I'm struck by the number of counties in each state. CA with nearly 40 million people is divided into 58 counties. GA with a little over 10 million has 159 counties. TX with a little over 29 million has 254 counties. 13 million folks in PA live in 67 counties. In WI, under 6 million live in 72 counties. While texting voter info into these various counties, I was flabbergasted at the confinements to voting compared to my own LA County. If elections are run at the county level, it's truly a wonder that they go off with so few hitches - and the hitches are glaringly apparent. Amazing, heartening, disillusioning; above all, needing cohesion so that no matter where ya live, ya get the same shot at a ballot as the rest of the country.
Thank you, Robert, for recommending Rachel Maddow’s podcast. ULTRA. It is a must-listen to any concerned citizen. It details a dark period in our history about which I had never heard a word. Yet it’s parallels to todays events are striking and deeply disturbing. It also reveals where Donald Trump came up with the name and philosophy behind America First.
“The answer is simple and obvious: We beat them at the polls.”
I agree that winning at the polls will keep them in a bay, but how do we bring some common sense into the debate for the (now, time being) 49.9%? My fear is that the internet has unleashed so much misinformation that appeals to a certain mentality that it is all but insurmountable.
Thanks for recommending Joyce Vance’s substack. I subscribed a while back and find her legal analysis to be remarkable, especially to a lay person like me.
In 2018, Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker with 220 votes. With 235 seats, Democrats had a larger majority than Republicans have after the 2022 election. Pelosi's election same after many Democrats had promised not to vote for her in their campaign. She used a deft combinaion of some Democrats fulfilling their pledge in the nomination process, some voting for others in the Speaker election, and some reducing the size of the required majority by voting present in the Speaker election. Her promise to serve only two terms was part of what earned her the Speakership. McCarthy's majority is slimmer. He seems less skilled in managing those who want to or feel obliged to prevent him from becoming Speaker than Pelosi was. The Democrats did not have an alternative to Pelosi in 2018 nor do the Republicans have an alternative now. Except for the lack of an alternative, there is nothing encouraging for McCarthy right now.
Among the issues that deserve to be on the table in 2024 is the need for long-established Democratic Party organizations to re-engage, human-to-human, with the voters, with the community-at-large. The debacle in suburban New York reminds me of a similar turn of events in suburban Boston, many years ago. Two incompetent Democratic Congressmen, one of whom was under indictment, were cast out by the voters. Only the fact that the Republicans who replaced them were equally incompetent led the local party to re-engage with their constituents and return those two seats to Democratic hands, two years later. The new Republican Congressmen in New York are no dummies, though, so the work of restoring trust in the Democratic Party requires MORE listening to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman,and others with their ears to the ground and eyes open to what matters to the people.
It looks like 'thin ice' is an expression that covers many dictatorial outbreaks -- or uprisings. Whether it is merciless questioning of a lawyer 'Trusty’s effort to argue that the cases didn’t say what they clearly said didn’t seem to sit well with her, [the judge] either.' as Vance states, or in China where expanded confining and suffering has reached a level where outbreak of individualism ignites! When old systems become brittle resurgence gains traction.
“Power reproduces itself by doing things the way they have always been done.” (Connell, 1995) (Kaijser and Kronsell, 2014, p. 428)
I second Robert's endorsement of Rachel Maddow's Ultra podcast. The 8 episodes average 40 minutes each and are suspenseful in revealing the story of Hitler's Nazis operatives in the U.S. buying influence in Congress and spreading Nazi propaganda to the masses--at U.S. taxpayer expense--and why not during a sedition trial?!?! The trials are lessons to be learned in the here and now.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rachel-maddow-presents-ultra/id1647910854
I take comfort in the belief that the 51 postcards I've written (so far) will result in the successful election of our 51st Democratic Senator. And the 15,000+ other PTV writers are mailing massive numbers of postcards!
And, because I truly doubt that Trump will ever get the R nomination, there are others who concern me far more. DeSantis or Pence would be disastrous presidents, and they're far less likely to self-inflict political wounds. We can never lessen our efforts!
I am baffled that Black voters - especially male, female, old and young ones - can tolerate the sight of stupid, foolish Black men being propped up by white men. I thought the days of Black people being cast as idiots was no longer something to be tolerated, yet there they are, the white men (like Ted Cruz), playing the part of the white masters of the Black performers, making fools of themselves in public. I'm surprised Walker isn't wearing a white jacket and dancing for the crowd. No wonder they're banning discussion of critical race theory. The GOP is keeping the 1930's alive and fruitful when it comes to their willingness to portray Black people as fools and idiots. I thought that was no longer okay. .
DeSantis and Abbott need to be compared to fascists. The evil they perpetuated with the “voter integrity” bull Schitt, was the reason they performed so well. Voter suppression works. Somebody tell the MSM, who point out how well they did ad nauseam.
Great recap Robert. Walker's popularity is stunning and very frightening because he is such a pathetic and unqualified candidate. Let's hope he is dispatched effectively on December 6. Warnock has my money.
But I am a lot more worried about the so called "reasonable" Republicans who are carefully and slowly slithering out of the rotten woodwork. I am terrified of a candidacy like Nikki Haley or Mike Pompeo. An America under their leadership would be a horror. They have the veneer of "civilized" but there are awful philosophies in their dark hearts. Think Glenn Youngkin. Think George W. Bush. The first a domestic policy dumbass and the second an international mass murderer.
It could be that the GQP might serve us better by offering up whackos who can't get elected. And then maybe, just maybe they will go the way of the Whigs who also lost their way. A new center right party could emerge. I know, I know. Wake up, Bill.
I have maintained for some time that aspirants for political office should be required to take the AP Civics course, United States Government and Politics, and pass its exam. We have far too many candidates for political office and appointed positions whose knowledge of civics and American government is woefully inadequate. We presently have one candidate in the Georgia Senate runoff election who I doubt could pass the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services naturalization test required of immigrants to qualify for citizenship.
For those unfamiliar with the AP US Government and Politics course and exam, here is a link describing it and what is covered:
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-united-states-government-and-politics
I believe firmly that an understanding of the fundamentals of American governance and a demonstrated ability to critically apply those fundamentals is a pretty low bar to qualify to hold any political position. Yet I am willing to wager that most current office holders not named Jamie Raskin would fail this examination.
This is the early voting line in my area of Georgia, Cobb county. Saturday and Sunday both looked like this. I am so hopeful that Brian Robinson’s prediction that we would be “too busy with football, Turkey and Black Friday shopping” are wrong. I am hopeful these people in line are furious about the State Supreme Court reinstating the 6week abortion ban last Friday and Herschel paling around with his new Best Friend, Brian Kemp. Kemp waited until after the election to be seen with Herschel. Hmmm.
https://twitter.com/victorshi2020/status/1596964214890909696?s=46&t=DYJuZqt_FztJczfsItPTRg
Thank you for your extraordinary efforts to keep us well informed! I recommend the following op-ed by Jaron Lanier for more context in which the issues you cover are unfolding, driven by, and consequences of which are amplified.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/opinion/trump-musk-kanye-twitter.html
I am glad to see that you mentioned Rachel Maddow’s podcast, Ultra. It is a horrifying account of Naziism in the USA in the 1940s and how they had penetrated the US Congress. And, shockingly, the trial was a fiasco that ended without a verdict and then President Truman blocked the publication of the report in order to protect his friends in Congress.
1. Thank you, Robert, for continuing a strong focus on what we can do in strengthening democracy. This is what positive journalism is about. Going beyond the "my God, ain't it awful" reporting to here is how to channel our energies into making things better.
2. I'll go out on a limb and say this is the beginning of the end for DT. The only thing that matters to today's Republicans is staying in power. DT is now labeled as a loser and a threat to Rs holding onto elected office and the power they desire above everything else.
3. Just subscribed to Joyce Vance's Civic Discourse. I'm especially interested in following the Extreme Court and what we can do about it. I'd say in 2024 we need to elect enough Ds to impeach and remove Injustices Alito and Thomas.
4. President Biden is showing all of us the courage of putting your faith in the American people. I hope he succeeds with banning assault weapons. It is time to truly address domestic terrorism. People want security to go about their normal lives.
We, the People, all of us this time!
"Imagine what will happen if we win the presidency and take back the House in 2024!" AND keep/expand the Senate!
Defund the police "...that refuse to enforce existing gun regulations." What a concept. Just like the Rs had a seemingly weekly motion to defund the ACA, Democrats should weekly bring the floor a bill to ban assault weapons.
"Am I comparing Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott to the dictatorial leader of the Chinese Communist Party? No—I don’t need to. " Ha! Even after reading several articles on the China uprisings, including ones linked in your post, Heather Cox Richardson had an interesting text thread on her post this morning that I found clarifying. Yikes.
Having been hyper-tuned to politics the last few years and texting into various states throughout the country, I'm struck by the number of counties in each state. CA with nearly 40 million people is divided into 58 counties. GA with a little over 10 million has 159 counties. TX with a little over 29 million has 254 counties. 13 million folks in PA live in 67 counties. In WI, under 6 million live in 72 counties. While texting voter info into these various counties, I was flabbergasted at the confinements to voting compared to my own LA County. If elections are run at the county level, it's truly a wonder that they go off with so few hitches - and the hitches are glaringly apparent. Amazing, heartening, disillusioning; above all, needing cohesion so that no matter where ya live, ya get the same shot at a ballot as the rest of the country.
Thank you, Robert, for recommending Rachel Maddow’s podcast. ULTRA. It is a must-listen to any concerned citizen. It details a dark period in our history about which I had never heard a word. Yet it’s parallels to todays events are striking and deeply disturbing. It also reveals where Donald Trump came up with the name and philosophy behind America First.
“The answer is simple and obvious: We beat them at the polls.”
I agree that winning at the polls will keep them in a bay, but how do we bring some common sense into the debate for the (now, time being) 49.9%? My fear is that the internet has unleashed so much misinformation that appeals to a certain mentality that it is all but insurmountable.
Thanks for recommending Joyce Vance’s substack. I subscribed a while back and find her legal analysis to be remarkable, especially to a lay person like me.
In 2018, Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker with 220 votes. With 235 seats, Democrats had a larger majority than Republicans have after the 2022 election. Pelosi's election same after many Democrats had promised not to vote for her in their campaign. She used a deft combinaion of some Democrats fulfilling their pledge in the nomination process, some voting for others in the Speaker election, and some reducing the size of the required majority by voting present in the Speaker election. Her promise to serve only two terms was part of what earned her the Speakership. McCarthy's majority is slimmer. He seems less skilled in managing those who want to or feel obliged to prevent him from becoming Speaker than Pelosi was. The Democrats did not have an alternative to Pelosi in 2018 nor do the Republicans have an alternative now. Except for the lack of an alternative, there is nothing encouraging for McCarthy right now.
Among the issues that deserve to be on the table in 2024 is the need for long-established Democratic Party organizations to re-engage, human-to-human, with the voters, with the community-at-large. The debacle in suburban New York reminds me of a similar turn of events in suburban Boston, many years ago. Two incompetent Democratic Congressmen, one of whom was under indictment, were cast out by the voters. Only the fact that the Republicans who replaced them were equally incompetent led the local party to re-engage with their constituents and return those two seats to Democratic hands, two years later. The new Republican Congressmen in New York are no dummies, though, so the work of restoring trust in the Democratic Party requires MORE listening to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman,and others with their ears to the ground and eyes open to what matters to the people.
It looks like 'thin ice' is an expression that covers many dictatorial outbreaks -- or uprisings. Whether it is merciless questioning of a lawyer 'Trusty’s effort to argue that the cases didn’t say what they clearly said didn’t seem to sit well with her, [the judge] either.' as Vance states, or in China where expanded confining and suffering has reached a level where outbreak of individualism ignites! When old systems become brittle resurgence gains traction.
“Power reproduces itself by doing things the way they have always been done.” (Connell, 1995) (Kaijser and Kronsell, 2014, p. 428)