Fabulous newsletter in this early morn, Robert. Biden truly is one helluva leader. His many lessons learned in the years he served in Congress are really a sight to behold. He and a terrific team who obviously come together when they are negotiating, especially with other countries such as Turkey. Erdogan’s hands must have been tied so tightly that he couldn’t object to letting Sweden into NATO. I know we are giving him fighter jets but I never thought I’d see that.
I watched some of the Wray inquiry and i wanted to strangle Matt Gaetz. He is such a young obnoxious punk. No big fan of Wray but thought he handled himself pretty well. Okay, I’ve said enough! 🥱😴
Biden's speech was absolutely wonderful. THAT is what leadership is supposed to sound like. Although the speech was packed with critical ideas, the part that I thought was most important was
THIS:
“[W]e all must summon the common will to…address the existential threat of accelerating climate change. It’s real. It’s serious. We don’t have a lot of time. It is the…single greatest threat to humanity.
“And it’s only by working together that we’ll prevent the worst consequences of climate change from ravaging our future and that of our children and grandchildren."
Every politician, every leader, every campaign staff member - Everyone - should focus on the issue that will determine the future of the our entire species and more importantly, the potential extinction of trillions of other forms of life.
It seems as if we talk about the Climate Crisis when we see flooding and fires. And then we go back to Hunters laptop or Alito's fishing trips. But what is happening to the planet is beyond terrifying. If we read. If we pay attention.
Robert, I look forward to your letter about Florida. The state is a big gainer in population recently. Not what it needs. The Sunshine State challenge is a lot bigger than Miami flooding. It's about an entire ecosystem collapse. It's about pollution literally on an industrial scale. It's about a wet state that will run out of drinking water. It's about red tides and rotting masses of seaweed covering beaches. It's about fetid canals where dead fish rot and manatees starve to death.
Florida is about big ag and big developers buying politicians - and the Earth be damned. In Florida fertilizer (aka money) is more import than God.
I have been spending this week at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua NY and have listened to several leading speakers like Bill Kristol and Norm Ornstein and others give their opinions about the state and health of our democracy. Most of the speakers have been around the political arena for many many years. Some of the takeaways were that in order to reduce polarization in this country people on all sides must agree on the same set of facts that are true which is the only way there can be meaningful dialogue and a chance for a compromised and agreed to solution. Republican media platforms are continuously promoting half truths and out right lies and thus have polluted the country with the poison that makes bipartisan agreement almost impossible. The challenge and mantra for Democrats is to flood the public with truth and facts. Not all the public but focused groups like young college educated voters and give them an overwhelming reason to register and to vote. The bottom line is in order to make the changes required whether it’s expanding the Supreme Court, or carving out a filibuster or changing abortion or gun legislation we need to have a legislative majority not only in Washington but especially in state governments. The battle for democracy will be fought in the states not in Washington and we must acknowledge this fact and do something about it. Recent legislation in southern states especially around abortion demonstrates why we must focus on and win at the state levels.
I don't know how you and your Managing Editor do it, Robert. I recommend a new title for your newsletter: "Today's Edition Newsletter: The H&H Factor (Horror and Hope!)"
Sounds like Future Crunch is a wonderful complement to Jessica Craven's Extra! Extra! posts every Sunday. Love her!
I would like to expand on a comment I submitted last week in your issue, "how hot is it?". I referred to a letter to the editor I had recently submitted, which was in opposition to a letter I had read in our local paper that same day.
This writer had debunked a previous letter which had apparently expressed optimism about the future of solar energy in New York. Although I had not read the earlier letter myself, I had seen other articles about this issue which supported such optimistic claims. I was especially frustrated by the more recent letterwriter's calling such claims "dangerous" and suggesting that we would be better off by continuing to stay with our conventional energy sources, i.e fossil fuels.
I have written several letters to the editor on different issues over my 81 years. I have never gotten a response giving me information which might allow me to write a stronger letter. So I was surprised this past Monday to get a response from an editor at the paper. She sent me a link to the essay by Doctor Perez which had expressed optimism about the future of solar energy in New York. She suggested I might want to read the guest essay and to then revise my letter.
I gladly spent several hours writing a new letter after reading the excellent essay by Dr Perez who is far more than a concerned citizen. Along with other credentials, he is the head of Solar Energy at SUNY Albany's Atmospheric Sciences Research Center. He does a great job of providing information in line with his stated goal of clarifying common misconceptions about several issues related to solar energy.
I submitted my revised letter after 6:00 p.m. on Monday night. On Tuesday morning it appeared on syracuse.com., followed by another letter from a writer who talks about his own experience using solar panels in central New York.
I learned from my sister in Canada and from my children in other states that they could access my letter, even though they do not subscribe to the paper. So anyone interested in doing so should be able to go to syracuse.com letters to read my letter. More importantly, there is a link in the first paragraph of my letter to Dr Perez's excellent essay on solar energy.(There is also a link to the letter in which the writer calls such claims dangerous.)
Jul 13, 2023·edited Jul 13, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
The GOP is desperate to win in 2024 so they can hang on to their neoliberal economic paradigm and go back to enacting policies that redistribute income to the top at the expense of the rest of us. This paradigm is fast being flushed by Biden's successful reintroduction of the demand side economy, the traditional Democratic approach (forgotten by some recent Democratic administrations). Yes, expect the GOP to descend into further madness in an effort to halt their slide. However, this time it will only hasten their trip to the political wilderness. Landslide 2024 is coming! Keep in mind, government creates the macroeconomy.
Democrats are their own enemies by not continually repeating the incredible Le accomplishments. What is wrong with ten. Great writing Robert , great writing!
Methinks Epps is going to need to win his defamation suit against Fox so he'll have funding for his defense in the pending insurrection indictment. Talk about weird pattern...
And I cheer on Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in their suit against Guilliani!!!! From The Atlantic article, it's rather rich that his political advisor casts their efforts as "...an effort to harass, intimidate and embarrass Mayor Rudy Giuliani ... part of a larger effort to smear and silence Mayor Giuliani for daring to ask questions, and for challenging the accepted narrative." Accepted by whom, dimwit? Oh yeah, a bunch of other dimwits. For some reason, though, I take a bit of solace in knowing that Judge Howell is on the case.
Hope the Russian general isn't taking a rest too close to a window. The rest of your news is a good way to start the day 🤗 the ever proverbial economy (looove Simon Rosenburg's charts), NATO, murder rates down (!), Turkey (?!), and of course POTUS. And, ok ok, I signed up for David Pepper's event Tuesday. 😉
Thank you, Robert, for your affirming and positive support of President Biden. Personally I never take this man for granted and continue to be thrilled by his steady and sage approach, not only to our country's woes, but to the woes of so much of the world. Rising above the noisy and greedy fray can't be easy but he seems to do so, on a daily basis, with aplomb. No one is perfect but I am grateful everyday that he is our president.
And I learned a new word today, thanks to your column: "opprobrium." This is the ideal descriptor of the GOP as it continues to implode.
RE: "The new analyses regarding turnout in 2022 are no reason to panic," before poring over any more election-cycle analyses, readers might want to reflect on the Democrats' decades-long abandonment of rural and working class Americans. To this end, I highly recommend reading, "Dirt Road Revival: How to Rebuild Rural Politics and Why Our Future Depends On It" by Chloe Maxmin and Canyon Woodward. The book (gifted to me by a friend in Buffalo) confirms suspicions I've held since at least 2016. It includes both an unsparing analysis of the Dem's loss of ex-urban America and how the 20-something co-authors won races in deeply red counties in Maine. Rather than linking to Amazon, here's the book's website: https://www.dirtroadrevival.com/
While "less may be more", today's NL was a robust read! It is deeply worrying that the sadistic GOP does not receive the opprobrium it has "earned". Partly due to failures of the media, "mainstream" or other, but also from other entrenched, societal sources such as corporate advertising and religious extremism. Millions in US apparently need/choose to believe [ and act accordingly] that the emperor does have clothes, and the clothes are dysfunctional, dystopian propaganda/fantasies. "Anything but the truth", so it seems.
Terrific, especially on Biden's most recent accomplishments re NATO, and Sweden and Ukraine. The best pres of my lifetime (as I keep saying) and more wind at our backs!
As a Floridian and member of Citizens Climate Lobby, I look forward to tomorrow's newsletter about insurers leaving FL because of climate change. The state's elected leaders are fighting measures to help mitigate climate change and to help Floridians deal with it. Governor DeSantis just turned down $377 million in free federal energy-efficiency money despite Florida suffering ever-hotter temperatures. Households would have received hundreds of $ in rebates for purchasing energy-efficient appliances, resulting in reduced greenhouse gas emissions AND reduced energy bills. The funding earmarked for Florida came from both the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. DeSantis also recently signed a law forbidding makers of electric vehicles to sell directly to consumers - with the exception of Elon Musk's Tesla and a few other companies who were already selling directly. Politicians here call themselves environmentalists by addressing flooding, because that causes immediate economic damage, but they regard climate change as a "woke" issue.
Fabulous newsletter in this early morn, Robert. Biden truly is one helluva leader. His many lessons learned in the years he served in Congress are really a sight to behold. He and a terrific team who obviously come together when they are negotiating, especially with other countries such as Turkey. Erdogan’s hands must have been tied so tightly that he couldn’t object to letting Sweden into NATO. I know we are giving him fighter jets but I never thought I’d see that.
I watched some of the Wray inquiry and i wanted to strangle Matt Gaetz. He is such a young obnoxious punk. No big fan of Wray but thought he handled himself pretty well. Okay, I’ve said enough! 🥱😴
Biden's speech was absolutely wonderful. THAT is what leadership is supposed to sound like. Although the speech was packed with critical ideas, the part that I thought was most important was
THIS:
“[W]e all must summon the common will to…address the existential threat of accelerating climate change. It’s real. It’s serious. We don’t have a lot of time. It is the…single greatest threat to humanity.
“And it’s only by working together that we’ll prevent the worst consequences of climate change from ravaging our future and that of our children and grandchildren."
Every politician, every leader, every campaign staff member - Everyone - should focus on the issue that will determine the future of the our entire species and more importantly, the potential extinction of trillions of other forms of life.
It seems as if we talk about the Climate Crisis when we see flooding and fires. And then we go back to Hunters laptop or Alito's fishing trips. But what is happening to the planet is beyond terrifying. If we read. If we pay attention.
Robert, I look forward to your letter about Florida. The state is a big gainer in population recently. Not what it needs. The Sunshine State challenge is a lot bigger than Miami flooding. It's about an entire ecosystem collapse. It's about pollution literally on an industrial scale. It's about a wet state that will run out of drinking water. It's about red tides and rotting masses of seaweed covering beaches. It's about fetid canals where dead fish rot and manatees starve to death.
Florida is about big ag and big developers buying politicians - and the Earth be damned. In Florida fertilizer (aka money) is more import than God.
I have been spending this week at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua NY and have listened to several leading speakers like Bill Kristol and Norm Ornstein and others give their opinions about the state and health of our democracy. Most of the speakers have been around the political arena for many many years. Some of the takeaways were that in order to reduce polarization in this country people on all sides must agree on the same set of facts that are true which is the only way there can be meaningful dialogue and a chance for a compromised and agreed to solution. Republican media platforms are continuously promoting half truths and out right lies and thus have polluted the country with the poison that makes bipartisan agreement almost impossible. The challenge and mantra for Democrats is to flood the public with truth and facts. Not all the public but focused groups like young college educated voters and give them an overwhelming reason to register and to vote. The bottom line is in order to make the changes required whether it’s expanding the Supreme Court, or carving out a filibuster or changing abortion or gun legislation we need to have a legislative majority not only in Washington but especially in state governments. The battle for democracy will be fought in the states not in Washington and we must acknowledge this fact and do something about it. Recent legislation in southern states especially around abortion demonstrates why we must focus on and win at the state levels.
I don't know how you and your Managing Editor do it, Robert. I recommend a new title for your newsletter: "Today's Edition Newsletter: The H&H Factor (Horror and Hope!)"
Sounds like Future Crunch is a wonderful complement to Jessica Craven's Extra! Extra! posts every Sunday. Love her!
Robert, I’m afraid I must disagree with you. You suggest that the Republicans are descending into madness. Not so. They got there a while ago.
I would like to expand on a comment I submitted last week in your issue, "how hot is it?". I referred to a letter to the editor I had recently submitted, which was in opposition to a letter I had read in our local paper that same day.
This writer had debunked a previous letter which had apparently expressed optimism about the future of solar energy in New York. Although I had not read the earlier letter myself, I had seen other articles about this issue which supported such optimistic claims. I was especially frustrated by the more recent letterwriter's calling such claims "dangerous" and suggesting that we would be better off by continuing to stay with our conventional energy sources, i.e fossil fuels.
I have written several letters to the editor on different issues over my 81 years. I have never gotten a response giving me information which might allow me to write a stronger letter. So I was surprised this past Monday to get a response from an editor at the paper. She sent me a link to the essay by Doctor Perez which had expressed optimism about the future of solar energy in New York. She suggested I might want to read the guest essay and to then revise my letter.
I gladly spent several hours writing a new letter after reading the excellent essay by Dr Perez who is far more than a concerned citizen. Along with other credentials, he is the head of Solar Energy at SUNY Albany's Atmospheric Sciences Research Center. He does a great job of providing information in line with his stated goal of clarifying common misconceptions about several issues related to solar energy.
I submitted my revised letter after 6:00 p.m. on Monday night. On Tuesday morning it appeared on syracuse.com., followed by another letter from a writer who talks about his own experience using solar panels in central New York.
I learned from my sister in Canada and from my children in other states that they could access my letter, even though they do not subscribe to the paper. So anyone interested in doing so should be able to go to syracuse.com letters to read my letter. More importantly, there is a link in the first paragraph of my letter to Dr Perez's excellent essay on solar energy.(There is also a link to the letter in which the writer calls such claims dangerous.)
A query and a worry.
How can Democrats go about finding funding for State and local candidates -- for all elected leaders.
State Legislatures, for example, districts, are where elections are won and lost, currently.
Democrats needlessly lost the House in 2023.
How can Democrats be LOUDER, to borrow from Simon Rosenberg, re: the need to support candidates at State and local levels.
New York, for example, lost four districts in 2023, and lost the House, where out-of-control GOP (dangerous) authoritarians are in control now.
There’s a buzz about this dilemma -- (not my own original thought.)
Postcards to Voters, Vote Forward, Activate America, and countless other grassroots activists support GOTV for non-National elections.
Special Elections this season are expected to be low turnout elections.
Engaging even more Democratic activists in these GOTV grassroots actions might help.
Any thoughts?
The GOP is desperate to win in 2024 so they can hang on to their neoliberal economic paradigm and go back to enacting policies that redistribute income to the top at the expense of the rest of us. This paradigm is fast being flushed by Biden's successful reintroduction of the demand side economy, the traditional Democratic approach (forgotten by some recent Democratic administrations). Yes, expect the GOP to descend into further madness in an effort to halt their slide. However, this time it will only hasten their trip to the political wilderness. Landslide 2024 is coming! Keep in mind, government creates the macroeconomy.
Democrats are their own enemies by not continually repeating the incredible Le accomplishments. What is wrong with ten. Great writing Robert , great writing!
Methinks Epps is going to need to win his defamation suit against Fox so he'll have funding for his defense in the pending insurrection indictment. Talk about weird pattern...
And I cheer on Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in their suit against Guilliani!!!! From The Atlantic article, it's rather rich that his political advisor casts their efforts as "...an effort to harass, intimidate and embarrass Mayor Rudy Giuliani ... part of a larger effort to smear and silence Mayor Giuliani for daring to ask questions, and for challenging the accepted narrative." Accepted by whom, dimwit? Oh yeah, a bunch of other dimwits. For some reason, though, I take a bit of solace in knowing that Judge Howell is on the case.
Hope the Russian general isn't taking a rest too close to a window. The rest of your news is a good way to start the day 🤗 the ever proverbial economy (looove Simon Rosenburg's charts), NATO, murder rates down (!), Turkey (?!), and of course POTUS. And, ok ok, I signed up for David Pepper's event Tuesday. 😉
Thank you, Robert, for your affirming and positive support of President Biden. Personally I never take this man for granted and continue to be thrilled by his steady and sage approach, not only to our country's woes, but to the woes of so much of the world. Rising above the noisy and greedy fray can't be easy but he seems to do so, on a daily basis, with aplomb. No one is perfect but I am grateful everyday that he is our president.
And I learned a new word today, thanks to your column: "opprobrium." This is the ideal descriptor of the GOP as it continues to implode.
From Denialad: donbialostosky.substack.com
The Dems’ House Committee investigated;
Republicans so far have castigated
Responsible witnesses like Chris Wray,
Who answered their “insane” claims yesterday.
Dems interviewed their witnesses before
They brought them forward trying to underscore
The narrative their inquiry had found.
Republicans just swear them in to hound
And interrupt them and berate
And take the opportunity to prate
In hopes Fox News will put them on the air.
Not just unruly members but the chair
Abuse the witness and their privilege
And take the hearing well beyond the edge.
Repeatedly their whistleblowers blow it
And hearings end up with nothing to show. It
Is so “ludicrous” it’s almost funny,
But these jokers are wasting time and money
While matters of importance are ignored.
The other party now must be restored
To power next year so this joke will end.
The House has crucial business it should tend.
RE: "The new analyses regarding turnout in 2022 are no reason to panic," before poring over any more election-cycle analyses, readers might want to reflect on the Democrats' decades-long abandonment of rural and working class Americans. To this end, I highly recommend reading, "Dirt Road Revival: How to Rebuild Rural Politics and Why Our Future Depends On It" by Chloe Maxmin and Canyon Woodward. The book (gifted to me by a friend in Buffalo) confirms suspicions I've held since at least 2016. It includes both an unsparing analysis of the Dem's loss of ex-urban America and how the 20-something co-authors won races in deeply red counties in Maine. Rather than linking to Amazon, here's the book's website: https://www.dirtroadrevival.com/
While "less may be more", today's NL was a robust read! It is deeply worrying that the sadistic GOP does not receive the opprobrium it has "earned". Partly due to failures of the media, "mainstream" or other, but also from other entrenched, societal sources such as corporate advertising and religious extremism. Millions in US apparently need/choose to believe [ and act accordingly] that the emperor does have clothes, and the clothes are dysfunctional, dystopian propaganda/fantasies. "Anything but the truth", so it seems.
Terrific, especially on Biden's most recent accomplishments re NATO, and Sweden and Ukraine. The best pres of my lifetime (as I keep saying) and more wind at our backs!
As a Floridian and member of Citizens Climate Lobby, I look forward to tomorrow's newsletter about insurers leaving FL because of climate change. The state's elected leaders are fighting measures to help mitigate climate change and to help Floridians deal with it. Governor DeSantis just turned down $377 million in free federal energy-efficiency money despite Florida suffering ever-hotter temperatures. Households would have received hundreds of $ in rebates for purchasing energy-efficient appliances, resulting in reduced greenhouse gas emissions AND reduced energy bills. The funding earmarked for Florida came from both the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. DeSantis also recently signed a law forbidding makers of electric vehicles to sell directly to consumers - with the exception of Elon Musk's Tesla and a few other companies who were already selling directly. Politicians here call themselves environmentalists by addressing flooding, because that causes immediate economic damage, but they regard climate change as a "woke" issue.