I am so proud of President Biden and his administration. They have accomplished more to raise our economy and standard of living than has been done in 40 years. Reaganomics has fueled our economic, healthcare and basic inequalities, and the demise of a prosperous economy for all. President Biden’s agenda has been to build our economy by creating and promoting jobs for everyone that help everyone in our country to prosper. I am extremely disgusted by the Repugnant house with their AR 15 lapel pins, and most of all voting Congresswoman Omar off the Foreign Relations Committee. What a bunch of weasels (although I don’t want to insult weasels), I believe they are intimidated by her grace and power.
I have found myself, once again, swallowed up in the mystery of how it could be that so many Republican voters can support policies that are so self defeating and so antithetical to the religions they claim to embrace. It is astounding how stupid they are. Yet we search for the pitch, the reasoning, the logic, the appeal to their intelligence - that might get them to eschew the Republican lies and vicious propaganda. I get sucked in.
But there is no point in trying to find the evidence or convincing argument that would shift their positions - even slightly. They are hard hearted immovable boulders built on bullshit.
Instead, I recommend that we build our "base". And ensure that they vote. There are more of us than "them". The problem is that too many of "us" are disillusioned with politics as a whole. they blame both parties and fade into their personal lives. They have given up.
And the largest group in the above paragraph doesn't read newsletters like this. They are Gen Y and Gen Z. They see a Democratic Party led by people so old they can't begin to relate to them. As much as I love and have admired Biden, Pelosi and company it is time for the 40 and 50 year olds to assume the lead. They would have at least some chance of connecting with tictokers, etc.
Those younger generations glaze over when they hear Biden speak. They are amused or worried by his shuffling walk.
We are about to give the Republicans the gift of our apathy. We need top level politicians who can inspire with youthful vigor. Pelosi did the graceful and smart thing. Will Biden?
Before everyone starts ranting about how wonderful Biden has been, I will pre-answer with I AGREE! But if two whole generations fail to vote, we are doomed. It's not about Biden's abilities. It's about his ability to draw votes from people 1/2 or 1/3 his age.
Here is what I wrote to President Biden. Karen, you have read this already. But maybe a few others have not.
Bill, While I agree with the first sentence that follows, there is much about your post that raises questions we must also factor in to our desire to get out the vote. "Instead, I recommend that we build our "base". And ensure that they vote. There are more of us than "them". The problem is that too many of "us" are disillusioned with politics as a whole. they blame both parties and fade into their personal lives. They have given up."
Here's the #1 question: With gerrymandering of so many districts in deep red states, what is the path forward that will give us the majorities need in districts throughout the country?
Why don't we begin to focus more on the younger folks that have now moved in to leadership positions? Wouldn't it be beneficial to highlight the leadership of Hakeem Jeffries, Reps. Katherine Clark, and Peter Aguilar?
Who are the young leaders we can celebrate and promote in each of our states? Is someone or some group developing and getting them into the public consciousness?
Why do we spend time on speaking about Biden with a focus on convincing him to step aside? Let's find the means to get the attention of Gen Y and Gen Z, without taking the time to undermine a president who has been wildly successful under the most incredible conditions.
Why, in essence, do we want to spent time putting the onus on President Biden? Let's build from the middle and bottom up as he has done with his economic programs? Let's create viable paths for good leaders throughout the government and across state boundaries.
I ask that you forgive me, but as someone who was unimpressed by the calls for "we need a moderate" and "Joe's the only one who can do it" in 2020, it has been equally unimpressive that many immediately started taking shots at a good President and his age very soon after he entered office, particularly since TFG is 76 and still gets way too much attention.
I'd like to a collective focus on positives and a winning strategy that unites Democrats. Can we do that? Are we doing that? Is someone doing that?
Here are some disconcerting names and their ages: DeSantis (44), Nikki Haley (51), Kristi Noem (51), Mike Pompeo (59), Mike Pence (63). Can we offer a list of Democrats that match the attention these scary potential candidates are getting? If so, let's do so. And let's put them front and center in our conversations.
Why are we so incredibly reluctant to see the merits of strong leaders like Alexander Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Pramila Jayapal, Michael Bennett, Gavin Newsom, Rep Cheri Bustos, Adam Schiff, & Kate Porter? I would venture to say that among this short list you will find none who have been as offensive and bullying as MGT, Lauren Boebert, or Matt Gaetz. They have been, in my opinion, people who speak to the issues and are not focused on performance.
We must come together around a solid message and good, articulate leaders who are eager to take on the Republicans. We need to speak to voters widely, deeply and without hesitation. In fact, given her last two days of blog posts it appears that Heather Cox-Richardson needs to be central to the Democratic messaging.
Enough! I go on too much. My apologies if my comments offend. I am eager to see the positive in regard to how we move forward. Thank you for reading.
I'm happy to say in Connecticut we have Chris Murphy in the Senate and Jim Himes in the House. Both have a lot of national exposure and are on the younger side.
John, no offense taken! I enjoyed your comment. Yes, there many Democratic leaders that we can celebrate and boost. You will see some of them in my subsequent comments.
The reason for the focus on Biden is not to say he is deficient or underperforming. On the contrary.
It's the fact that the top of the ticket attracts voters or not.
I'm 76, and my friends my age would love younger people to step up in politics and civic life. Many are juggling busy, pressured lives; many aren't paying attention. They don't want old people running the country, organizations, agencies, committees, and such (I don't either); but too few are stepping up to take positions of responsibility, at least where I live.
Don't get me started about people of any age who don't vote, or don't even know there are important elections. That's a whole other topic. Aaarrrggghhhh!
I agree with everything you said Bill. I was applauding Biden’s and the Biden Administration’s achievements. I totally understand your point about his age and the younger generations. And we definitely need their votes. That being said, the 2024 election is creeping up on us fast. Who will be that younger candidate who will energize the young, and challenge Biden in the primary, if he definitely decides to run? I haven’t heard anyone hinting at running, except maybe Gavin Newsom. I suppose anyone interested In running is waiting for Biden to officially announce. What are your thoughts on who that candidate might be Bill?
I think the Democratic bench is deep. We should remember it never occurred to anyone that Obama could be a contender - until he was. I like Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. But there is Polis, Fetterman and Shapiro to name a few. I love Raskin and Schiff. Whitehouse?
Buttigieg - could be risky and maybe he should wait another cycle. But he is the brightest and most articulate person on the national stage except for my "hometown" woman....
Warren - her adamant style is wonderful. But she has that "problem". When she gets intense, people will call her "shrill". Sound familiar? Of course, if she were a guy, he would be called powerful. And then she is 73, so while I think she is "youthful", I think maybe I would prefer someone much younger.
And don't write off Harris. Being VP is a really tough act. I give her high marks for doing it the right way. And I would sleep really well if she were running the "situation room". I would also love to see her square off with Putin. She would shred him.
Yes, we have an impressive group of potential candidates. I admire everyone you mentioned. I would also add Mallory McMorrow, Michigan State Senator, to the group. At least a consideration for Vice President if not President. I guess whether any of them run though is dependent on Biden’s decision. As I don’t know that any of them would challenge him in the primary.
McMorrow is wonderful. And not just as a speaker. She helped turn the legislature blue. No idea what her ambitions are. But she is a force.
Biden may wait as long as possible to decide. There is always that lame duck thing. But it's not like he can get anything through the Clown House anyway.
That is NOT going to happen! Capitol police will start quitting.
Like Jeffries and Swalwell said before, Omar’s presence on the Foreign Affairs Committee was very important and Qevin knows that. Because he is kissing MGT’s ass, he made sure she was ousted. Pure and simple revenge.
These current, angry, looking for a fight, rethugs in the chamber are boys with toys and can not be trusted with weapons, especially when confronted with the truth. Disgusting and an embarrassment to our country.
Well Janet, you are correct. I hope that everyone in Colorado is working this very moment to see that Lauren Boebert does not scrap by with 600 votes in the next election. We must see her in the rear view mirror with people fully understanding how she did not and will not serve their or the country's best interests.
One of my real concerns is that now the mags are gone and apparently ANYONE can carry weapons into the Capitol, there's an even higher risk that one of the MAGAT base will try to assassinate Biden, especially TOMORROW @ the State Of the Union Address. Given what the Secret Service has done by wiping their phones and other behaviors, there could be a real risk from them as well.
Although Biden was not my first choice as a democratic primary candidate for President, I am now a supporter and true fan of his performance. I am truly impressed, in fact awed, by his steadiness, his composure, and his extremely well-informed performance in a job that has had enormous, and almost insurmountable tasks and tests, both seeable and unseeable.
I might have preferred Bernie Sanders, but I think Biden's going to go down as the best and most successful president since FDR. I suspect that as with Nancy Pelosi, a large part of it is learning from experience over a long career. Both of them have served us incredibly well.
Maybe a few GOPers will actually come to understand that financially, the average American is much better off under a Democratic president, and that tax cuts for the very wealthy do not trickle down to the rest of us.
Biden also played a critical role getting broad support for Ukraine, support that bolsters Democracy generally.
We can’t wait for the bio we need to every chance we get remind people what the Democrats have accomplished that impacts them while they watch the clown show in the House.
Indeed, experience counts for something - counts for a LOT! With Speaker Pelosi's 35+ years and President Biden's 50+ years that's almost a century of institutional, constitutional, and diplomatic/personal knowledge of governing. Governing, not showboating.
My policy prefs are most closely in line with Sanders and Warren and pretty evenly with both and roughly 90% agreement. But I thought Sanders had a much better chance of winning a presidential election than Warren.
I actually got scared into voting for Bloomberg.
And I'm very happy with Biden. I started being concerned about policies when LBJ was in office--my family was against the Vietnam war--and Biden is the first president who is making me happy with his successes. (I'm not happy about immigration--I want the numbers greatly reduced, and a national mandatory E-Verify, and this is an issue I feel quite strongly on--but I'm a realist, and I almost can't believe all the good things happening under Biden. And I so like being politically happy, for once in a long life. (Oh, I was happy under JFK, but I didn't really know what was happening from age 7-10, so it doesn't count.)
I agree with you Angela. I, too, didn’t want Biden to win the democratic nomination. I was mad about the Clarence Thomas hearings still. But he’s an excellent President who may go down in history in a similar fashion as FDR.
Angela, I completely agree. We are a better nation because of President Biden and his policies. We, as citizens, must do all we can to help this administration.
Absolutely agree with you Angela. Each day I am so grateful that Joe Biden is our President. His leadership, his knowledge, his instincts, his character, his Empathy for others make him the right person for this role at the right time. ♥️
Robert makes the totally appropriate point that Presidents generally get too much blame for a weak economy under their aegis and they frequently try to take too much credit for a strong performance. But Robert is, I believe, equally correct to say that the current strength of the US bears an unusually direct relationship to specific policies of the Biden administration, particularly legislation that only barely passed with unanimous Democratic support and the most minimal support by GOP members of the House and Senate. Further, the spectacular January jobs report can be partially discounted as perhaps a one-off aberration. But what cannot be discounted is the country's solidly upward economic performance during the first two years of the Biden presidency. The present extremely low unemployment rate of 3.4% is in stark contrast to its 6.7% level in the last month of the Trump presidency, when it was admittedly negatively affected by Covid. But the BLS statistics on employment offer a more accurate measure of the jobs market: the Real Unemployment Rate. This broader measure includes "Discouraged Workers" who have ceased looking for work but would take a job if offered; "Marginally Attached Workers" who haven't looked for a job in the past month but have sometime in the preceding year; and the large group called "Part-time of necessity" who are involuntarily working fewer than 40 hours/week. This Real Unemployment Rate currently stands at a more accurate 6.7%, also at a near-record low. That "Real Unemployment Rate" stood at 11.2% when Biden assumed office. That is his REAL and very dramatic achievement. And for those who think this accomplishment is vitiated by inflation, one needs to realize that two-thirds of the current 6.5% inflation rate has been offset by wage gains, making the actual squeeze on the average consumer's purchasing power only reduced by roughly 2%.
Thank you. I, for one, don’t blame Trump for the high unemployment in the depths of the pandemic. But I do blame him for hundreds of thousands of needless deaths from COVID and relatives causes through ignorance, selfishness and stupidity.
Dump, the orange idiot, should be placed in cuffs, put on a C-130 with no warm clothes, then immediately flown to The Hague and charged with crimes against humanity. He essentially murdered millions of people with his ego and callousness. Oh and remember Jareds role, he made millions. I can’t think of a bad enough adjective for them, although I have searched. OH and the attention and media coverage!
Roger, I read many years ago in US News & World Report back when print magazines were more abundant, that voting for a Republican for president was tantamount to voting for a recession. What are you thoughts?
I think there is empirical evidence that the most severe US recessions (mid-70's, early-80's, 2008) happened under Republican presidents. But I am reluctant to jump to claim that typical Republican policies are the causation of economic recessions. But I think it is safe to say that the GOP has been historically the party of Big Business and not of working people. This has, in the past, made them far less sensitive to wage earners (as opposed to salary earners) being thrown out of work. It will be interesting to see if the massive shift of working-class voters in the Trump era into dependable Republican voters will create a greater sensitivity to the economic interests of wage-earners. I doubt it, because these voters are moved by a variety of cultural, not economic, interests. If their primary concern was their economic interests, they would almost assuredly vote for Democrats.
Clear examples of such are the voters in states that refuse Medicaid expansion. They vote on denying women health and reproductive care and they vote based on bigoted rhetoric about race and sexual orientation. They simply love to hate - to their own detriment.
And every day that I get discouraged by the outrageous, unethical, and inhumane deeds/performances of the far right and far too many Republicans, it is balanced and countered by the intelligence, brilliance, and hard work of the democrats and the progressive effort.
While some R's begin to distance themselves from the toxic members, they still vote in a block with the AR rifle pin-wearers. The Republicans are dreadful, but they have lots of money on their side, still.
I only wish this good economic news would filter down to the people who have been distracted by the drumbeat of negativity of Fox and other right wing outlets. We need to tout the Biden accomplishments in all our social media posts.
Democrats should take your words: "Under Biden’s leadership, Democrats in Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, the bi-partisan infrastructure act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Unemployment reached 14% during the height of the shutdown and is now at a 50-year low of 3.4% [and is] combined with historically low unemployment, falling inflation, and reasonable GDP growth (2.9%)" and turn them into advertisements that capture the narrative between now and November, 2024.
I actually think Biden's ploddingly, boringly, uncharismatic COMPETENCE is Lincolnesque. Not everyone recalls how viciously vilified Lincoln often was in the North during his Presidency. (Think: Biden's chronically low poll numbers and "doddering/dementia" epithets.) As Lincoln said about his own performance, “I do the very best I can, I mean to keep going. If the end brings me out all right, then what is said against me won't matter. If I'm wrong, ten angels swearing I was right won't make a difference.” I'll bet Biden is familiar with that quotation.
We all need to spread the word of Bidens successes while we work to help those at the bottom of the economic ladder. As the millionaires have the Corp of Engineers planning beach replenishment for their waterfront mansions the lower class struggle with years of neglect for their neighborhoods in Florida.
IPad was uncooperative and I can’t seem to delete it. Finished that thought further down beginning “Let’s try that again.” Maybe Admin can fix this for me.
That's why it's so critical to keep the radical rednecks in check so the sabotage they're so hell bent on inflicting on America 🇺🇸 is kept to a minimum
A good weekend to be sure. Let’s carry on and feel strong. No sense in joining the chaos when we have goals to tend to this year and beyond. Thank you Robert for the good news!
Great news and great material for Dems to be running on through the next cycle. We all need to get this message out strong and loud. Regarding current affairs: Americans will not long put up with the bankrupt, sophomoric shenanigans House GOP is currently engaging in. In the end, people want their government to run in such a way that it continues to address their needs, provide stability and adjust to changing times. Thinking that guns will provide that is appropriate for Gunsmoke, but not 21th century America. However problematic the American voting public is, they will put up only so long with a circus like the one we are seeing--a pretty lame one at that. We all know that if you want a circus, you hire a clown. Congress ain't the Big Tent, and most people will not countenance it becoming one.
Is FOX News/Opinion congenitally undemocratic? Are they hoping for a strong authoritarian like Putin or Orban or Bolsonaro? I'm not sure why they're so down on our current government - other than they don't control it as they seem to have the previous administration.
Yes, Robert, this is good news indeed. I'm generally not a "glass half full" or "glass half empty" person. I'm more of an "It is what it is" kind of guy. But, I can't help but think of all the good - all the amazing - things that could have gotten done if Dems had retained the House and gotten a stronger hold on the Senate (i.e. - with the ability to get rid of the filibuster!). Instead, we are mired in the McClown congress and still have to deal with the whims of Manchin and Sinema.
We now look to 2024 and have to work hard to keep Joe Biden (or possibly another Dem - Go Joe!) in the W.H. AND retain the Senate AND retake the House to continue to move the country in a positive direction and get done the litany of things that are left undone, despite the insurrection crowd in Congress, FAUX "news," and the corrupt Robert's SCOTUS.
Ahhh...the work never ends, but I'm grateful for what the first two years of President Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer's leadership brought us. I'm also grateful for you and the other amazing writers with SubStack newsletters that help bring perspective to the crazy times that are the 21st c. in America.
Well, that balloon is occupying a lot of my mind this weekend. What a strange thing. While it's alarming enough to cancel a diplomatic visit to China, it's benign enough to let it float. Hmmm, something does not add up. And how does a weather balloon remain stationary over a military site anyway?
AD: The balloon has been shot down in the Atlantic, off the coast of South Carolina, in shallow water to facilitate its recovery. Republicans are having tantrums that it traversed the US. They're accusing Joe of being Slow. Obviously they did not read the very good responses to my post that some readers added below.
The weather ballon is being controlled by satellite communications and is so high in the sky that shooting it down would be a challenge and the consequences unknown. What the public doesn’t know is if we are scrambling the Chinese signals and providing false data to make the mission irrelevant. What’s more interesting is how Democrats and Republicans react to it. Republicans want to bully and shoot it down and not worry about the consequences whereas the Democrats after evaluating all options decided that talking to China first and sending them a message is a more an effective diplomatic approach and better positions us on the world stage.
Apparently, the balloon is so big that its payload is about 30,000 lbs. of equipment, and there is—of is said to be fear of the damage all that junk could do if it were shot out of the sky.
The balloon caused Antony Blinken’s trip to China to be called off, so I guess we could say that the trip is up in the air. China says it’s a weather balloon, butt perhaps now better described as a whether-or-not balloon. And if it’s experimental, does that make it a trial balloon?
She had a great political career. She ended it running a commission on immigration reform under President Clinton, which ultimately recommended cutting immigration roughly in half, because too much immigration was taking jobs from Blacks and American workers, and strict enforcement of immigration laws. And in fact, in 1980, most meat packers were Black workers, earning a good middle class wage. By that decade's end, most were immigrants, working for barely more than minimum wage, under atrocious conditions.
Jordan died shortly after her commission released its recommendations, and they weren't adopted. Had they been adopted, I suspect Trump would not have been elected, as immigration was his signature issue in that first election. I think we would have been spared a lot of tsuris had he never occupied the White House.
But maybe, just maybe, the GOPers will come to realize how much good Biden is doing.
Good points and use of Yiddish but what most Americans won’t admit is many of the jobs migrant workers do are jobs no one else will do and are the foundation of many businesses in our economy
That's actually not true. In 1980, Black workers predominated in meat packing, earning good middle class wages. By that decade's end, the Black workers were gone, and immigrants predominated, earning barely above minimum wage, toiling under atrocious conditions, where amputations were common.
There's a recent book, which you should read: Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, by Roy Beck ($13 on Amazon). The book is solid--covers the academic economic history in detail, as well as statements from Black leaders, beginning with Frederick Douglass, whose sons were downwardly mobile due to too much immigration; Black periodicals, and gov't commissions on immigration reform. (296 footnotes). Despite all thta history, the book is well written, and fascinating, as the author was an environmental journalist for three decades.
The book gives the lie to that notion of jobs American workers won't do. The problem is pay they shouldn't have to accept. Among other things, the author interviewed a bunch of Black poultry workers on Maryland's Eastern Shore, who'd been let go in favor of immigrants. Would they take their old jobs back, the author asked them? NO, because the wages were so low they'd have to live in their cars, or many to a house.
Mass immigration is business's way of keeping wages low. This is why the Koch organization, Mark Zuckerberg, and big biz GOPers generally favor more immigration. Immigration is a bipartisan issue, that is, both sides have both parties supporting them. I'm a left wing Democrat, from a family of Democrats, and I support greatly reducing immigration both for the sake of workers, and for the environment. (The US population is unsustainable at current rates of consumption, immigrants come here to consume like Americans--that's what draws them here instead of other Central and SouthAmerican countries, and in the next several decades millions Americans are going to become climate refugees. This is a bad time to grow the US population, but the Census Bureau says we're going to add the equivalent of four NY States over the next 4 decades, 90% of that from immigration.
I appreciate your factual information but you are not viewing the situation on a broad basis. The part you need to add onto your equation is the aging of the American workplace and the retirement of the Baby Boomers which is creating a major problem such as Japan is experiencing now. I live in NC and we have a very large immigrant population and the jobs and businesses they have created are service oriented and they are making good working wages way above minimum wage. It’s not the pay they receive it’s the work they are doing which requires manual labour and long hours.
Things aren't always totally black and white. But it's clear that mass immigration has been used largely as a way to keep wages low throughout most of our history. One of the interesting things was that even in the 19th century, business owners sent ships to Europe to bring back workers, so that they wouldn't have to employ Black people. And the working wages, which were largely stagnant for 40 years beginning in 1980, were that way in no small part because of mass immigration.
I don't now the situation in NC, but I suspect that having a critical mass of immigrants who could start businesses and hire their fellows helped to make the situation possible that you describe.
But the US and the world need to stop growing. I studied sustainability in a class with John Holdren, at Berkeley, in 1975, and I've written a moderate amount about it since. We depend on ecosystem services, among other things, for clean water, clean air, carbon dioxide sequestration, disease prevention, and maintaining biodiversity.
Tick-borne diseases in the US, and covid and HIV on their respective continents of origin almost certainly got into the human population as a consequence of population growth, and recently a group of scientists warned about this sort of thing becoming more common in Nature, one of the more prestigious biological science journals.
The populations of birds, insects, and many other creatures have plummeted over the last 50 years not just in the US, but in Europe and elsewhere, in large part due to human encroachment and degradation of ecosystem services. In Africa, in 1900 there were around 20 million elephants, creatures that are arguably among the smartest nonhumans on the planet, that make migrations of thousands of miles annually in their quest for food and water. By 2000, the African population, in the low millions, had swelled to a billion, and the population of elephants had plummeted to less than half a million. The African population, now 1.5 billion, is expected to swell to 3 billion in a generation, which will likely push elephants to extinction in the wild, along with the rest of the megafauna.
Humans and our livestock now represent 96% of the mass of mammals, we use something like 40% of the world's habitable land for agriculture and livestock. If we keep growing our populations and consumption, we will find
We are going to need to figure out how to run economies without so much junk that adds nothing to peoples' well being. the most important factor in human well being appears to be human relationships, not stuff. In '09, I think it was, social scientists figured out that in then current dollars, additional income beyond $75k did nothing to boost human happiness. the $75k was enough to live in comfort and without want.
We need to figure out how to live at that level, and the declining population in China and Japan, and hopefully in the US before the century's end, are good things that we just need to learn to manage. And we need to concentrate on human relationships as the foundation of good lives, rather than stuff. If we can't do that, we're going to ruin the planet, and its ability to support us.
I am so proud of President Biden and his administration. They have accomplished more to raise our economy and standard of living than has been done in 40 years. Reaganomics has fueled our economic, healthcare and basic inequalities, and the demise of a prosperous economy for all. President Biden’s agenda has been to build our economy by creating and promoting jobs for everyone that help everyone in our country to prosper. I am extremely disgusted by the Repugnant house with their AR 15 lapel pins, and most of all voting Congresswoman Omar off the Foreign Relations Committee. What a bunch of weasels (although I don’t want to insult weasels), I believe they are intimidated by her grace and power.
Karen and all,
I have found myself, once again, swallowed up in the mystery of how it could be that so many Republican voters can support policies that are so self defeating and so antithetical to the religions they claim to embrace. It is astounding how stupid they are. Yet we search for the pitch, the reasoning, the logic, the appeal to their intelligence - that might get them to eschew the Republican lies and vicious propaganda. I get sucked in.
But there is no point in trying to find the evidence or convincing argument that would shift their positions - even slightly. They are hard hearted immovable boulders built on bullshit.
Instead, I recommend that we build our "base". And ensure that they vote. There are more of us than "them". The problem is that too many of "us" are disillusioned with politics as a whole. they blame both parties and fade into their personal lives. They have given up.
And the largest group in the above paragraph doesn't read newsletters like this. They are Gen Y and Gen Z. They see a Democratic Party led by people so old they can't begin to relate to them. As much as I love and have admired Biden, Pelosi and company it is time for the 40 and 50 year olds to assume the lead. They would have at least some chance of connecting with tictokers, etc.
Those younger generations glaze over when they hear Biden speak. They are amused or worried by his shuffling walk.
We are about to give the Republicans the gift of our apathy. We need top level politicians who can inspire with youthful vigor. Pelosi did the graceful and smart thing. Will Biden?
Before everyone starts ranting about how wonderful Biden has been, I will pre-answer with I AGREE! But if two whole generations fail to vote, we are doomed. It's not about Biden's abilities. It's about his ability to draw votes from people 1/2 or 1/3 his age.
Here is what I wrote to President Biden. Karen, you have read this already. But maybe a few others have not.
https://billalstrom.substack.com/p/dear-president-biden
Bill, While I agree with the first sentence that follows, there is much about your post that raises questions we must also factor in to our desire to get out the vote. "Instead, I recommend that we build our "base". And ensure that they vote. There are more of us than "them". The problem is that too many of "us" are disillusioned with politics as a whole. they blame both parties and fade into their personal lives. They have given up."
Here's the #1 question: With gerrymandering of so many districts in deep red states, what is the path forward that will give us the majorities need in districts throughout the country?
Why don't we begin to focus more on the younger folks that have now moved in to leadership positions? Wouldn't it be beneficial to highlight the leadership of Hakeem Jeffries, Reps. Katherine Clark, and Peter Aguilar?
Who are the young leaders we can celebrate and promote in each of our states? Is someone or some group developing and getting them into the public consciousness?
Why do we spend time on speaking about Biden with a focus on convincing him to step aside? Let's find the means to get the attention of Gen Y and Gen Z, without taking the time to undermine a president who has been wildly successful under the most incredible conditions.
Why, in essence, do we want to spent time putting the onus on President Biden? Let's build from the middle and bottom up as he has done with his economic programs? Let's create viable paths for good leaders throughout the government and across state boundaries.
I ask that you forgive me, but as someone who was unimpressed by the calls for "we need a moderate" and "Joe's the only one who can do it" in 2020, it has been equally unimpressive that many immediately started taking shots at a good President and his age very soon after he entered office, particularly since TFG is 76 and still gets way too much attention.
I'd like to a collective focus on positives and a winning strategy that unites Democrats. Can we do that? Are we doing that? Is someone doing that?
Here are some disconcerting names and their ages: DeSantis (44), Nikki Haley (51), Kristi Noem (51), Mike Pompeo (59), Mike Pence (63). Can we offer a list of Democrats that match the attention these scary potential candidates are getting? If so, let's do so. And let's put them front and center in our conversations.
Why are we so incredibly reluctant to see the merits of strong leaders like Alexander Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Pramila Jayapal, Michael Bennett, Gavin Newsom, Rep Cheri Bustos, Adam Schiff, & Kate Porter? I would venture to say that among this short list you will find none who have been as offensive and bullying as MGT, Lauren Boebert, or Matt Gaetz. They have been, in my opinion, people who speak to the issues and are not focused on performance.
We must come together around a solid message and good, articulate leaders who are eager to take on the Republicans. We need to speak to voters widely, deeply and without hesitation. In fact, given her last two days of blog posts it appears that Heather Cox-Richardson needs to be central to the Democratic messaging.
Enough! I go on too much. My apologies if my comments offend. I am eager to see the positive in regard to how we move forward. Thank you for reading.
I'm happy to say in Connecticut we have Chris Murphy in the Senate and Jim Himes in the House. Both have a lot of national exposure and are on the younger side.
That was brilliantly said, John. Thank you for going on as long as you did to make your point. Very inspiring and forward thinking!
John, no offense taken! I enjoyed your comment. Yes, there many Democratic leaders that we can celebrate and boost. You will see some of them in my subsequent comments.
The reason for the focus on Biden is not to say he is deficient or underperforming. On the contrary.
It's the fact that the top of the ticket attracts voters or not.
I'm 76, and my friends my age would love younger people to step up in politics and civic life. Many are juggling busy, pressured lives; many aren't paying attention. They don't want old people running the country, organizations, agencies, committees, and such (I don't either); but too few are stepping up to take positions of responsibility, at least where I live.
Don't get me started about people of any age who don't vote, or don't even know there are important elections. That's a whole other topic. Aaarrrggghhhh!
I agree with everything you said Bill. I was applauding Biden’s and the Biden Administration’s achievements. I totally understand your point about his age and the younger generations. And we definitely need their votes. That being said, the 2024 election is creeping up on us fast. Who will be that younger candidate who will energize the young, and challenge Biden in the primary, if he definitely decides to run? I haven’t heard anyone hinting at running, except maybe Gavin Newsom. I suppose anyone interested In running is waiting for Biden to officially announce. What are your thoughts on who that candidate might be Bill?
I think the Democratic bench is deep. We should remember it never occurred to anyone that Obama could be a contender - until he was. I like Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. But there is Polis, Fetterman and Shapiro to name a few. I love Raskin and Schiff. Whitehouse?
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/11/democrats-have-solid-options-if-biden-doesnt-run-in-2024.html
Buttigieg - could be risky and maybe he should wait another cycle. But he is the brightest and most articulate person on the national stage except for my "hometown" woman....
Warren - her adamant style is wonderful. But she has that "problem". When she gets intense, people will call her "shrill". Sound familiar? Of course, if she were a guy, he would be called powerful. And then she is 73, so while I think she is "youthful", I think maybe I would prefer someone much younger.
And don't write off Harris. Being VP is a really tough act. I give her high marks for doing it the right way. And I would sleep really well if she were running the "situation room". I would also love to see her square off with Putin. She would shred him.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3658507-the-seven-democrats-most-likely-to-run-for-president-if-biden-bows-out/
Yes, we have an impressive group of potential candidates. I admire everyone you mentioned. I would also add Mallory McMorrow, Michigan State Senator, to the group. At least a consideration for Vice President if not President. I guess whether any of them run though is dependent on Biden’s decision. As I don’t know that any of them would challenge him in the primary.
Agreed. I think Biden commands their respect.
McMorrow is wonderful. And not just as a speaker. She helped turn the legislature blue. No idea what her ambitions are. But she is a force.
Biden may wait as long as possible to decide. There is always that lame duck thing. But it's not like he can get anything through the Clown House anyway.
Good point Bill.
Another candidate I think would be good is Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI.
Indeed, President Biden has exceeded expectations, especially accomplishing bipartisan legislation, which was scoffed at, early on.
I read your essay, for the two youngest generations to NOT vote would be beyond disastrous.
I agree!!
I think they love guns more than a u tied country. Sadly.
That is NOT going to happen! Capitol police will start quitting.
Like Jeffries and Swalwell said before, Omar’s presence on the Foreign Affairs Committee was very important and Qevin knows that. Because he is kissing MGT’s ass, he made sure she was ousted. Pure and simple revenge.
The wild wild West!
These current, angry, looking for a fight, rethugs in the chamber are boys with toys and can not be trusted with weapons, especially when confronted with the truth. Disgusting and an embarrassment to our country.
Well Janet, you are correct. I hope that everyone in Colorado is working this very moment to see that Lauren Boebert does not scrap by with 600 votes in the next election. We must see her in the rear view mirror with people fully understanding how she did not and will not serve their or the country's best interests.
Well CA has Qevin and talk about an embarrASSment!
One of my real concerns is that now the mags are gone and apparently ANYONE can carry weapons into the Capitol, there's an even higher risk that one of the MAGAT base will try to assassinate Biden, especially TOMORROW @ the State Of the Union Address. Given what the Secret Service has done by wiping their phones and other behaviors, there could be a real risk from them as well.
Janet R,
Guns in the Chamber is appalling, outrageous, to say nothing of extremely dangerous.
Masks banned on the Floor of the Chamber has been proposed.
Does Speaker McCarthy possess no conscience?
Well said, Janet R.
Tragic for this inholy nation.
Although Biden was not my first choice as a democratic primary candidate for President, I am now a supporter and true fan of his performance. I am truly impressed, in fact awed, by his steadiness, his composure, and his extremely well-informed performance in a job that has had enormous, and almost insurmountable tasks and tests, both seeable and unseeable.
I might have preferred Bernie Sanders, but I think Biden's going to go down as the best and most successful president since FDR. I suspect that as with Nancy Pelosi, a large part of it is learning from experience over a long career. Both of them have served us incredibly well.
Maybe a few GOPers will actually come to understand that financially, the average American is much better off under a Democratic president, and that tax cuts for the very wealthy do not trickle down to the rest of us.
Biden also played a critical role getting broad support for Ukraine, support that bolsters Democracy generally.
I hope someone writes a really good bio.
We can’t wait for the bio we need to every chance we get remind people what the Democrats have accomplished that impacts them while they watch the clown show in the House.
I couldn't agree with you more!
Indeed, experience counts for something - counts for a LOT! With Speaker Pelosi's 35+ years and President Biden's 50+ years that's almost a century of institutional, constitutional, and diplomatic/personal knowledge of governing. Governing, not showboating.
Also from MA. Also didn't vote for Joe in the primary. I am a Warren fan. But I agree with every word you said.
My policy prefs are most closely in line with Sanders and Warren and pretty evenly with both and roughly 90% agreement. But I thought Sanders had a much better chance of winning a presidential election than Warren.
I actually got scared into voting for Bloomberg.
And I'm very happy with Biden. I started being concerned about policies when LBJ was in office--my family was against the Vietnam war--and Biden is the first president who is making me happy with his successes. (I'm not happy about immigration--I want the numbers greatly reduced, and a national mandatory E-Verify, and this is an issue I feel quite strongly on--but I'm a realist, and I almost can't believe all the good things happening under Biden. And I so like being politically happy, for once in a long life. (Oh, I was happy under JFK, but I didn't really know what was happening from age 7-10, so it doesn't count.)
This book was just released in January. Can’t wait to get it! - “The Fight of His Life. Inside Joe Biden’s White House” by Chris Whipple
A book about a Presidential administration without news of corruption and malfeasance. How refreshing.
I know - what a concept…
Thank you for that! I hadn't heard.
I agree with you Angela. I, too, didn’t want Biden to win the democratic nomination. I was mad about the Clarence Thomas hearings still. But he’s an excellent President who may go down in history in a similar fashion as FDR.
He did terribly on Clarence Thomas. But he IS an excellent president, and certainly the best since FDR. Experience and a willingness to learn matter.
Angela, I completely agree. We are a better nation because of President Biden and his policies. We, as citizens, must do all we can to help this administration.
Absolutely agree with you Angela. Each day I am so grateful that Joe Biden is our President. His leadership, his knowledge, his instincts, his character, his Empathy for others make him the right person for this role at the right time. ♥️
Robert makes the totally appropriate point that Presidents generally get too much blame for a weak economy under their aegis and they frequently try to take too much credit for a strong performance. But Robert is, I believe, equally correct to say that the current strength of the US bears an unusually direct relationship to specific policies of the Biden administration, particularly legislation that only barely passed with unanimous Democratic support and the most minimal support by GOP members of the House and Senate. Further, the spectacular January jobs report can be partially discounted as perhaps a one-off aberration. But what cannot be discounted is the country's solidly upward economic performance during the first two years of the Biden presidency. The present extremely low unemployment rate of 3.4% is in stark contrast to its 6.7% level in the last month of the Trump presidency, when it was admittedly negatively affected by Covid. But the BLS statistics on employment offer a more accurate measure of the jobs market: the Real Unemployment Rate. This broader measure includes "Discouraged Workers" who have ceased looking for work but would take a job if offered; "Marginally Attached Workers" who haven't looked for a job in the past month but have sometime in the preceding year; and the large group called "Part-time of necessity" who are involuntarily working fewer than 40 hours/week. This Real Unemployment Rate currently stands at a more accurate 6.7%, also at a near-record low. That "Real Unemployment Rate" stood at 11.2% when Biden assumed office. That is his REAL and very dramatic achievement. And for those who think this accomplishment is vitiated by inflation, one needs to realize that two-thirds of the current 6.5% inflation rate has been offset by wage gains, making the actual squeeze on the average consumer's purchasing power only reduced by roughly 2%.
Thank you. I, for one, don’t blame Trump for the high unemployment in the depths of the pandemic. But I do blame him for hundreds of thousands of needless deaths from COVID and relatives causes through ignorance, selfishness and stupidity.
Dump, the orange idiot, should be placed in cuffs, put on a C-130 with no warm clothes, then immediately flown to The Hague and charged with crimes against humanity. He essentially murdered millions of people with his ego and callousness. Oh and remember Jareds role, he made millions. I can’t think of a bad enough adjective for them, although I have searched. OH and the attention and media coverage!
Roger, I read many years ago in US News & World Report back when print magazines were more abundant, that voting for a Republican for president was tantamount to voting for a recession. What are you thoughts?
I think there is empirical evidence that the most severe US recessions (mid-70's, early-80's, 2008) happened under Republican presidents. But I am reluctant to jump to claim that typical Republican policies are the causation of economic recessions. But I think it is safe to say that the GOP has been historically the party of Big Business and not of working people. This has, in the past, made them far less sensitive to wage earners (as opposed to salary earners) being thrown out of work. It will be interesting to see if the massive shift of working-class voters in the Trump era into dependable Republican voters will create a greater sensitivity to the economic interests of wage-earners. I doubt it, because these voters are moved by a variety of cultural, not economic, interests. If their primary concern was their economic interests, they would almost assuredly vote for Democrats.
Clear examples of such are the voters in states that refuse Medicaid expansion. They vote on denying women health and reproductive care and they vote based on bigoted rhetoric about race and sexual orientation. They simply love to hate - to their own detriment.
Thanks f this closer look at the numbers and more. RUR new to me. But very revealing comparison!! Wish MSM wojuld do this. Biden in short is Amazing.
And every day that I get discouraged by the outrageous, unethical, and inhumane deeds/performances of the far right and far too many Republicans, it is balanced and countered by the intelligence, brilliance, and hard work of the democrats and the progressive effort.
While some R's begin to distance themselves from the toxic members, they still vote in a block with the AR rifle pin-wearers. The Republicans are dreadful, but they have lots of money on their side, still.
I only wish this good economic news would filter down to the people who have been distracted by the drumbeat of negativity of Fox and other right wing outlets. We need to tout the Biden accomplishments in all our social media posts.
Alas, they have their own reality, thanks to President Reagan's having gotten rid of the Fairness Doctrine.
The folks who are enslaved by Fox-Not-News aren’t reading our social media posts any more than I’m reading theirs.
Sent it out there!!!
Democrats should take your words: "Under Biden’s leadership, Democrats in Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, the bi-partisan infrastructure act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Unemployment reached 14% during the height of the shutdown and is now at a 50-year low of 3.4% [and is] combined with historically low unemployment, falling inflation, and reasonable GDP growth (2.9%)" and turn them into advertisements that capture the narrative between now and November, 2024.
Billboards, we need billboards!
Ha! Just what I thought as I read that, remembering the thread from a few days ago.
I actually think Biden's ploddingly, boringly, uncharismatic COMPETENCE is Lincolnesque. Not everyone recalls how viciously vilified Lincoln often was in the North during his Presidency. (Think: Biden's chronically low poll numbers and "doddering/dementia" epithets.) As Lincoln said about his own performance, “I do the very best I can, I mean to keep going. If the end brings me out all right, then what is said against me won't matter. If I'm wrong, ten angels swearing I was right won't make a difference.” I'll bet Biden is familiar with that quotation.
We all need to spread the word of Bidens successes while we work to help those at the bottom of the economic ladder. As the millionaires have the Corp of Engineers planning beach replenishment for their waterfront mansions the lower class struggle with years of neglect for their neighborhoods in Florida.
IPad was uncooperative and I can’t seem to delete it. Finished that thought further down beginning “Let’s try that again.” Maybe Admin can fix this for me.
That's why it's so critical to keep the radical rednecks in check so the sabotage they're so hell bent on inflicting on America 🇺🇸 is kept to a minimum
A good weekend to be sure. Let’s carry on and feel strong. No sense in joining the chaos when we have goals to tend to this year and beyond. Thank you Robert for the good news!
Great news and great material for Dems to be running on through the next cycle. We all need to get this message out strong and loud. Regarding current affairs: Americans will not long put up with the bankrupt, sophomoric shenanigans House GOP is currently engaging in. In the end, people want their government to run in such a way that it continues to address their needs, provide stability and adjust to changing times. Thinking that guns will provide that is appropriate for Gunsmoke, but not 21th century America. However problematic the American voting public is, they will put up only so long with a circus like the one we are seeing--a pretty lame one at that. We all know that if you want a circus, you hire a clown. Congress ain't the Big Tent, and most people will not countenance it becoming one.
Is FOX News/Opinion congenitally undemocratic? Are they hoping for a strong authoritarian like Putin or Orban or Bolsonaro? I'm not sure why they're so down on our current government - other than they don't control it as they seem to have the previous administration.
Yes.
Yes, Robert, this is good news indeed. I'm generally not a "glass half full" or "glass half empty" person. I'm more of an "It is what it is" kind of guy. But, I can't help but think of all the good - all the amazing - things that could have gotten done if Dems had retained the House and gotten a stronger hold on the Senate (i.e. - with the ability to get rid of the filibuster!). Instead, we are mired in the McClown congress and still have to deal with the whims of Manchin and Sinema.
We now look to 2024 and have to work hard to keep Joe Biden (or possibly another Dem - Go Joe!) in the W.H. AND retain the Senate AND retake the House to continue to move the country in a positive direction and get done the litany of things that are left undone, despite the insurrection crowd in Congress, FAUX "news," and the corrupt Robert's SCOTUS.
Ahhh...the work never ends, but I'm grateful for what the first two years of President Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer's leadership brought us. I'm also grateful for you and the other amazing writers with SubStack newsletters that help bring perspective to the crazy times that are the 21st c. in America.
Well, that balloon is occupying a lot of my mind this weekend. What a strange thing. While it's alarming enough to cancel a diplomatic visit to China, it's benign enough to let it float. Hmmm, something does not add up. And how does a weather balloon remain stationary over a military site anyway?
AD: The balloon has been shot down in the Atlantic, off the coast of South Carolina, in shallow water to facilitate its recovery. Republicans are having tantrums that it traversed the US. They're accusing Joe of being Slow. Obviously they did not read the very good responses to my post that some readers added below.
The weather ballon is being controlled by satellite communications and is so high in the sky that shooting it down would be a challenge and the consequences unknown. What the public doesn’t know is if we are scrambling the Chinese signals and providing false data to make the mission irrelevant. What’s more interesting is how Democrats and Republicans react to it. Republicans want to bully and shoot it down and not worry about the consequences whereas the Democrats after evaluating all options decided that talking to China first and sending them a message is a more an effective diplomatic approach and better positions us on the world stage.
Thank you, stephen. I had almost forgotten that there are reasons behind the actions.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/04/chinese-balloon-pentagon-intelligence-details/Here is what I believe is an accurate accounting of what happened.
Apparently, the balloon is so big that its payload is about 30,000 lbs. of equipment, and there is—of is said to be fear of the damage all that junk could do if it were shot out of the sky.
The balloon caused Antony Blinken’s trip to China to be called off, so I guess we could say that the trip is up in the air. China says it’s a weather balloon, butt perhaps now better described as a whether-or-not balloon. And if it’s experimental, does that make it a trial balloon?
Keep your day job! The comedy career looks iffy . . .
Haha! Thanks for the smiles, Jon! Punning is the best indictor of one's intelligence.
Thanks for helping me start the morning off with some laughs!
Cute comment.
[Groan!] Interesting points, nonetheless.
Pretty sure the DOD and other intelligence experts have 'managed' the balloon's systems. It IS a flagrant breach by China to float it over the US.
Agree. The balloon is still aloft because it benefits the US to keep it so.
"Squirrel?"
It is bizarre. But from what I've read about it I'm not much worried about it. (If anyone IS worried about it, please give me your thoughts on that.)
As Barbara Jordan - former U.S. House of Representative from Texas - would say: Team Biden has put the "N" back in "Government." What's not to love?!
She had a great political career. She ended it running a commission on immigration reform under President Clinton, which ultimately recommended cutting immigration roughly in half, because too much immigration was taking jobs from Blacks and American workers, and strict enforcement of immigration laws. And in fact, in 1980, most meat packers were Black workers, earning a good middle class wage. By that decade's end, most were immigrants, working for barely more than minimum wage, under atrocious conditions.
Jordan died shortly after her commission released its recommendations, and they weren't adopted. Had they been adopted, I suspect Trump would not have been elected, as immigration was his signature issue in that first election. I think we would have been spared a lot of tsuris had he never occupied the White House.
But maybe, just maybe, the GOPers will come to realize how much good Biden is doing.
Good points and use of Yiddish but what most Americans won’t admit is many of the jobs migrant workers do are jobs no one else will do and are the foundation of many businesses in our economy
That's actually not true. In 1980, Black workers predominated in meat packing, earning good middle class wages. By that decade's end, the Black workers were gone, and immigrants predominated, earning barely above minimum wage, toiling under atrocious conditions, where amputations were common.
There's a recent book, which you should read: Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, by Roy Beck ($13 on Amazon). The book is solid--covers the academic economic history in detail, as well as statements from Black leaders, beginning with Frederick Douglass, whose sons were downwardly mobile due to too much immigration; Black periodicals, and gov't commissions on immigration reform. (296 footnotes). Despite all thta history, the book is well written, and fascinating, as the author was an environmental journalist for three decades.
The book gives the lie to that notion of jobs American workers won't do. The problem is pay they shouldn't have to accept. Among other things, the author interviewed a bunch of Black poultry workers on Maryland's Eastern Shore, who'd been let go in favor of immigrants. Would they take their old jobs back, the author asked them? NO, because the wages were so low they'd have to live in their cars, or many to a house.
Mass immigration is business's way of keeping wages low. This is why the Koch organization, Mark Zuckerberg, and big biz GOPers generally favor more immigration. Immigration is a bipartisan issue, that is, both sides have both parties supporting them. I'm a left wing Democrat, from a family of Democrats, and I support greatly reducing immigration both for the sake of workers, and for the environment. (The US population is unsustainable at current rates of consumption, immigrants come here to consume like Americans--that's what draws them here instead of other Central and SouthAmerican countries, and in the next several decades millions Americans are going to become climate refugees. This is a bad time to grow the US population, but the Census Bureau says we're going to add the equivalent of four NY States over the next 4 decades, 90% of that from immigration.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/15/magazine/climate-crisis-migration-america.html
I appreciate your factual information but you are not viewing the situation on a broad basis. The part you need to add onto your equation is the aging of the American workplace and the retirement of the Baby Boomers which is creating a major problem such as Japan is experiencing now. I live in NC and we have a very large immigrant population and the jobs and businesses they have created are service oriented and they are making good working wages way above minimum wage. It’s not the pay they receive it’s the work they are doing which requires manual labour and long hours.
Things aren't always totally black and white. But it's clear that mass immigration has been used largely as a way to keep wages low throughout most of our history. One of the interesting things was that even in the 19th century, business owners sent ships to Europe to bring back workers, so that they wouldn't have to employ Black people. And the working wages, which were largely stagnant for 40 years beginning in 1980, were that way in no small part because of mass immigration.
I don't now the situation in NC, but I suspect that having a critical mass of immigrants who could start businesses and hire their fellows helped to make the situation possible that you describe.
But the US and the world need to stop growing. I studied sustainability in a class with John Holdren, at Berkeley, in 1975, and I've written a moderate amount about it since. We depend on ecosystem services, among other things, for clean water, clean air, carbon dioxide sequestration, disease prevention, and maintaining biodiversity.
Tick-borne diseases in the US, and covid and HIV on their respective continents of origin almost certainly got into the human population as a consequence of population growth, and recently a group of scientists warned about this sort of thing becoming more common in Nature, one of the more prestigious biological science journals.
The populations of birds, insects, and many other creatures have plummeted over the last 50 years not just in the US, but in Europe and elsewhere, in large part due to human encroachment and degradation of ecosystem services. In Africa, in 1900 there were around 20 million elephants, creatures that are arguably among the smartest nonhumans on the planet, that make migrations of thousands of miles annually in their quest for food and water. By 2000, the African population, in the low millions, had swelled to a billion, and the population of elephants had plummeted to less than half a million. The African population, now 1.5 billion, is expected to swell to 3 billion in a generation, which will likely push elephants to extinction in the wild, along with the rest of the megafauna.
Humans and our livestock now represent 96% of the mass of mammals, we use something like 40% of the world's habitable land for agriculture and livestock. If we keep growing our populations and consumption, we will find
We are going to need to figure out how to run economies without so much junk that adds nothing to peoples' well being. the most important factor in human well being appears to be human relationships, not stuff. In '09, I think it was, social scientists figured out that in then current dollars, additional income beyond $75k did nothing to boost human happiness. the $75k was enough to live in comfort and without want.
We need to figure out how to live at that level, and the declining population in China and Japan, and hopefully in the US before the century's end, are good things that we just need to learn to manage. And we need to concentrate on human relationships as the foundation of good lives, rather than stuff. If we can't do that, we're going to ruin the planet, and its ability to support us.
I love this headline, Robert! Thank you for it.