Say what you will about Joe Biden, but as far as I am concerned, he has all what one could want in a President. Do I agree with everything he says or proposes -No, but neither would I find that with anyone else. He is honest and honorable and wants to see the best in others. Right now he is operating under a bum rap. He has no control over inflation and by himself has little control over much of anything - he is constrained by what Congress will pas- and these days what a hypocritical and religiously biased Supreme Court does. Yes he can do some things by Executive Orders, but how long would they last if the other party gets in. He has to contend with a bunch of ego centric reps and senators and that is just within his own party. The other party has made it perfectly clear that they will vote against [virtually] anything he is for and all they want to do is impeach him and go after his son. The job he has is arguably the most difficult in the world and what he inherited is/was a mess. Did he make the epidemic worse -no it was those who preached the opposite- did he make inflation like it is -of course not. Does he get the blame for everything including the recent supreme court decisions.
It was also clear how he felt about meeting with the jerk from Saudi Arabia, but there are times when you have to do what arguably is best for the country and while he could have done it differently, that is not the kind of person Joe Biden is. Whether he runs again or should run again I'm not sure about, but I do believe the current priority is not and should not be that. I understand that is my bias , but I do believe that he was and is the best choice for the ungodly mess we are still in.
The Jan. 6th committee continues to shine as does Liz Chaney. It's too bad more from her party? don't have the guts that she has.
I write in response to the Newsletter’s account of Joe Manchin who, aside from supporting the narrow (all be they important) provisions to lower prescription drug prices and to extend enhanced ACA subsidies through 2025, has virtually upended the President’s entire social and climate legislative agenda slated to pass under budget reconciliation.
As a start, it should be noted, in addition to healthcare, that West Virginians repeatedly have prioritized jobs, childcare, housing, and tax reform as vital to their well-being. I imagine that majorities in other red states have expressed similar priorities. It further is of note that workers affiliated with the United Coal Miners Union are itching for the training to help them make the transition from the fossil fuel industry to clean energy jobs.
Hence, as I’ve stated elsewhere, it is beyond comprehension that Biden and Democratic leadership have failed to go make the argument in West Virginia, and also in the red parts of Mississippi and Alabama, and in other States and say, “This is what we have tried to deliver and these folks have voted against it.” Simply put, Democrats have to be willing to engage in war. The other side has shown that it will do whatever is necessary to attain power. Therefore, it is incumbent upon Democrats, receipts in hand, to say to the country, “America, when they didn’t care about you, we did.”
To amplify the endeavors of at least 48 Senate Democrats who have engaged in serious discussions in an honest effort to arrive at compromises that would have improved life for tens of millions of working people, it remains all-important that leadership engage everyday people nationwide and ask, “Who do you want here—somebody who doesn’t want to expand the child tax credit or those who do?” “Somebody who doesn’t want to provide affordable, quality childcare and universal Pre-K or those who do?” Doesn’t want to make investments in housing, in eldercare, and in climate or those who do?”
The point I repeatedly emphasize is that Democrats, replete with receipts, have an extraordinary narrative, if only they would deliver it.
Despite the many distasteful optics of the Saudi visit, I believe it was on balance positive for America and the world. The choice for Biden was not, in my opinion, a matter of going vs. not going. Rather the alternate to bestowing such tacit approval on MBS was making Biden's refusal to do so a major issue in and of itself. Thus President Biden made what I suspect was a narrow calculation, one that led to his careful balancing of some complex priorities.
With regards to Bidens Middle East trip, let us remember that FDR and Churchill met with Stalin during WWII. A man responsible for millions of deaths - not just one. We are again at war in Europe now. We are at war at home. We needed Stalin and we need MBS to continue his rapprochement with Israel.
Emotionally, I had a gag reflex seeing the "fist bump". But Biden is right when he says "let's talk about something important".
MBS may be a murdering monster who treats women as second class humans, but please, look at what the US is doing to women! Let's remember the millions WE have displaced, wounded or killed over the last decades in stupid cruel regionally destabilizing wars. In Iraq we literally set the stage for the creation of ISIS. 20 years of war in Afghanistan and how does that country look now? And we whine about the death of a single journalist?
We have no moral purity and to assert that hypocrisy about the death of one person is like looking at one frame in a very long movie that we really don't want to see.
Writing post cards seems the least we can do, writing letters will be getting started but talking to neighbors about the issues is not easy but seems the next step at this time. We have to believe that we can win this critical battle. Getting Inactive Voters to vote in the Primary we believe is a way to target these mostly young registered Democratic voters who haven't voted in the last two elections.
I guess there is a possibility that when McCarthy appoints Jordan to investigate the investigators, Gym Jordan will appear to malignant and over-blown as he talks right over any sincere attempts to answer a question that the rest of us will be appalled. But it starts with the voters in California's 23rd and Ohio's 4th. The country would be so much of a better place if those two individuals were sent packing.
I’m so tired of the Republican BS and threats. If they get back in power they won’t have hearings because the Democrats unlike the Republicans have not done anything illegal and this a another bluff on their part. We can make the midterms a statement that we are tired of there BS. Folks we need to remember and not forget what the Trump administration has done relative to Saudi Arabia. Trump promised the families of 9/11 he would seek remediations from Saudi Arabia which never happened and as people focus on the fist bump that Biden made with MSB remember that Trump is supporting the Saudi’s golf tournaments at his country clubs which generate millions of dollars and respectability world wide. He never confronted MSB over the assignation and dismemberment of a journalist because he was too busy making business deals along with his son in law. Give me a break.
Thank you as always for your sage comments and advice. When confronted by the days events and happenings I return again to mumbling to myself over and over, “You can't fix stupid, but you can vote it out.” It seems this is the best guidance I can add to your own sage counsel.
I am writing this knowing that the theme of this newsletter is hope and optimism. I am a fan and read the newsletter daily, yet I think it is missing the language that will help expand beyond the silo to get more people angry and fearful enough to vote. How can the GOP run successfully on phony issues such as CRT, Grooming, Pedophilia, while the Democrats can't be clear on the issues that really effect people and make them sound threatening and important enough to motivate voters.
For example, discussing a world "post-Dobbs" is not reaching the people who will be scared for their children and grandchildren at a time of forced birth for raped girls. I doubt most people follow the news closely enough to know what Dobbs refers to and how it will impact their lives. What I am learning from the GOP is to write with a crayon. We still need well thought out and researched essay's, and tips on where to do outreach to get out the vote (thank you for doing that so frequently. It has motivated me) but also help in identifying the language and tone that will get the not so political motivated to vote.
Perhaps we could crowd fund live broadcast rights to Rep. Cheney's deposition; you're quite right in the level of interest it would spark and the level of risk the McCarthyites would take if they chose to do that.
The job of getting and keeping momentum going for the 2022 elections would be much easier if the national Democratic party's major public figures could/would grab one songbook and start singing the same song from it. Will Rodgers was right when he said he didn't belong to an organized political party and it looks like none of the current generation of Democrats does either.
Well said Robert, let the Republicans shoot themselves in the foot. The DOJ could also get on the ball and make any performative b.s. they have planned moot.
For all Monday morning political pundits (myself included),....."But I acknowledge that I am not President of the United States, and my strong preference for moral purity is unencumbered by real-world consequences. Joe Biden does not have that luxury."
Democrats are right to show their anger at Manchin and Sinema. We want voters to be engaged and raise awareness about the things that the party stands for. If that message is troubled by Senators like Manchin it confuses the voter. Why aren't those two Independent?
I am with you on Biden's fundamental decency and that his focus is on doing good for our country. He's also known for his physical gaffes. But that fist bump with murdering MBS? Set just the wrong bro tone. You don't fist bump a pariah.
With the increased influence of Christian Nationalism and libertarianism, I appreciate the selected comments from the Saturday newsletter that focus on pivital races this November. I would be interested in having your perspective on the most critical Governor, Senator, House and miscellaneous other races this November.
Say what you will about Joe Biden, but as far as I am concerned, he has all what one could want in a President. Do I agree with everything he says or proposes -No, but neither would I find that with anyone else. He is honest and honorable and wants to see the best in others. Right now he is operating under a bum rap. He has no control over inflation and by himself has little control over much of anything - he is constrained by what Congress will pas- and these days what a hypocritical and religiously biased Supreme Court does. Yes he can do some things by Executive Orders, but how long would they last if the other party gets in. He has to contend with a bunch of ego centric reps and senators and that is just within his own party. The other party has made it perfectly clear that they will vote against [virtually] anything he is for and all they want to do is impeach him and go after his son. The job he has is arguably the most difficult in the world and what he inherited is/was a mess. Did he make the epidemic worse -no it was those who preached the opposite- did he make inflation like it is -of course not. Does he get the blame for everything including the recent supreme court decisions.
It was also clear how he felt about meeting with the jerk from Saudi Arabia, but there are times when you have to do what arguably is best for the country and while he could have done it differently, that is not the kind of person Joe Biden is. Whether he runs again or should run again I'm not sure about, but I do believe the current priority is not and should not be that. I understand that is my bias , but I do believe that he was and is the best choice for the ungodly mess we are still in.
The Jan. 6th committee continues to shine as does Liz Chaney. It's too bad more from her party? don't have the guts that she has.
I write in response to the Newsletter’s account of Joe Manchin who, aside from supporting the narrow (all be they important) provisions to lower prescription drug prices and to extend enhanced ACA subsidies through 2025, has virtually upended the President’s entire social and climate legislative agenda slated to pass under budget reconciliation.
As a start, it should be noted, in addition to healthcare, that West Virginians repeatedly have prioritized jobs, childcare, housing, and tax reform as vital to their well-being. I imagine that majorities in other red states have expressed similar priorities. It further is of note that workers affiliated with the United Coal Miners Union are itching for the training to help them make the transition from the fossil fuel industry to clean energy jobs.
Hence, as I’ve stated elsewhere, it is beyond comprehension that Biden and Democratic leadership have failed to go make the argument in West Virginia, and also in the red parts of Mississippi and Alabama, and in other States and say, “This is what we have tried to deliver and these folks have voted against it.” Simply put, Democrats have to be willing to engage in war. The other side has shown that it will do whatever is necessary to attain power. Therefore, it is incumbent upon Democrats, receipts in hand, to say to the country, “America, when they didn’t care about you, we did.”
To amplify the endeavors of at least 48 Senate Democrats who have engaged in serious discussions in an honest effort to arrive at compromises that would have improved life for tens of millions of working people, it remains all-important that leadership engage everyday people nationwide and ask, “Who do you want here—somebody who doesn’t want to expand the child tax credit or those who do?” “Somebody who doesn’t want to provide affordable, quality childcare and universal Pre-K or those who do?” Doesn’t want to make investments in housing, in eldercare, and in climate or those who do?”
The point I repeatedly emphasize is that Democrats, replete with receipts, have an extraordinary narrative, if only they would deliver it.
Despite the many distasteful optics of the Saudi visit, I believe it was on balance positive for America and the world. The choice for Biden was not, in my opinion, a matter of going vs. not going. Rather the alternate to bestowing such tacit approval on MBS was making Biden's refusal to do so a major issue in and of itself. Thus President Biden made what I suspect was a narrow calculation, one that led to his careful balancing of some complex priorities.
With regards to Bidens Middle East trip, let us remember that FDR and Churchill met with Stalin during WWII. A man responsible for millions of deaths - not just one. We are again at war in Europe now. We are at war at home. We needed Stalin and we need MBS to continue his rapprochement with Israel.
Emotionally, I had a gag reflex seeing the "fist bump". But Biden is right when he says "let's talk about something important".
MBS may be a murdering monster who treats women as second class humans, but please, look at what the US is doing to women! Let's remember the millions WE have displaced, wounded or killed over the last decades in stupid cruel regionally destabilizing wars. In Iraq we literally set the stage for the creation of ISIS. 20 years of war in Afghanistan and how does that country look now? And we whine about the death of a single journalist?
We have no moral purity and to assert that hypocrisy about the death of one person is like looking at one frame in a very long movie that we really don't want to see.
Writing post cards seems the least we can do, writing letters will be getting started but talking to neighbors about the issues is not easy but seems the next step at this time. We have to believe that we can win this critical battle. Getting Inactive Voters to vote in the Primary we believe is a way to target these mostly young registered Democratic voters who haven't voted in the last two elections.
I guess there is a possibility that when McCarthy appoints Jordan to investigate the investigators, Gym Jordan will appear to malignant and over-blown as he talks right over any sincere attempts to answer a question that the rest of us will be appalled. But it starts with the voters in California's 23rd and Ohio's 4th. The country would be so much of a better place if those two individuals were sent packing.
I’m so tired of the Republican BS and threats. If they get back in power they won’t have hearings because the Democrats unlike the Republicans have not done anything illegal and this a another bluff on their part. We can make the midterms a statement that we are tired of there BS. Folks we need to remember and not forget what the Trump administration has done relative to Saudi Arabia. Trump promised the families of 9/11 he would seek remediations from Saudi Arabia which never happened and as people focus on the fist bump that Biden made with MSB remember that Trump is supporting the Saudi’s golf tournaments at his country clubs which generate millions of dollars and respectability world wide. He never confronted MSB over the assignation and dismemberment of a journalist because he was too busy making business deals along with his son in law. Give me a break.
Thank you as always for your sage comments and advice. When confronted by the days events and happenings I return again to mumbling to myself over and over, “You can't fix stupid, but you can vote it out.” It seems this is the best guidance I can add to your own sage counsel.
I am writing this knowing that the theme of this newsletter is hope and optimism. I am a fan and read the newsletter daily, yet I think it is missing the language that will help expand beyond the silo to get more people angry and fearful enough to vote. How can the GOP run successfully on phony issues such as CRT, Grooming, Pedophilia, while the Democrats can't be clear on the issues that really effect people and make them sound threatening and important enough to motivate voters.
For example, discussing a world "post-Dobbs" is not reaching the people who will be scared for their children and grandchildren at a time of forced birth for raped girls. I doubt most people follow the news closely enough to know what Dobbs refers to and how it will impact their lives. What I am learning from the GOP is to write with a crayon. We still need well thought out and researched essay's, and tips on where to do outreach to get out the vote (thank you for doing that so frequently. It has motivated me) but also help in identifying the language and tone that will get the not so political motivated to vote.
Perhaps we could crowd fund live broadcast rights to Rep. Cheney's deposition; you're quite right in the level of interest it would spark and the level of risk the McCarthyites would take if they chose to do that.
The job of getting and keeping momentum going for the 2022 elections would be much easier if the national Democratic party's major public figures could/would grab one songbook and start singing the same song from it. Will Rodgers was right when he said he didn't belong to an organized political party and it looks like none of the current generation of Democrats does either.
Well said Robert, let the Republicans shoot themselves in the foot. The DOJ could also get on the ball and make any performative b.s. they have planned moot.
For all Monday morning political pundits (myself included),....."But I acknowledge that I am not President of the United States, and my strong preference for moral purity is unencumbered by real-world consequences. Joe Biden does not have that luxury."
Very well said !!!!!
Democrats are right to show their anger at Manchin and Sinema. We want voters to be engaged and raise awareness about the things that the party stands for. If that message is troubled by Senators like Manchin it confuses the voter. Why aren't those two Independent?
I agree with your assessment of Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia. I just read an interesting article on the subject: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/17/biden-mohammed-bin-salman-president-dictator-saudi-arabia/
I am with you on Biden's fundamental decency and that his focus is on doing good for our country. He's also known for his physical gaffes. But that fist bump with murdering MBS? Set just the wrong bro tone. You don't fist bump a pariah.
With the increased influence of Christian Nationalism and libertarianism, I appreciate the selected comments from the Saturday newsletter that focus on pivital races this November. I would be interested in having your perspective on the most critical Governor, Senator, House and miscellaneous other races this November.