My sincere hope that your moutnain eyrie (and the community) may be saved from the fires, and respect and admiration for the firefighters who volunteer to risk their lives. They are heroes even if the fire turns away on its own.
This may be off topic, but someone clarify please why the USA seems to have no vehicle for conducting a national referendum. This would work much better than polls to show the congress what the general population wants. I am certain that a general referendum would let Congress know that people want action on a number of topics, including this current mess over the debit ceiling, voting rights, women's human rights, and Build Back Better.
I feel like a frog leg in a petri dish, exhausted of all the chemicals that cause it to twitch. One statement you make that inspires me is “We need to stop governing from a place of fear and start governing from a place of confidence.” And competence! Amen. It may sound heretical to say so, but sometimes I wish politicians could be vetted in such a way as to disqualify the most cynical whose sole raison d’etre is reelection by any means. As for attention economy literature, I only know books, notably The Attention Economy, but Jared Lanier is one of the best authors on the workings and pitfalls of the social media. Thank you as always for keeping hope alive.
I am so sad to hear the fire is still going and is so close to your cabin community. We are now having month after month of our highest average temperatures on record. It is here. It is here.
"As I have said before, if Democrats can’t explain to the American people why paying the nation’s bills is a good thing, they don’t deserve to be elected." Robert, I believe I have agreed with similar statements you have made before, and I will now double down on that. There is nothing that has frustrated me about Ds more for years, maybe decades, than their seeming inability to communicate messages that should not be that hard to convey. Some people have told told mt that its because Ds are too beholden to the truth, more than Rs, but I don't buy that as the reason because I think the Ds have the advantage of truth on their side almost all of the time. The great George Laken at the University of California has done work that shows that the Rs recognize they need to message around emotion, not so much reason, and I think this gets closer to the truth but I am not sure why Ds can't do the kind of work that, for example, The Lincoln Project has done.
I share in the collective anxieties and hopes for Biden's Agenda for our country and its people and in humble thanks for the firemen who bravely work to save your mountain cabin and the communities around it. Public servants serving the public exemplifies the highest standards in a democracy. Some in Congress are definitely in that high rank of supporting public needs, to build a strong middle class.
Your comment about the attitudes of Sinema and Mancin in these negotiations was spot on. As someone who sent her money during her run for the senate , she has betrayed my wife's and my trust. I will be waiting to see if there is a primary opponent for her in 2024. We all knew Mancin is a grandstander, and phony democrat. Robert Byrd is spinning in his grave.
Thank you for this. Somehow this newsletter gave me a well nourished feeling. There was a peculiar satisfaction in sharing this on Facebook.
My sincere hope that your moutnain eyrie (and the community) may be saved from the fires, and respect and admiration for the firefighters who volunteer to risk their lives. They are heroes even if the fire turns away on its own.
This may be off topic, but someone clarify please why the USA seems to have no vehicle for conducting a national referendum. This would work much better than polls to show the congress what the general population wants. I am certain that a general referendum would let Congress know that people want action on a number of topics, including this current mess over the debit ceiling, voting rights, women's human rights, and Build Back Better.
I feel like a frog leg in a petri dish, exhausted of all the chemicals that cause it to twitch. One statement you make that inspires me is “We need to stop governing from a place of fear and start governing from a place of confidence.” And competence! Amen. It may sound heretical to say so, but sometimes I wish politicians could be vetted in such a way as to disqualify the most cynical whose sole raison d’etre is reelection by any means. As for attention economy literature, I only know books, notably The Attention Economy, but Jared Lanier is one of the best authors on the workings and pitfalls of the social media. Thank you as always for keeping hope alive.
Corrected reference to Steny Hoyer as Whip for HOUSE not Senate.
I am so sad to hear the fire is still going and is so close to your cabin community. We are now having month after month of our highest average temperatures on record. It is here. It is here.
Score one for Merrick Garland and the DOJ as Judge Robert Pitman temporarily blocks the Texas total abortion ban law. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/us/politics/texas-abortion-law.html?smid=em-share
"As I have said before, if Democrats can’t explain to the American people why paying the nation’s bills is a good thing, they don’t deserve to be elected." Robert, I believe I have agreed with similar statements you have made before, and I will now double down on that. There is nothing that has frustrated me about Ds more for years, maybe decades, than their seeming inability to communicate messages that should not be that hard to convey. Some people have told told mt that its because Ds are too beholden to the truth, more than Rs, but I don't buy that as the reason because I think the Ds have the advantage of truth on their side almost all of the time. The great George Laken at the University of California has done work that shows that the Rs recognize they need to message around emotion, not so much reason, and I think this gets closer to the truth but I am not sure why Ds can't do the kind of work that, for example, The Lincoln Project has done.
I share in the collective anxieties and hopes for Biden's Agenda for our country and its people and in humble thanks for the firemen who bravely work to save your mountain cabin and the communities around it. Public servants serving the public exemplifies the highest standards in a democracy. Some in Congress are definitely in that high rank of supporting public needs, to build a strong middle class.
Your comment about the attitudes of Sinema and Mancin in these negotiations was spot on. As someone who sent her money during her run for the senate , she has betrayed my wife's and my trust. I will be waiting to see if there is a primary opponent for her in 2024. We all knew Mancin is a grandstander, and phony democrat. Robert Byrd is spinning in his grave.