Robert, first, I highly recommend you take a few days off. I will be so bold as to say your readers will understand and life will go on. I think you’ve earned a three- or four-day weekend. Second, Mr. Kagan lives in his head, and while some people have a full-time job of philosophizing, there are many others doing the hard work of getting the right people elected, even if it’s just sending small monthly donations to great Democratic candidates and writing postcards, etc. MAGA fanatics aside, I still have faith in the American people, and they’ve proved time and again over the past few years that democracy and personal freedoms mean a great deal to them. As for the Trump-related court decisions that came down today, I am eagerly awaiting a massive class action lawsuit by the officers who defended the Capitol building and our democracy. I hope that such a lawsuit, plus the fraud case out of New York, will completely bankrupt him and his wretched company. Justice is so overdue. Also, what Jim Carmichael said!! 😊
A random sampling of the comments section reveals a readership largely unimpressed with Mr. Kagan's perspective, for exactly the reasons Robert mentions. People already know the stakes, they know what needs to be done, and they're "fired up, ready to go!"
“This short(-ish) newsletter is intended to provide a glide path into the weekend …”
I read your every word & I hope by “short” you were able to spend less time putting it together. It was agreeably long! 😊
“The fact that I am writing a brief newsletter doesn’t mean you need to read it.”
OF COURSE I NEED TO READ IT!
I am honoring your work. I appreciate the news you bring and the hopefulness of a brighter future. I appreciate the community you have created and the comments from your other readers.
“If it were up to me, I would try to take two full days off from the news.”
And yes - you should take 2 full days off.
Our forebears FOUGHT for a 2-day weekend. Rest up and rejuvenate. We know you’ll be back soon.
Despite your modesty about the newsletter and indications that readers might want to take the day off, I have to say that I am especially glad I read it today. There is an incredible amount of good stuff here. Thank you!! Jessica Cravens advice, the letter to the editor, the clips of Newsome, Biden's ad about healthcare, a link to send to people who know young voters in Santos's district (which I brought to the attention of a friend of mine who gets your newsletter and lives in that district), your great points about polling and about your differences with Kagan and more. I hope you and Jill have a good weekend and get much deserved rest!
Tonight Chris Hayes made a big point about the four new polls that show Biden ahead, and gave a good talk about the fact that all that means is the winds are maybe blowing in our direction.
For those who want something racier than what "ever the gentleman" my good friend Robert talks about for the weekend, I will go into how Carl Hiassen is still running to catch up to reality in Floridumb. :-)
I just posted the following reply to Jessica Craven in the comment section of yesterday’s newsletter. I repost it here.
___________
Jessica, Regrettably, Republicans, historically, have become quite adept at conflating the terms “freedom” and “deregulation,” thereby convincing a large swath of the country that regulations aimed at moderating excesses that block even a modicum of distributive, or perhaps redistributive, justice are an affront to individual freedom. Accordingly, I have pressed for replacing the term “regulations” with “protections” thus, associating freedoms with protections, a connection that I believe clarifies the meaning of freedom in each of your examples.
Sometimes in an evening, I think of the fact that you are writing your newsletter. Thank you for your persistence, voice, resilience, good humor and smarts. And thanks to your Managing Editor!
I have an idea. Can we have a leftist movement to start flying American flags on Flag Day (June 14) and leave them up through the election? I want to take the flag away from MAGA but we'd have to do it all together!
I read Kagan's editorial and thought he made some good points. Except that I do not believe a slide into dictatorship is inevitable. Which side is he playing for, anyway??
I stand with Robert. Kagan's premise is rational...and, defeatest. The failure would be to relinquish your right to visualize the future. This is not to ignore the present. Quite the contrary. The present informs the future but does not dictate its outcome. George Bernard Shaw speaks to this: "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." I choose to create continuously the power within myself to be of use and value. I would never succumb to the prophecy of inevitability. If we capitulate with such thinking, we will then be part of the very undesirable outcome we are fighting to resist and defeat.
Friedrich Nietzsche: "It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge". Kagan's seemingly judicious arguments sound like surrender. As long as I am breathing I will not complain and I will not surrender. Trump is not a cartoon; Trump is a buffoon whose desire for revenge is directly proportional to his frustration, anger, sense of entitlement, never ending complaints and self-loathing. People must be made to understand that his "policy" is revenge. He may have the intellect of a protozoa, but his victimization is calculated to play into the hands of large populations who find complaining easier and more emotionally satisfying. Inevitability is a toxin to be avoided.
Thank you, Robert. On your “short day,” you may have written your best piece of the week. You tied together many of the themes of what I consider to be a fraught week with a sense of optimism and hope. That's a rare gift.
It is always best to have a plan "B". Pitch in this case. Robert, your points are much better crafted and thought out than the ones from those we might characterize as, I think I heard this in an old Ry Cooder tune, "you ain't nothin but an educated fool." Kagan perhaps fits?
Yesterday, I unloaded on Charlie Sykes of the Bulwark for another one of his “you’re not afraid enough” pieces. Basically he’s saying stop doing whatever you’re doing and worry with me. I pointed out for the umpreenth time that what HE and his friends COULD be doing and isn’t yet, is form an ACTUAL Republicans for Biden organization that others of his anti-Trump GOP mindset could coalesce around.
Regarding polls, Chris Hays on MSNBC reported on a new and positive presidential poll for Biden. He also commented that we would probably not hear or read about it in the media.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear him echo Robert and Simon.
Robert, first, I highly recommend you take a few days off. I will be so bold as to say your readers will understand and life will go on. I think you’ve earned a three- or four-day weekend. Second, Mr. Kagan lives in his head, and while some people have a full-time job of philosophizing, there are many others doing the hard work of getting the right people elected, even if it’s just sending small monthly donations to great Democratic candidates and writing postcards, etc. MAGA fanatics aside, I still have faith in the American people, and they’ve proved time and again over the past few years that democracy and personal freedoms mean a great deal to them. As for the Trump-related court decisions that came down today, I am eagerly awaiting a massive class action lawsuit by the officers who defended the Capitol building and our democracy. I hope that such a lawsuit, plus the fraud case out of New York, will completely bankrupt him and his wretched company. Justice is so overdue. Also, what Jim Carmichael said!! 😊
There are currently about 16k comments on the Kagan article. The most-liked one (by far: 1936 likes) is a simple recitation of things anyone can do to protect democracy (run for something, register voters, etc.) along with links to resources (www.runforoffice.org , https://www.aauw.org/resource/organize-a-voter-registration-drive )
A random sampling of the comments section reveals a readership largely unimpressed with Mr. Kagan's perspective, for exactly the reasons Robert mentions. People already know the stakes, they know what needs to be done, and they're "fired up, ready to go!"
.
We love you, Robert!
Robert, you write:
“This short(-ish) newsletter is intended to provide a glide path into the weekend …”
I read your every word & I hope by “short” you were able to spend less time putting it together. It was agreeably long! 😊
“The fact that I am writing a brief newsletter doesn’t mean you need to read it.”
OF COURSE I NEED TO READ IT!
I am honoring your work. I appreciate the news you bring and the hopefulness of a brighter future. I appreciate the community you have created and the comments from your other readers.
“If it were up to me, I would try to take two full days off from the news.”
And yes - you should take 2 full days off.
Our forebears FOUGHT for a 2-day weekend. Rest up and rejuvenate. We know you’ll be back soon.
Despite your modesty about the newsletter and indications that readers might want to take the day off, I have to say that I am especially glad I read it today. There is an incredible amount of good stuff here. Thank you!! Jessica Cravens advice, the letter to the editor, the clips of Newsome, Biden's ad about healthcare, a link to send to people who know young voters in Santos's district (which I brought to the attention of a friend of mine who gets your newsletter and lives in that district), your great points about polling and about your differences with Kagan and more. I hope you and Jill have a good weekend and get much deserved rest!
Tonight Chris Hayes made a big point about the four new polls that show Biden ahead, and gave a good talk about the fact that all that means is the winds are maybe blowing in our direction.
For those who want something racier than what "ever the gentleman" my good friend Robert talks about for the weekend, I will go into how Carl Hiassen is still running to catch up to reality in Floridumb. :-)
I just posted the following reply to Jessica Craven in the comment section of yesterday’s newsletter. I repost it here.
___________
Jessica, Regrettably, Republicans, historically, have become quite adept at conflating the terms “freedom” and “deregulation,” thereby convincing a large swath of the country that regulations aimed at moderating excesses that block even a modicum of distributive, or perhaps redistributive, justice are an affront to individual freedom. Accordingly, I have pressed for replacing the term “regulations” with “protections” thus, associating freedoms with protections, a connection that I believe clarifies the meaning of freedom in each of your examples.
Sometimes in an evening, I think of the fact that you are writing your newsletter. Thank you for your persistence, voice, resilience, good humor and smarts. And thanks to your Managing Editor!
I have an idea. Can we have a leftist movement to start flying American flags on Flag Day (June 14) and leave them up through the election? I want to take the flag away from MAGA but we'd have to do it all together!
Yes, Robert, the future is us. Even us old folks (I’m an older folk than you or your Managing Editor.)
I read Kagan's editorial and thought he made some good points. Except that I do not believe a slide into dictatorship is inevitable. Which side is he playing for, anyway??
I stand with Robert. Kagan's premise is rational...and, defeatest. The failure would be to relinquish your right to visualize the future. This is not to ignore the present. Quite the contrary. The present informs the future but does not dictate its outcome. George Bernard Shaw speaks to this: "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." I choose to create continuously the power within myself to be of use and value. I would never succumb to the prophecy of inevitability. If we capitulate with such thinking, we will then be part of the very undesirable outcome we are fighting to resist and defeat.
Friedrich Nietzsche: "It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge". Kagan's seemingly judicious arguments sound like surrender. As long as I am breathing I will not complain and I will not surrender. Trump is not a cartoon; Trump is a buffoon whose desire for revenge is directly proportional to his frustration, anger, sense of entitlement, never ending complaints and self-loathing. People must be made to understand that his "policy" is revenge. He may have the intellect of a protozoa, but his victimization is calculated to play into the hands of large populations who find complaining easier and more emotionally satisfying. Inevitability is a toxin to be avoided.
Thank you, Robert. On your “short day,” you may have written your best piece of the week. You tied together many of the themes of what I consider to be a fraught week with a sense of optimism and hope. That's a rare gift.
It is always best to have a plan "B". Pitch in this case. Robert, your points are much better crafted and thought out than the ones from those we might characterize as, I think I heard this in an old Ry Cooder tune, "you ain't nothin but an educated fool." Kagan perhaps fits?
Yesterday, I unloaded on Charlie Sykes of the Bulwark for another one of his “you’re not afraid enough” pieces. Basically he’s saying stop doing whatever you’re doing and worry with me. I pointed out for the umpreenth time that what HE and his friends COULD be doing and isn’t yet, is form an ACTUAL Republicans for Biden organization that others of his anti-Trump GOP mindset could coalesce around.
Regarding polls, Chris Hays on MSNBC reported on a new and positive presidential poll for Biden. He also commented that we would probably not hear or read about it in the media.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear him echo Robert and Simon.