Jamie Dimon. I couldn’t roll my eyes harder than when I watched that clip of him listing the things Trump got right. He certainly zipped right from immigrant bias in his grandfather’s generation to tone-deaf privilege and ignorance.
I didn't pay attention to what Jamie Dimon said yesterday, but just passed over some clickbait headlines. Thanks, Robert and Susan, for giving me good reason to look no further.
Robert Reich's coffee klatch post today asks, "What the hell has happened to the Republican Party?" He includes a poll, "The Republican Party has been taken over by:" and then offers these 5 choices: "Trump Neofascists; Evangelicals; Giant Corporations; White Nationalists; Other (in comments)."
I chose "Other (in comments)," and offered the following:
"At first I thought, 'All of the above.' But then I thought that it's more like the Capitalists that Bob has been talking about. I think the Republican Party has been co-opted by ridiculously rich, power drunk, mostly white, narcissistic men (yes, men), who believe that the only way they can sustain their lifestyle is to trample on the rights of others and at the expense of others. The Quadefendant epitomizes that image, and thus represents it."
In what kind of a world does a guy like Dimon become a billionaire simply for smartly moving money around? Why should a "banker" be paid that much?
Because we worship our money - not what it could do for everyone.
If Jamie Dimon and every other billionaire had a moral bone in their bodies, they would look at their life requirements, add a few luxuries (possibly well earned) and give the rest away to the people who never had the chance he had.
How do you sleep at night as a billionaire and know that right outside your office - there are people freezing to death. Living with hunger and pain. Because they were bankrupted by a health crisis. Can't afford ANY housing in the city that made you filthy rich.
What bothers me most about these folks is how they seem to feel that the only way they can be rich is if they take from somebody else. I, for one, don't want to benefit financially at the expense of someone else. Even more importantly, wealth is not a zero sum game; it is created by the productivity of all of us. Accumulation of that wealth is really the problem. If that wealth was shared (or at least not hoarded), it would make the rest of us more productive and able to be consumers of more of the productivity of others, and so on, and so on. The wealthy can't take it with them, but they still seem to believe that "he who dies with the most toys wins!" Uhhh, no, they're still dead.
If you read Robert Reich, he's been writing lately about capitalism and the morbidly rich. The rich buy the folks who make the rules by which they must abide, so they make sure the folks they buy will make the rules work in favor of the rich and against others. Citizens United gave corporations the power of people, and allows the rich who own the corporations to launder their money with which they buy the folks who make the rules.
An even bigger opportunity - globally, stop spending half of our wealth on things to destroy each other, and work together to make things better for all of us.
Excellent! Yes, I often wonder why the rich have no empathy for those who did have not had the skids greased for them.
Plus, you are right. As we type posts we should recognize that arms from the “UnUnited States can be found destroying people and their lands throughput the globe, not to mention right year in US school yards and classrooms.
How do they sleep at night? With eyes closed and minds dreaming about where they can find the next sucker.
Any earnings over 50 million should be taxed at 99% and the inheritance tax should allow passage to the next generation of no more than 10 million. These filthy rich got it by screwing others.
I love it when they blame Biden for inflation then report profits up 100% over last year. Anyone who can't see the inflation in those profits needs a new set of glasses
Because they live in a country with a lousy social safety net, because GOPers think people should sink if they can't swim. America is a stupid country because of them. The article below, is among the maybe 3-4 most important articles I've ever read. And I was born during the Eisenhower Administration, so I've been reading for a long time!
Americans need to rise up! At least those who are able to understand how the deck is rigged by the super wealthy who are represented by the Republicans. I just have come back from a Demonstration against Fascism in the city of Bremen, Germany. It has a population of between 500 and 600,000, and it is reported that 50,000 attended. It filled the double marketplace and spilled out into the areas near there. It amazes me that in response to an article about a gathering of members of the AfD (known as Alternative for Germany), met with Nazis and business leaders to discuss a plan to send 1 mil people to Africa even if they’ve are German citizens, in a supposed "repatriation." There have been large demonstrations in cities all over Germany since Friday, where Hamburg had 50,000 come out to protest. I wish that in the USA, people could organize demonstrations in a week, like these people did. There were signs that spoke to diversity, globalism not nationalism, and a lot of signs directly speaking against Nazis and the AfD, and fascism. There were a lot of rainbow flags too. We walked 40 minutes to get there, and were walking in streams of people, while others biked by or streetcars were filled with people. There were also people pushing walker, and pushing strollers. It was a multicultural, multiage crowd. It was civil and polite. People were coming out. The chant was "Alle, zusammen, stehen gegen Faschismus!" Meaning Everyone together, standing against fascism. I saw a sign where someone had said, speak up against fascism. That is what I am saying too. Americans need to be speaking up against fascism, and it should not just be Biden's campaign message, but everyone should be out on the streets marching against Fascism! Marching against Project 2025! Marching against allowing an underworld criminal to run for president! Marching against the hypocricy of claiming to be Christian and supporting Trump, the AntiChrist!
I can't imagine they wouldn't help people. This is basically an argument for a comprehensive social safety net. People who are struggling financially, with cars that are always breaking down, choices between medicine and car repairs, or other such choices, can't think clearly to help themselves, because their circumstances are so complex and difficult. With a comprehensive social safety net, they don't have to make impossible choices, so they can make plans to better their circumstances, which means being productive citizens who contribute to the economy, and to their own lives. Basically, one of the things that makes the Scandinavian countries such good places to live is that they have among the most comprehensive social safety nets in the world. Even things like between a pair of spouses, a year's worth worktime off to take care of new children. The children do better with that amount of parental attention. Same sort of thing for elderly parents who are sick. See, The Nordic Theory of Everything, by Anu Partenan. Scandinavians don't suffer all the tsuris (Yiddish word for trouble, hard times, etc) that so many Americans do. Scarcity is not a problem in Scandinavia. And you're most welcome, Lauren! I love sharing this article!
Is there a number between 1 million and 1 billion that would be enough? Somewhere in that range is the chance to move with the seasons to a sunny place where you can devote to time to reading or fishing or ? What is Jamie's day like that he stays in the ring!
From Thom Hartmann: The group Patriotic Millionaires published a new poll of rich people showing that fully 74% are in favor of higher taxes on their own class. An additional 58% supported a 2% wealth tax like Elizabeth Warren has supported for years, and 54% said straight out that extreme wealth is a threat to democracies around the world. Nonetheless, Republicans will go to the mat to protect or pass tax cuts for the morbidly rich, no matter how badly they damage our economy and the American middle class
Thanks for forwarding this from Thom Hartmann: Jamie Dimon speaks for a lot of rich people but not for everyone. Let's work to bring those rich people into the game.
Not sure what the "right number" is and I don't know how it could be established. But Jamie could have several homes and a yacht - and STILL house and feed a lot of people - helping them get out of the cold, assisting them to get back on their feet with jobs and healthcare. He could mentor the poor in a big way. He could share.
Bill, they seriously don't care about The People. They only care about themselves, maybe their family, and to be included in the circle jerk of other filthy wealthy, influential bores and scumbags.
I have rarely been more riled. Why do we tolerate the American plutocracy? Paradoxically, don’t the Trump cultists believe that their savior will throw the money changers out of the temple? But compliant Democrats are to blame too because so many politicians feed at the trough of the rich. They had plenty of time in Congress when we controlled both houses to push through Elizabeth Warren’s tax plan. But of course, Manchin stood in the way and the house had its share of Dem opponents. The R’s have basically wiped out the estate tax which was meant not only to generate revenue but brake the concentration of wealth in single families. Where are our pitchforks? Oh wait a minute the oligarchs have all of the assault weapons don’t they.
They don’t seem to take account of the many who dared to challenge Trump only to be sidelined. And they surely seem to believe it won’t be them next. Worse yet, they don’t recognize that with Trump no one who has even a shred of decency understands their Trump journey is a downward trajectory with no low in site.
Robert, I am afraid you are much too gentle and kind when assuming that before Iowa there still existed a sizable portion of the GOP establishment not supporting trump. Cruz is a point in case. He didn't surrender or cave in the last 72 hours. He has been the leader's sycophant since the primaries in 2016. And people like Ross Douthat don't need auditioning anymore these days. They have been on board for a long time. I stopped reading his revolting, self-righteous, pompous, pontificating pieces a few years ago.
And Jamie Dimon. Oh well. He reminds me of the Steigbügelhalter in Germany in the early 30s, literally the stirrup holders. That's what a group of conservative politicians, financiers and business tycoons was called who were backers and enablers of Hitler before he assumed power. They thought they could handle him. That didn't go so well.
trump is nothing but a symptom, albeit an incredible revolting and dangerous one. He unleashed the autocratic, evangelical tendencies of the Republicans and then some... Just take the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 (which still too few are aware of) and you know where the journey is going. Should trump for whatever reason not be the nominee there is a danger that all those never-trumpers will happily cast their vote for a Republican ticket ( of course also down ballot, while they are at it). It should be clear that any candidate 'in good standing' with the MAGA crowd should be kept at arm's length from the Oval Office – and the Senate and the House.
Steigbugelhalter--what a great word to capture the essence of all of these people. It probably won't do a thing besides make me feel better, but I think I'm going to divert some of my postcards to these spineless cowards. I remember the first postcards I wrote in the Trump era. It wasn't part of mobilizing voters--I remember writing ones that said, "No Bannon!" to my elected officials, for example, and also postcards picturing my state with words like "Country Over Party!" Much good it all did, obviously. But why not? What if Dimon got a whole avalanche of postcards that say "Do Not Obey In Advance" and "Steigbugelhalter" and similar in their messages? Does he have a conscience to prick? I think great wealth shrinks consciences, unfortunately.
I have also been mulling the contrast of the two sides: On Trump's side armed lunatics who erect gallows, call in bomb scares, beat up elderly spouses of politicians, try to intimidate voters of color, vs a lot of people, primarily women, writing postcards and organizing voter registration drives. Who will win in the world's oldest democracy?
Robert, so glad you are feeling well enough to write this column, one of your most inspiring, but yes, you must do as Jill tells you, and get more rest.
Calling out those Steigbügelhalter in the 30s actually is a bit like monday morning quarterbacking. Sure, they played with fire but they couldn't possibly fathom the disastrous consequences.
Today's Steigbügelhalter know exactly who and what they are trying to bring back to power.
Have you ever considered what Trump and his legions might do here in North America once he frees Putin in Europe and Xi in East Asia? He might decide to take Greenland and that other liberal country up north of the border. The dangers in the re-election of Trump span the globe and today's Steigbügelhalter may be as ignorant of that as Hitler's were.
Stefan, I would like to write a couple of letters to the editor using this term. Obviously, I would be borrowing from you. Is that OK with you, and do you think the term had wide enough use in this context to refer to it?
You probably would have to explain the term. In Germany it is widely used by historians as well as in the media to describe politicians like Hugenberg or Papen who supported Hitler in the early days. After Hitler immediately dissolved the Parliament after coming to power on Jan 31, 1933 Hugenberg is said to have said: "I made the greatest stupidity of my life yesterday: I allied myself with the greatest demagogue in world history."
Seems like the learning curve of many in the US is quite a bit longer.
Since I dwell in a Progressive Info bubble but am educated, a septuagenerian, a war veteran who has seen through my work life much hardship, I ventured out to a monthly meeting of my county's "Patriots" organization. It is listed by the SPLC as one of hundreds of right wing organization most of which subscribe to isolationist thinking, conspiracy theories, a gun culture with Christian Nationalistic tendencies. I tested the contents of my silo of facts against the reality of the local ground around me.
The Mission Statement claims a nonpartisan element; not true. The message, consistent and constant, was "own the libs." One speaker, a candidate in the upcoming PA primary emphasized election security and integrity. Chris Hayes several broadcasts ago described how the MAGA people are weaponizing the election process to suppress the vote and win if they loose. Hayes was accurate in every respect.
My point is to take seriously what the MAGA constituency says and does. There were approximately 100, mostly older, virtually all white attendees; the group claims 5000 Meta (Face Book) followers. The group is well organized and enthusiastic. They raffle off a fire arm at each monthly meeting; the pre-meeting prayer, said immediately after the Pledge of Allegiance, can not be misinterpreted as nondenominational. The blessed petition requested help and guidance in the effort to save our country from the immoral and depraved road now traveled.
Clearly all of us who believe in our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution need to put energy into maintaining our democracy. "We have a Republic if we can keep it" per Ben Franklin. We have to win the 2024 election at local, state and national levels or we won't "keep it."
I am grateful you focus the weekend comments on Jamie Dimon.
Think about all the 1st and 2nd generation immigrants who have prospered in the USA "land of opportunity" that are "pulling up the ladder and closing the door behind them" for others.
Trump, Haley, Dimon, Nido Quebain...
"Affirmative Action" beneficiaries Clarence Thomas and Tim Scott (and Ben Carson, "bless his heart")...
Calm down. Don't get me started.
So BIDENOMICS has the Stock Market at a new HIGH,
The unemployment rates at historic LOWS,
the push toward living wages and affordable housing and student loan relief
ALL DEMOCRATIC POLICIES,
ending junk fees by banks and ticket sellers and other corporations...
The fact the minimum wage hasn't increased in decades
while CEO earnings have skyrocketed to hundreds of times more than the employee income...
ONLY DEMOCRATS ARE ADDRESSING THESE ISSUES.
What I meant to say is I have an OBSERVATION.
This is NOT a correlation, nor painting a group with a broad brush. SIMPLY AN OBSERVATION.
Stephen Miller to me is the poster child for vile "Nazi-ism"
Stephen Miller, a poster child for the Nazis. Just seeing him made me disgusted. THAT - an American, no way in Hell.
Please, please, please, some Republican, somewhere, stand up against the fascism that is taking control of your party, of Lincoln's Party. Is there no one left? Am I imploring an empty room?
As Timothy Snyder puts it in "on Tyranny," the tyrant requires that people actively turn over their allegiance voluntarily, so that by accepting the inevitability of his power before he takes it, they enable him to appear stronger than he is.
I'd consider changing banks, but if I had ever been able to find a bank that wasn't run by scumbags, I'd have done so long ago, and Chase is he only bank that has a "free banking" program for veterans - no minimum balance required, no fees on using ATMs, minimal fee of half their normal fee for fund transfers, making them unfortunately the best of a bad lot - and like I said, if ever in there was a bank that wasn't like that (your family bank doesn't count Ransom, because of what it eventually became when the scumbags in North Carolina bought B of A :-) )
Yes, I switched to a federal credit union from the big banks 15 years ago and am very happy with my decision, especially after the stories that broke about Wells Fargo not long after I closed my accounts there.
We've been using a credit union for 27 years. They keep merging and offering more and better services. They are about to merge into a federal credit union.
Yes, 'do not obey in advance, most of the power in authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government would want and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who acts in this way shows power what it can do.' Timothy Snyder
also
5. Become able to put our values and actions and knowledges in front of us, like an object, for examination and discussion
two eyed seeing (Albert Marshall, 2004) western and indigenous concepts used together
One example: “Two-Eyed Seeing”: An Indigenous framework to transform fisheries research and management," by Andrea Reid et al., https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12516
From the abstract: "Two-Eyed Seeing is the notion that knowledge transforms the holder and that the holder bears a responsibility to act on that knowledge. We explore its operationalization through three Canadian aquatic and fisheries case-studies that co-develop questions, document and mobilize knowledge, and co-produce insights and decisions. We argue that Two-Eyed Seeing provides a pathway to a plural coexistence, where time-tested Indigenous knowledge systems can be paired with, not subsumed by, Western scientific insights for an equitable and sustainable future."
Joyce Vance has provided in her latest newsletter a blueprint for getting Congress to pave the way for televising the Federal trials against Donald Trump. It really sounds doable.
Here is what I sent Joyce for more concrete steps to take:
Below are some resources for your call to action for access to Trump court proceedings that you can inform your readers about.
I got this list by prompting Microsoft’s Copilot AI service.
Begin forwarded message:
Here is the prompt I used:
Which organizations collect signatures and send them to relevant political representatives to build support for congressional bill passage?
AI answer:
There are many organizations that collect signatures for various causes and issues, including congressional bills. Some examples are:
- **Ballotpedia**, a nonpartisan online encyclopedia of American politics and elections, that provides information and analysis on ballot measures, candidates, and elections¹.
- **Change.org**, a website that allows users to create and sign online petitions for various social and political causes².
- **MoveOn**, a progressive public policy advocacy group and political action committee that organizes campaigns and petitions on various issues, such as health care, climate change, and democracy reform³.
- **Avaaz**, a global online movement that campaigns on issues such as human rights, animal welfare, and environmental protection⁴.
These organizations use different methods and platforms to collect signatures and send them to relevant political representatives, such as email, social media, or direct mail. Some of them also partner with other groups or individuals to increase their reach and impact. They may also use other strategies, such as lobbying, media outreach, or grassroots mobilization, to build support for congressional bill passage..
I believe Jessica also provided suggestions in her update too. While it's enticing to simplify the process, Joyce's call for a heartfelt, handwritten message will be more impactful.
These spineless cowards think we haven’t listened to their past rhetoric. They think we don’t see their lies, their crossed fingers behind their backs, their thinly veiled bullshit. But, we see it all and we aren’t fooled. They stink as badly as Trump allegedly (think Depends) does. They are failing at the task at hand. These jerks only see dollar signs and not the egregious acts that Trump and his cohorts committed when he was prez. The good news is that they will all meet their demise someday. I just hope I am alive to celebrate.
“Most importantly. You will have set an example for your children and grandchildren that they can call on when the next threat to democracy arises.”
Yes, and here is the other side, and it is an other side.
We all leave this world. Some will have perhaps one reference to themselves in history books. The people mentioned in this column (and I would add Mitch McConnell, my Senator John Cornyn, and others) will leave their grandchildren and great grandchildren reading about their one claim to fame: knowingly failing their country in its time of need. That’s it.
This is it, Cathy. Perhaps it is because I have worked in health care for so long, anytime something bad happens, I usually put it in perspective with the reality that we will all be gone from this world one day.
Every time I hear mention of the racist, hoarding, greedy sycophants of The Loser, I think "History will not be kind to you".
Nor will a fair % of their offspring as they benefit from their spoils, when (I pray & optimisticly believe due to our efforts) our democracy survives.
I wish Jamie Dimon had not put out even faint praise of Trump. He's one of our top business executives with record setting lasting tenure and a phenomenal track record through serial financial crises. Continuing supporting Haley would have been the right thing to do. It's a low move this early in the election cycle. There is no way that Dimon is unaware of how untrustworthy and unsteady Trump is.
I remember, for years of reading the NY Post, when Trump was the opposite of almost everything he currently says he believes in. Believing Trump is either ethical or steady is a fool's dream. Proven regularly.
Dimon is a fat jerk. Katie Porter did an excellent breakdown of what the big banks CEOs salaries were as opposed to their frontline employees. She had the major banks CEOs in a hearing with her. Dimon was one of them. She read him the riot act! It was beautiful!
My comment (submitted, and approved, just now) on Ross Douthat's opinion piece:
This is doublethink. We saw the insurrection, planned by the perpetrators (the "tactical stack" threading its way up the steps through the mob, wearing tactical gear; leaving weapons caches outside D.C.; busses carrying participants from afar; someone planting bombs to distract police attention; bringing sharpened flagpoles and bear spray; Trumps asking for the mags to be taken down, because they weren't coming for him).
Trump tweeted, "Be there, will be wild."
And yet, Ross Douthat claims the events of January 6th don't meet some abstruse definition of "insurrection."
In 2017, Tim Snyder wrote "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century." His first lesson:
1. Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.
With this opinion piece, Ross Douthat is giving attention, and power, to authoritarian ideas. Shame on him, and on The New York Times, for publishing.
Update 2:59PM Saturday: Well, dagnabbit, it seems I posted my comment to another column by Ross Douthat, and that, indeed, his column on whether J6 was an insurrection does not allow comments. Oh well, here's my mea culpa. Not sure if racing around and "fixing" things really clears things up or not. I'll just leave it be with this.
I suppose that fighting over the word “insurrection” may be important to people trying to use the 14th Amendment to disqualify Trump from federal office. I hope they succeed.
But to me it’s enough, for now, simply to recall the rioting that took place within and around the Capitol, and the horrible attitudes of the rioters. I’ll never forget the revulsion and fear the rioting prompted. And I’ll never in the slightest condone attempts to “explain away” and paper over the immoral, thoroughly anti-American actions of the Trump rioters.
A determinist (e.g. a Marxist) might see Dimon’s comments as inevitable; that is, they were determined by his possession of a $1.5 billion fortune, his class interests. There may be something to that view.
But there is also such a thing as character, virtues such as wisdom, courage, and the concern for others. Dimon fails the test of character regardless of whatever qualities took him to the top spot at Chase.
I am of the opinion the majority are very tired of Trump. The voices will come at the ballot box for Biden! The FACT only less than 13% of the GOP voted in Iowa spoke of no support for Trump. I don’t believe polls, I don’t believe Jan 6th will be ignored. I have the belief the GOP is going to be voted out by extreme hubris and the fear and bully routine and women’s rights they try to reframe. Since the GOP Congressional group does nothing for Americans the Dems will rise again.
I can't remember where I read this (I am on several substacks), but a point was made about Iowa that really reinforces your observation: "less than 13% of the GOP voted in Iowa" by noting that of those 13% who showed up to caucus, just 51% voted for the Loser - which amounts to about 7% of the GOP in Iowa. This means that 93% of the GOP in Iowa did not vote at all.
If I may for a moment wax philosophical. I am addressing Trump's followers and not the star-studded list of stools Robert is referring to who have capitulated to Trump, chafing their knees in the process, bending and dropping to his will. The populations of MAGA supporters have forsaken everything - every tenet of their religious fervor; every concern for their neighbors; every concern for the future of their children; any concern for the value of truth; any pretense of living within a consensus reality - in turn, have bought into an delusional state in which their (whatever?) hardships, misfortunes, complaints, disenfranchisements, alienations are represented by a sycophantic parasite who feeds off of those same people for his own benefit.
Now, I digress for a time. Have you ever thought about those people who take an extraordinary journey - think astronauts, mountain climbers, desert trekkers, deep sea explorers - and return from that experience changed. What changes them is a more deeply felt understanding of the word "humility" or the realization that in this world we are small. These journey folk have come to understand the real estimate of one's own importance and rank in the universe. Astronauts refer to looking back upon the Earth and realizing it is but a dot in the sky. Deep sea divers refer to an unknown world of unfathomable complexity.
Cult leaders are the diametric opposite of humble. Their work is to elevate the individual, remove the awe and wonder of life replacing it with anger and retribution. Having those feeling meek, compliant, and submissive to act with single-minded conceit and entitlement believing they will regain their stature. They confuse the outrageous with boldness; the lies as resistance; the personification of cult with personal representation.
Trump's followers have (and this is a hard one for anyone to self-confess) effectively diminished themselves to the status of compliant children, pleading for attention, crying for their next meal, laughing at prompts so mommy or daddy will "do it again". And, Trump does it again...and again...and again.
The meek are unassuming but not stupid. They are ordinary but not powerless. They are without pretense but will not disappear. "The meek shall inherit the Earth" is an affirmation that we can live with humility and remain the Force that outlasts the corrupt and sinful. AMEN.
What's most troublesome about the Times reporting these days is not that they run stories about or written by Trump apologists or sycophants, but that the Times rarely runs stories that cast Biden or his accomplishments in a favorable light. A journalist friend of mine commented that reading the Times today is an exercise in Trumpian nihilism. I can't explain why the Times wants to scream out the threat of Trump on the one hand but not almost never describe Biden as the obvious and proven solution to Trumpism.
Jamie Dimon. I couldn’t roll my eyes harder than when I watched that clip of him listing the things Trump got right. He certainly zipped right from immigrant bias in his grandfather’s generation to tone-deaf privilege and ignorance.
I didn't pay attention to what Jamie Dimon said yesterday, but just passed over some clickbait headlines. Thanks, Robert and Susan, for giving me good reason to look no further.
Robert Reich's coffee klatch post today asks, "What the hell has happened to the Republican Party?" He includes a poll, "The Republican Party has been taken over by:" and then offers these 5 choices: "Trump Neofascists; Evangelicals; Giant Corporations; White Nationalists; Other (in comments)."
I chose "Other (in comments)," and offered the following:
"At first I thought, 'All of the above.' But then I thought that it's more like the Capitalists that Bob has been talking about. I think the Republican Party has been co-opted by ridiculously rich, power drunk, mostly white, narcissistic men (yes, men), who believe that the only way they can sustain their lifestyle is to trample on the rights of others and at the expense of others. The Quadefendant epitomizes that image, and thus represents it."
It sounds to me like Jamie Dimon fits the mold.
In what kind of a world does a guy like Dimon become a billionaire simply for smartly moving money around? Why should a "banker" be paid that much?
Because we worship our money - not what it could do for everyone.
If Jamie Dimon and every other billionaire had a moral bone in their bodies, they would look at their life requirements, add a few luxuries (possibly well earned) and give the rest away to the people who never had the chance he had.
How do you sleep at night as a billionaire and know that right outside your office - there are people freezing to death. Living with hunger and pain. Because they were bankrupted by a health crisis. Can't afford ANY housing in the city that made you filthy rich.
How?
What bothers me most about these folks is how they seem to feel that the only way they can be rich is if they take from somebody else. I, for one, don't want to benefit financially at the expense of someone else. Even more importantly, wealth is not a zero sum game; it is created by the productivity of all of us. Accumulation of that wealth is really the problem. If that wealth was shared (or at least not hoarded), it would make the rest of us more productive and able to be consumers of more of the productivity of others, and so on, and so on. The wealthy can't take it with them, but they still seem to believe that "he who dies with the most toys wins!" Uhhh, no, they're still dead.
If you read Robert Reich, he's been writing lately about capitalism and the morbidly rich. The rich buy the folks who make the rules by which they must abide, so they make sure the folks they buy will make the rules work in favor of the rich and against others. Citizens United gave corporations the power of people, and allows the rich who own the corporations to launder their money with which they buy the folks who make the rules.
An even bigger opportunity - globally, stop spending half of our wealth on things to destroy each other, and work together to make things better for all of us.
Very well said!
Excellent! Yes, I often wonder why the rich have no empathy for those who did have not had the skids greased for them.
Plus, you are right. As we type posts we should recognize that arms from the “UnUnited States can be found destroying people and their lands throughput the globe, not to mention right year in US school yards and classrooms.
How do they sleep at night? With eyes closed and minds dreaming about where they can find the next sucker.
Any earnings over 50 million should be taxed at 99% and the inheritance tax should allow passage to the next generation of no more than 10 million. These filthy rich got it by screwing others.
I love it when they blame Biden for inflation then report profits up 100% over last year. Anyone who can't see the inflation in those profits needs a new set of glasses
Because they live in a country with a lousy social safety net, because GOPers think people should sink if they can't swim. America is a stupid country because of them. The article below, is among the maybe 3-4 most important articles I've ever read. And I was born during the Eisenhower Administration, so I've been reading for a long time!
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2015/04/the-science-of-scarcity
Americans need to rise up! At least those who are able to understand how the deck is rigged by the super wealthy who are represented by the Republicans. I just have come back from a Demonstration against Fascism in the city of Bremen, Germany. It has a population of between 500 and 600,000, and it is reported that 50,000 attended. It filled the double marketplace and spilled out into the areas near there. It amazes me that in response to an article about a gathering of members of the AfD (known as Alternative for Germany), met with Nazis and business leaders to discuss a plan to send 1 mil people to Africa even if they’ve are German citizens, in a supposed "repatriation." There have been large demonstrations in cities all over Germany since Friday, where Hamburg had 50,000 come out to protest. I wish that in the USA, people could organize demonstrations in a week, like these people did. There were signs that spoke to diversity, globalism not nationalism, and a lot of signs directly speaking against Nazis and the AfD, and fascism. There were a lot of rainbow flags too. We walked 40 minutes to get there, and were walking in streams of people, while others biked by or streetcars were filled with people. There were also people pushing walker, and pushing strollers. It was a multicultural, multiage crowd. It was civil and polite. People were coming out. The chant was "Alle, zusammen, stehen gegen Faschismus!" Meaning Everyone together, standing against fascism. I saw a sign where someone had said, speak up against fascism. That is what I am saying too. Americans need to be speaking up against fascism, and it should not just be Biden's campaign message, but everyone should be out on the streets marching against Fascism! Marching against Project 2025! Marching against allowing an underworld criminal to run for president! Marching against the hypocricy of claiming to be Christian and supporting Trump, the AntiChrist!
That's inspiring to hear about. That's almost 10 percent of Bremen at that rally.
The article-- amazing information. Eight years later I wonder how the ideas if put into practice could have helped people? Thanks for sharing this.
I can't imagine they wouldn't help people. This is basically an argument for a comprehensive social safety net. People who are struggling financially, with cars that are always breaking down, choices between medicine and car repairs, or other such choices, can't think clearly to help themselves, because their circumstances are so complex and difficult. With a comprehensive social safety net, they don't have to make impossible choices, so they can make plans to better their circumstances, which means being productive citizens who contribute to the economy, and to their own lives. Basically, one of the things that makes the Scandinavian countries such good places to live is that they have among the most comprehensive social safety nets in the world. Even things like between a pair of spouses, a year's worth worktime off to take care of new children. The children do better with that amount of parental attention. Same sort of thing for elderly parents who are sick. See, The Nordic Theory of Everything, by Anu Partenan. Scandinavians don't suffer all the tsuris (Yiddish word for trouble, hard times, etc) that so many Americans do. Scarcity is not a problem in Scandinavia. And you're most welcome, Lauren! I love sharing this article!
Is there a number between 1 million and 1 billion that would be enough? Somewhere in that range is the chance to move with the seasons to a sunny place where you can devote to time to reading or fishing or ? What is Jamie's day like that he stays in the ring!
From Thom Hartmann: The group Patriotic Millionaires published a new poll of rich people showing that fully 74% are in favor of higher taxes on their own class. An additional 58% supported a 2% wealth tax like Elizabeth Warren has supported for years, and 54% said straight out that extreme wealth is a threat to democracies around the world. Nonetheless, Republicans will go to the mat to protect or pass tax cuts for the morbidly rich, no matter how badly they damage our economy and the American middle class
https://patrioticmillionaires.org/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
What an absolutely beautiful website and mission! Wow. Daniel, you made my day. I tried to join, but sadly, I didn't qualify. Maybe in the next life.
But seriously, thank you for posting this. Gives me a hopeful better Saturday!
Thanks for forwarding this from Thom Hartmann: Jamie Dimon speaks for a lot of rich people but not for everyone. Let's work to bring those rich people into the game.
Not sure what the "right number" is and I don't know how it could be established. But Jamie could have several homes and a yacht - and STILL house and feed a lot of people - helping them get out of the cold, assisting them to get back on their feet with jobs and healthcare. He could mentor the poor in a big way. He could share.
Bill, they seriously don't care about The People. They only care about themselves, maybe their family, and to be included in the circle jerk of other filthy wealthy, influential bores and scumbags.
Democrats should bank with someone else.
I have rarely been more riled. Why do we tolerate the American plutocracy? Paradoxically, don’t the Trump cultists believe that their savior will throw the money changers out of the temple? But compliant Democrats are to blame too because so many politicians feed at the trough of the rich. They had plenty of time in Congress when we controlled both houses to push through Elizabeth Warren’s tax plan. But of course, Manchin stood in the way and the house had its share of Dem opponents. The R’s have basically wiped out the estate tax which was meant not only to generate revenue but brake the concentration of wealth in single families. Where are our pitchforks? Oh wait a minute the oligarchs have all of the assault weapons don’t they.
He’s playing the politics markets and hedging his bet.
Yes. Obviously he benefited from Trump's tax cuts, but if Trump wins, he has to be able to do business in whatever environment crazy Trump creates.
They don’t seem to take account of the many who dared to challenge Trump only to be sidelined. And they surely seem to believe it won’t be them next. Worse yet, they don’t recognize that with Trump no one who has even a shred of decency understands their Trump journey is a downward trajectory with no low in site.
He at least would have a seat at the table.
Unlike regular people who will have no one on their side
Robert, I am afraid you are much too gentle and kind when assuming that before Iowa there still existed a sizable portion of the GOP establishment not supporting trump. Cruz is a point in case. He didn't surrender or cave in the last 72 hours. He has been the leader's sycophant since the primaries in 2016. And people like Ross Douthat don't need auditioning anymore these days. They have been on board for a long time. I stopped reading his revolting, self-righteous, pompous, pontificating pieces a few years ago.
And Jamie Dimon. Oh well. He reminds me of the Steigbügelhalter in Germany in the early 30s, literally the stirrup holders. That's what a group of conservative politicians, financiers and business tycoons was called who were backers and enablers of Hitler before he assumed power. They thought they could handle him. That didn't go so well.
trump is nothing but a symptom, albeit an incredible revolting and dangerous one. He unleashed the autocratic, evangelical tendencies of the Republicans and then some... Just take the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 (which still too few are aware of) and you know where the journey is going. Should trump for whatever reason not be the nominee there is a danger that all those never-trumpers will happily cast their vote for a Republican ticket ( of course also down ballot, while they are at it). It should be clear that any candidate 'in good standing' with the MAGA crowd should be kept at arm's length from the Oval Office – and the Senate and the House.
To end on a positive note: Get well soon, Robert.
Steigbugelhalter--what a great word to capture the essence of all of these people. It probably won't do a thing besides make me feel better, but I think I'm going to divert some of my postcards to these spineless cowards. I remember the first postcards I wrote in the Trump era. It wasn't part of mobilizing voters--I remember writing ones that said, "No Bannon!" to my elected officials, for example, and also postcards picturing my state with words like "Country Over Party!" Much good it all did, obviously. But why not? What if Dimon got a whole avalanche of postcards that say "Do Not Obey In Advance" and "Steigbugelhalter" and similar in their messages? Does he have a conscience to prick? I think great wealth shrinks consciences, unfortunately.
I have also been mulling the contrast of the two sides: On Trump's side armed lunatics who erect gallows, call in bomb scares, beat up elderly spouses of politicians, try to intimidate voters of color, vs a lot of people, primarily women, writing postcards and organizing voter registration drives. Who will win in the world's oldest democracy?
Robert, so glad you are feeling well enough to write this column, one of your most inspiring, but yes, you must do as Jill tells you, and get more rest.
Calling out those Steigbügelhalter in the 30s actually is a bit like monday morning quarterbacking. Sure, they played with fire but they couldn't possibly fathom the disastrous consequences.
Today's Steigbügelhalter know exactly who and what they are trying to bring back to power.
Have you ever considered what Trump and his legions might do here in North America once he frees Putin in Europe and Xi in East Asia? He might decide to take Greenland and that other liberal country up north of the border. The dangers in the re-election of Trump span the globe and today's Steigbügelhalter may be as ignorant of that as Hitler's were.
Many morbidly wealthy people think they are special and are entitled to excess.
"morbidly wealthy" -- well said!
Stefan Schlüter. Very well said of Ross Douthat. I tried to get my head around his articles and simply gave up.
Stefan, I would like to write a couple of letters to the editor using this term. Obviously, I would be borrowing from you. Is that OK with you, and do you think the term had wide enough use in this context to refer to it?
You probably would have to explain the term. In Germany it is widely used by historians as well as in the media to describe politicians like Hugenberg or Papen who supported Hitler in the early days. After Hitler immediately dissolved the Parliament after coming to power on Jan 31, 1933 Hugenberg is said to have said: "I made the greatest stupidity of my life yesterday: I allied myself with the greatest demagogue in world history."
Seems like the learning curve of many in the US is quite a bit longer.
Thank you. I thought you explained it extremely clearly in your post! I will try to do the same.
Dimon should have been in prison after the subprime failure. It’s insane that although legal, the moral & ethics of it was reprehensible.
Since I dwell in a Progressive Info bubble but am educated, a septuagenerian, a war veteran who has seen through my work life much hardship, I ventured out to a monthly meeting of my county's "Patriots" organization. It is listed by the SPLC as one of hundreds of right wing organization most of which subscribe to isolationist thinking, conspiracy theories, a gun culture with Christian Nationalistic tendencies. I tested the contents of my silo of facts against the reality of the local ground around me.
The Mission Statement claims a nonpartisan element; not true. The message, consistent and constant, was "own the libs." One speaker, a candidate in the upcoming PA primary emphasized election security and integrity. Chris Hayes several broadcasts ago described how the MAGA people are weaponizing the election process to suppress the vote and win if they loose. Hayes was accurate in every respect.
My point is to take seriously what the MAGA constituency says and does. There were approximately 100, mostly older, virtually all white attendees; the group claims 5000 Meta (Face Book) followers. The group is well organized and enthusiastic. They raffle off a fire arm at each monthly meeting; the pre-meeting prayer, said immediately after the Pledge of Allegiance, can not be misinterpreted as nondenominational. The blessed petition requested help and guidance in the effort to save our country from the immoral and depraved road now traveled.
Clearly all of us who believe in our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution need to put energy into maintaining our democracy. "We have a Republic if we can keep it" per Ben Franklin. We have to win the 2024 election at local, state and national levels or we won't "keep it."
Wow. Thank you so much for putting yourself in the fray, and then reporting on it.
Robert Hubbell - feel better soon! Get more rest!
I am grateful you focus the weekend comments on Jamie Dimon.
Think about all the 1st and 2nd generation immigrants who have prospered in the USA "land of opportunity" that are "pulling up the ladder and closing the door behind them" for others.
Trump, Haley, Dimon, Nido Quebain...
"Affirmative Action" beneficiaries Clarence Thomas and Tim Scott (and Ben Carson, "bless his heart")...
Calm down. Don't get me started.
So BIDENOMICS has the Stock Market at a new HIGH,
The unemployment rates at historic LOWS,
the push toward living wages and affordable housing and student loan relief
ALL DEMOCRATIC POLICIES,
ending junk fees by banks and ticket sellers and other corporations...
The fact the minimum wage hasn't increased in decades
while CEO earnings have skyrocketed to hundreds of times more than the employee income...
ONLY DEMOCRATS ARE ADDRESSING THESE ISSUES.
What I meant to say is I have an OBSERVATION.
This is NOT a correlation, nor painting a group with a broad brush. SIMPLY AN OBSERVATION.
Stephen Miller to me is the poster child for vile "Nazi-ism"
(white supremacy, xenophobia, inhumane policies, push toward dictatorship)
and positioned to do even more damage globally if tfg is reelected.
Stephen Miller obtained a degree from Duke.
Jamie Dimon's daughter also attended Duke, and he gave more than one seminar/program while she was enrolled.
ALL I AM SAYING IS I believe these people talk to each other.
I am not pointing fingers. I am not making accusations. I am WATCHING.
End of rant... for now.
Rant on, Beverly. I am raising my voice -- as strategically and meaningfully as is possible!
The minimum wage has risen in 35 states and for the first time in a long time wage growth beat inflation
Stephen Miller, a poster child for the Nazis. Just seeing him made me disgusted. THAT - an American, no way in Hell.
Please, please, please, some Republican, somewhere, stand up against the fascism that is taking control of your party, of Lincoln's Party. Is there no one left? Am I imploring an empty room?
As Timothy Snyder puts it in "on Tyranny," the tyrant requires that people actively turn over their allegiance voluntarily, so that by accepting the inevitability of his power before he takes it, they enable him to appear stronger than he is.
I'd consider changing banks, but if I had ever been able to find a bank that wasn't run by scumbags, I'd have done so long ago, and Chase is he only bank that has a "free banking" program for veterans - no minimum balance required, no fees on using ATMs, minimal fee of half their normal fee for fund transfers, making them unfortunately the best of a bad lot - and like I said, if ever in there was a bank that wasn't like that (your family bank doesn't count Ransom, because of what it eventually became when the scumbags in North Carolina bought B of A :-) )
Credit unions are good options.
Yes, I switched to a federal credit union from the big banks 15 years ago and am very happy with my decision, especially after the stories that broke about Wells Fargo not long after I closed my accounts there.
We've been using a credit union for 27 years. They keep merging and offering more and better services. They are about to merge into a federal credit union.
I second the motion! Please consider opening an account at a credit union and moving your banking activity over.
One security question: Having multiple banking accounts increases the likelihood that one of them will be hacked. ("Increases the attack surface.")
This happened to me this month. The credit union was responsive and helpful.
But, because I had an account at another credit union, I was able to continue in confidence rather than being tied in knots with the one account.
Yep! Have had my (free!) account there for 20+ years. They call/text whenever they think an unusual dollar amount transaction is fishy.
For me, given the way I get most of my income, they're not the best option fee-wise.
yes, if you go over the charges are immense. Credit Agricole is a very good one in France, and very large.
Yes, 'do not obey in advance, most of the power in authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government would want and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who acts in this way shows power what it can do.' Timothy Snyder
also
5. Become able to put our values and actions and knowledges in front of us, like an object, for examination and discussion
two eyed seeing (Albert Marshall, 2004) western and indigenous concepts used together
"Two-eyed seeing." An antidote to doublethink.
What a helpful idea.
This brightened my day!
One example: “Two-Eyed Seeing”: An Indigenous framework to transform fisheries research and management," by Andrea Reid et al., https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12516
From the abstract: "Two-Eyed Seeing is the notion that knowledge transforms the holder and that the holder bears a responsibility to act on that knowledge. We explore its operationalization through three Canadian aquatic and fisheries case-studies that co-develop questions, document and mobilize knowledge, and co-produce insights and decisions. We argue that Two-Eyed Seeing provides a pathway to a plural coexistence, where time-tested Indigenous knowledge systems can be paired with, not subsumed by, Western scientific insights for an equitable and sustainable future."
Glad to hear you are on the mend, Robert!
Joyce Vance has provided in her latest newsletter a blueprint for getting Congress to pave the way for televising the Federal trials against Donald Trump. It really sounds doable.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/if-congress-can-do-this
Here is what I sent Joyce for more concrete steps to take:
Below are some resources for your call to action for access to Trump court proceedings that you can inform your readers about.
I got this list by prompting Microsoft’s Copilot AI service.
Begin forwarded message:
Here is the prompt I used:
Which organizations collect signatures and send them to relevant political representatives to build support for congressional bill passage?
AI answer:
There are many organizations that collect signatures for various causes and issues, including congressional bills. Some examples are:
- **Ballotpedia**, a nonpartisan online encyclopedia of American politics and elections, that provides information and analysis on ballot measures, candidates, and elections¹.
- **Change.org**, a website that allows users to create and sign online petitions for various social and political causes².
- **MoveOn**, a progressive public policy advocacy group and political action committee that organizes campaigns and petitions on various issues, such as health care, climate change, and democracy reform³.
- **Avaaz**, a global online movement that campaigns on issues such as human rights, animal welfare, and environmental protection⁴.
These organizations use different methods and platforms to collect signatures and send them to relevant political representatives, such as email, social media, or direct mail. Some of them also partner with other groups or individuals to increase their reach and impact. They may also use other strategies, such as lobbying, media outreach, or grassroots mobilization, to build support for congressional bill passage..
Source: Conversation with Bing, 1/20/2024
(1) $118 million spent collecting signatures for 2022 ballot measures. https://news.ballotpedia.org/2022/10/20/118-million-spent-collecting-signatures-for-2022-ballot-measures/.
(2) Pay-per-signature for ballot initiative signature gatherers. https://ballotpedia.org/Pay-per-signature_for_ballot_initiative_signature_gatherers.
(3) Congressional Bills | GovInfo. https://www.govinfo.gov/help/bills.
(4) Abortion rights groups look to new ballot measures in 2023-2024 - NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/abortion-rights-groups-look-new-ballot-measures-2023-2024-rcna61317.
I sent the column to Robert and suggest everyone read it.
I believe Jessica also provided suggestions in her update too. While it's enticing to simplify the process, Joyce's call for a heartfelt, handwritten message will be more impactful.
So happy you’re feeling better, Robert! Yay!
These spineless cowards think we haven’t listened to their past rhetoric. They think we don’t see their lies, their crossed fingers behind their backs, their thinly veiled bullshit. But, we see it all and we aren’t fooled. They stink as badly as Trump allegedly (think Depends) does. They are failing at the task at hand. These jerks only see dollar signs and not the egregious acts that Trump and his cohorts committed when he was prez. The good news is that they will all meet their demise someday. I just hope I am alive to celebrate.
We see it yes but unfortunately the less informed and those who get their news from social media are not aware.
This.
“Most importantly. You will have set an example for your children and grandchildren that they can call on when the next threat to democracy arises.”
Yes, and here is the other side, and it is an other side.
We all leave this world. Some will have perhaps one reference to themselves in history books. The people mentioned in this column (and I would add Mitch McConnell, my Senator John Cornyn, and others) will leave their grandchildren and great grandchildren reading about their one claim to fame: knowingly failing their country in its time of need. That’s it.
This is it, Cathy. Perhaps it is because I have worked in health care for so long, anytime something bad happens, I usually put it in perspective with the reality that we will all be gone from this world one day.
Every time I hear mention of the racist, hoarding, greedy sycophants of The Loser, I think "History will not be kind to you".
The just don’t give a damn frankly
Nor will a fair % of their offspring as they benefit from their spoils, when (I pray & optimisticly believe due to our efforts) our democracy survives.
All the worse, for them
I wish Jamie Dimon had not put out even faint praise of Trump. He's one of our top business executives with record setting lasting tenure and a phenomenal track record through serial financial crises. Continuing supporting Haley would have been the right thing to do. It's a low move this early in the election cycle. There is no way that Dimon is unaware of how untrustworthy and unsteady Trump is.
Remember most voters don’t know who Jamie Dimon is and could care less and the big players play both sides. Remember when Trump was a Democrat ?
I remember, for years of reading the NY Post, when Trump was the opposite of almost everything he currently says he believes in. Believing Trump is either ethical or steady is a fool's dream. Proven regularly.
Dimon is a fat jerk. Katie Porter did an excellent breakdown of what the big banks CEOs salaries were as opposed to their frontline employees. She had the major banks CEOs in a hearing with her. Dimon was one of them. She read him the riot act! It was beautiful!
My comment (submitted, and approved, just now) on Ross Douthat's opinion piece:
This is doublethink. We saw the insurrection, planned by the perpetrators (the "tactical stack" threading its way up the steps through the mob, wearing tactical gear; leaving weapons caches outside D.C.; busses carrying participants from afar; someone planting bombs to distract police attention; bringing sharpened flagpoles and bear spray; Trumps asking for the mags to be taken down, because they weren't coming for him).
Trump tweeted, "Be there, will be wild."
And yet, Ross Douthat claims the events of January 6th don't meet some abstruse definition of "insurrection."
In 2017, Tim Snyder wrote "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century." His first lesson:
1. Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.
With this opinion piece, Ross Douthat is giving attention, and power, to authoritarian ideas. Shame on him, and on The New York Times, for publishing.
Update 2:59PM Saturday: Well, dagnabbit, it seems I posted my comment to another column by Ross Douthat, and that, indeed, his column on whether J6 was an insurrection does not allow comments. Oh well, here's my mea culpa. Not sure if racing around and "fixing" things really clears things up or not. I'll just leave it be with this.
Here's a link to my comment: https://nl.nytimes.com/f/a/Df66-nQ_O24f-uuGhxCkkw~~/AAAAAQA~/RgRnjlH4P0R9aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vMjAyNC8wMS8yMC9vcGluaW9uL25pa2tpLWhhbGV5LXRydW1wLWZvcmVpZ24tcG9saWN5Lmh0bWwjY29tbWVudHNDb250YWluZXImcGVybWlkPTEzMDU4NDc5OToxMzA1ODQ3OTlXA255dEIKZaH4zKtl_32NaVIXYm9iLnN0cm9tYmVyZ0BnbWFpbC5jb21YBAAAAAM~
Excellent response to NYT, Bob!! They need that pushback. You got quite a few “likes”. 👏🏼👏🏼
I suppose that fighting over the word “insurrection” may be important to people trying to use the 14th Amendment to disqualify Trump from federal office. I hope they succeed.
But to me it’s enough, for now, simply to recall the rioting that took place within and around the Capitol, and the horrible attitudes of the rioters. I’ll never forget the revulsion and fear the rioting prompted. And I’ll never in the slightest condone attempts to “explain away” and paper over the immoral, thoroughly anti-American actions of the Trump rioters.
Ed Koch the former mayor of New York City once said “ I would not believe a word Trump said even if he had a lie detector attached to his tongue “
Too bad the Dems didn’t play that in 2016!
A determinist (e.g. a Marxist) might see Dimon’s comments as inevitable; that is, they were determined by his possession of a $1.5 billion fortune, his class interests. There may be something to that view.
But there is also such a thing as character, virtues such as wisdom, courage, and the concern for others. Dimon fails the test of character regardless of whatever qualities took him to the top spot at Chase.
I am of the opinion the majority are very tired of Trump. The voices will come at the ballot box for Biden! The FACT only less than 13% of the GOP voted in Iowa spoke of no support for Trump. I don’t believe polls, I don’t believe Jan 6th will be ignored. I have the belief the GOP is going to be voted out by extreme hubris and the fear and bully routine and women’s rights they try to reframe. Since the GOP Congressional group does nothing for Americans the Dems will rise again.
I can't remember where I read this (I am on several substacks), but a point was made about Iowa that really reinforces your observation: "less than 13% of the GOP voted in Iowa" by noting that of those 13% who showed up to caucus, just 51% voted for the Loser - which amounts to about 7% of the GOP in Iowa. This means that 93% of the GOP in Iowa did not vote at all.
I should correct this read "93% of the GOP in Iowa did not vote for the Loser."
As long as we all keep engaging & encouraging other too!
Wish I could “like” you ten times! I agree completely!
If I may for a moment wax philosophical. I am addressing Trump's followers and not the star-studded list of stools Robert is referring to who have capitulated to Trump, chafing their knees in the process, bending and dropping to his will. The populations of MAGA supporters have forsaken everything - every tenet of their religious fervor; every concern for their neighbors; every concern for the future of their children; any concern for the value of truth; any pretense of living within a consensus reality - in turn, have bought into an delusional state in which their (whatever?) hardships, misfortunes, complaints, disenfranchisements, alienations are represented by a sycophantic parasite who feeds off of those same people for his own benefit.
Now, I digress for a time. Have you ever thought about those people who take an extraordinary journey - think astronauts, mountain climbers, desert trekkers, deep sea explorers - and return from that experience changed. What changes them is a more deeply felt understanding of the word "humility" or the realization that in this world we are small. These journey folk have come to understand the real estimate of one's own importance and rank in the universe. Astronauts refer to looking back upon the Earth and realizing it is but a dot in the sky. Deep sea divers refer to an unknown world of unfathomable complexity.
Cult leaders are the diametric opposite of humble. Their work is to elevate the individual, remove the awe and wonder of life replacing it with anger and retribution. Having those feeling meek, compliant, and submissive to act with single-minded conceit and entitlement believing they will regain their stature. They confuse the outrageous with boldness; the lies as resistance; the personification of cult with personal representation.
Trump's followers have (and this is a hard one for anyone to self-confess) effectively diminished themselves to the status of compliant children, pleading for attention, crying for their next meal, laughing at prompts so mommy or daddy will "do it again". And, Trump does it again...and again...and again.
The meek are unassuming but not stupid. They are ordinary but not powerless. They are without pretense but will not disappear. "The meek shall inherit the Earth" is an affirmation that we can live with humility and remain the Force that outlasts the corrupt and sinful. AMEN.
Sharing! Thanks!
What's most troublesome about the Times reporting these days is not that they run stories about or written by Trump apologists or sycophants, but that the Times rarely runs stories that cast Biden or his accomplishments in a favorable light. A journalist friend of mine commented that reading the Times today is an exercise in Trumpian nihilism. I can't explain why the Times wants to scream out the threat of Trump on the one hand but not almost never describe Biden as the obvious and proven solution to Trumpism.