One of the biggest stories of 2023 is that the U.S. economy grew faster than any other economy in the Group of 7 nations, made up of democratic countries with the world’s largest advanced economies. By a lot. The International Monetary Fund yesterday reported that the U.S. gross domestic product—the way countries estimate their productivity—grew by 2.5%, significantly higher than the GDP of the next country on the list: Japan, at 1.9%.
“Greedflation” is the most under-reported economic news in years. This is largely because it’s hard to quantify. But it’s an indictment of unfettered capitalism and legions of CEOs.
It’s great that the Biden administration has accomplished so much economically for the country. But the sad reality is that so many basic needs remain obscenely expensive, causing widespread hardship.
It is so important to keep calling these MAGA R’s out on a daily basis. The ancient Grassley…I wonder if he really knew that he was thinking out loud. The border issue was so close to being a done deal until their lord and savior piped in. I view Mike Johnson as a loyal puppy to Leonard Leo and to Trump/Putin. So irritating!
Hoping Jack Smith goes to the 11th Circuit and asks that Cannon be removed so that his trial can proceed before November. We need a nice Blue clean sweep.
What I wouldn't give to wake up tomorrow morning and open my news feed, to find that a mass arrest was carried out at 0600 in DC, with all Republicans who participated in Trump's conspiracy, voting not to accept the electoral votes after the January 6 insurrection, hauled out of bed and marched off.
We could then see lots of progress as their departure for the DC Jail really did Make America Great Again.
I want to see the return of the fairness doctrine, the repeal of Citizens United, a return of the Voting Rights Act as originally envisioned, a repeal of Dobbs, and application of section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the former guy and all the congressional reps who characterize the riot on January 6 as "peaceful tourism." Then I want to see anti-monopolistic policies enforced, the environment protected, climate change contested, and a whole lot more kindness and consideration for those in need.
Thank you for pulling it all together tonight Heather. There are many fed up with all the bluster and no action. Saying no to the border bill after screaming for it for years might just get the discust level high enough to make a difference in the 2024 election.
Re the mention that Biden's economic policies aren't reaching everyone, here is a quote from a New Hampshire voter on inflation data: "I don't know whose pocketbook they're looking at, but it isn't mine." Why do the big-picture data fail to report or somehow override available data on price increases for actual purchases by ordinary people, like supermarket items or auto fuel? Ordinary folks don't care about big-picture data, but they care very much about the prices of things they actually need to get by. "Greedflation" seems to have affected precisely those prices. So why aren't Biden and the Dems fighting "greedflation" in a way that's visible to actual voters? If they are, I haven't noticed yet. THAT would be effective campaigning.
Biden has far exceeded my expectations in most regards, but he’s squandered hard won political capital by embracing Netanyahu’s authoritarian criminality and by failing to take a hard line with Abbot in Texas. These issues could cost him the election.
I love how our Heather refers to Dems policies and programs getting passed and doing good.
She does this knowing fully well that Republicans have zero policies or programs of their own. But it might behoove us to look a bit more at the set of clown shows, lies, and hypocrisies Republicans inhabit instead.
If the Republicans -- any of them -- had acquired any humanities at any point in their public lives, and used some in reference to real people in real communities, they'd realize how our best artists, in all the arts, always signal their debts to predecessors, artists prior to them. They can't do this because they're so bereft of humanities reference that they enact their own fantasy scripts without predecessors, humane debts.
Call them names, these mostly white trash? Why hold back? They're all accepting government paychecks as if they were yet doing government work (programs and policies). But their madness is so total, so all-engulfing, they cannot see a scintilla out of their replacement madness.
So maybe our wielding the wildest of insult for them makes sense, insofar as their madness has so taken over, they all dwell in cult-land fantasies completely unaware of how their would-be performances have no art, no predecessor artists, no debts to any betters.
This link came through threads to a comment I made. I’d missed this talk and highly recommend listening if you too missed it (obviously I’m a bit slow). Our professor is so enlightening: "Feb 1 from Chaplain T Nicholetti
I heard Heather's discussion at the LBJ library and learned more about why ordinary folks can get taken over by authoritarians. I also got to LOL a few times because she is so naturally witty! 211k views 3 months ago!!!"
The racist totalitarian brew formed around bull shit trickle down economics cum fascism and Orwellian nihilism. Hannah Arendt’s banality of evil nailed it. Rep. David Stockman from Michigan resisted, he tried. And he failed. The woodshed concept became Gov. Ronald Reagan’s con, as the son of a drunk first married to a drunk, from Hollywood Grade B filming destroyed the Republican Party with bull shit trickle down economics ... and his racist imaginary of the obese Black welfare mother in Chicago ... paired with slick racist GHWB who gleefully added murderer Willie Horton to stuff Gov. Michael Dukakis per Lee Atwater, elevating racism in GOP leadership to Fascist Cult Code Red Party Dogma returning to Civil War confederate racism - add antisemitism - aligning the Trump Queens to GOP with Putin, Viktor Orban and Arab hatreds to - add Iran’s terrorists, Hamas in GAZA and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and other radical Jew hating groups, and WWIII nihilism threatens with border security and Trump’s Queens racism .. with MTG / Trump / Elise Stefanik fascist racism ... and the whole country and the world are again facing the Mussolini fascist mix that led Germany to Hitler...tracking Henry Ford’s antisemitism and 1930s racism in America..
What will it take? Education, education, education... and the rise of unions and New Deal policies, not socialism, capitalism and Democratic politics of inclusion... reversing Trump tax cuts... and much more.
Tolerance must rise. Decency must prevail, not Trump bullying and violence.. American youth must rise to power... Chuck Grassley must go, the House must return to sanity.
It's worth remembering that Chuck Grassley, IA, has been in office since 1981. He's a curious old curmudgeon. Other than having been swept in on the Supply side tide of the early Reagan years, he done nothing notable or honorable or for the good of the rest of the country that I can recall. He'll always support farm subsidies but otherwise everything is Socialism to him. I ask other readers to name one good thing he has done in his 40 years in office.
“Today in the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin called the Republicans’ behavior “nihilism and performative politics.”
Oxford Dictionaryof nihilism- the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.
I would have to say that the Republican Party is actually using religion to capture their base. Evangelicals supporting the right to lifers. Members of the government using that to block promotions of military members for almost a year - one person against abortion. And that person, if put in a position of having a daughter impregnated through rape, would have it performed in a New York Minute.
It is a very dangerous situation where our forefathers recognize the importance of the separation of church from state, yet here it is coming back again lead by the most immoral leader on earth- Donald J. Trump. Backed by the most dangerous leader on earth Vladimir Putin.
But we have one thing on our side, smart intelligent women. Hopefully enough to offset the idiot ones. It is the right to choose, the right to have an abortion because of medical, rape, incest, or simply a poor decision one night. A decision she didn’t want to have to live with, at least for now. Yet a decision.
For people to lead their life through God by forcing it on others. Then let’s force the elimination of certain guns. Those horrible things are creating living human abortions every day. Protest those gun shops and gun manufactures. These are parents that wanted children, had them, and lost them to a gun. And it pains me. No parent should go through that.
That seems to be more inhuman then stopping a fetus.
I’m struggling to express a thought that is new to me this morning. It is based on my experience with middle class and wealthy branches of my family, and their living during the Great Depression, WWII, the postwar boom and so on, so we’re talking about Hoover and then FDR, WWII, the postwar boom, the second Washington (Eisenhower), and then Reagan, who aside from what Heather says quite correctly about him, failed in his initial bid to be president by being himself, so he became whoever he needed to be to get elected, setting the stage for Trump.
Middle class Americans have been co-opted by having the bulk of their retirement funds invested in stocks and bonds over which they lack the expertise or funds to manage themselves, so they have been separated from making moral decisions like those they follow for charitable and political donations. I’m talking about pensions and then IRAs. As the result, corporations are doing what they will, even though it is contrary to their beliefs, including in Democracy.
Even in my liberal church, investment parameters are not fully in line with the expressed beliefs of members and the denomination as a whole.
“Greedflation” is the most under-reported economic news in years. This is largely because it’s hard to quantify. But it’s an indictment of unfettered capitalism and legions of CEOs.
It’s great that the Biden administration has accomplished so much economically for the country. But the sad reality is that so many basic needs remain obscenely expensive, causing widespread hardship.
It is so important to keep calling these MAGA R’s out on a daily basis. The ancient Grassley…I wonder if he really knew that he was thinking out loud. The border issue was so close to being a done deal until their lord and savior piped in. I view Mike Johnson as a loyal puppy to Leonard Leo and to Trump/Putin. So irritating!
Hoping Jack Smith goes to the 11th Circuit and asks that Cannon be removed so that his trial can proceed before November. We need a nice Blue clean sweep.
What I wouldn't give to wake up tomorrow morning and open my news feed, to find that a mass arrest was carried out at 0600 in DC, with all Republicans who participated in Trump's conspiracy, voting not to accept the electoral votes after the January 6 insurrection, hauled out of bed and marched off.
We could then see lots of progress as their departure for the DC Jail really did Make America Great Again.
Why would Chuck Grassley want to kill the Child Tax Credit bill but push for more tax cuts for billionaires? Follow the dark money with this interactive chart that helps explain his actions and see who three of his biggest, billionaire donors are. https://thedemlabs.org/2024/02/01/republican-kill-child-tax-credit-bill-follow-dark-money/
I want to see the return of the fairness doctrine, the repeal of Citizens United, a return of the Voting Rights Act as originally envisioned, a repeal of Dobbs, and application of section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the former guy and all the congressional reps who characterize the riot on January 6 as "peaceful tourism." Then I want to see anti-monopolistic policies enforced, the environment protected, climate change contested, and a whole lot more kindness and consideration for those in need.
Thank you for pulling it all together tonight Heather. There are many fed up with all the bluster and no action. Saying no to the border bill after screaming for it for years might just get the discust level high enough to make a difference in the 2024 election.
End of story ~"Since they took control of the House in 2023, House Republicans have been able to conduct almost no business"
Re the mention that Biden's economic policies aren't reaching everyone, here is a quote from a New Hampshire voter on inflation data: "I don't know whose pocketbook they're looking at, but it isn't mine." Why do the big-picture data fail to report or somehow override available data on price increases for actual purchases by ordinary people, like supermarket items or auto fuel? Ordinary folks don't care about big-picture data, but they care very much about the prices of things they actually need to get by. "Greedflation" seems to have affected precisely those prices. So why aren't Biden and the Dems fighting "greedflation" in a way that's visible to actual voters? If they are, I haven't noticed yet. THAT would be effective campaigning.
Biden has far exceeded my expectations in most regards, but he’s squandered hard won political capital by embracing Netanyahu’s authoritarian criminality and by failing to take a hard line with Abbot in Texas. These issues could cost him the election.
Dare we hope that the message of progress rather than obstruction is beginning to get out?
I love how our Heather refers to Dems policies and programs getting passed and doing good.
She does this knowing fully well that Republicans have zero policies or programs of their own. But it might behoove us to look a bit more at the set of clown shows, lies, and hypocrisies Republicans inhabit instead.
If the Republicans -- any of them -- had acquired any humanities at any point in their public lives, and used some in reference to real people in real communities, they'd realize how our best artists, in all the arts, always signal their debts to predecessors, artists prior to them. They can't do this because they're so bereft of humanities reference that they enact their own fantasy scripts without predecessors, humane debts.
Call them names, these mostly white trash? Why hold back? They're all accepting government paychecks as if they were yet doing government work (programs and policies). But their madness is so total, so all-engulfing, they cannot see a scintilla out of their replacement madness.
So maybe our wielding the wildest of insult for them makes sense, insofar as their madness has so taken over, they all dwell in cult-land fantasies completely unaware of how their would-be performances have no art, no predecessor artists, no debts to any betters.
This link came through threads to a comment I made. I’d missed this talk and highly recommend listening if you too missed it (obviously I’m a bit slow). Our professor is so enlightening: "Feb 1 from Chaplain T Nicholetti
I heard Heather's discussion at the LBJ library and learned more about why ordinary folks can get taken over by authoritarians. I also got to LOL a few times because she is so naturally witty! 211k views 3 months ago!!!"
https://youtu.be/gkbAayPUjtM?si=URl7GyZibNOJPDou
The racist totalitarian brew formed around bull shit trickle down economics cum fascism and Orwellian nihilism. Hannah Arendt’s banality of evil nailed it. Rep. David Stockman from Michigan resisted, he tried. And he failed. The woodshed concept became Gov. Ronald Reagan’s con, as the son of a drunk first married to a drunk, from Hollywood Grade B filming destroyed the Republican Party with bull shit trickle down economics ... and his racist imaginary of the obese Black welfare mother in Chicago ... paired with slick racist GHWB who gleefully added murderer Willie Horton to stuff Gov. Michael Dukakis per Lee Atwater, elevating racism in GOP leadership to Fascist Cult Code Red Party Dogma returning to Civil War confederate racism - add antisemitism - aligning the Trump Queens to GOP with Putin, Viktor Orban and Arab hatreds to - add Iran’s terrorists, Hamas in GAZA and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and other radical Jew hating groups, and WWIII nihilism threatens with border security and Trump’s Queens racism .. with MTG / Trump / Elise Stefanik fascist racism ... and the whole country and the world are again facing the Mussolini fascist mix that led Germany to Hitler...tracking Henry Ford’s antisemitism and 1930s racism in America..
What will it take? Education, education, education... and the rise of unions and New Deal policies, not socialism, capitalism and Democratic politics of inclusion... reversing Trump tax cuts... and much more.
Tolerance must rise. Decency must prevail, not Trump bullying and violence.. American youth must rise to power... Chuck Grassley must go, the House must return to sanity.
It will be along winter.
It's worth remembering that Chuck Grassley, IA, has been in office since 1981. He's a curious old curmudgeon. Other than having been swept in on the Supply side tide of the early Reagan years, he done nothing notable or honorable or for the good of the rest of the country that I can recall. He'll always support farm subsidies but otherwise everything is Socialism to him. I ask other readers to name one good thing he has done in his 40 years in office.
NIHILISM
“Today in the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin called the Republicans’ behavior “nihilism and performative politics.”
Oxford Dictionaryof nihilism- the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.
I would have to say that the Republican Party is actually using religion to capture their base. Evangelicals supporting the right to lifers. Members of the government using that to block promotions of military members for almost a year - one person against abortion. And that person, if put in a position of having a daughter impregnated through rape, would have it performed in a New York Minute.
It is a very dangerous situation where our forefathers recognize the importance of the separation of church from state, yet here it is coming back again lead by the most immoral leader on earth- Donald J. Trump. Backed by the most dangerous leader on earth Vladimir Putin.
But we have one thing on our side, smart intelligent women. Hopefully enough to offset the idiot ones. It is the right to choose, the right to have an abortion because of medical, rape, incest, or simply a poor decision one night. A decision she didn’t want to have to live with, at least for now. Yet a decision.
For people to lead their life through God by forcing it on others. Then let’s force the elimination of certain guns. Those horrible things are creating living human abortions every day. Protest those gun shops and gun manufactures. These are parents that wanted children, had them, and lost them to a gun. And it pains me. No parent should go through that.
That seems to be more inhuman then stopping a fetus.
I’m struggling to express a thought that is new to me this morning. It is based on my experience with middle class and wealthy branches of my family, and their living during the Great Depression, WWII, the postwar boom and so on, so we’re talking about Hoover and then FDR, WWII, the postwar boom, the second Washington (Eisenhower), and then Reagan, who aside from what Heather says quite correctly about him, failed in his initial bid to be president by being himself, so he became whoever he needed to be to get elected, setting the stage for Trump.
Middle class Americans have been co-opted by having the bulk of their retirement funds invested in stocks and bonds over which they lack the expertise or funds to manage themselves, so they have been separated from making moral decisions like those they follow for charitable and political donations. I’m talking about pensions and then IRAs. As the result, corporations are doing what they will, even though it is contrary to their beliefs, including in Democracy.
Even in my liberal church, investment parameters are not fully in line with the expressed beliefs of members and the denomination as a whole.
It is a troubling situation.