On Friday, Axios began to publish a deeply researched and important series by Jonathan Swan, explaining that if former president Trump retakes power, he and allies like his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), and head of Trump’s social media network Devin Nunes are determined to purge our nonpartisan civil service and replace it with loyalists. In a normal administration, a new president gets to replace around 4000 political appointees, but most government employees are in positions designed to be nonpartisan. Trump’s team wants to gut this system and put in place people loyal to him and his agenda.
With the constant corruption, self-dealing, and norm-breaking during the Trump years, news of his targeting civil servants never received adequate attention. I'm glad Heather has shined light on the topic.
It's another chilling warning: America as we know it will end should Trump somehow manage to regain the White House. Same is true of his wannabes.
The stellar work of the J6 committee shows signs of waking the nation, along with a Supreme Court intent on destroying hard-won freedoms. But I'd like to see some polling regarding how many Americans truly understand we're on the precipice and what's at stake.
Through journalists, such as Jonathan Swan, Michael Schmidt, Carol Lenning, Robert Woodward, Robert Costa...so many good journalists and historians, Heather Cox Richardson, Anne Applebaum, Timothy Snyder....so many fine historians have educated and warned us. Remember all the great books we have read telling us where the country is headed. Trump and his hench mob are not sneaking up on us in the dark of night. Our job is to find the means to spread the word. The American people must be awakened. We cannot survive if social media and Fox News control the space. We must find ways to break their hold.
Folks who are committed to being ignorant and are proud of it are boring fools. They know that they are being led around by their noses by big money grifters. They haven’t figured out that the junk they are buying into for “free” is being used to fleece them. They want to “believe” not learn. That’s why I pay for Heather’s work and that of Propublica. I also donate to Wikipedia because I use it a lot. The New York Review of Books is invaluable. One of the surest signs of a good mind and intellectual courage is the ability to see and inquire about that which is NOT in the picture. I need regular help with that! These brutal and criminal GOP years have forced us all to sharpen our skills, to ask the questions. I think that the January 6th hearings have reminded us how that is done.
Throughout history, those 'boring fools' have enabled despots to come to power, and those with 'a good mind and intellectual courage' have suffered. While we are 'sharpening our skills,' they are sharpening their knives. Awareness is insufficient unless and until it leads to action.
This morning, I completed and mailed the last of 100 personalized postal cards to selected voters in the Arizona Senate race. Tonight, I start on a similar list in Nevada. These are the kinds of 'actions' we should be taking. Visit www.activateamerica.vote to find out how you can swing into action.
Jack, I salute you for this effort. I should do this again soon as well. Did hand write 25 postcards on behalf of New Mexico dems to Native Americans on how to stay on the vote by mail list. There, you get cut off that list if you don’t do a bunch of stuff in just the right time.
Battling the Big Lie by Dan Pfeiffer a Democratic Party strategist and wordsmith is another good account of how we got here, what's being done, and what can be done. He was interviewed on a Politics Girl podcast.
Agree. And we have about fifteen weeks left to do it. Those who follow the words of these journalists and historians are already aware of the crisis the nation faces, but that's not enough. It's time to activate the voices of those to whom the non-politically concerned of the country pay attention, the singers, entertainers, the TV hosts, the sports stars, and in a unifying, not a divisive, way. They have to be convinced to risk their careers as did the Paul Robesons and Jane Fondas of their time.
Yes. Strategic postcard writing, and I'll add canvassing and donations are ways that we can help. But our efforts alone may not be enough to secure the votes we need. I think it's show time for those with far-reaching voices. Neil Young stepped up yesterday to say that he will not perform during the pandemic. His statement was widely broadcasted. He, and others, could proclaim that they are grateful to live in a country where they are free to voice their opinions without fear of being silenced by an authoritarian government. Any music producers in
Washington Post in-depth article about the Claremont Institute🧐. Under the cover of academia the radical right has apparently been attracting and grooming their ilk to place in government positions. 🤯
Right FERN, so many fine historians & journalists. Must mention Betsy Woodruff Swan & The Guardian's young Hugo Lowell at their DC Office. The Guardian has wide Global reach & can be contacted securely through their "HELP CENTER " Submissions accepted. Many LFAA Commenters capable.
Agree Fern. And yet. If people by now don't care what a monster TFG is no amount of information if going to matter. Here is an example. In 2020 we were actually hiding in our homes. We had no masks, no vaccine etc. People were dying all around us. If that didn't get people's attention I don't know what will.
Jordan and his fellow cult members are also making it very clear they will impeach Biden, Harris and Pelosi and install TFG as Speaker. They intend to prosecute the January 6 Committee members.
I wonder. How much is the messaging a failing of the Biden Administration and the DNC?
This is almost insulting Fern. I have been involved in politics for 50 years. I am very aware and have/are involved in number of these groups in addition to some you have not listed. I wasn't speaking to my voice. It is myopic to not call the President, the Biden Administration and other leading Democrats to task for messaging. Where is the hoopla on the work being done courtesy of the Infrastructure Act? Buttigieg appears to be a voice crying the wilderness at this point.
And I caution any overtly politically active people commenting on this site to please avoid the appearance of talking down to or lecturing others. Sometimes people just need to be heard; not called to action.
'And I caution any 'overtly' politically active people commenting on this site to please avoid the appearance of talking down to or lecturing others.' Any more 'friendly and supportive encouragement' from you, Barbara M. would be appreciated.
First. I did add a "thank you" to my original comment. I will say it in a different way. Thank you for your work. The organizations you listed do good work. Maybe someone will choose a couple. After many years my personal journey with political activism has evolved to where I tread lightly when around others who are not politically active and don't want to be. I have put people off before by being too forceful thus ending up doing more harm than good. What I realized is political activism is just not for everyone nor is talking politics for everyone. So we chop wood and carry water often receiving little to no thanks. Sometimes we lend comfort not confrontation nor call to duty. That sometimes nudges a door open for thoughtful discourse.
Barbara, I scrolled through quickly to be helpful in the short time that I had. It was impossible for me to read between the lines or remember the service that each subscriber was engaged in.
Then why write a demeaning response at all, Fern, if you do not have the information to write something meaningful? Please stop thinking of yourself as somehow having insight superior to others. It is really quite tiresome.
Thank you for the lists, Fern. There were some of which I was not aware. I'm rather new to the political arena. It took trump to make pay attention. At least he was useful for one thing!
Ricia, You are the useful one. I have learned a good deal about the country by participating on this forum and working with others in grassroots organizations whose goals are to turn this country into a democracy that supports all of us. Welcome! I am happy that you are here. It is a wonderful community learning more everyday from Heather Cox Richardson and from each other.
Steve Schmidt (The Warning), also on substack, wrote yesterday about the Axios series by Jonathan Swan. After reading Swan I was depressed for the rest of the day. My hope focusses on Merrick Garland.
Steve Schmidt (The Warning), also on substack, wrote yesterday about the Axios series by Jonathan Swan. After reading Swan I was depressed for the rest of the day. My hope focusses on Merrick Garland.
I would not trust polling. So far no one has reached me at home for a poll. That is because I do not answer random calls. Who are these pollers even reaching at this point? My elderly mother, who has had a stroke, and who gets tricked by callers and whom I have asked not to talk to strangers, is the only one I know who still takes calls from strangers. How are these polls finding people at this point? That is what I would like to know before I want to find out what they have to say. Who is answering the polls?
I do appreciate that Dr. Richardson details what is at stake here. It is a dystopian future that we appear to be hurtling towards like the space ship in Lost in Space, seemingly out of our control. I vote, I can work for campaigns, within limits I can donate money, I can write to papers, I can join protest marches, I can speak up, but I still have the sinking feeling that most people are ostriches. They have their heads in the sand and do not want to deal with the reality of the situation. I am frustrated by how many people I am surrounded by who basically do not want to talk about anything unpleasant. These are people who are staunchly against Trump. However, they are not going to worry about him winning again or spend much time thinking about what might happen that is bad until it happens, and then I am again going to be around depressed people, except that several of my friends and I mostly see each other in choir which is joyous or doing refugee work, which also has its rewards. For the most part they are just concerned with raising children, family vacations, getting their children into good colleges and the day to day stuff of life.
Polling was not reliable in the last two elections. I don’t respond to any sort of “poll” online as I do not know who the groups are. In the age of cell phones, it’s challenging to poll people. The poll that matters is the election.
I think the corrupt people in office count on people’s lack of attention. They pass terrible laws in the dead of night that get no publicity until they are passed and do terrible harm. So many people might have thought things would be less crazy if tRump were voted out. How has that worked so far?
We have a false front democracy, sort of like a movie set. The plutocratic robber barons control the politicians they have purchased with big campaign donations. Look up the billionaires Dunn and Wilks in Texas who are funding extreme right candidates who want to go right back to the Gilded Age.
Things are a lot less crazy wit trump out, and Biden in. From Yesterday's HCR:
Biden has defended democracy across the globe, accomplishing more in foreign diplomacy than any president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Less than a year after the former president threatened to withdraw the U.S. from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken pulled together the NATO countries, as well as allies around the world, to stand against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The new strength of NATO prompted Sweden and Finland to join the organization, and earlier this month, NATO ambassadors signed protocols for their admission. This is the most significant expansion of NATO in 30 years.
Love or hate what Biden has done, he has managed to pull a wide range of countries together to stand against Russian president Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian attack in Ukraine, and he has managed get through a terribly divided Congress laws to make the lives of the majority better, even while Republicans are rejecting the idea that the government should reflect the will of the majority. That is no small feat.
When I retired, somehow I found out about online surveys which pay minimal amounts for your opinions. There are a number of them out there but the one I found to be trustworthy is surveyjunkie.com. Like other people do online gaming for fun, I like to do the polls. There are many for financial institutions, fast food, internet providers, and often politics. I love those ones as I really like to give bad ratings on certain politicians of the red sort! ;)
You need to sign up for surveyjunkie.com and log on daily for polls. You accrue points that can be exchanged for gift cards or cash, my preference. It is directly deposited into my bank account in a few days.
I can't recall how, but through surveyjunkie.com, I had an opportunity to sign up for YouGov. Those polls are by invitation which is sent to the email you provide. I sometimes read news about polls and realize that I was one of the people polled.
I never answer phone calls that I do not recognize.
Miselle, online surveys are notoriously unreliable, because they cannot meet even the most basic criteria for validity. Plus the main purpose of most of them is to gather info for marketing. The results are not applicable too the real world, and in the meantime you are giving over your personal information for pay. Think about that. Would you trust a poll you knew got its "information" in that way?
My comment was not as to whether or not polls are reliable, I was answering (once again) the query as to "who are they polling, who answers phone calls from numbers they don't know".
As for giving away my personal information for pay, at least it's ME getting the pay, as opposed to social media selling my data. And, btw, most of the surveys are for my opinions on products/services, not political polls.
My logical mind can't wrap my head around the idea that 1541 people could be an accurate representation of views on ANY subject. Good grief. How do they find these folks? Why such a tiny number? And to your point, who picks up the phone when a strange number calls? It is almost always from "Sarah" or "Rachel" who are selling a credit card or auto warranties.
And I find it quite true in my little circle of existence that folks are so exhausted from TFG and his robotic followers and their conspiracies and lies, that they just shut down and think about their personal challenges. Of which we all have many...
That is what the fascists (we need to use this word!) are hoping for. That they will have more "participants" - despite the fact that they are outnumbered. We need to risk pissing off our family and friends by ringing the alarm loudly and frequently. This is our version of pre-WWII Germany.
Bill - Well-designed national polls typically use samples of around 1500 people. With a sample of that size the margin of error is around 3-4% at a 95% confidence level, almost no matter the size of the total population (e.g., 300,000,000 for the U.S., 8 billion or so for the whole world), as long as it is "large". What that means is that, in 95% of all samples of size 1500 (approx.), the proportion in the sample (such as "approve of Biden") will be within about 3 or 4% of the "true" proportion in the entire population. This type of result can be found in any elementary statistics textbook. But there is one "clinker" in this subject: the sample has to be chosen "at random", which has a specific technical meaning. Legitimate pollsters work hard to achieve random sampling, with varying degrees of success. As we've seen in recent polls, things can go awry for a variety of reasons. For a good historical example, the 1936 Literary Digest poll badly underestimated the support for Roosevelt (described in detail in The Public Opinion Quarterly, 52(1), Spring, 1988), pp. 125-133, and, if I remember correctly, Freedman, Pisani, and Purves, Statistics). Emphasis on the word 'legitimate'. So the statistical theory is correct; it's reality that's wrong.
Addendum - Some time ago I also posted a note to the effect that the probability of any particular person being included in a polling sample is tiny. So the argument that "polls are wrong because I've never been included in one" doesn't hold water. (Someone said this, in effect, above.) Also, I didn't give the specific numbers in my comments, but they can be worked out. It's freshman college or perhaps even high school statistics.
J Horowitz, I understand how the stats in a poll work and the necessity of a random sampling which random calling does not work, since many people will screen their calls. It is not the 1950s when everyone just answered the phone making it more random. That is still a poor example since in the 1950s not everyone had a phone. That would be the problem today too. You still would not get a true sampling of our population by calling because many people do not answer the phone, or they do not all have one. My point was illustrative of behavior of people who screen their calls versus people with brain damage like my mother who does not remember to do that all the time. So, I was not saying I have never been called, but rather most people who are careful do not answer telephone calls of people they don't know. So, polls need the trust of the sample, and that is going to be hard to gain. A trusting sample is not a random sample. In my graduate program in school psychology we studied sampling and polls. I have been attending a series of workshops through Northwestern this summer where they have been discussing communication bias, and I personally do not choose to participate in things that are slanted to support these sorts of biases. Also, I don't participate in research where the participants do not get any feedback. I am part of a university where I have ample opportunity to participate in research and there we are generally offered access to the research at some point, or I feel that what it is doing is important. A discussion of political polling by a researcher who presented this summer, was very troubling. It was not about looking for what is good for people but about racist, sexist, pro-Christian, homophobic labeling of people into types and anti-types. What bothers me about people calling over the phone is who knows whether the person calling is really a representing a legitimate poll. They could be someone trying to figure out what are the beliefs are in your particular home, and whether or not to harass you for those beliefs. You don't want your home or phone suddenly to be a target for who knows what sort of aggression. Also, you don't want your phone to be a target of right wing harassment. When my cell phone says likely scam those calls are avoided and we have a landline too. Unless we recognize the number it does not get answered. The rare exception is when we hear the landline ring and then one our cell phones, because we figure it is someone legitimate trying to get ahold of us. After a half a year of workshops on all of the anti democratic things that technology can be used for I am choosy, that does not mean I don't understand polls. The phone is a tool that can be used for a lot of things and not all of them are good.
Linda Wade: pollsters don’t rely on one phone number. If you don’t answer, they keep trying numbers in different area codes all over the country until someone does answer and responds. This actually adds to the randomness and offers greater likelihoods. Polls are not absolute numbers. They illustrate probabilities. Last minute high impact variables can skew the probabilities. In the absence of polling, you can always make wild guesses or count tea leaves or shake bones or just have no idea. Polls may be off, but they are rarely dead wrong. After voting polls rely on honesty. As people are becoming inured to lying as a no no, the after vote polls are reflecting the dishonesty in the country more than election probabilities IMHO.
Linda W - I see that Ann F has answered part of your comment (below). You raise many valid points; most of them are also true of Internet polling (via social media, etc.), and even to direct interview and mail polls. Some biases can be ameliorated, if not eliminated, by statistical adjustments of different kinds (which is not the same as "fudging" the results). There are many different types of bias that people try hard to address in the design of polls. In addition, as you point out, there are nefarious uses of polls and of personal information gathered in the conduct of some polls (not legitimate ones) so that one has to be cautious. My original post was about the theory that underlies polls; of course I only gave a snippet. It's actually quite complicated, far beyond my pay grade. These other issues arise in the practice of polling in the real world, whereas statistical theory is solid.
I just can't imagine how "randomly selecting" 1500 people can possibly be meaningfully accurate when we don't see how that selection is made or the mechanics of the survey is not clearly explained. What if 1000 of those 1500 called never vote? What if 300 of them just had a bad day and responded in an atypical manner?
"Legitimate pollsters work hard to achieve random sampling, with varying degrees of success." Random suggests a certain chaos to me. So a pollster flings questions at a few people and then wraps some sort statistical theory around it to suggest that it's reasonably accurate?
And I wonder how many pollsters don't publish a poll because they don't think the results fit their expectations or are not news worthy, etc.
You bring up (mostly) valid points, but they are questions about "reality" (which, note, I said was "wrong" -- I hope I don't have to say I was being facetious), not about statistics. The problems you mention are connected with the drawing of a random sample. Sometimes, by mistake or design, the wrong population is sampled, for instance "all" as opposed to "people that intend to vote". A good randomization protocol should "average out" people that are having a bad day, although under Covid, that could be a lot of people. These are some of the practical difficulties in polling; there are many others. And, of course, if 95% of samples are "good" (i.e., give a result accurate to within the margin of error), there are still 5% that are "bad", and you can't know whether the sample you actually got is one of the 95% good or 5% bad. (To know that, you'd have to know the value of the quantity that you're trying to find out.) A pollster who "flings questions at a few people" and "wraps some sort statistical theory around it to suggest that it's reasonably accurate" is not legitimate. One other technical point: "random sample" has a technical definition, and doesn't mean "chaotic" in some sense, although common parlance may suggest that. (There's also a technical definition of chaos that means more than just the everyday notion of chaos.) One thing "random sampling" does NOT mean is that you go out on the street and take the first 1500 people that pass by as your sample. Again, there's a technical meaning and there are difficulties in obtaining a sample in the real world that adheres to that definition. Incidentally, the same problems regarding random sampling arise in obtaining subjects for clinical trials and assigning them to "treatment" or "control". All of this is discussed ad nauseam in the statistical literature. Speaking of which, it's time for me to shut up.
I hear you Linda. We are going fast down the rabbit hole of “doomerism” which breeds depression and apathy. There is so much ground given to Trump and the Republican Party by the amount of fear, disgust, AND allegiance literally blasted on front page space to him in every newspaper. Today in my paper, the front page is dedicated to Sen Scott (FL) “leading takeover effort” of the US Senate. Articles about DeSantis and Trump squaring off for a fight two years away. Local Republican efforts to gain local seats. Presence of Nazi organizations at Turning Point conference in Tampa at which DeSantis, Gaetz, and the usuals as keynote speakers. Signs everywhere deriding President Biden and his administration.
It has consumed the country along with overshadowing positive reports of what our CURRENT president is doing. If I read one more thing about Pres Biden’s average at best orator skills or Atty Gen Garland missing in action or “afraid” to prosecute a former president, I might have to hide under the covers. Not because all of this is not scary. But because I find little support for not being afraid and finding little support for optimism which breeds action and a refusal to succumb to the Republican cudgel of domination and corporate greed.
What is relevant to me is my voice that will give an inch to making Trump and the Republicans irrelevant. I will not support Republicans or any person supporting fascism. I turn my eyes away from any picture of him. I speak of Democracy and the common good of it and the unity that prevails because of it. There is no opposite of Light. And my words that are heard by the Universe speak of good and Love that always prevails. Don’t get me wrong. I am a warrior for our Democracy and fierce in my actions to value it.
Even a day of not mentioning or hearing fascist schemes is a day of victory for me. That always leads me to believe we are talking about the right things.
Hopefully this Axios series will be enlightening, wake people up. I have heard about it in a couple of places now. I think it's something that most people could see is scary.
I'm sorry about your home, Suz. I can't imagine, although my home had a lot of R saluting going on. From what I've seen, even some/many D folks are tuned out, not aware of the threat, think now that Trump is out of the WH, he's done, no point in dwelling on him anymore.
Last week I had a call from a ‘research’ company that I chose to answer, and it was a polling company. From the phrasing of the questions they were Republican biased and I did challenge several questions and said that I thought their statements were misleading.
Anyway, all my answers were pro Democracy and anti Republicans. I live in the Phoenix area and all the Republican candidates are so far to the right it’s frightening.
I wonder what they did with your answers. Did they offer to share feedback on their poll with you or give you some means of knowing what they were going to do with the information they were gathering over the phone?
Yes I am not confident the majority of Not MAGA Americans have a gut sense of the gravity of the peril we are in as a Democracy. I hope the J6 committee will enlighten us equally.
Another concern I share with you, I believe, is that it’s one thing to have a gut sense of the gravity of the peril we are in as a democracy, and it’s another thing to be mobilized to work with others to create a coherent and coordinated response. This is so much a war of public opinion. And with so many Republicans apparently quite willing to accept authoritarianism in order to pursue their agenda and consolidate a lockstep on power, our integrated and principled hard work needs to be fully enacted right down to the grassroots. That level of commitment to stand up and make oneself heard in a climate of increasing surveillance and manipulation in the realm of social media will require people with the same level of sophistication as Bannon but with genuine integrity.
Couldn’t agree more, so worried about Dems lack of the killer instinct (or self-preservation). Republicans have both in spades. The young can save us, along with women who get it, and people of color who certainly should.
Thanks, Jeri, for sharing these thoughts. I actually had written something along these lines, (re what younger thinkers can bring to the table) but my commentary above was so lengthy that I ended up cutting and pasting it to become a separate, more recent comment just a few minutes ago.
Could not agree more with this Alison Scott. The sitting around feeling bad for Biden & Co and being afraid is a recipe certain to put Trump in office. Compromise on key issues, supporting moderation and organizing and doing what is necessary to put forward a credible candidate that has a chance of winning is what matters now. People in Dr. Richardson's world are already scared and upset. So what? How do we stop the real-time collapse of the Democratic party we are witnessing?
Sabrina, Apparently a majority of MAGA folks have locked on to their truth, driven by the "alternate facts" of Fox, Kellyanne Conway, Rudy et all, and they are steadfast in what they have chosen to believe. A few of these people I happen to know are adamant in their belief that we are not in danger. Their minds are made up and are closed to anything that might be referred to as enlightenment. "The J6 Committee is just a made up attempt to damage Trump."
Richard, unfortunately I have to agree with you on the "minimally educated" contingent. And then there are the ones that choose to remain oblivious but still vote.
How does this matter Sabrina? As others in this post have explained, 75% of the country isn't even watching the Jan 6th hearings. Incredible but true.
The sitting around feeling bad for Biden & Co and being afraid is a recipe certain to put Trump in office. Compromise on key issues, supporting moderation and organizing and doing what is necessary to put forward a credible candidate that has a chance of winning is what matters now. People in Dr. Richardson's world are already scared and upset. So what? How do we stop the real-time collapse of the Democratic party we are witnessing?
Approximately 4% of Republicans polled have changed their mind and won’t vote for Trump based on J6 Hearings. We need 7% of Independents to switch away from Trump. The Hearings are not over. We are well within winning the midterms if. We get a Blue Wave. Women of all races are going to turn out for sure. We need men of all races to do the same. The youth vote has to get going! Keep reminding your kids to register and vote. Help your parents and grands. Make sure they are registered and applied for a mail in ballot. If each of us looked out for others, we could and will win the midterms, then on to ‘24.
That is a lot of independents and I don't think Jan 6th is the trick but my heart is with you. Believe we better see a major turnout by the lazy middle so to speak. Love the passion.
That would be especially nice, but not likely. B did so well in 2020 because of Wjitevand Black wome. He won Hispanic but not as much as he should have. Men of all races didn’t turn out for him as much as White men did for Trump, if I remember correctly.
The State Department was gutted under Pompeo. TFG's administration set a course to lie to some countries, who knew they were being lied to. Many Foreign Service Officers left on their own because of this. Many more were pushed out. For a greater understanding of what our Diplomatic corps does, I commend to you the memoir of Marie Yovanovitch. You will come to understand the loss and the years it will take to recover. Their service is no less dangerous (and often more; e.g. Christopher Stevens) than military personnel without the benefits of veteran status.
I finished her book yesterday. Her beloved mother and biggest champion got sick and died during her travails with tfg’s administration. Yet she persisted. The emotional toll on her was beyond belief. These are the ppl tfg wants out of government.
Also excellent is the memoir by Fiona Hill, the Ukraine expert who was summarily fired by Trump for daring to speak out about and refuse to cooperate with his attempt to blackmail President Zelensky into supporting Trump’s smear campaign against the Bidens.
'Poll: Half of Americans now predict U.S. may 'cease to be a democracy' someday'
'A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that most Democrats (55%) and Republicans (53%) now believe it is “likely” that America will “cease to be a democracy in the future” — a stunning expression of bipartisan despair about the direction of the country.'
'Half of all Americans (49%) express the same sentiment when independents and those who do not declare any political affiliation are factored in, while just a quarter (25%) consider the end of U.S. democracy unlikely and another quarter (25%) say they’re unsure.'
'At the same time, however, a large number of Americans seem indifferent to the high-profile hearings by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — an effort to get to the bottom of one of the most dramatic assaults on the democratic process in U.S. history.'
'In fact, the new survey of 1,541 U.S. adults — which was conducted from June 10 (the day after the committee’s first hearing) to June 13 (the day of its second) — found that fewer than 1 in 4 (24%) say they watched last Thursday’s initial primetime broadcast live. Only slightly more (27%) say they caught news coverage later. Nearly half (49%) say they did not follow the hearings at all.'(Yahoo) See link below.
Thanks for this. The sad truth is that much of the country has never been politically engaged. And now with Covid, inflation, income disparity, and so on, many people are simply struggling to stay afloat. They take for granted freedoms that are under dire threat.
Great. So what needs doing to get the vote out? Many Americans are focused on paying their bills. No matter how fiercely I believe Jan 6th is "the issue" it is not relevant unless the work there helps us avoid Trump '24.
What are the issues that matter to the swing voters that matter in the upcoming election?
Votefwd.org allows us to write letters to registered Democrats who rarely vote. The letters are to be mailed at the end of October. I have 60 finished and bought 300 forever stamps before the price rise.
Me, too. Have done 50 even though I'm not 100% convinced that they'll be very effective. Dr. Richardson encourages us to talk to people around us and post truthful articles, etc. Unfortunately, I live overseas and am very much in a very liberal bubble. So I write these letters.
I did some for 2021 and have signed up for 120 for October; may do more. I highlight the reasons for voting-good jobs, education, safety nets (Social Security/ Medicare/ Healthcare/ affordable meds, etc),voting rights, healthier environment
Agree but having engaged with Trump-wingers there is no dissuading them of anything.
It is the moderates that need to be won and they do not, understandably, tolerate parties that are in charge with soaring inflation and raging gasoline prices.
Barbara, Often, new subscribers and others who are ready to get out the vote and spread the word appreciate suggestions of groups to work with. Ellie does that a lot, but she hasn't been around for the last week or so. Suggestions from you with a line about the strength of each organization could be part of the education process that you mentioned. Cheers!
We can see this all around us. I just had a friend who teaches speech at a college in Texas WhatsApp me. He was given the go ahead to grow a podcast class which is the perfect opportunity to grow an audience and light fires to protect abortion rights, lbgtq+ rights, racial equality, climate change, and saving our democracy. He tossed these off as though they are nothing and asked me if I had ideas. Sigh. I suggested he watch and listen to Politics Girl.
It is obvious the ignorant and disaffected serve the active ideological virtual conspirators like the Trumpian Congress people and State Level Republican Operatives.
I’ll not let up on describing the result as a metastasized cancer that has invaded the cells in every level and aspect of the American Politic.
With a corrupted SCOTUS and dormant US Senate it seems to me a time for hyper activity in elections and in litigation.
I believe with the Natures Trust Principle that the Rights of Mankind precede and transcend Government. The Trump/Fascist corruption now invades the minds of significant parts of American Citizens aided by the jelling of the attention span of Fox News Addicts.
To recapture the promise of Government by and for the people will require a paradigm shift by the Liberal and Independent who must form antagonism and confrontation as a tool.
In the past six years the “other side,” from the Democrats has ushered in a brief era of Destructive Government, played with citizenship principles that caused millions of people to die deaths that vaccines could have averted and now are poised to slide in parallel Government similar to the Nazi use of the structures of the Weimar Republic to seize power.
I read the above and am thrilled! 167 m voted in the last election. Can I think that maybe 40 million actually watched the first Hearing? Probably not but 24% is damn good. I read 21 million watched the most recent hearing on the mainstream channels. That did not include those who streamed or, like me, watched on PBS ( antenna users). So 21 m is an undercount. Approximately 4 m watched Fox News. The problem with a lot of pessimists is not just that they don’t believe the polling but they also don’t have a mathematical mind so can’t really make sense of them. It is very fashionable with the talking heads to pan polls, too, because they want you to believe them. In my book, if you are going to make choices about what to believe and not believe, don’t believe actors or pseudo actors on TV. Read!
"His approval rating of 39 percent1 is now the worst of any elected president at this point in his presidency since the end of World War II, according to FiveThirtyEight’s historical presidential approval data. In other words, Biden is arguably in worse shape than any other elected president heading into his first midterm election, including his four most recent predecessors, who, like Biden, were operating in an increasingly polarized political climate."
I follow Five Thirty Eight, too. Yes, that’s what they keep harping about. But here’s another fact. Since 1980, the balance of power in Congress has remained the same in four elections. In 1994 and 2006, the majority party lost in both houses. 1994 Repubs lost both House and Senate. 2006. Dems won both House and Senate. . In the past five midterm elections, the Repubs gained control of the Senate in 2014, the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2002. The last time the Dems won back the House and didn’t win the Senate in a midterm was in 1930 when Hoover was President before this last win during the presidential. Reagan won his first election in a landslide. The House remained Dem and Sen Repub. 1982 mid terms, no change re majority, 1984 presidential Reagan won handily, Congress didn’t switch, 1986 mid terms, Dems kept the House and took the Senate, 1988 presidential election. Bush won. Congress didn’t change.
So what’s my point. My point is that Biden’s approval rating has watered down meaning for the midterms. High approval ratings don’t mean the party in power will win both houses. Lower approval ratings don’t mean they won’t.
Very thoughtful response and certainly hope there is a bit of a "blue backlash" but the historical walk-through is agnostic any current data. In statistical terms it is like being at a roulette table and seeing RED come up 5x in a row and then seeing that the likelihood of a "6 red streak" is very low meaning you should bet on BLACK. But that simply isn't the case. The probabilities are discreet with every spin. There is no causality to infer from your pattern (unfortunately).
I just rereread my comment and corrected the last word from will to won’t, plus a couple of typos. Now my comment is a long winded way of agreeing with you which is actually what i was trying to say in the first place. Thanks. You drew my attention back so i saw the error.
With the depressing side of polls like these circulating, it brings to mind a subject that I have not seen anyone in media comment on and wonder what the readers of this enlightened and educated group think. That is, as the (threat of) the US moving further toward fascist authoritarian control continues,.....why would Any company, group or even individuals invest in a country where possibilities are that one would not be in ultimate control of one's own hard-earned resources? Why would they keep a headquarters or facility where the risk of not having full control of it (or the rules for it) because of the government exists?
The articles and reality of people even with modest means looking to other shores for both residence and locating their savings / investments has already begun. We know several already doing it. This begins to affect the economy itself as confidence that things-will-just-continue-as-they-are (but we will just have a different form of government) erodes our core and the slide begins. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as people stop buying or investing in their own homes, companies look elsewhere to locate their headquarters, sale / manufacturing facilities much less expanding them, etc, etc.
I'm not trying to be Johnny Raincloud but, this is only logic? Democracy has allowed us to be in control of our own resources and if that fails and people that have already shown to be nothing short of Horrible at money (losing a $400m+ inheritance? how many bankruptcies? using OPM for everything? only caring about the wealthy?, etc ) have the ability to control whatever you have, why put more in? One would think that corporate boardrooms across the country and world have already begun creating contingency plans for these things.
A number of organizations like the Economist have already downgraded the US to a "flawed democracy". Despite Biden's heroic efforts and success in re-engaging the US in the geo-political world the challenges of thwarting a takeover are real and people with money and shareholders don't wait around for things to fall apart. Hockley bought his seat on the lifeboat early. In the end it wasn't the thing that worked but, everyone here must be more than concerned at this potential for the loss of confidence to begin affecting the markets and investment in the economy? Please someone tell me I am waaay overthinking this.
Deeply concerned about this. Know numerous people who decided not to move here due to the culture wars, others who have already left and still more figuring out where to go. Great post and point.
Great. So what needs doing to get the vote out? Many Americans are focused on paying their bills. No matter how fiercely I believe Jan 6th is "the issue" it is not relevant unless the work there helps us avoid Trump '24.
What are the issues that matter to the swing voters that matter in the upcoming election?
@Lost in Translation: Exactly. While it’s a sad fact for politically aware activists like all of us here, most people are too busy with their own lives to pay attention to the Jan6 hearings. But it’s a fact, it has been ever thus, and we need to accept it and get out in force, executing on the strategies that DO work. As you astutely point out, we need to focus on the issues that do matter to people in their own lives. And work like hell to Get Out The Vote by motivating people on the issues they personally care about. Most people don’t vote. Many on this forum have mentioned the accessible ways we can all help GOTV. For example, these organizations run targeted, research-based postcard and letter writing campaigns to registered Democrats and leaning-Dem independents, and likely-Democrats who aren’t yet registered:
Indivisible, Swing Left, Vote Forward.
Research shows that people who get a postcard or letter are much more likely to vote than people who don’t. These campaigns are great ways to reach individual voters.
Actually the last hearing had a following of more than 21 million which is a lot. That was an undercount, too, since it didn’t include streaming and PBS or C-Span.
I agree an undercount of 21 million is a lot of people. But it's still a small minority of the U.S. registered voter population. According to the U.S. Census, the total citizen population in Nov. 202 was 231,593,000. The total who reported they were registered voters was 168,308,000 with 25,782,000 who reported as not registered and 37,503,000 who didn't respond to that question. The total who reported they actually voted was 154,628,000 with 36,404,000 who didn't respond on whether they vote. So unless 21 million is an extreme undercount, less that 13% of registered voters watched that last hearing. I stand by my statement that most people are so preoccupied with their own lives--either because it takes all their energy just to survive, or because they are surviving fine but just don't bother--that they don't follow politics and rarely or never vote.
As I said in my post, it’s tempting to try to apply the 23% to the known electorate from the presidential election, 87 mill plus to 80 mill plus, but it’s apples and oranges because mid terms are traditionally low turn out elections and the last presidential was unusually high in turnout. So, can we get the same demographics to turn out for the mids in higher numbers and the poor showing demos ( young adults and White males) to turn out for the mids. What I hear in these posts is I am too busy putting food on the table or being depressed. No, not really me. My friends. Does anybody remember getting two thousand extra dollars in 2020? Does it matter that the Biden economic plan has meant a steady uptick in employment to the largest job creation on a monthly basis ever? The talking heads keep telling you two quarters of inflation mean we are headed for a recession. That’s quick and easy, but not necessarily true. Plus, prices are falling. Now who ya gonna blame? I think the Dems have caught the aggrieved Republican infection.
What matters IMHO is not the number....it is the number who are actually undecided voters that are watching. And I would venture a guess the number is very very small indeed.
Maybe. But what matters is if they vote or don’t. Fence sitters do what? Listen to both sides? Wait for the wind to blow? Wait for a sign from God? My guess is they don’t do anything. .
Yahoo? Seriously? I'd love to pick that one apart, starting with how they picked 1,541 adults- which is an unrealistically small sample for this broad a survey anyway. Add in how questions are structured. Holy cow.
I subscribe to The Atlantic, but I know very few people who do. I've said it before in a comment to another day's post...This is a problem. Fox, Breitbart, etc are free. They are getting to the masses. Brian Klaas' article, Anne Applebaum's work, Barton Gellman's warnings and so on are not.
Many of these are available at public libraries. Reading has been replaced by watching and listening. If more people still read, they would certainly find the cost of subscriptions minimal compared to cost of losing democracy. I agree with the description of the self-obsessed American. Folks may be clamoring about the cost of gas but the highways are bumper to bumper in some areas with trave!ers. Those huge trucks burn a lot.
I lose sympathy for the complaints about gas prices when I keep seeing people sitting in their cars in parking lots with the engines running or waiting 20 minutes in a long drive up line instead of going inside, which would only take 5 minutes.
I am a tired 68 year old who works to elect progressive candidates. I accept that. Many people just don't want to volunteer. Part of my job is to try and persuade them to help. Plain and simple. Do the work because it needs to be done. Stay hopeful.
'6 in 10 Americans say U.S. democracy is in crisis as the 'Big Lie' takes root'
'One year after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Americans are deeply pessimistic about the future of democracy.'
'A new NPR/Ipsos poll finds that 64% of Americans believe U.S. democracy is "in crisis and at risk of failing." That sentiment is felt most acutely by Republicans: Two-thirds of GOP respondents agree with the verifiably false claim that "voter fraud helped Joe Biden win the 2020 election" — a key pillar of the "Big Lie" that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump'.
'Fewer than half of Republicans say they are willing to accept the results of the 2020 election — a number that has remained virtually unchanged since we asked the same question last January.'
"There is really a sort of dual reality through which partisans are approaching not only what happened a year ago on Jan. 6, but also generally with our presidential election and our democracy," said Mallory Newall, a vice president at Ipsos, which conducted the poll.'(npr) See link below.
And it's all the free right-wing propaganda that is getting to the masses. While the more detailed, lengthy, well thought out analysis is by subscription. I dont have answers, but many people have commented here and elsewhere about how Americans are concerned about pocketbook issues...well? Do you think they are reading Washington Post, NY Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker and so on? I've gone to states in the midwest to read their local papers and been stopped by the paywall. Papers need to make $$ and reporters need to be paid (well). What can we do?
There's an awful lot of pessimism in today's comments. Here are two things which might lead to more optimism. checkmyads.org exists to deprive Fox of its advertising, thereby defanging it, and Fox is one of the most powerful at spreading the big lie. (I haven't exhaustively checked on checkmyads.org, but I think influencewatch is a good indication--see below.) Also, checkmyads.org is located in Arlington Mass., which is a very blue part of my very blue state, sandwiched between Lexington and The Peoples' Republic of Cambridge.
To be clear, putting the facts forward to get people moving is not meant to be pessimism. It is meant to get....people moving. This is polling firm FiveThirtyEight. Not some right wing think tank. The below is where Democrats are. Will people act to overcome this or pretend it will be merry? I choose the former - tell people the truth so we can get the lead out. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/whats-behind-bidens-record-low-approval-rating/
"His approval rating of 39 percent1 is now the worst of any elected president at this point in his presidency since the end of World War II, according to FiveThirtyEight’s historical presidential approval data. In other words, Biden is arguably in worse shape than any other elected president heading into his first midterm election, including his four most recent predecessors, who, like Biden, were operating in an increasingly polarized political climate."
We must be pragmatic to prevail. The sitting around feeling bad for Biden & Co and being afraid is a recipe certain to put Trump in office. Compromise on key issues, supporting moderation and organizing and doing what is necessary to put forward a credible candidate that has a chance of winning is what matters now. People in Dr. Richardson's world are already scared and upset. So what? How do we stop the real-time collapse of the Democratic party we are witnessing?
The Democratic party is not collapsing. Small democracy groups are sprouting up across the country since a school board banned books, a county commissioner flashed his gun, a 4th of July parade was AR-15ed, a state decided a raped, impregnated 10 year old can't have an abortion, the senate undercut environmental protectiona, a supreme court judge supported the insurrection. The Democratic Party is gaining members, funds and savvy. JOIN!!
I think your right MaryPat. I read something recently about the Democrats fundraising is far outpacing the Republicans - and it is pretty much all with thousands of small donations. People are alarmed and motivated!
As a side note, Republicans are feeling the heat and are resorting to their tried and true fear mongering claiming that liberals are out to get them and that they are getting more violent. There's not a shred of evidence that this is true but again fear mongering is in the first chapter of the Republican playbook.
Liberals are out to get them? Democrats fault Republicans for their positions, their lies, their hypocrisy. Republicans fault Democrats for not being Republicans, for not being white “Christian” nationalists, for assuming that equality under our laws is a good idea.
Really? So all the data from the polls which show Biden and the Dems at record lows to Vegas - a place where money backed by huge data-science wagering systems goes - shows Trump a shoe-in for '24 are not to be believed?
Honestly. You can believe what you wrote but anecdotal sentiments like that are what will lead to a wholesale wipeout. This is not about what I or anyone WANTS, it is a mere observation that the FACTS do NOT support your statement. The FACTS point to a Democratic party that is going to get obliterated in upcoming races.
Denying this stuff is as pernicious as denying Jan 6th matters.
Yes! Not to be believed. Fatcats are driving the constant attacks on Biden. Vegas, of all places, is especially not to be believed since it is in their interests to not handicap honestly. 1. Special interests lie., 2. Don’t start from an assumption of truth these days. It’s a lie until I am sure it’s a truth. Do you remember Bush’s Big Lie? His smirking truthiness? Do you remember Clinton’s I did not have sex with that woman? And
Trump was the biggest liar of them all? How about Maryann Conway’s alternative facts? And you want to believe the Las Vegas machine? Does Biden have a low approval rating. Probably. Does it matter? Only if you take it seriously? Do you think he’s doing a good job or better job than Trump?
Well. The reason to believe the Vegas numbers more than the fivethirtyeight.com which is a center left statistical service that wrote the below is....in Vegas you can bet your money on it. I am not presuming anything and am deeply aware of the role fat cats play in perverting everything about this country. We are careening towards a winner-take-all-kleptocracy.
But the right response in the face of overwhelming data suggesting Biden is, indeed, in very deep trouble is movement not stasis.
"His approval rating of 39 percent1 is now the worst of any elected president at this point in his presidency since the end of World War II, according to FiveThirtyEight’s historical presidential approval data. In other words, Biden is arguably in worse shape than any other elected president heading into his first midterm election, including his four most recent predecessors, who, like Biden, were operating in an increasingly polarized political climate."
Yes, you are correct.America is teetering on an extremely dangerous precipice and very few are aware of it.Certainly they are not hearing it on the mainstream news.I think Dr Richardson’s posts and the information we get from them are beyond invaluable yet the information she and a few others provide, is not readily available and it is truly terrifying.After all that has happened with Trump and his woebegone saga, many uninformed Americans are ready to put him in power again.I shudder at this thought.
…what’s at stake and what it would mean to them if there are no civil servants. A friend who was applying for a visa for her British husband in 2018-19 got exactly nothing done. The government was understaffed (and the CIS is slow in the best circumstances) and Americans could not get timely services. There would be no one to assist with social security snafus, veterans’ issues, etc. My point is, if tfg were back in office there would be LOTS of problems, not the least of which is the end of government services. My friend moved to the UK instead.
I don't disagree but what is all this hand-wringing accomplishing?
The sitting around feeling bad for Biden & Co and being afraid is a recipe certain to put Trump in office. Compromise on key issues, supporting moderation and organizing and doing what is necessary to put forward a credible candidate that has a chance of winning is what matters now. People in Dr. Richardson's world are already scared and upset. So what? How do we stop the real-time collapse of the Democratic party we are witnessing?
I think you missed my point. It was that gutting the civil service is not a theoretical bad thing. It has direct impacts on ppl’s lives. It like ppl saying ‘I don’t want the government doing insurance. Just don’t mess with my Medicare.’
I don't miss your point - I take it well and you are 100% correct. What I am getting at is the FACT you very understandably highlight will not help us win elections. In a prior time, let's call that "the age of mostly-truth" your observation might have been of critical importance. Today, we have indie voters and then we have a huge swath of Americans who have come to believe having gun toting people running through our Capitol during the peaceful transfer of power....is ok.
Apologies for any offense. I am at exhaustion with the "facts" when the only fact that matters is the Dems are lined up for one of the worst voter turnouts in history. I read these letters and, like everyone, get upset and anxious. But the truth is that has no purpose and helps no-one.
How do we move forward? How do we create a situation where the REPUBLICANS absolutely MUST put up a more moderate candidate than Trump??? Right now he is going to crush any Democrat put forward unless attitudes and behaviors on the left change. And THAT, my friend, scares me!!
"Same is true of his wannabes." Yes - the gov of Florida is lined up to take over where 45 left off and has used this state as a litmus test for what he can get away with. He inflicts damage at every absurd and ridiculous turn. Let's not forget HCR's chilling letter from earlier this year about the danger of this one man wrecking ball.
I know Governor De Satan is very dangerous and seems also very cruel but I first want to see the Trump reign of terror ended. Then we will have to deal with all of these horrible right wing authoritarians. These people are poised to reduce or change Social Security, Medicare and Obamacare to name a few "entitlements"( their words not mine) and people who are unconscious are just fine with it. Blows my mind that people are too caught up in keeping up with the Kardashians( someone today made this very comparison) to know that they are losing their democracy as I post.
In a tiny spot of good news, I recently had to Google “The Kardashians” when my wife looked at me and said “who the hell are the Kardashians and why are they relevant?”
Both agree with you and wonder why it matters. This is a consequence. The folks who don't even believe Jan 6th matters watching Fox don't care. The independent voter who is trying to pay their bills and frustrated with a Democratic party that they blame doesn't care. No matter how wrong that indie voter is to blame Biden & Co for this or that, unless things improve the Dems are setting themselves up to get totally wiped out.
If the investigation proves that CT was involved in Ginni's misdoings, are there steps to take? Can he be prosecuted? I hate the idea that we can't hold the SCOTUS members to the same standards.
"Like presidents and Cabinet members, federal judges can be removed from office through a similar process: impeached by the House and convicted in a trial by the Senate that would prompt removal from office."
Yes, anyone who thinks DeSantis wouldn't be happy with the plans the plotters are coming up with is definitely not smelling Chanel No. 5 up where they're keeping their head.
Exactly. If we don't elect people at the state level that support the country over party virtue, we can expect them to be in the federal level soon. I used to say vote for the person, no matter the party, but until the Republican party has become something other than the party of Trump, it is only Democrats for me. I won't even listen to the Republicans, I do not trust any of them.
Great. So what needs doing to get the vote out? Many Americans are focused on paying their bills. No matter how fiercely I believe in these issues they simply are not relevant unless they lead to something that helps us avoid Trump '24.
What are the issues that matter to the swing voters that matter in the upcoming election?
There's an awful lot of pessimism in today's comments. Here are two things which might lead to more optimism. checkmyads.org exists to deprive Fox of its advertising, thereby defanging it, and Fox is one of the most powerful at spreading the big lie. (I haven't exhaustively checked on checkmyads.org, but I think influencewatch is a good indication--see below.) Also, checkmyads.org is located in Arlington Mass., which is a very blue part of my very blue state, sandwiched between Lexington and The Peoples' Republic of Cambridge.
Appreciate the link. It is encouraging to read about the effort and the possibility of making it a strong movement by joining and encouraging others to do so as well.
Hopefully, the fact that both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post carried editorials last Friday pointing out Trump's lack of fitness for office means the Murdoch has turned against him. If that attitude shows up on the nightly propaganda rants on Faux, Trump's goose is cooked.
Indeed, YES! DeSantis is definitely not stupid, nor is he driven by demons as is Drump. DeSantis would be every bit as much--no doubt more so--of a danger to democracy as President as was tfg.
Hi Ann. Replying with article, along the lines you suggest but not right-off the press. Do you have 'breaking news', although it sure looks as though the break with Trump has happened? DeSantis is another but much smarter undisguised devil.
'This article originally appeared on AlterNet.]
'Donald Trump has lost the confidence of both of the major newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.'
'Under the headline, "The President Who Stood Still on Jan. 6," The Wall Street Journal editorial board harshly criticized the former president.'
"No matter your views of the Jan. 6 special committee, the facts it is laying out in hearings are sobering. The most horrifying to date came Thursday in a hearing on President Trump's conduct as the riot raged and he sat watching TV, posting inflammatory tweets and refusing to send help," the editorial board wrote.
"The committee's critics are right that it lacks political balance," the newspaper wrote. "Still, the brute facts remain: Mr. Trump took an oath to defend the Constitution, and he had a duty as Commander in Chief to protect the Capitol from a mob attacking it in his name. He refused. He didn't call the military to send help. He didn't call Mr. Pence to check on the safety of his loyal VP. Instead he fed the mob's anger and let the riot play out."
Fern, I live in Fl. From Mi so I follow both state’s politically as well as national. I live next door to Sarasota, home of Gen Ryan and a hotbed of militia, aggrieved school parents, and right wingers in general. Lucky me, I get to keep up on the rallies, etc. TV amply covers DeSantis as do newspapers local and national. He is more authoritarian than Trump and even less honest if that is possible. He will say or do anything but mostly follows orders. He gets pushback though. More than possibly is known. He’s shut up about Disney when he realized he’d not only spoken too soon but out of place. I’m pretty sure he’s the Fatcats and religious zealots new fair haired child even if he is of Cuban ancestry which somehow fell off the turnip truck of Hispanic otherism. Unlike many, I think the DoJ will move on Trump when they get there. People are putting a lot of stock in Biden’s low approval ratings but I just explained in a post why that actually doesn’t really matter when it comes to the mid terms. I hope you can find that post. I like your carefull thinking! Keep it up! Friend me on FB, if you want!
Ann, Our respect is mutual. Your solid and detailed reports are just what we need. I left FB many years ago after just several months. To my mind, members were a commodity to be the pawns of businesses with all the info they needed about us as supplied by FB. I did not anticipate that members would also be the victims of disinformation and conspiracy theories. Ann, you get where I am coming from and my opinion of Zuckerberg and the others like him. Let us stay in touch. I think of you a a citizen journalist with deep appreciation.
Gailee, You can add a line to the link to indicate what the article is about. Just press the three dots below your comment to edit. That will open your comment., so that you can add a line of description. Then press 'save' to close the comment.
"Prodemocracy voters now have only one way forward: Block the authoritarian party from power, elect prodemocracy politicians in sufficient numbers, and then insist that they produce lasting democratic reforms.
"The wish list from several democracy experts I spoke with is long, and includes passing the Electoral Count Act, creating a constitutional right to vote, reforming districting so more elections are competitive, establishing a nonpartisan national election-management body, electing the president via popular vote, reducing the gap in representation between states like California and Wyoming, introducing some level of proportional representation or multimember districts, aggressively regulating campaign spending and the role of money in politics, and enforcing an upper age limit for Supreme Court justices. But virtually all of those ideas are currently political fantasies."
Great. So what needs doing to get the vote out? Many Americans are focused on paying their bills. No matter how fiercely I believe in these issues they simply are not relevant unless they lead to something that helps us avoid Trump '24.
Sitting around upset and afraid does not win elections.
What are the issues that matter to the swing voters that matter in the upcoming election?
I wonder if going in sideways might work. Meaning, if true that most Americans support the availability contraception, which they appear to do, dems make that and issues like it big deals for the next election. As long as an issue makes ppl go to the polls, as a start, we can achieve the same ends. Maybe?
No idea if this works but unless people start thinking "what will get people to the polls" it is irrelevant frittering and a waste of worry and energy.
Look at Fern McBride's post copied here. Places for action are indeed seeping out. Personally I just hope we see more discussion on how to moderate the party's views to create a tougher contender to Trump. Mitch McConnel is hardly a ray of sunlight but he does get his constituents more Federal money per capita than any other state while still running around complaining about "blue state bailouts"....despite the fact that blue states are the big net payers to the Federal government!! We need less sunlight, more pragmatism and more "what can be done to win" dialogue otherwise it is just worry without winning. Action items below.
Double down, Barbara. You will find your voice getting stronger and your determination increase. Join one or two grassroots organizations such:
Dump is no longer of use to The Owners and they are going to throw him under the bus. That would be good news except that, as The Atlantic article points out, the Trumpified Republican Party will march on--without Dump. DeSantis seems like the logical choice to be the Dump stand-in, but I'm willing to bet $$$ that Liz Cheney is girding up for a Presidential run for a "reformed" Republican Party, which may appear better, but still have the usual Owners running the show.
2024 or 2028? Were DeSantis out of the way (maybe he gets to be her Secretary of state?), a cleansed party might win with Ms Cheney in 2024. She is young enough for 2032 after serving as Secretary of State under either party, which would give her the international chops that Hillary had. Formidable.
A potential antidote, which would work by stripping Fox News of its money.
There's an awful lot of pessimism in today's comments. Here are two things which might lead to more optimism. checkmyads.org exists to deprive Fox of its advertising, thereby defanging it, and Fox is one of the most powerful at spreading the big lie. (I haven't exhaustively checked on checkmyads.org, but I think influencewatch is a good indication--see below.) Also, checkmyads.org is located in Arlington Mass., which is a very blue part of my very blue state, sandwiched between Lexington and The Peoples' Republic of Cambridge.
I hope you are right, but even if you are, where would you imagine they stand on this Schedule F idea? I can just hear Tucker et al spinning and promoting it as lib-owning, swamp-draining, and a fight against cancel culture.
“Look, it’s not just me that is saying that Donald Trump is unfit for office. It’s other entities owned by Rupert Murdoch. It’s the New York Post, in their editorial on Friday. It’s the Wall Street Journal — said the same thing after our hearing on Thursday night. So I’m going to continue to be guided by making sure I do my duty, and making sure that the American people understand the truth.”
There's an awful lot of pessimism in today's comments. Here are two things which might lead to more optimism. checkmyads.org exists to deprive Fox of its advertising, thereby defanging it, and Fox is one of the most powerful at spreading the big lie. (I haven't exhaustively checked on checkmyads.org, but I think influencewatch is a good indication--see below.) Also, checkmyads.org is located in Arlington Mass., which is a very blue part of my very blue state, sandwiched between Lexington and The Peoples' Republic of Cambridge.
Consider that TFG is a lazy old fart who liked "being" President but rarely enjoyed the work. He watched TV. He tweeted. He called in to sympathetic media. He made disjointed rambling stream of consciousness speeches.
But he didn't really work at the job.
So maybe...TFG will run with the Florida punk as his VP and put the kid on the hard work. Sounds like a TV plot. But since all of this is the worst show I have ever seen, I thought I would throw a new script in the pot.
What, drumpy share the stage and the credit? That might make Drumpf "look weak"--especially if DeSantis as VP was doing all the work and wanted at least some credit (and he would--Ron is not without his own fair share of ego). And unless DeSantis is an absolute loon (and he is not, unfortunately) he has to be aware of how willing was Drumpf to throw faithful Pence to the wolves. Drumpf would be deeply distrustful of DeSantis. I can't see Drumpf letting DeSantis anywhere near the office of the Presidency.
Well, that scared me all over again. I am practicing "staying in the moment," for my sanity however, and I want to praise our civil service as represented by Marie Yovanovich, Vindeman, and all the duty-bound DOJ investigators, on and on. We really don't know all they do, but they are exceptional Americans, often children of immigrants who have gratitude for our laws and safe-keeping of citizens. As this newsletter reminds us, they are bright, hard workers and loyal to an ideal rather than an individual. May they prevail. May they and everyone they know vote for freedom, Never DJT!
Hope, I appreciate you identifying that there are those of conscience who will work very hard. I am extremely pessimistic about Republicans in general now, but if we don’t bear in mind that the majority has significant power if we rise to the occasion, we squander what potentials we have to continue to pierce the veils of obfuscation and double-speak on the part of the Republicans. Trump tended to keep us reacting to his constant outrages. To continue to develop our own resources proactively as well as more visionary goals is that one source of empowerment and growing integrity. I very consciously try to identify any and all members of what I would like to think of as “my tribe“ that includes the best scientists, including climate scientists, people of the Rocky Mountain Institute, and any number of other powerful forces that relate with compassion as well as pragmatism. I certainly take heart with those who contribute to this forum, and will try to visit more often to learn from the best of “my fellow Americans.” Thanks to all of you who care enough to participate in this community-building!
Agree. Sorta. These civil servants have become political targets.....
So what needs doing to get the vote out? Many Americans are focused on paying their bills. No matter how fiercely I believe in these issues they simply are not relevant unless they lead to something that helps us avoid Trump '24.
Sitting around upset and afraid does not win elections.
What are the issues that matter to the swing voters that matter in the upcoming election?
Could Congress revise the Pendleton Act in order to remove that loophole that allows for a Schedule F? It seems to me that they could either revise it or revoke it and pass a new one. If so, they'd better get busy if they want it done before the midterms.
Who cares? Frittering away about solutions that Biden & Co are either already working on or won't work on helps no one.
So what needs doing to get the vote out? Many Americans are focused on paying their bills. No matter how fiercely I believe in these issues they simply are not relevant unless they lead to something that helps us avoid Trump '24.
Sitting around upset and afraid does not win elections.
What are the issues that matter to the swing voters that matter in the upcoming election?
Why an objective “Bureaucracy” created by Congress is Essential
. . . For 13 of my 15 years of service to the Federal Government (2 of those years serving in the Navy), most of my time was spent in the Financial Assistance branch of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Golden Field Office (for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy). I worked as a Grants Specialist and Contracting Officer, responsible for preparing grant awards to recipients conducting renewable energy research and development. Awardees include companies in the private sector, universities, small businesses, U.S. National Labs like NREL and SANDIA, and non-profit energy research companies. People working at DOE/Golden follow meticulous procedures, rules, and regulations under “10 CFR 600”, a part of the Federal Code which lays out how the Department of Energy (objectively) selects awardees, and how terms and conditions are to be executed during the research grant period (usually in a three-to-five-year timeframe).
. . . The 10 CFR 600 guidelines only affect Department of Energy’s work on “renewables”. This effort runs into the billions of dollars. The office also fields a legal team, scientists, and other people with engineering or technical backgrounds who work with awardees during the project period. But there is so much more in a Federal system, ESTABLISHED BY CONGRESS and monitored by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which conducts financial audits of grant awardee expenditures.
. . . This is just one of many Federal agencies, all with their own set of rules and regulations that are followed. . . When you hear someone in Congress making political hay by trashing “the bureaucracy”, remember:
Congress created it and is constantly revising it. Revisions are contained in the “FEDERAL REGISTER”, published daily, and available to anyone on-line. As they say, watching Congress create laws and guidelines for Federal agencies is like watching sausage being made. . . But you have to ask yourself if the “alternative” to having this system would do nothing but create chaos and widespread failure.
If Trump succeeds in getting re-elected in 2024, we could see the end to an objective Federal system of laws and procedures affecting all facets of government, from the Federal level down to local governments. I do not believe critics of “the bureaucracy” have any idea what they’d be unleashing on all of us if Trump and his disciples succeed.
Wonderful. Thank you for your service. Now about that last point - avoiding Trump in '24......
Sitting around feeling bad for Biden & Co and being afraid is a recipe certain to put Trump in office. Compromise on key issues, supporting moderation and organizing and doing what is necessary to put forward a credible candidate that has a chance of winning is what matters now. People in Dr. Richardson's world are already scared and upset. So what?
How do we stop the real-time collapse of the Democratic party we are witnessing?
Another great and insightful piece. I have a minor quibble though. I see any Republican in the White House doing this, not just Trump. They'll just say there's precedent, that Biden undid the precedent for political reasons and Schedule F is for Fascist will be back in place.
I would love to be wrong. Please show me how I'm wrong. I'm really terrified of any GOP in the White House.
Would Liz Cheney do it? She is considering a run in 2024? Governors of Mass. Baker or Maryland Hogan do it? Ahhhh nahhhhh! Perspective or we succumb to their blind flailing.
I 100% believe Liz Cheney would do it. I see no blind flailing at all. And right now I think the most likely ticket is DeSantis Cheney. I wouldn't be surprised if DeSantis gave Trump the idea in the first place. DeSantis has been modeling his governorship after first Maduro and now Orban. DeSantis has turned on Trump now that it's pretty clear he'd beat Trump in a primary. There was a DeSantis flag flying next to a Swastika flag and SS flag at an event in Florida (Friday or Saturday). Trump has started targeting DeSantis, for months really, just like he started targeting Biden months ahead of the Dem primary.
Cheney is definitely considering running too. But before you dismiss this take a peak at Cheney's voting record. She voted with Trump 92.9% of the time. Compare that to the person who replaced her the GOP hierarchy when McCarthy kicked her out, Stefanik. Stefanik voted with Trump 77.7% of the time. Cheney from a strictly policy standpoint IS Trump.
As for Hogan, I haven't seen much indication that he'd run. But looking around the only Republican I think is running and isn't 100% basically behind Trump's *policies* might be Mitch Daniels. And Daniels is perhaps the person who did more to harm unions than any other American in modern history. I'd argue he did more harm than the Gipper himself. So, yes. Yes I do believe most if not all would.
I find it hard to believe that Cheney would do it, despite your good case.
I can't imagine Charlie Baker (my GOP governor) would do it. But checkmyads.org is a potential antidote--something that could defang Fox. See below
There's an awful lot of pessimism in today's comments. Here are two things which might lead to more optimism. checkmyads.org exists to deprive Fox of its advertising, thereby defanging it, and Fox is one of the most powerful at spreading the big lie. (I haven't exhaustively checked on checkmyads.org, but I think influencewatch is a good indication--see below.) Also, checkmyads.org is located in Arlington Mass., which is a very blue part of my very blue state, sandwiched between Lexington and The Peoples' Republic of Cambridge.
Thanks for your post. From what I understand Faux receives most of its revenue from cable subscriptions, not ads. I plan to "cut the cable" as soon as my contract is up.
Exactly. This is my expectation. Recreating government that can be controlled by the party in power. Install it on day one. May not have to have control of Senate to enact or interpret policy. Doing it in plain sight. Recruitment well underway for all those bright minded young Republicans working in the trenches on campaigns across the USA. Scares the crap out of me as well, as my evil think-like-a-Republican mind tells me it can work.
I'm 71 and wonder if our democracy will stand at least until I am gone. Must we have Civil War 2.0? If DJT is found criminally liable what kind of sentence would he get? Would he be stripped of pension and SS protection? Where would he be imprisoned? We are in uncharted waters, thanks to him and his ilk.
Our Constitution doesn't cover this level of corruption. The SS deleting 2 days of texts? It takes at least two steps to delete anything. And takes like 7 steps to completely scrub a drive clean. Even medical copiers/printers have to be specially destroyed due to HIPAA because they record everything they print or copy.
Same. 63. Hard to plan for the future when I'm wondering if we should sell our house and decamp to a "safer" country but that feels so cowardly...buy body armor? Build a safe room? Learn orienteering?
It will not look like 1950s Germany if there is a conflict! I imagine the DOJ charging TFG and the country erupting and perhaps that's necessary to lure the evil out into the light like a bug
Living in another country would be a short term solution as the US leads the world. Without US leadership on climate change we are all doomed. I would think with the suffering in Texas caused by an inadequate power grid surely Republicans would be run out of the state.
Loyalty to the dicktator is and has always been Trump’s plan. Governing is something he does not know how to do, however, and he definitely proved that. I am not the least surprised you mentioned Devin Nunes, HRC. He has been in charge of Trump’s failed fake entertainment center. He screwed the people, a lot of farmers, in the Central Valley in California. That area has always voted with the R’s. Perhaps things will change now. Nunes is not without controversy either because he was alongside McCarthy. I call them the two Qevins. Gutting a system that has been in place for so many years, would be devastating for all. We can prevent this from happening. We can loudly denounce any Repub candidate for the House or Senate. We were asleep at the wheel in 2020 when we lost House seats. We cannot permit that to happen again. Would love to see two or more Senate seats go to the Dems so that we can make Manchenema non-entities.
I read somewhere yesterday (don't have the link to share, sorry!) that one reason 45 lost in 2020 was because R's who voted did not vote for him or Biden but did vote R down ballot which is why we saw so many R wins.
Marlene, Good Points! Although coming from MA…I really don’t have a true feel for West Coast politics. On the other hand…the later part of your reply makes a lot of sense. Many people I have spoken with since 2020 seem to agree that the overall illogical election results stem from the fact, “many Americans just don’t understand what, or who for that matter…they are voting for!” For example…what was the percentage of morally responsible(?) Republicans who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for either Biden or tRump. Then…either couldn’t or wouldn’t…think of the associated implications of voting an all Republican ticket…irrespective of who as on their ballots. I wonder if any of them look back and say to themselves, “ maybe that individual didn’t deserve my vote?” Sadly, I don’t think so!
Why is it that even the PBS News Hour does not seem to have the details that you share with us? Would you be interested in being a regular guest via zoom in The News Hour? Your knowledgeable and chilling details need a wider audience if our democracy is to be salvaged.
Thank you for explaining the Civil Service to this reader. I had two great step aunts, Virginia maiden ladies both, daughters of a Methodist minister, one worked her entire adult life in the Library of Congress, the other in the National Archives. More integrity in two people is unimaginable. And now I know how they “happened”, because neither would have been part of pay to play.
As a Floridian, I have watched DeSantis for almost four years. He’s a much more shrewd a politician and is much smarter than Trump. But he is also much less a larcenous narcissist than Donnie. No doubt a DeSantis presidency would be horrible, yet I shudder to imagine a guy like Trump with an axe to grind and nothing to lose as president.
A vindictive Trump back in the White House with unbridled power to hire and fire based on personal loyalty to him is a terrifying thought. I am convinced that it won’t happen.
The tarnishing of the Trump image has been quickened with the House 1/6 Committee’s public hearings. Some of his remaining ‘loyal Trumpists’ are seeking other political pastures. His carrion call about the BIG Lie and the 1/6 ‘witch hunt’ is being dampened by a number of Republican candidates in the 2022 congressional and gubernatorial elections who are leery of Trumpian ‘coattails.’
Trump’s narcissism compels him to yearn to be the big enchilada in ‘Trump/Republican’ politics. This seems to be working less and less well. Moreover, he is ensnared in a number of legal situations that are likely to involve him in both civil and criminal indictments.
Trump has toyed with hints of being a presidential candidate in years past. He is doing the same today, in part in an effort to stymie other prospective 2024 candidates, including DeSantis.
I am convinced that Trump willl not be a serious presidential candidate in 2024. [I was dead wrong in 2015 and hope to bat .500 on my Trump predictions.] However, I am deeply concerned, were a DeSantis-type to win the 2024 presidential race, that there would be an assault against the professional civil servants who are essential in our government’s engine room during tipsy-turvy presidencies.
As a Foreign Service Officer I served under four presidents, two Republicans and two Democrats. Personally it mattered not a whit, since I had taken an oath to serve the United States.
In 2020, Joe Biden won the election because many people "crossed over" on their ballots. They voted for Biden, but then voted for Republicans lower down the ticket. In effect, they voted against Trump. Even with a hefty chunk of the electorate believing the Big Lie and another hefty chunk of apathy among the rest, I think this will repeat in 2024. Trump will run again. He has to in order to avoid prosecution (weather this is real or fancied, it will motivate him to run).
It is the down ticket races that concern me. Coup attempt or not, most people are just trying to make a living and raise their kids. Contrary to popular belief, most do NOT vote with their pocketbooks, they vote with their emotions. Inflation concerns people. Fear of wild, radical (fill in the blank) politicians causing inflation with misguided policies is what they fear. Obama ran and won on hope, not fiscal responsibility. What are the Democratic candidates for Federal, State, and Local office going to run on?
I agree with the emotional voting. In that light, I consider how many Americans depend upon contraceptives, how many have/know people who have had abortions, know/are LGBTQ people, are afraid of the gun violence, are/friend and family of POC, and they all vote, we will win. BUT THEY MUST VOTE.
MLM I haven’t read Ambassador Yovanovitch’s book. I read glowing reviews and followed her shafting by Giuliani & Company.I admire her tremendously. As a former Foreign Service Officer, I already knew the tune to which she added superb verses. I am surprised that she wasn’t given a post in the Biden administration, perhaps ambassador in Ukraine.
MLM I believe that Ambassador Yovanovitch had over 30 years of distinguished service. She could retire on a handsome pension, teach, and write and live a more normal life.
After serving in/on Congo 1960-1966, even then that might have sounded attractive. At the time my salary was way shy of $15,000 with brief years in service. I paid for my 9mm Beretta, but my M-16 and .45 were part of my diplomatic freebies.
We received free housing. I had a top floor apartment overlooking the prime minister’s residence. Twice I was part of a ‘coup spotting’ team’ in early morning hours.
That electricity was available intermittently (less than 50%) posed severe problems for a family with a baby daughter. Flush/wash/cook? Several other incidents prompted my memorable ‘bat shit’ memos. Did you know that a person bitten by a black mamba had a life expectancy of about 90 seconds. Three of these suckers were found in the garden where my daughter played.
Then I served 3 years in Chile, where, for four months, I had a 24/7 police guard at my house for my family—a free benefit not available in civilian life. Home leave after two years, but, with perks like this, who would want to go home?
With the constant corruption, self-dealing, and norm-breaking during the Trump years, news of his targeting civil servants never received adequate attention. I'm glad Heather has shined light on the topic.
It's another chilling warning: America as we know it will end should Trump somehow manage to regain the White House. Same is true of his wannabes.
The stellar work of the J6 committee shows signs of waking the nation, along with a Supreme Court intent on destroying hard-won freedoms. But I'd like to see some polling regarding how many Americans truly understand we're on the precipice and what's at stake.
'It's another chilling warning', so true Michael.
Through journalists, such as Jonathan Swan, Michael Schmidt, Carol Lenning, Robert Woodward, Robert Costa...so many good journalists and historians, Heather Cox Richardson, Anne Applebaum, Timothy Snyder....so many fine historians have educated and warned us. Remember all the great books we have read telling us where the country is headed. Trump and his hench mob are not sneaking up on us in the dark of night. Our job is to find the means to spread the word. The American people must be awakened. We cannot survive if social media and Fox News control the space. We must find ways to break their hold.
Folks who are committed to being ignorant and are proud of it are boring fools. They know that they are being led around by their noses by big money grifters. They haven’t figured out that the junk they are buying into for “free” is being used to fleece them. They want to “believe” not learn. That’s why I pay for Heather’s work and that of Propublica. I also donate to Wikipedia because I use it a lot. The New York Review of Books is invaluable. One of the surest signs of a good mind and intellectual courage is the ability to see and inquire about that which is NOT in the picture. I need regular help with that! These brutal and criminal GOP years have forced us all to sharpen our skills, to ask the questions. I think that the January 6th hearings have reminded us how that is done.
Throughout history, those 'boring fools' have enabled despots to come to power, and those with 'a good mind and intellectual courage' have suffered. While we are 'sharpening our skills,' they are sharpening their knives. Awareness is insufficient unless and until it leads to action.
Excellent line:
While we are 'sharpening our skills,' they are sharpening their knives.
Thanks. Visit www.activateamerica.vote to swing into action.
AMEN. Such a critical and important point. Most important thing said in here IMHO. Thank you.
This morning, I completed and mailed the last of 100 personalized postal cards to selected voters in the Arizona Senate race. Tonight, I start on a similar list in Nevada. These are the kinds of 'actions' we should be taking. Visit www.activateamerica.vote to find out how you can swing into action.
beauty!
Jack, I salute you for this effort. I should do this again soon as well. Did hand write 25 postcards on behalf of New Mexico dems to Native Americans on how to stay on the vote by mail list. There, you get cut off that list if you don’t do a bunch of stuff in just the right time.
Battling the Big Lie by Dan Pfeiffer a Democratic Party strategist and wordsmith is another good account of how we got here, what's being done, and what can be done. He was interviewed on a Politics Girl podcast.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lets-talk-messaging-pg-cc-dan-pfeiffer/id1595408601?i=1000566370119
Mandatory listening. If only this was heard far and wide. Thanks for posting.
Love it!!
Thank you, Michael.
Thank You Michael!
Agree. And we have about fifteen weeks left to do it. Those who follow the words of these journalists and historians are already aware of the crisis the nation faces, but that's not enough. It's time to activate the voices of those to whom the non-politically concerned of the country pay attention, the singers, entertainers, the TV hosts, the sports stars, and in a unifying, not a divisive, way. They have to be convinced to risk their careers as did the Paul Robesons and Jane Fondas of their time.
Yes. Strategic postcard writing, and I'll add canvassing and donations are ways that we can help. But our efforts alone may not be enough to secure the votes we need. I think it's show time for those with far-reaching voices. Neil Young stepped up yesterday to say that he will not perform during the pandemic. His statement was widely broadcasted. He, and others, could proclaim that they are grateful to live in a country where they are free to voice their opinions without fear of being silenced by an authoritarian government. Any music producers in
HCR's audience?
Broadcast, stream, zoom on small and big screens... including sports bars and movie theaters. When they go low, we go bold
Fern McBride, "Trump and his hench mob are not sneaking up on us in the dark of night." Absolutely true and absolutely scary.
Washington Post in-depth article about the Claremont Institute🧐. Under the cover of academia the radical right has apparently been attracting and grooming their ilk to place in government positions. 🤯
https://wapo.st/3J3UUOo
Well that was disturbing.
Thank you for sharing the link.
Right FERN, so many fine historians & journalists. Must mention Betsy Woodruff Swan & The Guardian's young Hugo Lowell at their DC Office. The Guardian has wide Global reach & can be contacted securely through their "HELP CENTER " Submissions accepted. Many LFAA Commenters capable.
So true. Support good journalism!
We must. Thanks Fern.
Agree Fern. And yet. If people by now don't care what a monster TFG is no amount of information if going to matter. Here is an example. In 2020 we were actually hiding in our homes. We had no masks, no vaccine etc. People were dying all around us. If that didn't get people's attention I don't know what will.
Jordan and his fellow cult members are also making it very clear they will impeach Biden, Harris and Pelosi and install TFG as Speaker. They intend to prosecute the January 6 Committee members.
I wonder. How much is the messaging a failing of the Biden Administration and the DNC?
Double down, Barbara. You will find your voice getting stronger and your determination increase. Join one or two grassroots organizations such:
https://indivisible.org/
https://www.lwv.org/
https://nationalvotercorps.org/volunteer/national-organizations/
https://coolmompicks.com/blog/2021/11/01/voting-rights-organizations-support/
https://www.democracyforamerica.com/site/page/eighteen-grassroots-groups-launch-effort-to-ensure-progressives-win-in-2020
https://www.startguide.org/orgs/orgs00.html
These Are among the Best Charities for Voting Rights in America
Below are our favorite charities for voting rights in America:
American Civil Liberties Union
Brennan Center for Justice
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Common Cause
League of Women Voters
Ballotpedia
FairVote
Spread the Vote
Rock the Vote
This is almost insulting Fern. I have been involved in politics for 50 years. I am very aware and have/are involved in number of these groups in addition to some you have not listed. I wasn't speaking to my voice. It is myopic to not call the President, the Biden Administration and other leading Democrats to task for messaging. Where is the hoopla on the work being done courtesy of the Infrastructure Act? Buttigieg appears to be a voice crying the wilderness at this point.
And I caution any overtly politically active people commenting on this site to please avoid the appearance of talking down to or lecturing others. Sometimes people just need to be heard; not called to action.
Adding another thought:
I also, deeply appreciate the work activists do.
'And I caution any 'overtly' politically active people commenting on this site to please avoid the appearance of talking down to or lecturing others.' Any more 'friendly and supportive encouragement' from you, Barbara M. would be appreciated.
First. I did add a "thank you" to my original comment. I will say it in a different way. Thank you for your work. The organizations you listed do good work. Maybe someone will choose a couple. After many years my personal journey with political activism has evolved to where I tread lightly when around others who are not politically active and don't want to be. I have put people off before by being too forceful thus ending up doing more harm than good. What I realized is political activism is just not for everyone nor is talking politics for everyone. So we chop wood and carry water often receiving little to no thanks. Sometimes we lend comfort not confrontation nor call to duty. That sometimes nudges a door open for thoughtful discourse.
Shanti
Barbara, I scrolled through quickly to be helpful in the short time that I had. It was impossible for me to read between the lines or remember the service that each subscriber was engaged in.
Then why write a demeaning response at all, Fern, if you do not have the information to write something meaningful? Please stop thinking of yourself as somehow having insight superior to others. It is really quite tiresome.
Thank you for the lists, Fern. There were some of which I was not aware. I'm rather new to the political arena. It took trump to make pay attention. At least he was useful for one thing!
Ricia, You are the useful one. I have learned a good deal about the country by participating on this forum and working with others in grassroots organizations whose goals are to turn this country into a democracy that supports all of us. Welcome! I am happy that you are here. It is a wonderful community learning more everyday from Heather Cox Richardson and from each other.
Steve Schmidt (The Warning), also on substack, wrote yesterday about the Axios series by Jonathan Swan. After reading Swan I was depressed for the rest of the day. My hope focusses on Merrick Garland.
Steve Schmidt (The Warning), also on substack, wrote yesterday about the Axios series by Jonathan Swan. After reading Swan I was depressed for the rest of the day. My hope focusses on Merrick Garland.
I would not trust polling. So far no one has reached me at home for a poll. That is because I do not answer random calls. Who are these pollers even reaching at this point? My elderly mother, who has had a stroke, and who gets tricked by callers and whom I have asked not to talk to strangers, is the only one I know who still takes calls from strangers. How are these polls finding people at this point? That is what I would like to know before I want to find out what they have to say. Who is answering the polls?
I do appreciate that Dr. Richardson details what is at stake here. It is a dystopian future that we appear to be hurtling towards like the space ship in Lost in Space, seemingly out of our control. I vote, I can work for campaigns, within limits I can donate money, I can write to papers, I can join protest marches, I can speak up, but I still have the sinking feeling that most people are ostriches. They have their heads in the sand and do not want to deal with the reality of the situation. I am frustrated by how many people I am surrounded by who basically do not want to talk about anything unpleasant. These are people who are staunchly against Trump. However, they are not going to worry about him winning again or spend much time thinking about what might happen that is bad until it happens, and then I am again going to be around depressed people, except that several of my friends and I mostly see each other in choir which is joyous or doing refugee work, which also has its rewards. For the most part they are just concerned with raising children, family vacations, getting their children into good colleges and the day to day stuff of life.
Polling was not reliable in the last two elections. I don’t respond to any sort of “poll” online as I do not know who the groups are. In the age of cell phones, it’s challenging to poll people. The poll that matters is the election.
I think the corrupt people in office count on people’s lack of attention. They pass terrible laws in the dead of night that get no publicity until they are passed and do terrible harm. So many people might have thought things would be less crazy if tRump were voted out. How has that worked so far?
We have a false front democracy, sort of like a movie set. The plutocratic robber barons control the politicians they have purchased with big campaign donations. Look up the billionaires Dunn and Wilks in Texas who are funding extreme right candidates who want to go right back to the Gilded Age.
Things are a lot less crazy wit trump out, and Biden in. From Yesterday's HCR:
Biden has defended democracy across the globe, accomplishing more in foreign diplomacy than any president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Less than a year after the former president threatened to withdraw the U.S. from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken pulled together the NATO countries, as well as allies around the world, to stand against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The new strength of NATO prompted Sweden and Finland to join the organization, and earlier this month, NATO ambassadors signed protocols for their admission. This is the most significant expansion of NATO in 30 years.
Love or hate what Biden has done, he has managed to pull a wide range of countries together to stand against Russian president Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian attack in Ukraine, and he has managed get through a terribly divided Congress laws to make the lives of the majority better, even while Republicans are rejecting the idea that the government should reflect the will of the majority. That is no small feat.
Thanks, David, for recapping those accomplishments. It bolsters my approval of Biden even more.
I pasted from HR--just so you know--and you're welcome. Biden does not get nearly enough credit.
I have posted this before and it bears repeating.
When I retired, somehow I found out about online surveys which pay minimal amounts for your opinions. There are a number of them out there but the one I found to be trustworthy is surveyjunkie.com. Like other people do online gaming for fun, I like to do the polls. There are many for financial institutions, fast food, internet providers, and often politics. I love those ones as I really like to give bad ratings on certain politicians of the red sort! ;)
You need to sign up for surveyjunkie.com and log on daily for polls. You accrue points that can be exchanged for gift cards or cash, my preference. It is directly deposited into my bank account in a few days.
I can't recall how, but through surveyjunkie.com, I had an opportunity to sign up for YouGov. Those polls are by invitation which is sent to the email you provide. I sometimes read news about polls and realize that I was one of the people polled.
I never answer phone calls that I do not recognize.
Miselle, online surveys are notoriously unreliable, because they cannot meet even the most basic criteria for validity. Plus the main purpose of most of them is to gather info for marketing. The results are not applicable too the real world, and in the meantime you are giving over your personal information for pay. Think about that. Would you trust a poll you knew got its "information" in that way?
My comment was not as to whether or not polls are reliable, I was answering (once again) the query as to "who are they polling, who answers phone calls from numbers they don't know".
As for giving away my personal information for pay, at least it's ME getting the pay, as opposed to social media selling my data. And, btw, most of the surveys are for my opinions on products/services, not political polls.
Polls in 2020 were decidedly wrong, and the article linked below explores why (predictably there's a Trump effect).
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/18/pollsters-2020-polls-all-wrong-500050
Agreed! And agreed!
My logical mind can't wrap my head around the idea that 1541 people could be an accurate representation of views on ANY subject. Good grief. How do they find these folks? Why such a tiny number? And to your point, who picks up the phone when a strange number calls? It is almost always from "Sarah" or "Rachel" who are selling a credit card or auto warranties.
And I find it quite true in my little circle of existence that folks are so exhausted from TFG and his robotic followers and their conspiracies and lies, that they just shut down and think about their personal challenges. Of which we all have many...
That is what the fascists (we need to use this word!) are hoping for. That they will have more "participants" - despite the fact that they are outnumbered. We need to risk pissing off our family and friends by ringing the alarm loudly and frequently. This is our version of pre-WWII Germany.
Bill - Well-designed national polls typically use samples of around 1500 people. With a sample of that size the margin of error is around 3-4% at a 95% confidence level, almost no matter the size of the total population (e.g., 300,000,000 for the U.S., 8 billion or so for the whole world), as long as it is "large". What that means is that, in 95% of all samples of size 1500 (approx.), the proportion in the sample (such as "approve of Biden") will be within about 3 or 4% of the "true" proportion in the entire population. This type of result can be found in any elementary statistics textbook. But there is one "clinker" in this subject: the sample has to be chosen "at random", which has a specific technical meaning. Legitimate pollsters work hard to achieve random sampling, with varying degrees of success. As we've seen in recent polls, things can go awry for a variety of reasons. For a good historical example, the 1936 Literary Digest poll badly underestimated the support for Roosevelt (described in detail in The Public Opinion Quarterly, 52(1), Spring, 1988), pp. 125-133, and, if I remember correctly, Freedman, Pisani, and Purves, Statistics). Emphasis on the word 'legitimate'. So the statistical theory is correct; it's reality that's wrong.
Addendum - Some time ago I also posted a note to the effect that the probability of any particular person being included in a polling sample is tiny. So the argument that "polls are wrong because I've never been included in one" doesn't hold water. (Someone said this, in effect, above.) Also, I didn't give the specific numbers in my comments, but they can be worked out. It's freshman college or perhaps even high school statistics.
J Horowitz, I understand how the stats in a poll work and the necessity of a random sampling which random calling does not work, since many people will screen their calls. It is not the 1950s when everyone just answered the phone making it more random. That is still a poor example since in the 1950s not everyone had a phone. That would be the problem today too. You still would not get a true sampling of our population by calling because many people do not answer the phone, or they do not all have one. My point was illustrative of behavior of people who screen their calls versus people with brain damage like my mother who does not remember to do that all the time. So, I was not saying I have never been called, but rather most people who are careful do not answer telephone calls of people they don't know. So, polls need the trust of the sample, and that is going to be hard to gain. A trusting sample is not a random sample. In my graduate program in school psychology we studied sampling and polls. I have been attending a series of workshops through Northwestern this summer where they have been discussing communication bias, and I personally do not choose to participate in things that are slanted to support these sorts of biases. Also, I don't participate in research where the participants do not get any feedback. I am part of a university where I have ample opportunity to participate in research and there we are generally offered access to the research at some point, or I feel that what it is doing is important. A discussion of political polling by a researcher who presented this summer, was very troubling. It was not about looking for what is good for people but about racist, sexist, pro-Christian, homophobic labeling of people into types and anti-types. What bothers me about people calling over the phone is who knows whether the person calling is really a representing a legitimate poll. They could be someone trying to figure out what are the beliefs are in your particular home, and whether or not to harass you for those beliefs. You don't want your home or phone suddenly to be a target for who knows what sort of aggression. Also, you don't want your phone to be a target of right wing harassment. When my cell phone says likely scam those calls are avoided and we have a landline too. Unless we recognize the number it does not get answered. The rare exception is when we hear the landline ring and then one our cell phones, because we figure it is someone legitimate trying to get ahold of us. After a half a year of workshops on all of the anti democratic things that technology can be used for I am choosy, that does not mean I don't understand polls. The phone is a tool that can be used for a lot of things and not all of them are good.
Linda Wade: pollsters don’t rely on one phone number. If you don’t answer, they keep trying numbers in different area codes all over the country until someone does answer and responds. This actually adds to the randomness and offers greater likelihoods. Polls are not absolute numbers. They illustrate probabilities. Last minute high impact variables can skew the probabilities. In the absence of polling, you can always make wild guesses or count tea leaves or shake bones or just have no idea. Polls may be off, but they are rarely dead wrong. After voting polls rely on honesty. As people are becoming inured to lying as a no no, the after vote polls are reflecting the dishonesty in the country more than election probabilities IMHO.
Linda W - I see that Ann F has answered part of your comment (below). You raise many valid points; most of them are also true of Internet polling (via social media, etc.), and even to direct interview and mail polls. Some biases can be ameliorated, if not eliminated, by statistical adjustments of different kinds (which is not the same as "fudging" the results). There are many different types of bias that people try hard to address in the design of polls. In addition, as you point out, there are nefarious uses of polls and of personal information gathered in the conduct of some polls (not legitimate ones) so that one has to be cautious. My original post was about the theory that underlies polls; of course I only gave a snippet. It's actually quite complicated, far beyond my pay grade. These other issues arise in the practice of polling in the real world, whereas statistical theory is solid.
Thanks, J. Horowitz. Very good to know!
Thank you!
Thanks for the "stats theory". I get that.
I just can't imagine how "randomly selecting" 1500 people can possibly be meaningfully accurate when we don't see how that selection is made or the mechanics of the survey is not clearly explained. What if 1000 of those 1500 called never vote? What if 300 of them just had a bad day and responded in an atypical manner?
"Legitimate pollsters work hard to achieve random sampling, with varying degrees of success." Random suggests a certain chaos to me. So a pollster flings questions at a few people and then wraps some sort statistical theory around it to suggest that it's reasonably accurate?
And I wonder how many pollsters don't publish a poll because they don't think the results fit their expectations or are not news worthy, etc.
You bring up (mostly) valid points, but they are questions about "reality" (which, note, I said was "wrong" -- I hope I don't have to say I was being facetious), not about statistics. The problems you mention are connected with the drawing of a random sample. Sometimes, by mistake or design, the wrong population is sampled, for instance "all" as opposed to "people that intend to vote". A good randomization protocol should "average out" people that are having a bad day, although under Covid, that could be a lot of people. These are some of the practical difficulties in polling; there are many others. And, of course, if 95% of samples are "good" (i.e., give a result accurate to within the margin of error), there are still 5% that are "bad", and you can't know whether the sample you actually got is one of the 95% good or 5% bad. (To know that, you'd have to know the value of the quantity that you're trying to find out.) A pollster who "flings questions at a few people" and "wraps some sort statistical theory around it to suggest that it's reasonably accurate" is not legitimate. One other technical point: "random sample" has a technical definition, and doesn't mean "chaotic" in some sense, although common parlance may suggest that. (There's also a technical definition of chaos that means more than just the everyday notion of chaos.) One thing "random sampling" does NOT mean is that you go out on the street and take the first 1500 people that pass by as your sample. Again, there's a technical meaning and there are difficulties in obtaining a sample in the real world that adheres to that definition. Incidentally, the same problems regarding random sampling arise in obtaining subjects for clinical trials and assigning them to "treatment" or "control". All of this is discussed ad nauseam in the statistical literature. Speaking of which, it's time for me to shut up.
I hear you Linda. We are going fast down the rabbit hole of “doomerism” which breeds depression and apathy. There is so much ground given to Trump and the Republican Party by the amount of fear, disgust, AND allegiance literally blasted on front page space to him in every newspaper. Today in my paper, the front page is dedicated to Sen Scott (FL) “leading takeover effort” of the US Senate. Articles about DeSantis and Trump squaring off for a fight two years away. Local Republican efforts to gain local seats. Presence of Nazi organizations at Turning Point conference in Tampa at which DeSantis, Gaetz, and the usuals as keynote speakers. Signs everywhere deriding President Biden and his administration.
It has consumed the country along with overshadowing positive reports of what our CURRENT president is doing. If I read one more thing about Pres Biden’s average at best orator skills or Atty Gen Garland missing in action or “afraid” to prosecute a former president, I might have to hide under the covers. Not because all of this is not scary. But because I find little support for not being afraid and finding little support for optimism which breeds action and a refusal to succumb to the Republican cudgel of domination and corporate greed.
What is relevant to me is my voice that will give an inch to making Trump and the Republicans irrelevant. I will not support Republicans or any person supporting fascism. I turn my eyes away from any picture of him. I speak of Democracy and the common good of it and the unity that prevails because of it. There is no opposite of Light. And my words that are heard by the Universe speak of good and Love that always prevails. Don’t get me wrong. I am a warrior for our Democracy and fierce in my actions to value it.
Even a day of not mentioning or hearing fascist schemes is a day of victory for me. That always leads me to believe we are talking about the right things.
United. Salud. 🗽
Christine, I agree with you wholeheartedly! Salud!!!!
Salud!
Attempted like
Hopefully this Axios series will be enlightening, wake people up. I have heard about it in a couple of places now. I think it's something that most people could see is scary.
I'm sorry about your home, Suz. I can't imagine, although my home had a lot of R saluting going on. From what I've seen, even some/many D folks are tuned out, not aware of the threat, think now that Trump is out of the WH, he's done, no point in dwelling on him anymore.
Last week I had a call from a ‘research’ company that I chose to answer, and it was a polling company. From the phrasing of the questions they were Republican biased and I did challenge several questions and said that I thought their statements were misleading.
Anyway, all my answers were pro Democracy and anti Republicans. I live in the Phoenix area and all the Republican candidates are so far to the right it’s frightening.
I wonder what they did with your answers. Did they offer to share feedback on their poll with you or give you some means of knowing what they were going to do with the information they were gathering over the phone?
Yes I am not confident the majority of Not MAGA Americans have a gut sense of the gravity of the peril we are in as a Democracy. I hope the J6 committee will enlighten us equally.
Another concern I share with you, I believe, is that it’s one thing to have a gut sense of the gravity of the peril we are in as a democracy, and it’s another thing to be mobilized to work with others to create a coherent and coordinated response. This is so much a war of public opinion. And with so many Republicans apparently quite willing to accept authoritarianism in order to pursue their agenda and consolidate a lockstep on power, our integrated and principled hard work needs to be fully enacted right down to the grassroots. That level of commitment to stand up and make oneself heard in a climate of increasing surveillance and manipulation in the realm of social media will require people with the same level of sophistication as Bannon but with genuine integrity.
Couldn’t agree more, so worried about Dems lack of the killer instinct (or self-preservation). Republicans have both in spades. The young can save us, along with women who get it, and people of color who certainly should.
Thanks, Jeri, for sharing these thoughts. I actually had written something along these lines, (re what younger thinkers can bring to the table) but my commentary above was so lengthy that I ended up cutting and pasting it to become a separate, more recent comment just a few minutes ago.
Democrats are trying to “kill” one another more trying to “knock off” Republicans. So hard to watch
Could not agree more with this Alison Scott. The sitting around feeling bad for Biden & Co and being afraid is a recipe certain to put Trump in office. Compromise on key issues, supporting moderation and organizing and doing what is necessary to put forward a credible candidate that has a chance of winning is what matters now. People in Dr. Richardson's world are already scared and upset. So what? How do we stop the real-time collapse of the Democratic party we are witnessing?
Sabrina, Apparently a majority of MAGA folks have locked on to their truth, driven by the "alternate facts" of Fox, Kellyanne Conway, Rudy et all, and they are steadfast in what they have chosen to believe. A few of these people I happen to know are adamant in their belief that we are not in danger. Their minds are made up and are closed to anything that might be referred to as enlightenment. "The J6 Committee is just a made up attempt to damage Trump."
I have heard a lot of people say, "he's gone, move on, it's over." Bu it's not! He's not! It's just accelerating. He got the wheels turning faster.
Oh yes, Kim, I have been hearing this. Move on, nothing to see here. We have a large contingent of minimally educated people in this country.
Yes, Richard, agreed, but also people who just don't want to be bothered, don't want to be unhappy or depressed, don't want to think about it.
Richard, unfortunately I have to agree with you on the "minimally educated" contingent. And then there are the ones that choose to remain oblivious but still vote.
Even when he is finally gone, the underlying problems will still be with us.
How does this matter Sabrina? As others in this post have explained, 75% of the country isn't even watching the Jan 6th hearings. Incredible but true.
The sitting around feeling bad for Biden & Co and being afraid is a recipe certain to put Trump in office. Compromise on key issues, supporting moderation and organizing and doing what is necessary to put forward a credible candidate that has a chance of winning is what matters now. People in Dr. Richardson's world are already scared and upset. So what? How do we stop the real-time collapse of the Democratic party we are witnessing?
Approximately 4% of Republicans polled have changed their mind and won’t vote for Trump based on J6 Hearings. We need 7% of Independents to switch away from Trump. The Hearings are not over. We are well within winning the midterms if. We get a Blue Wave. Women of all races are going to turn out for sure. We need men of all races to do the same. The youth vote has to get going! Keep reminding your kids to register and vote. Help your parents and grands. Make sure they are registered and applied for a mail in ballot. If each of us looked out for others, we could and will win the midterms, then on to ‘24.
That is a lot of independents and I don't think Jan 6th is the trick but my heart is with you. Believe we better see a major turnout by the lazy middle so to speak. Love the passion.
That would be especially nice, but not likely. B did so well in 2020 because of Wjitevand Black wome. He won Hispanic but not as much as he should have. Men of all races didn’t turn out for him as much as White men did for Trump, if I remember correctly.
The State Department was gutted under Pompeo. TFG's administration set a course to lie to some countries, who knew they were being lied to. Many Foreign Service Officers left on their own because of this. Many more were pushed out. For a greater understanding of what our Diplomatic corps does, I commend to you the memoir of Marie Yovanovitch. You will come to understand the loss and the years it will take to recover. Their service is no less dangerous (and often more; e.g. Christopher Stevens) than military personnel without the benefits of veteran status.
I finished her book yesterday. Her beloved mother and biggest champion got sick and died during her travails with tfg’s administration. Yet she persisted. The emotional toll on her was beyond belief. These are the ppl tfg wants out of government.
“Lessons from the Edge”, by Marie Yovanovitch. Thank you. Adding it to my list. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/mar/20/lessons-from-the-edge-review-marie-yovanovitch-trump-putin-ukraine
Also excellent is the memoir by Fiona Hill, the Ukraine expert who was summarily fired by Trump for daring to speak out about and refuse to cooperate with his attempt to blackmail President Zelensky into supporting Trump’s smear campaign against the Bidens.
“There Is Nothing for You Here”.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/nov/17/there-is-nothing-for-you-here-by-fiona-hill-review-more-than-a-white-house-memoir
I’ve placed both on hold at the library. It’s interesting how the wait list grows on books mentioned here.
'Poll: Half of Americans now predict U.S. may 'cease to be a democracy' someday'
'A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that most Democrats (55%) and Republicans (53%) now believe it is “likely” that America will “cease to be a democracy in the future” — a stunning expression of bipartisan despair about the direction of the country.'
'Half of all Americans (49%) express the same sentiment when independents and those who do not declare any political affiliation are factored in, while just a quarter (25%) consider the end of U.S. democracy unlikely and another quarter (25%) say they’re unsure.'
'At the same time, however, a large number of Americans seem indifferent to the high-profile hearings by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — an effort to get to the bottom of one of the most dramatic assaults on the democratic process in U.S. history.'
'In fact, the new survey of 1,541 U.S. adults — which was conducted from June 10 (the day after the committee’s first hearing) to June 13 (the day of its second) — found that fewer than 1 in 4 (24%) say they watched last Thursday’s initial primetime broadcast live. Only slightly more (27%) say they caught news coverage later. Nearly half (49%) say they did not follow the hearings at all.'(Yahoo) See link below.
https://news.yahoo.com/poll-half-of-americans-now-predict-us-may-cease-to-be-a-democracy-someday-090028564.html
Thanks for this. The sad truth is that much of the country has never been politically engaged. And now with Covid, inflation, income disparity, and so on, many people are simply struggling to stay afloat. They take for granted freedoms that are under dire threat.
Great. So what needs doing to get the vote out? Many Americans are focused on paying their bills. No matter how fiercely I believe Jan 6th is "the issue" it is not relevant unless the work there helps us avoid Trump '24.
What are the issues that matter to the swing voters that matter in the upcoming election?
Votefwd.org allows us to write letters to registered Democrats who rarely vote. The letters are to be mailed at the end of October. I have 60 finished and bought 300 forever stamps before the price rise.
Me too Maia; almost done with my 60. I really liked the format and the long deadline!
Me, too. Have done 50 even though I'm not 100% convinced that they'll be very effective. Dr. Richardson encourages us to talk to people around us and post truthful articles, etc. Unfortunately, I live overseas and am very much in a very liberal bubble. So I write these letters.
I did some for 2021 and have signed up for 120 for October; may do more. I highlight the reasons for voting-good jobs, education, safety nets (Social Security/ Medicare/ Healthcare/ affordable meds, etc),voting rights, healthier environment
BRILLIANT
Good! You go, girl! Great idea!
It's almost not about getting the vote out but instead educating voters.
Agree but having engaged with Trump-wingers there is no dissuading them of anything.
It is the moderates that need to be won and they do not, understandably, tolerate parties that are in charge with soaring inflation and raging gasoline prices.
Barbara, Often, new subscribers and others who are ready to get out the vote and spread the word appreciate suggestions of groups to work with. Ellie does that a lot, but she hasn't been around for the last week or so. Suggestions from you with a line about the strength of each organization could be part of the education process that you mentioned. Cheers!
I will. Right now I have to leave for work. Will do when I get home.
We can see this all around us. I just had a friend who teaches speech at a college in Texas WhatsApp me. He was given the go ahead to grow a podcast class which is the perfect opportunity to grow an audience and light fires to protect abortion rights, lbgtq+ rights, racial equality, climate change, and saving our democracy. He tossed these off as though they are nothing and asked me if I had ideas. Sigh. I suggested he watch and listen to Politics Girl.
It is obvious the ignorant and disaffected serve the active ideological virtual conspirators like the Trumpian Congress people and State Level Republican Operatives.
I’ll not let up on describing the result as a metastasized cancer that has invaded the cells in every level and aspect of the American Politic.
With a corrupted SCOTUS and dormant US Senate it seems to me a time for hyper activity in elections and in litigation.
I believe with the Natures Trust Principle that the Rights of Mankind precede and transcend Government. The Trump/Fascist corruption now invades the minds of significant parts of American Citizens aided by the jelling of the attention span of Fox News Addicts.
To recapture the promise of Government by and for the people will require a paradigm shift by the Liberal and Independent who must form antagonism and confrontation as a tool.
In the past six years the “other side,” from the Democrats has ushered in a brief era of Destructive Government, played with citizenship principles that caused millions of people to die deaths that vaccines could have averted and now are poised to slide in parallel Government similar to the Nazi use of the structures of the Weimar Republic to seize power.
Don’t let them destroy us.
I read the above and am thrilled! 167 m voted in the last election. Can I think that maybe 40 million actually watched the first Hearing? Probably not but 24% is damn good. I read 21 million watched the most recent hearing on the mainstream channels. That did not include those who streamed or, like me, watched on PBS ( antenna users). So 21 m is an undercount. Approximately 4 m watched Fox News. The problem with a lot of pessimists is not just that they don’t believe the polling but they also don’t have a mathematical mind so can’t really make sense of them. It is very fashionable with the talking heads to pan polls, too, because they want you to believe them. In my book, if you are going to make choices about what to believe and not believe, don’t believe actors or pseudo actors on TV. Read!
This is reality. Data. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/whats-behind-bidens-record-low-approval-rating/ To quote from their release see below. This is not the stuff of winning. This is the sign that change is needed.
"His approval rating of 39 percent1 is now the worst of any elected president at this point in his presidency since the end of World War II, according to FiveThirtyEight’s historical presidential approval data. In other words, Biden is arguably in worse shape than any other elected president heading into his first midterm election, including his four most recent predecessors, who, like Biden, were operating in an increasingly polarized political climate."
I follow Five Thirty Eight, too. Yes, that’s what they keep harping about. But here’s another fact. Since 1980, the balance of power in Congress has remained the same in four elections. In 1994 and 2006, the majority party lost in both houses. 1994 Repubs lost both House and Senate. 2006. Dems won both House and Senate. . In the past five midterm elections, the Repubs gained control of the Senate in 2014, the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2002. The last time the Dems won back the House and didn’t win the Senate in a midterm was in 1930 when Hoover was President before this last win during the presidential. Reagan won his first election in a landslide. The House remained Dem and Sen Repub. 1982 mid terms, no change re majority, 1984 presidential Reagan won handily, Congress didn’t switch, 1986 mid terms, Dems kept the House and took the Senate, 1988 presidential election. Bush won. Congress didn’t change.
So what’s my point. My point is that Biden’s approval rating has watered down meaning for the midterms. High approval ratings don’t mean the party in power will win both houses. Lower approval ratings don’t mean they won’t.
Very thoughtful response and certainly hope there is a bit of a "blue backlash" but the historical walk-through is agnostic any current data. In statistical terms it is like being at a roulette table and seeing RED come up 5x in a row and then seeing that the likelihood of a "6 red streak" is very low meaning you should bet on BLACK. But that simply isn't the case. The probabilities are discreet with every spin. There is no causality to infer from your pattern (unfortunately).
I just rereread my comment and corrected the last word from will to won’t, plus a couple of typos. Now my comment is a long winded way of agreeing with you which is actually what i was trying to say in the first place. Thanks. You drew my attention back so i saw the error.
With the depressing side of polls like these circulating, it brings to mind a subject that I have not seen anyone in media comment on and wonder what the readers of this enlightened and educated group think. That is, as the (threat of) the US moving further toward fascist authoritarian control continues,.....why would Any company, group or even individuals invest in a country where possibilities are that one would not be in ultimate control of one's own hard-earned resources? Why would they keep a headquarters or facility where the risk of not having full control of it (or the rules for it) because of the government exists?
The articles and reality of people even with modest means looking to other shores for both residence and locating their savings / investments has already begun. We know several already doing it. This begins to affect the economy itself as confidence that things-will-just-continue-as-they-are (but we will just have a different form of government) erodes our core and the slide begins. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as people stop buying or investing in their own homes, companies look elsewhere to locate their headquarters, sale / manufacturing facilities much less expanding them, etc, etc.
I'm not trying to be Johnny Raincloud but, this is only logic? Democracy has allowed us to be in control of our own resources and if that fails and people that have already shown to be nothing short of Horrible at money (losing a $400m+ inheritance? how many bankruptcies? using OPM for everything? only caring about the wealthy?, etc ) have the ability to control whatever you have, why put more in? One would think that corporate boardrooms across the country and world have already begun creating contingency plans for these things.
A number of organizations like the Economist have already downgraded the US to a "flawed democracy". Despite Biden's heroic efforts and success in re-engaging the US in the geo-political world the challenges of thwarting a takeover are real and people with money and shareholders don't wait around for things to fall apart. Hockley bought his seat on the lifeboat early. In the end it wasn't the thing that worked but, everyone here must be more than concerned at this potential for the loss of confidence to begin affecting the markets and investment in the economy? Please someone tell me I am waaay overthinking this.
Deeply concerned about this. Know numerous people who decided not to move here due to the culture wars, others who have already left and still more figuring out where to go. Great post and point.
We could face a significant brain drain. This combined with limits on immigration from countries notable for the tech workers adds up to decline.
Great. So what needs doing to get the vote out? Many Americans are focused on paying their bills. No matter how fiercely I believe Jan 6th is "the issue" it is not relevant unless the work there helps us avoid Trump '24.
What are the issues that matter to the swing voters that matter in the upcoming election?
@Lost in Translation: Exactly. While it’s a sad fact for politically aware activists like all of us here, most people are too busy with their own lives to pay attention to the Jan6 hearings. But it’s a fact, it has been ever thus, and we need to accept it and get out in force, executing on the strategies that DO work. As you astutely point out, we need to focus on the issues that do matter to people in their own lives. And work like hell to Get Out The Vote by motivating people on the issues they personally care about. Most people don’t vote. Many on this forum have mentioned the accessible ways we can all help GOTV. For example, these organizations run targeted, research-based postcard and letter writing campaigns to registered Democrats and leaning-Dem independents, and likely-Democrats who aren’t yet registered:
Indivisible, Swing Left, Vote Forward.
Research shows that people who get a postcard or letter are much more likely to vote than people who don’t. These campaigns are great ways to reach individual voters.
Actually the last hearing had a following of more than 21 million which is a lot. That was an undercount, too, since it didn’t include streaming and PBS or C-Span.
I agree an undercount of 21 million is a lot of people. But it's still a small minority of the U.S. registered voter population. According to the U.S. Census, the total citizen population in Nov. 202 was 231,593,000. The total who reported they were registered voters was 168,308,000 with 25,782,000 who reported as not registered and 37,503,000 who didn't respond to that question. The total who reported they actually voted was 154,628,000 with 36,404,000 who didn't respond on whether they vote. So unless 21 million is an extreme undercount, less that 13% of registered voters watched that last hearing. I stand by my statement that most people are so preoccupied with their own lives--either because it takes all their energy just to survive, or because they are surviving fine but just don't bother--that they don't follow politics and rarely or never vote.
21,000,000 out of 168,308,000 is about 12.48%.
https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/voting-and-registration/p20-585.html
As I said in my post, it’s tempting to try to apply the 23% to the known electorate from the presidential election, 87 mill plus to 80 mill plus, but it’s apples and oranges because mid terms are traditionally low turn out elections and the last presidential was unusually high in turnout. So, can we get the same demographics to turn out for the mids in higher numbers and the poor showing demos ( young adults and White males) to turn out for the mids. What I hear in these posts is I am too busy putting food on the table or being depressed. No, not really me. My friends. Does anybody remember getting two thousand extra dollars in 2020? Does it matter that the Biden economic plan has meant a steady uptick in employment to the largest job creation on a monthly basis ever? The talking heads keep telling you two quarters of inflation mean we are headed for a recession. That’s quick and easy, but not necessarily true. Plus, prices are falling. Now who ya gonna blame? I think the Dems have caught the aggrieved Republican infection.
What matters IMHO is not the number....it is the number who are actually undecided voters that are watching. And I would venture a guess the number is very very small indeed.
Maybe. But what matters is if they vote or don’t. Fence sitters do what? Listen to both sides? Wait for the wind to blow? Wait for a sign from God? My guess is they don’t do anything. .
ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS!! THANK YOU!!
Yahoo? Seriously? I'd love to pick that one apart, starting with how they picked 1,541 adults- which is an unrealistically small sample for this broad a survey anyway. Add in how questions are structured. Holy cow.
From The Atlantic ¨America's Self-Obsession is Killing It's Democracy¨ by Brian Klass, Hugely important
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/american-democracy-breakdown-authoritarianism-rise/670580/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
I subscribe to The Atlantic, but I know very few people who do. I've said it before in a comment to another day's post...This is a problem. Fox, Breitbart, etc are free. They are getting to the masses. Brian Klaas' article, Anne Applebaum's work, Barton Gellman's warnings and so on are not.
I give Atlantic subscriptions as gifts—libraries, senior centers, etc
I want it to thrive
Great idea.
It is!!!
Many of these are available at public libraries. Reading has been replaced by watching and listening. If more people still read, they would certainly find the cost of subscriptions minimal compared to cost of losing democracy. I agree with the description of the self-obsessed American. Folks may be clamoring about the cost of gas but the highways are bumper to bumper in some areas with trave!ers. Those huge trucks burn a lot.
I lose sympathy for the complaints about gas prices when I keep seeing people sitting in their cars in parking lots with the engines running or waiting 20 minutes in a long drive up line instead of going inside, which would only take 5 minutes.
Vital point, MK. What to do?
Repost those that others subscribe to on every social media. Email to friends and family.
Thank you for that link...but hoyhowdy, that is one depressing article.
Thank You. Terrifying. Important. Shared.
Thanks for that - chilling - but why the lack of reaction?
I am a tired 68 year old who works to elect progressive candidates. I accept that. Many people just don't want to volunteer. Part of my job is to try and persuade them to help. Plain and simple. Do the work because it needs to be done. Stay hopeful.
Good on you! Keep up the good work!
Excellent. Thank You.
You're welcome ❤️
Read this yesterday and did not sleep well. Thanks.
❤️
Not enough, most too interested in Kardashian blather and Fox certainly hasn’t let on.
Bingo
'6 in 10 Americans say U.S. democracy is in crisis as the 'Big Lie' takes root'
'One year after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Americans are deeply pessimistic about the future of democracy.'
'A new NPR/Ipsos poll finds that 64% of Americans believe U.S. democracy is "in crisis and at risk of failing." That sentiment is felt most acutely by Republicans: Two-thirds of GOP respondents agree with the verifiably false claim that "voter fraud helped Joe Biden win the 2020 election" — a key pillar of the "Big Lie" that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump'.
'Fewer than half of Republicans say they are willing to accept the results of the 2020 election — a number that has remained virtually unchanged since we asked the same question last January.'
"There is really a sort of dual reality through which partisans are approaching not only what happened a year ago on Jan. 6, but also generally with our presidential election and our democracy," said Mallory Newall, a vice president at Ipsos, which conducted the poll.'(npr) See link below.
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/03/1069764164/american-democracy-poll-jan-6
I'll never understand how so many are so willing to believe something demonstrably false. Alas, the power of propaganda.
And it's all the free right-wing propaganda that is getting to the masses. While the more detailed, lengthy, well thought out analysis is by subscription. I dont have answers, but many people have commented here and elsewhere about how Americans are concerned about pocketbook issues...well? Do you think they are reading Washington Post, NY Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker and so on? I've gone to states in the midwest to read their local papers and been stopped by the paywall. Papers need to make $$ and reporters need to be paid (well). What can we do?
There's an awful lot of pessimism in today's comments. Here are two things which might lead to more optimism. checkmyads.org exists to deprive Fox of its advertising, thereby defanging it, and Fox is one of the most powerful at spreading the big lie. (I haven't exhaustively checked on checkmyads.org, but I think influencewatch is a good indication--see below.) Also, checkmyads.org is located in Arlington Mass., which is a very blue part of my very blue state, sandwiched between Lexington and The Peoples' Republic of Cambridge.
https://checkmyads.org/branded/were-ready-to-break-the-fox-news-machine/
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/check-my-ads-institute/
Thank you, David, for suggesting more ways to counter disinformation and spread the pro-democracy movement,.
You're welcome Fern.
❤️
THANK YOU!
To be clear, putting the facts forward to get people moving is not meant to be pessimism. It is meant to get....people moving. This is polling firm FiveThirtyEight. Not some right wing think tank. The below is where Democrats are. Will people act to overcome this or pretend it will be merry? I choose the former - tell people the truth so we can get the lead out. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/whats-behind-bidens-record-low-approval-rating/
"His approval rating of 39 percent1 is now the worst of any elected president at this point in his presidency since the end of World War II, according to FiveThirtyEight’s historical presidential approval data. In other words, Biden is arguably in worse shape than any other elected president heading into his first midterm election, including his four most recent predecessors, who, like Biden, were operating in an increasingly polarized political climate."
We must be pragmatic to prevail. The sitting around feeling bad for Biden & Co and being afraid is a recipe certain to put Trump in office. Compromise on key issues, supporting moderation and organizing and doing what is necessary to put forward a credible candidate that has a chance of winning is what matters now. People in Dr. Richardson's world are already scared and upset. So what? How do we stop the real-time collapse of the Democratic party we are witnessing?
The Democratic party is not collapsing. Small democracy groups are sprouting up across the country since a school board banned books, a county commissioner flashed his gun, a 4th of July parade was AR-15ed, a state decided a raped, impregnated 10 year old can't have an abortion, the senate undercut environmental protectiona, a supreme court judge supported the insurrection. The Democratic Party is gaining members, funds and savvy. JOIN!!
I think your right MaryPat. I read something recently about the Democrats fundraising is far outpacing the Republicans - and it is pretty much all with thousands of small donations. People are alarmed and motivated!
As a side note, Republicans are feeling the heat and are resorting to their tried and true fear mongering claiming that liberals are out to get them and that they are getting more violent. There's not a shred of evidence that this is true but again fear mongering is in the first chapter of the Republican playbook.
Liberals are out to get them? Democrats fault Republicans for their positions, their lies, their hypocrisy. Republicans fault Democrats for not being Republicans, for not being white “Christian” nationalists, for assuming that equality under our laws is a good idea.
Really? So all the data from the polls which show Biden and the Dems at record lows to Vegas - a place where money backed by huge data-science wagering systems goes - shows Trump a shoe-in for '24 are not to be believed?
Honestly. You can believe what you wrote but anecdotal sentiments like that are what will lead to a wholesale wipeout. This is not about what I or anyone WANTS, it is a mere observation that the FACTS do NOT support your statement. The FACTS point to a Democratic party that is going to get obliterated in upcoming races.
Denying this stuff is as pernicious as denying Jan 6th matters.
Take all that energy and start a small group working for democracy, and link it up to the Democratic Party. Up the odds.
Yes! Not to be believed. Fatcats are driving the constant attacks on Biden. Vegas, of all places, is especially not to be believed since it is in their interests to not handicap honestly. 1. Special interests lie., 2. Don’t start from an assumption of truth these days. It’s a lie until I am sure it’s a truth. Do you remember Bush’s Big Lie? His smirking truthiness? Do you remember Clinton’s I did not have sex with that woman? And
Trump was the biggest liar of them all? How about Maryann Conway’s alternative facts? And you want to believe the Las Vegas machine? Does Biden have a low approval rating. Probably. Does it matter? Only if you take it seriously? Do you think he’s doing a good job or better job than Trump?
Well. The reason to believe the Vegas numbers more than the fivethirtyeight.com which is a center left statistical service that wrote the below is....in Vegas you can bet your money on it. I am not presuming anything and am deeply aware of the role fat cats play in perverting everything about this country. We are careening towards a winner-take-all-kleptocracy.
But the right response in the face of overwhelming data suggesting Biden is, indeed, in very deep trouble is movement not stasis.
"His approval rating of 39 percent1 is now the worst of any elected president at this point in his presidency since the end of World War II, according to FiveThirtyEight’s historical presidential approval data. In other words, Biden is arguably in worse shape than any other elected president heading into his first midterm election, including his four most recent predecessors, who, like Biden, were operating in an increasingly polarized political climate."
Yes, you are correct.America is teetering on an extremely dangerous precipice and very few are aware of it.Certainly they are not hearing it on the mainstream news.I think Dr Richardson’s posts and the information we get from them are beyond invaluable yet the information she and a few others provide, is not readily available and it is truly terrifying.After all that has happened with Trump and his woebegone saga, many uninformed Americans are ready to put him in power again.I shudder at this thought.
…what’s at stake and what it would mean to them if there are no civil servants. A friend who was applying for a visa for her British husband in 2018-19 got exactly nothing done. The government was understaffed (and the CIS is slow in the best circumstances) and Americans could not get timely services. There would be no one to assist with social security snafus, veterans’ issues, etc. My point is, if tfg were back in office there would be LOTS of problems, not the least of which is the end of government services. My friend moved to the UK instead.
I don't disagree but what is all this hand-wringing accomplishing?
The sitting around feeling bad for Biden & Co and being afraid is a recipe certain to put Trump in office. Compromise on key issues, supporting moderation and organizing and doing what is necessary to put forward a credible candidate that has a chance of winning is what matters now. People in Dr. Richardson's world are already scared and upset. So what? How do we stop the real-time collapse of the Democratic party we are witnessing?
I think you missed my point. It was that gutting the civil service is not a theoretical bad thing. It has direct impacts on ppl’s lives. It like ppl saying ‘I don’t want the government doing insurance. Just don’t mess with my Medicare.’
I don't miss your point - I take it well and you are 100% correct. What I am getting at is the FACT you very understandably highlight will not help us win elections. In a prior time, let's call that "the age of mostly-truth" your observation might have been of critical importance. Today, we have indie voters and then we have a huge swath of Americans who have come to believe having gun toting people running through our Capitol during the peaceful transfer of power....is ok.
Apologies for any offense. I am at exhaustion with the "facts" when the only fact that matters is the Dems are lined up for one of the worst voter turnouts in history. I read these letters and, like everyone, get upset and anxious. But the truth is that has no purpose and helps no-one.
How do we move forward? How do we create a situation where the REPUBLICANS absolutely MUST put up a more moderate candidate than Trump??? Right now he is going to crush any Democrat put forward unless attitudes and behaviors on the left change. And THAT, my friend, scares me!!
"Same is true of his wannabes." Yes - the gov of Florida is lined up to take over where 45 left off and has used this state as a litmus test for what he can get away with. He inflicts damage at every absurd and ridiculous turn. Let's not forget HCR's chilling letter from earlier this year about the danger of this one man wrecking ball.
I know Governor De Satan is very dangerous and seems also very cruel but I first want to see the Trump reign of terror ended. Then we will have to deal with all of these horrible right wing authoritarians. These people are poised to reduce or change Social Security, Medicare and Obamacare to name a few "entitlements"( their words not mine) and people who are unconscious are just fine with it. Blows my mind that people are too caught up in keeping up with the Kardashians( someone today made this very comparison) to know that they are losing their democracy as I post.
In a tiny spot of good news, I recently had to Google “The Kardashians” when my wife looked at me and said “who the hell are the Kardashians and why are they relevant?”
🤣👍
Both agree with you and wonder why it matters. This is a consequence. The folks who don't even believe Jan 6th matters watching Fox don't care. The independent voter who is trying to pay their bills and frustrated with a Democratic party that they blame doesn't care. No matter how wrong that indie voter is to blame Biden & Co for this or that, unless things improve the Dems are setting themselves up to get totally wiped out.
It's not just if Trump returns to office. His enablers are still unscathed. Shine light on these roaches and get these traitors out of government!
If the investigation proves that CT was involved in Ginni's misdoings, are there steps to take? Can he be prosecuted? I hate the idea that we can't hold the SCOTUS members to the same standards.
"Like presidents and Cabinet members, federal judges can be removed from office through a similar process: impeached by the House and convicted in a trial by the Senate that would prompt removal from office."
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-06-29/could-democrats-impeach-supreme-court-justices-for-lying-in-the-wake-of-roe
Oh yes, I had read that and it doesn't give me any hope. There seems to be a lot of double standards regarding the SCOTUS.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-24-2022/comment/7973085?r=16nvk&utm_medium=ios
Not just if Trump were back in office, but any Republican who’d pass the muster of the base would likely resurrect this diabolical Schedule F plan.
Yes, anyone who thinks DeSantis wouldn't be happy with the plans the plotters are coming up with is definitely not smelling Chanel No. 5 up where they're keeping their head.
He is chump with a brain
Exactly. If we don't elect people at the state level that support the country over party virtue, we can expect them to be in the federal level soon. I used to say vote for the person, no matter the party, but until the Republican party has become something other than the party of Trump, it is only Democrats for me. I won't even listen to the Republicans, I do not trust any of them.
Great. So what needs doing to get the vote out? Many Americans are focused on paying their bills. No matter how fiercely I believe in these issues they simply are not relevant unless they lead to something that helps us avoid Trump '24.
What are the issues that matter to the swing voters that matter in the upcoming election?
There's an awful lot of pessimism in today's comments. Here are two things which might lead to more optimism. checkmyads.org exists to deprive Fox of its advertising, thereby defanging it, and Fox is one of the most powerful at spreading the big lie. (I haven't exhaustively checked on checkmyads.org, but I think influencewatch is a good indication--see below.) Also, checkmyads.org is located in Arlington Mass., which is a very blue part of my very blue state, sandwiched between Lexington and The Peoples' Republic of Cambridge.
https://checkmyads.org/branded/were-ready-to-break-the-fox-news-machine/
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/check-my-ads-institute/
Appreciate the link. It is encouraging to read about the effort and the possibility of making it a strong movement by joining and encouraging others to do so as well.
We crossed in the mail!
The tracks have been laid.
Hopefully, the fact that both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post carried editorials last Friday pointing out Trump's lack of fitness for office means the Murdoch has turned against him. If that attitude shows up on the nightly propaganda rants on Faux, Trump's goose is cooked.
DeSantis may be Murdoch's man. I wouldn't call that an improvement would you?
Not at all! He would be worse.
Indeed, YES! DeSantis is definitely not stupid, nor is he driven by demons as is Drump. DeSantis would be every bit as much--no doubt more so--of a danger to democracy as President as was tfg.
Murdock just dropped Trump, ker plunk. Pretty sure he’ll be backing DeSantis.
Hi Ann. Replying with article, along the lines you suggest but not right-off the press. Do you have 'breaking news', although it sure looks as though the break with Trump has happened? DeSantis is another but much smarter undisguised devil.
'This article originally appeared on AlterNet.]
'Donald Trump has lost the confidence of both of the major newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.'
'Under the headline, "The President Who Stood Still on Jan. 6," The Wall Street Journal editorial board harshly criticized the former president.'
"No matter your views of the Jan. 6 special committee, the facts it is laying out in hearings are sobering. The most horrifying to date came Thursday in a hearing on President Trump's conduct as the riot raged and he sat watching TV, posting inflammatory tweets and refusing to send help," the editorial board wrote.
"The committee's critics are right that it lacks political balance," the newspaper wrote. "Still, the brute facts remain: Mr. Trump took an oath to defend the Constitution, and he had a duty as Commander in Chief to protect the Capitol from a mob attacking it in his name. He refused. He didn't call the military to send help. He didn't call Mr. Pence to check on the safety of his loyal VP. Instead he fed the mob's anger and let the riot play out."
https://www.salon.com/2022/07/25/rupert-murdochs-papers-lose-confidence-in_partner/
Fern, I live in Fl. From Mi so I follow both state’s politically as well as national. I live next door to Sarasota, home of Gen Ryan and a hotbed of militia, aggrieved school parents, and right wingers in general. Lucky me, I get to keep up on the rallies, etc. TV amply covers DeSantis as do newspapers local and national. He is more authoritarian than Trump and even less honest if that is possible. He will say or do anything but mostly follows orders. He gets pushback though. More than possibly is known. He’s shut up about Disney when he realized he’d not only spoken too soon but out of place. I’m pretty sure he’s the Fatcats and religious zealots new fair haired child even if he is of Cuban ancestry which somehow fell off the turnip truck of Hispanic otherism. Unlike many, I think the DoJ will move on Trump when they get there. People are putting a lot of stock in Biden’s low approval ratings but I just explained in a post why that actually doesn’t really matter when it comes to the mid terms. I hope you can find that post. I like your carefull thinking! Keep it up! Friend me on FB, if you want!
Ann, Our respect is mutual. Your solid and detailed reports are just what we need. I left FB many years ago after just several months. To my mind, members were a commodity to be the pawns of businesses with all the info they needed about us as supplied by FB. I did not anticipate that members would also be the victims of disinformation and conspiracy theories. Ann, you get where I am coming from and my opinion of Zuckerberg and the others like him. Let us stay in touch. I think of you a a citizen journalist with deep appreciation.
You are a better man than I ( tee hee) to give up FB.
My thought exactly.
Yes, I completely agree with you, TC. Still, can’t trust Rupert either. Could be a nasty ploy, giving us “hope”.
You mean just like Putin agreeing to release Ukrainian grain one day, and bombing the port of Odessa the next?
Exactly
Hope, you got that right.
NEVER trust a Murdoch
Truth.
But DeSantis is in the wings. I just posted an Atlantic article on Michael Bale's post. The rot is deeper and the danger is greater.
Gailee, You can add a line to the link to indicate what the article is about. Just press the three dots below your comment to edit. That will open your comment., so that you can add a line of description. Then press 'save' to close the comment.
The article is "America's Self-Obsession is Killing it's Democracy", by Brian Klaas. Required reading.
Thank you David. One of my many weaknesses is not being specific. I'll change that.
Thank you, David.
"Prodemocracy voters now have only one way forward: Block the authoritarian party from power, elect prodemocracy politicians in sufficient numbers, and then insist that they produce lasting democratic reforms.
"The wish list from several democracy experts I spoke with is long, and includes passing the Electoral Count Act, creating a constitutional right to vote, reforming districting so more elections are competitive, establishing a nonpartisan national election-management body, electing the president via popular vote, reducing the gap in representation between states like California and Wyoming, introducing some level of proportional representation or multimember districts, aggressively regulating campaign spending and the role of money in politics, and enforcing an upper age limit for Supreme Court justices. But virtually all of those ideas are currently political fantasies."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/american-democracy-breakdown-authoritarianism-rise/670580/
Thank you Fern.
Great. So what needs doing to get the vote out? Many Americans are focused on paying their bills. No matter how fiercely I believe in these issues they simply are not relevant unless they lead to something that helps us avoid Trump '24.
Sitting around upset and afraid does not win elections.
What are the issues that matter to the swing voters that matter in the upcoming election?
I wonder if going in sideways might work. Meaning, if true that most Americans support the availability contraception, which they appear to do, dems make that and issues like it big deals for the next election. As long as an issue makes ppl go to the polls, as a start, we can achieve the same ends. Maybe?
No idea if this works but unless people start thinking "what will get people to the polls" it is irrelevant frittering and a waste of worry and energy.
Lost, you’re a real ray of sunshine and fount of practical suggestions.
Look at Fern McBride's post copied here. Places for action are indeed seeping out. Personally I just hope we see more discussion on how to moderate the party's views to create a tougher contender to Trump. Mitch McConnel is hardly a ray of sunlight but he does get his constituents more Federal money per capita than any other state while still running around complaining about "blue state bailouts"....despite the fact that blue states are the big net payers to the Federal government!! We need less sunlight, more pragmatism and more "what can be done to win" dialogue otherwise it is just worry without winning. Action items below.
Double down, Barbara. You will find your voice getting stronger and your determination increase. Join one or two grassroots organizations such:
https://indivisible.org/
https://www.lwv.org/
https://nationalvotercorps.org/volunteer/national-organizations/
https://coolmompicks.com/blog/2021/11/01/voting-rights-organizations-support/
https://www.democracyforamerica.com/site/page/eighteen-grassroots-groups-launch-effort-to-ensure-progressives-win-in-2020
https://www.startguide.org/orgs/orgs00.html
These Are among the Best Charities for Voting Rights in America
Below are our favorite charities for voting rights in America:
American Civil Liberties Union
Brennan Center for Justice
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Common Cause
League of Women Voters
Ballotpedia
FairVote
Spread the Vote
Rock the Vote
Dump is no longer of use to The Owners and they are going to throw him under the bus. That would be good news except that, as The Atlantic article points out, the Trumpified Republican Party will march on--without Dump. DeSantis seems like the logical choice to be the Dump stand-in, but I'm willing to bet $$$ that Liz Cheney is girding up for a Presidential run for a "reformed" Republican Party, which may appear better, but still have the usual Owners running the show.
I absolutely agree. Cheney will run for president.
2024 or 2028? Were DeSantis out of the way (maybe he gets to be her Secretary of state?), a cleansed party might win with Ms Cheney in 2024. She is young enough for 2032 after serving as Secretary of State under either party, which would give her the international chops that Hillary had. Formidable.
Split the party
A potential antidote, which would work by stripping Fox News of its money.
There's an awful lot of pessimism in today's comments. Here are two things which might lead to more optimism. checkmyads.org exists to deprive Fox of its advertising, thereby defanging it, and Fox is one of the most powerful at spreading the big lie. (I haven't exhaustively checked on checkmyads.org, but I think influencewatch is a good indication--see below.) Also, checkmyads.org is located in Arlington Mass., which is a very blue part of my very blue state, sandwiched between Lexington and The Peoples' Republic of Cambridge.
https://checkmyads.org/branded/were-ready-to-break-the-fox-news-machine/
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/check-my-ads-institute/
Wouldn't that be great! From your lips to....whatever.
But sadly even if TFG were to vaporize right now, many are ready to replace him with the same perverted ideas. It's like Medusa's head.
The goose may be cooked - but there is another fowl in the oven -? de Santis?
We can only hope that Trump goes after DeSantis and Cruz if he perceives them as opponents.
I read that. But I understand DeSantis is Murdoch’s new love.
I hope you are right, but even if you are, where would you imagine they stand on this Schedule F idea? I can just hear Tucker et al spinning and promoting it as lib-owning, swamp-draining, and a fight against cancel culture.
OH pray, it is well done. Then I expect that Rupert will sing the praises of DeSantis. And chump will likely implode.
“Look, it’s not just me that is saying that Donald Trump is unfit for office. It’s other entities owned by Rupert Murdoch. It’s the New York Post, in their editorial on Friday. It’s the Wall Street Journal — said the same thing after our hearing on Thursday night. So I’m going to continue to be guided by making sure I do my duty, and making sure that the American people understand the truth.”
https://www.mediaite.com/news/liz-cheney-name-drops-rupert-murdoch-after-foxs-baier-asks-about-critics-slamming-jan-6-show-trial-even-murdochs-ny-post-says-trump-is-unfit/
Is Fox airing the J6 hearings at all?
Not at night in prime time
Thanks!
TC, this looks promising to me
There's an awful lot of pessimism in today's comments. Here are two things which might lead to more optimism. checkmyads.org exists to deprive Fox of its advertising, thereby defanging it, and Fox is one of the most powerful at spreading the big lie. (I haven't exhaustively checked on checkmyads.org, but I think influencewatch is a good indication--see below.) Also, checkmyads.org is located in Arlington Mass., which is a very blue part of my very blue state, sandwiched between Lexington and The Peoples' Republic of Cambridge.
https://checkmyads.org/branded/were-ready-to-break-the-fox-news-machine/
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/check-my-ads-institute/
I think he’s just anointing DeathSantis.
Could be...
Consider that TFG is a lazy old fart who liked "being" President but rarely enjoyed the work. He watched TV. He tweeted. He called in to sympathetic media. He made disjointed rambling stream of consciousness speeches.
But he didn't really work at the job.
So maybe...TFG will run with the Florida punk as his VP and put the kid on the hard work. Sounds like a TV plot. But since all of this is the worst show I have ever seen, I thought I would throw a new script in the pot.
What, drumpy share the stage and the credit? That might make Drumpf "look weak"--especially if DeSantis as VP was doing all the work and wanted at least some credit (and he would--Ron is not without his own fair share of ego). And unless DeSantis is an absolute loon (and he is not, unfortunately) he has to be aware of how willing was Drumpf to throw faithful Pence to the wolves. Drumpf would be deeply distrustful of DeSantis. I can't see Drumpf letting DeSantis anywhere near the office of the Presidency.
You are right. Of course. TFG would worry about the 25th Amendment.
Well, that scared me all over again. I am practicing "staying in the moment," for my sanity however, and I want to praise our civil service as represented by Marie Yovanovich, Vindeman, and all the duty-bound DOJ investigators, on and on. We really don't know all they do, but they are exceptional Americans, often children of immigrants who have gratitude for our laws and safe-keeping of citizens. As this newsletter reminds us, they are bright, hard workers and loyal to an ideal rather than an individual. May they prevail. May they and everyone they know vote for freedom, Never DJT!
Hope, I appreciate you identifying that there are those of conscience who will work very hard. I am extremely pessimistic about Republicans in general now, but if we don’t bear in mind that the majority has significant power if we rise to the occasion, we squander what potentials we have to continue to pierce the veils of obfuscation and double-speak on the part of the Republicans. Trump tended to keep us reacting to his constant outrages. To continue to develop our own resources proactively as well as more visionary goals is that one source of empowerment and growing integrity. I very consciously try to identify any and all members of what I would like to think of as “my tribe“ that includes the best scientists, including climate scientists, people of the Rocky Mountain Institute, and any number of other powerful forces that relate with compassion as well as pragmatism. I certainly take heart with those who contribute to this forum, and will try to visit more often to learn from the best of “my fellow Americans.” Thanks to all of you who care enough to participate in this community-building!
Agree. Sorta. These civil servants have become political targets.....
So what needs doing to get the vote out? Many Americans are focused on paying their bills. No matter how fiercely I believe in these issues they simply are not relevant unless they lead to something that helps us avoid Trump '24.
Sitting around upset and afraid does not win elections.
What are the issues that matter to the swing voters that matter in the upcoming election?
Could Congress revise the Pendleton Act in order to remove that loophole that allows for a Schedule F? It seems to me that they could either revise it or revoke it and pass a new one. If so, they'd better get busy if they want it done before the midterms.
Who cares? Frittering away about solutions that Biden & Co are either already working on or won't work on helps no one.
So what needs doing to get the vote out? Many Americans are focused on paying their bills. No matter how fiercely I believe in these issues they simply are not relevant unless they lead to something that helps us avoid Trump '24.
Sitting around upset and afraid does not win elections.
What are the issues that matter to the swing voters that matter in the upcoming election?
Why an objective “Bureaucracy” created by Congress is Essential
. . . For 13 of my 15 years of service to the Federal Government (2 of those years serving in the Navy), most of my time was spent in the Financial Assistance branch of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Golden Field Office (for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy). I worked as a Grants Specialist and Contracting Officer, responsible for preparing grant awards to recipients conducting renewable energy research and development. Awardees include companies in the private sector, universities, small businesses, U.S. National Labs like NREL and SANDIA, and non-profit energy research companies. People working at DOE/Golden follow meticulous procedures, rules, and regulations under “10 CFR 600”, a part of the Federal Code which lays out how the Department of Energy (objectively) selects awardees, and how terms and conditions are to be executed during the research grant period (usually in a three-to-five-year timeframe).
. . . The 10 CFR 600 guidelines only affect Department of Energy’s work on “renewables”. This effort runs into the billions of dollars. The office also fields a legal team, scientists, and other people with engineering or technical backgrounds who work with awardees during the project period. But there is so much more in a Federal system, ESTABLISHED BY CONGRESS and monitored by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which conducts financial audits of grant awardee expenditures.
. . . This is just one of many Federal agencies, all with their own set of rules and regulations that are followed. . . When you hear someone in Congress making political hay by trashing “the bureaucracy”, remember:
Congress created it and is constantly revising it. Revisions are contained in the “FEDERAL REGISTER”, published daily, and available to anyone on-line. As they say, watching Congress create laws and guidelines for Federal agencies is like watching sausage being made. . . But you have to ask yourself if the “alternative” to having this system would do nothing but create chaos and widespread failure.
If Trump succeeds in getting re-elected in 2024, we could see the end to an objective Federal system of laws and procedures affecting all facets of government, from the Federal level down to local governments. I do not believe critics of “the bureaucracy” have any idea what they’d be unleashing on all of us if Trump and his disciples succeed.
Wonderful. Thank you for your service. Now about that last point - avoiding Trump in '24......
Sitting around feeling bad for Biden & Co and being afraid is a recipe certain to put Trump in office. Compromise on key issues, supporting moderation and organizing and doing what is necessary to put forward a credible candidate that has a chance of winning is what matters now. People in Dr. Richardson's world are already scared and upset. So what?
How do we stop the real-time collapse of the Democratic party we are witnessing?
My experience with federal grants and contracts and advocating with federal agencies parallels the truth in your comments.
Another great and insightful piece. I have a minor quibble though. I see any Republican in the White House doing this, not just Trump. They'll just say there's precedent, that Biden undid the precedent for political reasons and Schedule F is for Fascist will be back in place.
I would love to be wrong. Please show me how I'm wrong. I'm really terrified of any GOP in the White House.
Would Liz Cheney do it? She is considering a run in 2024? Governors of Mass. Baker or Maryland Hogan do it? Ahhhh nahhhhh! Perspective or we succumb to their blind flailing.
Thanks for the conversation. I disagree.
I 100% believe Liz Cheney would do it. I see no blind flailing at all. And right now I think the most likely ticket is DeSantis Cheney. I wouldn't be surprised if DeSantis gave Trump the idea in the first place. DeSantis has been modeling his governorship after first Maduro and now Orban. DeSantis has turned on Trump now that it's pretty clear he'd beat Trump in a primary. There was a DeSantis flag flying next to a Swastika flag and SS flag at an event in Florida (Friday or Saturday). Trump has started targeting DeSantis, for months really, just like he started targeting Biden months ahead of the Dem primary.
Cheney is definitely considering running too. But before you dismiss this take a peak at Cheney's voting record. She voted with Trump 92.9% of the time. Compare that to the person who replaced her the GOP hierarchy when McCarthy kicked her out, Stefanik. Stefanik voted with Trump 77.7% of the time. Cheney from a strictly policy standpoint IS Trump.
As for Hogan, I haven't seen much indication that he'd run. But looking around the only Republican I think is running and isn't 100% basically behind Trump's *policies* might be Mitch Daniels. And Daniels is perhaps the person who did more to harm unions than any other American in modern history. I'd argue he did more harm than the Gipper himself. So, yes. Yes I do believe most if not all would.
But let's say you find a handful who wouldn't.
Those exceptions would just prove the point.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2021/05/06/whos-more-loyal-cheney-voted-more-with-trump-than-possible-successor-stefanik/amp/
I find it hard to believe that Cheney would do it, despite your good case.
I can't imagine Charlie Baker (my GOP governor) would do it. But checkmyads.org is a potential antidote--something that could defang Fox. See below
There's an awful lot of pessimism in today's comments. Here are two things which might lead to more optimism. checkmyads.org exists to deprive Fox of its advertising, thereby defanging it, and Fox is one of the most powerful at spreading the big lie. (I haven't exhaustively checked on checkmyads.org, but I think influencewatch is a good indication--see below.) Also, checkmyads.org is located in Arlington Mass., which is a very blue part of my very blue state, sandwiched between Lexington and The Peoples' Republic of Cambridge.
https://checkmyads.org/branded/were-ready-to-break-the-fox-news-machine/
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/check-my-ads-institute/
Thanks for your post. From what I understand Faux receives most of its revenue from cable subscriptions, not ads. I plan to "cut the cable" as soon as my contract is up.
Exactly. This is my expectation. Recreating government that can be controlled by the party in power. Install it on day one. May not have to have control of Senate to enact or interpret policy. Doing it in plain sight. Recruitment well underway for all those bright minded young Republicans working in the trenches on campaigns across the USA. Scares the crap out of me as well, as my evil think-like-a-Republican mind tells me it can work.
That is my frame of mind. If they think my fight or flight instinct is to fly, well, they're wrong.
I'm 71 and wonder if our democracy will stand at least until I am gone. Must we have Civil War 2.0? If DJT is found criminally liable what kind of sentence would he get? Would he be stripped of pension and SS protection? Where would he be imprisoned? We are in uncharted waters, thanks to him and his ilk.
I am 62 and right there w you with the same thoughts and feelings.
Our Constitution doesn't cover this level of corruption. The SS deleting 2 days of texts? It takes at least two steps to delete anything. And takes like 7 steps to completely scrub a drive clean. Even medical copiers/printers have to be specially destroyed due to HIPAA because they record everything they print or copy.
It’s not easy, somebody really had knowledge and determination to actually delete those texts
Yes Michele! That SS texts are not available for a time of extreme action by federal law enforcement is not supportable!
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Same. 63. Hard to plan for the future when I'm wondering if we should sell our house and decamp to a "safer" country but that feels so cowardly...buy body armor? Build a safe room? Learn orienteering?
It will not look like 1950s Germany if there is a conflict! I imagine the DOJ charging TFG and the country erupting and perhaps that's necessary to lure the evil out into the light like a bug
Living in another country would be a short term solution as the US leads the world. Without US leadership on climate change we are all doomed. I would think with the suffering in Texas caused by an inadequate power grid surely Republicans would be run out of the state.
Loyalty to the dicktator is and has always been Trump’s plan. Governing is something he does not know how to do, however, and he definitely proved that. I am not the least surprised you mentioned Devin Nunes, HRC. He has been in charge of Trump’s failed fake entertainment center. He screwed the people, a lot of farmers, in the Central Valley in California. That area has always voted with the R’s. Perhaps things will change now. Nunes is not without controversy either because he was alongside McCarthy. I call them the two Qevins. Gutting a system that has been in place for so many years, would be devastating for all. We can prevent this from happening. We can loudly denounce any Repub candidate for the House or Senate. We were asleep at the wheel in 2020 when we lost House seats. We cannot permit that to happen again. Would love to see two or more Senate seats go to the Dems so that we can make Manchenema non-entities.
Last sentence my goal for the fall
I read somewhere yesterday (don't have the link to share, sorry!) that one reason 45 lost in 2020 was because R's who voted did not vote for him or Biden but did vote R down ballot which is why we saw so many R wins.
Marlene, Good Points! Although coming from MA…I really don’t have a true feel for West Coast politics. On the other hand…the later part of your reply makes a lot of sense. Many people I have spoken with since 2020 seem to agree that the overall illogical election results stem from the fact, “many Americans just don’t understand what, or who for that matter…they are voting for!” For example…what was the percentage of morally responsible(?) Republicans who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for either Biden or tRump. Then…either couldn’t or wouldn’t…think of the associated implications of voting an all Republican ticket…irrespective of who as on their ballots. I wonder if any of them look back and say to themselves, “ maybe that individual didn’t deserve my vote?” Sadly, I don’t think so!
This is the scariest thing yet. What’s to stop any Republican not named Trump who might win in 2024 (I hope not) from carrying out this plan?
Not a thing. Republicans have had 40+ years to plan for the takeover. Ginni Thomas been at it for decades…
❤️💜
Why is it that even the PBS News Hour does not seem to have the details that you share with us? Would you be interested in being a regular guest via zoom in The News Hour? Your knowledgeable and chilling details need a wider audience if our democracy is to be salvaged.
Thank you for all you do.
Thank you for explaining the Civil Service to this reader. I had two great step aunts, Virginia maiden ladies both, daughters of a Methodist minister, one worked her entire adult life in the Library of Congress, the other in the National Archives. More integrity in two people is unimaginable. And now I know how they “happened”, because neither would have been part of pay to play.
Q: What's the only thing worse than the Trump presidency?
A: A second Trump presidency.
A Desantis presidency.
As a Floridian, I have watched DeSantis for almost four years. He’s a much more shrewd a politician and is much smarter than Trump. But he is also much less a larcenous narcissist than Donnie. No doubt a DeSantis presidency would be horrible, yet I shudder to imagine a guy like Trump with an axe to grind and nothing to lose as president.
The thought of trump and his minions taking our country down is scary, sad, and more reason to resist.
I love you, Professor Heather. Thank you for these.
A vindictive Trump back in the White House with unbridled power to hire and fire based on personal loyalty to him is a terrifying thought. I am convinced that it won’t happen.
The tarnishing of the Trump image has been quickened with the House 1/6 Committee’s public hearings. Some of his remaining ‘loyal Trumpists’ are seeking other political pastures. His carrion call about the BIG Lie and the 1/6 ‘witch hunt’ is being dampened by a number of Republican candidates in the 2022 congressional and gubernatorial elections who are leery of Trumpian ‘coattails.’
Trump’s narcissism compels him to yearn to be the big enchilada in ‘Trump/Republican’ politics. This seems to be working less and less well. Moreover, he is ensnared in a number of legal situations that are likely to involve him in both civil and criminal indictments.
Trump has toyed with hints of being a presidential candidate in years past. He is doing the same today, in part in an effort to stymie other prospective 2024 candidates, including DeSantis.
I am convinced that Trump willl not be a serious presidential candidate in 2024. [I was dead wrong in 2015 and hope to bat .500 on my Trump predictions.] However, I am deeply concerned, were a DeSantis-type to win the 2024 presidential race, that there would be an assault against the professional civil servants who are essential in our government’s engine room during tipsy-turvy presidencies.
As a Foreign Service Officer I served under four presidents, two Republicans and two Democrats. Personally it mattered not a whit, since I had taken an oath to serve the United States.
In 2020, Joe Biden won the election because many people "crossed over" on their ballots. They voted for Biden, but then voted for Republicans lower down the ticket. In effect, they voted against Trump. Even with a hefty chunk of the electorate believing the Big Lie and another hefty chunk of apathy among the rest, I think this will repeat in 2024. Trump will run again. He has to in order to avoid prosecution (weather this is real or fancied, it will motivate him to run).
It is the down ticket races that concern me. Coup attempt or not, most people are just trying to make a living and raise their kids. Contrary to popular belief, most do NOT vote with their pocketbooks, they vote with their emotions. Inflation concerns people. Fear of wild, radical (fill in the blank) politicians causing inflation with misguided policies is what they fear. Obama ran and won on hope, not fiscal responsibility. What are the Democratic candidates for Federal, State, and Local office going to run on?
I agree with the emotional voting. In that light, I consider how many Americans depend upon contraceptives, how many have/know people who have had abortions, know/are LGBTQ people, are afraid of the gun violence, are/friend and family of POC, and they all vote, we will win. BUT THEY MUST VOTE.
Biden's accomplishments.....home and abroad.
Have you read Marie Yovanovitch’s book, Keith? If so, I’d like to hear what you think.
MLM I haven’t read Ambassador Yovanovitch’s book. I read glowing reviews and followed her shafting by Giuliani & Company.I admire her tremendously. As a former Foreign Service Officer, I already knew the tune to which she added superb verses. I am surprised that she wasn’t given a post in the Biden administration, perhaps ambassador in Ukraine.
Hmmm … interesting idea. Maybe she was and didn’t want to go back into the Service. I think she’s teaching at … Georgetown?
MLM I believe that Ambassador Yovanovitch had over 30 years of distinguished service. She could retire on a handsome pension, teach, and write and live a more normal life.
After serving in/on Congo 1960-1966, even then that might have sounded attractive. At the time my salary was way shy of $15,000 with brief years in service. I paid for my 9mm Beretta, but my M-16 and .45 were part of my diplomatic freebies.
We received free housing. I had a top floor apartment overlooking the prime minister’s residence. Twice I was part of a ‘coup spotting’ team’ in early morning hours.
That electricity was available intermittently (less than 50%) posed severe problems for a family with a baby daughter. Flush/wash/cook? Several other incidents prompted my memorable ‘bat shit’ memos. Did you know that a person bitten by a black mamba had a life expectancy of about 90 seconds. Three of these suckers were found in the garden where my daughter played.
Then I served 3 years in Chile, where, for four months, I had a 24/7 police guard at my house for my family—a free benefit not available in civilian life. Home leave after two years, but, with perks like this, who would want to go home?
I was surprised also.